INTERVIEW WITH XIPHEA “A long time ago, when legends were still alive and untouched by doubt and fear, people were surrounded by truthful magic, fantastic creatures and mystic chants. Born into such a world was Xiphea. A young woman, who lived to see dangerous but also gracious adventures. She had a heart of gold beating in her chest. A heart so strong... a heart so gentle. With each heartbeat Xiphea became brighter and more radiant... a beauty that only can be described by a feeling. The spirits of the woods whispered that Xiphea was the cause of everything that was pure and good. One day she would turn all the stars into the most beautiful melodies. But before that, Xiphea had to complete a secret mission...” xiphea/fairytale.php Today Musas do Metal 2.0 present to you the german symphonic metal band Xiphea. The band has a beautiful fairytale as background to their work, and released the EP “Masquerade” in early 2013. Today I bring to you a special interview XIPHEA. MM – Hello! Thank you for accepting our invitation to this interview. How are you? Xiphea – Hello Musas do Metal 2.0, thank you for having an interview with us. What a nice question in the beginning, I am fine MM – So, let’s start from the beginning: who’s Xiphea? Who are the artists behind this beautiful fairytale? Xiphea – Xiphea is a group of four musicians: Renè, Neil, Bence and me. We started our project in November 2011 when Neil and me decided to make music together... finally We wanted to do so since we had become friends. And it didnt take long to find Renè (Bass), who knew Bence (Drums). You know, in Nuremberg. bandscene is kind of a big family... somehow we just know each other. So the four of us wanted to go our way together and formed a band. Neil came up with the idea to name the band Xiphea, after a brave, strong, gentle, female character, I once invented for a song. I love Xiphea very much, so I am still so happy that the boys wanted to name our band after her. Its like having her around. https://youtube/watch?v=1CEGHL2enR0 MM – How did you get to this fairytale? Xiphea – I always liked to play with phantasy. I am passionate about hearing an enchanted, romantic, or very creepy story. But I also enjoy telling stories or fairytales. Thats why I made up the legend of Xiphea. I thought it would be nice to publish some of her adventures and not just in songs. Fairytales can stand for our dreams, fears, tragedies and desires... so in some ways they can be understood as real. And this one is real about us. Its like a diary telling about our journey. MM – You use the “Beauty and the Beast” style in the songs, a very popular style in symphonic metal (as Leave’s Eyes, EPICA, Theatre of Tragedy, Silent Opera - Italia). What are the bands biggest musical influences? Xiphea – Oh, the world is so full of great music, there are so many influences Of course we love to hear the work of EPICA, Krypteria, Amaranthe and Tarja Turunen; but we also are influenced by musicians from different genres: Tori Amos, Freddie Mercury, Alice Cooper, Hans Zimmer, Pavarotti, AFI, We came as romans... to name a few important ones MM – Now let’s talk a bit about the muse! May we know a bit more about who is Sabine Meusel? Xiphea – Hard for a girl to talk about herself I grew up in a liiiiiittle town in Germany near Nurenberg. My father is a musician and I loved to listen when he was singing and playing his guitar. We use to sing together too in the evenings (before I had to go to bed). When I was seven years old, I started ballet class. It became my whole world. I was playing the piano and I took singing lessons but all I wanted was dancing. All the time I dreamed of becoming a professional ballet dancer. But one day I saw the movie Coyote Ugly. There is a scene where the girl writes a song on the roof top. That was it: I bought a keyboard and fell in love with songwriting. I was singing, texting and playing night after night. I recorded my songs on tapes because I had no microfone or anything else. But I was happy and suddenly there was a new dream. At this time I met Neil, who was the singer and guitarist of a punk rock band. He is one of maybe five people, who was allowed to hear one of my tapes. And he said to me: We have to to something together! (it just took seven years) In 2006 I joined the band Rawkfist. Everything was new. I learned that you cant compare an audience of Swan Lake to the people who come to see a rock concert There was the first recording process, the first live gig, the first fan, the first deal... it was exciting. But after four years, three cd productions and a bigger tour, we were very tired. We parted in spring of 2011. At this time I was dating my friend from the past... Neil (who is now my husband). We remembered that we wanted to do music together... and this is how the fairytale of Xiphea has begun MM – In november you’re releasing your first full-length album. What can the audience expect from this work? What are the similarities and differences to the “Masquerade” EP? Xiphea – I am so excited about the new album. I am tired and happy at the same time. I love such feelings The new album will present ten new songs from beauty to powerful and a bit more experimental than the songs from the EP Masquerade. We are proud that we recorded a real choir for this time and we come up with our first eight minute song. All songs are mixed and mastered at the great Gate Studio in Wolfsburg (known from bands like EPICA and KAMELOT) by Olaf Reitmeier. He his very kind, I love his sound and I hope the fans will, too. The audience can expect a new tale about Xiphea, the Romeo and Juliet tragedy and a valse We put a lot of love, sweat, tears, passion and time in this production, so hopefully the audience will like the album. You are the first to know: it is called Freom the Uncharted Island https://youtube/watch?v=LCiv9ZU1eT8 MM – Thank you a lot for this short interview! Now feel free to leave a message for your future fans! Xiphea - Dear future fans, we want to share our fairytale with you. If you like, you can find your own stories and secrets between the tunes and the lines. We would love to show you a piece of our uncharted island, where the music of Xiphea comes from. You are dear to us wherever you are. Thank you and the best wishes from Xiphea - Lumi Hietala — mit Xiphea (entfernen)
Posted on: Sat, 25 Oct 2014 17:46:57 +0000
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