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Stream of Passion

Napalm Records

Stream of Passion’s new line-up and the new album on their new label Napalm Records is reason enough to ask them some questions about what’s going on currently. Vocalist and violinist Marcela was nice enough to answer our questions.

Hi Marcela, first of all congratulations with the new album. I guess you’re quite stoked with the way it turned out?
Thanks! We’re very happy with how the album turned out and how good the things are going. After so many changes and challenges it’s such a great feeling to have the final product in our hands.

As most people know Stream of Passion started out as a project of Arjen Lucassen. But he left as well as Lori Linstruth and Alejandro Millán in 2007. So what’s the story about them leaving and the rest of the band deciding to continue?
That Arjen would eventually leave the band was something that we all were expecting. He is a man of many projects that would never be able to stick to one band for the rest of his life! So when the time came when he let us know that he wanted to go ahead and write a new Ayreon album we accepted it without much problems.
Lori and Alejandro leaving was on the contrary something we didn`t expect, but they both had their reasons, which we respect. Lori wanted to focus more on her personal life, and Alejandro had the chance to finally fulfil his long awaited ambition of writing a solo album.

You found replacements and they’re all from Holland. Was this a conscious decision to get guys from Holland? I guess it’s easier to work with people located relatively close to each other now you also live in Holland?
While it`s fantastic to work with people from different places all over the world things start to get very complicated indeed; you`re not able to play loose shows or do sporadic promotional activities, things that we knew we would really need with this new line-up without Arjen. So we figured out it would just make more sense to have the band be based in Holland; I moved to the Netherlands myself, so now we can just get together, rehearse and perform regularly, which is great.

Where did you actually find all these guys, as the only name I’m familiar with is Eric your guitarist who has been active in the Dutch scene for quite a while?
We sort of found them through our network of musical friends. Jeffrey our keyboard player for instance we got in touch with through Joost van den Broek (ex-After Forever); Jeffrey had taken some string arrangement coaching with Joost, so he came with very big recommendations. Stephan we got in touch because he`s from the same hometown as Davy our previous drummer, and he`s also been on the music scene for long, playing all kinds of different music.

I can imagine that Arjen Lucassen had a big part in the compositions on the first album. So I was wondering whether it was difficult to write and record an album with the new line-up? I mean, I think you wouldn’t want to move too far away from what you’ve done on the first album right?
Yeah, one of our starting points when writing the new songs was definitely to make a logical follow up to our previous album. And indeed it was a challenge at first; for most part it was me now writing the initial song ideas, something I had never done before, but once I got pass the first initial moments of insecurity everything started flowing out nicely and I started recording song ideas back home in Mexico. Then I would send them to the rest of the guys for them to work in their arrangements, and when I had finally moved to Holland we got together for a while in a rehearsal room to fine-tune all parts and details of the song and look for that real band feeling.

How would you compare “Embrace the Storm” to “The Flame Within” in your own words?
"The Flame Within" is heavier, way more live orientated than "Embrace the Storm". After quite a few live shows we figured out that we love to get on stage and go totally crazy, so we wanted to write an album that would allow us to do precisely that. The same mysterious, exotic vein of "Embrace the Storm" is still there, but there are more heavy guitar riffs and big passages.

Your debut was released through InsideOut and now you’re signed to Napalm records. Did you have to switch labels due to the line-up changes or is there another reason behind it?
A bit of both actually. We realized together with InsideOut that without Arjen in the band we might be better off looking for a label with which we could reach a different audience. So we came in touch with Napalm, they offered us a great deal and gave us a very good feeling; they have tons of experience in the metal and gothic scenes, and have been doing a great job opening us door in that market.

You originate from Mexico and you’re living in Holland right now. Both countries are known as big markets for female fronted metal. How do you look upon the popularity of the genre globally? Any countries that are particularly interesting for a band like Stream of Passion?
I`m a women musician enthusiast, so I think it`s fantastic to see so many talented women doing great things nowadays. Indeed both Holland and South America in general are places where female fronted metal is very well received, so that`s how I`ve experienced the genre.
I think for us exploring South America, Chile and Argentina especially, would be very interesting. I`ve heard wonderful things about the Chilean and Argentinean audiences, how loyal and enthusiastic they are; I would be thrilled to experience it myself!

You recorded the album with Jochem Jacobs and Joost van den Broek, who can be seen is very good producers/engineers. So, how was it working with them?
It was an adventure on its own! It`s rather uncommon to have two producers (thus two men in charge), so in the very beginning there was some figuring out things and how decisions were going to be made; but once we got our work methods clear everything went really smooth. Our goal by working with them both was kind of getting the best of both worlds: on one side Joost and his outstanding experience with symphonic metal, string arrangements and pianos; and on the other side Jochem and his strong metal background to get the heavy drums and guitars in there.

Can you tell the story behind the Radiohead cover you did?
We wanted to record a cover song and were thinking already for a while looking for options, but just couldn`t come up with anything great. Until one day Stephan just sent us an email with the idea of covering Street Spirit, and a demo mp3 with those heavy guitars and drums. We were immediately blown away and couldn`t believe we hadn`t thought about that song! We just took his demo as reference and let everything else flow naturally, and that`s how our version became what ended up in the album.

Any future plans you already can reveal?
So far our number one goal is to play as much as possible and enjoy our time on stage! Hopefully soon also be able to tour around Europe and as many more different places as possible. Of course we`re also working out some more musical ideas in our heads…

All right, that’s it from my side. Any last words?
Just a very big hello to all readers! Hope you enjoy this new album as much as we enjoyed making it, and that we can see you soon in a stage somewhere!

Thanks!
My pleasure!

Pim Blankenstein