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Review by John Tucker:
A TWIST IN THE VEIL: One tale, two twists; firstly Xandria’s Marco Heubaum and Nils Middelhauve talk about new album ‘Salomé – The Seventh Veil’…
Back in August 2006, Germany’s Xandria made their first trip to the UK, playing a frenetic gig in front of an enthusiastic crowd at the Underworld in London. In September 2007, vocalist Lisa Middelhauve, guitarists Marco Heubaum and Philipp Restmeier, bassist Nils Middelhauve and drummer Gerit Lamm were back once more, this time with a new album ‘Salomé – The Seventh Veil’ under their belts. The obvious opener for Marco and Nils concerned the new album, the band’s fourth, and whether they were happy with the way it turned out.
“I love it…” opens Nils.
No, be honest! He laughs. “No, this is honest! I do really like it. To me it sounds a lot more ‘natural’ than the other ones. The ‘India’ album was very bombastic, the new one is more like how a rock band should sound.”
When I point out that I thought it sounded a little more polished than its predecessors, the bassist is on me like a tiger. “Really? Well, actually, I don’t think so. I think it is more a down-to-basics rock album. You can say that, but I personally don’t think it’s that polished. Well, that’s my opinion,“ he tails off, laughing again, probably aware that he’s just doled out one severe verbal ear-bashing! Marco comes to my rescue. “I think it has turned out to be a bit more band-orientated. There’s not so much orchestra and guest musicians and stuff this time around – it’s more just a rock band playing. There’s still the atmospheric stuff, but it’s more concentrated on us as a rock band. This was our goal and I think we achieved it quite well; so yes, we are very happy with it.”
“But I do agree that there’s a difference in the sound, and I think that’s the natural development of us as a band,” adds Nils. “We felt that it should represent us as we are on stage, as far as it is possible on CD, and also it’s the first album we really wrote and worked on as a band. It’s the first time we’ve really rehearsed the songs before recording them and I think that makes the difference that you can hear. In the past, Marco has been responsible for most of the songs, although Lisa also wrote many songs and on the ‘India’ album I wrote a couple of songs and parts of songs – although by the time we got to the studio they had all been changed and they were quite unrecognisable!”
I wondered if that meant that the album came together easily. Marco laughs at the thought. “Sometimes yes, sometimes no! It’s always the same when you’re writing songs. Some songs are written within an hour and of course often these are the best songs; and some songs need months and months to be finished. And there are some of both on the album. It’s always the same: some songs are really a fight! And of course it was interesting because we had no external producer this time. There was no one person who was the boss of the whole thing. This time we were all the boss, which can be a good thing or a bad thing! I mean, it is always good to have some advice from someone, but the guys in the studio we worked with always gave some comments when we asked them so this was not such a big problem. I think it would have been a big problem in the beginning, with the first or second album, because you have to learn as a band, and the fact that we produced this album ourselves is a result of that learning process.”
As for particular highlights, “Well, I like every song,” says Nils, “but I really like ‘Salomé’ the title track, and ‘Firestorm’ is great as well. ‘On My Way’ I like especially as a live performance, although not so much on the album even though I wrote it,” he laughs. “I do like playing it live though.”
“‘Firestorm’ definitely,” adds Marco. “Yeah, that’s a very rocky song and we like very, very much to play that live because there is so much going on. Gerit does this double bass pattern, and there’s a kind of progressive rhythm running through. Also in the title track, it’s the first time we have an odd ‘measure’ – is that right? You know, not the straight 4/4,” he smiles. “I think Gerit likes it a lot because he is a Dream Theater fan. It’s really the songs that are a bit more…” Challenging? “Yes, you know, you have to be ‘awake’ to play them, the songs that challenge you. They are the ones that are fun to play live. You have to do something, not just hit one powerchord!”
Although, I point out, I guess that can be fun too? “Oh yes, that can be fun too, of course,” the guitarist agrees. “But we get that so many times. In around 2002 or so, there was a certain style which just used the guitar as a rhythm instrument but now it’s going another way, to do more complicated guitar work; no, not complicated: interesting. And I think we have that kind of stuff on the new album and that makes the songs much more fun to play.”
I ask the guys to skip back a bit to talk about the album’s set-piece, the masterful title track ‘Salomé’. “I think it was Lisa’s idea,” ventures Nils. “Yes, I’m sure it was Lisa’s idea. But actually, the song is more of a metaphor, it’s not just the Biblical story that’s told in the song but also it’s a metaphor for being in the music business. You have to get rid of certain veils until there’s only you left…It’s clever. I like it very much – I like the lyrics as well as the song.”
The conversation drifts to their debut UK gig in 2006, here at the Underworld, and I wondered if they had fond memories of that show. “Oh yes,” replies Nils. “It was great. It was really great. That’s why we are here again! The crowd seemed to love us, and we loved the crowd too!”
“That’s right,” adds Marco. “We had so much fun last year that we had to come again! Last night we were in the Electric Ballroom, here in Camden Town, and it has already become one of our favourite clubs in the whole world!” he laughs. “The people here are really rock ‘n’ roll!”
Four albums done; what’s next, I ask. “Well, firstly, playing live,” starts Marco. At this point we are interrupted by a hammer of drumbeats as Gerit soundchecks. “Yeah, playing live!” he continues as we all laugh at the synchronicity. “I think we’ll need some time before we start thinking about writing new stuff because we want to enjoy playing this album live first. OK, there are always songs coming to you and it’s not like ‘oh we have to record an album; the record company is calling every day so we have to write some songs’. The best thing is when you are writing songs all the time because then these songs are written because the songs are there, and not because of the need for the songs. Do you see what I mean? And that is very important for me. There’s always pressure from the management, or record companies… Although we’ve got cool management so forget that; they don’t bother us that way at all! It’s just a general statement about the music business. But at this early time there’s no worry yet about having to release an album in a year’s time or whatever.”
With time a-passing, I ask Marco if the band now is the way he envisaged it when he formed Xandria. He pauses, before responding: “It’s not exactly the way, but then there was no real plan that the next ten albums would have to sound like this or that, and that after album five we would do this, you know? No, it was never like that. It’s about rock music with imagination and fantasy; not fantasy singing of dungeons and dragons and stuff but some of our songs have that mystical appeal and we like that. OK, we are not very – in terms of lyrics – down to earth, it’s not the music of the dirty street, but we do like this, [indicates his Motorhead t-shirt] you know? And so on the new album, to combine this with the atmospheric stuff, to put some more dirt into it, that was fun. Of course, not all of the fans of the older albums like it very much, but most find it interesting. You have to write for yourself, you know, you can’t just write for the fans, because if you write the same album over and over again you get totally bored, and I think no fan would like to see us onstage totally bored of the stuff we are playing. So we always try to explore new things in our music. Our second album sounds totally different from the first album: we did the debut album, we struggled so long to get these songs to a broader audience with a record company behind us, and it was like, ‘OK, let’s put that away now and the second album will be something completely new and different’. But when you hear these albums you always know that it’s Xandria; it’s rock music with imagination. And that really was the vision I had when I started this band and so long as we always do that, I’ll be very happy.”
…And then vocalist Lisa Middelhauve hops into the hot seat.
I spoke with Lisa when Xandria played in London in August 2006 and found the young singer an open, honest and fun person to interview. With no need for ice-breakers, we got straight down to business with a question about the band’s previous London show. “Yes,” she laughs, “I have very good memories of that gig. But I still remember the worst thing I ever said on stage: I don’t know if you realised that when I wanted to say, ‘Raise your hands for Xandria’ I actually said, ‘Raise your pants for Xandria’! I was blushing so hard and then I thought, ‘Oh no, I am never going to come back here again because everyone will laugh at me’ but I realised when I talked to people afterwards that nobody heard it. But yes, very good memories, except that it’s very hard for me to get through the city without getting killed because I always look in the wrong direction and because I can’t read the signs on the road!” she laughs. “But it’s great to be back again, and this time we have more time. Last year we only had the day of the show; now we travelled here on Thursday and so yesterday was hardcore sightseeing – the first time for me to be in London AND see the Tower Of London AND see Buckingham Palace…”
As for ‘Salomé – The Seventh Veil ’, “I think it’s…” she pauses and restarts. “I KNOW it’s the best thing we’ve done so far, and it’s the first real band album we’ve done. Before, it was like there were two or three persons, on the debut album there was only one person, deciding which direction to go in and it was OK for everybody at that time and we loved the band for it. But this time everyone decided where to go and what to do so it was just great; this is the first real democratic band album and I think we love the direction, we love to be a bit less ‘artificial’ than before, a bit more rock ‘n’ roll and this feels so right, so we are very pleased with it.”
I recalled her telling me that the previous album ‘India’ had been a bit of struggle… “Yes, that’s right. The ‘India’ album was very hard work indeed. But ‘Salomé’ – we call it ‘Salomé’ [she stresses the last syllable] so it doesn’t sound like ‘salami’ – ‘Salomé’/salami!” she laughs… “Anyway, I think it’s been easy in a way because it was very natural for us to work like this because, you know, we didn’t have to think about what the band leader would say if we suggested something. So it was easy because it was friendly and there was no stress and no quarrels, nothing. I think we had – again I’m searching for words! [she says something German and everyone in the dressing room shouts back ‘responsibility’] – yes, a big responsibility because the band was producing the album. But it was very exciting during the recording and it was fun too. The songwriting was very easy and it was good for us to have done this. Before it was like a puzzle; there were pieces of puzzle to be put together and we didn’t quite know how they went together but now I think we have the whole thing and there’s nothing that doesn’t fit.”
The last time we met, Lisa had remarked about how each Xandria album differs from the last, and I asked if she was worried that some fans might not like a particular album and vote with their feet. “I don’t have to fear it because it naturally happens,” she responds, matter-of-factly. “There are always people who don’t like what we’re doing now but who liked what we did before, and there’s probably people who don’t like us until now and will continue to like us in the future; you just can’t tell but this is the way it goes. (And there are some diehard fans who fortunately like what we are doing all of the time.) But I think that’s the natural way; if you change anything there’s people who won’t like it but the same thing could happen the other way around – if we didn’t change anything, some people would say, ‘well, I like it but they don’t do anything new so I don’t like them any more’. So it doesn’t matter what you do, some things will always be wrong,” she laughs.
The age old story: you can’t please all the people all the time. I mention that I saw one review describing ‘Salomé…’ as a concept album, which it’s not… “No, it’s not, not, not a concept album! The title has got a deep meaning, the title track of the album, but the songs are not connected at all.”
And the ‘deep meaning’ is? “How much time do you have?” she laughs. “OK, there’s the Dance of the Seven Veils of Princess Salomé and we took it at several levels of meaning. One is that we were fascinated that this is the first documented strip-tease in history” – another laugh – “and that’s really interesting. She takes away these veils and this is so erotic and passionate in a way because it’s a dance and dancing is always passionate, but the meaning of striptease… It can be good because you show yourself like God created you, but there’s a bad side because you’ve got nothing to hide behind any more; you are helpless and maybe in danger because you are naked and anybody could hurt you. And then we looked at the Dance of the Seven Veils with every veil having a certain meaning. So in the song ‘Salomé’, the first veil is illusion, the second one is innocence, the third one is pride, the fourth is the way back, the possibility to turn around, the fifth veil is dignity – I’m having to go through the lyrics in my head now! – the sixth veil is freedom. And then the seventh veil is me: this is the last veil that falls and we thought that this was a good image for the danger in the music business, the danger in what we are doing. You show more and you show more and you lose more and you lose more, and the last thing you have is what you have in your heart. In the end, you see, you may give away so much of yourself that you lose yourself.
“But,” she continues, ”there’s also a positive meaning in it because this album, as I told you already, is the first democratic band album and this is how we are, how the five members of Xandria really are, and feel; this is us as we are now – Xandria without the veils. Naked.”
Sticking with the positives, I asked Lisa what’s the best thing about being in a band (apart from seeing the shoe shops of the world!). She laughs long and hard. “You know me too well! The best thing is to be a girl from a small town in Germany and be able to see so many places in the world, to meet strange people – I love strange people! – and to be allowed to do crazy things. This is the best thing! I can be outrageous, I can do almost anything. That is my freedom. OK, yes, there’s some things I wouldn’t do, but that’s my personal decision. But that’s a great feeling. I can see so many places, learn so many things, and of course being on stage is great. Before I’m on it I am scared and feel like I am having some kind of nervous breakdown, but when I am on it everything is fine.”
Things move back to the new album once more, and so I asked if Lisa had a favourite track on the album. “I love ‘Firestorm’ because of the growls in it and because of the… C-part we call it [“the bridge” prompts Nils]… Yes, the bridge, and I love the groove. I always hate being the girl in that part because I’d like to wear leather pants and shake my head and just be a man! But when it’s done I’m happy to be a girl again! And I love ‘Salomé’ – ‘Salomé’ [she mimics my pronunciation] – pizza ‘Salomé’ – and, well, I love ‘A New Age’ because it’s so funky. It was so much fun to do in the studio and it’s fun to do live. But then, I love every single song because this is our new baby…”
OK, so what about when the baby grows up? Is it time now to take stock and see where you are and what you’ve achieved? Lisa shakes her head. “There’s no point in my life when I ever knew where I was so why should I change something now. I just go on, and I think that’s what we all are doing. Sure, we talk about what we will do and if we want to change things, but I think normally we’re a band that likes to work naturally, to develop naturally. Yes, times are changing, our fans are changing, and we are changing… But I think we will let things develop naturally and see what happens.”
I wrap things up by asking what’s next for Xandria. Lisa grins mischievously. “Well, we’re going to play a show tonight,” she laughs. “Then we’re going to play some shows in Germany and neighbouring countries – is that right?” She points at Nils. “He studied English so he is always laughing about me when I’m speaking English! Sometime we’ll have to think about writing songs; we are already collecting new ideas for the next album. But, well, I think we will need two or three weeks after the shows just to sit and relax and try to find ourselves! Calm down a bit. And then we’ll get together and talk about where to go next, and I think there will be no answers but lots of beer and we’ll just go on as before. I think there will still be a Xandria in 2030 so something is going to have to happen in between now and then, won’t it!”
(c) John Tucker December 2007
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