Live-Metal.Net - Interviews: Epica - Simone Simons

Epica's Simone Simons: Metal has a new design

November 27, 2009

The Dutch symphonic metal band Epica is about to break through with its new album, Design Your Universe. This is the album they have been building to since the release of their 2003 debut, The Phantom Agony. From the orchestration to the vocals to the arrangements and the overall complexity and heaviness, it displays a complete evolution in every aspect of the band's sound. At the heart of it all is their 24-year-oldsinger, Simone Simons. A mezzo-soprano by nature, she experiments with vocal styles on the new album. Classical, pop, rock—she nails down them all.

The album did extremely well in its initial release, selling more than 2,000 copies in the United States alone and appearing on the Billboard Top New Artist Albums (Heatseekers) at No. 12. In January 2010, Epica will launch its first U.S. tour supporting the album.

Not long after the release, Live-Metal.net's Jeff Maki spoke to Simons in a lengthy chat (their second in six months). Simons talks in depth about the making of Design Your Universe, the lyrical themes behind it and much more. Will we soon see the red-haired beauty all over rock and metal publications as the new reigning queen of the hottest chicks in metal? See what she has to say about it.

Live-Metal.net: The first question I wanted to ask you was about your health. Obviously, you had to sit out the U.S. tour a while back. There's been a few recent cancellations and you have the big U.S. tour coming up starting in January. Are you okay?

Simone Simons: I am 100-percent healthy, yes. Thanks for asking.

No problem. You're doing the interview, so I figured so.

Yeah, of course, we had the tour of North America, and Epica toured with a different singer. It was a difficult period and I've put that behind me and I'm very ready for the American tour.

[Editor's note: Amanda Somerville performed live vocals for Epica's 2008 U.S. tour because of an illness to Simons. Epica recently canceled shows in Madrid and Lisbon.]

The new album, Design Your Universe, had some great initial success, charting high and selling a few thousand copies here in the U.S. My question is, how will you sustain this success?

I think one of the ways to get yourself out there is by touring a lot. And that's what we're going to do for the next one-and-a-half years, is do many tours, many festivals—to keep the people happy also. The CD, of course, is great, but during our live shows there is so much more energy and it's also a lot of fun. And that's the ultimate way to promote yourself—touring, touring, touring.

Okay, so [Design Your Universe] is not a concept album, but can you explain some of the themes of the album in your own words?

Both me and [founder/guitarist] Mark [Jansen], wrote half the lyrics. Mark has a little bit more scientific, spiritual and spiritual-political lyrics. Mine are more personal. More of it being freedom, freedom of speech and near-death experience, greed. Also, the quantum mechanics—he's reading books about that, so it can be found in his lyrics. About the universe itself, that people are responsible for their own lives and create their lives, their universe with their consciousness. By living their dreams, exploring their talents, taking risks. And I totally agree with that. I took the choice to become the singer of Epica and I didn't go to college. So I don't regret doing that, otherwise I wouldn't be here.

Also, the struggle that a lot of people have between the material side of life and the non-material side. Nowadays, lots of people are more focused on their jobs, their status, than taking some time off to meet their friends, their family and enjoy the little things in life—that in the end aren't so little, I find.

And [“White Waters”] featuring [Sonata Arctica vocalist] Tony Kakko, is a tragic love-story. “Burn to a Cinder” is about one of my favorite movies, Interview with a Vampire. And “Our Destiny” is kind of a personal song about me and Mark, because we were together for many years and we've split up. But in the end, Epica is still standing and we are fighting for the same goal as music as our first passion.

Explain to me the series of songs that is continued on this album, “A New Age Dawns.”

That's something Mark started off on Consign to Oblivion, which “A New Age Dawns” is taken from the Mayan culture. He's also been reading many books about that. That's also about gaining a higher form of consciousness—which is slowly happening, I think, also.

How much did the collaboration with the orchestra for The Classical Conspiracy have an influence on this album? Did the huge sound and the grandiose performance maybe carry over into this album? To me, it sounds like it.

Well, the classical side in Epica has always been one of the bigger elements—we've always had the choir and orchestra. And to do this show was like a dream come true. We had a 40-piece orchestra, a 30-piece choir. And normally when we do the live show it's all on tape because it's simply impossible to travel with such a big group. And to do that live show, it was really live in every way of the word because it was played 100-percent live at that very moment.

So it didn't really make us decide to try more orchestra for the next album because it's already a big part of Epica. It's not because we did that show that we created even more orchestra.

Although, on this album, it sounds like Epica, but every element—the music, the choir, the orchestra, my vocals, the guitars, the complexity of the songs—are more evolved. Everything within the music is amplified.

Speaking vocally, did you have a different approach for this album? Some songs seem like they're less operatic, a more accessible kind of “rock” vocal. I really like it, but why the changes?

I starred in a musical last year and I'm friends with a great vocal teacher. And I told her already, I'm happy with the results. And I wanted to work with her on the new Epica songs. And I think that she managed to bring out that voice which you can hear on the new album—she manged to bring that out a little more, make it better. Also, I like to experiment a little more on this album. And also, I love my classical voice, I love to sing with my classical voice, but on the other hand, not all the songs need it. I think if you do it on every song, in the end it becomes too much. You have to try and find a way in between to keep it interesting for yourself and also the fans.

But there are also fans that prefer the classical side of my voice, the pop voice more. So that's why I decided to do everything on one album, so there's something for everybody.

What was the average length of time that the band would work on a particular song? Which ones were the hardest to nail down, musically and vocally?

Well, “Kingdom of Heaven” for Mark was the longest song which Epica released yet. I can't begin to tell you how many months he spent on that song. He was just writing the songs and sending them to us when they were close to being finished so we could work on them.

Wow. Months for certain songs?

The recording process for this album took very long this time. We entered the studio in January for pre-production. And a couple of weeks after, Ariën [van Weesenbeek] started to record his drums, which he did in three-and-a-half days—he's a machine. And the actual master of the album was done in the end of July, so that itself took really long.

We took our time to write the album and in the production we took our time to go really into detail with the arranging of this album. We had the time, we took the time to finish a product which we were fully standing behind.

Also, we had [guitarist] Isaac [Delahaye] joining the band at quite a late stage of the writing process. So Mark told him to check the songs out and if you think you can improve them here and there, then do it. And he did—he worked his ass off for two months on the new Epica songs.

Besides that, the whole album was recorded in the studio in Germany, but the bass and guitar were recorded at our home studio.

Speaking of the new band members, you guys now have two former members of God Dethroned in the band. Have you or the band been exposed to more death or extreme metal since their joining, or is that why that perhaps they left their old band?

Well, the story with each band member is different because Ariën was still in God Dethroned. But since God Dethroned was not touring that much, he was a session musician. He recorded the album, The Divine Conspiracy, so we wanted to go out on tour with him. But we were also working with another drummer called Koen [Herfst]. And then all of a sudden, Epica started to tour a lot more and God Dethroned wasn't. So [Ariën] chose to enter the band as a full Epica band member.

With Isaac, he already quit God Dethroned sometime before we asked him to join us. So, we didn't steal Isaac. [laughs] We are in good spirits with God Dethroned. They don't blame us for anything. At least that's what they said. [laughs]

I was gonna say, are there any more members coming over, or is this it?

[laughs] So far as I know the band is complete and is right where it should be right now.

Being a nice looking female in a metal band, how do you feel about being the main marketing tool for the band?

I understand that the singer is mostly the face of the band. That doesn't only depend on being male or female. In my case, I'm a woman, but it's Mark who's writing a majority of the songs and half of the lyrics. But I always try to emphasize that we are a band and that I'm not a solo artist. And all of us contribute to the product, Epica. Because there are six of us, and the singer, the voice, is maybe the first thing a lot of people listen to—I understand that and I take my job very seriously. And it's, of course, flattering that they think I'm attractive. But first of all, I'm a singer and I value critics more about my vocals than about my appearance. I don't know if I'm still going to be attractive in 50 years [laughs], but I hope my voice will still be standing.

I haven't seen a lot up until this point, but are you going to be doing any new photo shoots? Revolver has the “hottest chicks in metal” thing and there's other things like this. Will you do any of this if it helps promote the band?

Yeah, well, if you got the tools, you gotta use them as well.

There you go! [laughs]

It's marketing, also. But I will say, we have some pretty good looking guys in the band as well, so the girls also have something to look at, also.

Okay, well I'm not interested in the guys, but anyway.

[laughs]

I saw you're going to be doing this "Christmas Metal Symphony." How did you get involved in that?

I was contacted by one of the organizers of the festival to see if I was interested. And I couldn't say yes from the start because we have this South and Central American tour coming up and I wasn't sure when I was going to be back. Because I think the 20th is the show, the 19th, the rehearsal. And, of course, coming back from South America, you have to get rid of the jet lag. I didn't want to stand on stage sleeping [laughs]. So I'm back on the 14th or 15th, so there's time and I said yes.

We are trying to figure out a set list right now. I'm looking forward to it. I'm looking forward to seeing my colleagues, also, that I'll see—and to kind of do a concert with them, also.

[Editor's note: This year's “Christmas Metal Symphony” show will take place on Sunday, Dec. 20, 2009 at 013, Tilburg, Holland. As was the case with last year's event, the singers will be backed by a six-piece band and a 30-piece classical orchestra as they perform some of the finest heavy metal and hard rock songs of all time. This unique show will contain songs from all metal genres—from prog-metal to rock, from death to speed and from industrial to symphonic. Some of the confirmed singers are Cristina Scabbia (Lacuna Coil), Charlotte Wessels (Delain) and Mats Levén (ex-Therion). Source: Blabbermouth.net]

And last, your U.S tour starts in January. I should be at your first show at Jaxx in [Springfield] Virginia. I take it you won't be performing the whole album, like you did recently, but what can fans expect from the tour?

We are going to be the headliner, so that means we play for almost two hours. So we have a lot of time to play many new songs. We've played a lot of new songs in the beginning, but then we've noticed since the album hasn't been out too long that fans need a while to get used to the songs. The reaction is not that great as it is for the older songs that they know very well. So we've made a selection.

The thing is, when you have only a half-hour to play, the new songs are really long. You play five songs and the set list is done [laughs]. As for the really long headline shows, we will play many new Epica songs, that's for sure. But we have four albums, and a lot of fans have their favorites from every album, so we try to please our fans and play the good ones from every record.

EPICA, THREAT SIGNAL and BLACKGUARD tour dates:
Jan. 26 - Jaxx - W. Springfield, VA
Jan. 27 - Trocadero - Philadelphia, PA
Jan. 29 - The Blender Theater at Gramercy - New York, NY
Jan. 30 - The Palladium - Worcester, MA
Jan. 31 - Club Soda - Montreal, QC - CANADA
Feb. 02 - MOD Club - Toronto, ON - CANADA
Feb. 03 - Peabody's - Cleveland, OH
Feb. 04 - The Pearl Room - Mokena, IL
Feb. 05 - The Rave - Milwaukee, WI
Feb. 06 - Station 4 - St. Paul, MN
Feb. 08 - Royal Albert Arms - Winnipeg, MB - CANADA
Feb. 10 - Starlite Room - Edmonton, AB - CANADA
Feb. 11 - Warehouse - Calgary, AB - CANADA
Feb. 13 - Sugar Nightclub - Victoria, BC - CANADA
Feb. 14 - El Corazon - Seattle, WA
Feb. 15 - Hawthorne Theater - Portland, OR
Feb. 17 - Slims - San Francisco, CA
Feb. 18 - Key Club - Hollywood, CA
Feb. 19 - U.B's Bar - Mesa, AZ
Feb. 20 - The Rock - Tucson, AZ
Feb. 22 - Bluebird Theater - Denver, CO
Feb. 23 - Marquee - Tulsa, OK
Feb. 24 - Scout Bar - Houston, TX
Feb. 25 - Scout Bar - San Antonio, TX
Feb. 27 - Volume 11 - Raleigh, NC
Feb. 28 - The Masquerade - Atlanta, GA