Interview: Emmanuelle Zoldan (Vocals) of Sirenia

Games, Brrraaains & A Head-Banging Life had the pleasure of speaking with vocalist Emmanuelle Zoldan, of symphonic metal band, Sirenia. Their latest album ‘Riddles, Ruins & Revelations’ was released on February 12th 2021 via Napalm Records.

You can read our review of Riddles, Ruins & Revelations here.

What follows is a partial written transcript of the interview. If you want you hear the full thing, you can via Soundcloud, Spotify, Apple Podcasts and of course, YouTube.

On how they have been coping over the last 12 months.

Yeah, we had to adapt in many ways for sure, because, of course, life has changed a lot. I’ve been deprived of touring together with the band and everything was really hard to manage with, of course. So, we had to live differently. It was the occasion also to focus on more personal things, some more personal projects. I have been focusing on my musical projects and painting, too. I spend more time with my family and kids, which was a good thing too.

On early plans to utilise her mezzo-soprano vocals in her career.

In the beginning I was absolutely not planning to do any kind of classical or opera singing. I was dreaming about being a rock star. Like a lot of teenagers. In the end, I fell in love with classical. This was totally unexpected because we didn’t listen to classical music at home and it was something totally new for me.

So, my plans were totally, you know, destroyed because I began at that moment, a classical career and not a rock one.

On being asked to take on main vocal duties for Sirenia.

I remember that it happened right at a good moment for me. It was I thought, OK, it’s the perfect moment for me. I was singing as an opera singer and I was really in need of something new. I was in need of more freedom in music, you know, and this happened right at this moment. I had all these doubts about my direction in music, so I thought it was kind of a gift from the universe.

Regarding living up to expectations that had already been set with Sirenia.

It was a little bit daunting for me. Of course, in the beginning, as I said, I was an opera singer. So, I was not really used to the metal scene. And I had to learn really quickly things, you know, moving on stage, singing in a microphone. In classical, you don’t do this. So that was new things for me to do, to experiment, to adapt really fast and quickly for the tours.

So, it was daunting, of course, in the beginning. But at the same time, I’ve known Martin for so many years and he has always been really benevolent. So, I felt confident and in, you know, the kind of the secure environment.

On plans to celebrate Sirenia’s 20th anniversary this year (2021).

Of course, we wanted to do something special but this worldwide situation… everything is definitely destroyed. We want to get out live. We are suffering a lot. The situation, of course, it’s been one year now that we did our last tour together. I have met Martin for the recordings in August, but we were not all together at the same time.

We hope that the situation allows us to be back on stage really soon because it’s depressing as hell to get through, especially when you have a new album to share with people and new songs to perform live.

Check out the full interview below.

Links

Website | Facebook | Instagram | Twitter | YouTube | Napalm Records