I should start by
saying congratulations on your debut album, which was awesome!
Laura: Thank you so much.
Ruben: Thanks, always nice to hear.
I think I’m right in saying
that Adeia has 7 members. That’s loads! How did you all get together in the
first place?
Laura: About 3 ½ years ago I found myself at a
personal crossroads, I wanted to make music out of my comfort zone, I wanted to
try something new. Also I listened to
lots of different music for a very long time, and felt that classical music was
holding me back. It has a lot of rules,
you know? So I guess I followed
my heart back then, put the whole conservatory against me, created a new
subject at school and called it metal for strings. And then the journey began.
Most band members right now joined me in that class and we started to
make music…
So you all met at the conservatory?
Laura: Ruben and I actually began to write our first
song then. We knew each other from the
beginning, from the classical department.
The bass player joined us later.
He played in a few bands before he joined Adeia.
Ruben: He’s more rock ’n roll than the rest of us
combined! He played in a punk band when
he was 15 or something.
Laura: My goal was and is to combine classical music
and heavy metal.
Ruben: Not only that but to really fuse it
together. There’s been lots of bands
playing gigs with orchestras and stuff.
It got old.
Your album has bits of everything in it, from prog to
classical. Given your musical
backgrounds, do you consider classical to be your biggest musical influence?
Laura: No, not for me.
Ruben: I think it was always in the back of our
heads, but we’re not trying to make classical more metal, more the other way
round.
Laura: I studied classical music, yes, but like I
said, I listen to a lot of stuff. From
Simon and Garfunkel I can switch to Opeth.
What I like about classical music are the melodies, the chords, but I
love the metal riffs (also playing them) and the heaviness. When for example I write songs, or write
them together with Ruben […] we can use our classical basis, for chords and
stuff, and combining the instrument parts.
A couple of bands in Europe have got string players in
their permanent line ups, but cello and violin still remain two pretty unusual
metal instruments. What do you feel you
both bring to the music and what influence do you have on the band?
Ruben: Laura’s role in the band is the important one. She’s the creative mastermind behind it all,
and she comes up with the concepts for songs, etc. From there we expand on the ideas with the rest of the band. My role is mostly the nitty gritty stuff:
getting the arrangements worked out on sheet music, that sort of stuff.
Laura: Well, Ruben and I know each other for 6 years now
(or is it 7?) and we work really well together. On Inheritance, for example, we wrote all the string parts, but
also lots of other stuff, like riffs.
And the lead singer, Frank, wrote for example Providence. He studied songwriting. It started with me writing poems a few years
ago and now I use them for the songs. I
start with a poem and then try to translate it to music, so the lyrics are the
basis of it all.
There’s some really powerful imagery in your lyrics. What does it all mean? I got the impression they were all linked by
a common theme of a struggle for individual identity.
Laura: Really? OK,
well I didn’t write them linked by a theme!
Coincidence, I think.
Ruben: Maybe not purely a coincidence. I think that us all being roughly the same
age, we tend to struggle with the same things in life in varying degrees.
Laura: Yes. We all
come from different places, we all have a different basis. That’s what makes it fun to work
together. For example, I started
playing the violin when I got a very old violin of my grandfather, who was 92
then [this is where some of the lyrics of their song, Inheritance, come
from].
I was 11 years old, so that was the beginning of the story!
And what do you find, Laura, that other band members
bring to the lyrics when you write together?
Is it just helping with the music, or do they also contribute to the
poetry?
Laura: I think especially Ruben and Franc, the lead singer
help me put them in a frame, you know?
Ruben helps me translate and Franc helps me to make them poetic in the
English language, and stay close to the Dutch ones. But I write the poetry and imaginary references.
Ruben: Especially Franc is brilliant with English
vocabulary and stuff.
Most metal fans may be familiar with a couple of Dutch
bands, like Within Temptation and Epica, but the Netherlands is not on the
metal map in the same way as some other countries. Are there any Dutch bands you’ve been influenced by?
Ruben: Not really, but there are a few good ones. As you rightly said before the Dutch metal
scene is more the goth-metal kinda stuff from Epica and Within Temptation. We’re not really like that, although Epica
does have some nice songs. I listen to
a lot more of the extreme stuff: Emperor, Behemoth, Nile. We have to have blastbeats on the album.
Laura: I really like the music of Enslaved, because of his
grunts but also harmonically. But also
Amorphis and Lengsel are some of my favourites. There is a really good singer songwriter in Holland, though. His name is Boudewijn de Groot, and his
lyrics are really poetic, very beautiful.
One last question, and it’s the most important one! Where next for Adeia? You’re currently unsigned, but will you guys
be releasing more material, and can we expect to see you touring the UK any
time soon?
Laura: Ha ha!
Well, we are working on some new material, and love to come to the
UK! We sent already the album out to a
few labels a few weeks ago.
Ruben: Getting the album out on CD is also a bit
priority. There’s only so much you can
do on your own.
Thank you both for the interview, and for your patience
and good humour with the questions! And
the best of luck for the future!
Ruben: No problem.
Thanks for the review and the interview.
Adeia's debut album, Hourglass, is out now in mp3 format.
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