– Hello, thanks for answering to our interview. What’s going on into the ELUVEITIES camp right now? Taking a rest from touring before you embark on your American tour?

Anna: Hello there! No problem, thanks for the interest. Actually we’re on our American tour right now, we’re on our way to Sauget, Illinois.

– “Helvetios” will hit the streets really soon. Your previous release, “Everything Remains (as it never was)” was a categorical success in many ways, even in selling terms. Do you expect the same for “Helvetios”?

Anna: We sold the very first copies of “Helvetios” yesterday in Wisconsin, we’re selling them on the tour already, but the official release date will be the 10th of February in Europe, and the 26th of February in the US (I think, I’m not sure actually). Yes, we expect similar if not better reactions.

 

– It also got a really good feedback, and after listening to the new opus I must admit is as good as your previous album was but even more versatile but, what are your thoughts on “Helvetios” and its final output?

Photograph by Manuel Vargas (www.manvarle.com)

Anna: I love the album, especially the production. Never has an album sounded so good and that proves that songwriting isn’t everything. Speaking of songwriting, I enjoy the songs of Helvetios more, there aren’t any tracks that I skip (at least for now, haha). More versatile is well put, I would say so too. Otherwise I don’t think about what is different compared to previous albums, I don’t know what the point of that would be. We just do what we want, we’ll always sound like Eluveitie no matter how many new elements we decide to add to our sound.

 

– “Helvetios” is a concept album; would you mind to shed some light on it?

Anna: Not at all! «Helvetios» tells the harrowing chronic of the Gaulish war. But it’s not just a chronological account of this terrible war, the album tells the story from the viewpoint of the Helvetians, a Celtic tribe. This wasn’t a very simple task, since history is mostly written by those who triumphed in war which in this case was the Roman empire, Gaius Julius Caesar to be exact. Most of what we know about the Gaulish war nowadays stems from Caesar’s transcripts and that these do not convey the full truth is pretty obvious and also confirmed by historians. His scripture «De Bello Gallico» is political propaganda for his benefit to a great extent in which home and family defending Gauls become «belligerent barbarians» and sheer genocide over Gaulish tribes become «glorious battles» that were fought by Roman legions «heroically to protect the Roman people.»

So you can see it’s not an easy undertaking to portray the Gaulish war as Helvetians (Gauls) would have. We still tried and cooperated with scientists to question historiography and let historical and archeological findings influence us in writing the album. But we also just let simple emotions and feelings speak by imagining what it really must have been like back then.

 

– This is the first time you have created a concept CD; was hard for you guys? Did the songwriting process change due to this?

Anna: It is a bit harder, the music has to be adjusted to the lyrical golden thread. It’s kind of like creating a movie soundtrack I guess. But I think we managed this really well. Regarding the songwriting process, a lot of people imagine us sitting in a circle and writing songs together. That’s not the case, it’ wouldn’t work. Chrigel is the mastermind of Eluveitie and the main songwriter who pretty much does everything. On “Helvetios” Ivo started getting more involved and wrote a couple of songs by himself and a few together with Chrigel. Meri and I are responsible for a few melodies too, Chrigel then sends us the main grids of the songs and wherever he is missing parts we can figure something out.

 

– I could say this time the Death Metal elements are more present, or at least are stronger, maybe this harsh sounds fits better with some of the tough parts in the lyrics?

Anna: Yes, exactly! That’s what I meant when speaking about the golden thread.

 

– “A Rose for Epona” is a song that really caught my attention, as its quite different and original for you with a really heavy sound. What’s the story behind this tune?

Photograph by Manuel Vargas (www.manvarle.com)

Anna: Is it really that different? I’m surprised that people think that, I mean listen to “Slanias Song”. Well, perceptions are always different, otherwise life would be boring. The story behind this sad song…The song is about a young Gaulish woman who’s dreams of a new home with her husband were crushed. The land was destroyed and her love was killed at war. So her life is in pieces and she starts to question her belief and questions her goddess, Epona (a Gaulish goddess who protected the riders amongst other things).

 

– In fact tracks like this depict you are a band with an already invented and used sound, but you always have an original and recognizable sound. Is this just something spontaneous or more of a conscious effort?

Anna: Definitely spontaneous. Like I said earlier, we just do what we want and what we feel sounds right.

 

– I mentioned “A Rose for Epona”, which you have filmed a video for. What could you comment on it? And why this concrete song?

Anna: It was freezing cold and the directors were telling me to dance and move with two fans blowing in my face. So I told them to get me a bottle of booze, I ended up being pretty wasted throughout the whole shoot. It was a pretty new experience having to be in the spotlight, when I think about it now I don’t think that it’s something for me. I like being rather embedded in the band, not up front. We chose this song because of the story and because we wanted to shoot two clips that show the “two sides” (or rather two different vocalists) of the band.

 

– On the other hand, the album was produced by Tommy T. Baron. How has been working with him like? And are you happy with the work he did?

Photograph by Manuel Vargas (www.manvarle.com)

Anna: If somebody would have told me 7 years ago that I’d be talking to Tommy Vetterli on the phone on a regular basis I would have freaked out, haha. I’ve always been a huge Coroner fan so I was thrilled and a little nervous at first to record an album with him. We were quite overwhelmed by his perfectionism, the guy has insanely good ears and you can imagine that that can create quite a problem for him when dealing with tons of folk instruments that simply aren’t perfectly in tune all the time. But soon enough we could work together really well and we got to know him as one of the nicest and funniest guys we’ve ever met. We’re still good friends and spent some fun times on the 70’000 tons of metal cruise together. And more importantly, “Helvetios” is our best sounding album, I’m sure we will be faithful to Tommy for a while!

 

– As I said before, you will soon tour America. Though this won’t be your first time here; how’s there the reaction from the audience?

Anna: No, we’ve toured here a couple of times before. The audiences here are always great, we’re really happy that we can finally show them the new material live.

 

– You also announced a Spanish date at the Leyendas del Rock festival. What are your expectations?

Anna: A crazy, loud crowd full of southern temper! Hah! Our shows in Spain have always been great so far, I’m really looking forward to this festival.

 

– And finally, what does the near/mid-future have in store for ELUVEITIE? Though you are a relatively young band, you’ve got a huge success and toured a lot. What would you like to do next with the band?

Anna: Well this year we’re going to tour our asses off to promote the new album and then we’ll take a longer break to take care of things not concerning the band. A break might do us good, but first let’s concentrate on playing lots of shows, that will be fun.

 

– That’s everything from my side, thank you again for taking the time. If you want to add some final words; last lines are all yours.

Anna: Thank you!

Tania Giménez

tania@queensofsteel.com

 

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