DELAIN Keyboardist On Writing Process: 'We Are An Unbeatable Team When We Are Together'

Singer Charlotte Wessels and Martijn Westerholt of Dutch symphonic metallers DELAIN recently spoke to Overdrive magazine about the progress of the songwriting sessions for the follow-up to the band's 2016 album "Moonbathers". "We try to plan some larger time [writing] blocks, like a week," Charlotte said. "We have done that two times now together with [studio collaborator] Guus Eikens who joins in the early part of the writing process and later as well. There is also still a lot of individual work for us to do."

Added Westerholt: "Last year I went to my girlfriend's in America in Arizona, just to write and be with her and write music. I do some sketches I could share with Charlotte and Guus. We do stuff on our own, we do stuff together. It starts with a lot of big inputs that gets smaller in the end until everything comes together."

Continued Wessels: "We share some of our ideas online, but the actual work is much easier to do when we are all together."

Westerholt concurred, saying: "I think we are an unbeatable team when we are together. I think another important thing to mention is Timo [Somers], our guitar player, he is beginning to contribute more as well. First on the guitar arrangements and riffing. He is becoming a very valuable team member."

Martijn said that he wasn't worried about there being three years between albums and whether that was too long to make fans wait for new music. "No, it's the other way around," he said. "We don't want to do it too fast. Album cycles get shorter and shorter now, but look at the big bands that take four to six years between albums. It is good to take the time to make a good album." Wessels added: "We haven’t had more then a year between releases since 2012."

As previously reported, DELAIN will issue a new EP in the fall via Napalm Records. The band will promote the EP's release by playing two intimate headlining shows on in October.

DELAIN is scheduled to make appearances at several European festivals this year and embark on a South American tour with NIGHTWISH.

DELAIN spent much of 2016 and 2017 celebrating its tenth anniversary — from the release of "Moonbathers" and an anniversary edition of its debut disc, "Lucidity", to extensive headline tours across Europe and North America to gracing some of the world's biggest festival stages — and capped it off with the release of its first-ever live DVD/Blu-ray package.

Last fall, DELAIN completed the "Danse Macabre" tour, featuring special guest and frequent collaborator Marco Hietala from NIGHTWISH on all dates.