SIRENIA (Eng.)
– Hello, lots of thanks for answering our interview. How is everything going into the SIRENIA’s camp right now?
Everythings fine at the moment. It feels great to finally have the new album out, and all of us are very excited about it.
– You have just released «Perils of the Deep Blue», your new album so, how are the first reactions being? And, are yourself personally satisfied with the final outcome?
We’ve gotten a lot of positive feedback so far. We are very happy with the final result, the record company is very happy. It seems that the fans and the media are thrilled with the album as well.
– This is your third album with Ailyn, which is actually a record for SIRENIA. Does this mean we can finally say she is a steady singer? Moreover I guess after working with her for some albums now everything would have been easier so, has this affected in any way the final result?
Yeah, she broke that record when she recorded the previous album. Haha. It feels great to finally have a steady lineup. I think that Ailyn has improved quite a lot in the time she has been working with Sirenia. She have become a very incorporated part of the band and our sound. Working together with new people is always a learning prosess kind of thing. I feel that by now we are working really well together, we eachothers quialities and limits and whatever so we can use it to ouyr advantage and make the best album possible where we are at at this point. The recording prosess runs more smoothly these days than in the start, and I think that is quite normal.
– Ailyn is hailing from Spain so, now that you have included your first song in Norwegian, have you thought about doing any song in Spanish too?
In fact we already did. We recorded spanish versions of 2 songs from the previous album, but these songs were only released as bonus material as far as I know. One of the Norwegian songs on the new album has some spanish parts as well.
– As I said, on «Perils of the Deep Blue» we can find your first song in Norwegian, entitled «Ditt Endelikt». How did this arise? And what does it deal with?
Yes, I’ve been thinking about doing something in Norwegian for quite some time, so with this album I finally made it happen. I find it quite hard to write in Norwegian as I think is a way more limited language than english, it is harder to express myself in a poetic way. Usually I don’t say to mauch about my lyrics and their meanings, I always preferred to leave that up to the listeners to figure out.
– Musically that song has a certain atmospheric vibe to it, in fact on the new album there are several new elements. Did you work different on the songwriting process or do you just try new things with each new record?
As a composer I always work very determined, and I always try to improve myself as a writer and composer. I always liked to try out new things with my music, but at the same time there are certain elements that has become like a fixed part of my sound. So it is important for me to balance that up, I want to take care of our typical sound, but at the same time add new elements along the way. I think that the new album sounds like Sirenia, but with fresh sound and new contributions that we did not se before.
– The cover artwork, with a mermaid on it, fits perfectly both with the band’s name and the album’s title. Is everything on this opus working as a whole?
Yes, I always found it very important that all these things needed to fit well together. Lyrics and music must match up along with cover artwork, albumtitle and the bands image. I think that we did a great job with Perils of the deep blue, as everything fits perfectly together in my opinion.
– And is it linked with some of the lyrical ideas behind this new CD? What do they deal with?
The themes I have been writing about are the typically sirenia themes. But I have tried to renew my approach and way of writing. I never felt comfortable saying to 
much about the lyrics, I always preferred to leave that up to the listeners to figure them out.
– All this about «Perils of the Deep Blue» being said; how could you describe it in just 3 words?
Powerful, atmospheric, diverse.
– You have been active for over a decade now, have played live a lot, have been through several line-up changes… After living different experiences, what could you say have been both the best and worst moments with/for SIRENIA thus far?
The lows are usually related to lineup changes or if we had to cancel a show. It is a terrible feeling to cancel a show, it feels like we are letting our fans down, and that is the last thing on earth that we want to do. The few times we had to cancel a show is was because of reasons beyond our control. The best moments are usually related to great shows we have done. It is an amazing feeling to complete a great show and making our fans happy.
– And finally, what are your near-future plans?
We will start touring again this autumn, so the rest of the year will spin around promoting the new album. We have had a break from touring to be able to put 100% into the new album. Now we are eager to start touring again, it will be awesome to perform the new material live. Shows will be announced on our website www.sirenia.no as soon as they’re confirmed.
– That’s all, thank you once more for answering our questions. If you want to add some final words; feel free to do it.
Cheers to the Sirenia fans out there! We hope to see you on tour soon.
