This epic band will be huge and will be featured in the the Guiness Book of Records, for sure! They sing about many other themes than dragons, weapons, but current ones!They are from the UK, which is also epic! Their influences come from Elton John, Kate Bush and more. It’s worth reading!
M.I. - Hi there, my fellow companions. How are you? Thanks for taking some time to answer our questions.
Hi there. We’re good. Thanks for your interest in our band and music!
M.I. - Your name is not a Lord Of The Rings-themed band but many aspects are associated with its author and can be found on your debut album, such as an epic adventure. Do people still compare you to it? Does the name come from the bond between the members or something else?
Oh yes. It’s probably not something we’ll really be able to get away from, but we’re happy with the name. We wanted something that really captured our sound and our approach, and nothing else really fit once we first thought of ‘Fellowship’!
M.I. - “The Saberlight Chronicles” was released on the 15th July, through the new label, Scarlet Records and it’s pure Power Power Metal at its finest. Well done! We can hear several musical influences, from Elton John to Kate Bush. What songs from those artists inspired you to create your songs and which ones are influenced by them?
Ah, yeah! We take a lot from 70s and 80s pop music. We’re all metalheads at heart, but we wanted to make music that’s just as fun and happy as those 80s power ballads, and combined that with modern power metal instrumentation. We love ABBA too!
M.I. - This is a conceptual album and comes from the hero’s perspective. Care to tell us more about it, please and if this is only the first part of the novel? How was the lyric process?
Indeed it is! The lyrics are interwoven into a story that takes a lot of classic fantasy ideas and turns them on their heads. There’s a legendary sword, medieval villages, evil empires… but to tell you how those ideas change, would spoil things! Lyrically, the songs all came first, and the novel is me weaving those songs together. I used the novel - which I wrote alongside about half of the lyrics, those after the EP - as a writing tool to help me really flesh out the metaphors and lyrical ideas I wanted to use in the newer songs.
M.I. - The hero sometimes doubt himself, such as his bravery, legacy, worthy and many other aspects. Do you relate his suffering to what is happening to humanking nowadays? What do you think, in you point of view, we should do to prevent this symptoms from happening?
I wanted to make the hero of our first album into someone who experiences the same core issues and difficulties as real people do everyday. I think that people don’t talk openly about mental health enough, but more importantly I think that people aren’t honest with one another. Too often we aren’t honest with those around us, often when trying not to hurt their feelings, but the lack of clarity, the lack of honesty, to me, does far more damage than the truth ever could.
M.I. - What song was the hardest and easiest to produce? And epic?
“Glory Days” probably took the longest, while “Avalon”, and “Hearts Upon The Hill” might have been the easiest. The only thing that really takes us a long time is the writing, the actual production process. We just do one day per song in the studio with our producer.
M.I. - Every song is a chapter and has a symbolism behind it. Which symbols can we find in every song?
A lot of the songs share symbols and motifs - like courage, worth, etc - but the novel as a whole no one (to my knowledge) has actually figured out! There’s a wider allegory that the entire novel fits into, but you’d have to use the map and the index to solve the puzzle! In terms of symbols, I love taking ideas that we all understand - so, fear, excitement, courage - and using unique or less cliche metaphors to describe them. “These mountains stand as a strike upon the sea, scars for the land and scars for me” is one of my favourite examples.
M.I. - You might enter in the Guiness Book Of Records, because you’re the first band Power Metal band not singing about dragons and stuff like that. Plus you’re not from Germany. How do you feel about that? Which bands do you admire from the genre? And outside?
(Laughts) we embrace it! There are some great UK power metal - not just Dragonforce and Power Quest, but new bands like Battle Born too! We love all the classics though, and admire especially Rhapsody, Majestica and Twilight Force - if we’re looking at Germany though, it has to be Avantasia!
M.I. - You’ve also produced an EP, which is also considered a masterpiece. Could you, so kindly, tell the story behind it?
The EP was the first thing we did as a band. After we found Matt, we wrote a few songs and the first time we met him, was in the studio on the day we recorded “Glint”! We really just wanted to get music out at that point - we knew we loved what we’d made, and really just wanted to get it out. The success that came about as a result though was crazy, we had no idea it would get so big!
M.I. - Any plans for touring? Maybe Portugal?
Looking at a UK tour in October!
M.I. - Once again, my fellow companions, thanks for accepting this questions and taking your time. Would you like to leave any message for your fans from Portugal?
Just to have a great time, take care of your mental health, and come see our shows when we can finally make it into the rest of Europe on tour!
The EP was the first thing we did as a band. After we found Matt, we wrote a few songs and the first time we met him, was in the studio on the day we recorded “Glint”! We really just wanted to get music out at that point - we knew we loved what we’d made, and really just wanted to get it out. The success that came about as a result though was crazy, we had no idea it would get so big!
M.I. - Any plans for touring? Maybe Portugal?
Looking at a UK tour in October!
M.I. - Once again, my fellow companions, thanks for accepting this questions and taking your time. Would you like to leave any message for your fans from Portugal?
Just to have a great time, take care of your mental health, and come see our shows when we can finally make it into the rest of Europe on tour!
Listen Fellowship, on Spotify
