With a vivid cinematic vision, Blackbriar returns with their third full-length album, A Thousand Little Deaths via Nuclear Blast Records. Crafted under the guidance of renowned producer Joost van den Broek, the record invites listeners to be swept away on an unforgettable journey through haunting melodies and poetic darkness. In this exclusive interview with Rene Boxem and drummer vocalist Zora Cock, the band delves into the heart of their artistry, exploring the shadows and stories that breathe life into their music.
Welcome to Blackbriar
Hi Zora and René, thank you so much for agreeing to do this interview.
René: Of course, our pleasure.
Thank you. Firstly, I want to ask how this period has been for you — with promotion and everything that comes with it.
René: Well, it’s been a lot. Fun, but definitely a lot. We’re also getting ready to release the album later this week, so we’re really preparing ourselves for that moment. Honestly, it’s a little nerve-wracking, but we’re also very excited. So yes, it’s been busy but also really fun.
Zora: And in the meantime, we’re also handling all the pre-orders and sending those out, so that’s been keeping us busy as well.
Blackbriar is back with A Thousand Little Deaths
I also want to ask you about A Thousand Little Deaths. Can you tell me when you first started collecting ideas for it — and when you felt you had enough material to move to the next stage?
Zora: For me, it always starts with the lyrics. I write song by song, so in the beginning I don’t think of it as a full album — I just write whenever something inspires me.
I believe the first song I wrote was “A Last Sigh of Bliss“, about two years ago. Furthermore, I actually wrote it while lying in my bunk on the tour bus during the Euphonic Downfall tour. That’s really where the first spark of inspiration came to life.
René: Yeah, well, that’s exactly how we write music — and it’s still true today. Zora writes the lyrics, the melodies, and the vocals, and I draw my inspiration mainly from her recordings. It’s not like we sit down, listen to a bunch of other music, and then start writing Blackbriar songs.
For me, it all starts with her dry vocals — that’s my only source of inspiration. From there, I build the music around it. So really, nothing has changed since I first explained that years ago. We’ve been working this way for a long time now, and it just seems to work for us. Honestly, it’s a very exciting way of writing music.
Curiosity on A Thousand Little Deaths
My reviewer, who’s also writing about the new album, mentioned that he sensed some irony in A Thousand Little Deaths. I was curious to hear your thoughts on that.
René: Hmm, well, it depends on how you look at it. Personally, I don’t really see it that way. What do you think, Zora?
Zora: For me, the title came from realizing that I wrote a lot about death across these songs. That’s why I felt A Thousand Little Deaths was the perfect title. But it’s not about literal death — each song reflects a more symbolic form of it. So that’s really what it means to me.
The magical world of Blackbriar
Yes, that’s pretty much what he was trying to explain to me as well. He also said he found the title ironic, considering everything, and mentioned that he felt the album seemed inspired by short stories and gothic fairy tales.
He’s a huge fan of those genres — and a musician himself — so he tends to notice those kinds of details. I told him I’d ask you directly, Zora. So, do you find inspiration in short stories and gothic fairy tales?
Zora: Oh, yes — always. That’s really where my main interests lie, so those things are constant sources of inspiration for me. For this album as well. But this time, a lot of my personal life also influenced the writing. So it became a mixture of both.
Get into the journey
I wanted to ask about A Thousand Little Deaths, which feels like a journey through dark love, spectral forces, and gothic intrigue. After listening to it, I agree with that description. But I was curious: which parts are drawn from fairy tales and short stories, and which parts reflect your actual lived reality?
Zora: I think what I did was use a lot of metaphors from novels, myths, and fairy tales, and then apply them to my own life. So the imagery often comes from those sources, but it’s really used to express my personal experiences.
René: Exactly. Almost every song is rooted in Zora’s personal experiences or her life in general, but at the same time, they’re linked to myths, novels, and fairy tales. Still, everything ties back to something real — something that happened, or something she felt or lived through. So I would say this is probably the most personal album we’ve written so far.
The animated video for “Harpy”
And since we’re talking about personal songs, I’d also like to spend a moment on the amazing videos you created for this album — A Last Sigh of Bliss, Harpy, and The Fossilized Widow. I know Harpy is animated, and I wanted to ask: how did the idea come about to make it an animated video, and what was the process like?
Zora: We actually did another animated video in the past for our song Selkie, and we received a lot of really lovely feedback on it — people seemed to love it, and so did we. We always wanted to make another one, even for the previous album, but it just didn’t work out at the time.
So with Harpy, we felt it was the perfect opportunity — partly because, well, you can’t exactly find a real harpy bird! We worked with the same team as on Selkie: our art designer, Alip and Dima, who did the animation. Everything was drawn completely by hand — no AI involved.
Behind-the-scenes for “Harpy”
Yes, and that’s very clear — you can tell it’s hand-drawn, because AI would still feel imperfect, without that human touch, without a soul.
René: Exactly. For us, it’s really important that the creative side of what we do — the music, the visuals, the videos — is created by actual people. We always try to make sure artists like Alip can contribute beyond just a T-shirt design or cover artwork. In this case, his art came to life in animation, which is incredible. But it’s also extremely time-consuming: every single frame has to be drawn and then animated.
That means hundreds of individual drawings. Normally, it takes months and months, but this time they only had a few weeks. They worked 16-hour days to finish it. It was really hectic. And when the drawings were done, the editing had to be completed — Zora ended up taking on that part — and it literally came together at the very last moment. We uploaded the video the same day the final edit was finished.
Behind-the-scenes for “Harpy”, part 2
Oh my God, I had no idea it was such a huge commitment. I mean, hundreds of drawings, and with such a short time frame to finish and upload the video — that must have been incredibly stressful.
René: Yeah, I really had to stay on top of them throughout the whole process. I was messaging them every day, a couple of times, just to make sure everything was on schedule. Basically forcing them not to take breaks — I’m joking, of course. But in the end, it was all about the result, and they worked extremely hard to get it done. So all credit goes to Dima and Alip for that animation video.
The visual element in Blackbriar
Absolutely. And one thing I love about Blackbriar is the visual side — all the videos are stunning. Kudos to you both and the whole team, because it can’t be easy balancing songwriting, production, and then on top of that, the visual concept for each video. When I watched The Fossilized Widow, I thought: this is the kind of work an Oscar-winning director would do.
Zora: Thank you! That really means a lot. The truth is, making videos has become our second passion. We love it just as much as making music, and it complements the songs perfectly. We actually make the videos ourselves, and nowadays, we even do it for other artists when our schedule allows it. It’s a lot of work, it takes a lot of energy, but it’s so rewarding to see the results come to life.
The preparation for shooting a video
René: Usually the spark starts with Zora when she’s writing a song. She often gets a visual impression of a music video really early on, sometimes even before the song is finished. So while we don’t write songs specifically for videos, we do keep them in mind.
If Zora has a strong concept, we can already start planning: scouting locations, prepping equipment, figuring out logistics. That way, when we finally have at least a rough draft or demo of the song — or sometimes even before it’s fully recorded — we can already begin filming. That’s one of the big advantages of doing it ourselves.
Zora: Exactly. Sometimes we’ve shot videos when only the vocals were ready — no music yet. But since the lyrics and tempo were already locked in, we could work with that. Once it’s filmed, there’s no changing those elements, because what I sing in the video is final. We’ve definitely done that before.
The upcoming European headline show of Blackbriar
Now, you’ve already launched a European headline tour — which is such a big achievement. I’ve been following Blackbriar since I moved to the Netherlands, about nine years ago, so I’ve seen you grow from a small band into what you are today. How does it feel to finally be headlining your own tour?
Zora: It feels amazing. It’s something we’ve always wanted to do. We’ve done a lot of support tours in the past, but it was really time for us to finally take the step to a headline tour. Of course, it’s also nerve-wracking, because now it’s our name on the tour, and we just hope people will come out to see us. But overall, we’re very excited.
René: Definitely. We’ve been working towards this moment for about twelve years, so like Zora said, it was time to take the leap. We’re handling a lot of it ourselves, together with our agency, Doomstar, and doing it in that same DIY style people are used to from us. So far, things are looking good, and we really hope many people will show up. There are still some tickets left, so anyone who wants to join us should absolutely come along.
The special guest on the tour
Zora: And we’re bringing a very special guest: Forever Still. They’re a band we’ve admired ever since we started Blackbriar, so it feels like the perfect match. We can’t wait to share this tour with them.
The perfect match in heaven, I’d say.
René & Zora: Definitely, yeah.
Well, I really want to thank you both for this interview. It was such a pleasure, and I really enjoyed speaking with you for the first time.
René & Zora: Likewise! Thank you so much. We’re happy we finally got to do this. Please say hi to everyone at Femme Metal Webzine, and thanks again for taking the time to talk with us about the upcoming release. We’re looking forward to seeing you in real life soon!