Crimson Veil – In the Court of the Crimson Metal
1. Your live performances are described as “ritualistic” and “shamanic.” How important is the visual and theatrical aspect of your shows to conveying the themes of Hex?
It’s extremely important. The visual element is an extension of the sound… plus it’s fun dressing up, why not?
2. Collaborating with talents like Paul Reeve and John Fryer in the past must have been a huge learning experience.How have these collaborations shaped the production of Hex?
We learned a lot working with those producers and also got very familiar with our sound. It’s very important to share the vision with whoever you work with and sometimes that’s difficulty to communicate. Our sound is very varied so it can be hard to finish the mix of a track… especially something like Task which is 12 minutes long! This last album was produced by Evan Rodaniche who we work with on multiple projects. He’s really done us proud.
3. The band’s use of violin, cello, and harp brings an unusual and haunting quality to your music. How do you balance these instruments with the heavier metal elements in Hex?
It can certainly be a challenge to balance classical instruments against a wall of drums and guitars! However, our songs are quite diverse so it’s there is always space for these more delicate layers, you just have to allow the song to breathe.
Hana also uses a variety of effects on the cello so it can be made to sound more like a guitar or something heavier if we need that.
4. You’ve just completed your world debut with Lordi’s Unliving Pictour Show. How did that tour experience shape your performances, and what was the crowd’s reaction to the debut of Hex?
It was an incredible experience to share the stage which such professionals, Lordi are a powerhouse, and also very sweet… for a bunch of monsters!
The crowd reaction was in general quite receptive, people were sometimes confused but I think they were entertained and we definitely made a lot of new fans, who have come to see us again.
5. Crimson Veil’s music is described as both fragile and fierce, blending light and darkness. How does Hex explore this balance in its themes and composition?
I think that’s a fairly accurate description to be honest. We’ve been referring to the music from Hex as “Grey Metal”, as it’s an equal blend of light and dark… we’re hoping that catches on as a new sub-genre of metal!
The lyrical themes of the album are very much about introspection, and trying to carve a way through the darkness to come out the other side. When I was writing these song it was a middle of the pandemic and I wasn’t sure we would ever play on stage again. It felt like paralysis at times, which is a theme we explore in Ribbons – this is why the music video features the band all tied up.
Each song from Hex in itself has moments of beauty, and moments of terror, but I don’t want to explain the mystery too much… it’s up to the listener to decide what the song means to them, and how they feel when experiencing it.
6. From being featured in a Channel 4 thriller to performing live with such distinct stage imagery, how do you envision the future of Crimson Veil as you embark on this new chapter with Hex?
The future of Crimson Veil? Well I imagine it will involving us growing the visual elements of our live performances on stage… we have some bombastic ideas on how to turn the entire show into some kind of inclusive ritual.
Musically we are already writing the follow up to Hex – it’s going to be longer, darker, more developed and feature heavily on the unusual time signatures and chord progressions that are our current obsession. We’re hoping to explode into the progressive and metal scene with something totally fresh that is both highly unusual but accessible. It’s a hard balance to strike so we will take our time with this.
In the meantime, we just want to tour as much as possible!
7. Crimson Veil draws from a variety of genres and influences, from classical music to progressive rock. How do you ensure all these elements come together cohesively in Hex?
As we’re all writers in the band, each one of us will have a vision for a particular song. Making sure the elements melt well together will be lead by the person in charge of that song. It’s easy to balance everything if you allow space for what the song asks for. I think in the past we’ve all been guilty of putting “too many ideas” into a song but now we’ve become quite aware of not overdoing it, and ruining a perfectly good idea before it even gets going. That’s what we love about progressive music, you can give an idea time to develop, evolve and change.
These days our songs go through a very strict listening stage where we all have input. Nothing goes out without everyone’s approval and I think that means the song has been crafted correctly.
8. The themes in your music seem to be deeply rooted in the mystical and esoteric. What personal or philosophical ideas inspired the concept behind Hex?
As I mentioned before the main theme of Hex is introspection. During the pandemic I (Mishkin) was studying a lot of occult texts including the Lesser Key of Solomon, books on shadow work, demonology and mysticism. These concepts bled into the songwriting as I tend to process everything through music. Sometimes I have to go to a dark place to bring back some inspiration, and this was a lonely and uncertain time for me, so I think these songs reflect that.
9. With such a diverse range of instruments and sounds in the band, how do you approach songwriting as a group? Does each member bring something distinct to the table in shaping Hex?
When we get together to write we all bring an idea that we want to put into a song. For Anna it’s usually a drum groove in an unusual time signature or a polyrhythm. For Garry it’s riffs and weird scales, Mishkin is the chord master and Hana brings classical melodies. It can be a challenge to assemble to track but as we are all songwriters it becomes a really fun group task to see where the song goes. Once we’ve recorded “sketches” of the song, everybody goes off with their homework and records remotely.
Then we start stage two, which is completing the demos with all the suggested parts. We’ll give it another listen as a band and see if anything more needs to be added. This process could take months. Mishkin and Hana will craft the lyrics in the meantime, sending ideas back and forth till the perfect words appear.
After that it’s time to hit the studio and begin the long arduous task of trying to record all the ridiculous ideas we’ve written! Writing for this band is long, but very rewarding once the track is finished. Then it’s just fun, we get to play it live and watch people react to it.
10. What was the biggest challenge you faced while creating Hex, either musically or personally, and how did you overcome it as a band?
The biggest challenge was finishing the damn album! The final song is called Task which ended up being 12 minutes long, and felt like a lifetime to create. Some of the sections contained multiple instrumental layers, and other parts were so exposed that it took an insane amount of recording to get it just perfect. We couldn’t listen to it for a long time after we finished it… we had to step away.
Now, we’re very proud of the whole album and so happy to see it finally reach the release stage. Thanks for having us!
Interview’s Photo Credit: Scott Chalmers
