After departing from Gothic Metal stalwarts TRISTANIA in 2000, Morten Veland started a new page in the book of Metal with SIRENIA. At first, they very much resembled his previous band, but as time passed, SIRENIA's own identity became more concrete. After having released four albums with three different vocalists for Napalm Records and then Nuclear Blast, SIRENIA have established themselves among the genre's leaders. Their newest album, "The 13th Floor", was released in North America this April.

Let's start off with talking about the new album, "The 13th Floor". What was the song writing process like for the album and how much did you have to adjust the style for Ailyn's vocals?

"When it comes to the song writing for 'The 13th Floor' it has been done in the same way as every SIRENIA album. I am still the composer of the band and I work alone when it comes to the composing aspect. The reason for this is that I write more personal stuff when I write alone. My experience over the years tells me that this is the way that works best for me. Composing is an intricate process that demands 100 % of your dedication, focus and skills. Just having another person in the same room already compromises my focus. This time I really wanted to make a diverse album that kind of reflected what we have done musically so far. I mean that there is material on the album that has strong parallels to what we have done on all our previous albums in addition to some new stuff that the listeners might not have heard from SIRENIA before. There's a lot of variation in there, and it feels like taking three steps behind and one forward in the same time. My personal opinion is that there should be stuff on 'The 13th Floor' that will please all our fans, whether they prefer At sixes and sevens, An elixir for existence or Nine destinies and a downfall. Furthermore it's also important for us to deliver better song material and better productions from album to album, we work hard to constantly improve ourselves as a band. I feel that we have achieved our goal this time as well, and my personal opinion is that 'The 13th Floor' is SIRENIA's strongest album to date. When Ailyn joined the band most of the song material was already completed. But when I got to work with her more closely I discovered her voice had even greater potential than I first imagined so I adapted some of the melodies to her voice. As I discovered her great voice span I wanted to make sure she got the possibility to use it on the album."

Tell us a bit about the production process.

"For 'The 13th Floor' we choose a somewhat different solution in terms of production process. The album was recorded in my studios, with the only exception of choirs, acoustic guitars and violin which was recorded in Sound suite studios. Then we moved on to Antfarm Studios in Denmark to mix and master again. 'The 13th Floor' was also the first SIRENIA album that I produced myself, which was a totally different way of working for us, all other albums has been produced by others and I only was only kind of co-producing with them. So this was a big step for me, I was able to push myself really hard and I learned a lot from the whole experience."

What are your favorite songs on the album and why?

"I have been giving every song on the album 100% of my attention and skills, I like them all and it's difficult to point out favourites. Although 'The Path To Decay', 'The Seventh Summer' and 'Led Astray' are songs that I really enjoy. When we began practicing them with the band I discovered they work out perfectly live. So I look forward to add them to our live set."

What about the concept behind the album's artwork.

"The cover artwork was done by Jan Yrlund. When we start cooperating with a cover designer the first thing we do is to send him the lyrics, the songs, our thoughts and our former work so he knows what we like as a band. From there the designer takes over and makes his visual art to portray the feeling, atmosphere and main theme of the album. When he has come up with different ideas we pick the one we like best and take it from here. After that it's usually some mails back and forth to steer the artwork in the right direction, and that's how we make our way to a result we are all satisfied with."

What are your touring plans for the album? Is there any possibility of a North American tour?

"We will start touring Eastern Europe in May, and then we'll do some summer festivals and tour southern Europe. We are really motivated to tour a lot this time, so we'll tour wherever we get the opportunity to do so. Hopefully this will include North and South America as well, although there are no specific plans at this point. Nowadays there is not much holding us back so we'll play whatever show is thrown at us, as long as all practical and financial stuff is taken care of."

How has the fan reaction been to Ailyn thus far?

"When a band changes the singer it will always cause some stir, and the reactions will be split, although the majority of the feedback we've gotten so far has been really positive. I think Ailyn has her own sound and style, but alike all the other SIRENIA singers she is a modern style singer, not a classical one. So I don't think we did such a drastic change in sound and style as I've seen many other bands do. She is definitely the singer with the biggest voice span and in my opinion the most complete singer in every way."

Do you ever worry that having your female vocalist changing as often as it has gives fans an incorrect impression of SIRENIA's stability as a band?

"That's possible, I guess I am not the right person to answer that question. I think every band prefers a stable line-up, and so do we. But when I look back at the past now I believe that everything happened for a reason, and at this point I think SIRENIA has the strongest line-up so far in our career. Our main goal now is to keep this line-up for as long as possible."

What are your thoughts on the flood of female fronted Metal bands that seems to have taken place within the last few years?

"I began writing and performing this kind of music back in '94 - '95 and has been doing so ever since. Back in those days there were hardly any bands playing this kind of music and there were hardly any people listening to it either. Haha. But over the years I've watched- and been a part of this style becoming more and more popular, more and more bands performing the style and more and more people listening. So when a style gets popular you will always have a shitload of trend-following copycats jumping onboard copying the established bands instead of thinking new. But on the other hand I think it's healthy with competition, 'cause only the hardest working bands will get anywhere."

What are your thoughts on those individuals who claim that the style "isn't really Metal"?

"I've never been too concerned with tagging our music. Although I think it's pretty obvious that our style is of some Metal-related kind."

What are your thoughts on the rise of National Socialism within the Metal community, specifically in eastern Europe and the former Soviet countries?

"Not a subject I trouble my mind with on a daily basis."

What is next for SIRENIA?

"The next weeks we'll continue to do interviews in order to promote the new album, and in May we'll finally start touring again. We love touring and it's always something that we look forward to." [FIN]