interview Charlotte Wessels

Charlotte Wessels live performances aren’t new to me, as I have been crossing paths with her and the majority of her current lineup for over 10+ years, but it was until I saw her live in Krakow a few weeks ago, that I felt a sense of freedom, freshness, and independence that I haven’t fell at their shows in a while. The Obsession is the album that is spearheading this new tour, a new banner of sorts and a new revitalized style of music that is explosive yet flirts with progressive moments and where you can go from a call to normalize the act of crying to a bombastic and down brutal exorcism. 
We caught Charlotte Wessels, The Obsession tour in Prague a week or so ago, as they are currently on the road with Volaand The Intersphere. 
Their live show was eclectic and the live chemistry between them was palpable from the very first song to the last. The transition from the album sound to the live stage is seaming less and effortless, the passion and heart that you listen on the album is perfectly capture on the live stage. So if you are on the curious about this new enterprise of hers and her companions, and you still around to catch one of their shows, GO, you won’t regret it 
Before their set at Meet Factory here in Prague, we had a brief conversation with Charlotte about the new album, the tour, and what is next for her and this new obsessive chapter.
Miguel/ Metal Heart Radio: Hi Charlotte, thank you again for having these five minutes to talk about the tour and everything related to The Obsession 
How is the tour going so far? you guys started a few weeks ago?
Charlotte Wessels: Yeah, we started in Denmark, in Scandinavia, which is somewhere we haven't been so much.Also, not even back in the day with Delain, like we were just about to do our first headline tour when COVID hit. So, it was really great, we got to see some new audience, a couple of familiar faces, and in general, it's been just wonderful, like being on the road again with the band.
It's been wonderful being on the road with Vola, I'm like a really big fan, so it's really nice to get to see and hear their show every night. And yes, so far things have been going pretty smooth, I'd like to say, 

MHR: how has been the response of people to the new songs? They see familiar faces in the stage, they hear familiar riffs in the stage, but the feeling is somehow different.
CW: Yeah, definitely, yeah. But we're noticing now, we've done the shows in Germany and in Poland, that there were a lot more people who were familiar already with the album and with our work. So, like there we got a lot of people like singing along and already coming to the show in like patreont-shirts.

MHR: How was this whole process of getting the guys back together? To just, you know, gather them back into be part of The Obsession
CW: We kind of started when I wanted to perform the material from Tales from Six Feet Under Volume 1 and 2 live. I started playing with the thought of bringing it to the stage and initially, like, I didn't ask the guys straight away, but I also never considered asking anyone else. 

MHR: That's a huge compliment.
CW: Yeah, it should be to them, absolutely. I was very happy when they told me, because I thought initially, like, maybe if we perform together again, it would be in a more traditional band context. But, you know, since those were albums that were basically already made, I was very happy that they mentioned like, we'd be happy to play your songs.
So we started by performing a release show for those albums and we did a couple of Dutch headlining shows. Actually, from the moment that we did our first rehearsal together, I thought, if there's going to be a new album, I'd love for it to be an album where they actually perform their instruments, you know. So that's what we did with The Obsession, and now we're here. 

MHR: when you see it in the billboard, you see Charlotte Wessels The Obsession. How will that continue later? Are you going to have a continuity under the same name? 
CW: I don't know. I've been thinking about that. It might remain the same, because if I change it officially, then I start from scratch again, you know. So that is something that feels like a bad move, maybe. At the same time, I've been trying to make the band more official by giving them the name of The Obsession. Because, you know, they've been important to the sound on the record. They're obviously very instrumental for what we're doing live on stage. So far, I'm just trying to give them all the credits that I can. 

MHR: And now, talking about getting back on stage, playing here, playing there. How's that feeling after, like, five years of doing that? What things do you like, or what things that you hate about getting back on the road? 
CW: I was a bit nervous about it, going into it. But it does end up feeling kind of like a second nature. Like, I started making my own little nest, you know, in my bunk. And, yeah, getting into the flow of this touring life again. And, yeah, so far, it's been like five years. So I was like, do I still have it in me? But, no, so far, it's like riding a bicycle, you know. You learn it once, you can keep doing it.

MHR: The album also features two familiar faces. SimoneSimons and Alicia White-Gluz.
We will see more familiar faces or more new faces along the way? Because during the time that you did your own stuff with Patreon, you also worked with other artists. And other artists also asked you to be in different tracks here and there.
CW: Yeah, maybe, yeah. I always like collaborating with different people. So, I do think that it's something that I'll continue to do in the future.

MHR: Good, good, while preparing these questions my dear friend was wondering about the song All You Are, is it inspired by a particular event, person, or it was written just in general? 
CW: All You Are. It's a love song, It's about my husband.
But the song itself, I wanted to write a song that was, I think, I was inspired by Adieu by Rammstein, which is, like, such a beautiful song, like, end of the night, you know, we're departing now, but we'll be together in a way. I wanted this kind of song that would be perfect for, like, the end of a show where you have to say goodbye. And I wanted the feeling to remain of, you know, whatever happens, whatever happens, we'll have each other. Yeah. So, I was inspired to write that kind of song, 

MHR: What's your favorite song to perform live from the album? 
The Exorcism. Yeah, definitely that one

MHR: I was in Krakow a few nights ago, and I happened to notice, and I think it was the first time that I saw you doing growing vocals. How has been the process to acquire that voice? 
CW: Well, it's been a very long process, and I've been doing grunting vocals in the studio for quite a long time on Delain’srecords, already on The Glory and the Scum, and Burning Bridges, there's been quite a few tracks where I was grunting in studio, but I never really did it on stage.
Because my technique isn't all that, my grunting technique, so I'm always afraid to mess up my voice. Right, and I still sort of am, but at least with this song, it's so much in my system now that, and I also knew when I wrote this song, if we were ever going to perform it. It's so integral to the story that you're telling, it would be very weird to have that part told by another person. 
For example, in the song Ode to the West Wind, there's also growls, and on the record, they're done by Alissa, so it makes perfect sense if we do that live, that, you know, I do the clean vocals and Otto does the grunts, like, that works, but I felt like for The Exorcism, it would be very weird if I didn't do them. 
Because it's kind of like, you tell your story, and then you come to the conclusion, and then you step back, and I was like, no, this is where I have to step forward, so yeah, I felt like I have to do it. 

MHR: Maybe that's why I asked, because I've never seen you do that before, I have always seen Otto doing it, so I was very surprised by that.
CW; Yeah, so far, I was always kind of fine with it, to be like, okay, you know, I'll do it in the studio, but live we’ll just find a solution, but this was the first song where I thought, like, no, I have to do it. 

MHR: Your two previous records were, very different from The Obsession, and I think the Patreon has become thecornerstone of your solo career How challenging is it to release a song a month? how draining or difficult it is?
CW: Sometimes it's difficult. I actually released a new song today. Because it's the 13th. And we are on the road, so I had to finish this one last month. Sometimes it's challenging, but, you know, I'd rather work around that, I have two options, giving up or pushing through, and what I've done now, like, for example, there's been a few months where it just really wasn't possible in terms of schedule to have, like, a full new original song. So, I've done a few covers. There's been a number of live tracks, you know, and I'd rather have that kind of up my sleeve for once in a while than to give up on it. But so far, it's been a great tool for me to keep consistent. And, yeah, I just love the Patreon community, like, they've actually, like, helped us out on this tour a number of times. Like, most notably, at one point we left a piece of gear at one of the venues and one patron drove all the way from his house to the venue, picked up the gear, and then drove to the next venue to bring it to us. So, yeah, so it's, you know, the support, the community, you know, the familiar faces. It is really the cornerstone of what I'm doing. 

MHR: when you create this album (The Obsession), it's different from the last two. It was kind of like you have to pierce it together on your own or kind of gets the same process in which comes originally from the patron background? 
CW: It came very much from the patron background still.What I did was, I wrote the songs just like I did with the previous ones, with the digital instruments, had it mixed, put it on Patreon. But rather than having that be the finished version of the songs, after that we started the process of, you know, rearranging anything that needed rearranging. I especially worked very closely together with Timo for that.
He's been very influential in, well, obviously, the way that the guitar arrangement sounds, but not exclusively the way the guitar arrangement sounds. And then, yeah, we went into the studio to first record the drum parts with everyone there and then filled in the rest from there, building upon each other. We kept it, like, really organic.
So it's quite a contrast from the previous albums in that sense, where that was purely digital and this one was actually really organic. Like, we didn't edit the drum sound a lot, and then, of course, we added the cherries on top. We had some beautiful extra arrangement by Vikram Shankar. We added, like, the gospel choir, the guest musicians that you mentioned, 

MHR: OK, this is kind of a random question. Five songs that you have on repeat in your playlist at the moment. 
CW:I listen to a lot of podcasts now. Well, let me check.
Vola, obviously. Head Mounted Sideways, definitely one of them. Atonement by Leprous
Then there's the Zeal and Ardor one, which was called Fend You Off. Beautiful. I've been listening to Brutus quite a bit.There's a song, Liar. And then, Dool, Venus in Flames, I think it's called.
So, I think those are the five. 

MHR: Now, besides the already announced festivals for the next year, we'll see another leg of this tour, maybe a more extensive one.
CW: We're working on it, but I cannot tell so much about it yet. 

MHR: That's fair enough. And finally, as I think this question is important for some people, any plans to return to the US as Charlotte Wessels, The Obsession? 
CW: Yes, we're also working on that, but also I cannot say. But we're very actively making plans for that at the moment. So, I hope to be able to tell you news about that very soon.

MHR: Sure, sure. But the important is the intention. 
CW:Yeah, absolutely, the intention is there. We really want to do that. We want to make that happen.

MHR: All right, Charlotte. Thank you so much, congratulations on the new album and the tour and I definitely looking forward to the show tonight.
Friend of a Phantom EU Tour 2024
Supporting VOLA
01.11.24 DK – Århus / Voxhall
02.11.24 SE – Gothenburg / Pustervik
03.11.24 NO – Oslo / Vulkan Arena
08.11.24 SE – Stockholm / Fryshuset Klubben
10.11.24 DE – Berlin / Columbia Theater
11.11.24 PL – Krakow / Hype Park
13.11.24 CZ – Prague / Meetfactory
14.11.24 AT – Vienna / Flex
15.11.24 DE – Munich / Backstage Halle
16.11.24 CH – Zurich / Komplex
17.11.24 IT – Milan / Live Club
19.11.24 DE – Cologne / Kantine
21.11.24 FR – Paris / Petit Bain
22.11.24 UK – London / Heaven
23.11.24 UK – Nottingham / Rescue Rooms
24.11.24 UK – Glasgow / G2
25.11.24 UK – Manchester / Club Academy
26.11.24 UK – Bristol / SWX
27.11.24 LU – Esch-Sur-Alzette / Rockhal
28.11.24 NL – Eindhoven / Effenaar
29.11.24 DE – Hamburg / Markthalle

CHARLOTTE WESSELS online:
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Miguel Rozo - wrote