Latest / HEAVY Music Interviews / Tales Of The Seven Seas With MEEK From VISIONS OF ATLANTIS

Transcript

Tales Of The Seven Seas With MEEK From VISIONS OF ATLANTIS · HEAVY Music Interviews

• 0:26
  So this is Meek from Visions of Atlantis. I'm super excited to be in
• 0:31
  this period of time of the year in which we are like giving interviews and
• 0:35
  promoting the upcoming record. You know, these are the most exciting months for
• 0:38
  us Visions of Atlantis. For those who do not know us, it's a
• 0:42
  symphony little band that was born in Austria became international now because I'm from Italy
• 0:48
  and Clementine, which is the female singer, she's from France. So basically,
• 0:52
  even if it started as an Austrian project, now we consider ourselves a
• 0:55
  fully European band. And right now I would say that we are holding the
• 1:03
  crown of symphony, of the old school of the classic symphonic metal. I
• 1:07
  would say because with so many other bands drinking away from the jar, it
• 1:11
  feels like we are getting lonely, which is not the best thing. You
• 1:17
  know, like we need we need more symphonic metal bands around her. It
• 1:19
  feels like the trend has gone away, but we still stick to what you
• 1:25
  know, we believed in uh since since years and years. So yeah,
• 1:29
  if you like symphonic metal, we are the band for you. Yeah,
• 1:34
  make thanks to join us today. Sorry please, sorry, thank you if
• 1:37
  you're joining us today. It's my pleasure man, absolutely, you know,
• 1:42
  like Australia especially, it's like a part of the world that we never visited
• 1:47
  and I'm so much looking forward to come there and tour. Sometimes I'm this
• 1:52
  is one of my you know, to do list in life play in Australia
• 1:56
  and Oceania in general. It's something that we are really really really excited for.
• 2:00
  So thank you for inviting us, and I hope that this will help
• 2:02
  in the purpose in the cause basis of Atlanta's set to reinforce your status as
• 2:07
  one of the premierre symphonic metal bands in the world with the release of your
• 2:12
  new album Parts to Amada until the fifth. So how do you feel about
• 2:15
  it? As I said, I'm super excited, you know, like this
• 2:20
  is this is the work of two years that is finding is finally coming to
• 2:27
  life. You know, like in this in this moment, we are super
• 2:30
  super excited and looking forward to the feedback that we will receive on this record
• 2:35
  because we put our hearts and souls as always in preparing this new record.
• 2:40
  And then you know, this is the hot moments and the hot months before
• 2:46
  before the release, and you don't really know. You know, we write
• 2:50
  the music, we write what we feel, we write our emotions, we
• 2:53
  put them down in songs, and you never know what the feedback, you
• 2:59
  know, what the field we would be like. So now we are receiving
• 3:01
  the first one from reviewers, interviewers like you. But at the end of
• 3:05
  the day, it's you know, the fans are the real judges and the
• 3:08
  ones that we will tell the verdict about this entire thing. Let's see,
• 3:16
  as did I even suggest by it's a success to your previous album Parts,
• 3:20
  which came out in twenty twenty two. So how did the two albums connect.
• 3:25
  So when we started writing Pirates, the first Pirates, I have to
• 3:30
  say tell you the truth. Actually we didn't know yet that it would have
• 3:35
  been like all in in the Pirate universe, because before the record, yes,
• 3:40
  Visions of Atlantis was flirting with the Pirate thing. Our cover artworks,
• 3:46
  our songs were all about you know, ocean exploration. There were songs like
• 3:50
  the Siren and the Sailor. There were song like the Silent Mutiny that were
• 3:54
  absolutely Pirate related, but we didn't expose ourselves as we did Empire. And
• 4:00
  then you know, we were into the songwriting process into the recording process with
• 4:03
  our producer, and we just looked at each other and we told each other,
• 4:06
  eight, why do we just flirt with this? Let's go all in,
• 4:10
  let's dispose it ourselves. And you know the thing is that nowadays,
• 4:15
  I feel like we are big kids still in need of storytelling. Every adult
• 4:20
  of nowadays needs to get out of reality and listen to a story, all
• 4:26
  the stories. They have a morally, there is always a meaning behind every
• 4:29
  story. But when you are a kid and your dad or your mom read
• 4:32
  a story from a book to you before going to bed, or when you
• 4:36
  watch I don't Know a Disney movie, you are completely taken away from reality.
• 4:43
  You are put in this different universe and you just leave over there and
• 4:48
  you understand things better. There is a something triggers inside of you. Nowadays,
• 4:55
  we are adults. You know, I'm almost forty, we are thirty
• 4:58
  twenty five, we are metal head but we still need storytelling to get out
• 5:01
  of reality. And we chose the Pirate War or the Pirate Universe first of
• 5:05
  all because we love it, we're fascinated by it, but also because pirates
• 5:09
  are free spirits. Pirates are people who leave by their own rules. They
• 5:14
  don't know what's next because around you there is only a vast ocean, you
• 5:17
  know, with no point of reference, and you just decide to go one
• 5:23
  direction and to follow it, and every day it's a discovery. Basically,
• 5:27
  when we decided to go all in with this concept, we told ourselves,
• 5:30
  Man, this works, this is so beautiful, this is so fascinating.
• 5:34
  Doesn't only work for the people, it works for us too, because we
• 5:38
  reflect ourselves in what we're doing. And when we started writing the new record,
• 5:42
  we were like, why the hell should we change something? Like there
• 5:45
  is absolutely no reason now that we found ourselves to change anything, and this
• 5:49
  is why we you know, we went on with this Pirate two, but
• 5:55
  I believe that. I mean, I don't know if we would call it
• 5:57
  Pirate three or Pirate four, but this this theme is not going to change.
• 6:01
  It stays with us because it's so efficient on any level. Yeah.
• 6:05
  Now, written through the press release, it says that the album will title
• 6:09
  listeners on the band's heaviest symphonic adventure. Yet do you agree with that?
• 6:13
  Is it your heaviest adventure? Absolutely? Yeah, absolutely, absolutely like the
• 6:16
  sound if you speak about the music and about the songs themselves. This is
• 6:21
  for sure the heaviest record that the Visits of Atlantics ever recorded. And it's
• 6:26
  not only about you know like many bands states this because it's you know,
• 6:30
  because it's it's a catchy sentence. But at the very end of the day,
• 6:34
  in this record, there are there is a lot of riffing, there
• 6:36
  are breakdowns, There are really really extreme moments for the sumphony metal jar And
• 6:44
  before this record we were always definitely more how would you say, calm use
• 6:49
  I would I would use this word, you know, like symphonic metal is
• 6:51
  a difference. Is a difficult style as a songwriter and as a musician,
• 6:57
  talking as a songwriter as a musician, because you always have to melody and
• 7:01
  this big orchestra to be inserted implanted in the songs, and sometimes it happens
• 7:06
  that the soundscape of the orchestra, they just overwhelm the metal, the drums,
• 7:12
  the bass, the guitar, because to make people hear clearly what the
• 7:15
  orchestra is doing, it's hard to find the compromise without sacrificing the guitars.
• 7:20
  I believe that in this record the balance leans a bit towards the guitars and
• 7:26
  the bass and the drums rather than the orchestra, which doesn't mean that it's
• 7:30
  not a symphonic metal record, because there are a big orchestra all over the
• 7:32
  place. But we decided to put under the spotlight everything that is metal so
• 7:38
  that we can be a real symphonic metal band with the cap M on the
• 7:43
  m. You know, like because we love it. You know, we
• 7:46
  just love it. We are metal heads. This is wherever. You know,
• 7:49
  my favorite bands are I Roommate and Judas Priest. You know, like
• 7:54
  I'm a metal head and not feeling the metal vibe in some songs in the
• 7:58
  past did always feel right? I would say, well, I can actually
• 8:03
  back that's timing up, mate, because I've listening to the album and it's
• 8:05
  heavy. It's fucking part like there's if you managed to nihal it. But
• 8:09
  but when do you think of symphonic music, you don't really think of the
• 8:13
  heaviness. So is it difficult to give that heavy layer the symphonic metal like
• 8:18
  it sort of sounds like they'd be worn against each other. I think that.
• 8:22
  You know, there are some bands like I immediately think of Epica.
• 8:26
  Epica they managed to do this really well because they have some really sick parts.
• 8:31
  They have some some breakdowns and some riffing that is really extreme, but
• 8:35
  they also use growls to make it heavier, you know. And Visions of
• 8:39
  Atlantis, we don't have this. We don't have this extreme aspect of the
• 8:45
  of the genre some other bands indeed, and Visions of Atlantis before Pirates and
• 8:50
  Pirates too, I want to put ourselves in this list. We also sometimes
• 8:56
  probably went too much in with the orchestra stuff, as you just said,
• 9:00
  and sometimes you lost a bit. The Spies of heavy metal they having as
• 9:05
  the Yeah, just the heavy reefing and the heavy groove that, in my
• 9:13
  opinion, is needed. It's really needed, especially live, especially live.
• 9:16
  You feel it, because this is also something you know, when you bring
• 9:18
  these songs live, they shouldn't sound different. They should sound as you perceive
• 9:24
  them on stage and in studio in the same way. And sometimes when there
• 9:30
  is so much orchestra and you don't have a real orchestra stage because of course
• 9:33
  you cannot take it with you, it just sounds different. And yeah,
• 9:37
  I personally struggled a bit with this aspect, and this is one of the
• 9:41
  critics that often happened. But right now it's gone it's I think we're there.
• 9:48
  I think we're one hundred percent there. Awesome. This is going to
• 9:52
  be your third studio album with Visions a bit Land since joining in two thousand
• 9:56
  and nine. And so how are you growing in the rowl Is it getting
• 9:58
  more natural why you're planning with these guys? Yeah? Absolutely, absolutely,
• 10:03
  right now, I would totally I feel free to say that we are a
• 10:07
  family. We truly are a family. When I got in the band in
• 10:09
  twenty eighteen, we actually were strangers. We didn't know each other. Like
• 10:15
  I auditioned as many others before me and as many others in other bands,
• 10:20
  and I got into a band made of people from other countries that I had
• 10:24
  no idea about, you know, like I didn't know anyone. The reason
• 10:28
  why I got called, why I got the gig, is because Sigfrid,
• 10:33
  the previous singer of the band, was of course living and he knew that
• 10:39
  I was going to tour with Visions of Atlantic opening act with my other project.
• 10:43
  And when I accepted the job because they liked my audition, we were
• 10:48
  strangers then. Year after year, and this is the first time ever in
• 10:52
  the history Revisions of Atlantis, year after year we got more and more together,
• 10:56
  and now the lineup is unchanged since two thousand eighteen, and there is
• 11:00
  no way it's going to change because we bonded so well together. We truly
• 11:03
  our family. Just think that we even go on holiday together. Sometimes I
• 11:09
  totally feel like we are back to, you know, eighteen years old,
• 11:13
  when we were in the same rehearsal room with of course with other people,
• 11:16
  you know, gigging together, playing together, rehearsing together, when you are
• 11:20
  excited just to get into the rehearsal room to perform with your with your friends.
• 11:24
  And this is what's going on now with Visions, and it's just amazing.
• 11:28
  You know. I hope this stay is the same for infinitely. But
• 11:31
  yeah, brother, that's right, that's right. It's family now. One
• 11:37
  of the strengths of Visions of Aladdin's community is the dynamics between yourself and Clementine
• 11:41
  and who provides the famoue veicles. But how does that process work in the
• 11:45
  creative stage, like it's right together or do you run through the Bible paths
• 11:48
  so it's right separately and bring them in. This took a while. I
• 11:54
  believe this took a while to achieve, But yes, right, now.
• 11:56
  Basically, when I am the mainstam writer visions of aciantist right now, like
• 12:00
  I would say, the ninety percent of the last record has been written by
• 12:03
  me, and then there are some help in the melodies and in the structure
• 12:09
  that has been given by Clemmie herself. What happens is that when I write
• 12:13
  a song, the first thing I think of is Clemy's voice. The first
• 12:18
  thing that I try to picture when I write the melodies, when I write
• 12:22
  the structures of the song, is how this would dress on her voice,
• 12:26
  because I believe this is the absolute most important thing. You know, Vocals
• 12:31
  are the connection between the listener and the band itself, So whatever is coming
• 12:37
  afterwards, it's an arrangement of vocal lines. This is how I personally perceive
• 12:43
  our way of composing music nowadays. And of course when Klemmy Isle the female
• 12:48
  singer, the main singer, it's important that every note and every melody dresser
• 12:54
  perfectly. So when I start writing a new melody, the first thing I
• 12:56
  try to do is to close my eyes and to try to imagine how her
• 13:01
  voice sounds on the melody that I'm writing, and I try to adapt it
• 13:05
  so that it works well. With her way of providing emotion, her way
• 13:09
  of approaching the song, her way of expressing herself. Then I adapt my
• 13:15
  vocal lines to the main melodists that are mostly all the time sang by Clemy.
• 13:20
  I feel like I am like a secondary singer when it comes to the
• 13:26
  choruses. But of course the melodist has to work perfectly when I become the
• 13:30
  primary singer in my lines, in my verses, because most of ninety nine
• 13:35
  percent of the Atlantists have this alternation between Clemy and I in the verses,
• 13:39
  but then in the choruses, it's always Clemis's voice who is taking the lead
• 13:45
  always, because it just works perfectly. And I think it's fair enough.
• 13:48
  She is the ambassadors, you know, she's the captain of this of this
• 13:52
  pirate. True, So first of all, there is this interchange, this
• 14:00
  change of emotion, dynamics and feelings between the two vocals, and then everything
• 14:05
  else is going to support and serve this. Keep it in mind that big
• 14:09
  melodism, big themes are also fundamental because when the voice doesn't sing, it's
• 14:16
  the horn or the strings or the orchestra that takes the lead and gives us
• 14:20
  the theme. Every song needs for us to have a chorus line and a
• 14:24
  theme, just like a movie, because if you think of it, think
• 14:28
  of Star Wars, you immediately think of, you know, the the theme.
• 14:33
  You know. Then you think of Indiana Jones and you have, you
• 14:37
  know, the theme of Indiana Jones Back to the Future. You have the
• 14:39
  back to the Future. So themes for cinematic and symphonic bands are fundamental.
• 14:45
  So this is one element that we need to write. And then there is
• 14:48
  the song itself, especially with its chorus, because the chorus is what people
• 14:50
  will sing alone. So once these two elements are well defined, the rest
• 14:56
  becomes easier to put down. But this is where I start from, and
• 15:00
  I believe that this is our power, this is our superpower. You know
• 15:03
  what characterizes Visions of Atlanta. It's big themes and big single on choruses that
• 15:07
  are meant to be a soundtrack of a pirate adventure. Fantastic. Well,
• 15:13
  thanks very much for joining us, so I might been absolutely pleasure to speak
• 15:16
  with you. Brother. The new album Parts to Armada is out to Lily
• 15:20
  the Fifth and it's an absolutely practic of an album. Mate. You've done
• 15:22
  well and we'll see where how we going back Getting you out this side of
• 15:26
  the world very surely. I mean again, I would dream to come over,
• 15:31
  you know, New Zealand and Australia. This would be like my life
• 15:35
  goal realized. So hopefully we'll make it. Hopefully we'll make it. My
• 16:11
  army coming through the waves to send some to show across the free up beside
• 17:06
  fear. None of fs curve is old, sir, older blood, This
• 17:14
  Africans I'll find out of my own concurs answer. You stand side to the
• 18:49
  battle the freeze day, sides bycause Slen the Ring Bryn