Interview by Ary R
After the great chance offered by the Out Of The Dark festival and a long, extensive tour in 2012 all over Europe, Van Canto took a long break in order to focus the remaining energy on “Dawn of the Brave”, the new album that will be out shortly. We got the chance to talk about this new music creature with the smiley Inga Scharf that told us something about this record.
Inga Scharf from Van Canto is the special host we have today. Hi Inga, welcome back to Femme Metal. How are you doing?
I am fine thanks. We are preparing for our forthcoming tour. So it can’t get better 🙂
If I’m not mistaken, last year we got to know about your son: in fact, your friends in Van Canto took a picture of you all and they’ve introduced your son to the audience. How did you feel like becoming a mommy? How have you lived your pregnancy?Yes you are right. Well, the pregnancy and becoming a mum was the biggest challenge ever. But except of the damn hot summer 2012, which was really exhausting with a big belly, I had a really good time. Most of the time lying in the swimming pool 😉 And now I have the coolest little guy in the world <3
Ok, let’s put aside this topic and let’s talk about “Dawn of the Brave”, the fifth VC album. It will be out very soon via Napalm Records. What could you say about this new music effort?As always, the new album is the best we ever did. I think “Dawn of the Brave” is a very compact and mature album. Because of our live break in 2012 we had time to spend all of our energy in composing and preparing for the production. There are 13 great and different songs on the album and I love each of them.
Last year, you’ve always kept your fans updated about the develop of your album, thanks to some picture on Facebook. How much time did this record require for its complete creation?That is something I can’t overview. The composing took place during 2012. Of course we weren’t composing nonstop. The production started in May 2013 with drum recording and ended in October with mastering the songs.
“Dawn of The Brave” shows a very curious artwork, based on a sort of comic/heroic style: indeed, it’s noticeable a kind of super hero represented in it. How has the cover been created? Did you draw the inspiration for creating such a cover? Where did the inspiration come from?A lot of VC songs are about heroism, inner strength and power. So now we wanted to personalize this hero metal idea into a real super hero. And we hope every VC fan can identify himself with our super hero while singing with us.
I would like to reconnect on my previous question: recently you’ve released the promo pictures in which we can see all the band members dressed as superheroes while you are the only girl dressed like an heroine. Would you mind unveiling us anectdote concerning the photoshoot and about the concept?I did my best to convince my bandmates, that it would be awesome, if we’re all dressed like heroine, but I failed 😉 Well, I think everyone had the dream of being a superhero. And with this shooting we had the chance to realize our dreams for one day. Of course we had a really funny time doing the photos. Especially those were I keep Sly from jumping forward. Because he stood on a little box right behind me and had to move forward in the moment the photographer shoots. That was really tricky because he always pushes me almost to the floor. And we have some really weird photos of this scene 😛
We know Bernhard as a VC fan since 2009 I guess. Sometimes he visits our shows and we always have a great time with him. So as we did the concept for the videoclip and it came to light that we would need a crazy scientist, we knew it only could be him. And it was really impressive seeing him acting. This time we wanted to concentrate on one video with a differentiated story and not as in the past on several videos with most time performing scenes.
The record shows two atypical songs for Van Canto, but they are two very famous songs. We’re talking about “The Final Countdown” and “Paranoid”: this latest song has been proposed in the “Badaboom” video and we saw both you and Ross playing Ozzy and Tommy Iommi. How did you feel like personifing a bizarre character like Ozzy Osbourne?Haha, this was a really funny experience. Sitting in front of a mirror watching becoming Ozzy was so crazy. I got a silicone nose and cheeks, a stubble and eye rings. Of course my male band mates made a lot of jokes about me. We laughed all the time.
Talking again about the videoclip, you’ve also personified other bands, like Sabaton and Metallica. How did the fans react on this parody?Our fans know our sense of humor and until now we got a lot of positive reactions. The musicians of Sabaton are enthusiastic too. As you might know, they have quite the same sense of humor like Van Canto.
Soon you’ll hit the road for a new European tour. What are your biggest expectations? What should fans expect from your shows?I am so looking forward for the upcoming shows. Our last tour was at the end of 2011 so I am starving getting on stage again. And I hope our fans feel the same. They can expect an energetic and powerful show with motivated and enthusiastic singers 🙂
Again last year, we had the chance to see how the other guys have carried their side projects: for example Stef has published a record with Heavatar, Bastian has brought forward his duties with In Legend. How do you manage your commitments with Van Canto?This was not difficult to manage because of our live break in 2012. And because of the high effort singing nearly 90 minutes nonstop Van Canto isn’t able to tour for a long time without breaks for recovery. So we all have time for other activities.
I was talking about social networks earlier. How much important is the communication with your fans over these channels?Although I am not so active on social networks, I love the possibility to get in contact with VC fans all over the world. It’s so easy to communicate on these channels.
Thanks so much for your time Inga. We hope to have the chance to exchange a few other words with you on the road. It’s up to you now to conclude our chat sharing some final word with your fans and our readers.I thank you also and hope we see us on tour. I would like to say thank you to all our fans out there. You made everything possible and give us the chance to do what we love the most. Please never stop believing in your own power and strength and don’t stop singing with us. See you on tour.
Photo Credit
Photos by Stefan Heilmann (Heilemania)
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