I N T E R V I E W

Interview Lisa Middelhauve (face to face)

How was going this tour so far?

This tour is doing great except for the last two days of course because I've been ill. But it's more a personnal stuff. But I'm very satisfied with the audience, very satisfied with the reactions. Extremely positives reactions for me and for Serenity which is very amazing. And as Serenity is a great band, I wouldn't have expecting anything else! (laughs).

You seemed to be quite nervous before going on tour. How do you feel now with the songs you have to sing?

Now, not nervous at all anymore! It's really a routine at the moment for me. I think if it would be two or three weeks in between, I would probably be nervous again, but it's been every evening and it's only two songs... So I'm not that nervous. And I feel really safe on stage because, it's also a lot of feelings that a band gives you and this band make me feel safe on stage.

How did you become the guest for Serenity?

This is a really good question! Georg (who was in the same room during the interview): She was cheap and wally! (Laughs). Yeah, cheap and wally. I needed the job and as they are incredibly richs (laughs)! No, actually I'm a friend of Fabio who is the new bass player for Serenity and they asked a couple of different singers in Austria but it's quite difficult to find somebody for a long tour. Who can just say "ok, I'm going for a month"? So it was possible for me and Fabio told me they were looking for a singer and this is why I applied. And I'm very happy that they chose me.

How were your relationship with the other bands?

With Delain... I love Delain and I love especially my friend Charlotte. It's nice to be on tour with another girl, it didn't happen to me a lot during my career. And everybody is very nice and polite. This tour is definitely a rock n roll tour but not in a desguting way. So everything is really nice. Lost in Though was a really good band and we feel very sorry for what happen to them with this car accident. But on the other hand, I'm really glad to see Whyzdom again, especially for the first time with Clémentine. I'm sure this will be a great experience. I think it's one of the best party I have experienced!

Did you miss the life on tour, with its good and bad moments, or finally you don't feel the same excitement than before?

It's a completely different reality. When you are on tour for two days, you are totally out of the real life and sometimes you got home thinking "did it really happen?" and one week after the tour it seems like one year ago... At least for me. Indeed I missed it, but in another way, not too much. I'm in the lucky position to like the things I'm doing and if I'm home, I'm glad to be back home with my husband. And right now, I'm enjoying it the most, although I'm really ill.

Do you sometimes miss being a frontwoman or you don't have any regrets about leaving the metal scene?

(Hesitant). The same thing, it was nice and I pretended to be a rock star, but when I see how much work it is for the guys, keeping this band running, organise everything, when I see how much work it is for Georg to be on stage or even for Charlotte who is on stage longer... I'd like to be on stage for a longer time, but on this tour, being on stage for only two songs is only luxury. I'm having all the tour funs with all the things you can imagine, this is the best thing. I'd like to be a frontwoman again. But for this moment, it's the best thing I could imagine, because I can be really lazy and takes all the good things and all the bad things are done by the others! (Laughs).

You played two shows with Whyzdom. What would you have done if they asked you to be their singer?

Probably take singing lessons! (Laughs). To be honnest, we discussed this and both side thought it wasn't a good decision. The main reason was the distance. It's really hard to work with this distance, it's very expensive... And when I see Clémentine now, I heard her voice on "Bonny Portmore" and I'm getting to know her, I couldn't be gladder for them. I really love this band and Whyzdom personnality a lot, this progressiv type of music is not really mine. I prefer a bit more commercial music, which doesn't mean I'd chose pop music, but I like it not that progressive so I think this choice is the best. I couldn't have done this and I'm really happy the way it is.

You left Xandria a few years ago. There are still fans who want you to be their singer. Are you surprised that they are still faithfull to you?

I'm always surprised when somebody consider herself or himself as a fan of me because I'm Lisa and this is not a big thing. But, for some reasons, I'm not surprised because usually it's always like that. People often prefer the original singer, no matter if it's the best singer or not. For example, I'd like Kerstin better in Xandria because I prefer her voice to mine, her personnality and the way she is a front woman. But I'm not really surprised because it's the usual way, people always long for the original. But I really hope that Manuella will do this job fine and for a long time so people will get the chance to forget about me. (Laughs). Well not forget everything, but I just need to forget a few things!

You participated to the song "Teach Me To Love" from Mono Inc., now you are touring a bit with Serenity. Being a guest on albums or tour, is it something you'd prefer to do?

I like to do a lot of collaboration because I think it's always interesting to know other bands, other way to work, other ways to create the music. And I feel honored that other bands are interesting in me being a vocalist, being a business partner in some ways. This also means a lot of fun 'cause in every job you can find new situations. You maybe could work better, but you can feel also a bit anoyed by others because you can think it's always the same old stuffs again and again. And if you have projects with some others collaborations, everything is new and fresh and this is what I like!

During the show with Whyzdom, you surprised people when you growled, even if you already did it on Firestorm with Xandria. When and why did you decide to sing this way?

I did it before with Xandria, for example on the song "Snow White" and I did it even before Xandria. But to be honnest, I wasn't allowed to use this voice because the record label company didn't like female fronted singer to do that. Now, it's changing and some female singers do that. It was not really a decision, I just like this type of singing. I like heavy stuffs, I like death metal so it was just natural for me to try that.

On facebook, we can hear some demos of yours. Do you plan to release an album and if not, why did you put it on line?

I won't release another version of these songs otherwise I wouldn't release them the way they are. I would have waited until they would be finished. This is just to show how I try around. But I promise I won't stop making music never ever since I'm not the most decided person in this universe I can't exactly say what I plan. Let's say it's a plan of music and this will happen in the future and I will release music but I can't tell you exactly when and in which format.

You created a community, Eve's Apple. What was your purpose doing this community?

The main reason is that I'm totally pissed off with this women competition and everybody expects you to fight with the others. People come to you and try to catch you talking bad about the other singers in a band. So it's a kind of daily soap-opera thing. And I don't think it works like that. I made different experiences when I was looking for a way to show that women are business people and can be friends. They don't have to be of course, but we can rock together and make this scene bigger and help each others. And I think the success of Eve's Apple shows this works. I hope that after this tour, I'm going to have more time to spend with Eve's Apple. I already contacted some new female members. I like the idea of creating something together and to show that it's possible to gain or strike for success without talking bad about the others or being in a bad competition. I don't think without Eve's Apple and this kind of thing that it would be possible for Clémentine and I to be friends for example. If I think about it, and she told me the same, it's cool to be friend and it makes it nicer!

Eve's Apple released a compilation, "Sirens' Garden". Do you plan to do other things like that?

Yeah, yeah, yeah, we plan to do other things like that! I have a couple of other ideas, I talked about it to some other members. It's not clearly definited yet but I have some ideas that I can tell you. I have the idea of every members of Eve's Apple would look for another singer that has no label contract, being like a fairy godmother, so we can do duet with other singers, "smaller" ones. I have at least ten singers that I admire and I'd like to featured them in many way and I think this would be a nice idea. Maybe it won't be a whole compilation, maybe it would be just for fun, a couple of songs, just like that, it doesn't have to be a big thing. But I like the idea of working with unknown musicians and we also speak about recording some songs all together, like a duet, or choir parts or one song we all join. It's a long project because we are in a lot of different countries so it means a lot of mail work, organisation, logistic but I think this could be fun!

What are your next plans?

Getting healthy again! (Laughs). Having a nice show this evening, and when I will come back from tour, spend a lot of time with my husband. And I will spend a lot of time anoying Serenity to keep on rocking with me! (Laughs)

The last words are up to you for saying anything you want to end this interview!

Anything I want? It's always the more difficult question when they say "now you can say what you want" and everybody say "thank you" and "I love you". Then some years ago, people start thinking about new things they could say because thank you and I love my friends is not very original... I don't have anything else more original to say (laughs) so I just say : thank you and I love you! (Laughs).

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