Q.
How did Elexorien come into existence?
A.
The foundation for Elexorien was built in the end of 2003, when I used to play guitar together with a friend and started looking for more people to form a metalband with. By asking tons of people and simply talking to fellow metalheads, I managed to find these people rather quickly and we were off into the rehearsal room to start creating new material. Back then, the band still had seven members. Early 2005 three of them (including the co-founder) had left the band due to various reasons, and we were down to four: Liza (ex-Darkened Empire, ex-Mjolnir), Joris (ex-Grinroth), Grimbert and I. Shortly after the departure of the ex-singer, Ine joined our ranks only 5 weeks before our first gig (while we were still known as Tearful Dawn), but managed to learn all our songs in that short period of time, and performed really well.
May 2005 was an important month for us. Not only did we record our promo cd ˇ§Rising of the Stormˇ¨ in the German Soundlodge Studios; we also changed our band name to Elexorien (the Sword of War). At one of our shows, we met guitarist Wolve when he was still playing with his former death metalband Bowel Rupture. He completed our line-up shortly after that, and had an amazing first Elexorien-gig on October 7 th 2005.
Q.
What, in your opinion, makes Elexorien different from other folk metal bands out there?
A.
That's rather easy: we don't play pure folk-metal, basically. Our songs have that Elexorien sound to them, but we're not hanging on to but one metal genre. We usually call it Epic Fantasy Battle Metal since that comes closest to what we play, but our music is mainly based on Viking- and Black metal, with a huge amount of power/folk/deathmetal influences and even the occasional touch of grindcore in it. I think this variety is one of the main things that makes our band different than all the bands that stick to one style.
Q.
The band seems to tour quite a bit, what do you like the best about playing live?
A.
This will probably sound like one hell of a cliche, but I think the best thing about playing live is to see the energy and effort we have put into our music and performing it live on stage being reflected by the crowd. When the people go absolutely mad, start banging their heads like crazy and have a great time, then we all enjoy it a lot better than playing for a crowd that just stares at the walls during our gig. Besides that, all our backstage-madness definitely adds to the fun.
Q.
What is the most difficult part about touring?
A.
We haven't been on any long tours yet. Our longest ˇ§on-the-roadˇ¨ experience was 2 days last December, so actually it hasn't been that hard at all. So at the moment, the main problems for most of us are getting days off at work, and keeping everyone in mind when planning our gigs. We have six people in the band who all have their special occasions like birthdays, planned holidays and more of that, which we have to check before we can confirm anything.
Q.
What kind of plans do you have for perhaps releasing a cd?
A.
We're constantly writing new material and we are close to finishing a few new songs. We expect to march to Soundlodge once again at the end of this year.
Q.
Is anyone in the band pursuing anything other major interests besides playing in the band, and does 'everyday' life make it difficult to be in a band due to touring and practices?
A.
As I said before, we all have our personal things to tend to, but so far it hasn't been a huge problem yet. It would be great if we could make a decent living off of the band and have Elexorien as a full-time job so to say, but until we achieve that, we obviously have to do our other jobs ˇKand spend most of our well-earned coins on the band... ;)
Q.
What do you believe is the most important attribute to have when working in a band?
A.
Teamwork, definitely! There is no main composer/musical boss /band Nazi in Elexorien, since we all write the songs together. Of course some people come up with more material than others, but we always arrange all songs together. Because of this, the various styles and influences are mixed into our songs and that is what creates the Elexorien-sound.
Q.
What kind of plans would you like to implement into Elexorien's future?
A.
More gigs, especially with the bands we like. Longer tours, bigger stages (hello Wacken ;) more albums, bigger epic sagasˇK More of the good stuff, basically.
Q.
How do you feel about bands that dress up (Battlelore for example) as characters that reflect their songs, would you ever do that yourselves ?
A.
That depends on the functionality of the outfits. Battlelore sings about Orcs, Elves and all sorts of other inhabitants of Middle-Earth, so it is quite fitting to dress up like these creatures. Apart from that I really love Battlelore and their style, and feel they're doing an awesome job on their music and their stage outfits. Lordi's monster outfits are great as well. Some bands, however, take it all a bit too seriously. They seem to focus only on their corpsepaint and forget about making good music. We only ˇ§dress upˇ¨ slightly to enhance the battle atmosphere. If we'd play in jeans and sweaters, it just wouldn't look believable. That's why you see us wear leather pants, tunics and chainmail on stage.
Q.
We'd love to see you tour in the US someday, do you see that as something possible one day for the band?
A.
Sure, why not? With the proper support of a decent label or another band this should be possible.
Q.
How supportive are family members of the band with the type of music that you play?
A.
Most of them aren't really into our material since it is rather extreme compared to their own taste of music, but they are all very supportive and help us out whenever they can. They all have been at a few Elexorien shows as well, which is really nice of course.
Q.
And, in closing, what is something that Elexorien would like people to know?
Elexorien will fight at a battlefield near you in the foreseeable future. Trumpets ring in the morning sky. To arms! Join us in glorious battle, or perish in the rising storm!