Philip A. Wickstrand is a contributing freelance writer for Metal Psalter Webzine. He sat down with guitarist Isaac Delahaye of Epica, at the Hawthorne Theatre in Portland, OR on February 15, 2010.

As the sheer number of female fronted Symphonic Metal bands creates an increasingly crowded subgenre, it gets more and more difficult to stand out from the crowd. So many bands, all vying for the same audience, can prove to be difficult for some fans to pick through. Fortunately for EPICA, their talent, passion and excellent live show have given them name recognition above most other bands that attempt to play the same style. Their most recent album, "Design Your Universe", was released in October by Nuclear Blast.

Phil: Now that the new album, Design Your Universe, has been out for a few months and you've had a chance to stand back from it a little bit, where do you think it holds up in the EPICA catalog?

Isaac: It certainly is the most heavy EPICA album ever. And that was what we wanted, actually. I'm new in the band, I'm the new guitar player, so guitar-wise, we also wanted something more. Normally, it was like, guitars were pretty much only rhythm guitars, like backing up all the orchestration, the vocals and the choirs and this time we wanted to go even further. It's also more guitar oriented this time - not that the orchestration is less, but when we worked on the album, it was more starting from heavy guitar riffs and stuff like that or really hard stuff. Because of that, I think EPICA has always been a very dynamic band; you have hard parts, you have softer parts, but I think we work more on the guitars, which makes it even more heavy and because of that, all the softer parts become even more soft. The dynamics are way bigger now, so it seems like there's more going on than in the past, but it's just like we made the guitars more interesting and also guitar solos and stuff like that, so I think that's the biggest difference between all the other albums, but apart from that it still sounds like EPICA and nothing really, really changed, but it's just a little more complicated and a little more worked out as far as the guitars go.

Phil: Tell us a bit about the ideas behind the artwork for the album.

Isaac: It has to do with the lyrics, of course. It's not really a concept album, but if you have to pick one issue that almost all the lyrics are about that or a certain element and that's freedom of speech. It seems like nowadays there are so many rules and you're not allowed to do whatever you want. I mean, if I walk in this bar, I have to show my ID, all that stuff, so you can't just do whatever you want; there's so many rules and we're kind of against that or it would be better if there weren't that much rules. Anyway, so that's what it's about. Freedom of speech is just do what you want and also Design Your Universe. If you really believe in something and you want to achieve something and you really go for it, then eventually, no matter what, it will happen. Like us, we try to build something with the band, you know - we just came back to the U.S., it's better now and you just work your ass off and you just try to do what you do and in the end it pays off. So the artwork in general, like the cover, the girl on the cover is meditating, it's an upside-down world; you have the water below and the earth on top, so it's like this state of mind (that) if you design your universe… like for instance, one of the lyrics is about quantum physics and quantum physics is about every part, if there's a part in the air here, it can also be at the other side of the world; it could be the same part. So it's like everything is everywhere, so if you put the water on top or at the bottom, it doesn't really matter and that is basically what it's about. Create your own universe and it's like a meditating girl and everything around it, just like the universe so to speak. But it's always very hard to make interesting artwork. This time I think they did a really good job 'cause there are lots of little details and elements in it and I think it also represents the music. I mean, if you listen to our music just once, you'll never get all the details 'cause there's a lot going on. Same with the artwork; there's lots of little things in it and hidden messages and stuff like that, so that's really cool for the people, I think, to kind of explore that.

Phil: How long do you plan on touring on this particular album?

Isaac: Well, the album was released in October, I think and we did a European tour right after the release. Then we went to South America, like the Mexico area. Then we did club shows in Belgium, Holland, Germany, like closer to home. Now we're in the U.S. and Canada, then after that we go back to Europe, do some small festivals and again some club shows. Then in April, we go back to South America, but more in the Brazil area and then there are the summer festivals, so you can't really do a lot of touring in that period 'cause every weekend there's different festivals all over Europe. Then normally, but that's still in the works, normally right after the summer we will probably do a second part European tour and then after that, it should be November/December, we should come back to the U.S. for another headline tour or maybe a support tour or co-headline, it's not really sure yet. Then after that, we will have one year of touring so to speak and then we start working on a new album.

Phil: Recommend a book for our readers and then tell why you recommend that particular work.

Isaac: Well, personally, I don't really read just novels, I always read more psychological stuff and one book that has been very important in my life is… what's the name in English? Hmmm… "The Power of Your Subconscious Mind" and it's from Joseph Murphy. It's basically the same story as behind 'Design Your Universe' - it's like, if you really believe in something and if you make your subconscious really believe in it, then eventually it will happen. And that book, they use a lot of Bible-ish things in it and that's the part that I don't like about the book, but you can just change everything, like instead of speaking to God like they say in the book, I change it and speak to your own mind, like that I am my own god so to speak. So I mean, it's just a very interesting book 'cause that guy really did lots of workshops for that and traveled to world explaining that concept and the book is about whatever you want, be it wealth or health or whatever you want, you name it - freedom, if you really want something and you strongly believe in it, then eventually it will happen, so that would be a book I recommend to everyone.

Phil: What is your opinion on the over saturation in the last few years of female fronted Metal bands? EPICA's been doing it longer than most of them; what do you think of people coming out and just kind of doing it to death?

Isaac: What?

Phil: Just that it seems like everyone is doing it now. Too much of a good thing.

Isaac: It's like in every genre nowadays; you have so many bands and it's so easy to record something, I mean, just buy a computer and you can record something. And everyone has got a computer nowadays, so you just need one plug to the computer and there you go. But indeed, there's lots of crappy stuff out there. As far as female fronted bands go, I think the last couple of years… like there's AFTER FOREVER quit, NIGHTWISH is kind of strange now with the new singer, like some people really hate it, other people love it, so then you have TARJA who's coming up again solo, so it's kind of changing nowadays. We played Metal Female Voices fest this year, like almost every year [laughs], but anyway, so that's a weekend full of female fronted bands. Sometimes you're really like "I don't get this 'cause it's not really good", but on the other hand, it's good that there's more girls involved in the Metal scene, I guess. I mean, that's not a bad thing and also ARCH ENEMY is female fronted, so that's something really brutal then. So I mean, yeah, it's everyone's right to start and a band and compose music and it's up to all the other people to decide if it's good or not, so in a way, who am I to say that it's a shitty band or whatever? If you wanna make music, just go ahead and try your best and if it works out, we have the opportunity to tour the U.S. and tour the world and that people come to see us so that it's really a privilege and we're very happy for that and it's for everyone on its own to try to do that if they want that.

Phil: What are your favorite parts of touring North America?

Isaac: It's different than European, so it's bigger buildings, skylines, stuff like that. We're not as big here as we are anywhere else, like in Europe or in South America, so that is really cool to see. We're not these Rock stars or Pop stars; we don't pretend to be that. Also if we have VIP signing sessions, people really come out to see us 'cause they're really happy that we actually come to play North America. It's a very enthusiastic audience, as well. We don't play here as much as we would like to 'cause you have to fly over, you have to arrange all that stuff, so it's lots of work to really do this. But if you see that people really appreciate that we're coming over then it's totally worth it. Some days we don't have that much audience, like we don't sell out every day and we'd love to do that, of course, but it doesn't matter. If people are enthusiastic, if they like the album, if they give us the horns, then we're all okay with that. I mean, for us, it still has to be fun to do it. If it's not fun anymore then you should just quit, you know? It's not about the money or not about whatever. Of course, you don't want to end up losing all your money to do it. It's not that we can do whatever we want. If this is possible, we make money out of it, we meet our fans, we play music every day - what else would you want? This is pretty cool.

Phil: What is your opinion on legal downloading? Do you find that kind of cheapens music because you don't have the artwork, you don't have the lyrics, you don't have the full presentation?

Isaac: I think it's a good thing 'cause now it's legal. It used to be illegal with Napster and all that stuff, so now they have iTunes and you can legally download stuff. You get the royalties and it's really worked out in a good way, so now it's good. The other side is, like indeed, maybe you don't get the artwork, maybe you don't get the full package, maybe you only get one song or whatever, but the other thing is it doesn't matter. I mean, if people want this one song and they're not interested in artwork or something like that, then whatever. Everyone needs to decide for themselves and it's easy to say like, "Oh, the CD is the one thing you need to have and if you really are a fan, you should have this or that". Times are changing. I don't really care too much about that part. It's just like someone who downloads one song and he likes that one song and he comes to a show and he listens to the other music and then he's like, "Oh, I'm here now, I might buy a T-shirt or an album or whatever". That is cool as well. Maybe bands sold more albums in the past because there wasn't anything like legal or illegal downloading, but on the other hand, maybe they had less people at the show because if you could only know about the band if you bought the album. I mean, me personally, I don't download. I buy the albums. I might check MySpace or something like that, but if I like it, I buy the album. But I'm already 28, I'm old, you know? [laughter]

Phil: Hey! I'm 28 too and I'm not old! [laughter]

Isaac: At home, I teach guitar, as well. If I get the students, they're like 14, 15, 16. If I ask them 'just bring the music you listen to and I'll check it out for you', they never bring an album - they always bring their iPod. If I ask them "What's the last album you bought?" they looking at me like, "What do you mean, bought? I haven't bought an album", they've just downloaded them. So that's the way how it goes now and you can't blame them. If it's there, why shouldn't you do it? Just to say that I'm also still the guy who wants the album and all that stuff, but everyone decides for themselves and if you want to download stuff, fell free to do it. In the end, one way or the other, like I said, you can download something even illegal and still come out to a show and buy all our merchandise and we also get some money out of it. It doesn't really matter - it's music, you should enjoy it. And of course, we put a lot of energy in it. The thing I hate is if you work on an album for months and almost a year and even more, you work on it day and night so to speak and even before it's released it's already on the internet. That is really shitty, that's what I really don't like. Once it's released and people download it, share and whatever, then I don't really care about it, but it's just that moment, when you really live to that moment that it's going to be released and if you see that it's everywhere before the release, that is to me the worst thing ever. Who am I to decide, you know, if someone wants to put it online, why not?

Phil: Is there anything else you'd like to add?

Isaac: I'm looking forward to playing tonight again. It's good to be in the U.S.; I hope we can come back quite often and like I said, we're working on a new tour in November/December, so I hope we can finish this one really good without accidents and stuff and then come back and it's even better. So I really hope we can keep on doing this.

Epica's Isaac Delahaye

May 28, 2010

Interviewer: Philip A. Wickstrand

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Formed: 2003
Reuver, Limburg  Netherlands
Label: Nuclear Blast Records
Genre: Symph. Power/Gothic Metal

CURRENT LINE-UP:

Simone Simons:  Vocals
Mark Jansen:  Guitar & Harsh Vocals
Isaac Delahaye: Guitar
Coen Jansen: Keyboards
Yves Huts: Bass
Ariën Van Weesenbeek:  Drums

DISCOGRAPHY:

The Phantom Agony (2003)
We Will Take You with Us DVD (2004)
Consign to Oblivion (2005)
The Score - An Epic Journey (2005)
The Road to Paradiso:
                Best of/Compilation (2006)
The Divine Conspiracy (2007)
The Classical Conspiracy -
                               Live album (2009)
Epica & Jägermeister EP (2009)
Design Your Universe (2009)

PHOTOS BY PHIL A. WICKSTRAND

(Click on Photo to Enlarge)

(Click on Photos to Enlarge)