Leave’s Eyes is currently on tour in North America with Sabaton and Battle Beast. I had a chance to chat with the symphonic metal vocalist Alexander Krull today to check in on the tour, the upcoming album and what else the band has in the works for their fans. Check out the interview below. Cheers!
Interview with Alexander Krull
YDN: I hear you are working on a new album, when is the album due out?
Alexander Krull: The album is scheduled for January 2018. It’s in full swing production. Before we came out on tour we finished the last of the pre-production for the vocal recordings and stuff like that and when we go home there will be choir recordings, orchestra and band recordings. It goes hand in hand in our case we have our own mastersound studio. It’s quite cool to have the pre-production song writing process combined with the full production. Some stuff you have to make in advance. If we have guest musicians or people playing the natural instruments on the album like harp or percussion we have to plan in advance. So we are already in contact with some of the guys recording already while we are on tour.
What can fans expect with the new album since your vocalist change last year, Liv Kristine’s exit and Elina Siirala’s entry? Is there much of a difference they should expect?
Of course we are going to stick to the musical style of the band and lyrical concept, there will be no change in that. As Elina is another singer we can actually go for other opportunities and have her bring in refreshment in some of the structures or writing of the songs. You know, it’s always a bit different with another singer, but the style of the band will continue like out last albums. We will continue with the development from “King of Kings” to the next step and level of the band.
How has the transition been with Elina coming along? During the tour last fall there wasn’t much of Leaves’ Eyes music available with Elina on vocals. So have you seen a big difference in the 2016 tour with Sonata Arctica versus the current tour with Sabaton and Battle Beast?
The tour with Sabaton is really the perfect match. It’s wow, crazy. Most of the shows are sold out and also with Battle Beast, it’s the full package. Very, very good and of course now Elina is more established as the frontwoman of the band. I would say all the shows we made around the globe, it wasn’t only in America we also played in Europe. It’s been fantastic how the feedback has turned out from the audiences when we played live and people were all blown away from the vocal performance. It wasn’t an easy step to fill in the shoes of an iconic singer like Liv Kristine. I think it is going very good. The fans are super satisfied and excited about the new record, Fires In the North. We’ve sold out twice already, before it came out it was officially sold out. It was crazy. We heard about it later on and were like, wow ok. The pre-order’s were all sold out so we made a second reprint of Fires In the North the original sold out so it’s going very well and we are looking forward to a bright future I would say.
After the current USA tour, do you have any other tours in the work, projects or is all the time going to be focused solely on the new album?
We will be very busy in the studio. Some Open Air Festivals, one is with Sabaton in our hometown actually which will be awesome. It’s in a castle in Ludwigsburg, Germany, Ludwigsburg Residential Palace, which is a great honor and pleasure it will be around 5000 people coming to the show. Then we are going to be stuck in the studio a while I guess. Then we will continue touring in 2018. That’s the plan at least. The thing about festivals is you meet lots of people and fans also from other genres that check out the band and you gain new fans there. What’s also cool is when we have this great connection in the re-enactment medieval scene with our band, especially with the viking scene so we might also play some of those events in Europe.
Thank you so much for your time.
Thank you and we hope tour next year again in the States.
Leaves’ Eyes is:
Elina Siirala – vocals
Alexander Krull – vocals
Thorsten Bauer – guitars
Pete Streit – guitars
Joris Nijenhuis – drums
