Marloes Voskuil – Izegrim

Interview by Ary R

We’ve already had the great pleasure of talking about Izegrim a few years ago and now we have still the chance to talk about this band. Led by the blonde Marloes, this Dutch combo comes back with a new record, “Congress of the Insane” and we’ve got the chance to talk about this new studio album with the singer.

Hi you all, great to be back at Femmemetal! Tell you something about the album? I guess all the questions in the interview below cover the whole story behind the album, so let’s not wait and get this conversation started, haha!

Haha, in the meantime that seems like ages ago. When we started recordings for our previous work “Code of Consequences” our former label (Rusty Cage Records) got broke at the moment we were in the studio. We decided that the material was that good, we did not want to cancel the whole schedule/studio time. So, we continued recording the whole album, got it mixed and mastered. With that final product, we went searching for a good label. We had several good offers, but Listenable was the one standing out from the rest. Furthermore, the bands they have on their roster are really superb, a good sign that they know what they are doing. You know the rest of the story, they released 2 records so far and we are still really happy and honored to be signed by such an awesome label.

To be honest, we did not change a lot about our writing-process. It’s still Bart and Jeroen that deliver the music for all the songs, they write all the guitar riffs at home and create the blueprint for the songs. Together with Ivo (drums) they work on the arrangements and compositions, which lead to the final song structures. After they’ve recorded those song structures during pre-production, I have to adapt my lyrics to the songs and vice versa (songs/riffs have to be changed to fit my lyrics). We have the luxury of our own rehearsal-room where we can practice and record 24/7. We always work with pre-production recordings before we enter the Soundlodge Studio, so we know exactly what we are recording and how the actual cd will sound. With this new album we started working on a new sound. These new songs are more brutal and “in your face” so that asked for a more heavier sound. I guess we managed well, haha. This CD really kicks some serious ass and we took the band to another level.

Correct, it’s not a real concept album where we tell a story from A to Z, but it features the concept based on the evil in the deceiving human nature. Everyone seems normal, until you get to know them. There are so many freaks amongst us, one cannot open a newspaper or watch the latest news on television, without being confronted with gruesome acts of crime. Some shit is seriously horrible and one has to be really sick to even think about those crimes we see on the daily news. What disturbs and fascinates me the most is the fact, that most of these people (for instance Breivik) could be your neighbour. Apparently you cannot trust anyone these days. The whole world seems a gathering of freaks, turning todays society into a global, worldwide ‘Congress of the Insane’ and we are all part of it. With this cover we wanted to express the feeling and atmosphere of those old carnivals and travelling parties where they had all these freaks exposed. When Jeroen was searching the internet for reference material,he stumbled upon this artwork from Mariano and we were immediately blown away by this piece of work by him. We bought the exclusive rights to use this for our cover.

Jeroen, Bart and Ivo started with the new material immediately after the release of “Code of Consequences”. Writing new material takes some time, we are not satisfied that easily. We spend 2 weeks in the Soundlodge Studio in Germany, for the actual recordings.

Well, as you might know, we already worked with Jörg on our previous album. His studio is just perfect for us. Jörg knows what we want and he also helped with the new guitarsound of Bart and Jeroen. We discussed the type of sound we wanted to achieve and he instantly came up with the perfect combination of amps. He’s like the fifth bandmember that adds something special to the overall sound.

So far the new material has been praised by everyone. I’ve worked a lot to diversify my voice. With all the gigs we had the past few years, I noticed that I could do a lot more with my voice than I actually thought. In a live-situation I’m pushing my limits (without breaking my voice) and I wanted to capture that on the CD. I’ve spend a lot of time in our own rehearsalroom, pushing my limits and trying new techniques I did not use before. You can hear (hopefully) all the effort I’ve put in the new record. Judging the feedback we get from both press and fans, I did a pretty good job.

In the past we had some gigs with Holy Moses, so we already knew Sabina for a while. They got added to the roster of our agency (TMR Music Promotions) a couple of years ago. All it took was one email to Sabina and she immediately was very thrilled to cooperate on the our new CD. We sent her the song which we had in mind to do the duet. They (Holy Moses) have their own studio in Frankfurt. We spended a day with them in their studio when Sabina did her part of the vocals. It was a great day and we had a splended time with the band (3 bandmembers where there too, as they had to practice for some upcoming shows). We took the recordings of her vocal parts to the Soundlodge Studio and mixed that together with my singing. Worked like a charm !

The market seems to be flooded with all these new type of ‘old-school’ bands. I mean, the recent revival of Asphyx and Pestilence over here in Holland, Bodyfarm is battling on the deathmetal-front too (great band). I have to be honest: I don’t check the scene every day, but we visit a lot of gigs whenever we can. My recent visit to gigs include bands like Kreator, Anthrax, Death Angel, Morbid Angel. All great gigs, awesome bands.

At this moment we don’t have any plans/schedule for a full blown European Tour. We have 2 releaseshows lined up in Belgium and Holland. Furthermore we have a show in France, we play some festivals in Belgium and Germany. On top of that we will support Accept and Death Angel on several shows in Holland and Germany. At this moment it’s hard to tell if we will do a full European tour, because it’s too early to say something about that. Our bookingsagency is working hard on individual weekendshows and so far we have some really kick-ass shows lined up.

Unfortunately not… Still high on our wishlist though.

Thank YOU ! Always a pleasure to have a chat with Femme Metal. We are aware we did not play as many gigs in France as we would love to, but you all have to trust me that we are working hard to see you at several occasions in 2014 ! Cheers, thanks again and you’d better buy our album “Congress of the Insane”, haha !

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