Elysion
WildSpiritz were lucky enough to catch up with the band
Sophie speaks to the band:
Over the last few weeks, the colder and darker days have been drawing in quicker than anything. The days of the hot sun are long gone and before we know it, (dare I say it) we will be celebrating Christmas. These months are hard for me as I do not cope well in the cold and with the yearly weather report threatening snow, (which rarely happens) upon us, my flame of excitement was close to burning out. The colder months require nothing more than the excitement of new music to keep you at bay through the weeks and Elysion are a band which immediately bring strength and motivation back into our days. Since they first started in 2006, Elysion are a band brewing under our noses, and over the last decade have grown into magnificent artist’s right in front of our eyes. This band started off as undiscovered but now fulfil their audience’s needs with their talent. With over 30 thousand listeners on Spotify and 15 thousand followers on Facebook, this alternative metal rock band have flourished. The best thing about all of this? I was lucky enough to meet with vocalist Christianna for a chat. The first thing on my mind was finding out what the band had been up to over the last few months!
“Hails to Wildspiritz and to all your readers from the Elysion family!!! It's an honour and a pleasure to have this conversation with you so we thank you dearly for this opportunity! The past few months found Elysion enjoying a lot of studio time, recording our third album. That means a lot of work and a little bit of creative stress but also a huge amount of enthusiasm that grows bigger and bigger every day as we're still recording!”
The band have been absolutely killing the music scene with their last few album releases including Someplace better and Silent Scream, so I chatted with Christianna as to how they decide which tracks make the cut.
“Truth is, since we don't release a new album every year, there is always plenty of new material composed as we'd rather take our time and make sure we've got more than enough beautiful compositions to choose from. That makes our life a bit difficult, in a good way but at the same time it takes the pressure off, knowing that no matter what happens we still have a lot of stuff that we are truly proud of to choose from. Whether a song matches the atmosphere of the album, how all of us feel about it, how representative we consider a song is when it comes of the Elysion identity we want the new album to have. But I guess the ultimate judging point is how 'killer' or not a song comes out. Some tracks just have a voice of their own, they scream 'NO WAY I'M NOT IN THE ALBUM!!!'”
The band have been described as Alt Rock and Metal, but it was important to me if the band believed they fit into this genre and why it is so iconic.
“, we’ve never really placed ourselves under some specific label. Those terms you mentioned have been used, as well as plenty of others, like 'gothic metal’, ‘atmospheric’ and so on. That’s ok to use as general point of reference but we feel we belong anywhere our next music journey takes us. That is a true honour to feel your work is appreciated further beyond what would be considered your typical target group. In that sense, I think that no genre is iconic or not, it’s the artist that you choose to listen to that can make a genre flourish or trash it. Its mistake to think a certain music style is no good. Music turns out only as good as the musician makes it.”
Being in a band that has grown to the size of Elysion, I love hearing who was an inspiration growing up, so we spoke a little more about inspirational artists.
“Definitely all the 'Classics' have baptized us into the Holy Waters of Metal, but also a lot of modern influences found their way into our music. Speaking for myself as a singer, I grew up mesmerized by Bruce Dickinson and Dio. I'm still under their spell and will always go back to their huge music legacy for educational purposes or pure inspiration.”
After some research, it was evident from the Facebook page that Elysion have been teasing about a few practice sessions taking place. I wanted to know if we could all start getting excited about another album release.
“Well yes, please!!! We are as excited as it gets ourselves! At this very moment, I am thrilled to say I'm starting my vocal recordings for the new album this week! (...and as many of us know, vocals are the last ones to be recorded usually.) So that means all the music for the new album is already recorded and waiting for me...can't wait to sing my soul out for this album. I am absolutely in love with how it's turning out to sound and love my bandmates 100 times more for having done so great!! I really can't wait for it to be finished so we can share it with you and hope for some good feedback!”
Growing into a band with an established reputation such as Elysion takes time and dedication. I was eager to learn what they thought is one of the hardest things when it comes to establishing as a band.
“All Elysion have been trying to do since day one was to just put some beautiful music out there in the best way we can. We never focused on anything else, such as marketing, or making any impressive moves. All we wanted is to really stay simple and true to our music character and make sure every single song in our albums is worthy of being there. So, to answer your question, this is what I consider to be the hardest thing to achieve in a band: Quality and consistency. Not releasing one 'hit' song and have 9 filler songs. That's why, no matter what, I feel so damn proud to be in this band, knowing what good care we take of our music 'children' and how much we respect our audience. This is my term of success, always doing your best.”
With such a big following behind the band currently, I spoke to Christianna to find out if they considered a defining moment in their career as to when it all started to take off.
“Since you mentioned it, let me just say how deeply grateful we are to each and every listener Elysion have. For us there has been no monetary support, no big promotion, and no marketing strategies, like I've said above. So, it's so touching and motivating, to know that few or many, it doesn't matter, they are here for the music alone. That is a gift that we'll cherish forever. As for when it was that we felt something really good was going to happen, it was when we were about to release our debut album, Silent Scream. There had already been a lot of tension built up and the feedback we were getting was crazy, just based on people having listened to a demo. We managed to share the stage with so many iconic bands of the global scene, it was a big thing, considering we were only then taking our first steps. So hopefully, we haven't let all our friends down since and we hope they will all enjoy what we are preparing for them next.”
Since Elysion have grown such a tremendous following they were bound to have advice for those who were looking at getting their foot into the music industry.
“To anyone looking into entering the music scene...do not do it unless you only want to put your heart out there. Do not expect anything out of it. If you have something to say to the world, say it but don't sell it, please.”
I think that is really an important thing to remember that if you are wanting to have your part in the music industry don’t do it unless you are willing to put your heart out there. Aside from performing, I was keen to learn what the team got up to in their downtime.
“Well, we are such huge music lovers. Other projects we might have from time to time, but also listening to a lot of music and watching as many bands live as possible. We all have our normal day jobs ...bills still have to be paid and can I speak about myself and say I'm a crazy cat-mother.”
‘Fairytale’ is one of my favourite tracks by Elysion and I was keen to learn when creating a piece of music, how they created the melody surrounding the vocals.
“Usually I write the lyrics and the vocal lines to match the music and not the other way round. I always 'catch' myself being hooked to any new idea Johnny Zero might send me (even if it is someone else's idea usually Johnny is the one to sit down and do some pre-production, so we can take it from there. I'm just listening to the new song all day long... not really making any effort to come up with anything, just allowing myself to feel it. Then, magically, I will start singing it' like I know how this song wants to be sung. Other times, Johnny Zero might hum a melody to me and 9 times out of 10 it's an amazing one. After that we record the vocals in our home studio and see how it works. Fairy-tale is also one of my personal favourites as well.”
As my time with Christianna had come to an end, I was determined to learn what was next in store for the band and whether there were any words they would like to pass on to the band’s hordes of fans.
“Who knows? We are open to new adventures! Maybe we'll give everything up and decide to populate Mars, trying to spread the metal spirit to Martians. Well, hopefully you can expect a beautiful third album to start with. I know it doesn't really count to have me saying it about my own band, but in all honesty, I think this is going to be our best end definitely most mature album so far. Alongside will come a lot of live dates which is already making our hearts beat faster! So that's all I know for now, but I can also add that we believe a whole new era for Elysion will soon begin. Not different in style or line-up of course but way more energetic and creative.”
“To every Elysion-ist out there thank you so, so, so much guys, for your loyalty and patience over all those years. We won't let you down and soon a brand new Elysion journey will begin and you're all invited. Thank you for having us, peace and love to you all.”
I am completely overwhelmed by the excitement of a new album and a new era for Elysion. I truly wish them all the best as they continue their journey and discovery about who they are as creators.