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Good Melodic Death Metal is something that always makes me happy and it’s also a genre that has so many variations. This leaves ample room for new discoveries. While I did discover AEPHANEMER from France in 2016 when a friend told me to listen to an album called Memento Mori, you might only discover them now. Hopefully, you’ll fall in love with their unique style, that marries intricate symphonies and ambitious vocals, just as much as I do! In the interview you can find out what influences them, why you should see them on tour in the fall and what their hopes for the future are!
Huge thanks to Marion and Martin for taking the time to talk to me! And also to lightinmirror.de for the amazing pictures!
Shieldmaiden’s Voice: What makes AEPHANEMER unique?
Martin: Oh, that is a difficult question… I would maybe say that it’s our musical influences. We are a Melodic Death Metal band, so we have influences from a lot of other Melodic Death Metal bands like IN FLAMES, CHILDREN OF BODOM, AMON AMARTH, ARCH ENEMY and the likes. We are also influenced by other music, like Classical music, Folk or religious music. Sometimes, that can be heard in the melodies and that makes us unique. But there also the lyrics and the vocals!
Marion: What I think makes the band unique is Martin’s music, because when I first heard it, I just fell in love with it. I thought it was so different and so cool and I absolutely wanted to join the band. He was alone at the time and I immediately sent him a demo of my voice. So, for me personally, it really is Martin’s music that makes out band unique! But I do my best! [we laugh]
SV: What is something that inspires you the most?
Marion: For the lyrics, I usually take inspirations from the books I read, like literature, poetry and philosophy. What, I think, makes the music interesting is that Martin takes inspirations from the Metal bands he mentioned, but also from a lot of music that isn’t Metal, like video game music. That is what makes our music personal, because the mix is really individual!
SV: Now that we have established that you, Martin, are responsible for the music, while you, Marion, create the lyrics, could you maybe walk us through the process of writing songs together?
Martin: I always try to find beautiful melodies, that is always the first step. When I’m in songwriting mode, I listen to a lot of music and I write a lot, always in pursuit of the best melody I can find. When I find a melody that is good enough, then that can be the core of the song. Once I have that melody, I try to write the rest of the song as some kind of long melodic line with some secondary melodies added to it. Afterwards, I show it to Marion so that we can discuss the themes of the songs. I usually tell her which kind of feelings I am thinking about putting into the song. She usually tells me about what she can write something!
Marion: I propose some themes for the lyrics and we then discuss it, because it’s possible that my thought don’t match with what he had in mind.
Martin: I finish the song, because I basically write all the instruments. I also record it and then Marion will put the last touches to the lyrics and will also record the vocals. We always hope that it works out and most of the time it does!
Marion: It’s basically all the music first and all the lyrics later.
SV: So you make it fit?
Marion: Absolutely! Sometimes, it’s a bit difficult, because you have to match the music since you can’t change it. You have to find a solution, but most times it’s really easy, because I love Martin’s music so much.
SV: If I’m not mistaken, you released your last album A Dream of Wilderness in 2021. Is there maybe something new you can talk about?
Martin: We can absolutely share something since we already posted some information on social media! We have a new album that will be released later this year. We cannot say when exactly…
Marion: … in winter, before our tour!
Martin: Yes! We are touring in Europe in November and we need this album to be released beforehand. This new album has already been handed to our label Napalm Records and we’re basically waiting on them to release it. You can expect something new this year!
SV: Touring is a great point to which I wanted to come next anyway! What is, in your opinion, the most interesting thing about seeing you guys live?
Marion: First off, we are doing our best every time! The feedback that people give us is that we’re always smiling and are really enthusiastic on stage. I think, that that is really our thing. On a big stage, like here at Rockharz it’s a bit different though…
Martin: There is a lot of distance between us and the audience…
Marion: Yes! Generally, when we play in clubs, we are smiling and we are close to the audience. We love to meet people after the show and the people enjoy that!
SV: You mentioned that you’re going on tour in November. What is something you look forward to the most with that tour?
Martin: Everything actually!
Marion: First, we are very much looking forward to at some places again, like Hellraiser in Leipzig. It is so cool to come back to places you love, to people you already know, when you are on tour! You also make a lot of friends on the road and it’s such a pleasure to see them again on tour. Secondly, it will be our first time touring where we have support bands. It will be cool to be headlining such a line-up and we are very much looking forward to sharing the stage with these bands. Also, we will be playing for the first time in some countries, like Latvia. There will also be a couple of days in Poland where we only played once before. We are excited for these new places! [Editor’s note: AEPHANEMER will be supported by DARK OATH, VALHALORE and WALDGEFLÜSTER]
Martin: Touring is a lot of fun and, as Marion said, it’s good to return to places we already know and it’s also great to just travel, seeing new countries and cities every day. At the same time, we still meet the same people, because there are a few people who have been following us for some years now and we see them every time we’re on the road. That is fantastic, because it makes us feel like we are home everywhere. That is just amazing!
SV: Honestly, that was the feeling I had today. I have been following you since you released Memento Mori in 2016 and somehow it never worked out for me to see you live. Standing in front of the stage, finally seeing you live, was immensely exciting! And you guys were also the first ones that got an interview request from me! Moving on though: If you look into the future of the band, what is something you wish for?
Marion: We are very happy right now because we are able to tour Europe and to play for cool audiences, which makes us very happy with how things are going. If it were possible, it would be good to do this more professionally and to not have to work on the side. Sometimes it’s a bit difficult to do everything. When you are trying to make you band bigger, you have to work a lot, but you also have to work on the side, just so that you can eat and live.
Martin: It’s like having two jobs at the same time, because we are musicians, but we also have a side job. Even though we are musicians, we have to take care of our own promotion, our management and we also have to record music videos. We are doing multiple jobs at the same time and if we could just drop the side job, it would be awesome.
Marion: Even if you have a label, you still have to work a lot to promote yourself online. You have to do a lot to gain an audience. It’s very difficult, but I think all musicians would tell you the same thing.
SV: Unfortunately, we’re now coming to my last question… If you could give your fans one message, what would it be?
Marion: Please come to our tour in November!
Martin: There will be shows after that, but we will be touring through Europe with our new album in November. We have a lot of shows planned everywhere with new songs that should be good. If you can come, we promise that it will be a good time!
Marion: What we love the most is meeting our audience in clubs, so please come!
There you have it! Make sure to check out the dates for AEPHANEMER’s tour in the fall. You won’t regret it, that I can promise you.
I still owe you guys one day report and one interview though, so we’ll read each other again soon!
Shieldmaiden's Voice 