Trillium – 22-11-2012

Interview with: Amanda Somerville – Paul Owsinski – Mark Burnash and Philip Krause.
By: Thorsten Hendriks

After the show and giving the band time to meet fans it was time to have an interview with Trillium. We went backstage to the dressing room where it was quieter than anywhere else in the building, however your could still feel Magnum’s music. Amanda Somerville (vocals), Paul Owsinski (guitars), Mark Burnash (bass & vocals) and Philip Krause (drums) joined the interview session and instead of a Q&A session it just turned out to be more of a casual chat between all of us, covering the questions I had jotted down on paper.

The band members were all very relaxed and buzzing at the same time from the fabulous reception they received from the crowd. They absolutely love touring about anything else, the adrenaline they get from performing their music in front of hundreds of fans. In turn the fans showed their appreciation to the music by cheering and afterwards commenting positively to the band in person. When asking Amanda Somerville (vocals) directly what she means by ‘nutty musician’ in her website’s bio, she replied that she is “crazy, in a good way” and this was met by acknowledgement from the Paul, Mark, Philips as well as Marcel (sound technician). She also mentioned that she doesn’t feel like a ‘metal diva’ as she is just the singer of a rock band. Her long spanning career working with band like Epica and Kamelot have, more or less, pushed her in the pigeon hole that is called ‘Metal Fronted Metal’ but again she doesn’t see it that way.

This also means that she doesn’t mind performing the main vocals in a band, a session musician or solo artist. She enjoys all that has to do with making music and travelling, she lives in The Netherlands but is away from home 75% of the time. She also told me that, when she was little, all she wanted to do was making music or join the circus and travel – jokingly followed by ‘maybe I should have bought a moving house (caravan/campervan) and become a gypsy or a member of the travelling community’.

As the chat continued a lot of ‘off topic’ subjects were covered amongst the comparison with other bands – even though no one really wants to do that. but since they brought it up. The band’s strong point which makes them stand out amongst their peers, is versatility; being able to make music work with their lyrics in a way it conveys well to the public. Inspiration is drawn from life events of the band members, happy and sad ones. Most of the songs speak for themselves, there are no complicated lyrics to decipher the meaning behind them. Coupled with excellent song writing and music composition it all complements each other.

Whenever the band have time they take to Facebook, Twitter, Youtube and MySpace to let the fans know what they’ve been doing, leaving video blogs on Youtube and messages on Facebook in gratitude of their fans’ attendance. Although Trillium have a busy schedule and have no time set aside for sight seeing, they are able to maintain their focus and their willingness to entertain the crowd. Every day before the performance they peek through the stage curtain and immediately they feel the adrenaline kicking in. They all love the buzz of performing and apart from the ‘group huddle’ before starting their set they don’t have any weird habits or rituals to ‘get in the zone’.

After this tour Trillium will be working on the next album which is hoped to be released late 2013/early 2014 followed by another tour – depending on their recording label Frontier’s schedule. Amanda is also working on a ‘Rock meets Classic’ project together with Paul Rodgers (Free/Bad Company/Queen), Bonnie Tyler and some others. She also revealed that she is working on another project of which she was not able to mention any details of. So, watch this space, this lady is going to be very busy!

I would like to thank Amanda, Mark, Paul and Philip for their hospitality and time to speak with me as well as their tour manager Paul Simons.

Links:
Amanda Sommerville Official
Amanda Sommerville Facebook
Trillium Facebook