MARTIJN WESTERHOLT, Lucidity

Delain started as a project from Martijn Westerholt, the former keyboardist of Within Temptation, and brother of Robert Westerholt (Within Temptation). Because of his illness he had to leave the band and after his recovery, he started to find a way to record the music he had been writing. Finally it came to a demo called Amenity in 2002, but then it seemed a dead end. Martijn didn’t give up and after a extensive search for a good singer he eventually found Charlotte Wessels, living in the same street where his parents are still having their home. She used to sing in a band called To Elyseum. Through his acquaintances via his former band and a little help from brother Robert, Martijn knew a lot of musicians who were willing to help and soon he found first class musicians like Marco Hietala (Nightwish) on bass and vocals, guitarist Ad Sluijter (ex-Epica), drummer Ariën van Weesenbeek (God Dethroned) and vocalists Liv Kristine (Leaves’ Eyes), George Oosthoek (ex-Orphanage) and Sharon den Adel (Within Temptation). Roadrunner Records turned out to be the record label of choice and the production of the debut album Lucidity was in the capable hands of Oliver Phillipps (Everon) and engineered by Christian Moos (also from Everon). The album was well received and there was a demand for taking the project on the road. Martijn succeeded in forming a real band with the addition of Rob van der Loo (ex-Sun Caged), a fabulous bass-player, guitarist Ronald Landa and drummer Sander Zoer. Extensive touring by the band in 2006, 2007 and 2008 followed and in between writing and recording for the new album. Recently April Rain, the successor of Lucidity has been released. The album has been produced again by Oliver Phillipps, mixed by Jacob Hansen and mastered by no-one less than Eroc (Grobschnitt). Although Charlotte Wessels was present, but very busy preparing her hair for the show, Martijn Westerholt did most of the talking.

Martijn,  what was the reason for chosing the band name Delain?

"Well, It comes out of a novel by Stephen King called Eyes Of The Dragon (1987). I’m not much of a reader you know, but this book really grabbed me by the throat. Somewhere in the book I saw the name Delain, and I grew very fond of that name. No particular meaning or hidden messages, I just liked the name so much that I decided it should be the name of my band."

Can you tell us something about your musical background and education and who your idols were being a kid? 

"I really grew up with music so to speak. But since my two elder brothers started to play guitar, I decided it had to be another instrument. I chose piano and altogether I’ve had lessons on piano and keyboards for about twelve years. My influences come from a wide variety of rockstars like Jimi Hendrix and Genesis, in the eighties mainly acts like The Police, but please, don’t tell anyone... Marillion and of course Dream Theater. My biggest all time hero is Tuomas Holopainen of Nightwish and in spite of what people might say, I can live with both incarnations of Nightwish, also because I’m not that big a fan of operatic voices but with Tarja Turunen, things were different. I am a huge admirer of Nightwish but as said, I like the current line up with Anette Olsson too. What touches me is foremost the song structures Holopainen comes up with, really amazing!"

You were still around when Within Temptation had a major breakthrough with Mother Earth? I noticed that René Merkelbach was credited for keyboards as well. Weren’t there discussions to hire a temporary replacement until you would have been recovered from Pfeiffer’s disease?

"I had my part in accomplishing Within Temptation’s success, no one will dispute that. I co-wrote songs on Enter and The Dance, but during the process of writing and recording Mother Earth I was already very ill and to be honest, at that point I was through with the whole lot. I was feeling so miserable and week, nothing band or music related seemed to be appealing at the time. So, no, there was no question about finding a temporary replacement. The band knew I wasn’t to come back. I didn’t expect the disease to keep me in its grasp that long however. I still am not recovered fully and I have to be very careful with what I eat, drink and with the amounts of energy I’m using up. The upcoming tour through Europe in a nightliner will be a testcase or me and I hope I’ll pull through."

Did you actually have plans for what became to be Delain during your illness? Did you write any songs in that period?

"I was absolutely sure I wanted to write music and record it if possible, but at the time the things I had in mind were meant to be a project. And yes, I did write a number of tunes even when I was feeling lousy most of the time. It really isn’t fun to feel tired all day! At some point in time I almost gave up but then I found Charlotte Wessels. The demo’s I made with her had a great response and we had offers from several record companies. Because of their distribution network and huge experience in promoting bands we chose Roadrunner Records. Due to the success of Lucidity, my original plans had to be adjusted. There was such a demand to take Lucidity on the road, that I became convinced there had to be a real band."

How did you manage to get all those guests involved on Lucidity? From the people you worked with on the first album, only singer Charlotte Wessels is left.

"Well, because of my years in Within Temptation I had a lot of connections, so asking Sharon den Adel to participate wasn’t too hard. During the tours I met Ewo, Nightwish’s manager and through him I got the opportunity to ask Marko Hietala to play bass on the album. Finding the right band members was not that easy, because I am very picky …. They had to be good players, they had to be committed to Delain and they had to accept, I would be the one in charge. I don’t believe in democracy when it comes to defining your own music. Not that I’m a dictator of some sort and certainly I have an open mind for good ideas. I'm more than willing to use them but in the end there must be only one making the final decisions. It doesn’t work for me any other way. The easiest one to find was bass player Rob van der Loo. He volunteered for the job by contacting me on his own initiative. I was a bit surprised, because I knew of his background in progressive rock band Sun Caged, but he convinced me that his only aim was to be involved in a live band again, be around nice people and not necessarily to be playing the top notch far more difficult prog metal."

Talking about Marko Hietala: it must have struck him that Delain’s music is in the same genre as his own band Nighwish. Didn’t he make any argument about that?

"No, not at all. He liked the songs so much, that he offered me to throw in his amazing vocals as a sort of a bonus: awesome, don’t you think? Yeah, that worked out just fine and when I asked him to be a guest on April Rain again, he agreed to participate immediately."

Your debut Lucidity was received very well by the press. It also scored a recommendation by DPRP, as did April Rain by the way. Did the overall sales meet your expectations and where has the album been selling well so far?

"I didn’t know Lucidity and April Rain were DPRP recommended! Lucidity did very well indeed, it sold somewhere around 35.000 to 40.000 copies, not bad at all for a debut! The album sold well in several countries throughout Europe, also a bit in Japan. You would have expected that potentially South America could have been a good market, but the situation there is extremely difficult: many illegal copies and downloads and most people don’t have much to spend, while CD’s are quite expensive in those countries. Musically, Delain, just as Within Temptation or Nightwish, write and play pop songs: only we perform them in a heavy metal way with some classical arrangements and orchestrations, but basically it’s the old principle of verse, chorus and again verse."

Lucidity was engineered by Christian Moos and produced by Oliver Phillipps, both of Everon. Did you know Everon’s music and how did you decide to choose them for the production?

"I never knew who they were until someone recommended them strongly. I didn’t know of the band Everon either, because I’m not so much into progressive rock music the last decade. Oliver is a very determined guy and a perfectionist. Both Christian and he are great guys to work with but I didn’t always agree with them about the sound so that’s why I used Moos as engineer. Oliver and I were in contact on a regular basis, sending files to each other. He proved to be a great vocal coach for Charlotte and he’s a superb arranger. I owe him a lot for helping me with the orchestrations. Due to our mutual understanding and respect, Oliver worked with us on the April Rain album as well. However, I’ve had a bigger share in the production and the mixing, that’s why I’m credited as co-producer."

Would you say the music industry has changed in the last ten years? What do you think of the future, will there be only downloads?

"It cannot be denied that there has been a huge change in the whole music industry. Personally I’m not tempted to be downloading music all day, but I guess the youngsters of today are doing it all the time. This means we have a different assignment. We have to have a good promoting team behind us and we have to offer a good show and package. That’s why a good record company like Roadrunner Records is of such an importance to bands like us. In my opinion there are a lot of fans who not only like the music, but at the same time they want to have something valuable in their hands. These are the people we must be aiming at. They are not merely music lovers but also collectors. That is one of the reasons we are selling the digipack limited edition tonight with a T-shirt at the price of a regular CD! We are trying hard to work on our live performance and we keep arranging and changing little details every day!"

As you mentioned several times to the press already, April Rain is no longer a project but much more a band album?

"That is correct. From the early start of songwriting Charlotte and I have been working together closely and other members of the band have been given the opportunity to contribute both in writing as well as arranging the songs. The song On The Other Side is based on an idea from Charlotte and Start Swimming was co-written by Rob.

By the way: Charlotte is in the same room preparing her hair for the show and is listening during the whole interview.

Where did the inspiration for On The Other Side come from?

Charlotte: "My mother has been very, very ill and at some point we had a reason to believe she might not overcome her disease. In that period I wrote this song with the help of our good friend Guus Eijskens. This song is of great emotional value to me and I really consider it to be my baby. Fortunately my mother recovered miraculously and so it feels even better now!"

Now you mention the name of Guus Eijskens: he gets credits for co-writing several songs and he also wrote for Orphanage and Within Temptation?

Martijn: "Yes, we go a long way back together. He is a good friend and I consider him to be the sixth member of the band. He is a truly good songwriter and a very pleasant guy to work with (Charlotte confirms this statement by nodding her head with a smile). He doesn’t dig gigs and touring anymore but in this way he is of great importance to us. He feels appreciated and gets a chance to allow his creativity to flow whenever he chooses so we are both benefiting from this situation."

How long did it actually take to write and record April Rain? Did the whole band go to Germany?

"We started writing last summer and finished mixing around the beginning of February so I’d say just about eight months. Most of the recordings were done here but the arrangements and vocal harmonies were done with Oliver. So mainly Charlotte and me were in the studio with Oliver. I’ve told you what kind of a perfectionist Oliver is: well he’s met his equal in Charlotte! She insisted on doing all harmonies and background vocals herself, every single note!"

In my opinion Charlotte sings with more self-confidence compared to her vocal performance on Lucidity.

"Yes, I agree. There are two or rather three reasons for this. In the first place Charlotte had to sing the songs that were already written and most of the time arranged as well. Secondly, she was ill during the recordings for Lucidity. The strange coincidence was, she turned out to have Pfeiffer’s disease! You can imagine how I felt when I heard about this; as if history was to repeat itself and some strange fate was prone to ‘get me’. Luckily for me Charlotte did an outstanding job in spite of her illness and lucky for her she managed to get rid of the disease within half a year. The second reason is that on April Rain she was involved during the whole process, she had her say in how she would sing the songs and as you know, she even got to songwriting herself."

As you probably know, After Forever has disbanded. What was your reaction when this news broke?

"As a ‘competitive' artist I should say: good, one competitor less. However, this is absolutely not the way I felt. Not only because After Forever played a different kind of music, a lot heavier in my opinion, but I respected and loved that band. I’m sure all band members will find their own way in the music business. I believe Sander Gommans has released an album recently, but I haven’t heard it yet. Supposed to be very, very heavy! Maybe he has put all his frustrations and anger in that record!"

How is the tour with Kamelot moving along and what are the plans for the future? Maybe live recordings for a DVD?

"Touring with Kamelot is fun, great musicians and nice guys especially Roy Khan. It’ll soon be over and then it’s Delain on their own. We’re really looking forward to promote our new album in countries like Germany, Switzerland and Austria. After that, probably a number of shows in the Netherlands again and then obviously working on the third album! Surely no DVD at this point. We have yet a long way to go to be able to do a DVD that will sell! Recording a good DVD takes a lot of preparation and it costs a great deal of money too, maybe in the future bu not this tour."

Martijn, thank you very much for this chat, best of luck in Europe and lots of success with April Rain!

"Thank you Menno. It was nice talking to you and we’re really excited about April Rain. So far the sales are far beyond our expectations. Rumour will have it that the album entered in some alternative chart straight on number one!"

Note: I have to make my apologies to Delain, but this interview should have been recorded, but due to my lack of technical know how I’ve missed a button, so this interview has been written on the basis of my memory alone. Martijn gave me more details than I could remember...