Sirenia - Interview - White Room Reviews

Leestijd: 3 minuten

12 februari 2021 is de dag waarop de nieuwe langspeler van Sirenia uitkomt. Riddles, Ruins & Revelations, welke verschijnt via Napalm Records, is de tiende langspeler van deze van origine Noorse band. Inmiddels heeft de band een veel internationaler karakter. Ter gelegenheid van deze nieuwe plaat had White Room Reviews (WRR) een interview met de frontvrouw van Sirenia: Emmanuelle Zoldan.

Deze zangeres (EZ) van Sirenia is afkomstig uit Frankrijk. Zoldan werd per e-mail gesproken. Naast het interview met deze zangeres van Sirenia, had zij ook nog een leuke toevoeging om het geheel nog meer voor zich te laten spreken. Die verrassing komt men verder naar beneden tegen.

Het interview

WRR: The line-up of Sirenia nowadays is very international. How did the process of writing and recording go for ‘Riddles, Ruins & Revelations’?

EZ: ‘Morten being the mastermind of Sirenia, he always composes and writes and we come later in the process. Bringing our paw on the songs. All along the creative process, Morten send us the files, we discussed about them, and we all worked from our places on what we wanted personnaly bring to the songs, months before the recording process. Nils and Michael have recorded their parts and shared the files with Morten.

For the vocals it was more complicated to work in exanching files, because we need to work together with Morten, experimenting hand in hand differents vocal directions to take, discussing about it and finding together the best option for each song. I have moved to Norway for the recording session.‘

WRR: This is your third record with the band. How is it for you to be a French singer in a band of Norway?

EZ: ‘This is for sure an interesting mix of cultures. Norwegian calm, serenity and patience counterbalance the arrogant and grumpy French nature, and the touch of British class coming from our drummer Michael adorn this adorable cosmopolitan package. We all are different and similar in the same time, complementary I would say. And one thing is certain, whatever the nationality is in this band, we all agree on one point : good brewery beers make this world go round.‘

Het zingen en de Franse invloed

WRR: Your way of singing contains different styles. Which artist made you to start singing and what where you practising when you where young?

EZ: ‘I studied the piano when I was younger. The first artist that made me start singing was definitely Freddie Mercury. I was (and I’m still) amazed by the singularity and richness of his voice. But I have been inspired by women as well like Alanis Morisette, Achinoam Nini (Noa) and Bjork.‘

WRR: The final track on the record is ‘Voyage, Voyage’. You are playing it in a lovely version. Why did you choose this France classic 80’s hit?

EZ: ‘This iconic French hit from the 80’s from Desireless that had a huge success all around the world is definitely one of Morten’s favorite song. It became our „mascot song“ on tour, playing it all the time in the tourbus. Morten wanted to make a cover of it for a long time, and when he came with his arrangement of the song, we had to admit that it was brilliant and we decided to add it on the new album as a bonus track.‘

WRR: What are the plans for Sirenia for the upcoming months?

EZ: ‘We are still working on planning tours to promote „Riddles, Ruins and Revelations“ , but no one can expect how the sanitary situation will evolve and what will be confirmed or not… We can’t wait to hit the stage again, especially to perform the new songs live for our fans. Fingers crossed that we will be able to take the road again as soon as possible.‘