CLÉMENTINE DELAUNEY Talks How 'Pirate Metal' Has Changed Course Of VISIONS OF ATLANTIS's Career

By David E. Gehlke

"Pirate metal" officially became a thing in 1987 when Germany's RUNNING WILD ditched their JUDAS PRIEST-styled denim and leather for a wardrobe that would have made Blackbeard and Calico Jack flash a toothless grin in appreciation. The Germans proceeded to take it pretty far on European shores, becoming a regular headliner on the small-to-mid-sized venue circuit and one of Noise Records' best-selling bands. Scotland's ALESTORM and New Jersey's SWASHBUCKLE notwithstanding, Austria's VISIONS OF ATLANTIS is the first band since RUNNING WILD to give pirate metal some legitimacy, a fact highlighted on their upstart new studio album, "Pirates II - Armada".

VISIONS OF ATLANTIS is not a new band (they formed in 2000),but the pirate angle has breathed new life into a career that previously found them occasionally drifting toward the dreaded center of the crowded female-fronted symphonic metal scene. After finding their inner buccaneer and entrusting male vocalist Michele Guaitoli with songwriting duties, VISIONS OF ATLANTIS have come into their own, something female vocalist Clémentine Delauney was happy to share with BLABBERMOUTH.NET.

Blabbermouth: What has the embrace of pirate themes done for VISIONS OF ATLANTIS's career? It's not like you're dipping your toes in the water — it's become a full-on thing.

Clémentine: "It has completely changed our mindset. It has given us a direction. We now have the coordinates on our compass; we know where we're going and what we stand for. Being a pirate, sure, you can look at it like, 'They're doing the Jack Sparrow thing!' meaning that pirates are fun. Oh, 'They're a gimmick band now.' You can look at it that way and it's totally fine. But for us, pirates and the way we present pirates, our version of pirates, is way more complex and we're dealing with the idea of freedom. Freedom in the world we're living in. Freedom to be ourselves. Freedom from our own demons. So, it has a very deep meaning. It's very much related to who we are as individuals in the band. Therefore, it's enabling us to be who we truly want to be, even as people. We decided to be pirates as musicians. We decided to be ourselves in a magnified, romanticized way if I can say it like that. It's touching us very much on a very personal level. It gives us a real direction, a real identity and something to strive for, something to look up to. It has totally inspired a new approach to writing music and lyrics, to find our messages."

Blabbermouth: You are in a very crowded field of bands. The pirate theme has definitely given you an identity, which is invaluable these days.

Clémentine: "This is what happens when you try to be unique and follow your gut and create a world that is absolutely yours. Of course, we're not the only pirate band out there, but the way we are designing our pirate world and the fact it's not entirely accurate and we implement a little bit of magic here and there and blend these historical characters with fantasy and a mix of genres, we've created our own thing. When you do that as an artist, you stand out because suddenly, you stop being in a trend or anything. You're just being yourself. It's what artists consciously or unconsciously try to do — they try to be unique."

Blabbermouth: Are you a RUNNING WILD fan?

Clémentine: "Yeah, of course. I'm not a fan musically speaking, but I respect them very much for what they've done. They have a lot of catchy songs."

Blabbermouth: Was there a quick transition into the "Pirates II" record? Were there songs left over from "Pirates"?

Clémentine: "No. The thing is, our main songwriter is Michele, the male singer. He became our songwriter and 'Pirates II' is completely his music. There are no songs that come from someone else or our producer. This time, 'Pirates' is 100 percent Michele. The thing is, he's constantly having music come to mind. I'd like to say he's a jukebox. He's continually having new tunes and new songs in his mind. As soon as we have a little time at home, he's putting himself in front of the computer and laying down the basic ideas for all these songs. For 'Pirates I', there were songs that were written at the last minute. We wrote a lot during Covid. That was slowing the process down because you have to send files around to everyone. That was not the easiest. We didn't write more songs for 'Pirates I' than those that ended up on the record, but if a song didn't make it for 'Pirates I', they didn't make it for 'Pirates II'. We always want to raise the bar and improve. We always want to make it better than last time. We've learned from our experiences. We've grown as musicians. Michele has been practicing guitar even more after 'Pirates I'. He was starting to riff harder and going, 'I can play that! I can make a song out of it.' I said, 'Go for it. We're a metal band.' That's why we have heavier songs on 'Pirates II' because he's getting better. His creative flow is perpetual and continuous. Even though 'Pirates II' had way more songs than we needed—it's not like we were struggling to finish the record. This was a nice luxury to have, like, 'We have 16 songs and we have to get down to 12. How do we choose?' That was the hardest part. It was, 'We love all these songs. How do we create the best tracklist?' The songs have to be good individually, but a record is a combination of songs and the journey you take the listener through when you start with that song and end with that one. We had to create a nice story, a nice adventure for the listener with the tracklisting. Yeah, in the end, he had more songs and Napalm Records always likes to make special editions. For the special edition, we had bonus tracks. We had more than what we needed. So, no, there were no songs left over from 'Pirates I' that made it to 'Pirates II'."

Blabbermouth: There's a good balance between more direct songs and epic songs like "The Dead Of The Sea" and "Where The Sky And Ocean Blend".

Clémentine: "'The Dead Of The Sea' is Michele and my favorite song on the record. We've been fighting to have that as the single because even though it's ten minutes long, as a single, it works. We have other strong songs that will be singles. That was a complicated decision—which single to have for this record? In my opinion, on the record, it could be a single. But, the thing is, we're a symphonic metal band at our core. This is the music we love making because we love movie scores and cinema. We have a journey in our head, a movie in our head when we write music and lyrics. We're happy to have those catchy songs and to-the-point songs like 'Armada' and 'Monster', but a record just with those kinds of songs would feel a little too easy. We love to write to let ourselves be free and explore what the songs are about. We sit down and write songs like 'The Dead Of The Sea', and we allow it to unfurl. We allow it to be taken to other places and be developed. We feel like there is more we can say and more we can write out of what is shaping under our eyes and ears. Sometimes, you don't want to cut it down. Sometimes, we're like, 'The song is already four minutes long. It doesn't matter because I feel like we can go this way and can open this part to another part afterward.' These are the songs—and because we're a symphonic metal band—we love that style and allow ourselves to have long songs where it's no longer about being catchy. We're creating a story. It's a short story, and we take the listener deep into a topic and ask questions. Maybe the song answers it or brings up even more questions. It's beautiful to let music be. It doesn't have to be radio friendly. This is also what metal is about. Metal didn't care about the centers of radio or mainstream like you have the first chorus after one minute. Fuck it! [Laughs] We love these songs because they also reflect the core of who we are as musicians, where we can express deeper emotions and a deeper state of the mind and soul because of the topics we're touching."

Blabbermouth: It's always nice to have a handful of compact, three, four-minute songs, but the longer, more "epic" tracks can usually make or break an album.

Clémentine: "Yeah, of course. That's what VISIONS OF ATLANTIS have been about for so long. We're showing that you can be consistent and deliver good music no matter the format. If it's a single and it's very catchy where you can capture the best riffs and melody in three minutes, that's great. If you're able to make a real, long journey of a seven-minute song where you keep that quality and intensity and you let the music be, and in VISIONS, we'd never be able to do just three-minute or seven-minute-long songs. We do both. Live, it creates such a dynamic."

Blabbermouth: This is your fourth record with VISIONS OF ATLANTIS. Has it been easier than expected to settle into an established band?

Clémentine: "It's been an amazing journey. It's been a journey of, I would say, self-revelation. It's the moment when we're writing songs from the heart of VISIONS OF ATLANTIS where I am able to express myself as a singer and songwriter and lyricist. Suddenly, I'm part of the core of the essence of the birth of the music. From the first drafts of the songs, because I can work so easily with Michele now, we developed a lot of the songs together. From the first moments, I can already have a picture of what I want to say and where I want to take the story or which situation, and it feels very fulfilling to feel part of the birth of a song from scratch. I've never been able to do it with [previous albums] 'The Deep & The Dark' and 'Wanderers'. The songs were written by our producer back then. It was, 'This is the song and sing it.' I had to write lyrics, which was great, but the music was already written and not in my voice. Michele wants my voice to shine. He pays attention to the fact that I need to be comfortable and I can showcase my power because our band knows I give power to the songs. If I am constantly uncomfortable about my vocals, like, 'Is this in my range? Is this the right key?' then I'm not going to deliver what I'm capable of. With Michele and since 'Pirates', it's been great for me. There are songs on 'Pirates II' that I feel are how I intended the songs to sound when I hear my words and voice. I've been able to achieve over a hundred percent of my potential as a singer. I feel accomplished as a singer working this way. I feel like that journey from the 'The Deep & The Dark' to now has been a journey of creating music that is more and more fulfilling for me as an artist and as a singer."

Blabbermouth: Is it okay to go out on a limb and wonder whether VISIONS OF ATLANTIS can reach the same point AMON AMARTH has with its Viking stage setups? Is that a goal?

Clémentine: [Laughs] "I'm dreaming huge probably because the first artists I looked up to were Michael Jackson and Madonna, who are examples of dreaming the biggest ever. My absolute dream is that we end up playing stages that are big enough to host everything with a pirate-based production where every song has its own environment and universe. It wouldn't become a theatrical show but a mixture of what a musical, metal show and cinema could be. It would be something that would be a multi-dimensional experience for the fans. They come into the venue and forget about their problems and they're attending a powerful, immersive experience. That would be the absolute dream."