On May 15th, the wondrous world of Illumishade opened its doors for all the world to enter as the band released the debut album “ECLYPTIC: Wake of Shadows”. Vocalist Fabienne Erni was kind enough to share with me everything you need to know about the origins, creative process and concept of of this record as well as the people that made it come alive. And of course, there are news on the Eluveitie camp as well.
TMO: Hello, how are you doing at the moment?
Fabienne: I am good. The weather is fantastic here. The first stress is done with the Illumishade album release and release show and now it feels like we can calm down a bit. We still have a lot of work with shipping everything. We had some trouble with printing and so on because of the corona so this is the next step to resolve. So it’s still a lot but it feels like I can breathe again a little bit. How are you?
TMO: I’m very good. So we’re all quarantined. How are you dealing with it?
Fabienne: Well the corona crisis changed a lot of plans with Eluveitie. We were supposed to go to Russia and we didn’t. We postponed it so we don’t know how everything will develop. It changed the release show with Illumishade. We were planning to have a normal release show in Zurich and we ended up doing a live stream. That was the perfect solution. I was very happy that we had this opportunity. Otherwise, it’s just more quiet. It feels like the world turns a little bit slower. Although there were a lot of stuff to do. I also had some time to do things that I never took my time to do in the everyday hurried lifestyle. So this is actually nice and I’m enjoying having a bit more time off. Actually, now in Switzerland, it’s going back to normal. So schools are open again, restaurants are open again with some restrictions but it’s slowly going back to normal.
TMO: Ok, so let’s get into Illumishade. I’m completely blown away by this album. How did this project actually show up? How did the idea emerge and how did you all come together?
Fabienne: Thank you so much! The whole idea started because I had to do a master thesis because I was studying music at the University. I did the master degree in September. And the master work we had to do was to create a project, it could be choir, a band, anything. So I actually had to do it basically, and I think it was this extra push I needed to actually really do it. Without it, maybe I wouldn’t have had the courage to start something so I’m very happy. It could not have been better for me. Thanks to the school basically. So I think the very first time I wrote something down was September 2018, just because I love fantasy stories, musical theatres and Disney and so on. I love all the stories around the music so I was like: “If I’m gonna start a project, like a band, of course it’s gonna be rock/metal and of course it will also have ballads and cheesiness, and it needs to have a story”. And I had this basic story in mind that I really liked and I was talking to Tamara. She is now the 6th member in the background. Since it’s all a “do it yourself” project. We don’t have a label or anything. She is taking over the role as a manager or label. But she’s my best friend and we all work together. Everything stays in the core of Illumishade. So I started with her like “You know I have this idea, what do you think?”…
TMO: (Sips from ILLUMI FUSION)…
Fabienne: Is this an ILLUMI FUSION? The color really looks like it.
TMO: Yeah, I looked up the recipes. This one’s the Faeva. I’m a Faeva. But I have the ingredients for all of them and actually plan on trying to make all of them.
Fabienne: I really love them. Yannick did them. Our bass player. He worked as a bartender for years and he did this bartender school so he created them. Actually, after the release show we all hanged out and we did all the cocktails for the whole night and it was so much fun. I love the Faeva as well.
So anyway, since everything was based at school, Yannick and Mark, drummer and bass player, I was studying with them for 5 years and we played music together during these years so I know them very well, musically as well. And Jonas, I mean now I’m in two bands with him, well actually in three, we’re in a cover band as well, Spandex of Doom. An 80’s glam rock cover band to have fun with. So the year 2019, when I had to do all these songs and work on the band project, was very intense with Eluveitie. We were travelling a lot and I was like “Hey Jonas! We have to do this together. You’re stuck with me now.” Because he’s in Zurich. He teaches at the school and he knows the people. He knew Mark and Yannick. And of course he’s an amazing guitarist and now I also know that it’s really great to write songs with him. I really enjoyed our work flow.
Mirjam, she’s doing orchestration, special sounds and synthesizers. I also got to know her at school. She’s studying master of film music composition. And this is how we all got together. She’s so amazing, not only as a person but also as a musician. It’s great! I love what she does. Tamara was also there from the very beginning and she did a lot of preparation work because after the thesis we were hooked and wanted to go further with this. But to actually record an album and have a social media and this community by now. I never thought that we would go that far. It’s actually a bit unbelievable that it started from a school project and now were all hooked. We are also very happy about the feedback we’ve got, about the positivity from the people that are following us. I always wanted something like that.
TMO: Yeah and I love how you’re involving the fans in everything you do.
Fabienne: Yeah, we created this world so that anyone who listens to the music can dive into it and feel at home. Just having fun and interacting, because every member belongs to a tribe and you can see which tribe you belong to based on your character. It’s a fun thing and we can connect to people more. We also had the collective intro and we always try to come up with more and more of these ideas. It’s a lot of fun next to writing and recording music.
TMO: So did you have an idea of what you want this album to be from the start or did you just know you wanted to make your own project and took it from there to see where it leads?
Fabienne: I knew from the beginning that I wanted to have a story around it because it helps me with the song-writing. I always get inspired by stories and moments. So I knew I really wanted it cos I also love fantasy worlds and musicals. Everybody in the band is a bit nerdy about some movies, fantasy worlds and games and so on.
TMO: I actually thought the cover artwork looked a lot like a video-game cover or movie poster. It reminded me a bit of the Star Wars movie posters only it’s more inspired and less generic.
Fabienne: Yeah exactly. We were looking at Star Wars and so on and just got inspired and had this photo shoot and then we had Manuel Vargas helping us put everything together. And then Tamara did everything else in the booklet which we are still printing at the moment. We were very unlucky with Corona and everything but it’s out of our hands. We are still waiting for the final prints of the CD.
Listen to “ECLYPTIC: Wake of Shadows”
But yeah, it was pretty clear. I had this rough story in mind. We developed it with a concept writer that we have now from Canada. She is also a metal fan so it fits perfectly. And she helped us a lot. English is not our mother tongue so she helped with this. The idea stayed but everything else with the songs developed more and more. First, I had some rough ideas of just piano and vocal melody and then I sat together with Jonas and he did everything around it. He came up with riffs and guitar and so on. And then we had a song-writing week with the band in the summer, to a house in the mountains. We were just chilling out there, rehearsing and working on the songs and a lot of stuff happened to the songs there. Also during the recordings, they kept evolving. We didn’t really have an idea of how it should sound. The music guided us. I knew in which moments of the story I want a song so we of course knew the rough mood and the sound that we have. But we’re still looking for it. It’s the first album. Also Mirjam, she brings the magic to the songs with the special sounds and the orchestration and so on. There’s Jonas’s riffs and he also likes the cheesy stuff and then Mark put in prog stuff and Yannick did his harmonic stuff. Everybody could bring in their ideas and we just had this playground so we could just see where every song develops. The songs are very different but what keeps them together is the story, Mirjam’s orchestration and the whole mood. Because every song is there to lead us to the end of the story.
TMO: Yeah I get this a lot with anything that’s got symphonic elements. If the orchestration is done right, it feels like it’s the glue that brings everything together. Because with an album like this that’s also a little progressive and it has a lot of different directions genre-wise, it can tend to start feeling like a mess and then the orchestration somehow wraps around it I guess.
Fabienne: Yes, this is exactly what I wanted to say.
TMO: Ok, so you funded this album through a crowdfunding if I’m not mistaken?
Fabienne: Yes, exactly. We came to a point where we were like “Ok, we don’t have a label or anything, so how can we get a studio”. We really wanted to go to Tommy Vetterli. I really enjoy working with him because we worked together on the Eluveitie album and so on, and such a recording session has its price. So then it was like, why not do a crowdfunding and already connect with people, letting them know that we want to start something, if possible. And already back then, the support was so big. We had over 250 backers. And it just continued. We are very happy with how everything evolved. I cannot wait to send out all the CDs. There are already a lot of them so I’m looking forward to do that. But yeah, all the feedback from people and the support is pretty unbelievable.
TMO: Yeah it feels a bit like you’ve been going hand in hand with the fans from the very beginning, like you did it together.
Fabienne: Yeah because thanks to them we could start it. Without them it wouldn’t have been possible. So from the beginning we walked all together and now with this interactive world, we can connect even more.
TMO: So about this. You’re unsigned, you don’t have a label. Did you, at any point before deciding on the crowdfunding, consider trying to get a record deal from a label or did you just decide on the crowdfunding from the get-go?
Fabienne: It was actually very spontaneous because we came to a point where it was like “we can’t do it financially so let’s do a crowdfunding and see how people react to it”. And the feedback was very good and we were successful. And since we have Tamara in the boat, she is taking care of a lot of stuff that I wouldn’t know to do. And this helps a lot and it’s still in the Illumishade core, in our family. We discuss every step with her. It’s very nice, she is really kick ass and did so much work. I think it would be hard to find a label that does as much work as Tamara did for us because we are not a big fish. We are a new band. And thanks to her it all worked out very well. We’re very proud as well that we did all the preparations while we were touring with Eluveitie. In between the tours we went to the studio and it didn’t work so we had to go back in January. Everything was madness but altogether we rocked it.
TMO: There’s a common opinion that labels might at times, force musicians to write their music in a certain way, to fit in certain patterns. Basically, putting boundaries on their creativity. In your experience with the music industry, to what extent does that actually happen?
Fabienne: Well I only have the experience with a label with Eluveitie, and with them, I never had the feeling that the label pushed anything in a direction because Eluveitie is clearly Chrigel’s idea, his world, the celtic world. So everything he creates fits Eluveitie and nobody can or should come and say anything. So in my experience, I don’t really know this because everything he creates is just Eluveitie and they cannot say anything because what he does is always perfect.
TMO: I really can’t place Illumishade in a certain genre. It has djent, it has symphonic elements, it has electronic effects and it’s just a really cool genre-mashup. Was that something that you had in mind as a goal or did it just come about based on what you were trying to say with the songs?
Fabienne: Definitely the second one. We really wanted to create this project to just let our creativity flow. We had a white paper and we could just paint on it however we wanted and just have fun. And everybody could put in their influences and ideas to just create a playground for us. And I think it really worked out well because we just left the songs develop in the direction they wanted. Since we knew what kind of song we need in each situation, we just let them grow and this is what came out. Of course, we knew we wanted metal/rock elements and of course it’s gonna be cheesy. Some songs developed in a different direction than what we expected at first but in the end we are very happy with every song and everything we created made it on the album.
TMO: The music with the imagery and the fantasy world are very strongly connected. But you haven’t revealed a lot about how the story actually plays out so I have to ask what is actually happening in the album?
Fabienne: Yeah we didn’t reveal that much yet. We plan to reveal more and more and to talk about the songs and so on. It will take a while because we want to make it nice. It is The Guardian that is protecting the heart of the world, the crystal. And basically, the story is, roughly said, about the emotional way of The Guardian when she figures out that something is changing. She cannot take care of the crystal anymore. It’s out of her hands, and then she dies. “Glowing Tides”, the last track is kind of the hope that it’s not over yet, very roughly said.
TMO: I got that and I loved the reprise with the lyrics from “The Calling Winds”, reminding back to the beginning of the album. And there were also all these instrumental reprises in the interludes that felt like bridges between different phases in the story.
Fabienne: Exactly. I also love these reprises and interludes. It was just so much fun to create them and also the guys and Mirjam could go crazy with them and so on. Also since it’s a story I think it has space for these interludes.
TMO: Ok, about involving the fans in the world: you have all these tribes so what is their role in your fantasy world and how did you get the idea to actually have a quiz to include the fans in the tribes?
Fabienne: We really wanted to create this interactive world and these ideas usually come up when you’re just hanging out and talking and dreaming about what you could do and then it’s like “Hey let’s do a collective intro!”. Tamara created the tribe quiz because if we have tribes and every band member belongs to a tribe, why not also the fans and the people who are listening to the music? We really just wanted to come up with more and more ideas so we can interact. Because it shouldn’t be like “We are the band and you listen” but like “Hey come in and let’s have some fun!”.
TMO: About the collective intro, I thought it was amazing to actually hear the fans’ voices on the album and then you also had their videos displayed before the release show live stream. I thought that was amazing.
Fabienne: Yeah we had audio but also video recordings so we thought we should add the videos in the beginning movie like the “Illumishade army” or family, community, and then we’d start the show. I was very happy about that.
Watch the full release show here
TMO: I want to ask you about your release show, because I absolutely loved the performance. The sound quality was good, the live energy was coming through. So how was it on your end, not seeing the audience, not receiving the energy back?
Fabienne: Luckily, we were thinking about this before that in between the songs there is no clapping so we need something to go into the next song, so we had some sounds going most of the time. Sometimes it was also just ok to be silent so everyone prepares for the next song. It has a nice effect as well actually. Still, knowing that people are watching and hopefully enjoying it gave us this energy. There was no eye contact or anything but knowing that people are watching gave us the adrenaline kick. It was a very unique experience I would say and I enjoyed it a lot. Of course, I cannot wait to play a real live show.
TMO: After everything opens up, if you can find a gap between Eluveitie stuff, are you planning to do a proper tour with Illumishade?
Fabienne: We would love to! Playing live is the best. We have no idea how the whole situation develops so we don’t know about Eluveitie, when we’ll be able to play again, and we don’t know about Illumishade. But we try to keep an eye open and of course, try to get every opportunity we can get.
TMO: Ok, let’s talk vocals. I feel like what you’ve been doing vocally on Illumishade is a lot more different and more diverse than what you’re doing with Eluveitie. So, did you make it a point to explore different things with your voice in this project?
Fabienne: Illumishade is a totally different world compared to Eluveitie. Both bands make you dive into a world, which I like. And in the world of Eluveitie it’s clear, especially when I sing the Gaulish songs in this ancient celtic language or the folky songs, then I add this folky touch to the voice. And in the metal songs I see myself as this celtic warrior or this celtic woman or something like that. So there’s a different tone than when I sing with Illumishade. This world is more in the modern times, and since we really had a goal to try out stuff and let creativity flow, it was ok for me to add this high note in “Rise” that was really spontaneous, or the beginning of “What Have I Become”. That was very new to me and actually in the studio Tommy mentioned that he never heard me sing like that and I thought I actually never sang like that before. I think I discovered new sides to myself and my vocals. And I also now have the platform to try out different stuff. I mean it makes a difference if you’re the only singer or if you’re sharing, if you have more space. I really love that I’m part of both bands now because my roles are very different so it’s very nice to have this balance between the two.
TMO: So when you get ready to record the vocals to a song, how do you get in the zone, get in your character, get ready for that performance in the studio?
Fabienne: For me, always with Eluveitie and now with Illumishade as well I build a story around the song and I define who I am at the moment, what are my emotions, how are they developing through the song. I think about why am I singing it, like what is the purpose, where am I singing it? I create this situation around the whole song and that gets me in the mood. That’s why I really wanted to create a whole world around Illumishade because it just helps me a lot not only song-writing-wise but also as a singer.
TMO: So you have this whole imagery, the artwork, the logos for the tribes. Did you have one artist doing all this stuff and who was it? How did you guys build the whole imagery around the album?
Fabienne: Actually, it was a mixture of different people because we didn’t find anyone yet that would take care of everything in a way that fits us. So the emblems for the tribes were made by the girlfriend of our video guy, Jens, her name is Cheyo Winter. Chrigel did our logo. He is amazing. It was also very nice to have him on the album, to have his support. He is super proud of us and it’s so wonderful to have him behind us. Tamara did a lot of graphics, like the artwork of the album, not the pictures but all the colors and background for the lyrics. And we worked with Manuel Vargas, I got to know him because we did photo-shooting with him with Eluveitie. We told him it should look a bit like a movie poster or something like that and we just worked with him on that. But I think the optimal way would be to actually find someone who can do anything so it’s all in one hand.
TMO: The music and the imagery are very strongly connected, almost like they’re feeding off each other. So when you were creating these things did you happen to use the music as inspiration for the imagery or the other way around?
Fabienne: For this album, the songs led the artworks because the songs were just created before everything else. The whole vision was already pretty clear, like in what direction it should go from the very beginning, but it was created afterwards.
TMO: And you’re not planning on Illumishade being a one-time thing are you?
Fabienne: I already have a bunch of ideas for the next albums. This is nice for me, when you have your own world, that it just gives you so many ideas. Like we could do a prequel story to this album, we could do a continuation, we could do an album about a certain tribe. It’s just fun to build this world.
TMO: Now I want to ask you about Eluveitie. Given the corona situation I guess there hasn’t been that much activity but how are you keeping busy on that front.
Fabienne: With Eluveitie, at the moment I’m doing these Corona Talks. We started this series of interviews. It’s basically us interviewing different musicians to see how they are handling the situation, what’s going on in their lives. I really enjoy these talks, to just connect with them in these times, although we’re all locked in more or less, we still connect over social media. And we also connect with the people because we’re doing it live and they can ask questions and they’re all involved. And of course, we released the last album a little over a year ago so there are slowly evolving ideas for a new album but we don’t know about tours so we will go with the flow and just make the best out of this situation.
TMO: About the Corona Talks, how did this idea come about and how do you decide who you’re gonna interview? How do you meet and connect with all the musicians?
Fabienne: I think Chrigel had this idea, or Micha. She’s taking care of social media now. But I just wrote to people on Instagram, asking if they want to participate and I think this is how it all developed.
TMO: I think the one with Lindsey Schoolcraft was my favourite so far.
Fabienne: She is so cool. I enjoyed the talk so much and I’m really looking forward to meeting her and everybody else actually. I’ve only seen Lena Scissorhands in person because we toured together and Lindsey just quickly at Wacken. But otherwise, they are all people that I’m really looking forward to meeting in person.
TMO: Throwback storytime: How did you actually join Eluveitie?
Fabienne: It started because Jonas was at the same school. I didn’t know him that well but I knew his name. He knew my name. They were looking for a new singer and he had already joined Eluveitie, so he thought my voice could fit and he actually showed them a video of me singing a Disney song. They liked my voice and I remember he called me and said that maybe I could have a call with Chrigel. Afterwards I sent a demo of “Call of the Mountains”, recorded on the phone, just raw. And he really liked it and everything kept on rolling. I met some guys of the band. I recoded something with Chrigel to see how the chemistry works. Then I went to see a concert to see how it was backstage because I didn’t have any experience. I was in a school band when I studied in Sweden for a year and we had school bands in the University but I was never in a proper band. And then three months later they decided to pick me and I took the challenge and another one month later I had the first show.
TMO: How was that for you because Eluveitie is a really big band. How was it for you to join them? Like, did you know the band before, had you listened to them, did you know what they’re about?
Fabienne: All I knew is that they’re freaking big. I was singing at weddings and so on and I didn’t think I could be in a band. I remember when Jonas called me about it and I thought it’s amazing to get feedback from such a band, to see what they think about my singing. I thought it’s always good to get some tips. But then it got this far. It really changed my whole life. I love it and I’m really grateful for everything.
TMO: I think a few months ago you released a single with 2 songs in Russian. On “Call of the Mountains” you had Masha “Scream” from Arkona. How did you get her into that? If I’m not mistaken, Eluveitie and Arkona know each other?
Fabienne: Yes, they toured together when I wasn’t in the band yet and they are very good friends. I also got to know them on the 70000 tons of metal cruise. They were there too. All I knew is that I had to record Ambiramus in Russian and then we also had “Call of the Mountains” with Masha doing the vocals.
TMO: So the other song was Ambiramus in Russian and you sang that one. Do you speak Russian or did you learn Russian lyrics specifically for that song?
Fabienne: I learned them because of that song because we were supposed to go on tour in Russia and we released it before the tour. When we go there, I will sing it in Russian. So yeah, I learned it. I had people helping me a lot with pronunciation and so on. It was a lot of fun. I absolutely love this language. I love singing in different languages. It’s a lot of fun and it’s interesting how the vocal sound changes with every language. I can’t wait to actually perform it.
TMO: What are you missing the most since this situation started? Like, when the whole quarantine ends what’s the first thing you will do?
Fabienne: I think just meeting up with more people, chilling out, having a barbecue or something. I’m really looking forward to that. And of course, to play shows and to see shows.
TMO: To wrap this up, do you have anything to say to your fans, fans of Eluveitie or Illumishade?
Fabienne: I just hope that everybody’s safe out there and doing alright. And I cannot wait to actually play again and meet people at festivals and shows. I miss it a lot. And I’m just grateful for all the support everyone is giving us in Eluveitie and in Illumishade. It’s great to be part of this metal family since I joined Eluveitie and I’m super happy about this. So yeah, just a huge thank you!
Enter the world of Illumishade.
Get “ECLYPTIC: Wake of Shadows” on the band’s online store.
“Learn what is before you.
Teach What was gifted to you.
Value what has been earned.
Unite all new horizons”
