Rock Overdose's Zisis Petkanas had the chance to talk with Eluveitie's Chrigel about many subjects. Between them are the new album, the shows in Greece, the anniversary package and the annual festival. Enjoy the conversation below:
Rockoverdose.gr: It's so nice to have you here on Rockoverdose. How is your latest album, Helvetios, going? How are the present fans accepting it?
Chrigel: It was actually very, very good. The album has been received very, very well. To be honest, what happened with the album so far is much more than we expected. So we're very happy with it.
Rockoverdose.gr: How are the reviews from the press?
Chrigel: Also, really good. Just to give you an idea, here in Switzerland for example, after the release, the album entered the official album charts on rank 4, Top 5. That's exceptional; I think that's the first time that this has ever happened in Switzerland, because it's still extreme metal. It's still death metal, and that's very unusual. I can't remember exactly, but I think rank 1-4 was Rihanna and Lady Gaga and stuff like that, but then came Eluveitie. That was insane; it was crazy! That all has been very good, and as I said before, actually much more than we expected.
Rockoverdose.gr: This is a great reward for the band! Helvetios is a concept album. How difficult was it to compose?
Chrigel: Usually when I'm composing Eluveitie's music, it's something very intuitional'; the music just grows out of intuition, so it's not difficult in that sense. It's just a natural process. But of course, as you say correctly, it's a concept album, so the approach of songwriting was quite different from other times, because I didn't only want to write the story in the lyrics, but I also wanted to express it through the music. So the music actually goes hand in hand with the lyrics, and of course that made it different. It was the first time for us, making a concept album like this. For us, it was a very interesting and inspiring thing to do.
Rockoverdose.gr: Did you find it difficult?
Chrigel: Not really, to be honest. Writing in music is never something that is difficult; it is something that feels natural.
Rockoverdose.gr: Would you like to tell us the story behind the album in a few words?
Chrigel: Basically, the album narrates the story of the Gallic wars, which lasted for almost ten years, and took place around 2000 years ago. It was the story of free Gaul being invaded by the Roman Empire. The story of that war is what the album tells, and the special thing about it is that it tells the story from a Gallic, Celtic point of view.
Rockoverdose.gr: How about the guests on this album? How did this come about, and how did the cooperation with them go?
Chrigel: Very good. We had some guest musicians on every album so far. It's something that I personally like; it's always an interesting and inspiring experience to work with other musicians. I think it makes it interesting to have guest musicians. This time on the album, our most important guest musician was a singer from a Breton folk band, singing the so-called gwerz, which is a singing tradition from Breton folk music. It was quite amazing; it was pretty cool to work with him as well. Furthermore, it was the first time we worked together with orchestrations. We worked together with a conductor from Austria, and it's also the first time we worked with a choir, and that was also quite interesting. It was a choir from Switzerland, actually conducted by this opera singer. It was great working with them, and very interesting. For me personally it was the first time that I composed the score for a choir. I never did this before. It was a very good experience, actually.
Rockoverdose.gr: This is really great. You're going to release in a few days, August 17th I think, a 10-year anniversary package; going to be called The Early Years. We've already heard a song, Lament, on YouTube. What will the package contain in general? Will there be any surprises?
Chrigel: We were about to re-release our demo and our debut album anyway, because they haven't been available for quite a long time. As you said, this year is our 10-year anniversary, and that's why we decided to completely re-record our demo, which was really fun to record those old songs again. Will there be any surprises? Well, there will be two editions of that package; the regular one, which will be released by Nuclear Blast, and also kind of a special package which we will actually release ourselves, which will be available just on our website and at our live shows. That package will contain two special things: one is a very extended booklet, almost something like a little book, where the complete band history is told inside, with old band pictures and everything. Furthermore, it will contain a new song, which is actually a very old song: it's a song from the time we released our demo, but it's a song that actually never really got finished. We never recorded that song and we never played that song live or anything. It's a 10-year-old song, but we did record it for the first time this time. In my opinion, it turned out pretty cool, we really like it. That will also be on the special edition of The Early Years.
Rockoverdose.gr: You played a live show in Greece; I think it was almost a year ago. How did you find the Greek crowd?
Chrigel: Really cool. We really love to play in Greece; we think it's a great crowd, and a great place to play shows. The last time we played in Athens it was a bit small. The stage was very small, and the times we played before that, I think in Athens and Thessaloniki, the venues were a bit larger. Last time it was very small! This time it was a little bit difficult on stage because there was no space, but to be honest, that made the show even cooler. We were so close to the fans and everything; it was so cool.
Rockoverdose.gr: We saw a lot of people without t-shirts on because of the heat. It was in An club, on March 19th, if I remember well. Are there any plans to visit us again?
Chrigel: Yes, of course. To be honest, I don't know when, I don't know if there's something booked already, but of course we would like to come back to Greece as soon as possible. We started the touring of Helvetios in January, and it will still keep us on the road until summer next year, so that's quite a while to go. The touring cycle is still being planned, so probably early next year; I don't know yet.
Rockoverdose.gr: We hope to see you again; we never get enough! Can you tell us of any big festivals you're going to play?
Chrigel: To be honest, I'm not exactly sure. We are playing some festivals in the summer. We did already play some festivals this year. We played Graspop in Belgium, Sonisphere festival, stuff like that. I'm not even sure what other festivals are still on the bill. I think it's probably Summerbreeze; the regular metal festivals.
Rockoverdose.gr: Are you planning to do your own festival again, like you did in December?
Chrigel: Absolutely. We'll do it in December this year.
Rockoverdose.gr: Any plans for the line-up?
Chrigel: Yes. There is still one special guest to be defined. I don't know who that will be, but otherwise our guests will be Finntroll, Arkona. I don't know which other bands there will be. There are like five or six other bands or something. Those two for sure.
Rockoverdose.gr: They are all folk metal bands?
Chrigel: No, not only.
Rockoverdose.gr: We will wait for the final announcement. Back to Helvetios. It is a concept album. Are you thinking of performing all of it in one of your upcoming live shows in the future?
Chrigel: Maybe. We actually already did this once; two months ago I think. We had a show in Switzerland, where we actually played two shows in one evening. The first show was just the album. There were no announcements, nothing; we just played the album from the first to the last song. Then we had a little break for half an hour, and then we played our regular show with all the songs we play. That was pretty cool! Maybe we will do something like that again in the next couple of months.
Rockoverdose.gr: Maybe in the near future. Our last two questions: what inspires you when you compose music?
Chrigel: nature. When I'm writing songs, I usually go out from time to time. If you're alone with yourself in nature, if you go to the mountains, and you hear the silence, that's the most inspiring thing to me.
Rockoverdose.gr: I think you are totally right. You also relax and you make your mind travel. Let's suppose that you met a guy that has never heard of you. He doesn't listen to metal at all. Which track would you play for him, so he could understand your style of music?
Chrigel: Maybe the title track of our last album, Helvetios. In that track, there is pretty much all aspects of Eluveitie.
Rockoverdose.gr: You think it's characteristic of your music.
Chrigel: I think so, yeah.
Rockoverdose.gr: What about older songs? Inis Mona? It's a very great song for me, and a lot of listeners.
Chrigel: Yeah, maybe.
Rockoverdose.gr: Is there anything else you'd like to announce?
Chrigel: To me, it just remains to say thank you for the interview, and thanks to all the listeners for their interest in Eluveitie.
Rockoverdose.gr: Thank you very much. We're looking forward to seeing you again in our country, Greece. Is there any message to the Greek fans before we close?
Chrigel: Just enjoy yourself.
Rockoverdose.gr: Enjoy yourself and listen to metal music!
Chrigel: Yes, exactly!
For Rock Overdose:
Zisis Petkanas
transcription: Vicky Denaxa
editing: Antonis Katsaros
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