Wait a minute… I know you! We did an interview last year when you were still in Pirate Queen. The pirate life was not your barrel of rum, I mean, cup of tea after all?
“Ahoy! It’s great to catch up again! I will always love pirate metal! Alas, the project Pirate Queen was not what I thought it would be and I had to leave for my own sake. It’s a fully manufactured project run by a management team. I won’t go into any details of the things that lead to my departure, but I wish all the remaining band members all the best moving forward.”
Before you left the pirate ship, you were already in TALES OF TIME. Did you form the band in 2022?
“Originally the band was called Shadowfell and it was where all of my solo metal projects started life. Me and Dan (guitarist) managed to get a band together in 2020 just before COVID hit but unfortunately the world shut down just after that, and the other members had other bands and commitments to see to so it kind of sat on the back burner for a while! Then when everything started opening up again, I wrote some new songs, put out a few music videos and managed to get a full band together under the new band name TALES OF TIME so that we could start this new project and start performing live shows!”
You wrote the music for all the singles TALES OF TIME have released so far and penned the lyrics with guitarist Daniel Ackerman. On what instrument do you compose the music? Was this also the same method for the upcoming EP?
“I write everything sat at my PC with my keyboard next to me! It’s been my songwriting process for a long time and I really enjoy the workflow of writing in Midi form and watching a brand new song come to life piece by piece. Once I get a decent sounding demo together, I can then start by improving each track and recording instruments, vocal parts and harmonies until the song really starts to sound like a cohesive piece of music. The new EP was written in exactly the same way!”
You shot the video for the “The Journey” yourself. Is that something you’d like to do more for future TALES OF TIME videos or for other bands as well?
“Every video released by TALES OF TIME so far has been shot by me and Dan and then edited by me. I really do enjoy the process, but I think that I would like to outsource it more in the future just because there’s always so much to do. Outsourcing it would free up so much time to work on other aspects of the band. I do actually have some experience with shooting other bands – I shot parts of “Glint” and parts of the “Can You Feel The Love Tonight?” cover, both by Fellowship, which was fun to do!”
We’ve come to the point where I let you write down your thoughts about the 5 tracks on “The Journey” EP. Here we go:
1. “The Journey”:
“The title track. An upbeat song about sticking true to yourself and the path that you are travelling down in life. It has a cheeky little power metal solo section that I really love! This song is the first time I have layered so many harmonies of my voice together (which you can hear in the final chorus) which was a new challenge for me! Tom Standen, our lead guitarist, really soars with a dynamic solo in this one too!”
2. “Forgotten”:
“It’s probably one of our heaviest songs to date and it’s about refusing to be forgotten, even when the future is uncertain. I wrote this song a long time ago, and knew I definitely wanted it to be released at some point! Although not as technical as some of our other songs, it has gentle Japanese influences in the music which is something I enjoy writing. This is the first track where I make use of my own newly found screams too!”
3. “Chaos / Art”:
“This is a fun 3-minute 200bpm Gloryhammer style power metal song. There’s not much to say about it – it’s just a bit of fun! It’s more than likely going to be our next music video as well. Our drummer Edward Curley has a good time on this number!”
4. “Sleep”:
“Another heavy song, kind of Amaranthe in sound that starts with a delicate piece of classical piano followed by some hard hitting heavy guitar chugs! Lyrically, the song is about how we as a society have to
wake up to the nonsense that goes on in the world and how you can’t just sit and be controlled by the powers that be without thinking for yourself. This song changed form a few times in the verses as it was originally just screams and growls that interacted with each other as a sort of call and response between Tom and Liam Gloster (our bassist), but over the last few weeks I decided to tone down the screams and incorporate a gentle vocal melody. The solo is very unassuming, albeit quite evocative and motifs from previous songs can distantly be heard under the vocal line. I also made use of chimes for the first time which replicate the ‘dong’ of a big grandfather clock.”
5. “Memories – Part 1”: (replaced with “Momentai”)
“Okay, so initially this was going to be “Memories”, but now it’s a completely different song called “Momentai”! It’s a super cheesy happy power metal song about coping with our mental health and the struggles that we all face at some point in our lives (keep an eye out for “Memories” in the future!)”.
You’re doing a UK mini headlining tour (shows in Colchester, London and Edinburgh) next May, but is there also a chance TALES OF TIME will pack their stuff and take the ferry across the North Sea?
“If the opportunity presents itself, we will be there! We have toyed around with the idea of putting on a few shows ourselves in Europe but, for the last few months, the focus has been entirely on getting this EP done. We would love to get some European festivals and tour support slots under our belt and that’s what we’ll be working on moving forward as we hone our live performance and write more music! The scene for symphonic power metal bands certainly appears much larger over in Europe, so hopefully we will be there soon!” ■
Henk van Nieuwenhoven