Ad Infinitum: The Beginning of Something Special
There is always a lot of excitement and hype when a new band enters the metal world; some bands are completely new and are yet to really get a foothold in the scene, while others are made up of musicians from other successful bands. One of those bands is symphonic metal group AD INFINITUM. With former FOLLOW THE CIPHER bassist Jonas Asplind, Niklas Müller of DEVILIZER, guitarist Adrian Thessenvitz and vocalist Melissa Bonny who has also worked with RAGE OF LIGHT.
AD INFINITUM‘s first album Chapter I: Monarchy was released earlier in the month, something which she is delighted with. “It feels good to have the record out!” she says. “We’ve been working on it for so long that it’s feels like a relief to finally be able to share it, and so far the feedback we’ve had has been very, very good, even better than I expected, so it’s a great reward.”
The idea behind AD INFINITUM was actually a solo project being formed by Melissa, but she explains how the band came to be and evolved. “At first, I wanted to make this a little project, but as time was passing, I realised I was investing a lot of energy and time into it. I didn’t want it to be a digital release and then nothing after it, and I realised I wanted to create a band and go on stage with; the adventure was missing,” she explains. “I’d known Nick for a while because we worked together and toured together, I got to know Jonas because I was guest vocalist with WARKINGS in February last year, we were opening for AMARANTHE and FOLLOW THE CIPHER. I actually asked Nick first, and it was quite funny because we’re good friends and I wanted to ask him if he would join because he’s a brilliant musician, a very good friend and he knows how everything works. I approached him and I said, ‘Hey, I have this project and would you like to join it, and what would you like to play?’ He’s a brilliant guitar player, drummer and bassist. When it came to choose a guitar player, he told me about Adrian and that’s how it all came together.”
Melissa has been in a number of bands already throughout her career, and has showcased her incredible vocal ability in a range of different ways and genres. However, she admitted that a lot of her influences as a singer are from outside of the metal spectrum. “When it comes to vocal technique there are two people I look up to who aren’t at all metal; I love Ariana Grande and Demi Lovato, my jaw is on the ground when I see them perform and the things that they can do with their voices. I like to mention people who are not only metal because I’m annoyed by some comments which are like ‘if it’s not metal it’s shit’. It’s funny because it comes from people listening to bands who are very open minded and who themselves listen to hip hop, jazz, pop R&B or whatever. We’re just open minded and take inspiration from everywhere.”
With the current global situation due to the COVID-19 pandemic, a lot of tours and live shows have been severely affected, with the likes of Download and Wacken festivals being cancelled. As things stand though, AD INFINITUM are scheduled to go on tour later in the year across Europe supporting YE BANISHED PRIVATEERS and VISIONS OF ATLANTIS, something that Melissa is very excited about.
“You can’t even imagine how much we’re all looking forward to it! We’ve been working on this project for so long and there’s only one thing to do that we haven’t done because of this virus, and that is to get on stage. We’re so much looking forward to it because we’re supposed to be on tour right now and suddenly the virus came and we were waiting to see if the tours’ still on; these past few days we still weren’t sure, then I get the confirmation that we can’t go on tour and you don’t know when the situation is going to be back to normal. If the tour happens as planned, I’m exploding with joy and super happy and super energetic – I’m gonna need one year of rest after this!”
Touring aside, there is still a lot of work for AD INFINITUM to do and Melissa admits it’s going to be a busy time for the band in the future. “We’ve already started writing new songs, we have started to work on the next album almost straight away. We’ll continue to plan live shows because we’re covering a lot of countries on this tour, and there are some countries that we’d like to visit. We’ll try to get some new tour dates and perhaps new videos, but really now that the album’s out we have to promote it the best we can and also to learn because it’s the first one so we have to see how people react what they want so we can plan for the future!”
What were the recording and writing processes like?
Melissa: I started alone, and then Oliver Phillips joined the boat as a producer. After the release of I Am The Storm I started a crowdfunding campaign, and then Nick, Jonas and Adrian joined the band. We continued the song writing together, there were already a couple of songs written and a couple of ideas. Some of the songs I’d been writing before the others arrived. And some of the songs are all teamwork.
Are there any particular themes or influences that have helped make the record?
Melissa: There is definitely one theme that influences the record, and that is the life of Louis XIV. What I tried to do the lyrics is I tried to give a little taste of it, but it’s not like it’s the main theme or the first degree, but it’s certainly written in a way that people can feel relate to the stories.
What are your expectations for the record as a band?
Melissa: We’re trying to push the album and the band as far as we can. It’s not just a band for us, it’s a lifetime project, it’s something that I really want to try to evolve and to grow and the guys are the same too – it’s very beautiful to work with them and to achieve this. It’s been four years since I started to work on it, so it’s a learning process because you first have to figure out how you want to sound, how you want to look and then there’s only the musical part but also the business part. We have a beautiful team; first of all the musicians, but also the producers, and we work hand in hand with Napalm Records so this is a huge chance for us and we intend to use this time to make the best and to get the best result we can.
You’ve been a few different bands of a similar genre, how do you feel the symphonic metal scene has evolved over the years?
Melissa: I think really the scene has gotten bigger, but for me NIGHTWISH will always be the band who set the benchmark for the rest of the bands. NIGHTWISH now I think are in the phase where they’ve established their position in symphonic metal. There was the Tarja-era, the Anette-era and they started to evolve and to explore more, and I think they can do it because they have established their position so well that nowadays they are free to explore and go to completely different directions because whatever they do is brilliant.
What is the best experience you’ve had while on tour?
Melissa: Well it was not necessarily my best performance or the thing that I will remember for the rest of my life, but it was a real roller coaster of emotions because I was with WARKINGS in Wacken last year, and stage time was half past four. At around three the festival shuts down as there’s a thunderstorm and everybody has to get in cars or buses or hotels or wherever you can go. Those who didn’t have a car or tour bus had to follow whoever and we were all walking not knowing where we’re going. We all ended up in a school, in classrooms or even in the hallway or anywhere just to protect everyone. Suddenly at quarter to four they finally announced that the danger is out of the way and we’ll go back to the normal schedule of festival. They told us the schedule will go as planned from half past four on and so on, which we thought was crazy so we got back and got ready. We thought that everybody’s gonna be still sat in their cars or getting a beer or whatever, and when we got on stage, there was like thousands of people in front of us! We really weren’t expecting it.
Chapter I: Monarchy is out now via Napalm Records.
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