INTERVIEW: Charlotte Wessels – Delain

Over the course of now seventeen years, DELAIN have become one of the titans in the symphonic metal scene. Alongside their peers in EPICA, WITHIN TEMPTATION and, of course, NIGHTWISH, the Dutch metallers have gone from strength to strength. This much is as clear as day with this year proving to be another busy year for the band so far, one in which saw the release of their live album, Hunter’s Moon, and subsequent festival appearances throughout the summer. Following their performance at this year’s Download Festival, we spoke with the enthusiastic Charlotte Wessels to talk about Download, the reception to Hunter’s Moon alongside getting an insight into the progress towards the next studio album from DELAIN.

So you played Download earlier today, how was the set for you?

Charlotte: It went very well! The first thing I was very happy about was that it wasn’t raining, we even managed to get a few rays of sunshine! The people responded really well, I really admire everyone who was in such great spirits because I heard that, especially yesterday, the weather was pretty bad, even for Download’s standards! So yeah, we were really pleased about that and I was just so excited to be on that stage again.

DELAIN have got quite a big sound, with a lot of orchestral elements going on, is it difficult to replicate it on a big stage like Download?

Charlotte: No, I think it’s easier on the big stage. Where it gets tricky is when you are doing really small clubs and you’re doing a musical style that sounds like an army is marching towards you or there should be a 50 piece orchestra behind you, those things work so much better when you are on a big stage where you have space to run around and spread your arms! Of course, there is the fact we don’t have 50 people on stage with us, so in some places we have to compromise, but I think for the feeling of it, it’s really nice.

This performance at Download comes off the back of your Blu-Ray release Hunter’s Moon. Now that has been out for a number of months, are you happy with how people have taken to it?

Charlotte: Partly. Partly, partly not. I think that everyone has responded to the music and the content very enthusiastically but I think there has been some confusion about whether it was an EP or whether it was an album. I think some people were expecting an album. So a few people said that four songs were not a lot and that was bitter for us because for an EP, and it was kind of an extended EP, we thought that the four new songs, the ten live tracks and the Blu-Ray that came with it, we put so much effort into that. Someone said, somewhere, that it was a new album so that kinda sucked! But, other than that, I think the response to the music itself, the new songs and the live footage, that has been really good. If people like that, just you wait until the next album is actually out!

You mentioned about the four new songs, the new material. It sort of hints to where DELAIN are going, so in terms of the new studio album, where are you up to with it?

Charlotte: I think we have about three quarters of the material done. We’re still pre-recording and finishing up with the writing. We’re really busy on the production side and on the arrangements side. At the moment, in the week we’re doing the album then on the weekends we are doing live performances so it is really intense! I think the new album will be really big, really symphonic, for us. I’m really excited about it.

When it eventually arrives, it will be your sixth album. So is the writing process now a lot easier?

Charlotte: Some things are certainly becoming easier. Most of the songs are written by Martijn [Westerholt, keyboards], myself and actually Timo [Somers, guitar], our guitarist, his role is getting bigger and bigger. There is a lot on the arrangement side as well. So that’s been easier, and that’s big blessing. For the three of us, we’ve been writing together for so long whenever we sit down together it is always part inspiration and part work that you know how to do by now. So the good thing is that we’ll always write a song, we’ll never fail to do something. But, the difficult part about that is that it becomes harder to please yourself with what you write. I remember the first song that I wrote, I was just excited that I had written a song all by myself you know? But at one point, when you are 10-15 years in, it is like how are you going to make this more than just another song? I am more critical of myself. We become more critical. So it becomes easier because you are trained to but it also becomes more difficult.

So, moving back to Hunter’s Moon, it’s part of a trilogy that was your last album, Moonbathers, and your last EP, Lunar Prelude. Is it nice to have a little collection that you can say is just one era of DELAIN? What was the intent behind making it a trilogy?

Charlotte: I think it was partly my obsession with the moon [laughs]! But also, the fact that when we did Moonbathers we had Lunar Prelude because we were already working on the material for the Moonbathers album. We knew that album was going to be Moonbathers, we were that far into the process, so when we did this EP we kind of wanted to signify that. Not only is it a hint of what we are doing on the new record but also, it felt that the Moonbathers era was unfinished. I think that the Dance Macabre tour, for us, was really a tour that we’d been doing for that couple of years came together so wonderfully. So, we included that on the record. When we did the Dance Macabre tour, that was around the Hunter’s Moon, so it was the actual time we played the tour and that is what it refers to. I think for me, the show that is on that Blu-Ray, is one of my favourite shows ever! You never know in advance whether the show that you want to capture is going to be what you expect it to be and I didn’t actually, it was a very spontaneous process. It was like we knew these people, they filmed the previous DVD, so we’ll have them here. It was a beautiful venue but it was just a show in a tour! So it was much more relaxed and it exceeded our expectations.

Now that you have done Download, what’s next for DELAIN?

Charlotte: So we’ll be performing and recording throughout the summer. There’s festivals and then in September we’ll be going to North America, then in November we’ll be going across Europe and we have just announced that in February we’re coming back to the UK for a tour! Hopefully by then the album will there as well.

Thank you so much for taking the time to talk to me Charlotte.

Charlotte: My pleasure, thank you!

Hunter’s Moon is out now via Napalm Records. DELAIN will tour the UK in February next year.

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