Interview met Fabienne Erni
Fabienne Erni: “At some point I knew that all I wanted to do and make a living with was music”
In het beste geval kom je tijdens een interview heel wat te weten over de persoon die je een aantal vragen stelt. Zo blijkt Fabienne Erni, die we kennen als de energieke zangeres en harpist bij de Zwitserse folk metal band Eluveitie, een ware muzikale duizendpoot te zijn. Dat leverde een heel interessant gesprek op nu we met de begeesterde artieste praatten over haar eerste soloalbum ‘Starveil’. Bovendien heeft zij in haar nog jonge leven al zoveel beleefd dat we geboeid bleven luisteren toen zij haar weg naar het succes stap voor stap uit de doeken deed.
Vera Matthijssens Ι 26 maart 2026
How are you doing?
I am good, thank you very much. I am back home from the 70,000 Tons of Metal cruise just a few days ago, so I am trying to get adjusted again to the European time zone, so all good.
These are exciting times for you. A solo album is coming up. That is a statement… Did you already have long time plans for it or not?
I started working on it around a year ago. I don’t know, I just had some melodies in my head somehow for quite a long time, that weren’t used so far and I just wanted to get them out at a certain point in time. I actually started working on some songs and I realized: let’s make an album out of it.
Let us start with the beginning. Where did you grow up and how did you get in touch with music?
I grew up in Switzerland in a normal family house I would say and I always loved to sing, as most kids I think and just when I was around 13 years old or so, I started to realizing that I liked singing more than my friends (laughs). I slowly got into piano lessons, guitar lessons and step by step I developed a bigger love for it. At some point I knew that all I wanted to do and make a living with was music.
You did a lot of studies on different schools, also abroad. You started in Copenhagen. What can you tell about that experience?
I had a singing teacher back in Switzerland when I was a teenager and she really helped me – in the beginning I was very shy with singing – and after my high school or college, when I was around 18, she said ‘why don’t you just go for three and a half months to this complete vocal academy?’ It is a music academy school of this singing technique that this teacher was teaching me. There I learned a lot. It was three and a half months in Copenhagen, just singing all day long. I got more confident. I was still very shy, which I still have I think but which is fine, until a certain point when it can be destructive… but I learned a lot and thanks to that, I got to know some people from Scandinavia there and they were telling me about this special school where you can study whatever you choose for a whole year and after these studies in Copenhagen, I went to the north of Sweden. Very far up north and I studied music there for one year and also learned the language and so on and this led me to the music high school in Zurich.
Ah so… indeed, because Sweden became very important for you says the biography, isn’t it?
Indeed. I loved the culture, I loved the language, the music, the folk music, it is where I got in touch for the first time with more folky music, which now is of course a great part of me since I am in Eluveitie. It is a big part of my life, but Celtic music and Scandinavian music have always been very fascinating for me.
I admire you that you went travelling in faraway countries like Nepal, India and Thailand! How did you feel there?
Great! I turned 20 in India. It was very cool to finally be able to go to India. When I was around 14-15, I was a big Bollywood fan. I had Shah Rukh Khan, this is one of the biggest actors of Bollywood movies, on my walls hanging and so on and I always wanted to go and visit this country, finding out about this culture and got to know it better. And yeah then I could go, together with my ex-boyfriend we went. It was a little hippie trip (laughs). It was really cool. I am very grateful that we went, because sometimes you know, things need to align. You need to have a friend or somebody who thinks that way too. But actually it was very cool, I often think back of that.
Is that time also where your spirituality comes from?
Yes and no. I mean, in a way it was more, we were young and I was a little hippie. I just wanted to live freely there, but spirituality… I have always been into this topic, realizing that there is probably something more than what we can see and everything that comes with it, but that came more over the years. I have an open mind. I always remind myself, if I am caught up in a thing called ‘life’, to take a moment to breathe and look at things from the outside and not taking things too heavy, realizing that something so little in this thing called ‘universe’ is important. It is a good reminder from time to time.
There are three mysterious titles for interludes. You should help me with the titles and their meaning… First we have ‘Shaelun Virathi’. What is that?
Ah it is part of my fantasy language that I invented through the years and I am still inventing more of that. I love singing in different languages. I mean, I got to do that for example in Sweden, singing in Swedish and then in Eluveitie in Gaulisch. I love how a different language can shape the sound of the voice and also for me it is interesting what does it, when you sing in a language which somebody cannot understand. Can you still get emotions to that person? I believe that there is something underlying besides the lyrics, that really transmit the emotions and I just wanted to have fun and try around in a fantasy language. It has been a big dream of mine to just invent languages and here I am doing it finally!
Then you are at the right place in Eluveitie…
Yeah indeed. Singing in Gaulisch has been so much fun! I always love it when we get to sing anything in Gaulisch. I think it is so special and I think it resonates with people. Gaulisch of course, was a language that was spoken, so I think it is still somewhere, so people in the core get the message. I was also a fan of Enya who invented fantasy languages and I was like ‘hey, since I am doing now my solo album, this is now the time, to explore and see how it feels to sing my own language, my own music, now we will see if it resonates with people.
What is ‘Elren’?
‘Elren’ is the same, it is also a part of my fantasy language and ‘Thalon Muran’ too. When I write music, for me the most inspiring thing is stories and world settings or world lores. It has all emotions and pictures behind it and landscapes and I have a background from the musical theatre, so I love all the stoylines and also I am a big fan of fantasy worlds. Since it inspires me so much, why shouldn’t I create my own world lore, at least for men so that it inspires me for more songs. Within that world that I created, which I might share more and more about it, but for now mostly it is just an atmosphere and more inspiration for me. Within that lore I have two different groups of people, but those two, they have different languages, so there is one group of people that is more like a earthy rooted people that have a little bit more an ancient grounded, rough language, called ‘Thalon Muran’. It is a different type of language than what you can hear in ‘Shaelun Virathi’ for example. I wanted to experiment also, what do the different bowls and consinants do to a language and how can you make it rough, how can you make it more angelic? I am playing with that as well.
Back to the studios. You went to Zurich for a master degree in pop music and I think that was also an important time, because there you met Jonas Wolf who invited you to contact Eluveitie…
Yes, exactly, so after the year in Sweden, I went to the university in Zurich and got to know Jonas. He was a teacher, but I didn’t really had lessons with him; but he was aware that I was at school. He heard me singing and he joined Eluveitie in Summer 2016 and they were still looking for a singer. He suggested me amongst the others and yeah somehow… I sent in a demo. I was more like ‘hey it would be nice to get feedback from a big band’, it would be interesting to hear what they think about my singing, but I would have never thought, in the beginning, that I could be ‘the chosen one’ let’s say, but I was. Yes, this is how my whole entry into the metal world happened. Also during the studies, I got to know my band mates from Illumishade. I was studying with Yannick and Marc, the bass player and the drummer, and the same year, the same studies, we worked together. We were there for five years, so also at that school I met Mirjam. It is a school full of creative minds and I was very happy.
Suddenly in Eluveitie, you play harp. That was also new to us…
Yes, I was always fascinated by the harp, but I did not play it before. When I joined Eluveitie, it was clear that I will and I want to learn an additional instrument, so that when Chrigel is screaming, I also have something to do and then I decided that I would like to add the harp on stage. This is how this journey started and since then I have a harp with me. I love the harp! Somehow it has a healing sound. I really love it!
Next you had a busy time as member of Eluveitie which changed your life, but still there was another band formed called Illumishade in 2019. Can you tell something about that? Why one more band?
So in 2019 I had my master’s degree and then I formed the band. Actually and finally as part of that master’s work, you know the master’s work you have to do. In the music university it was like ‘hey, you bring music on stage, why not with Illumishade?’ That is how Illuminate was formed and started and after that putting in this 40 minutes that we had to put on stage, we were hooked with the songs and it was like ‘hey everybody is happy, we would try out how it goes when we would continue’ and then we went to the studio that same year and we released the debut album in 2020. During this whole corona time, we released our first album ‘Ecliptic: Wake Of Shadows’ and since then we have been active. Especially in 2024 we had many, many shows. 2025 was a bit quieter, but we were working on new music and I think this year we will go out there again.
Is there a chance that you will perform this solo album live?
I definitely want to go out with the solo project as well. So far I have been out in an acoustic setting, with guitar, piano and singing. There will be a little tour coming this year, in an acoustic setting only and we are also working on going with a metal band on the road and have the full experience so to speak, but I love that it gives me the space to explore the more acoustic sets. It is a little bit of different aspect and setting of the music to bring that on stage as well. I love that intimate version.
Did you make the album all by yourself or did you have other musicians around you?
Yes, I was working on most of the songs together with Vidick from Infected Rain, a metal band from Moldova. I was working with him on the arrangements and for three songs I was working with two producers in Switzerland. I met them also during my studies and I love how they work. I recorded Illumishade vocals with them, so I got to know them better. But most of the songs started with piano and singing. So the harmonies, the melody, this usually was created from scratch, from me on the piano and then I go out and give it to the guys and say ‘can you make the guitar arrangements, can you make the drums, and so on. Yeah it was nice working with them. I also have some guest musicians on the album. I always like the hammered dulcimer. It is a special instrument. It is from the Swiss culture, but I think you can find it in many different cultures. I always wanted to have this sound, somehow featuring in one of my songs and yeah, I got the Swiss artist Ephraim Salzmann on it, it is such a talented artist, it is insane and I am so glad that he accepted. You can hear hammered dulcimer in ‘Living And The Dead’, the most metal song with the hammered dulcimer and then you can hear it in ‘Lullaby Echo’ the outro song. And in a third song too. But I don’t remember the title. Also it is very cool to have one song with Lena Scissorhands from Infected Rain as a featured voice. I knew when the song was written, that we needed a different voice, harsh screams and I immediately asked her. She was in and I feel very lucky to be able to work with such talented artists. I really wanted to bring the best of both worlds on this album, so I took the folky world from Eluveitie and then I took a little bit of the fantasy-ish aspects from Illumishade and put them together. That was kind of my goal when I was working on the solo album, to have these two worlds in a way combined.
And the bond with Infected Rain seems to be close as well. What is Mindnova exactly about? A project with producer, are you involved in that as well?
Nothing is out yet, but me and Vadim ‘Vidick’ Ojog built a little project together. Actually the album is almost finished, but nothing is out yet. So this might take a little time until we know when to release it and so on, but we are excited about it. It is for me a very different type of music and one that I haven’t tried. It is metal, but it is different from Illuminshade and Eluveitie. I really love it, but somehow we are both so busy, now with my solo album and Infected Rain is also working on new things. Whenever the time is ready, we will release something.
To occlude, what are your plans for this year?
This year started with 70,000 Tons of Metal and mostly I am concentrating now on my solo album, on the promotion, the release that is happening actually in five weeks. I am a part of the Swiss TV show ‘Sing My Song’, so I will be on Swiss TV. That will keep me busy too. With Eluveitie we will have a headlining tour in November, together with Pain and Wolfheart. That will be a lot of fun. I will announce my shorter, but very nice acoustic tour in Europe soon. We are working on it, we are finalizing it for May. We also have an album release coming with Illuminshade in Autumn. So things are busy this year I would say. Now it is a little bit like the calm before the storm.
It is promising that you can look forward to a lot of different experiences…
Yeah. I am looking forward to what this year will bring.
