DELAIN published their fourth album "The Human Contradiction", with a lot of power, symphonies, melodies and The 666 interviewed Charlotte Wessels to talk about it, enjoy!!
- What does “The Human Contradiction” means for you and why the title?
The album title ‘The Human Contradiction’ functions as an overarching concept for the lyrical themes and was directly borrowed from the Sci-Fi trilogy ‘Lilith’s Brood’ (Author: Octavia E. Butler). Within the books, the Human Contradiction is described as the fact that we are as a species both intelligent and hierarchic. This human contradiction causes an ‘us versus the others’ mentality; an attitude which makes humans randomly select qualities in others and use those qualities to justify ranking them higher or lower on the socially constructed ladder; this is exactly the kind of behaviour that allows for systems of oppressions such as racism, (hetero)sexism, species-ism etc. to exist. It creates dualisms, and basically it is an attitude, which in the book – as well as one could argue, in reality – proves to be most self-destructive. In that way, The Human Contradiction presents a broadening and deepening of the lyrical concept of our previous record We Are The Others: ‘otherness’ and how people relate to this, is a topic that I has indeed become very personal to me and that I have been obsessing over both artistically and academically for the last couple of years; it has become a recurring theme in Delain’s lyrics. whether it is otherness within our species, so towards people who are perceived as ‘different’ by other people (which was ‘We Are The Others’ main focus) or in our attitudes towards nonhuman ‘others’, which is the lyrical addition made by our new record.
- How is the people's reaction to this new album?
- What's the main difference with your previous album “We Are The Others”? For me its a bit darker and more symphonic
While I think it follows logically to We Are The Others with its catchy hooks, poppy choruses, I think this album also reflects on our earlier material featuring indeed darker and symphonic elements such as prominent grunts and elaborate orchestral arrangements.
- What can you tell me about the production process?
We had Martijn back on the producer chair for this album, which was part of a decision to take matter into our own hands again for this record. What stayed the same to our methods from the previous record is that the songs where written by Martijn, Guus (our long time musical partner) and myself. We keep the song between us until we are sure that we have a solid structure, interesting hooks and good melodies for the entire song, which is when we open up the process and everybody starts working on their respective parts in more detail. Martijn works out the arrangements, the guys start rehearsing and refining their parts, I work on the lyrics, and if any third parties are involved, they usually come in right about here as well. The biggest change is that, as I mentioned before, on this record there hardly were third parties involved, and we took matters into our own hands by having Martijn back in the producer chair. There was a lot more responsibility for all of us, which made it a very personal record for the band. Other novelties in the production process are the fact that the record was mixed by Fredrik Nordström and Henrik Udd at the legendary Fredman Studio’s (In Flames, Soilwork, Amon Amarth) and mastered by Grammy Award winning Ted Jensen of Sterling Sound, whose impressive credits include everything from Madonna and Billy Joel, to Muse, Marilyn Manson and Slipknot, which contributes greatly to the sound of the record.- What's your favorite song of the album?
Probably Here Come The Vultures because of its original song structure and just a bit crazy in a good way here and there
- How was working again with Marco Hietala?
Marco has been such a prominent sound on our first records, that often when we imagine male vocals on a part, we end up automatically imagining his vocals there. Whenever we ask him to collaborate we’re certain to have an awesome outcome, and his guest vocals for The Human Contradiction are no exception.
We wanted it to represent several things linked to the record; the cosmic element, that pays tribute to the origin of the album title (Butler’s trilogy), a visual representation of ‘dualism’ itself; we chose to go for the human/non-human nature opposition, which is represented through the contrast between the left and right side of the cover. The little logo between the title has a yin/yang quality about it that could be considered a symbol for dualism/contradiction in general.
- What can you tell us about "The Tragedy of the Commons" and how was working with Alissa White-Gluz?
The Tragedy Of The Commons’, the song on which Alissa White-Gluz performs, was actually one of the last songs to be finalized, and Alissa’s vocals consequently were some of the very finishing touches on the record. We are very excited about the collaboration: we love her great, versatile and powerful vocal style and after spending time on the road with Alissa on our tour with Kamelot last fall, we simply needed her awesomeness
- Is there any place you would like to go on tour that you haven't?
Many, the aim is to tour the entire globe ;)
Sia - ‘Some people have real problems’
Grinderman - ‘Grinderman 2’
Tori Amos - ‘Night of Hunters’
- Something you would like to say to the fans over the world?
Thanks ever so much for the support
I really appreciate your time, thanks very much!
Thanks to Delain and Napalm Records !
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