Interview with Martijn Westerholt of Delain
RockRevolt spoke with Martijn Westerholt, co-founder of the Dutch symphonic band, Delain. A lovely conversationalist, Martijn spoke about their recent projects and where they came from. Read on!
Your released Hunter’s Moon here on February 22nd, 2019. It’s the final in a trilogy (Luna Prelude and Moonbathers). Would you mind painting a picture for us regarding what a listener will appreciate from the trilogy standpoint.
It’s a bundle collection of material. There are four new studio tracks on there and 10 recorded tracks from a live show we did. A very special live show and from the same show we also made a Blu-Ray so people can see it as well. The four new tracks contain some material from our upcoming album we will release later this year and some unique tracks which will only be on this bundle and will not be available on this upcoming album release.
You released the video to Masters of Destiny last month. The visual journey is incredible. Can you give me the story behind the incarnation of Masters of Destiny and how it evolved into the versions we hear today?
I started with making kind of a movie score concept. The way we always write is we write with three people. One of us makes an idea – a concept and then we sit together and we evolve this into a song. Then it goes back to me for the musical part because I’m also the producer so I tweak on it. For the lyrics, it also goes to Charlotte. She not only writes together with us, but also writes the lyrics. Then, in the end, it culminates again with me. Then we mix the album. This song is a little bit different. Most of the time we have songs which are more of a box structure and this is more like a composition. It’s not really a logical chorus structure. It’s almost kind of a movie score. That’s also something we wanted to radiate with the video. This is a little bit of how everything came together and then evolved into what you hear and what you can see now.
Did you learn anything new from this experience?
Well, you kind of learn, it sounds very unoriginal, but you kind of learn every record again. There are elements where the music brings you and there are also things which are more of the same way you work and your own style and your own DNA. I think this song really came together really well. For me it was not a lot of new stuff but I think for Charlotte it was. She’s experimenting a lot more with her vocals in ways she didn’t do before. In that regard, it is a little bit different.
You chose Iceland for the backdrop of the video. Tell me about your thought process for that video development.
It’s kind of for a movie score vibe. We really envisioned this landscape you could see and Charlotte being in it and the band being in that, making it big and epic. We asked a couple of video companies to make a script with us then we would choose one and the one we worked with eventually, we decided to go to Iceland. For example, there is a beach where Charlotte is singing and that’s a very famous beach which you can find back in a lot of shows and movies, for example in Game Of Thrones, this beach is featured. The funny thing was actually the record company wanted the other song Hunter’s Moon for the video. But we wanted to do something different because Hunter’s Moon is indeed again a more box structured song. It’s totally fine. I love that song. But we thought this song would work better with the video, that’s why we went with this song.
Hunter’s Moon has 10 songs that are recorded live. What do you feel a listener walks away with after listening to a live recorded performance vs. studio performance?
You keep hearing the vibe of the evening and that’s really cool. Also there are some features there which you cannot find on the album. For example, we played the song Scandal. That’s a Queen cover. We did that together with Marco. Marco who is on this live recording a lot because it’s from a show where we played almost all songs we recorded with Marco. And Scandal is a song where he isn’t recorded on the album, but we did it live because it worked so well. That’s an example of a difference you can find on a live recording together with the vibe a little bit. When you record and write a song, it’s always a question of how it will do live. When I hear it the first is always exciting and sometimes you are very pleasantly surprised and sometimes you’re also disappointed that it doesn’t come out live that well. It makes a difference and that’s why I think it’s nice that people can check it out.
The artwork is by Cam Rackam. It’s gorgeous. What are your thoughts? How did you discover that you wanted to go with that artist?
That’s a very good question because that’s Charlotte’s department. Charlotte is very much into art! She also has a educational art background. She did gender studies for example so this is totally her department where I have no say whatsoever.
What did you think? Was it a good idea or do you feel like you would need to get in there at some point to make some changes?
At first I didn’t like it at all. But I’m very conservative with some things and we worked with Glenn Arthur before this and that work was really well. It’s also very unique for band in our genre to work in that kind of style. Then Charlotte came with this and I really had to get used to it. Oh flowers! And it looked so sweet! And the skeletons! Isn’t that skeletons again but I have to admit that I was really wrong about it on first impression. Now I really like it and seeing it back, it’s very stylish and it’s kind of macabre as well with the flowers and the skeletons. It’s a mixture of both. So, I changed my mind about it.
So you learned something about yourself there.
Yes! I did absolutely.
You released a Live Blue-Ray from the Dance Macabre tour. What highlights from the tour can a fan expect to appreciate from this?
Before this we recorded the DVD called A Decade of Delain where we celebrated our 10th anniversary. However, this was a very intimate setting and the Dance Macabre tour is a bigger setting. The venue capacity for example was way bigger, so production-wise you could do much more and also very important, Marco wasn’t present on the previous DVD. This tour is a little bit about highlighting his contribution to our entire catalogue. There are like six or seven songs we did with Marco, which is a lot and we played them live together. That’s special. And there were songs which we didn’t play on this previous DVD which are featured here. It’s just a different vibe. The Paradiso 10th anniversary DVD is more intimate and this is a little bit more grand.
I’m going to take a step back and dig into your past a little bit. As a child did you envision yourself doing what you do today?
No, absolutely not. I started learning piano I think when I was eight just at a normal music school for kids and I kept doing that until I was 15-16. Even when I was in a band for Within Temptation I even had lessons then. When I played with Within Temptation I thought this is all really cool but I’m not sure what I’m going to do when I grow up.
That’s okay. I still don’t even know what I’m going to do when I grow up.
No it’s true.! A lot of people have that right. It’s true. I wonder if something is wrong with that anyway. I don’t think so because it keeps your options kind of open and keeps your mind open. I think it’s even a good thing.
Yes! It keeps it fresh.
Yes. Then I got sick. I don’t know the English word for it. It’s kind of this flu which makes you really tired. Some people have it a year. I had it almost 10 years. In this period, I quit Within Temptation then I started Delain. This kind of spiraled out of control in a good way and now it’s my job.
If you could go back and do it all over, would you make any changes?
No I don’t think so.
