Interview:	ALESTORM
Title:	In the storm of passion

With their new EP „Voyage Of The Dead Marauder“, which follows the seventh album „Seventh Rum Of A Seventh Rum“ released in 2022, the party-piratical Folk Metal buccaneers are taking fans' ears by storm.

Band co-founder, singer, main composer and fun captain Christopher ‚Chris’ Bowes is not without reason one of the most dazzling, but also most hard-working and busy scene protagonists - through his involvement with bands such as Gloryhammer and Wizardthrone, the versatile Briton has gained a lot of popularity and recognition. Whether it's a pandemic or not, he's always working on the songwriting, according to the lively Englishman.

„I’ve written an Alestorm album, a Gloryhammer album, and an Alestorm EP since the end of 2021, plus tons of stuff for weird obscure sideproject bands!“

How did the idea for the new EP "Voyage Of The Dead Marauder" come about and mature?

„Originally we were just going to release the two cover songs - ‚Last Saskatchewan Pirate‘ and ‚Sea Shanty 2‘ - as a little digital single. A cheap thing to make sure people don’t forget about us. But then one day I accidentally wrote a song and then thought ‚fuck it, may as well make this an EP!‘. So we upped the production values and went to a proper studio and this whole thing came together!“

Who out of you guys did the lion's share of the new song material?

„I guess that’s me. I write about 80 % of the music for Alestorm, occasionally with help from some friends and the guys in the band too.“

How was the selection of songs for the EP done - was it difficult or rather easy for the Alestorm crew?

„We’re not fussy about what songs to release or not – It was literally the first 5 completed songs we had ready to go at the time, haha. Because our own personal tastes are so messed up, we can really never tell when a song is going to be popular - apart from on rare occasions, so we find it’s just best to release everything and see what sticks.“

Is there and in case yes, what is the o-n-e song with the most meaning for you on "Voyage Of The Dead Marauder" and why?

„Most of the songs I write don’t have much meaning, I find i’m not very good at channelling my emotional state into music. Though the title track has these sort of vague themes of a fear of ‚giving up on life‘ woven through it. It’s a thing i think about a lot, that sort of complacency and loss of passion that happens to most artists and musicians as they get older. I’m trying my best to not let that happen to me.“

How do you see and evaluate the new EP within your rather varied discography?

„I think it’s interesting because most metalheads out there probably think of Alestorm as ‚the silly pirates with the swearing songs‘, which of course is true, but we’ve always had a bunch of longer and more serious songs on our albums, just nobody listens to them haha. So this is the first time we’ve actively promoted and began the release with a genuinely serious song. I’m really excited to see what people think. I can’t wait for the people who say ‚I preferred Alestorm when they were stupid and had songs about fuck cunt balls ass‘.“

How did the cooperation with Patty Gurdy come about and how well did the collaboration for the opener and title song go?

„We first worked with Patty back in 2020 - feels weird to say ‚back in 2020‘ - when she did vocals for our song ‚Zombies Ate My Pirate Ship‘. So when I had the idea for this kinda Female Fronted Symphonic Metal song, it felt absolutely natural to ask her again. Thankfully she said yes straight away, even though it’s quite a difficult performance for her - slightly too high for her comfortable range. I absolutely adore the sound of her voice, and the real feeling she puts into her performances. Also she’s really cool and somehow slightly more insane than we are, so we all get on really well.“

Please bring the readers closer to the main lyrical content of the new EP!

„Uhhhhh pirates. Haha. So yeah like I mentioned before, the title track has these sort of themes of ‚giving up‘, while also being on the surface a lament for a dead pirate captain. Then ‚Uzbekistan‘ is basically a pile of nonsense I wrote about my favorite country in Central Asia; i’m hoping we can find an excuse to go there sometime soon and perform a show. It worked for ‚Mexico‘ and ‚Come To Brazil‘, haha! Then there’s a couple of covers, and then a very rude song that actually came to someone in a dream; on the website Reddit last year, someone made a post saying ‚I had a dream that Alestorm wrote a song with a chorus that went ‚hey cock fuck your balls‘, and was about a leprechaun with tits. So I turned their dream into a song.“

Are there any things, books, movies, etc. that have influenced you this time?

„Nah not really. Most of my music just came from a desire to sound like my favorite bands, warped by my limited musical abilities into some really stupid Pop-Metal songs.“

How well did the tried and tested collaboration with sound master Lasse Lammert work this time? He did everything, produced, recorded, mixed and mastered - did he also pour the beer for you every day?

„Haha thankfully the studio we rented came with a constantly refilling supply of beer, so we could just pour our own. It’s always really easy working with Lasse; by this point we all know exactly what we have to do to make an Alestorm album. We’re not looking to reinvent the wheel, just maybe spin it a few times and add a couple of new spokes here and there. So it’s a very relaxed process that always takes a lot less time than we’re expecting. Which means more time for beer!“

Five highly humorous and individually thinking sailor personalities in one crew - often times pretty difficult to handle, or?

„So we’re all those things, but I think the most important quality that you need to have in a band, is that you can just put up with any adversity and not really let anything annoy you too much. Being chill on the road is a rare quality, and I think we all have that. So this current line-up of the band has managed to stay happy over the last 9 years and 700-ish concerts. It’s good fun.“

© Markus Eck, 27.02.2024

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