BiB: Simone Simons - From High School Dropout to Metal Legend: The Untold Story of Epica

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What is going on? It is Adam. Welcome back to Bringing It Backwards, a podcast

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where both legendary and rising artists tell their own personal stories

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of how they achieve stardom. On this episode, we had a chance

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to hang out with Simone of the band Epica

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over Zoom Video. Simone was born in the

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Netherlands and talks about how she got into music. She started off

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on the flute at a very early age, I guess in elementary

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school in the Netherlands. Flute is one of the requirements. She

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eventually wanted to progress in the flute, but wasn't really

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getting along with her teacher. So Simone

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decided to start taking singing lessons. We hear about how

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she ended up meeting Mark and joining

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epica at age 17. The band started

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doing well. She was 18 years old, still in high school, and decided to

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just risk it all, drop out of high school and pursue a

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life as a touring musician. And obviously that's worked out for her.

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They're about to put out their ninth studio album, but

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Simone talks about the early days of the band getting signed to their first record

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deal, eventually signing with Nuclear Blast. We hear about

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her solo album that she put out last year, and all about this

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new album called A Spiral. You can watch the interview

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with Simone on our Facebook page and YouTube channel at bringing it

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Backwards. It would be amazing if you subscribe to our channel,

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like us on Facebook, follow us on Instagram, Twitter and TikTok

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at bringing back pod. And if you're listening to this on Spotify, Apple

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Music, Google Podcasts, please rate and review the podcast. It

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helps us out tremendously. We'd appreciate your support

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if you follow and subscribe to our podcasts. Wherever you listen to

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podcasts, we're bringing. It backwards with Epica.

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Bringing it backward.

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Bringing it backwards. Bringing it back.

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Hello. Hi, Simone. How are you? I'm great.

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Can you hear me all right? Yeah, I can hear you just fine. Thank you

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so much for doing this. Yeah. How are you doing? I

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am fantastic. Well, my name is Adam and this is about you

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and your journey in music. And obviously we'll talk about the new album that's coming

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out next month. And yeah, and I

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always kind of start off with, like, your backstory, your origin story.

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So first off, where were you born and raised?

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I was born in a city in the south of the

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Netherlands called Hairline, and I was raised the

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neighboring town and

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40 years ago. Exactly. Wow. What was it

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like growing up there? And that's pretty close from what I was researching, like, to

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the Germany border. Is that right? Yeah, it's actually.

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Yeah, it's quite close to Germany and Belgium. Also, wow. So

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were you able to go? Would you go into those countries

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as a kid or no. Or wasn't it not that close? No,

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but the Germans would always come to the Netherlands when they had like some kind

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of holiday. But I didn't start traveling abroad

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up until I was 14

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was the first time I went to. To Germany, like on a school

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exchange. And that felt like traveling the world. It was only one and a half

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hours by bus. Little. Little did I know that I would be

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traveling the world many times a couple years later

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for the rest of my life. Living out of a suitcase.

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That's wild. So when it comes to music, do you come from a

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musical family or like a creative household at all?

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Well, I would say my father is kind of creative,

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talented, but not

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like musically, but more with crafts. You

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know, he was like a wood worker or. I mean,

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originally he is a nurse. But he

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built half the furniture in the house. You know, it's very handy and

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loved to listen to music. The radio was always running

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and can play a little piano. And there was. There were

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some flutes in the closet, but. And he sang in a

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choir as a little boy in the church. But other than that,

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none of them are professional musicians. But the great music

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admirers. Okay, and how do you. You ended up playing flute,

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didn't you, at an early age? Yeah, yeah, it's. It's mandatory

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in primary school and to play an instrument.

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Or was it flute, man? The flute? Yeah, like the

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normal, you know, the normal flute for one year.

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And after that my dream was to play the

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piccolo, which is this very small flute which has a very high

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frequency. And in order to do that, I had to learn the, you

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know, the standard bigger metal flute

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before I could do the piccolo. But I kind of quit because my

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teacher was. Yeah, not the nicest

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and I switched. Yeah, it is, you know,

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like you have a teacher that just, you know, I've heard this before with people

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taking piano lessons and stuff. It's like, well, I just want to learn how to

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play whatever pop songs on the radio or whatever. And it's like, no,

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you will learn how to play the, you know, this, these

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scales and this. Which I understand for if you're down the line, but if you're

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a kid and you just want to learn, like, who really cares?

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No, it's. I think it's very important that the teachers have a good

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chemistry with. With the children. And she was definitely

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very strict and I just didn't look forward

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to go to lessons at all. So it kind of took

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away the fun of it. And

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with my singing teachers, you know, I had such a.

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A good connection and it's very important. And not

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everybody that is a teacher has actually the.

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The human tools to teach, you know what I mean? Like,

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it's a lot of psychology. It's a lot of how

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to, you know, be around people. And

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the energy that you speak give off, it needs

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to, you know, it needs to click, I guess. And we were

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not a match, so. Okay, but sure. And so you

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decided to start singing lessons? Yeah, from 14

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on, I started with singing lessons first, just normal

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pop singing lessons. And simultaneously I was

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listening to rock bands. Then I got into metal. And then I

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thought, you know, the combination of metal and classical female voice is

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nice. Maybe I should try the classical vocal lessons. And then I

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switched vocal teachers as well, and I found a really nice

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guy who tried to

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kind of prepare me to go to the conservatory.

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But then I ended up in a metal band and

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took my things and traveled the world.

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Wow. What drew, like, were you listening? Like, what kind

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of drew you as far as music goes to metal? Like, or like, how did

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you get to eventually liking that style of music?

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Was it people you're hanging out with that were in a metal. Yeah, it was

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my first boyfriend. I already loved rock music

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and I was into alternative lifestyle,

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flare pants and all of that.

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Loved to listen to Deftones, Radiohead, Silver Chair.

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Always had a weakness for men with long hair.

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And then my. My first boyfriend, he was the tallest guy in high school

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and he was wearing Cradle of Filth T shirts

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and he looks cool. And I

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considered myself already back then a little bit more like an

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outcast and wanted to connect with

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the other alternative kids. And yeah, then I got into black

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metal and a friend of his

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borrowed me CD from Nightwish, the first Nightwish album, Angels

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Fall First. And then I heard this

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classical voice and I thought, this is amazing. And then the whole new

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world opened for me. And eventually I got in touch with Mark,

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who was back then and after forever. I was

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16, and I boldly told him that I sing

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as well. And then I

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sang for him on the phone and he fell in love with my voice.

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We fell in love with each other. So we had also, during the

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early days of Epica, we were also in a relationship which lasted

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around four years. And then we split. But

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we stacked, stuck together as colleagues and friends

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for. For the sake of Epica. Wow. I mean, that must have been tough

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to do to stick to, you know, you're in a relationship with someone and then

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to stay in a band. And yeah, we had a transition phase, but

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it didn't take that long. And we both realized, you know,

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the relationship, if we're not a good fit romantically, we

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are a good fit musically and we shouldn't give up on that. So we,

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we fought very hard on. On to maintain that and knew

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that we had something very special. And we were both professional enough as well.

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Sure. With, with Epica, how do you. You said you met Mark, like how do

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you meet him? And then you sang to him on the phone, like, did you

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guys just meet? Like where do you meet? And then how does that

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build? And then it's, he's leaving his band. Let's start

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this project. Yeah. I don't even

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know when where we met for the first time.

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I think we first just chatted for a while and we had a

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phone call and then we started meeting up in person.

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And he was still an after forever back then. And then

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when that ended, he wanted to start a new band

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and he wanted me to be the vocalist. But back then I was still in

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high school and I said no, I need to finish high school. And

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I couldn't find the fitting singer. Nothing worked out.

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And then he kind of asked me again and I was very shy

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and very, you know, teenager.

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Sure. And I thought, okay, you know what, maybe I should just give it a

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go. And I did. And then things started rolling. We started

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doing gigs and I started noticing that I was

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so tired that I couldn't really finish high school

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or I chose to not finish high school to go for one project

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only. I thought if the music doesn't work out, I can always go

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back and study. But this feels like this is the path I gotta

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take. Did you ever go back or. No, no,

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no. Epica's my school, my university, everything

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together. Yeah. That's cool. Were you in a band prior to

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Epica or no. Or this is your first band?

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My Epica is my first band. Yeah. Yeah. I, I joined a

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band bands rehearsal back in the day,

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which I was also think when I was 14

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or something. They were also a black metal band, but I never

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actually sang a note for them. But yeah,

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when it came to like. So when you joined Epica, were you

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involved in like the songwriting process? Like how did that work? Like, I mean to

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be never been in a band and obviously Mark had a band that was

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successful for a while and it's okay, let's start this band.

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So there's are going to be attention on the band. I would Imagine a

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little bit right away. Not only that, but you're 17 and you're

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never played before. Was that scary or like, how did you kind of fight

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through that? Yeah, I had to kind of overcome a little bit of

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a mental block to sing in front of people. I

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only had one concert in my life before that and

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was 12, it was a primary school.

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I sang a song from Whitney Houston and I really felt

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short before the performance that I was gonna die of a heart attack. I was

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so nervous. So after that I thought

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performing is probably not something for me. But if you think about

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it, a 12 year old shy teenager.

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And then we started with Epica. We started rehearsing,

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but the guys were very patient and they, they made me feel comfortable

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and overcome certain

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blockades, whatever it was that I, I didn't feel

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safe opening up and, and seeing for them. But eventually,

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you know, the ice broke and I could practice

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with them in the rehearsal room in the basement of Mark's

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grandmother. And we,

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since Mark already had kind of a lot of experience,

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he invested in a great in ear

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monitor for me so that he knew already how

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incredibly fragile the voice is and that with those rehearsing

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rooms, things can get loud, your hearing can get damaged, you can

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lose your voice. So we bought from the little money we had,

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we bought a first in ear monitor for me so I could hear

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myself really well. And that was a great help. And

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then we just started jamming, you know, singing along to the compositions

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that he made, coming up with vocal lines, writing lyrics.

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I remember back in the day I was reading dictionaries

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literally to

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enhance my English because I could speak

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English really well. But of course writing lyrics is something else. And I

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became obsessed with expensive words. And I made these

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huge documents on my computer with a list of

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cool words before there was thesaurus, of

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course. It's really like 23 years ago.

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And that's, that's a little bit how it started. The early days of Epica.

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Yeah. Wow. What were those first shows like? Like, was it.

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Do you remember your first show? I mean from 12 being. I do nervous

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and then going into like, okay, now we've got this band, we've been rehearsing. I've

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got to do this again. And what was that like? Yeah,

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I remember we. I think we had a show scheduled,

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but then Mark called

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and he said we have the opportunity to

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support Anathema in one of their Dutch

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shows. And we would be in front of around 800

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people and we didn't even have enough songs to

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fill up A support set list. But Mark

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bluffed his way through that and then we just

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had to come up with more songs. You know, we had to work even

236
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harder. And at that time, it was the

237
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15th of December 2002,

238
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I was singing in a choir, a Christmas choir organized

239
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by my singing teacher. And I was double

240
00:15:16,510 --> 00:15:19,590
booked because I had a show with my choir.

241
00:15:20,470 --> 00:15:24,230
And I also by that time never told my parents I was in a metal

242
00:15:24,230 --> 00:15:27,790
band. They just thought I had classical singing lessons and that I was singing in

243
00:15:27,790 --> 00:15:30,750
a choir. And then I kind of had to come clean to my parents and

244
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I told them, you know what, I actually am also singing in

245
00:15:34,490 --> 00:15:38,010
the band with Mark and I can't do the whole

246
00:15:38,410 --> 00:15:42,210
choir show because I have to leave after the first

247
00:15:42,210 --> 00:15:46,010
part to go to Tilburg where we had our

248
00:15:46,010 --> 00:15:49,769
very first show. And I was also very nervous back

249
00:15:49,769 --> 00:15:53,370
then and I was standing on stage like a sack of potatoes,

250
00:15:54,250 --> 00:15:57,690
didn't know what to do yet, felt very exposed on the stage.

251
00:15:58,010 --> 00:16:01,850
And I remember afterwards thinking, oh no, I'm gonna

252
00:16:01,850 --> 00:16:05,250
have to do this. More and more and more shows were coming in, but

253
00:16:06,370 --> 00:16:10,130
we started, we also recorded a video shoot where I learned

254
00:16:10,130 --> 00:16:13,850
a lot, how to move and, you know, go wild

255
00:16:13,850 --> 00:16:17,450
on stage. And that was basically the only

256
00:16:17,450 --> 00:16:21,010
time that I was nervous when I was 12 and with the first Epica

257
00:16:21,010 --> 00:16:24,810
show. And after that I felt like, you know, this is my place to

258
00:16:24,810 --> 00:16:28,380
be. On stage with telling your

259
00:16:28,380 --> 00:16:32,140
parents, hey, you know, I'm actually in this metal band and we're playing tonight.

260
00:16:32,140 --> 00:16:35,380
Like I've got to, I'm only going to do the first half of that. What

261
00:16:35,380 --> 00:16:39,100
was their reaction? I think they were

262
00:16:39,100 --> 00:16:42,820
like, okay, well, you know, if that's what you

263
00:16:42,820 --> 00:16:45,660
want to do, do that. But of course, a little,

264
00:16:46,540 --> 00:16:49,980
a little later after that, then I told them, I want to quit high school

265
00:16:49,980 --> 00:16:53,670
because I was 18, I was, you know,

266
00:16:53,670 --> 00:16:54,950
an adult officially.

267
00:16:57,190 --> 00:17:00,910
Definitely not mentally yet, but I could make

268
00:17:00,910 --> 00:17:04,630
the decision to quit high school and to go

269
00:17:04,950 --> 00:17:08,750
full time all in for the music. And there they

270
00:17:08,750 --> 00:17:12,470
were, not so happy because they thought, first

271
00:17:12,470 --> 00:17:16,310
of all they didn't know anything about metal music and the,

272
00:17:16,310 --> 00:17:20,160
they kind of know the music business is hard. And I

273
00:17:20,160 --> 00:17:24,000
think every parent wants the best for their child. They want them to first finish

274
00:17:24,000 --> 00:17:27,640
high school, study. And that

275
00:17:27,640 --> 00:17:30,520
was not the path that I was taking and they just had to kind of

276
00:17:30,520 --> 00:17:34,000
deal with it because I was an adult on paper. Sure.

277
00:17:34,320 --> 00:17:38,160
And yeah, I just, I did my own thing. And now, many

278
00:17:38,160 --> 00:17:41,680
years later, they're super proud and supportive and

279
00:17:41,840 --> 00:17:45,300
they're always shocked with all the traveling, all the

280
00:17:45,300 --> 00:17:49,100
tours and the jet lags and they're always a little worried. But I guess

281
00:17:49,100 --> 00:17:52,420
as a parent that's one of the things you do. Yeah,

282
00:17:52,420 --> 00:17:55,460
100%. I mean to. Was the band

283
00:17:56,020 --> 00:17:59,819
doing like fairly well at that point when you decided or you

284
00:17:59,819 --> 00:18:03,500
just kind of had this feeling like this is going to do something. I

285
00:18:03,500 --> 00:18:06,100
mean that's a big risk to take, right? To be like, I'm going to stop

286
00:18:06,100 --> 00:18:09,460
going to school. I'm just going to do this all the time. Yeah.

287
00:18:09,950 --> 00:18:13,670
I didn't make. We didn't make any money in the beginning with Epica, but of

288
00:18:13,670 --> 00:18:17,350
course some of the band members were studying. I

289
00:18:17,350 --> 00:18:21,110
was still living with my parents, which meant I did not have to

290
00:18:21,110 --> 00:18:24,870
pay many bills yet, so I could invest all that

291
00:18:24,870 --> 00:18:28,350
time into Epica and

292
00:18:28,910 --> 00:18:32,670
tour a lot so that we could grow and eventually earn

293
00:18:32,670 --> 00:18:36,350
money. And I remember the first paycheck also that I got.

294
00:18:37,070 --> 00:18:39,310
It was then for me, so much money

295
00:18:41,630 --> 00:18:45,310
and I. I bought some makeup for that money,

296
00:18:45,310 --> 00:18:48,950
which if I think of it now was not so much money. But back then

297
00:18:48,950 --> 00:18:52,710
it was a lot and I was so excited. I even invested

298
00:18:52,710 --> 00:18:56,430
my weekly allowance and buying batteries for my

299
00:18:56,430 --> 00:19:00,190
in ear pack, you know, so. Wow. We started. We started

300
00:19:00,270 --> 00:19:03,470
small but we toured a lot and I guess that

301
00:19:03,470 --> 00:19:07,150
contributed to the growth of Epica and then started to go on tour

302
00:19:07,150 --> 00:19:09,690
with other bands. We did a lot support tours

303
00:19:10,650 --> 00:19:13,930
and. Yeah, yeah. What was like kind of an early

304
00:19:14,010 --> 00:19:17,450
milestone for the band? Was it like getting your first record deal or putting out

305
00:19:17,450 --> 00:19:21,170
your first album? Yeah, we were very lucky that we

306
00:19:21,170 --> 00:19:24,650
got the a record deal immediately because

307
00:19:24,810 --> 00:19:28,650
Mark was on very good terms with the record

308
00:19:28,650 --> 00:19:31,850
company he worked with with after forever

309
00:19:32,650 --> 00:19:36,380
and that gave

310
00:19:36,380 --> 00:19:40,180
us that push and financial support to already

311
00:19:40,260 --> 00:19:43,980
record first demo. We recorded two songs

312
00:19:43,980 --> 00:19:47,700
and after that we recorded a

313
00:19:47,780 --> 00:19:51,300
full length cd. Professional production with

314
00:19:51,460 --> 00:19:54,500
Sasha Pass in Wolf's book

315
00:19:55,060 --> 00:19:57,540
the north of Germany and

316
00:19:59,790 --> 00:20:03,550
back then the support of record companies

317
00:20:03,630 --> 00:20:07,470
is different compared to now. You know, the. The amount of money

318
00:20:07,710 --> 00:20:10,670
that a record company puts in a new band

319
00:20:11,550 --> 00:20:14,910
has become less now I think it's harder for new artists

320
00:20:15,230 --> 00:20:18,750
to get a good record deal in order to have that starting

321
00:20:19,550 --> 00:20:23,390
budget to do a good production. And I

322
00:20:23,390 --> 00:20:27,100
think that really helped us as well that we could immediately record a

323
00:20:27,100 --> 00:20:30,860
cd. Great. Yeah. Great

324
00:20:30,860 --> 00:20:34,420
start. Kickstart for Epica. Yeah. Wow. And then

325
00:20:34,420 --> 00:20:37,340
for. You were also. I mean you got to tour the world, you got to

326
00:20:37,340 --> 00:20:41,100
do everything. I mean from that first album you. They put you

327
00:20:41,100 --> 00:20:44,700
on tour and you're supporting other artists. Like when does your first like headlining

328
00:20:44,700 --> 00:20:48,500
shows come around. Was that a few years later or like, what was

329
00:20:48,500 --> 00:20:52,350
kind of like the next jump up? That's a good question.

330
00:20:52,430 --> 00:20:56,030
I actually have no idea from if we already did

331
00:20:56,030 --> 00:20:59,750
headline tours with. I know. With the Phantom Agony.

332
00:20:59,750 --> 00:21:02,990
We went to Mexico and we did a headline tour

333
00:21:03,790 --> 00:21:07,629
in Mexico. I was 18 back then, and

334
00:21:07,870 --> 00:21:11,470
I had bad luck because I had appendicitis and I had to have

335
00:21:11,470 --> 00:21:15,150
surgery in Mexico. Oh, my gosh. And I was

336
00:21:15,150 --> 00:21:18,430
in hospital for a week, but I still managed to finish the tour.

337
00:21:19,460 --> 00:21:23,220
And that was a headline tour. Yeah, we started to. To

338
00:21:23,220 --> 00:21:26,980
travel abroad very quickly, but in. I think in Europe and

339
00:21:26,980 --> 00:21:30,740
North America, we mainly did support tourists for the first couple

340
00:21:30,740 --> 00:21:34,300
of years. Okay, wow. And then you ended up signing with

341
00:21:34,300 --> 00:21:38,060
Nuclear Blaster, you're currently still with. Right. On your. On

342
00:21:38,060 --> 00:21:41,300
the third album. Yes. What was the.

343
00:21:41,700 --> 00:21:45,500
Why'd you decide to go with them? Or like, what. What. I don't know if

344
00:21:45,500 --> 00:21:49,260
you mind talking about that. Well, we. We had a couple

345
00:21:49,260 --> 00:21:53,100
contenders, but Nuclear Blast just had the best offer. You know, it's plain

346
00:21:53,100 --> 00:21:56,940
business. And of course, their. Their catalog, you know,

347
00:21:57,260 --> 00:22:00,860
it's crazy. Having a lot of main artists in the

348
00:22:00,860 --> 00:22:03,820
scene, of course, is the best

349
00:22:04,620 --> 00:22:08,260
business card you can have. So we had a good feeling with Nuclear

350
00:22:08,260 --> 00:22:11,980
Blast. And now you're at what album? Nine coming

351
00:22:11,980 --> 00:22:15,760
out. Yes. Oh, my gosh. I mean, to

352
00:22:15,760 --> 00:22:18,880
think of that. You've been doing this since you were 17 years old. Like, that's

353
00:22:18,880 --> 00:22:22,400
so wild. And then put nine albums out. And nowadays not even a lot of

354
00:22:22,400 --> 00:22:26,240
bands are doing albums, really. Right. It's more like, let's do a

355
00:22:26,240 --> 00:22:29,960
few singles and then lump it together into an ep.

356
00:22:30,040 --> 00:22:33,320
But. But Epic has always been like an album band.

357
00:22:34,520 --> 00:22:37,960
Yeah. We. We have nine now, almost

358
00:22:38,040 --> 00:22:41,790
nine full studio albums. We have a

359
00:22:41,790 --> 00:22:45,470
couple of EPs. We even have an album

360
00:22:45,470 --> 00:22:48,990
called the Score, which was music that was written for a Dutch

361
00:22:48,990 --> 00:22:51,950
movie. Yeah. Which is very different than

362
00:22:52,670 --> 00:22:56,510
Epica stuff. Yeah, it's. It's more like the. This.

363
00:22:57,550 --> 00:22:59,710
Yeah. Orchestral part of Epica

364
00:23:00,670 --> 00:23:04,230
instrumental. No vocals on there. And then we have a couple of

365
00:23:04,230 --> 00:23:07,710
eps and. Yeah, we've been

366
00:23:07,710 --> 00:23:10,420
busy a little bit. Yeah.

367
00:23:11,460 --> 00:23:15,100
Well, talk to me about going into this ninth. The ninth album, I

368
00:23:15,100 --> 00:23:17,300
think I was reading interview about

369
00:23:19,380 --> 00:23:22,740
the record prior Omega, where you were talking about

370
00:23:23,700 --> 00:23:27,420
doing more live instruments on. On that album. Did

371
00:23:27,420 --> 00:23:31,060
that continue into this new one? Yeah, definitely. We.

372
00:23:31,540 --> 00:23:34,740
We recorded with the Prague Orchestra on

373
00:23:34,740 --> 00:23:37,460
Omega and we loved it so much that we

374
00:23:38,590 --> 00:23:41,630
asked them again. We hired them again for this album.

375
00:23:42,270 --> 00:23:45,870
And besides that, we have a couple of really great

376
00:23:46,510 --> 00:23:50,110
Musicians from Holland, Ben, who is the

377
00:23:50,110 --> 00:23:53,150
violinist, and then we have Jeroen, who plays the flute.

378
00:23:53,790 --> 00:23:57,550
Then there is one day where the guys are recording percussion

379
00:23:58,110 --> 00:24:01,550
instruments and they take everything they can find in the studio.

380
00:24:02,670 --> 00:24:06,110
So it's. Of course we use samples when we're doing

381
00:24:06,110 --> 00:24:09,940
demo recordings. And on this album we wanted

382
00:24:09,940 --> 00:24:13,340
to have a little bit more modern touch to certain

383
00:24:13,340 --> 00:24:17,020
songs and we used many different synthesizers.

384
00:24:17,740 --> 00:24:21,100
So it's cool that, you know, our producer Yost, he also

385
00:24:21,180 --> 00:24:25,020
thinks big and he's very open

386
00:24:25,020 --> 00:24:28,620
minded and he lets us experiment, which is great.

387
00:24:29,820 --> 00:24:33,260
Yeah. Is it hard to, you know, continue to kind of

388
00:24:33,960 --> 00:24:37,720
like when you have nine, you're on your ninth album, do you feel like

389
00:24:37,720 --> 00:24:41,520
it's hard to keep pushing the, you know, the

390
00:24:41,520 --> 00:24:45,360
barrier, so to speak, or, you know, trying to continue to be creative and

391
00:24:45,360 --> 00:24:49,160
kind of come up with new stuff? Is that hard? It's

392
00:24:49,160 --> 00:24:52,360
not really hard. It's because we have five

393
00:24:53,000 --> 00:24:56,720
people in the band. All the guys write songs. Yeah.

394
00:24:56,720 --> 00:25:00,440
So we have quite a big selection to choose from.

395
00:25:01,130 --> 00:25:04,890
And after Omega, you know, then the world shut down with the Pandemics. And

396
00:25:04,890 --> 00:25:08,530
then we wanted to do something fun, a studio project, which

397
00:25:08,530 --> 00:25:12,090
is then the Alchemy project ep,

398
00:25:12,810 --> 00:25:16,650
where we worked with other artists in the music industry. And there

399
00:25:17,050 --> 00:25:20,890
we started to experiment a little more because we felt, okay,

400
00:25:21,370 --> 00:25:24,610
we are not so much confined by our name,

401
00:25:24,610 --> 00:25:27,610
Epica, because we're working with other artists. Let's push,

402
00:25:28,270 --> 00:25:32,110
push the boundaries and see where we can take it. And the response to that

403
00:25:32,110 --> 00:25:35,670
was amazing. And that kind of gave us the push and the.

404
00:25:35,670 --> 00:25:39,430
The freedom to think more outside of the box

405
00:25:39,430 --> 00:25:42,670
and that we can expand our

406
00:25:42,670 --> 00:25:46,190
horizon musically. And that's what we continue then on the

407
00:25:46,190 --> 00:25:50,030
Spiral. Okay, so, yeah, so tell me about that going into this album,

408
00:25:50,030 --> 00:25:52,910
was it. Did you know you're writing an album and

409
00:25:54,310 --> 00:25:57,750
how does the like. When do you start working on the album? Because the other

410
00:25:57,750 --> 00:26:01,510
one came out. Yeah, you did all the production stuff in 2020

411
00:26:01,510 --> 00:26:05,270
and then it came out in 21 because of the Pandemic, obviously, but. And yet

412
00:26:05,270 --> 00:26:08,950
all these other projects, you even put out a record yourself, right?

413
00:26:09,190 --> 00:26:10,870
Last year? Yes.

414
00:26:11,910 --> 00:26:15,750
2024 was crazy. It was a musical

415
00:26:15,750 --> 00:26:19,190
year. It was sometimes very challenging.

416
00:26:19,780 --> 00:26:23,500
But I do like a challenge and I, I think it's good as a, as

417
00:26:23,500 --> 00:26:27,260
an artist to sometimes get out of

418
00:26:27,260 --> 00:26:31,100
your comfort zone. And for. For a Spiral,

419
00:26:31,100 --> 00:26:34,860
we had three writing camps where we rented a house and we could get together

420
00:26:34,860 --> 00:26:38,260
and really focus on the music. No shows, no

421
00:26:38,260 --> 00:26:41,540
tours planned and really, you know, everybody in the same house

422
00:26:42,020 --> 00:26:45,820
music from morning till evening, everybody working together under the supervision

423
00:26:45,820 --> 00:26:49,130
of her producer, Yoast. So that was very

424
00:26:49,130 --> 00:26:52,330
beneficiary for the music for us to really

425
00:26:52,730 --> 00:26:55,370
come together as a group. And

426
00:26:56,090 --> 00:26:59,810
yeah, I look back with warm feelings

427
00:26:59,810 --> 00:27:03,649
on that time. But I'm also happy that I don't have to write or record

428
00:27:03,649 --> 00:27:07,410
another album this year. I bet. Was it hard to

429
00:27:07,410 --> 00:27:10,890
jump between your album and the Epica album?

430
00:27:12,010 --> 00:27:14,250
Well, it was literally coming off the train

431
00:27:15,660 --> 00:27:19,500
after recording with Aryan Lucas, who wrote the songs

432
00:27:19,500 --> 00:27:23,260
for A Vermilion, and then going to the Epica writing camp.

433
00:27:23,660 --> 00:27:27,260
Oh my gosh. So just non stop. It wasn't not

434
00:27:27,260 --> 00:27:30,460
much overlap, but just a bunch. No.

435
00:27:31,180 --> 00:27:34,900
And I even did a collaboration with Charlotte for

436
00:27:34,900 --> 00:27:38,460
her album. I sang on one of her songs, Dopamine, and I did a video

437
00:27:38,460 --> 00:27:42,240
for that as well. I don't know how I did

438
00:27:42,240 --> 00:27:45,640
it all in 2024, but I'm. I'm here, I'm still alive.

439
00:27:46,520 --> 00:27:50,120
That's good. That is good. Did you guys have a lot of music to. To

440
00:27:50,120 --> 00:27:53,880
pick through when it came to the. The track listing for the new album?

441
00:27:54,360 --> 00:27:57,960
Yeah, we had a. A big selection of songs

442
00:27:58,440 --> 00:28:02,120
and that's how we started the writing camp. Everybody, you know, sat down at the

443
00:28:02,120 --> 00:28:05,960
big table and we started going through all the demo tracks

444
00:28:06,200 --> 00:28:09,720
and then we made a selection of those songs where everybody would

445
00:28:10,340 --> 00:28:14,020
simultaneously work on and.

446
00:28:15,460 --> 00:28:18,980
And then like a little bit later in the demo

447
00:28:18,980 --> 00:28:22,660
stages, then we made a smaller selection because

448
00:28:22,820 --> 00:28:26,260
we learned from the past, for example, the holographic principle. We had

449
00:28:26,420 --> 00:28:29,300
so many songs and we worked on all the songs

450
00:28:30,020 --> 00:28:33,020
that it was a little too much for us. So we learned from that that

451
00:28:33,020 --> 00:28:36,700
we need to make a smaller selection in order to give every song all the

452
00:28:36,700 --> 00:28:40,510
time and energy that it needs in order

453
00:28:40,510 --> 00:28:42,630
to, you know, reach its full potential.

454
00:28:44,150 --> 00:28:46,950
And then. Yeah, and then you could. So from there, then you start dwindling it

455
00:28:46,950 --> 00:28:50,710
down to whatever. Yeah. Narrowing it down

456
00:28:50,710 --> 00:28:54,430
to these 11 songs that are now on the album. And we also did the

457
00:28:54,430 --> 00:28:57,990
Ghost in Me, which was a. Another project for a Dutch

458
00:28:57,990 --> 00:29:01,830
amusement park. And we also worked and recorded that

459
00:29:01,830 --> 00:29:05,670
at the same time as a spiral. Oh my gosh. You all are very,

460
00:29:05,670 --> 00:29:09,430
very busy. Yes, very busy. And then

461
00:29:09,430 --> 00:29:11,990
you're doing some shows in the United States coming up as well.

462
00:29:13,750 --> 00:29:17,350
That's amazing. Yeah, we have three shows.

463
00:29:17,430 --> 00:29:21,190
We couldn't, on short notice, really

464
00:29:21,670 --> 00:29:25,270
set up a whole tour, but we're working on that as well. And since we're

465
00:29:25,270 --> 00:29:28,950
going to Mexico anyway, we thought maybe we can touch, touch

466
00:29:28,950 --> 00:29:32,630
down in North America and do a couple

467
00:29:32,630 --> 00:29:35,970
shows, so I'm very happy for that. Yeah. New York, LA and

468
00:29:35,970 --> 00:29:39,770
Atlanta. That's awesome. Yes. So I

469
00:29:39,770 --> 00:29:42,090
appreciate your time. Thank you so much. Are you going to do a do you

470
00:29:42,090 --> 00:29:45,650
think once the album comes out you'll do another big run of the the States

471
00:29:45,650 --> 00:29:48,970
or you don't know yet for sure? Yeah, we don't know if we can manage

472
00:29:48,970 --> 00:29:52,570
to do it this year, but definitely next

473
00:29:52,570 --> 00:29:56,050
year we're going to come back full force for a full length tour.

474
00:29:56,530 --> 00:29:59,690
Love it. Well, I appreciate your time. Thank you so much for doing this. I

475
00:29:59,690 --> 00:30:03,530
have one more question. I want to know if you have any advice for

476
00:30:03,530 --> 00:30:04,680
aspiring artists.

477
00:30:07,310 --> 00:30:10,990
Always believe in yourself. Don't listen too much to other

478
00:30:11,230 --> 00:30:14,030
people's opinions and just stay true to your art

479
00:30:32,320 --> 00:30:34,400
world. Bringing it backward.