Saturday, September 2, 2017

Celesterre interview done by Patrick posted on 9-2-17

Interview  with  Celesterre  done  by  Patrick

1.Hello  please  introduce  yourself  to  the  readers? When  did you  become interested  in  playing  music?

Hi, I’m Wouter and I’m the vocalist and guitar player of Celesterre: metal’s natural history unit. I’ve been a music addict for as long as I can remember, but seeing a concert of Elvis Presley on TV at the age of 9 was the sparkle for me. His show was so inspiring that I wanted to make music myself.


2.When  did  you first  get  the  idea  to  form  a  band? How  did you  decide  on Celesterre  as the name  of  the band?

Probably around the time when I got into hardrock and metal back in 1992. I’ve played lots of music with lots of bands before I started Celesterre in 2010. 

We made the name ‘Celesterre’ up ourselves, because it reduced chances of another band having the same name. The word ‘Celesterre’ means ‘the earth in all its splendour’, which is fitting since nature is the subject of all our lyrics. To us, the name stands for both construction and life as well as degradation and death. Both sides are equally important for the functioning of the planet and its organisms.


3.The  band  seems to  draw  influences  from  many  different  genres.  Who  would you  say are the  bands biggest  influences?

That’s a difficult question, because after so many years I don’t really have conscious musical influences anymore. I like a lot of different types of music and I’m probably influenced by a lot of artists. When writing music however, I’m just trying to find out what the song wants, which elements work and what I want the song to evoke. I’m not thinking about other artists or their works. As a listener I value spirit and intensity very highly, so that’s something by which I also judge my own music. Last but not least: the lyrics and music go together very much in Celesterre, so the lyrics/subjects often influence the music too. 

4.The Wild  is  Celesterre's debut  release  how  long  did it  take  the  band  to  write the music  for  the debut?

That’s not entirely correct: ‘The Wild’ is our debut full-length, but prior to this album we already released a demo (‘Celesterre’, 2012) and an EP (‘A Blooming Spring’, 2014). The music for ‘The Wild’ was written between 2013 and 2015, so it took approximately two years to write it


5.Who  usually  handles writing the  lyrics and  what  are some  topics you  wrote  about  on the debut  release?

I write all the music and lyrics for Celesterre. The lyrical concept of Celesterre has always been and will always be the natural world. The lyrics on ‘The Wild’ are about the different phases and trials that every organism goes through in life. Each phase or trial has been given its own song: birth (Burst Into Life), the relationship between organisms and their driving forces (Instinct), fighting and struggles (Ramfight At Sundown), love and procreation (Endure The Cold), finding your way in your environment (The Wild), feeding and hunting (Hunger),interaction with other organisms (The Pecking Order) and decay and death (A Celebration Of Decay).


6.Besides  the  debut  cd The Wild  does  the band  have  any  other  merchandise  available  for  the readers? If  yes  what  is  available and  where  can the  readers buy  it?

Our demo is sold out now, but the ‘A Blooming Spring’ EP is still available. Also, new shirts are being sold when you read this. All our music and merch can be bought at celesterre.bandcamp.com. ‘The Wild’ can of course also be bought via our label Rain Without End Records.


7.Does  the  band  have  any  plans to  make  a  video  for  any of the songs  off of the  debut? If you had  the  opportunity  to  make  a  video  for any  songs  off  The Wild  which  song  would you like to  see  made into  a  video?

There are no specific plans, but we are definitely open to the idea. All of our songs could more or less be soundtracks to wildlife documentaries, so if we had the opportunity we would make videos for all of them!    



8.Does  Celesterre   play  live  very  often? If  yes what  have been some of the  bands most  memorable  shows so  far?

Up to now we’ve done around 20 shows. We enjoy playing live, but since most of our shows so far have been local shows we try not to oversaturate the audience. A Celesterre show should remain a bit special. Our shows always have a very distinctive and intense atmosphere. Sometimes people just watch and applaud politely, but there have also been shows where I saw people totally getting into the atmosphere of the songs, sometimes completely in trance, or singing along with all the lyrics. Those moments are always very special to us as a small and relatively unknown band.   


9.Are there  any  shows or tours  coming  up  and if  yes  where  will  the band  be  playing? And  who  are  some  bands  you  will  be  sharing the  stage  with?

Yes, in November we will be playing in Rotterdam with Chilean doom gods Procession! Also Epitaph from Italy and Officium Triste from The Netherlands will be playing that night, so we definitely look forward to that one!




10.Besides  working  in  Celesterre  do  you or  any of the  members  currently work in  any other  bands  or  solo projects? If  yes  please tell  the readers  a  little  about them?

Floris, our guitar player, is also a member of an excellent band called Murw. They play a very unique style of atmospheric black metal. They released some great demos and two amazing albums (‘In de Mond van het Onbekende wacht een Oceaan’, 2007 and ‘Kanker’, 2011). Our bassplayer Lorenzo also plays in a Bay Area-style thrash metalband called Defazer and our drummer Tim also plays in a progressive groovy death/thrash band called Rages of Sin. They are all very good allround musicians, which is definitely an advantage for Celesterre.



11.When  not  working  on new  music  or  band  business  what  do you  enjoy doing  in your  free time?

Listening to other people’s music and studying everything in the field of natural history! We all share those two passions within the band. We like to go out into nature as much as possible, often together. We live close to the coastline and there are some very nice areas here. 


12.Thank  you  for  taking the  time  to  fill this  interview  out  do you have  any  final  comments  for the  readers?

I hope you will all enjoy ‘The Wild’. Keep following us, ‘cause we have lots of interesting future plans! Thank you very much for this interview Patrick!

                                                                        Band Contacts
                                                                    https://celesterre.bandcamp.com/
                                                                    https://www.facebook.com/celesterre
                                                                       Label  Contacts
                                                                   https://www.naturmacht.com/
                                                                  https://naturmachtproductions.bandcamp.com/