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Hello Nils-Petter! So, finally! The new album ‘Discovery’ was released on the 27th May 2017. How are you all feeling about it? Excited? Anxious?
”Yeah finally! We have been working long and hard on this album, so it will be such a relief to unleash our new music upon the world! We feel very confident in our material and are super excited to now give all our devoted fans some reward for their patience.”
What were the main influences behind ‘Discovery’?
“Ourselves, actually. We looked at our past two albums and asked ourselves, where are we heading? What is the core in our music? We can’t put our finger on it, but we can quite easily hear if a song is a “dEMOTIONAL” song now. It’s a specific feeling in the belly. So this album only contains songs that gives you this feeling.”
What’s your personal favourite from ‘Discovery’?
“My personal favorites are “Carry On” and “Monster”. Very proud of those.”
What was the concept behind the album artwork?
“Daniel Eek is the master mind behind our artwork as always. We have worked with him since the beginning, and he is such a nice and talented guy. The main concept behind “Discovery” is the nautical theme of a voyage. We found it to be very suitable for our feeling of finding ourselves within our music.”
Since your previous album release, ‘Tarassis’, what have you been up to… apart from writing the new album, of course?
“We have done some touring and after that some well-deserved rest, haha! By the end of 2016 we were ready to come back, recharged and refuelled. Now we just want to release all our hard work and play live as much as possible!”
Three years is a relatively big gap between albums.
“After we released two albums within two years we were pretty tired and needed to recharge our batteries. So we didn’t start writing on the new album until mid 2015 and we did not want to rush things. We would rather take our time and make great music than rush out half-assed songs that didn’t feel right. But three years? Has it really been that long? Well that’s gonna change now! We will release music MUCH more frequently from now on.”
You released a single, ‘Brother’, but it isn’t featured on ‘Discovery’? Any particular reason for that?
“Yeah Brother was a stand-alone single. The reason behind that is just practical. ‘Brother’ was the last song we did signed under our former label, all of our music after that we own and release ourselves.”
Ah… that makes perfect sense then. ‘Monster’ features guest vocalist Jenny Fargerstrandh. Was there a relationship between dEMOTIONAL and her beforehand?
“We had no relation with her at all before this album. But somehow, we heard her on some YouTube clips and thought she had a wonderful voice that would fit perfectly to the song. So we contacted her, and first time we met her we got the feeling that we had known her forever. In just a heartbeat we found each other, and it was so damn easy working together. It just felt so right!”
What do you all have up your sleeves for the future of dEMOTIONAL? A UK tour? Any tour, actually? Can you reveal, or hint at, anything at this moment? Hahaha!
“We have a collaboration with Rising Wave Events now, so they have some big plans for us. We will, of course, do lots of shows in Scandinavia, but international tours are in motion. And yeah, a UK tour is a dream for us, so we will just have to make that happen”
Do you have a favourite place to play?
“Doesn’t matter where, as long as the audience is having a good time. But big arena shows are always nice!”
What do you hope your music gives people?
“A boner? Haha! No, but seriously, we want to our music to make you feel good. I put a lot of effort into the lyrics and melody to make the song as touching as possible. There is too much commercial music on the radio that says nothing, so the least we can do is to create music that actually means something.”
Haha!… and what does music give you?
“…a boner.”
Haha! I should have guessed! What is dEMOTIONAL’s all time favourite track, do you think?
“Alive will always be special to us.”
What new track are you most excited to play live for the first time from ‘Discovery’?
“We have discussed it and we think that “Overload” will be bad-ass to play live! Also “All That It Takes”. Can’t wait to try them out”
You hinted earlier about the recording/releasing situation. If not personal choice, here’s you’re chance to shout at labels, haha!
“Hahrrrrm! Okay, look at it like this… you have a business that produces balloons, okay? One day a dude walks in to your balloon factory and says “Hey, let’s work together! I’ll take a big chunk of your profits but trust me, it will be worth it! All the other balloon factories work with me and always have! I will not manage your production or book any events regarding balloon sales, neither will I do any promotion (if you don’t pay for it yourselves) BUT, I can help you distribute your balloons! Okay, you could do the distribution yourself, but if you let me do it, I will use distribution partners that ALSO want a cut from your profit! Isn’t that fantastic!?”. If the owner of the balloon factory wasn’t a complete idiot, he would tell the dude to fuck off, right?… Until a dude walks into our factory and actually offers a deal that isn’t insane, we will continue to ask the them, kindly but firmly, to fuck off!”
I hear you, I hear you! Haha! Long may your balloons float! I’d just like to say thank you so much for your time, I really do appreciate it! You’ve been ace! I wish you and dEMOTIONAL well!
“Sure, thanks for having me!”
Find dEMOTIONAL on Facebook.
Purchase ‘Discovery’ via iTunes.
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