Interview With Swiss Songstress: Barbara 'Babs' Brawand

Let us start with a Shakespearean existential question, who is Barbara Brawand? What drives you, Babs, as a woman and a sentient being, and how do music and Caladmor relate to it?

Babs: To be or not to be… I definitely feel that I exist by making music. When jamming with the band, there are moments when all life, and the universe, and all these riddles seem crystal clear, and I feel profoundly great… okay, that’s hard to put into words, haha, I hope you get an idea of what I mean. Singing is like a channel that allows me to shout out what makes me angry, sad, or happy, thus keeping my balance. If I couldn’t do that anymore, I’d get sick for sure.

Being myself a Nirvana devotee, I remember how you and the guys, back when Pale was around, we are also much into the “Seattle Sound.” And I relate to the path you followed since then, but would you please explain how you got from “grunger” to metal diva?

Babs: Okay, thank you for the Metal Diva! Indeed our music grew from a kind of “darker alternative Metal” to what it is nowadays. But still, I think the old Pale can yet be found sometimes in our recent music, so at least inside of us, Grunge isn’t dead ;) I think the music we make today is a bit more challenging regarding both songwriting and playing, and I find it more enjoyable to use different singing styles instead of just one “screamy grunge voice,” that’s why I trained my voice a bit since the Pale “Grunge” times.

“Of Stones and Stars” came to be quite an overwhelming surprise for me because it was much more than your pragmatic Epic Folk Metal record. So would you please shed some light on the album concept? Besides, clarifying how it pays tribute to Epic/Folk and goes deeper into uncharted territory.

Babs: I’m happy that it was an overwhelming surprise for you because I think “Of Stones and Stars” isn’t definitely a typical Folk Metal Album. Bad critics went further and said it was NOT a Folk Metal album at all — it really depends on what one is expecting when reading the label “Folk.” Luckily you are more open-minded; thank you for that! The songs on “Of Stones and Stars” are in their style, all different from each other, and so we had some difficulties finding a “brand” for our music on the album until we finally decided to call it Epic Folk Metal. But when hearing Folk, you shouldn’t expect many pipes, flutes, or violins in it. We spared these elements a bit to put them just in the right place at the right time. Folk relates more to the way the (guitar) melodies are written and sounding. The word Epic we chose more because of its actual meaning, referring to the literary category of greek and medieval epic poems, which have inspired our lyrics a lot.

A great deal of that “uncharted territory” is where the real Caladmorian sound comes from. And “variety” is something that you clearly want to achieve with your music. So, where does all that variety come from, and how do you have band management to encircle all those ideas into one solid and cohesive opus?

Babs: Well, one of our principles is: Let’s do what we want to! Meaning we don’t start with the idea “let’s sound like this or this band” and then put all our songwriting around this fixed idea — we take care of every song as a single entity. Maybe it’s because Maede has written most of the songs that there is consistency throughout the album.

Going for an (involuntarily) self-release is no easy task; how did you manage it, and were there obstacles that the band was forced to overtake? Namely, when you got to the promotional phase?

Babs: For the promotional phase, we were (and still are) really happy to have help from Markus Eck from Metalmessage. Of course, our former label's bankruptcy was annoying as we had to find other sources of money to pay for the CD recordings. But on the other hand, this was also a chance for us to discover the advantages of a band doing it all without a label, meaning being more free and able to make their own decisions for the next steps.

I found delightful about “Of Stones and Stars” the intertwined relation between music/medieval literature/mythology. How did ancient lore, the poetic Edda, alongside other medieval narratives, became a main lyrical influence for your music?

Babs: We are indeed very interested in all kinds of Mythology, legends, and epic poems. I think Maede and I are also very much influenced by our university studies, where we often discover new legends or works we didn’t know yet. For the basic course in Medieval Literature at the university, I had to read “Iwein” by Hartmann von Aue and got truly struck by one passage telling about Laudine crying about her dead husband — I instantly knew I wanted to make a song out of it.

Another highlight about the album has to be your fantastic vocal performance, as I stated in my review. Was there a lot of work behind it, and was that something you really wanted to achieve with this new release?

Babs: First of all: thank you for your review! And thank you very much for your compliment! You know I never felt too happy with my vocal performance on Midwinter — there were a lot of passages which I could have sung better, but just not back then ;) So yes, I definitely told myself: Let’s do it better this time! We also took care that the vocal lines are slightly higher because they often were too low for my voice in Midwinter. And then, of course, I had to work hard on all the lines, but I did it all by myself as I couldn’t afford a vocal teacher. ;)

“Alvíssmál” is such a great song, and it got me studying all its literary and mythological background. Moreover, you did a music video for this song, any special reasons for that choice? Would you like to share some fun facts about the video recording process?

Babs: Thank you! We chose Alvíssmál because it is one of the favorite songs of the whole band. Also, we thought it had the potential to be the people’s favorite song of the album, and because of its rich story content, it’s also a good choice to make a video out of it. We were fortunate to find the Viking re-enactment group Blackmoore (www.blackmoore.ch) as actors in the feasting scene. They fitted in perfectly, and we had such a fun day with them. Some of them even became excellent friends!… You can see the one with the dark beard falling backward from his chair in the video, but what you cannot see is that he truly got injured on his head when he hit the wall… Every time we watch this scene, we all stand suffering screaming “aaaaaaah” ;) For the outdoor scenes, we climbed Zurich’s mountain “Uetliberg” to freeze our asses off at minus two degrees… That’s what we do for Caladmor ;)

Recently ELUVEITIE & CALADMOR have shared a stage @ Bierhübeli, in Berna; how was it? Please tell us all about it?

Babs: Ah, it was great! Many of the people in the audience didn’t know us yet, but they were all really positive, lovely, and open-minded, and so after the third song, they were with us. The chemistry among the venue was overwhelming.

Any plans for a promotional tour? I know that touring is an expensive business, but we would love to see you guys here at the Portuguese Festival; and may I say that we have some lovely places for your music. I think that Caladmor would be perfect for a Fest like “Entremuralhas”; you should check it out!

Babs: Thank you for the hint! We would LOVE to come to Portugal! As you mentioned, touring is expensive, so we are about to make plans to get the money together to visit Portugal and other countries outside Switzerland. I’ll keep my fingers crossed that Caladmor will get there in 2014. We are looking forward to meeting you guys!!!

Any special announcement you can share here at Rock n’Heavy, and would you like to leave a message for our readers and all your fans?

Babs: Well: Thank you, Rui for this Intie — it was a pleasure to me! Thank you, all you crazy fellows out there, for your entire lovely support so far. You are fantastic! Please keep on visiting us on our website or Facebook page for any news, and we genuinely hope to see you guys soon.

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