The new album seems to be darker than the ones before, because it was created during the pandemic, but there are also positive things in it I guess?
We honestly reflected the darkness of that time. We cannot help ourselves, because ultimately we do want people to feel like there is some kind of catharsis to be found and think positive to get away from it all.

Of course, we had been through strange times with the pandemic and now more wars are happening. It is not that easy. I see that you have done in the meantime, in 2023, a lot of concerts…
We have

So that is a little bit of a positive vibe. What was your experience to be back on the stage?
Well, it was very strange. I think one of the first tours that we did after covid-19 was in Australia. We did a number of short tour shows and one of it was a live broadcasting of it and it was one of those experiences where we were interested in, because it felt like such a long time that I felt a bit weird and had genuine doubts if I could actually still do it. I couldn’t do it anymore, I had forgotten who I was. It took our Australian tour to kind of remind me why I did what we do and then after that, we felt the confidence to write again and that is how we started writing ‘Charcoal Grace’.

Yes, because this happened pretty late and then everything went fast I think? You are also the main lyricist from the band. I was wondering why you have chosen the title ‘Charcoal Grace’?
‘Charcoal Grace’ was one of the early working titles that we had for the album, because it was… the particular line is in the song ‘Vigil’, in describing the kind of beauty of silence, but also the kind of the horror in it. It is something that is generally beautiful and alluring and inviting, but at the same time it is dark and slightly terrifying, so it is a kind of unknowable scary beauty which whom I wanted to describe ‘silence’ and stillness, it was what we all experienced so much during the pandemic. That was the kind of phrase that jumped out on me from that and I truly liked it, it is really evocative, so I kind of threw it to the guys ‘I have this phrase, let us just put it on as working title I really like. And it found its way to one of the songs.

Talking about the beauty of silence: I think you can reflect on yourself and for writing music, maybe it is a better situation…
I think it was horrible, because it was taken from us and the silence was kind of forced on us in a way. It felt kind of inescapable and like a punishment at some point, but yeah, ultimately I think it is a beautiful thing. An unknowable thing, because we don’t actually know what real silence is like, because there is music and sound and everything everywhere, but yeah, I just thought it was a beautiful way to put it.

You are an educated vocalist, very precise in what you do. You even followed some lessons for producing the harsher vocals in the song ‘Golem’. Can you tell something about that evolution?
Well, it is something that I always wanted to try, but I have been a little bit nervous about doing it, because I was concerned about the way I learned things generally is intuitive. I kind of figure it out, but I am not super great at word learning or specific things or reading a book. I find that physically challenging. I was concerned about trying to do intuitive training, because I was afraid of damaging my voice and so I did a handful of lessons with a teacher in Adelaide. He coached me through some basic stuff and calmed my fears and cautions and told me how to do it. It is not something that appears anywhere else on the album, only on that one song. It is a fun addition to my timbre. It has taken a lot of practise to maintain the idea. It is a very challenging thing and very new to me.

Are you playing it live as a big challenge?
We have. At the same time as it came out, we were on tour in Australia with Devin Townsend which was incredible! Wonderful experience, but on the same day as it was released as a single, we were playing in Melbourne with Devin, so we played it through the whole run. It was really fun, so it will definitely be playing it on our upcoming tour in the States and when we return to Europe as well.

In the middle of the album, we have the title track which is divided in several parts. One of my favourites is the melancholic one ‘Vigil’. How did it come into being?
It is an interesting one, because very often – I would say in most cases – songs and the spark of the music come from Sam (Vallen – lead guitar – Vera) and Sam is a musical genius. He is the guy. He has this way of creating things in a way that I can’t. We were actually sitting there on that coach behind me and just kind of fiddling around with an idea and wrote the main verse of the beginning section of ‘Vigil’ and that is also where the charcoal grace-line occurs. Sam expanded it in a beautiful way that is just so evocative and the song kind of extends from that initial emotional idea into a really emotional kind of journey. So his input was really huge and kind of tied the whole thing together. Yeah that’s a point in the song where the younger character, the son character in a way, experiences a trauma in a relationship. He is experiencing the feeling of sadness because of his father had gone. Also anger and not able to let things go, those kind of things. It is a sad one, but one we are very proud of.

The opener of the album ‘The World Breathes With Me’ – ten minutes long – should be the one in which you cooperated the most with every member in the band or do I see that wrong?
That is right, it is. I think it is the first time that the entire band’s creative force comes together in a single song. Of course, generally with the song-writing, the bulk of it is from Sam and myself and in this case we are also having Dale and Josh’s musical footprints so to speak, on the song. They all added so much to it and it was awesome to see Josh and Dale respectively going into collaborating with Sam while he was writing and putting a lot of the stuff together. I think ‘The World Breathes With Me’ is a lot stronger for that and particularly songs like ‘The Stormchaser’ where Dale had such a strong influence on that. You can hear that in the kind of bass-forward kind of return of that song.

I was also struck by the last song ‘Mute’. Your vocals in the beginning are really stunning! It has a kind of Celtic vibe I would say…
Thank you! That is in my blood for sure, that is where my people are from originally. I have blood from Ireland yes. That is why I get sunburnt in Australia very easily, because I have the pale skin of someone who lives on a damned foggy island. It is 24° now in Brisbane. It just cooled up a little bit, but I am still sweaty because it is very moistly.

It is going to be a climate shock when you go on tour in the Americas…
Oh yes. We will bring a lot of clothes for that. We always loved the cold, except for Dale, who is going to suffer through that (chuckles). I am sure. Through the pandemic, one of the things we lost the most was of course touring. I didn’t realize how much I would miss it. Not that we were taking the touring for granted and that we have been taking travelling with music for granted. Of course you cherish every moment and you celebrate it, because you are having a wonderful time in sharing music with people, but to a certain extent I kind of never really thought about it that it would not happen anymore. So we are finally going on this headline tour in the United States that we were due to do in 2022 on ‘Rise Radiant’ and that is mind-blowing. There’s probably going to be a lot of tears on that one, because I am already feeling very emotional and very lucky to be able to do that again.