Backstage with Eluveitie: An interview with Chrigel Glanzmann
For well over a decade, Celtic Folk Metal legends Eluveitie have been conquering hearts and minds all over the world with their refreshingly unique brand of music. This musical juggernaut shows no signs of stopping, with their constant touring and regular album releases. They recently completed a very successful North American tour, despite the loss of their co-headliner early on, due to a family emergency. It was a cold rainy day in New York City, on the last day of the North American Tour, when we finally caught up with the band’s founder and main musical inspiration, Chrigel Glanzmann for an interview. The show was at Irving Plaza and finding a quiet room to talk was a bit difficult due to the other bands sound checking… but we ultimately found a semi-quiet place (read that with sarcasm) to discuss the tour, recent personnel changes, and upcoming tours and albums. Despite having to talk loudly over the music that flooded the room every time someone opened the door, we still had an awesome chat! Here is how it went:
This is Joe Prostredny from Afternoiz, and I’m here with Chrigel Glanzmann of the phenomenal Celtic Folk metal band Eluveitie! How are you doing this afternoon?
Thank you very much! Looking forward to the first coffee of the day. Besides that, good!
Great! Well, thank you so much for talking with us today! So, we’re here on the final day of the Revolver North American tour. I was fortunate enough to see this show on the first day in Baltimore. All the bands were incredible, the crowd was crazy and it looked like a really great start. But about four shows in, your co-headliner Epica, due to a family emergency, had to drop out of the tour. What was going through everyone’s heads at that point? Did you ever think about not continuing?
Yeah. First of all, of our thoughts were with Simone, because that’s a really terrible thing to have happened. Second we were kind of lucky that we had a day off after that. So we basically had this one day to discuss and decide what to do. And of course we had to think about if we’re going to go on with the tour or not. The tickets were sold for all the dates of the tour already, and they were sold as a co-headline tour… for two bands. A lot of the people were disappointed and wanted to give their tickets back and get a refund, which I understand completely. Of course, you don’t pay “X” amount of price to see two bands and then just get one of the two bands you wanted to see. But at that point, of course, we could not know how this was going to develop… if it’s just a few people giving their tickets back or if it’s like a shitload of them. We just did not know, we could not know, no one knew. We didn’t know how it was going to develop. We were forced to think about whether to cancel the complete tour or not. After [some thought] we decided to just take the risk… and it was actually a big risk… but as a favor to our fans… we just didn’t want to leave our fans hanging. We just decided to take the risk and try to come up with the best possible thing in one day which ended up with “An Evening with Eluveitie and Friends” including a never before performed acoustic session and a full two hour show and all that. Yeah, but then we just tried to make that happen and really make the best of it.
I know your fans were really glad everyone decided to carry on with the show. Has it been going well since…?
Yes, I would say so… surprisingly actually! Let’s say, regarding the circumstances it went very, very good actually. Usually, if we do our own tours its good, it’s great, all good. You can announce that months before, so everybody knows it’s going to happen, and all good… but that was not the case. We just had this day off and then we were like: “Ok, we’ll do this [extended] show and it starts tomorrow!” (laughs). We were just trying to get it known as much as possible through Facebook and whatever. But of course it’s not the same. But regarding those circumstances it’s going very, very good actually.
Good!!
So, we are happy.
Well, we’re glad you’re here!
Yeah, so are we!!
You mentioned this a little bit earlier but to give us all a full show, you decided to add an acoustic set which you posted on Facebook and it said: “A never-before performed, exclusive acoustic session!” Does that mean they are never-before performed songs or that you’ve never performed an acoustic session before?
Both
Both? Really? That surprises me that you’ve never done an acoustic show. Celtic music lends itself well to an acoustic performance… and you released an acoustic album once, “Evocations I”…
We’ve played a lot of acoustic shows but what we’re doing on this tour is we play acoustic songs but we also do a real session. I’ll explain it for those not familiar with Celtic folk music. That kind of music is usually just played and enjoyed in pubs and bars. It’s just a spontaneous thing, just musicians coming together and just playing traditional tunes, making sets of traditional tunes. Taking, like, those two reels and those couple of jigs and just play for hours. That’s also like… we’re also playing in that sense as well, and we’re having a real proper session during tonight.
Are the new songs from an upcoming album?
Uhhhhh…..
Maybe? (laughs)
In a rough state I would say, yes! (laughs).
Ok… alright! Well, I’m a fan of Folk and Celtic music and not just the metal variety, so I’m personally really looking forward to hearing it tonight.
Cool!
I gotta tell you, this tour is the first time I’ve seen your band. For years, because people know I really love Celtic and Folk music, people have told me: “You’ve gotta go see Eluveitie, you’ve got to!” And it’s never really worked out… but I was totally blown away by your show in Baltimore. You guys hit the stage and it was complete sensory overload! It’s a huge band, eight people, there’s musicians everywhere. You’re an awesome front man… you command the center… you hit the center stage… you’ve got your violinist and your Hurdy Gurdy players right and left mid-stage headbanging away. I just lost my mind, it was incredible!
Ok (laughs)
I gotta tell you, there’s things people put on their bucket lists… things to do before they die… and one thing I never knew ought to be on my bucket list was to see a Hurdy Gurdy player headbanging.
(laughs) That’s awesome!
I didn’t know that should be on my bucket list but it is now and it’s already been checked off, and thank you for that! Everyone should see that before they die!
That’s wonderful that’s wonderful! (laughs). Thank you!
Now… eight people on stage, that’s a really massive band. A lot of personalities traveling around and touring is stressful. Does that many personalities make it easier or harder?
It can make things easier in a sense that everybody can separate him or herself whenever he or she wants, to be alone for the day or hang out with [each other]. But after all, to be honest I think it doesn’t make that much of a difference. Being a touring band, in the extent as we are, and working together on a professional level requires us to learn to get along with each other… to function with each other… to work with each other. And you’ll need to learn that anyway no matter if you’re a three-piece band or eight band members or whatever. In that sense it doesn’t make that much of a difference to be honest.
You are here without your former violinist, Nicole, as she announced she was leaving the band back in August. I assume that it is a permanent departure based on the way it was announced?
Yeah… umm… We’ll see about that…
OK. And who is your new violinist? I haven’t seen much on who she is or how you found her.
Well, when Nicole stepped out, it was kind of an emergency. We just had about a month or something to find a replacement… for this tour actually. So we did an online audition and we were lucky to find Shir-Ran. She’s from Germany and actually a classical violinist. She’s just joining these tours as a session musician. Yeah, we were happy to have found her. She’s doing a good job. She learned everything insanely quickly.
Yeah, she looked like she fit right in in Baltimore.
Yeah, it was good.
Is she a permanent addition, just filling in?
No, she’s a session musician.
Do you have any favorite moments for the tour? Anything that stands out?
On this tour?
Yeah
Oh you can ask questions! Actually not off the top of my head. It’s the last day of the tour and it kind of all melts together. Honestly, I was quite excited that… what I was referring to earlier… they offered after Epica left to gather ideas and tried this [acoustic] session thing and all that. That was pretty good, and I was really excited to try it all out of stage and I’m happy that it’s working out well.
Well we are too! Your fans would have been sad if we didn’t get to see you. I, personally was really looking forward to seeing you again! There are two words on you stage backdrops: Vodextes and Adandamos. I assume they are in Gaulic? What do they mean?
They mean “We carry the torch”.
Together that’s what they mean?
Yeah, yeah.
What is next on your touring schedule, you’re heading back to Europe after this?
We break for one week after this and then we’ll have a couple of shows in Africa, South Africa actually and the tour continues right after that in Europe including Scandinavia extensively until Christmas.
You’ve released a new album at least every 2 years. It seems like your due. Are there plans to head back to the studio soon?
Yeah. We’re working on it at this very moment actually. What you’ll hear tonight probably might be like it, a first impression.
Your last album, “Origins”, was a great album, and extremely successful. What can we expect from the new album? Rumor has it it’s a follow up to your acoustic album: “Evocation I”?
It is true, there is going to be an “Evocation Part II” and we’re working on it now!
That’s awesome, because I know people have been talking about that for a long time. They’re expecting it to come eventually because the first one was called Part I…
Yeah, yeah they are.
Well Chrigel, I’m really looking forward to the show tonight… especially the new acoustic session! Is there anything else you’d like to say to you fans before you leave us?
Thank you very much for the interview of course, and thanks to all the readers for their interest in Eluveitie!
Thank you!
