Before the release of their second album, Ascending To Synergy I got to sit down with ELVELLON's guitarist, Gilbert Gelsdorf and vocalist Nele Messerschmidt to discuss working on this new album and some other interesting tidbits. What was the first instrument Gilbert learned to play? What inspires the music of Elvellon? Find out in this interview.
Mick: What lessons do you feel you have learned from the 2018 album Until Dawn and 2015 EP Spellbound and applied to this album?
Nele: That sounds like a great question for you Gilbert…
Gilbert: Of course, things have changed, but only in that we did a lot of this ourselves this time. I borrowed some equipment so I could learn to get a solid studio quality at home. That was really nice because we had no time limits. We could just record hours after hours. Which was really good as we were able to pick and choose the takes we liked. If there was something that needed changing, we could. This is something, I think, that suffers when you’re working in someone else’s studio, that sometimes feels like everything is rushed into 3-5 days. I think that was the biggest thing we took into this album from Until Dawn.
Nele: Also, I think that we learned that we are on the right track with what we do. The feedback from Until Dawn was huge and so positive. It really kept us going!
Mick: So, In a sense, there was a lot more freedom to do what you wanted with this album. You were able to work to your standards and not someone else's?
Nele: Absolutely. I think that in partnership with Napalm Records. We just decided to have a really fresh start. We really intended to make this the best album possible. When you consider the second album is always really difficult for bands. As you don’t want to disappoint the fans of the first album. I think that this is the best work we could produce. Especially with Napalm Records being so supportive, they’re such a strong partner. We just wanted to make sure that this would be the beginning of something special working with them!
Gilbert: One thing to mention, when working on Until Dawn, I think that 8 out of the 10 songs we had already been playing live for years. So when it came time to record that album, there was no question of how we were going to do it. We already knew how they should sound, so those time limitations that I said before just didn’t matter. As we already knew how they were going to sound. Every note, every word was so clear. But with Ascending to Synergy we still had to figure out a lot of things as we haven’t played one of those songs yet. Some vocal melodies changed, and some lyrics changed. It was always a development.
Mick: It does feel like quite the task of trying to capture lightning in a bottle twice! I think that the pandemic didn’t help matters either for a lot of bands. Your first record was before lockdown and this one is coming out in this new period of the world. Did the pandemic and lockdown inform any of the writing?
Nele: Obviously that was such a major setback for us and also because we decided to keep everyone involved this time. It took so long because we decided everything democratically and it couldn’t happen because we could meet in the rehearsal room. For the whole of the writing process.
I reached a point during lockdown where I felt that everybody was falling out of touch with each other and also with themselves. That’s what I think the title Ascending In Synergy really means to me. You get back because you get back in touch with yourself. During COIVD I struggled quite heavily so I needed a creative process to help me get back in touch with me.
Mick: It changed a lot of us for better or worse. It’s definitely a new world we found ourselves in. So on the new album, what are your personal favourite songs from the album and why?
Gilbert: Do you want to start Nele or should I?
Nele: I mean, if you needed time to think but I think I know which one you’re picking already!
Gilbert: There were certain songs we started rehearsing to go out on the road with, as we didn’t want to be playing the full album. So, we picked certain songs that we really wanted to do. The song I love is “Ocean of Treason”, which we picked up so quickly in the rehearsals. It’s just so fun to play. I think it’s fun to sing, right?
Nele: Absolutely! I love it!
Gilbert: It’s very dramatic, very dark and very dramatic! It really fits all of our tastes. It just clicked automatically. I really enjoy this song and we all really enjoy it by now. It wasn’t a super reasonable single as it was perhaps a bit too dark and too heavy, so maybe people just expect something else from us. We did just release “The Aftermath of Life” as a single, which is a little more appropriate, with a catchy chorus with some dark riffs. However, “Ocean of Treason” is just brilliant.
Nele: I know that Jan, Gilbert and I really love that song. However, the song I’m going to pick for this question is so personal to me. “A Legacy Devine” is so dear to my heart and I really wanted to share that one with everyone!
Mick: So, have your influences for writing music changed at all over the years, or are they still more or less the same?
Gilbert: That’s a tough one as it’s so hard to know where the inspiration comes from sometimes. Of course, our main inspiration is within the genre we’re in, symphonic metal. We’ve taken a lot from all of those bands, especially from the late 90s and early 2000s. Which were really the golden years for the genre. Apart from the bands that I love. It’s really movie soundtracks and even now game soundtracks. In fact, soundtracks to games have become as good as movie soundtracks if not better. Especially over the last 20 years. So everything that gives us a feeling of magic!
Nele: Everything that’s capable of touching our soul. I think it’s always been nature. You know that feeling of going for a walk and being out in the world. You know, being able to go out into the world and experience the natural surroundings. That was actually the dark side of the pandemic, that we really struggled. To find inspiration because we couldn’t live lives the way we wanted to.
Mick: I’ve spoken to many musicians who have said many different things. Some try to stay updated with he times and keep their influences fresh, whereas others have one consistent source of influence and everything else is just noise to them.
Nele: I had people asking me where I draw inspiration from and I have to say for the most part it feels like channeling. I really don’t know where some stories came from I try to convey to the listener in these these songs. I just knew I had to tell these stories.
Mick: Where did your passion for music begin?
Gilbert: It was quite early. My father was really interested in music, he used to play the guitar, electric and acoustic, so there were always guitars in the house and he was really into Mike Oldfield. You know, big compositions and atmospheric parts and I remember when I used to ask my father to put on Mike Oldfield records. So that’s always been a part of me.
Also, there’s an initiative here in Germany where, before you go to kindergarten, you go to a music room to try a bunch of different instruments. It's not really music lessons or anything like that, there’s no teacher, you just go in there and bang on stuff, so that’s where I got my start. From then on I really loved it. When I was 9 I was really into Pirate, you know typical boys stuff, which actually led me to learn the accordion, so that was actually my first instrument. However, when puberty hit me, that wasn’t the best instrument to play to impress my peers, so then I switched to guitars. From there on in it was music all the way!
Nele: It was really the same for me, a part of my family is quite musical with everyone playing an instrument, everybody sings and whatnot. I also had the same experience as Gilbert with that program. That actually was my first trauma because I really didn’t want to be there. I can actually vividly remember just standing there crying until my mum picked me up and took me home because I couldn’t actually stand being there with the other kids. Also, the pressure of actually having to do something. You had to show your talent. That feeling of being compared to the other kids didn’t feel right. I didn’t want to play an instrument.
I knew from very early on that I wanted to use my voice as my instrument. I remember being 4 or 5 years old and telling my parents that I wanted to be an actress or a singer. Then I met these weird guys from Elvellon and the rest is history.
Gilbert: We’re very happy about that!
Nele: Thank you, me too!
Mick: You have such a creative sound, mixing a lot of different styles of music together. What influenced you as a band on the whole?
Nele: We’re a band that likes to uncover a song and experience a song before it’s written. We really enjoy letting the song become what it wants to become. It doesn’t really matter to us because we like what we like. We love symphonic metal as that’s what we do, there are influences for different metal sub-genres. I think one of the worst things you can do is limit yourself to just one specific kind of sound because I think that’s just not necessary.
Gilbert: I can’t think of one specific moment where we said “ok the pop-sounding chorus goes here” you know? It’s never been a discussion. If that’s what the song needs then so be it.
Mick: If you could go back in time. What would you tell your younger self?
Gilbert: Always be true to yourself, always be true to who you are. Your time will come
Mick: What's the hardest thing you've had to overcome and how did you overcome it?
Nele: I think band-wise. It was to realise that we’re a family and to develop personally in so many directions. But keeping the work up and internalising that will to keep moving forward together. So we can level up together. That’s the hardest thing you have to come to terms with when working in a band. That work is never ending to be honest, just like in any relationship. I’m very thankful for that. It comes down to dedication, determination and love for what we do and knowing that together we are the perfect match.
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