Visions Of Atlantis are back with their new album “Pirates 2 – Armada” and I had the chance to sit down with vocalist Clementine Delauney where we had a chance to talk in depth about the bands writing, vision and change of focus since she joined the band in 2013. The new album is out via Napalm Records on July 5.
Andrew : Welcome to The Rockpit and welcome to Australia Clementine.
Clementine : Thank you.
Andrew : Congratulations on the new album, “Pirates 2 – Amada”. What a beautiful journey this album is.
Clementine : Thank you.
Andrew : Tell me a little bit about the idea behind the album and the decision to carry on and build from 2022’s “Pirates”.
Clementine : We started to write for the next album after “Pirates” was released very quickly because Michele is our songwriter and he’s constantly writing music. He’s constantly channelling music from the divine. Let’s say he’s a real music box inside, so he is constantly writing the new music, it’s a continuous flow. It’s not like there’s a real stop and now we start writing. Now we should do something. It’s like he needs to write and he writes it and he writes music all the time. So very quickly after the release or we were done with the whole pirate production, we started to have new tracks and knowing new music coming in. And it was very obvious to us that we would want to continue with what we started with ‘Pirates’ because even before this album was released, we were very confident that this was the best record we ever released.
The decision of making that statement of being a pirate band was very strong and caught people’s attention. And a lot of people then when the album was released, completely understood what we mean with the pirate stuff, that it’s a metaphor for an inner journey per se. We felt that we found ourselves and it empowered us so much to go into that direction. And there is so much that we can use and say within that universe that the moment at which we decided to make Visions Apart Band, we knew this was going to be our thing. And when the first new songs came in, we immediately put them into that pirate cinematic world. And the only thing that we decided to change with too is with a bit of maturity compared to pirates, we decided to enhance and increase and improve the production.
We decided to go heavier on the guitars because Michele is getting bigger, better at riffing. So, there is heavier guitar on Pirates Two compared to Pirates One. We decided to record the entire drum set at Diego events in that time to have that punch from the drums and the dynamics of it, which is a real game changer as well in the sound. And that’s it. And we decided to call the Pirates Two, and not just our mother using the Pirates universe because we really want to emphasis on this cinematic aspect that there is in our music. Like Pirates Two has so many moments that are more about dragging you into a universe, a mood or an ambience, rather than just being song after song. And on stage we also like to act a little bit more than just being there and play our music. We borrowed the idea of making a saga, our records from the big saga movies, and that’s it. That’s how we went from Pirates one to Pirates two. It’s a flow and it’s a growth at the same time.
Andrew : There was that little bridge in between, both pirates parts, which was the “Pirate Symphony” released in 2023. Was that where I guess you saw an opportunity to expand on this universe that you speak of? Because it certainly seems like you found something that was really buildable and the fact that you use the term cinematic, this album really is a journey from beginning to end. It’s a roller coaster. And having sat with it, I’ve only had three plays through, but the second play through I made sure I listened to through headphones and the dynamics and the beauty in the storytelling within the way that this album is put together is amazing. Who wanted to keep pushing these boundaries? Was it something that’s collective as a band.
Clementine : The team who’s behind and creating the music for Atlantis, Michele, myself, Thomas on the drums, and Felix Held our producer, and that was the team that already was around the first Pirates album. I think first of all, I think as an artist, and it’s the truth within our band, is that we don’t want to repeat ourselves. We always want to outdo ourselves. We always want to go better. We are living our lives as a growth, even on a personal level. We want to get better at being who we are and not doing what we do. With that mindset, we write songs with the idea of I need to top whatever I’ve written before, I need to become the best songwriter for this band. It’s not a competition, it’s not a pressure either. It’s more a mission of a vision.
The four of us are continuously driven by this idea and this vision that we want to make this band as big as we can, but not necessarily just from the success and the response from the music we make from the production we can have from the creativity, the impact, the value, the quality that we want to deliver. We’re driven by always trying to be the best we can. And this is the progression from Visions of Atlanta is from “The Deep and The Dark” to “Pirates 2” is very big in terms of everything has improved so much. It could also be looked at as if we were a different band even from six years or six years ago. And it does totally feel like that. And yeah, it’s the four of us who are driving this ethic of just trying to deliver the best music we can at the moment that we’re writing it.
Andrew : And that leads into, I guess one of the other questions that I had, I mean obviously the band’s been around now for 24 years and it’s only really been up until this 2019 period when you joined and Michele joined that the band really seems to have aligned with each other. And I think as you sort of said, you feel like you are living as a band, as a single entity. Is that the change that has been found and unity that’s been found that’s translated into the writing and the content?
Clementine : Christian Douscha our guitarist writes his own solos, but he’s not contributing to song writing per se. Neither is Herbert Glos our bass player. So, they’re not really contributing to the absolute artistic value ahead of the shows. They’re more the crew that’s needed and that’s happy to be here. But many bands, you have some driving forces. It’s not like everyone is committed or able to bring something to the table at the same level. So artistic direction, music and lyrics is me killing myself and Thomas. Thomas on the vision and on the vision for the band and on also for the cover artwork management. I’m responsible for a lot of the artistic, visual, artistic directions when it comes to the platform. The photo shoots to the video scripts. I write all of this. We complete each other that very creative cell, and it’s great and we understand each other. We want to go in the same direction.
The nuclear core of the band is very strong and very dedicated. And that’s a driving force that has been absolutely responsible for Visions to come back on the symphonic metal scene with the strength that we’re showing now. And why don’t we were tour. Yeah, there’s this unit feeling like now this line up has been stable for the last five and a half years, almost six years. That is something that has helped bring peace to the process and focus on what is important, which is the music and the shows and how we present ourselves.
Andrew : So, when you’re writing songs and these arrangements, were you ever worried that things may have become too grand and that it may be something that could only be truly done justice in a studio.
Clementine : If I get it right, are we afraid if when we write that it may not be live friendly?
Andrew : Well, yes, that it becomes hard to replicate. I guess the beauty of having the studio is that you can layer upon layer upon layer upon layer and the live environment seems to be a little rawer, I guess. Was there ever a concern that you may not be able to replicate what you are putting on record in a live situation?
Clementine : We have been writing music knowing the strength and the limits of our band. When it comes to all the real instrument section, we make sure that we all are comfortable with what’s being written. We’re not going to layer a hundred thousand lines of guitar riffing, knowing we only have one guitar player. So, we are absolutely aware of our limits here. But when it comes to the orchestrations and all, yeah, we don’t have a keyboard player because we don’t write for keyboards. We don’t write keyboards part per se, but we put everything on samples and so far, it’s never been of an issue. The samples themselves are mixed in a way that they can totally work live with the band on top of it. And yeah, this has never been a limit to the band or a pitfall for sure. There are some songs, there is a ballad on Paris, two Ashes to the Sea that is really just me and myself and a soundtrack.
I don’t think there is even the real band playing there. When we play those kinds of songs live, it might feel like karaoke in a way because it’s the two vocal calls on samples. But the live sound can be so big and the song itself can also be so emotional that in the end the people are just appreciating the performance all in all. And if it’s just one song, it’s also alright not to have everything played. It’s the thing with symphonic metal band, if you wanted to have all the instruments that you hear on the record, that means every band would have to play with an orchestra all the time. That is absolutely not possible. Today people are used to samples.
Andrew : I’m not saying that is a negative thing, just more curious about the approach to it all from a band perspective. It truly is an amazing record. As I said, I mainly three listens in and it really has captured me. That’s a great credit to you all. It’s a really well written album. The storytelling, the musical cinema scape of it all is phenomenal. I would be quite at home watching a production based around this incredible storytelling. It really is truly commendable to you all for delivering such an amazing record.
Clementine : Thank you.
Andrew : I’m intrigued by the whole pirates concept, is it based upon a book or a movie or is it something that’s a part of the creative collective of you all as writers?
Clementine : When I joined Vision of Atlantis 10 years ago in 2013, I told Thomas the leader, okay, willing to join and I just have one desire which is I need to write my own lyrics. I need to sing my own words. And what I mean, I need to feel emotionally connected to what we’re doing, so I need to write the lyrics. He said, okay, fine with me, you can do that. So very early on I thought, okay, I have to make Visions Of Atlantis’s universe mine so that I can write for it. And I looked at what the band had done before, of course, many releases before I joined. And I was like, okay. They changed songwriters and line up many times. But I thought, okay, there is one common thread that connects everything is the ocean related universe. I thought, okay, I keep the ocean thing also because we’re called vision of Atlantis, so I keep the ocean related thing the rest, I leave it to the past.
Then I was like, okay, so what do I do with the ocean? What do I want to say with it? How do I use it to feed lyrics? What approach, what angle can I use from the ocean? And then I thought, we’re a metal band. Metal band is metal. It’s rebellious, it’s untamed. And I thought, okay, so who are the rebels of the ocean? And I thought, that’s the pirates. It was so clear to me. And I suggested that back in the days that why not becoming a pirate band, not a full costume cosplay, whatever, but just why not just embracing that concept. And back in the days, I think that was too early in Tom’s mind to make that big of a shift when the band was coming back from his own ashes and all and he was not connecting to the idea.
But still, I personally hold onto held onto it. Like you can see the pirates from the Swedish band, Yemenis Gravities in the video of “The Deep In the Dark”, released in 2018. For that record, I wrote a song that is called ‘The Silent Mutiny’ that is totally using the pirate world. And then in wanders, we were flirting with all these tales of being lost at sea and having to found yourself going on extraordinary journeys here and there. We’re not outspokenly pirates, but we were already definitely sailing the seas and trying to find ourselves and our freedom. Since I kept writing about this for “Pirates” One, at this point, our producer was like, Felix, why don’t you just become a pirate band? You’re talking about all this and your exploration and freedom and la la la. And I was like, okay, thank you. Can you tell that to Thomas? And at that moment, through the right person, this idea reached Thomas, and then we decided to make that big move and establish our vision of the Atlantis in the universe.
Andrew : It’s an incredible story. And I guess there’s also a metaphor for life in there as well.
Clementine : Absolutely.
Andrew : Now you guys are about to hit the road too. Obviously, we start to head into European Festival season over the next few months. How do you find doing these festivals versus the headline shows that you have coming up in the later part of the year through September and October?
Clementine : It’s a completely different approach. Playing open air sometimes during the afternoon by daylight compared to playing club shows. It’s a completely different experience. And yeah, we just ended up one month us tour and we played our first summer festivals as a festival 10 days ago. And the sound in our ears was so different because you don’t get any feedback, the walls of the room. Because even if you have ears that are as elating, you still get a little bit of sensations from the sound of the front of house coming back into your ears, being reflected by the room. When you play open air, this sound can’t come back. So even if the stages are bigger and there’s a larger crowd, a lot of times the sound you have in your ears when you play at the festivals, it’s way thinner and sometimes if the stage is too big, you don’t even hear the drums anymore because they’re too far away.
So it feels, it’s a very big contrast to club shows. But once you’ve adapted to that, when you know it’s going to be this way, it’s amazing to play outdoor because you can play with the elements. You have the sun in your face, sometimes there’s a lot of wind. Sometimes the environment is part of the storytelling itself. There are festivals that are surrounded with trees, with heels, with mountains, depending on where we play. And being a band, talking about exploring and storms and all. When I look outside and I see the clouds forming, or if suddenly there’s a ray of light coming in, it becomes part of the show. To me, the nature that’s surround us and the crowd, it’s our opportunity to play in front of people who didn’t come to see us specifically, who has never heard of us, and we love to play with them.
We love to have them have the best time ever embracing the festival. Fun. It is fun. And our shows are more when we end up being a headliner, we control everything. It’s smaller rooms for sure at the moment than the large festivals, of course. And it’s dark. We can do our show from A to Z and feel like we really deliver what we meant to deliver within the boundaries and limits of what we can do right now. Of course, we cannot play arenas with the biggest production ever, but we grow our show with every tour; it’s a different mindset. I love both because it’s refreshing to jump from festivals to a tour and from a tour to festivals. Yeah, it’s just the difference. If you have an actor who loves to play theatre and cinema, it’s not exactly the same, but you do the same thing. But the mindset is different, and I personally enjoy both very much.
Andrew : I completely get everything that you’ve said there. Not relying on a room’s acoustics to give you something back sometimes can obviously, obviously give you something extra and leave you in the moment. We’d certainly love to see you here in Australia at some stage.
Clementine : Oh I would love to be able to come over there totally.
Andrew : I could speak to you forever on this album and go really deep into a lot of the things that I’ve picked up on it already. I just wanted to thank you for your time and for going so in depth into what we did cover. Congratulations on ‘Pirates 2 – Armada’ and I can’t wait for the rest of the world to hear it when it’s out on July 5. I wish you and the band all of the success with this record, and I’ll be posting my review just prior to release, so I get to sit with it for a little bit longer. Thank you for an amazing record.
Clementine : Thank you so much, Andrew.
Andrew : Take care. Thank you.
Clementine : Bye-bye.
