Eleine - Interview

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Published on Monday, 13 March 2023 21:47

"Does this feel right? Yes it does! Let's go with it" is the motto Swedish metallers Eleine follow since 2014 when they formed the band and released their first single, "Gathering Storm". Eleine's core is the charismatic vocalist Madeleine Liljestam and guitarist/growler and songwriter Rikard Ekberg. They released their self-titled debut album in 2015 via Cardiac Records and hit the metal scene like a hammer. Tours with Moonspell, The Foreshadowing and W.A.S.P. followed, as well, some appearances at big festivals around Europe. Their second full-length, Until The End, came out in 2018 via Black Lodge Records, and with it, Eleine showed even more progression into the dark waters of the metal scene with a unique mixture of dark metal, symphonic elements with influences from black, death, progressive and even thrash metal. Their third full-length, Dancing In Hell, is, so far, their best and most significant. With a changed line-up, three members left the band, and two new members joined it: drummer Jesper Sunnhagen and bassist Anton Helgesson, who both added that special flavour to Eleine's music and made one of the best dark/symphonic metal albums of 2020. In January 2022, Eleine signed with record label Atomic Fire Records and released Acoustic In Hell EP. Eleine unplugged its gear to create a whole new musical experience - right in time for its anticipated acoustic tour with metal veterans Sonata Arctica. With this EP, they showed that a good song is a good song, no matter if it's a full metal blast or an acoustic version. A good song has to work in whatever environment it is staged - be it full-blown oversized stadium rock or an intimate acoustic setting. We experienced this on their stop in Orto Bar (Ljubljana, Slovenia), where they delivered a show to remember. And right after the gig, we talked with Madeleine, Rikard and Jesper. If interested in what they told us, read further.

Interview with: Madeleine Liljestam, Rikard Ekberg, Jesper Sunnhagen
Conducted by: Tomaz, Jerneja
Edited by: Jerneja

Tomaz: Hi Madeleine, Rikard and Jesper. It looks like the acoustic tour with Sonata Arctica is going well... How do you experience it?
Madeleine: To me, it was way above all the expectations. It has been also very well received this entire acoustic thing. We have never done something like this before, so we didn't really know what to expect, but, holly shit, it has been great.
Rikard: Kicking ass and taking names, haha.
Jesper: It's very well received, and everything is going smoothly. It has been a blast. We are having a good time with Sonata Arctica as well.
Rikard: They are routined; they are legends; they have their own structures and methods on which they work very hard and efficiently. We get along well. We have a lot of fun and get a lot of work done. It's a great tour.

Tomaz: You have recently released a new EP, Acoustic In Hell, consisting of acoustic versions of your songs. I was surprised when hearing those songs in the acoustic version. How did you come up with this idea?
Rikard: Good question! The only reason that we did the Acoustic In Hell EP is because of this tour. So, we got invited by Sonata Arctica to join them on the acoustic tour, and we were immediately for it. Then we had to rearrange our songs. Then the tour got postponed, but we were already ready with the songs. And as Madeleine said on stage, we looked at each other and said: "why not record this"? And so we did it.
Madeleine: This entire acoustic thing happened just because we got invited by Sonata Arctica. When it was postponed, we have already done the job, so why not record it?
Jesper: We didn't plan this EP; it just came to be.

Jerneja: Why an EP and not an album?
Rikard: We picked up those songs from all of our three albums which are based on dynamics. The songs go up and down, but they have a good vibe, so listening to them doesn't feel like boring shit.
Jesper: We tried a lot of different songs, but many didn't end up here because they simply didn't work in the acoustic version.
Madeleine: It's also because we only had a 40-minute set on the tour. We already knew that from the beginning. What get to hear from us on this tour is seven out of eight songs from the Acoustic In Hell EP. As you know, the EP is quite a long one - it has much more than just 20 minutes of playing time. I don't know why we even called it an EP because it's actually an acoustic release.
Rikard: We should say that it is an extra extended play.

Jerneja: Yeah, considering its length, it could easily be an album...
Madeleine: Yes, exactly. Some guys called us and asked why did we call it an EP? It's a complete spin-off, only because of Sonata Arctica. It has really been an honour and a fun ride.
Rikard: That's why we didn't add more songs. We were not really falling into that. Let's say it's EEP, haha.

Tomaz: And you are now under the Atomic Fire Records brand. That must be a big thing for you...
Rikard: It's huge! We were very happy when they came to us and said they wanted to do this. Madeleine has been in touch with Markus Staiger from Atomic Fire for quite some time.
Madeleine: Yes, we've been in touch since we released our third full-length Dancing In Hell during the pandemic. We decided not to postpone it and go with the dates as we decided before. We had no gigs and tours to promote it, and still, it's the most successful album we've released so far. Markus said that it's a very good album and that they want to work with us. The people at this label are legends. They are very passionate about what they are doing.

Tomaz: Have you had any problems with the previous label regarding the copyright of the songs? I mean, all of the songs, now released in the acoustic version via Atomic Fire, were previously released in the original form by other labels.
Madeleine: No, there were no problems at all. We had a contract with Black Lodge Records, and that was for that album. Now it's over, and we decided to go with Atomic Fire Records. It feels like a good natural step for us. You must divide between a licensing deal and a record deal. It is a big and important difference. If you have a record deal, they own the master, but if you have a licensing deal, it's just a licence. We only sign license deals.

Tomaz: Your latest full-length was quite different if compared to the first two albums. It's more melodic, darker, gothic in a way and catchy. What's your point of view regarding this matter?
Rikard: We see it as a growing-up thing. When the first album came out, it was like an Eleine demo, then, with Until The End, we realized that we have grown, holy shit. You can feel it, you can see it, you can hear it, and then we were going on with Dancing In Hell. We never sat down and tried to make something different; we were just going with what felt right. That is the only thing that we do, all of the time. Does this feel right? Yes, it does! Let's go with that. That becomes growth, and it becomes trying out new things, or not, it depends on what feels right.
Madeleine: The thing with Dancing In Hell is that we finally landed in a way. We felt that this was Eleine. Writing music, you know, from the heart, takes life experience also. Back then, when we released our debut album, we were young as a band, and we felt that we did it right, but as the years go by, you experience things. We met many people since also lost people, we've been through depression, and there's a lot behind Dancing In Hell. There are years of things. With this album, we truly felt that this is us, and we know exactly where we are going now. I think, that Dancing In Hell will always be one of our most important albums.

Tomaz: It's hard to describe your music... It's not really symphonic or gothic metal, neither heavy nor progressive meta,l but yet, it's everything of this. When somebody asks you about it, how do you describe your style?
Madeleine: Yeah, it is, but it's Eleine.
Rikard: I would add one word - "only". It's not only symphonic, not only gothic, not only black metal, and so on. It is what we feel that we want to write. We have a lot of influences from the past and current stuff, but we've never been into copying things.
Madeleine: We usually say that it's metal. We have also been using the description as dark symphonic metal, but at the same time, we know exactly what you mean because we hear this a lot. I take it as a compliment because it means we don't copy anybody. We do what we think and feel that it's the right thing to do for us.
Rikard: It's always fun to hear people saying, that they experienced something new. We take that to heart, and we appreciate it; it's a compliment, so thank you.

Tomaz: Many of the so-called "female-fronted" metal bands are usually trying to be as similar as possible to Nightwish, Lacuna Coil or Within Temptation, to name a few...
Rikard: Some are, and some are not, but I know what you mean, and I can agree with that at some point. We fucking hate the term female fronted. What the fuck is it? Haha, for example, have you ever heard of the male-fronted band Metallica? It's a band with musicians!

Jerneja: I agree it's entirely unnecessary, though big-time present in the promo material... OK, let's leave it there. You are now touring with Sonata Arctica, a stylistically much different band. So, what are the pros and cons of touring with a different-genre band?
Madeleine: Personally, I love it. I like black and death metal, but I would never like to go to a concert with four black metal bands in a row. They might all sound similar, and I would probably fall asleep. I want to get experience, and if I know and love the headline band, why not also discover new bands along the way? I love it when it's different, and I think that this gives the audience a bit more.
Rikard: You don't get just two burgers but a burger and a cake, haha. Just like with our albums, you get dynamics. It's good, and it feels good.
Jesper: I think people don't listen just to one genre, and I believe many appreciate it if you mix up a bit some different genres. Maybe not too diverse. It would be weird if you do it with black metal and pop music, but you know, it doesn't need to be all power metal or black metal or... It just works out well if it's a bit different.
Madeleine: I remember when we saw playing together Jinjer, Tribulation, Wintersun and Arch Enemy. That was dynamics, and I loved it.

Tomaz: What about the lyrics? What inspires them?
Rikard: We always write about what we know, feel and see. So, when you hear the lyrics or read them, these are stories either from our life or what we've seen and what we feel, of course. Take the lyrics on the Dancing In Hell album, for example; all the songs tend to be about empowerment. Be stronger, be together; they are about building up from the rebel you've been before. It's even about standing up, not running. It's fucking hard when you are on the fucking bottom. The song "Dancing In Hell" is about being stuck in your personal hell. Learning how to navigate through the flame, dancing around it and getting burned, of course, but getting up on the other side stronger than ever before and with entirety by your side.

Tomaz: From what you are saying, I suppose Dancing In Hell is a concept album...
Madeleine: No, not really. That would be unfair to say. We wrote the songs based on what we experienced. I went through a very deep depression during songwriting. I lost someone who was very close to me. The thing is that you just write from the heart, and sometimes it's hard. The songwriting process, in general, can go up and down, and it can be very weird. This time it was way harder, and when the songs started to come out, there were people who were writing to us on a daily basis saying, "the pandemic is rough but your music empowers me". We got through it, and then we realized that we get empowered by our own music. We feel it, and live the songs, but it was also so beautiful when we discovered that our fans embraced it and did the same. That's what we mean when we talk about empowerment or empowering; it's actually our fans' words, not ours.
Rikard: It's very strong to hear from people that they've been aided and found something within what you've created from your personal stuff. It's very powerful; it's beyond any compliment; it's unity, it's legion.

Jerneja: So, does the speech about the freedom you had tonight during the set derive from there?
Rikard: Haha, it was the first time; I've never ever before made a reference to Braveheart. I saw the chance, and I took it.
Madeleine: I saw a guy in the audience screaming "freedom", haha.
Rikard: I thought that he said "freedom", and I just went with it. Otherwise, I always speak about "together". Together we are strong. This thing tonight was just improvisation. I always try to improvise a little bit, but this time I did it for real.
Madeleine: I was laughing so hard, and I said to myself, "please Rikard gather yourself".

Tomaz: You formed Eleine in 2014, and only you two, Madeleine and Rikard, are from the original formation...
Madeleine: We are the founders of the band anyway. When we founded Eleine, we had three other members, and it didn't work out. It's very easy to dream about life on the road, but it's not for everyone. Things like that actually come up when you are out touring, and you start getting on each other's nerves. The most important thing is having the same ambitions, and ours are very high. I mean, we are doing quite some touring, and that's not for everyone. So, in 2018 we did a line-up change, and Jesper joined us as a permanent member. After that, we were going on with some live musicians, but we are also trying out if there's anybody out there who could be a good fit. We just have to do that. Right now, we have Filip and Victor, a live session guitarist and bass player, and who knows what the future will bring. We need people with us that are as dedicated as we are.

Tomaz: Dancing In Hell is already over two years old, so are you working on something new?
Rikard: Definitely!
Madeleine: Yes, we are. Do you want to know about it? At the same time that we've been doing the Acoustic In Hell release, we have been writing new material as well, so you can expect a new album quite soon. It's going to be Eleine metal. We are very excited about it.
Rikard: We can't reveal more details, but I can assure you, it's going to be metal mayhem.

Tomaz: So, substantially heavier than Dancing In Hell?
Rikard: It's not up to us to decide if it's heavier; that's up to the listeners. Some might think it is, and some might think it isn't. But it'll be heavy, haha.

Jerneja: The name Eleine sounds like a female name... You've probably explained it many times, but since it's the first Eleine's interview for Terra Relicta, would you do it once more?
Madeleine: It doesn't mean anything in particular, really. When we founded the band, we were looking for some Latin words, but we got this word pretty quickly. There are so many "cool" words for a band's name, but almost all are already taken; it doesn't feel right. We looked at each other and saw that if we remove "mad" from my name, we come up with Eleine, so "let's go with it".
Rikard: If we removed "R" from my name... what the fuck is that? Haha.

Jerneja: Lucky for you and for the media, I guess, you are the only band with this name... Now, would you tell us something about your influences? Was there any particular band or artist "responsible" for you undertaking the musical path?
Rikard: None and all. There is no band that we looked up to and said we want to be like them. I know that it's hard to understand because many pick up two or three bands and try to build up from there. That's not how we work. It might be boring to hear this, once again, but we do what feels right. Madeleine, you have bands you love from the old days and new stuff...
Madeleine: Oh yeah, I started with Queen when I was just a little kid, then in my teenage years, I discovered Arch Enemy, which gave me a little vibe of "hey, I as a woman, can do metal as well". That was pretty cool! It continued with Dimmu Borgir and things like that. I like to discover stuff. There was metal, in general, that made me think and feel to form my own band. You know, it wasn't like "Dimmu Borgir is a band, so I want a band"; it was more like that metal music, and the entire community made me want to be a part of it, and to me, it was a natural thing to start a band.
Rikard: I loved Nirvana back in the day. Then Dio and stuff like that, also the old 60s music, classical music, but with all of that in mind, it's just that you draw and gather inspiration from everything you've heard and do something that feels right. I love thrash metal, of course, good riffs, good energy and good vibes. I remember how Nirvana made me feel. I went through their book about the recording and pictures - I think we still have one of those books somewhere. It boils down to how we give this feeling to others. We don't need to look at this or that band but rather at how we make people feel. You make people "feel it" only when you "feel it" when writing music.

Tomaz: There is also plenty of oriental vibes in your music...
Madeleine: It's something that comes naturally from my end, and Rikard just went with it. I've discovered this in the last couple of years, and it's all based on cinematic music. I love movies, and I realized that a couple of my favourite ones have this kind of thing. It has been with me since I was a kid. It comes very naturally, and so do my moves on the stage.

Jerneja: Have you been learning the belly dance?
Madeleine: Yes, I've been taking classes. It's very fun. I don't have any time now, but you get this natural vibe. I don't think when I'm on the stage, I just do it, and it feels good. I often see people in the audience get into this vibe.
Rikard: You've been called the snake lady, haha.
Madeleine: Yeah, I've read this a couple of times. You are like a panther, and I'm the snake, haha. But you know, when I'm just a participant in the show, one of the audience, I'm somehow boring. I enjoy the music but not in the front row. I just stand there being very polite, but on the stage, I'm different. Don't get me wrong, I love it when people get crazy on the shows. Nevertheless, it feels more natural for me to be on stage.

Tomaz: It's phenomenal that Eleine, in a rather short time, reached such a status in the metal scene. Namely, it doesn't happen often...
Madeleine: I have no idea, what the "recipe" would be, and I guess that only fans can answer this question. As we stated a couple of times already during this interview, we do what feels right. We stay true to ourselves, and we are lucky that fans love it. We are grateful. There's something that we love when doing this. I don't want to sound cheesy, but they are above and beyond. I can't express enough gratitude to our fans.
Rikard: Without them, we couldn't make it through the "shit" years. It was two years during the pandemic that were really bad. Thanks to Patreon, we got a lot of support from our fans; it was really above and beyond. What is success? I mean, to me, success is to be happy with what you do. So, how can you be happy with what you do? To stay true to yourself. I heard this saying, "fake it until you make it", but I fucking hate that. You can only fake it for a certain amount of time, and when you hit the wall, you are so fucking miserable. "Never want to do this again", you'll say, but if you stay true to yourself, you'll be happy forever.
Madeleine: You need to ask yourself why you are doing this. If you want to get money, like, to become a millionaire, go out and try. It's fine if that's your goal. But you need to ask yourself why you are doing this. I guess this applies to every job in the world because if you are not happy, why you are doing it?
Rikard: A sad truth is that sometimes even if you are staying true to yourself, there's no guarantee you'll succeed. I'm not saying that is the magical ingredient. Sometimes it's all about the journey, and if you get there, you get there. You'll get experience, and there's a lot of hard work.
Madeleine: I know one thing that makes many bands fall before they even have a chance. That's because they didn't expect to be such hard work. That's also one of the reasons why we had those changes in our line-up. It's so much hard work, and you don't earn any money for a long time, yet it's all about building up. It's a journey, and I'm so happy doing this. We all have bad days and say, "fuck it, what's worth for", but when I zoom it out and just look at it, I'm so happy, and I have to share it. There's a lot of this "crazy fun", and there are some magic moments with the guys on the road. There are memories, and in the end, that is all we have.

Jerneja: You also had a good promotion of your releases. Some think it's enough to "make music and bring it out" via Bandcamp, YouTube, etc., but it's far from that...
Madeleine: Thank you for bringing this up! That's it, hard work and, of course, some strategy to promote what you've done. You need to put some money into it to earn something. Money comes and goes, but you can't get anything for free. With just uploading something into Spotify, no one will know you're there. That's the thing, you need to understand and realize there's a lot of hard work, and you also need to work smart.

Tomaz: Thank you very much for the interview, and once again, for the birthday presents. I think we "covered" pretty much everything and had a good time, but perhaps you would like to add something...
Madeleine: Yeah, right, we covered up a lot of things. It was very lovely to talk to both of you and hopefully, we can do this again when we'll have a new album out. Also, a big shout-out to all our fans out there, both old and new - we love you endlessly. We will never be able to express our gratitude enough. Hopefully, we will meet all of you once more.
Rikard: Thanks to you for this fantastic interview! With our fans, we always look forward to tomorrow.

Eleine discography:
- Eleine (2015)
- Until The End (2018)
- All Shall Burn [EP] (2019)
- Dancing In Hell (2020)
- Acoustic In Hell [EP] (2022)

Eleine links: Official website, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Bandcamp, YouTube

Live photos by Tomaz

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