Interview withMichael Sele (The Beauty of Gemina)
‘A Stranger to Tears’ is the name of the successor to the widely praised debut ‘Diary of a Lost’ of the Swiss band THE BEAUTY OF GEMINA. We talked to mastermind and singer Michael Sele and learned some interesting facts and stories revolving around the new album.
Michael Sele (MS): The overall positive reactions motivated me a lot and assured me in my way of song writing. I wanted to pursue the chosen path further and as tBoG’s music isn’t limited to a small stylistic bandwidth I could let my creativity run wild.
RoD: How long did it take you to produce ‘A Stranger to Tears’ in the end?
MS: I worked more than a year on the new album. All in all I had over 30 tracks together of which we chose 16 tracks for the album.
RoD: Many people ascribe much importance to the second album of a band, because now you have to prove you’re not a One Hit Wonder. Do you feel a certain pressure or does it just pass you by without a trace?
MS: The pressure was definitely higher than with the debut album. Like you say, the second album is one of the most difficult because on one hand there are higher expectations and additionally you’re tempted to prove you’re able to write even better songs than before. You have to be careful not to get tensed up. For me it was important to continue my style as uncompromising as possible.
RoD: You said once that you like to be alone during the creative process. Why is this the best way for you to work instead of writing the songs together with the others?
MS: To compose music and to write lyrics is a very personal and also intimate process. I can only do it on my own. I’m also collecting ideas all the time, write down text lines, create sounds and sound collages. It would be much too complicated to involve everyone if I’m in the mood to be creative. In the next part of the process, when the songs are getting arranged and structurised, I’m in very close contact with my musicians. We try out different things and they’re bringing in their own ideas too.
RoD: Let’s come to the title of the new album ‘A Stranger to Tears’. What’s the intention respectively the story behind this title?
MS: I’d like to cite a prologue at this point, I wrote to introduce to this maybe a little confusing album title.
“We know we won’t live forever
We know we all go the same way
We’re coming out of the darkness, go into the light
We leave prestigious things behind, return into the dark
With fear it starts, with fear it will end
And then, at the end of the way, we become a stranger to tears.”
RoD: The cover of the album shows an opened curtain; and I assume we’re looking at a door through which bright light slips into an otherwise completely dark room. Why did you choose this motif?
MS: I wanted to convey the feeling of being a stranger in the best possible way. Eventually I proposed a quite extraordinary hotel in Switzerland, we were residing one time after a concert. There we could stage the atmospheres and the mood of ‘A Stranger to Tears’ perfectly. The new video clip to the single ‘This Time’ was partly shot there as well. In the booklet we’re wandering through the empty halls, find ourselves again inside the closest rooms, gazing at all the odd details.
RoD: How important is the connection between music and artwork for you, because it seems to loose more and more relevance for many artists?
MS: The artwork is very important to me, because it tops off the whole work. It was created in close collaboration with the graphic designer Marcel Näf, we already worked with on ‘Diary of a Lost’ and the photographer Manuel Vargas Lépiz. Both are very creative guys and their initially opposing visions found together perfectly in the end.
RoD: The album starts with the ‘Galilee Song’. Especially the somehow sacral and adjuring chant, very much reminding me of a priest attracted my attention. Why was this vocal style the best for the song?
MS: With this vocal style I tried to transport the lyrics in the best possible way. The song deals with the question how it would be if we were given the choice today; if we would have the chance to decide today: If we could judge over the life and death of the man from Nazareth how it was proclaimed by the prophets a long time ago. An old story, which was survived into the present, second-guessed and interpreted ever since. What would we have done? What would have happened that night then?
RoD: Was the similarity with the Italian astronomer Galileo Galilee a coincidence or was it intended?
MS: The name refers to the country of Galilee and has nothing to do with the astronomer.
RoD: I was wondering which story ‘The lonesome death of a Goth DJ’ is based on. Is it a real or rather a fictional background?
MS: The song is inspired by many chats with scene DJs. The idea for this song was with me for a long time and I’m glad, the song made it onto the album. The metaphor of dying means, that there’s a latent frustration sensible among the scene DJs and the time for true individualists through the more and more commercially oriented parties maybe really is running out.
RoD: In songs such as ‘Psycho Flood’ or ‘Into Black’ you’re often using orchestral elements like choirs or instruments like the piano. Is this based on a penchant of yours for classical music?
MS: Absolutely. The classical influences have already become an important stylistic element for THE BEAUTY OF GEMINA. On ‘Into Black’ and ‘Wishful Promise’ I worked together with a string quartet again. For one thing it’s much fun and on the other hand it’s a great enrichment for the whole sound of THE BEAUTY OF GEMINA. On ‘Into Black’ an oboist was added as well. All in all we had a half orchestra together in the end.
RoD: Are there plans for a tour to present the new material live?
MS: We’ll present the new live show for the first time on 27th September at the renowned X-TRA club in Zurich and we’re very much looking forward this event. Of course we hope many German fans will come to attend the concert like last time in Zurich. Then we’ll be playing 2 shows at the legendary Whitby Gothic Weekend in England. Concerts in Germany are in preparation, but there are no concrete dates yet.
RoD: That’s it already. The famous last words belong to you.
MS: I’d like to point out here that we had all English lyrics in the expensively designed booklet translated into German again. We already did that on ‘Diary of a Lost’. It was very well received and I’m glad we could make it happen again.
RoD: Thanks for the interview and further on much success.
MS: Thanks for the interesting interview.
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