Transcript of an interview I recorded with MADELEINE LILJESTAM & RIKARD EKBERG of ELEINE - 20201013. Full article here. MAL-
Talking to Madeleine and Rikard from ELEINE. Thanks for joining us today. ELEINE- Rikard-Hey, great to be here. Madeleine-Thanks MAL- Now from where I sit you seemed to form and get into a first album quite quickly just tell us about the beginnings of the band. ELEINE- Madeleine-We've been active since 2014. Yeah. It's been a hell of a ride. It has been only six years, that's crazy. Rikard-The debut album came out in 2015. Madeleine-Yeah, exactly. So we released two full-length albums, one EP and now the upcoming third full-length album, 'Dancing In Hell'. MAL- How was the early days? Were you able to get out there and tour much? I know that reasonably early on your scored a big tour with MOONSPELL, tell us about that. ELEINE- Rikard-Oh, that's like in 2016 we managed to get that tour and I was all thanks to Madeleine writing to Fernando, the singer of MOONSPELL. Madeleine-Yeah, that was very cool. I mean that was a very exciting year because I mean, we released our first album in '15, and then 2016 we got the big opportunity to play at Sweden Rock Festival that was huge for us. I mean a pretty new band and we get that chance and Sweden Rock is pretty big deal up here at least and like it's yeah, it's one of the biggest festivals, and so we got that, in the meantime I'd been just reaching out, you know, and we've always been working like why not just ask, because if you don't ask you never get an answer and the worst thing you can get is a no, right? Yeah. So I just figured that I've listened to MOONSPELL when I was a teenager. I like their music and I mean why not just try to reach out so I wrote Fernando and I remember that I actually wrote that 'you'll probably never ever read this but in case if you do I want to present to you our new single, 'Break Take Live', because that was the first single we released as completely independent in 2016 because we really wanted to get something out there for the Sweden Rock Festival and after our first album, we just wanted something to be a little bit fresh as a new band, you know, and yeah, he wrote back pretty quick and he was like, I really like this you should come along on the European tour and that was like Jesus is this happening? Rikard-It was pretty unreal. Madeleine-Yeah, I'm very grateful for that and we all are so yeah memories for life. Rikard-Yeah. We learned a lot on that tour. Yeah. It was kind of like a big test for you as an aspiring musician to head out on such a big tour or such a serious tour like early on in your career. And it was like after the tour we were like yeah, this is totally our bag. Madeleine-And then we have been through like everything on that tour. I mean, we had to plan everything on our own we we I mean we didn't went on a night liner first thing we did because we had to go on our own and we rented a small van and we drove I think it ended up in like 9,000 kilometers in total, us driving on her own. It was like crazy in just 2 weeks. So yeah, it's been a lot and it's just great. I mean we're so grateful for having that first tour as THE first tour. MAL- Tell us about a bit later on being invited to Japan. How did that come about? That must have been a bit surreal as well. ELEINE- Madeleine-Wow. Rikard-Totally surreal. Madeleine-We applied for because there's this Export Music Sweden. Rikard-Super great guys. Madeleine-Yeah. That's the things when they work a lot with exporting music in all different kinds of ways and all the genres and everything and we heard, our friend Christian, heard that I think they have something to do in Japan with some kind of Festival. We have to look into this. So we applied and explained what we've done and what we wanted to do with ELEINE in the future. And since this is a festival they have in Tokyo and it's the Creativeman Productions. They're pretty big yeah. It's like one of the biggest in Japan and they're the ones who are choosing all the bands and he really liked it and we're like, okay, so we're going to Japan. Rikard-Yeah, super surreal. Yeah. Madeleine and I are both big fans of anime. And we already loved Japan before we even went there and we were like, super prepared for how it was going to be and when we got there it was like exactly the way as we thought it would be. Madeleine-Everything we've dreamed of. Rikard-Yeah, thanks to all the culture we learned through the majestic thing that is Anime. I mean, it's fantastic how much they put into anime. I mean, it's amazing. So well, we had a great time in Japan. That's what I'm talking about. Not anime. Madeleine-Yeah, and that gig we had the great honor of headlining that festival because Creativeman Productions really liked ELEINE and that was a huge compliment, you know, pretty surreal. Rikard-What was it called the Loud and Metal Mania. MAL- Tell us about the 'Until the End' album. That was my introduction to the band, a little bit more recently than that though, but tell us about that album, how that came about and how that went. ELEINE- Rikard-As always Madeleine and I we create the music that we feel is right for us to create. This is Madeleine sayings, I'm hijacking right now. We never sit down on a Monday and say what do people want to hear? What is the thing that we should do now? What is popular now? We only write what feels right to us, and whatever comes to mind and our music is always about empowering others because we know what it's like to be in a bad place. Let's put it at that and we do know the value of feeling that you're not alone and being empowered and also, I mean we're telling stories about our experiences, but we also do notice other people's struggles and 'Until the End' is all about embracing humanity, focusing on those that are in like serious pain in life and those that are really struggling. I mean, those are the deep parts of 'Until the End'. Madeleine-And with the title track and the track after it, 'Please', we kind of created a scenario because we wanted people to feel something because when people feel they can somehow either relate or at least understand. That was that was something we talked about a lot because we were kind of frustrated at people just scrolling by all of the news. I mean today in Sweden, I mean in Sweden for an example, 10 years ago, if someone would be murdered on the street, it would be huge news. It would be over all of the newspapers everywhere people would be like stopping their real life for that happening. But today it's like people just scroll by and that was something we discussed a lot because it's pretty frustrating to just, we don't want people to dig too deep down in all of the sadness and get all depressed, but at the same time you can't be like just pushing away everything and just only focus on your own life and like don't feel any humanity at all. Rikard-It's like totally de-sensitized. Madeleine-Yeah, so I'm very glad about that album because I really felt we got so much out of ..Rikard-Yeah. I say, you know a lot of mental illness also like there's one track that really puts it on the nose there with the title and that title is 'Sanity'. I mean that is like a spot on thing, and for me that was like writing about my.. I suffered from anorexia when I was younger and that was kind of an outlet for that, but it's not about anorexia, it's about mental issues and mental health and I do know that a lot of people have related to that song and 'Break, Take, Live' in particular that is also on that album. We do know that we had a fan that reached out to us, and he said that that track helped him out of drug addiction and that is just like.. Madeleine-A pretty serious one. Rikard-Yeah, yeah, yeah, not not only light one, but a real serious one and to hear that is just like mind-blowing but also at the same time it is why we do what we do as I said in the beginning, we know what it's like to be in a bad place and we know the value of feeling that you're not alone and getting these words and being empowered by others that you can actually survive this? MAL- Briefly touch on the EP after that. I have to say when I saw 'Mein Herz Brennt' on there I went, 'Okay' Big RAMMSTEIN fan here, so don't worry about that. But I have to say when I saw that I thought 'Hmm, that's a bit interesting'. So tell us about the choice of that. ELEINE- Madeleine-Well, first of all, it really did fit into the EP like it did fit so well with 'Enemies and 'All Shall Burn'. Rikard-Oh, yeah, and we chose that song because RAMMSTEIN has been such an a big inspiration to both Madeleine myself for years. So both Madeleine and I have gotten like empowered from RAMMSTEIN and the same thing that we're doing to others now, so this was our little way of saying thanks to RAMMSTEIN for being a great inspiration. Madeleine-Like a small tribute. Rikard-Like a small tribute. Yeah, and also I have German Heritage. M-Yeah it felt kind of natural to just yeah to do that one. Rikard-Fun for me on to two levels. As you say Madeleine, yes, very natural process. Yeah. MAL- Right. Let's get on to this latest album then. 'Dancing In Hell', tell us about when you started getting things ready for this, and how it proceeded. Let's hear it from you. ELEINE- Madeleine-When inspiration hit us. Yeah. Well, when inspiration struck thank you. We got pretty inspired in fall/winter 2018. I do remember the first song we wrote was 'All Shall Burn'. Yeah, and that was in late November it was, so and from that way on. I mean, we just continued when we felt that, yeah, we're inspired and we do know this will be our third album and we pretty fast just felt that when we written 'All Shall Burn', we did feel what the thread was supposed to be in the album, boring answer perhaps but it felt so natural because we've been through a lot and with this first track 'All Shall Burn' and then after that 'Dancing In Hell' came as the title track. I mean it just felt like yes, this is.. Rikard-Wait a minute, didn't we write 'Enemies' first? Madeleine-No, it was 'All Shall Burn' 'Dancing In Hell' 'Enemies' Rikard-Really?. Madeleine-Yes. I remember it like it was yesterday. Rikard-Oh, yeah, I totally believe you 100%. Madeleine-I do remember the title tracks process. That was in like January February when I went through all this anxiety. Rikard-Oh, that's right, we released the EP a year after that. I'm making fool out of myself. Madeleine-That was when it started and then we just continued to write during 2019. And I mean we really felt that we really was so happy with the result. I mean not because we showed anyone because we just felt that yes, this is what the third album will be. And then we felt oh we want to share this already, or share some of it. So that's when the idea of the EP came up. That is why we released the EP 'All Shall Burn' last year. MAL- Just wanted to get something out there to keep product out there, keep in people's faces? ELEINE- Rikard-Well in part, sure but also to like to bridge 'Until The End' and 'Dancing In Hell', to make that that natural bridge. I mean for us, you know when you're working out and you work out for like a year and you diet for a year, you're going to look hopefully look better when the year is over. But if people haven't seen you during that year the change will be massive, you know, but for you, it's been a natural progress and we thought that this 'All Shall Burn' EP would be a nice bridge between the two albums. Madeleine-And also for the fans because I mean we as a musician and writing music, you do not appreciate it after releasing a full album with thousands of hours of work behind it. Of course, it's a compliment when people say they want more. Yeah, but starting to ask after two months after the release when is the next music tracks coming up? It's like oh put our entire lives into this album. Can you please just enjoy it for a while? But we did feel that we wanted to give our fans something as well because we were into this we were working our asses off like we just put all of ourselves into this album. So putting this out there and also get the opportunity to make this cover and the symphonic tracks as well. It just felt like something fun as well in between, you know, like a little treat in a way. It was nice for us as well. Rikard-Really was and like with 'Dancing In Hell' with writing music and everything it all boils down to the thing that has been our key motivator through all of our career and that is staying true, to stay true to yourself, to stay true to what you believe in and staying true to your music, because this platform that you're given as an artist is a rare platform to have and you need to use it in a good way. And that's why we spread positivity. We spread joy, we spread, of course Metal, and unity and strength. MAL- Okay so we're building up to the release of this in November, November 24, isn't it? ELEINE- Madeleine-27th. Rikard-Maybe it's 24 there. MAL- Oh, no 27, that's right. I had it written down here somewhere. Right. So it's a big album , its bold. Its as I would say, 'all killer, no filler'. Did you have any tracks that didn't make it to the album? ELEINE- Rikard-No, not in that way. Madeleine-Not full tracks. Rikard-The thing is that it works like this when we're writing music, is that we sometimes write a song from a melody that Madeleine came up with like during the night or over the day, or maybe it's me riffing on the guitar as I always fucking do, or maybe I create something a tidbit on the piano or we come up with something together like piece of lyric and like, oh, we feel this when we read that so I mean, it's always a different way we're writing music. Madeleine-Yeah and every track, just kind of becomes like a baby, and I mean we have some ideas that no, they didn't turn out to be full songs for this album because it didn't feel right. But I mean we save it all, no full tracks that didn't make it because this just this came pretty natural. Rikard-Yeah. That's what I was going to get to as we said we have no full tracks that didn't make the cut but we do have tracks now, like beginning of tracks for upcoming stuff. So that's really good. MAL- I notice you've got an album release gig organized, now with all that's happening at the moment was that really hard to organize? ELEINE- Madeleine-It's not easy, but we have this restrictions in Sweden that you're allowed to be 50 people in the audience maximum, sitting down or standing up, but since we do know how people might be sometimes we decided pretty quick that we should have it in a theatre with seats because then it becomes natural for people to keep the distance. They sit down, perhaps they will stand up in the end but no one will run around because you don't do that, and if anybody would I would let them know from the stage and tell them to sit still because we felt that this album deserves a special evening and most of all we wanted to do something for our fans because we have Patreon, that is our official fan club and we stay in touch a lot with our patrons and I felt that this pandemic has hit hard on us musicians, of course, but seriously the fans I mean some fans really do have like our music and others music as an escape from shit and life or their whatever. I mean they feel happy going to a concert listening to the music and if you only have the music and no concerts. I've just noticed that I sensed a small depression over everyone and a frustration. So we really want to do this for the fans and they did really appreciate it because it was sold out within a day or two. So I mean, yeah and and they also felt safe. Rikard-That's the thing when we got this opportunity to do, when we have this opportunity to do this event and do it safe, that is the key point here that were able to do it safe. It's a very old theatre in our hometown Landskrona and it's pretty big. So I mean, there's well enough space for people to be and that's the way we want it also because we don't want to jeopardize anything or anyone and everything is according to rule, everything is according to the restrictions. We saw an opportunity to be able to safely spread 'joy and not germs' you know, so this is going to be a major event on a small scale and we don't really care how many people are in the audience to be honest. We just want to give something to our fans that are able to get there and we do have fans that are from abroad that are like feeling so bad over that they can't come and we give the same to everyone that you should not be sad. You should only come if you can, and my friend this will not be the last gig. This will not be the last. We will come and see you so you can come and see us. MAL- Now some bands these days are doing live streams. Has they've been any discussion about doing that with ELEINE? ELEINE- Rikard-Discussions, but it's nothing that we're keen on. MAL- Right, let's talk about some of the tracks on the album. I notice it's 'Avar Of Death'. Tell us about that. ELEINE- Rikard-Avar is a Persian word that means 'the voice' that translates to 'Voice' or 'the voice'. So it's actually the voice of death, but we wanted a phrase that would be our own. So I mean to say 'the voice of death' that sounds really corny but 'Avar Of Death', I mean that that has a ring to it, you know, a real ring to it and I mean we've heard from others but we also think that 'Avar Of Death' is really the ultimate anthem that fights on to claim your place in an always growing Legion that is ELEINE. I mean that is the perfect description of the song. We really feel that we've done it with that song. We're really proud of that one. MAL- 'Memoriam'. That's one of my favorites. What can you tell me about that one? ELEINE- Rikard-Oh man, I love 'Memoriam' too, it's fucking hard to play. Madeleine-We've been talking about 'Break, Take, Live' right here. We talked about 'Break, Take, Live' that were released in 2016 about how breaking from the life to live and that you should live your life to it's fullest and just enjoy it and be happy and 'Memoriam' is kind of a reflection of that as well. Rikard-There really is, It's hard to summarize because you always have these grand explanations to things but you don't really need a grand explanation. It is like if you can check out the chorus, 'this wasted life is mine to live, we'll rise above'. I mean that really points towards when people say, oh come on stop chasing that, you're wasting your life and blah blah blah. Well don't really care about that. We will be remembered for doing what we love, we will be in memoriam for what we love to do. That is like self reassuring for us also because we've always chased our dream and our goal and there's always been people putting one down and everyone has met people putting you down, you know, everyone regardless of what your dream is. MAL- Okay, so we're building up to the release of this on November 27. What happens then? I mean the world is a different world from last year. We've gotta plan things differently. What's planned? ELEINE- Madeleine-Well, we released two singles so far and we had two singles left before the album comes out. And after that we will have to wait and see, I mean there's nothing else to answer unfortunately. I mean, we do have some plans that are not official we are just hoping for them to be possible. I'll just wait and see that is such a boring answer. But I mean, we do have a lot of plans and we want so much but so impossible to say right now. MAL- All right, so the next tour that ELEINE do, is that going to be a headline tour? Have you got a support thing that we're sort of working towards? ELEINE- Madeleine-We do have a support tour planned actually in Sweden and because I mean, it's in february/march will we just have to wait and see if it's possible to happen. Rikard-Yeah, you never know. Madeleine-You never know. But that was the first one we actually went out with official because we felt that it would probably be possible in Sweden and that is support for SOILWORK. MAL- I beg your pardon? Hang on. Hang on. What was that? ELEINE- Madeleine-SOILWORK MAL- SOILWORK, you're going out with SOILWORK? ELEINE- Rikard-Yeah. We're going out with SOILWORK in Sweden for a small tour and I mean at the moment it is possible for us to do, and we still hope that it will be possible. (Mal displays Soilwork shirt) Yeah. Yeah. There you go. Hey, yeah legendary band and the singer's from the same town that we're from. MAL- We've been talking here for probably 36 minutes. What haven't we covered? ELEINE- Rikard-We've mentioned like Patreon real quick. And that's like really important for us both financially but also for building a relationship, closer relationship with fans. It's like an old-school fan club as fan clubs were back in the day.. Madeleine-But the artist runs it. Rikard-Yeah, but the artist runs it ya know, and we were talking about this just the other day with a Asim from WINTERSUN that Patreon, I mean if I had access to like talk directly to whatever like James Hetfield or Kurt Cobain when I was younger, you know, that would be mind-blowing to have that you can like instantly write them. 'Hey your work has really helped me through this and that' or 'it has inspired me' or just the basic. 'You're awesome' and they reply to you directly. I mean that is.. Madeleine-For just like a dollar a month. That was like just a small amount of candy you bought when you were kid. Rikard-Dude. I bought more than a dollar worth of candy. Madeleine-Just a small part put into the bands and artists you really like and love and that inspires you and actually talk to them. It's like when you're thinking about it, it's crazy, but it's so appreciated from us because I mean we really do love to have that connection. Yeah with our fans we have so much fun. It's great. We had these virtual 'meet and greets' Rikard-Every month. Yeah, and also we were like, it's you can be more close and personal on there than you can on like Facebook and Instagram because I mean just because of trolls in general, you know people that always..everything you do and this is a fun fact talking about trolls. We did like a YouTube premiere of 'Avar Of Death' meaning that it was like two or three days before it came out. It was like a Premiere video on YouTube. 'This will air in like 48 hours' or whatever, when it premieres we'e they're on the other side of the internet, so to speak and commenting live with our fans and people watching, but before the video came out and before the song came out someone had disliked the video. I mean what one person? Yeah, that's stupid as fuck, that's super weird. Madeleine-Haters gotta hate. Rikard-Yes, or it's a fantastic person with great humor because it was funny. MAL- Right, what haven't we covered? I think we've pretty much covered everything haven't we, guys? ELEINE- Rikard-I think so too. Madeleine-It's been great. Rikard-Very nice and pleasant, man, really natural, really like the natural flow of things. This was nice. MAL- Hey, Madeleine and Rikard, absolutely great chatting to you. Thanks for taking the time out of your day. ELEINE- Madeleine-Likewise, Mal, it's been a great pleasure. Thank you for having us. MAL- Oh, absolutely. You're welcome, and really best of luck with the new album when it comes out in late November. ELEINE- Madeleine-It's been a great pleasure. MAL- Thank you. Thanks for your time. Comments are closed.
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AuthorMetalhead who hates bad parking. |