Interview by Miriam Cadoni
As every story and saga has its own beginning, also has alas an ending. And in this case, Leaves’ Eyes eighth full-length album “The Last Viking” released via AFM Records, represents the conclusion of the Viking’s saga, which focuses on King Hardrada. Let’s prepare for the ultimate symphonic metal adventure together with the singer Elina Siirala.
Hi Elina, welcome to Femme Metal Webzine. How are you and how life is treating you in these precarious days?
Hi and thanks for having me! It’s been a pretty crazy year for all I’m sure, but I really can’t complain as I’ve been able to continue teaching, composing and of course Leaves’ Eyes released an album plus three music videos. So it’s a lot to be happy about!
Back in October, it was released Leaves Eyes’ eighth album “The Last Viking”. What would you like to share about its general production? When did you start to collect the first ideas for it?
Once again it was a huge production and all boundaries were pushed even further with this record. The idea for the concept came already while finishing the last album.
It was all Alex’s vision and he is the one who does all the research and is of course deeply emerged into the Viking world, both historically and being part of the re-enactment scene. As a band we had a great opportunity to make a very diverse album, bring each saga to life musically and use all kinds of different instruments and elements.
I’m aware that “The Last Viking” marks the conclusion of the Vikings‘ saga. Would mind recalling us the whole concept and how “The Last Viking” connects to the whole story?
It’s true that the main character Hardrada, was killed 1066 and that marked the end of the Viking era. But the album concept starts with his death and as his life flashes before his eyes, we took all these moments and adventures to make them each to its own song. What is remarkable, is that he was in so many places during his life, so the stories are not situated only in Scandinavia.
Also, behind this monumental release, there is always an attentive work of research. I wanted to understand, from where the band starts researching and which are the main sources that are consulted?
As i mentioned earlier, this is Alex‘s territory and I know he already has a lot of knowledge of the history and sagas. But he was still doing enormous amount of research, mainly reading when he was writing the texts.
In your opinion, do you think that the whole Vikings’ saga has also influenced on your recent musical development towards a dark-pop ethnic sound?
Tosso and Alex have been the core music writing team in Leaves’ Eyes from its start and the native instruments, folk elements and orchestral parts have always been a part of the music. But as everyone, their work will always evolve over the years and I’m sure this specific topic gave a big inspiration for the writing. There are a lot of dark elements included, but also more light hearted songs with a more folky feel.
“The Last Viking” features also “Serkland” and “Black Butterfly” that were previously released from the sold-out EP “Black Butterfly”. Why did you opt to re-record these two songs?
The songs from the EP were always going to be part of the album too and we of course wanted to make special versions of them to give our fans something new to listen to. The duet with VoA‘s Clementine Delauney worked out really well and there is also always some changes in the sounds which requires revisiting older mixes to make the album sound unified.
What the future holds for Leaves Eyes’ and how the pandemic impacted your original plan?
Planning is currently challenging but we recently announced our European tour which will take place in October/November 2021. Of course this tour was originally meant to happen right after the album release so a lot of plans got cancelled and moved. We are happy that we were able to record, finish and release the album with also so many music videos. It was the plan for this year and was only slightly delayed, so it’s been a great year for the band in that sense!
So, Elina, we’re almost at the end and with this please be free to say hi to your fans and your readers. Thank you so much for this interview.
It’s been a pleasure to answer your questions and I wish everyone a great New Year! Thank you for all the support and I hope we’ll see each other on tour very soon!
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