Liva, blending classical music with metal since 1997, continues to push boundaries with their latest album Ecce Mundus, exploring timeless human flaws through intricate orchestrations and evocative medieval texts.
1. Liva has
been blending classical music with metal since 1997, creating a truly unique sound
in the metal scene. What inspired you to pursue this fusion, and how has it evolved
over the years?
It's a question
of time and hard work. I work like a craftsman. I think a lot, I listen a lot around
me, I listen a lot inside me, and I've always been concerned with originality. And
that's the first thing I see in an artist, no matter what medium they work in. I've
always had ideas, and I've always had to improve the way I work to develop my sound.
I'm constantly evolving. My old ideas become new ideas. As long as I have ideas
to express, I'm going to make music.
I give myself
commissions and musical challenges, as if someone was asking me to compose music.
As in classical
music, I really enjoy having a concept as a working objective. What I mean is that
I like to have a long text in order to develop a long piece of music.
2. Your latest
album, Ecce Mundus, delves into themes of antiquity and human flaws. Could you tell
us more about the concepts and historical inspirations that shaped this album?
I take the
text for what it is and what it evokes. I realized that some old texts could
have been written today. We can see that some human problems and issues haven't
changed much in 2000 years. I love the poets of the late Middle Ages, because
their texts, sometimes bearing sarcastic reflections, are still very relevant
in our times. So the texts are old, but set to modern music.
Since I am
not a poet, this artistic choice, and not one of faith or belief, of exploring
older texts goes back to my studies as a trained classical musician. The
inspiration came from two things. In our academic career, I had done choral
singing in various languages, and my wife, a classically trained singer, found
that her voice sounded particularly well in sacred works, so it was at this
point that I said to myself: “what would it be like if I put a metal version of
the Mass of the Dead, a Requiem?”
After Requiem, in 2002, I was curious to do
some research into secular texts, and that's when I discovered Alain de Lille.
Since then, I've alternated my texts between the sacred and the secular, but
always with a certain spiritual or philosophical undertone, with different
ancient poets.
It's what has
made my style and my trademark.
3. “Samson
& Dalila I” is described as the flagship track of Ecce Mundus. How did you approach
telling this story musically, and what emotions were you hoping to capture in the
orchestration and lyrics?
When I compose, there's nothing chronological about it, and this concept is the oldest on the album. I had the intuition to set this story to music around 2008-2009, but I didn't have any music to support the story for all those years. When I invited Nadine to join the band in 2020, it was mainly to advance my songs, which really required
both a female
and a male voice. Where the concept met the music was when I started working with
my new 9-string guitar. I'm able to make music that's so heavy and deep and at the
same time very high-pitched. My voice has also developed enormously in recent years.
I finally had all the elements I needed to finish this song and many others. I wanted
a heavy, dark Samson as opposed to a luminous, radiant Dalila. So for the video
clip, not only was I able to find the song with this instrument, but I felt that
in this song, all the elements that forge Liva's style were present.
4. The music
video for “Samson & Dalila I” is described as a visual feast. Can you share
some insights into the visual choices and the experience of creating this video?
I came up with
the concept for the video. I wanted it to be as simple as possible, so that you
could see the whole band playing while looking at each other. I chose a room accordingly
to make it easier for the cameraman. For the story, I chose to have us dress up
to play our own part. I wanted the story to be told visually throughout, but in
short sequences. I'm glad I was able to find a cameraman, who also did the editing,
used to working with underground bands.
5. You’ve
incorporated Latin texts and medieval poetry into the album. How did you choose these texts, and what challenges or
joys did you encounter while bringing them into a metal context?
On the
lyrics side, I went the library and browsed through old poems from the medieval
era. For this album, I read around a thousand of them and only a dozen could be
matched with my musical inspirations. I’m always inspired by nature, mystical
themes and reflections in poems.
Then I
started to sing over these selected texts with the music playing in background.
When the match between music and texts is done, I start the arrangements for
all the band. Then I do a preproduction of the album that will be brought to a
final result with collaborators. That’s it!
6. In terms
of production, you’ve mentioned that Ecce
Mundus features more developed orchestrations
and heavier guitar parts. How did you balance these elements to achieve the album’s
grand, otherworldly atmosphere?
Apart from having
a lot of intuition, I have a very good ear, a highly developed musical sense and
a lot of musical culture. It's this background that helps me make choices in my
creative work. My approach is really that everything must serve the music and the
song, in every project. The secret, as I found out with maturity and experience,
is to create space in the music and let it breathe. I compose the guitar, bass and
drums to make a block, then in the spaces where I've left room, that's where I compose
the orchestration and all the additional lines. There's no point in stuffing a song
full of elements. That's a youthful reflex.
7. With such
varied vocal styles, from Pier Carlo’s death vocals and tenor to Nadine’s soprano,
how do you manage the vocal arrangements to ensure they complement the intricate
instrumentation?
It's the instrumentation that complements the vocals. For me, there's nothing complicated about it. I'm comfortable with all instruments, except the piano, that I
have never practiced
per se. I've listened to and analyzed a lot of music in my life. Also, this ease
comes from the fact that I sing myself in all registers, even imitating a woman's
voice, and above all that I am both an instrumentalist and a singer. This means
I know the limits of each instrument. When I compose, I always leave room for the
next stage, the arrangements.
8. Liva is
often compared to bands like Therion and Nightwish. Do you feel these comparisons
capture your essence, or are there other influences that you believe are equally
essential to your sound?
No, we don't
have the same essence. We're contemporaries who've arrived at a certain result,
but with a different signature. In fact, we had the same intuition at the start
of mixing Classical music with Metal music, but each in our own country. When we
played with them, I was able to exchange ideas. I'd say that Christofer from Therion
is closer to me in his approach to mixing classical with metal than Nightwish, who
are pop wrapped in a metal sound. In our career, it's mainly the critics and the
media who have had trouble pigeonholing us, because they absolutely want to categorize
us. It's always easier to pigeonhole than to try and describe the subtleties of
a style. I think what makes us different is that we have a certain punch, and a
very direct sound that comes more from Thrash metal, and sounds that evoke a mystical
depth.
9. As a band
from Sherbrooke, Québec, how has the local metal scene influenced or supported Liva's
journey, especially given your distinctive genre fusion?
The local scene
didn't influence me because the music I listened to came from elsewhere. But the
Sherbrooke public is very open-minded. The public has always followed Liva's evolution.
Same thing in Montreal, because there are a lot of people and a lot of producers.
We have fans who have really followed us from the start, and we've left a lasting
mark on the metal scene, I think. Elsewhere in the world, with music and videos,
too. Now all we have to do is get out of our country and into Europe, Asia and South
America.
10. What
do you hope listeners take away from Ecce
Mundus, especially in terms of its messages
on human nature, and what’s next for Liva as you continue to explore these epic,
orchestral landscapes?
Apart from the
fact that it is, in my opinion, a musically masterful album, that we need to keep
developing our spirituality, or be sensitive to a sense of connexion to the world,
so that the greed and the attachment to material things doesn't drive us crazy.
That we need to enjoy happy situations, because they don't come along very often.
And that silence
is a treasure!
The next steps
in terms of compositions, not now though, because right now is the time to enjoy
the promotion stage of the album. I would like to release Ecce mundus in vinyl edition.
Of course, we're still playing live here, but we're also hoping to play in Europe,
the USA and South America, because there are so many good metal crowds over there!
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