NEMESEA (Eng.)
– Hello, thanks for taking your time. What’s the band currently up to? Just before releasing your new «The Quiet Resistance».
No problem! Thank you for the interview!
Quite a lot actually.So many things to take care of, but that makes it fun as well. We are busy planning rehearsals because there are going to be some technical changes in 2012 in the way we are going to play live. (just wait and see) 😉
And of course we are busy with planning gigs, there is a new website coming and a new web-shop.
– First of all, if you don’t mind I would like you to start making some history of the band.
Nemesea started out in 2003 and immediately started to write music and do gigs. The first gigs was with After Forever and they wanted us to support them regulary which we did for quite a few gigs.
In the meantime we signed to a small Dutch local label. That was in 2003/ 2004. And we recorded and released our debut Mana in November 2004. After that we did more touring. In 2006 signed up with Sellaband.
That was a crowd sourcing/fundraising platform. There we raised enough money to record our 2nd album In Control which we released in 2007. We also released a live album from a surround project we did in 2009.
And now our 3rd studio album The Quiet resistance is going to be released in about 2 weeks.
– And something I have always been curious about; why did you pick «Nemesea» for the name of the band? Both its origin and meaning.
At the time it fitted the music and the band quite well. It’s the honouring of the Goddess Nemesis.
– This is your first full-length album since «In Control», 4 years ago. Tell us a bit how did it take you so long and the positive side of this, as I guess you were able to take your time for the song-writing and care about every single detail.
Well. It’s not easy to find a label today that believes in you and wants to invest in you.
We also had a period of being non active because of some other projects some of us were involved in. Next to that we were a bit stuck when Sellaband wasn’t that success we hoped for and had to think things through.
We worked on the album for a year, doing everything step by step.
– And due to this, how was the songwriting for this album? Are all songs new or did you already start working on it after «In Control» came out?
No, we didn’t start writing immediately after In Control came out. We were planning to do a lot of gigging with In Control, but unfortunately this never happened due circumstances we didn’t have influence on. HJ started writing songs a few years ago but really got going a year ago.
– I would like to start getting a bit into this new effort with its title, as it really gives certain positive and strong feeling; is it some kind of statement? What’s for you the meaning of this record? Especially after the Steven’s departure and what happened to your previous label.
It definitely is a statement. It’s about that moment you want to speak up but can’t, aren’t allowed or are afraid to…
Lot’s of people experience a quiet resistance in some way. This can be very frustrating afterwards.
Steven leaving the band was something that happened unfortunately but was necessary as well. Steven had lots of personal stuff going on and decided to pick up another study as well. When we aimed for a heavier album Steven wasn’t really on board either. When looking back new drummer Frank van der Star fits the band and the sound better. But without doubt Steven is a great drummer and cool guy.
Sellaband wasn’t really a label, it was an online alternative for a standard record company and after our first album Mana we decided to change musically. Sellaband fitted that new start/ change.
Sellaband worked with crowd funding and you don’t sign a contract for multiple album, just one.
After In Control we were free to do what we wanted when working on new material. Because it felt like unfinished business since In Control wasn’t promoted enough and we didn’t tour with that album we tried to come up with alternatives like finding a record company to re release In Control. Because of contract/ legal issues this wasn’t possible.
– What are your expectations with this «The Quiet Resistance»? And how are the first critics being?
We hope people are going to like it. It’s quite a diverse album in terms of song-writing and sound.
We are getting a lot of positive reactions on Twitter and Facebook. And the song Afterlife is getting lots of plays on our Facebook and on Youtube and Soundcloud. Same goes for our new «Afterlife» video clip. We hope for the best and hope to tour throughout Europe this time. Playing live is the reason why we are in a band.
– I could say your sound has been becoming more melodic with each album; is this something planned or just a natural evolution for the band?
We want to make it more interesting for ourselves & our listeners, so we made it more diverse.
And we really have a clear direction of where we are going with our music and how we want it to sound.
And we are going to take it a step further if we are going to make a new album again.
– Have you opened to new influences or have they changed throughout the years? Which are they? As I think we can now find more elements from more modern Metal styles or even Pop.
Absolutely! There is a constant stream of new music coming out and you can’t help but get influenced by it in some way. In Nemesea, all the members have a different musical background and we listen to a lot of different styles.
And we try to incorporate all of that into the songs and the sound. And yes, we listen to more modern styles of metal and even pop. We like to have a well structured song.
There are so many artists we listen to so I really can’t give you a list, but we all love Rammstein and you can hear that on 1 song.
– Somehow it seems like a mix between your first two albums but still sounding fresh adding new details. What are your thoughts on this?
Absolutely. It’s heavier than In Control, but the arrangements and the overall sound is better balanced. For the details we really have to give Lasse (our synth player and sound designer) credits.
Just what we needed for this new album. We think this album also has a lot more of a band feel to it. Less clinical.
– An example of those more modern elements is tune «It’s Over», with a certain Nu Metal feeling to it. This is one of the tracks where we can find guest artists. Would you mind elaborating a bit? How did you come up with the idea of these cooperations, whom artists have you worked with, what have they brought, etc.
We thought it would be a great idea to invite some guests to play and sing on our record. We turned It’s over into a duet in demo stage, and because it has a kind of Nu-metal vibe we started to look around for a guest singer.
We immediately thought of Bulletproof messenger. They were also on Sellaband during the In Control period, and Marcus’ (from Bulletproof Messenger) singing works very well against Manda’s voice.
For the song Allein we really needed someone who sounded a bit like Till (from Rammstein) because we were going to take this song to the max. Like we were playing together with Rammstein. And we found a great Rammstein Coverband (Stahlzeit). Heli Reissenweber did the vocals on that together with Manda.
– This new «The Quiet Resistance» has been produced by Joost van den Broek (AFTER FOREVER), how has everything been? Are you satisfied with his work?
He is such a great guy to work with. And he works really hard! He keeps on going and is very talented.
We knew he was producing a lot so we asked him to do our album as well. Joost always liked Nemesea so he joined in. He not only produced it with HJ but he also mixed & mastered it.
He gave the album the power that it needed.
– If I’m not mistaken this is your first album with Napalm Records, how’s everything going? Is important for you having such a big label at your back?
Correct. We are a bit different than most of the bands on Napalm, but everything is working out very well!
– As I mentioned previously, this is your first album with drummer Frank Van Der Star and keyboardist Lasse Dellbrügge. What could you say have they both brought to NEMESEA?
Frank is a really tight drummer. We haven’t done a lot of gigs with him yet but we know he really fits the band, it’s more a heavy drumming in a way. Just have to do a few more gigs together and everything will be alright!
Lasse was just what we needed. The last piece of the puzzle. He’s amazing with creating sounds out of nothing and creating a certain atmosphere. That had a big impact on the overall vibe of the album.
– As always, your cover artwork seems to be quite straight-forward. What could you comment on it? The artist, its meaning, etc.
We don’t know if it’s straight forward, it’s just something we come up with J although this time the ideas came from the label as well. The artwork was done by the very talented Stefan Heilemann. He created the vibe.
– You will soon play at the Women in Rock festival. What doe sit mean to you playing in a festival like that? I mean bringing so much support to women into the Rock world.
It’s a special gig because it’s going to be our last one old school…. We’ll work on a new live set up these next couple of months. We’ll aim for playing everything live. Los of bands in the genre use backing tracks with keyboard & vocal parts on it. We feel limited when doing that but since it was a necessary evil for a few years ( we had no keyboard player ha ha ) we just adapted. Now the band line up is complete and Sonny (bass) and HJ (guitars & backing vocals) or going to play keyboard as well. This way we can do everything live… Makes live playing more dynamic & creative.
– And finally, what are your short-term plans? Do you plan any touring?
Getting as much gigs as we can! Absolutely, that’s always been our main goal. We’d love to go on tour but it all depends on how people react on the album and if tour can be set up. That’s not something we have any influence on.
– That was all from my side, thanks once more for your time. If you now want to add some final words, are yours.
Thank you for the interview!
We hope that everyone likes our new album TQR.
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