Interview with Albert Conejero Ferrer, the sorrowful voice of Evadne Band - Above the Wanderer

By Ipsissima Verba -

 

   A few days ago, I had the honour of getting in touch with one of my favourite bands of doom metal spectrum, Evadne, the legends of Spanish metal scene, and one of the best doom metal bands over the past decade. From reason and challenge, to life and sentence, here you can read the story of a legacy born in Valencia...



  Ipsissima verba - Shadows : Greetings.  Thank you for this interview.  It's an honour to have this opportunity. Can you tell me more about yourself? Who are you above the legacy you've built in these 17 years since Evadne was born? I'd like to meet the men behind your music.
  Albert Conejero Ferrer : Hello, and thanks for your interest. We are regular people making our dreams come true. We are workers of this magical world called music that fight against their lacks with effort and passion. Close people with our feet in the ground and truly enjoying our musical journey. 
  Shadows : I know the project was born in 2003, as a melodic doom/death metal band, influenced by the usual bands of the 90's, under the name of Evadne. From my knowledge, Evadne, is a daughter of Iphis of Argos and wife of Capaneus, with whom she gave birth to Sthenelus. When her husband was killed by a lightning bolt in the war of the Seven against Thebes, she threw herself on his funeral pyre and died. Is it related at any level? What it’s the truth behind this choice, and does it have a deeper meaning for you, as a band? Maybe on a more personal level?
  Albert : Of course, we are thinking to write a song inspired by history and mythology, but we don’t find the moment to do it. The choice of the name was because all our songs speak about love and death. Two of the most powerful ways to human inspiration and this fit perfectly in what we want to transmit.
  Shadows : I've discovered your band about two years ago, through your 2nd album, The Shortest Way, released in 2012 under Solitude Productions, a pure conceptual album narrating the never-ending journey above and below perception within the human husk. And even though I admit that I can't choose one single favourite song, "All I will leave behind" has been and it is the one that's been turning my heart into ashes ever since. Therefore, I dare to ask, where is all this turbulent despondency coming from? Is there an effect your souls are trying to reproduce within your own vessels? 
  Albert : Obviously all of us have demons and courses that we need to find a moment of respiro but Evadne is not always inspired by the negative side of the life. We can find inspiration in beauty and in happiness, you only should turn it into your way. At the end we are not angry or disguised every time.
  Shadows : From male clean vocals of a fine melancholy and sorrow, drenched in a tear of oak-aged rioja, to the purity of female clean vocals, gentle yet ripping your soul into pieces, just to feed the scorn of untouchable human destiny, to end in powerful, untamed, and self-destructive growls...tell me, what goes through your soul when you perform the vocals? 
  Albert : The energy of the song, once you reach that emotional stage, all become a bit magical and the music flows easily. We try to put all our passion in each note and we think that this is the way where our music can be understand completely.
  Shadows : Moving forward with my questions, I'd like to learn more about your ways and reason to create such realities of personal void and poetical sorrow. May I ask if "l'apell du vide" has any place when you build the "genetic" structure of a new song? Ever since, have you found "the shortest way" to end the primal thirst for nothingness?
  Albert : The inspiration burns in the smallest things you can imagine, we look for the gen of our songs in lots of things, like a tear or a whisper, in any place that can give birth to a new primal song that with lot of work become what you can listen.
  Shadows : I admit that my next question may be a bit too personal, and I deeply apologize for it. As symbolist writer, I tend to find reason and gloom flowing on every surface of visual reality yet, I cannot take my mind away from the lyrics:
"You are so beautiful dressed in white, 
You're like a bride in the altar waiting for your love"
In some cultures, if a women sworn to be a bride dies before her wedding, she will be buried after 3 days, still wearing her wedding dress, to wait for her lover in the afterlife. In other cultures, young brides were often committing suicide after the loss of their lovers.  Therefore, I would like to know more about the true meaning behind the song "One last dress for one last journey”.
  Albert : As you know "The shortest way" is a complete history of its own, and this song is the nadir of the story, the cruelest part, the farewell between twin souls that separate their ways in the physic world and the promise of a soon reunion. I remember that we have written “Further away the light” and” Gloomy garden” and we have been very clear which part of the history goes in the middle. And once you have the concept, the lyrics come alone.
  Shadows : To go back into human reality, as a dedicated fan of yours, I cannot but ask you: is the band currently working on new material? What are the plans of Evadne for the future? In other words, how it has been during the Spanish lockdown, and in which way have you been affected by the current situation, on a personal level, as well as a band? 
  Albert : Yes, we have new material that will be released this year. During the pandemic we dedicated our time to write and compose this new material and as soon as the lockdown was broken, we went to the studio to record it. It has been the most difficult recording up to the date cause was very complicated to be all together to decide and to progress, but we got it.
  Shadows : And as we're close to the end of this interview, could you tell me about your view upon metal scene in Spain? From your own point of view. What about the doom metal scene? 
  Albert :  The metal scene in Spain is quite complicated. In the extreme or underground music there are a few bands and is difficult for us to move it. Here the people like other styles like heavy or...
  Shadows :  Up to this point, you've played in numerous countries, sharing the stage with bands like November's Doom, Swallow the Sun, Officium Triste, just to name a few and, and you've  participated in renowned festivals such as; Madrid Is The Dark II, Dutch Doom Days IX, The Malta Doom Festival 2012 and Hard Rock Laager XII. That's impressive, and well deserved after releasing two of the best funeral doom/death albums from the past 15 years. And my question is, is there a band or bands that you'd like to share the stage with? Or any festival that you wish to perform at? Why?
  Albert : Well, there are tons of festivals that we like to play in, Waken, Hellfest , Download etc, but now we are focused in play in Germany and play in America. We think that playing in South America will be nice too. There the people speak like us and there are plenty of countries to learn about. There are festivals here in Spain that we haven't played at until now and we want to do it.
  Shadows : Well, unfortunately, this is the end of our interview. It has been an honour to discuss with you and discover more about the creators behind Evadne. Would you like to add anything else, for your friends, fans...?
  Albert : At the end of this year we are going to release the new Evadne album, "The Pale Light of Fireflies" via Solitude Productions and The Vinyl Division. The next weeks we are going  to release some cool videos and info about the recording , some photos and news so, stay alert to our social media for more info and we hope you will like it.
  


This concludes my interview with Albert Conejero Ferrer.



Looking for some cool merch? Here: Evadne/ Merch



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Doom regards,
Ipsissima verba - Shadows

I am one when there are many. Yet I am many when there is none. I am Shadows. Founder/ Lyricist/ Concept writer/ Manager of the international romantic gothic doom band Lord of Shadows. Poet/ Novelist and the sole writer of the independent webzine Ipsissima verba - Shadows.

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