Interview mit Diana Leah von Delain

Hi Diana, thank you for taking time to do this interview. How are you these days?
Hi! Thank you for having me! I’m good but always way too busy. If I’m not doing, I’m thinking. I need to slow down! (laughs)

You already played some shows with the new line-up together. How was it to step on the stage with the boys and how were you received by the DELAIN fanbase so far?
It was an intense experience, scary at first but then I learned to ease into that feeling and just enjoy it. The DELAIN fanbase has been incredibly supportive, beyond my expectation. I am really grateful for that!

How did you make contact with Martijn and end up with DELAIN and why is DELAIN the right band for you personally right now?
After I read the news about the split, I saw a DELAIN post on social media of Sander recording drums for the new album. I thought I would reach out so I left a comment asking if I could audition. A couple days later Martijn contacted me and told me that I was already on his list because he had found me through my YouTube channel. So he sent me some songs to record on, both old DELAIN songs and new ones from the new album he was working on. He really liked my voice and the way I sang the songs so we decided to meet up in the Netherlands together with Ronald and Sander to get to know each other.  Then I came back home and after a week Martijn called me and he told me they would love to work with me.
DELAIN is the right band for me because I’ve always wanted to be in band like this. Why is it the right one right now? Because I am finally ready, I’ve matured and I’ve learned how to acknowledge what I want and need.

You are not only new to DELAIN, but already new to the metal scene. You did some other stuff before, including trance music. Can you tell us about your musical background, what brought you into metal and how metal influenced your life and musical career?
I started studying my voice when I was 17 years old. Like every singer, I’ve had different phases in my life. I like to merge into things because I like to be versatile. I started with rock music, that was always my thing when I was a teenager – punk rock at first, then I got into heavier metal and metalcore, then I merged into symphonic metal and that was my thing. I liked everything about it, the singing, the instrumental parts, everything, it just clicked with me and my style.
And then eventually I switched to dance music because I loved music in general – since I was a little girl, I would sing to anything – and a friend of mine was doing that type of music. Like, dance and trance music. He suggested me to another friend of his, we reached out to each other and he said “You can try to sing on this and see if you like it”. And I loved it because trance music also has this magical vibe and a lot of strings, it’s really cool.

So I said you know what? I’ll just do this. I’ll do it as, like, a solo thing on my own and not try to find bands, because it’s really tiring to find the right people sometimes and manage everybody. I did that and it was actually pretty good. I had a few releases on cool radio shows, like Armin van Buuren’s “A State Of Trade” radio show, and even if you search now my name on Spotify, all those songs pop up. If you search for me, I’m definitely more known in that area – dance and trance music – but my heart has always been in rock and metal music.
In fact, I went back to my roots and started doing covers on my YouTube channel of symphonic metal bands like Within Temptation and Nightwish. Just for fun, really, I wanted to incorporate that part of music in my life again because I needed it.

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Do you follow the symphonic metal scene yourself? Which bands and singers are your favorites here?
I don’t follow it that much to be honest. My favorites are Nightwish and Within Temptation but my musical influences are so wide and broad I can go from listening to Armin van Buuren or The Weeknd to Killswitch Engage, Tesseract or a 3 hour long “Warcraft” playlist.

You are following in big footsteps as the successor of Charlotte Wessels, after all she was with DELAIN for over 16 years. What is it like for you to take over the position? Are you following Charlotte’s style of singing or are you doing your own thing completely?
When it comes to the older DELAIN songs, what I am doing is just singing the songs the way they’re supposed to, from a technical point of view, and the way that were meant to be sung when they were written.
It would be weird to sing those songs with an operatic voice, falsetto or another singing style. I don’t like when singers do that, if a melody was written in powerful chest voice sometimes they change it to head/operatic voice and it kinda ruins the vibe of the song so I like to remain true to the original version.
When it comes to the new songs from the new album, I think it’s pretty clear that I’m doing my own thing and what the songs need.

Did you come to it while the songs were still being written? Were you still able to contribute your own ideas and suggestions to the songwriting?
When I joined the band there were songs written already and we finished the rest of it together.
I definitely had the freedom to contribute to the songwriting. When it comes to lyrics, I wrote the lyrics for “Moth To A Flame” and “Tainted Hearts”. For “Tainted Hearts” I also wrote the vocal melody, and I wrote melodies on “Invictus” as well and the vocals on the intro of “Hideaway Paradise”.

What are your inspirations for writing lyrics and how important and relatable is it for you to sing your own lyrics?
Every time I write lyrics I do it from my own experience, so I write about positive and negative stuff that I’ve been through, struggles. It’s really important for me because I want people to relate to what I’m talking about in a song, and I want them to feel connected to me through the words that I’m singing.

Besides you, almost the entire band is new. Is there an atmosphere of departure in the band right now, a feeling of something new that is just starting up? DELAIN has matured a lot until „Apocalypse & Chill“, would you consider „Dark Waters“ more of a new beginning or a further development?
Well, besides me and bassist Ludovico Cioffi we have the “April Rain” line up, so there’s indeed a sense of familiarity in the air. But at the same time it feels fresh because there are also new members like me and Ludovico and so yeah, it definitely feels like the start of something new and exciting. I think ‘’Dark Waters’’ is both a new beginning and further development at the same time. The DELAIN DNA is still there but there’s also a new beginning because there’s a new voice that has its own sound so that’s inevitably an element that adds something new and fresh to the album.

There are many poppy elements on the album, but also some heavy stuff, „The Quest And The Curse“ for example is quite dark and also has some Growls in it. What are your favorite parts or songs on the album?
My favorite part from “The Quest And The Curse” is the bridge when everything slows down, it becomes very cinematic and soft and the listener is able to ‘’breathe’’ and take it all in.
My favorite songs from the albums are “Hideaway Paradise” and “Mirror Of Night”.

What is your favorite song or time of DELAIN before you entered the band?
I love “Apocalypse & Chill” and “Moonbathers” but my favorite song right now is “April Rain”.

Let’s conclude with our traditional brainstorming. What comes to your mind first when you read the following words?
Current favorite album: Paramore – ‘’This is Why’’.
Gaming: „World of Warcraft“.
Food blogging: Pick up Limes.
Nature: Mountains.
Best Movie-/Series-/Book-Universe:
Best movie: “The Gladiator”.
Best Series: “Smallville”.
Best Book-Universe: “World Of Warcraft: The Rise Of The Lich King”.
Something that makes every bad day better: Breathing fresh air in the nature.
DELAIN in ten years: Touring the world.

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Publiziert am 19. März 2023 von Stefan Popp