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Interview with Simone Simons
of Epica
Interview and photos By Jay Valena June 2007
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Epica, the latest addition to the Nuclear Blast
roster, is a Dutch Gothic metal band that is quickly rising through
the ranks of metal's elite. Their upcoming concept album "The Divine
Conspiracy" sees the band forging into unexplored territory both
lyrically and musically, and their first headlining North American
tour only cements the fact that this is the most popular the group has
ever been. I took some time to speak with Simone during this year's
Hellfest Open Air about many of these topics and more.
Your new album “The Divine Conspiracy” is a concept album, would you
like to explain the concept behind it?
Well, it has somewhat to do with religion – it’s about God himself, he
has tests on humanity, he creates several religions with different
gods, and at the end it’s to find out if people realize that it’s all
about one true thing - There is one god, everyone who is aspiring to a
different god is actually the same. So in a way all religions have
similarities and it’s actually just one big religion and people
adapted it in the course of ages. Every song - there are 13 songs
including the intro – and every song has something to do with the
concept. There is this main character who is going through life, and
he encounters different kinds of religions and experiences also the
bad sides about it and the good sides – the first part of the CD is
about the bad psyche of human beings, you know, people who are greedy,
who get addicted to drugs, all the failures that humankind makes, and
this main person gets killed – because he has a very strong opinion
about Islam, and he got murdered. There’s one song, the ballad,
“Safeguard to Paradise”, it’s about that guy, Theo van Gogh, who’s a
very cool guy, but he had a really big mouth.
So the album follows a true story?
It’s a true story, yes, it happened. Theo van Gogh is his name – like
the painter, van Gogh. So all songs have their own story, but there’s
this red line going through it, you can see all songs as individual
stories but the whole concept is the Divine Conspiracy. I don’t know
if you’ve seen the cover already?
Yes, I have.
Yes, the Americans especially are saying that it’s a bad reflection of
Eve, you know, grabbing the apple, but the idea behind it is that all
human beings are being born naked and innocent, in a way. |
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You also finish the “Embrace that Smothers”
theme on this album, what are some of the topics you cover?
It’s three songs in a row, “Death of a Dream”, “Living a
Lie”, and “Beyond Belief”, parts 7, 8, and 9. Mark
really wanted to finish the whole circle and we talked
about the concept of the album and he said “I’d like to
dedicated three songs to the ‘Embrace That Smothers’ to
finish it.” Actually, one song “Death of a Dream” was
written by me, which is about women in society, mostly
in Islamic culture, which are not equal to guys. So,
they are standing up for their rights, they want to be
equal as guys, get the same rights, and people need to
know that they are intelligent and can lead the country
and all of those things. It was also a true story about
a girl who got pregnant but she was not married, and her
lover was not a Muslim. So, her brother killed her. It
is basically the “Death of a Dream”, that she wanted to
have things change, but finally that whole “honor
killing” made her dream die with her. But in another
way, the women are really getting stronger and the guy
think that they keep them small, but the women are
getting stronger and stronger, and hopefully it will end
but it’s an ancient religion and they are such strong
believers… I think women are beautiful and I like to
show my long hair – if I would have to put it up all the
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I
would not feel like… it’s also a way of expressing your
life. There’s so many beautiful women in Islamic culture,
but you just don’t see because they hide themselves from
the world, from the inside, not only from the outside. I
believe everybody has their own will to believe whatever
they want as long as they’re free – religion should expand
your psyche and not keep you small. You know, you should
enjoy life – after it, I believe there is nothing, so…
Did you record the album in Mark’s home studio?
We did a pre-production together, but we recorded part of it in Gate
studio in Germany, where we recorded the first two albums. Yves
recorded his bass at home, recorded by himself with the guitar tracks
for the album, it took him two months. I recorded my vocals in the
beginning with the preproduction, we changed some vocal lines and
adapted the lyrics to the vocal lines. I did my singing in three parts
so that I could rest and get used to the songs and sing them with
conviction.
How long did it take to record the album?
Pretty long, we started in November with the drummer, and we finished
with my vocals in March.
You just recorded your new music video for the
song “Never Enough” in Serbia, why was the choice made to film it
there?
Well we heard some stories that very good videos are coming from
Serbia, and actually friends of ours, Kamelot, recorded their first
video off of “Ghost Opera” there, and I saw it and thought it was
great. Then I was on tour with Kamelot and the last show was in
Serbia, and then they recorded the second video. So I was there and
got to know the people, they record with blue screen a lot. They don’t
ask for a lot of money, but they deliver high quality, so that choice
was easy made.
So the video has lots of special effects?
Yes, I actually have the video on my computer – we made two versions,
but the short version for TV is the wrong cut version of the song, so
they have to change it. But we are very happy, it’s the best video so
far.
When will the video be released?
Nuclear Blast is planning on releasing it in the middle of July, so we
also have to make the artwork for the single, but I think that will be
easily done. We are working for a great guy who also did the cover for
Kamelot… so we have a lot of links with Kamelot!
Your concert in Germany was filmed for TV, do
you know when it will be broadcast?
Yes, that was for Rock Palace, a very well-known metal program – I
think they plan to broadcast it in the beginning of August. We also
did an interview there, and it was nice, there were actually a lot of
people. We are actually not that known in Germany… we’re not so big in
Germany as we are in France, where we play a lot. |
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Do you have any permanent drummers in mind
following the departure of Jeroen Simons?
We have two session drummers, one who did the album – that’s Ariën
(Van Weesenbeek), who played in the video. And we have Koen Herfst, a
very talented young guy who’s 23. He plays in Bagga Bownz, which is a
little big of mixture between rap, hip hop, and metal. I like it very
much, but it’s a new style of music so rap people might find it too
hard and metal fans might find it a little too groovy, but I like it,
I think it’s something new. I like a little bit of both, I don’t like
just rap music, and I don’t always like metal music, but that sounds
cool. Both of those drummers have their own band but they are
exchanging each other – we are doing the American tour with Ariën, and
then we do the European tour with Koen. We didn’t find a better
drummer than them, so they are working in shifts and that’s how we
like to keep it for now. The new album is very hard and powerful and
it’s hard to find a drummer who can really keep up with that, and we
want to deliver a new show.
Yes, one thing I noticed during your show is
that the new songs sound much heavier than in the past.
Yeah, there are 13 songs – I think we have 2 ballads. One ballad is
semi-ballad, semi rough song, like we had “Run for a Fall” on the
first album. That’s actually my favorite song on the album – I think
we’ve grown in many ways, the album is harder, it’s more complicated.
My singing has improved, which is important to me, since I have to
make this development. If I did not, it would be very bad. So I worked
very hard on my singing and I hope that people like it. We had a
listening session with Nuclear Blast already, even some Germans who
weren’t so keen on Epica thought that it meant change stuff. Many
people thought we might go the commercial way, but we didn’t.
That’s more or less all I have to ask, is there
anything you’d like to add?
Well of course, I would like the American fans to come to the tour.
This is the first time we’ve headlined, the second time we’ve come to
the US. It’s nice to tour there, it’s nice to go shopping. You get
stuff a little bit cheaper over there, and the tour buses are great in
America because they’re a little bit wider, and I usually sleep very
badly on a tour bus. Last time we got a huge TV screen and the guys
were watching porn, so I was trying to look away. I think it was
Playboy TV or something, 24 hours… that’s crazy shit. So, I take my
DVDs with me and go to my bunk with my laptop, I’m a little bit
addicted to DVDs. I always have DVDs with me and I have my iPod video
so I can watch there, it’s how I kill time.
Well, that’s good to hear – thank you very much
for the interview!Epica "The Divine Conspiracy" is released
September 7th in Europe and August 28th in the USA
www.epica.nl |
www.nuclearblast.de
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