Heidevolk – 31-05-2014

Interview with : Rowan Roodbaert, Lars, Reamon Bomenbreker
By: Basak Günel

The Dutch pagan metal band Heidevolk was surely one of the favorites of this year’s Dark Troll Festival, which was held in Burg Bornstedt, Germany at the end of May. At the last day of the festival, I had the chance to interview Rowan Roodbaert (bass), the new vocalist Lars and Reamon Bomenbreker (guitar) before their live show at the festival about the current activity of the band, the festival and some other funny stuff!

Hello guys! Firstly, thanks for taking the time to do interview! How are you? What are your impressions so far?
Lars: I have been here since Thursday [29.05.2014] and so far, I really like the festival and the bands.
Reamon: You have done some partying Lars. Tell us a bit more about that! [laughs]
Lars: There was a ‘spaghetti incident’. I had too much to drink on Thursday and I was a bit sick.
Reamon: You know we all have nicknames in the band. For example, Rowan’s nickname is “Roodbaert” since it’s obvious [points to Rowan’s beard]. Mark’s [the vocalist] nickname is ‘Splintervuyscht’ and he works with the wood. Mine is ‘tree breaker’ because when I entered the band, I fell through a fence of trees. Lars’ nickname is ‘night’s puker’ when you roughly translate it to English. In Dutch, it means “being up all night” but it also has a double meaning.
Rowan: It also means “a puker” [laughs]
Lars: I am stuck with that! 😀

That’s funny! 😀
Are there any particular bands that you loved during the festival?
Rowan: We just arrived to the festival so half of the band was here already while the other half just arrived today.
Lars: I just saw Stormlord, which I was really psyched to see and they were really good.
Rowan: We would have liked to see Celtachor; we played a show with them in the UK and somewhere else. They were really good, I really would have liked to see them but it’s too late now.

Lars, you joined the band not long ago so firstly, congratulations! Can you tell us about how you joined the band?
Lars: I saw the message on Facebook that they were looking for a new singer. I have known the band for a few years and I really like the music. I sent a message asking if I could audition; there were a few auditions. Then, I got an invitation from them to go drinking with them.
Reamon: There is logic to it. Musically, we are looking for a good singer but it also has to work out well personally. Most of the time, we are in a small van. If that person turns out to be a weirdo, it’s not good. [laughs]

Are you also active in other bands and what are your musical influences, Lars?
Lars: I have two other bands. One of them is a post-black metal band with Dutch lyrics, called Godenbloed and it became active just before I joined Heidevolk. I have also been active in the other band, called Lost Lament, for quite a long time and it has had line-up changes. That’s the mix between Type O Negative and Lacuna Coil.

You guys have been working on a new album. How is it going so far?
Rowan: We’re writing now. That was also the reason why we are a few days late. We have to spend all our free time writing the music, listening to it, adjusting it again and writing the lyrics so we’re quite busy with that. Our album will be released early next year. We will record it this summer.

How will be the direction of the album this time?
Rowan: A bit more R’n’B. [laughs]
Lars: We have collaboration with Xzibit [referring to Within Temptation’s latest collaboration with Xzibit]
Rowan: It will be like a combination of “Batavi” [released on 2012, band’s latest album] and the older Heidevolk albums but it’s also more evolved this time.
Reamon: There will be a lot of rock and epicness.

Will it be a concept album this time?
Reamon: It will not be a concept album. There is a theme but it’s not a concept album in the sense that there is no story involved. After last album, we just didn’t want any order or boundaries.
Lars: We don’t have to tell the story in a specific order so we can just mix up the songs in any order we want.
Rowan: I think that was the hardest part of the last album, “Batavi” ; it’s just strict when you have to write the songs according to a story. When you write a song about a victory, the song cannot be happy or cheerful for example[makes a cheerful singing sound].
Reamon: But now we can write whatever we want! [laughs]
Rowan: The funny thing is, when we started writing last year, we were actually thinking about doing all the writing in our rehearsal room. That was our main goal and we started with that but it just didn’t go that well. And then we thought “OK, let’s play cover songs and not think about writing new songs”. We did a few covers and then we thought about recording a cover CD but that idea also didn’t become real. But at that time almost all of us had [ideas for] the new songs and this meant that we could put them all together. So we started listening to the songs and we had this main “Rocky” theme going on, just like what Reamon just said about epicness and that kinda stuff. So we thought “Why not go ahead with our own material”?
Reamon: So we threw away the idea about doing the covers for now. We have 5-6 covers but we wanted to write our own material.

Personally, I actually would love to hear an acoustic Heidevolk album. Have you thought about that?
Reamon: That’s also one of the ideas of the band.
Lars: Because I was new to the band, that was a good thing to play the covers then; I could see if I was good at the vocals when the vocals in the cover song and my vocals were combined.
Rowan: Lars did a few songs with us in the rehearsal room. About 2 months ago, we did a pre-recording of the song and then we combined his voice on the record with Mark’s voice and I almost shed a tear.. Well actually I did shed a tear. It was really good. I expected him to have a good voice of course but the combination with Mark is just really good. We are very happy that he’s in the band.

You’re gonna play live soon in the festival and generally, your shows are full of energy!
Is there anything specific that you do just before playing live? Any rituals?
Rowan: Offering to Gods [laughs]
Lars: I go to the bathroom!
Rowan: That’s Lars! [laughs]
Reamon: We greet each other and we wish each a good gig! 😀
Rowan: The energy in our shows is also an explosion of what we build up during the day. We’re just normal to be like “Whohoo, freedom” and then we do everything we want.

Are there any festivals that you attend as visitors?
Lars: I usually visit Graspop Festival. Actually I saw Heidevolk for the second time live at that festival.
Rowan: It’s actually one of the favorite gigs of mine that we ever did.
Lars: That was really explosive and the tent was packed. It was at a very early hour but the guys pulled it off.
Reamon: I like Wacken festival but it’s gotten quite big now.

That’s true! Actually that’s why I really like Dark Troll Festival..
Lars: Yeah! You can just meet the people. There aren’t many ‘fences’ or ‘security’.
Rowan: I also go to a lot of festivals. This year I will maybe go to Graspop and Wacken.

I have a question about the pagan and folk metal scene, which is changing. What do you think about this and where do you see Heidevolk in this scene?
Rowan: I think folk metal has really proven itself. You got ‘Paganfest’ and that kinda stuff. There are so many people over there. Also, when folk metal bands play at open air festivals, there are so many people watching so I think that those bands really established themselves. There are quite a few established bands around. They are evolving more into the other kinds of music genres because folk metal is a combination of a lot of different styles but singing about one theme.
Lars: You don’t want to sound like the other bands so I think it’s natural for them to evolve.
Reamon: In a sense, metalheads are quite conservative. When you make an album, the fans expect you to do the same thing over and over again. So I think it’s pretty logical that the old folk metal bands are changing their styles.Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn’t.

You guys also changed your style with the last album “Batavi”, right?
Rowan: Yeah, the last album was a bit more “metal” but that was also because of the story. But it doesn’t mean that we are gonna make another same album. The story of the “Batavi” going against the Romans has a bit of a ‘metal vibe’ in it and that’s what we did. Now we got a main theme going on with a lot of other stories with different myths and that turned out to be really epic.
Reamon: But still, we changed a bit in the direction. That wasn’t planned though, it just evolved that way.

Do the songs reflect your personal beliefs actually?
Rowan: For me, I don’t see paganism as a religion for myself but I see it as a way we were thinking about the world back then and I can see what they’re saying and I think it’s a really cool way to tell the stories in the old ways. I believe in lego! [laughs] But yeah, it’s a way of connecting with the past; I can see how they thought and I can put my emotions and my thoughts.

What are your favorite live songs?
Lars: They’re all awesome! [laughs] Well, for me personally, my favorite Heidevolk song is “Het Wilde Heer”. It’s a really good one with a lot of power and I also like “Wapenbroeders” because of the nice vocals; especially I like the combination of the vocals sung by Joris and Mark.
Rowan: Songs like “Ostara” is also really good to play live ; it has got like a brutal [elements] but also folk [elements] in it.

Lastly, what do you want to say to your fans?
Lars: Keep on truckin’! [laughs]
Rowan: Hold on, new album is coming! You won’t be disappointed. The fans of the old as well as the new Heidevolk will be really satisfied!

Special thanks to : Rowan, Lars, Reamon and Napalm Records.

Links:
Heidevolk Official
Heidevolk Facebook