Hace algún tiempo que no hago una entrevista, en especial por que ando en temporadas bajas y la creatividad se ve ahogada por un mar de procrastinación y trabajo (como deben saber, no me dedico a esto, es un hobby al que le dedico muchas horas y pasión). Como sea, y para esta ocasión, traigo ante ustedes una interesante y divertida entrevista a la mente creativa detrás de Wazzara, Barbara Brawand, la cual, meses atrás, nos trajo un digno y excepcional trabajo llamado Zessa. La verdad me trajo un poco de ilusión poder retomar estas entrevistas por las interesantes declaraciones de artistas ya consumados y con un largo camino por delante. Como siempre, la entrevista se queda como se redactó originalmente, por lo que te sugiero eches mano a algún traductor de confianza para disfrutar de las palabras al vivo de la señorita Barbara, que dicho sea de paso, es una persona muy agradable con la cual mantener una conversación y que sus respuestas perspicaces podrá sacar una sonrisa a más de uno. Sin más dilación, empecemos.
- First of all, I want to congratulate you on your new material, which on my part I have to say that I enjoyed it very much. Tell me, how was the reception, both at the public level and at the press level in general?
- Before we continue with this talk, I would like you to tell us a little about yourself, both for the most curious and for those who follow your career, know a little more about you, since as you should know, this interview is going to be published in a Mexican zine and Wazzara is in a 100% underground project.
Those who happened to cross ways with Caladmor already might have heard my voice before, since I have been the lead singer of this folk metal-oriented band for 17 years. I started wazzara simultaneously while still being in that band back in 2014/15, but when the band split in 2018, I had time to focus 100% on wazzara.
- Fully on the subject. What does Wazzara mean, both generally and personally? And what has symbolized taking out a project so intimate and so full of meaning?
Wazzara means “the water-born” in Old High German. This connects with me as a person in several ways – I am very into studying old languages, especially the older forms of German, so to me it was clear in the very beginning that the name for my solo project has to stem from this language field in order to connect with that one part of me. The second very important thing to me is that it refers to my essence, which lies within the element of water. Since I was a child, I found so much comfort when being in or near water. As I grew older, I was deeply fascinated by every kind of folk tale relating to beings living in the sea or in waters. And when I started to reflect on my lyrics I had written so far, I realized that water always have been a great inspiration for me due to all its qualities. It is both calm and wild, deep, cleansing and unfathomable and thus full of material for poetic reflections. Actually, I don’t know why it all had to be that personal, but it turned out to be (*laughs*). Authenticity is very important to me. I want truth, I don’t like wasting my time with pretending or shallowness.
- Zessa's artwork is very interesting, could you tell us where the photo shoot was taken?
Thank you! I am also very happy with it. The pictures were crafted by Manuel Vargas Lepiz (manvarle.com), a very talented and empathetic photographer, and the photo shoot was taken near my house in the woods where I use to spend a lot of my free time. Yes, I am lucky to live nearby all these amazing places and the Swiss mountains (*laughs*). For the photo shoot, I only had some vague ideas in mind. Manuel realized them in such an amazing way.
- Now tell us a little about the composition of the material. Where, how and when was it recorded? Is the whole idea behind Wazzara only yours or is there someone else behind this project?
The songs in their structure and melodies are indeed all written and composed by me. I made some demos back in 2016, but it soon was clear that my guitar skills wouldn’t be sufficient for a tight recording, also I unfortunately don’t play the drums. So I was very lucky to collaborate with Árni Bergur Zoëga to whom I had already a good contact at that time. Árni is a very gifted musician (as shown in his projects Árstíðir lífsins and Carpe Noctem), so all the instruments were recorded by Árni in Sweden during 2017, while I myself recorded the vocals in Switzerland in 2018 – furthermore thanks to Árni being a very talented composer as well, he also co-produced ‘zessa’ by adding some extra solos (and also his breath-taking violines to “Out of the Swamp (I’ll rise)”) to the songs and advising me on song structures etc. ‘Zessa’ wouldn’t sound like it does without Árni and I learned a lot from him that will help me for any further release.
- On my part, and after traveling through the chords of Zessa during all this time, the lyrical part of the concept remains. Could you tell us what message Zessa transmits through the 4 tracks that compose it? What is the central theme behind the concept of Zessa, or on the contrary, each track acts individually and independently?
As already mentioned, water has been a great inspiration for the project and so it was for my lyrics. I wanted to tell very personal stories, because writing lyrics to me is always a mixture out of self therapy, self reflection and “letting it flow”. I aimed to express some of the images I associate to difficult times in my life, to suffering, to depression, to healing, to growing and to surviving. The poetology of water, in short its ambivalent power of both destruction and giving life, was very helpful for me to formulate all these feelings, emotions and images.
- Something that has also left me restless on a couple of occasions is the absence of classical instruments in the compositions. When I first heard it, I thought that at any moment I would enter either a violin, a cello or a piano most of the time, but it was not. Tell us. Perhaps for the future you have contemplated to include this type of instrumentation more often, or on the contrary, you do not find it necessary for the concept?
That is very interesting to hear (*laughs*) – and of course you are right. As already said there are a few violines, but the focus is definitely laid on rather simple guitar riffs and on my voice. To me, it fits that way, because I didn’t want to overload the songs that much. But I would never exclude this option for further compositions, as I like to think in favour of the song. For my recent compositions for wazzara for example, I already have written a song containing the piano.
- There is a curious essence within this material and it is that in the voices it has a clear influence of the New Age. Is that true or is it just my perception? and if the answer is affirmative, what projects / groups have influenced this material?
I am indeed a passionate listener of Irish and Nordic folk music, as well as of artists like Loreena McKennitt and Dead Can Dance… Yes, this might have had a big influence on me regarding creating my melodies and the way I phrase them.
- Since we talk a little about musical influences, maybe we can delve a little deeper into the subject. Could you tell us a little about your musical tastes? or said in other words. What does Barbara hear when she is not dedicated to Wazzara?
She hears a lot of different, sometimes even weird stuff (*laughs*). I like everything that my inner self considers as “dreamy”, which to me are bands like The Gathering, Anathema, Tiamat, Ulver and lots of underground post atmospheric black metal bands, but also Tori Amos, Kate Bush and all the Grungy stuff from the 90ies – especially The Smashing Pumpkins. Ah, and I am in love with Pearl Jam. And Faith No More. And Die Ärzte. But – and here comes the weird part – when cooking with my man, we use to turn on hits from the 60ies to the 90ies and sing along the loudest we can.
- What future plans are there for Wazzara, are you planning a tour? And if the opportunity presents itself, would you see yourself in the future coming to Latin America, especially Mexico?
I would definitely love to come to Mexico! Who knows what the future will bring? Right now I am still at the very beginning to plan first shows. This means I have to write sheet music and find musicians. But I definitely want to make that happen, hopefully in 2020.
- Do you think it would be too soon to talk about your next material? If so. What can we expect from the next Wazzara album?
I have written a few songs and recorded some demo tracks of them. As I am still in the middle of the writing process, I think I am not really able to speak about the songs objectively. But what I can say for now is that I carried on to write very personal lyrics and am right now about to wrap them in beautiful and yet disturbing melodies (*laughs*).
- Is there any other project you want to talk about and in which you are involved (Be it music or any other art)?
Thank you for asking! Indeed there is one other project that is taking my attention right now – together with the brilliant harp player Karen van Rekum I founded the band “isôt estrange”. We are right now about to record our first song we have written completely by ourselves and can’t wait to release it in December. I am also involved in some currently ongoing vocal recordings for the Swiss based project “Between Giants” and I enjoy it a lot, since I can also use some screaming and weird techniques there. Besides that, I am working on my master thesis about witch hunting, which, as you probably can imagine, takes a lot of my time.
- If you could describe Zessa in just three words, what would they be?
Digging, suffering, healing.
- And finally, and because this 2019 is almost over, could you make us a top 5 albums that you liked throughout this year?
I unfortunately am only able to make it to four albums, as I am not really up to date due to lack of time for listening to new stuff. But the following four albums I found very convincing and touching:
- Cellar Darling – The Spell
- Blut aus Nord – Hallucinogen
- Imperium Dekadenz – When we are forgotten
- Opeth – In cauda venenum
- For me it would be all, and thank you very much for this little talk, if you want to add something else, this is your space.
A huge thank you Arkhon for this interview and the deep-diving questions! I enjoyed answering them. Also a huge thank you to everyone who has been so supportive so far. You are amazing!
Y eso es todo, espero hayas disfrutado de leer esta pequeña charla tanto como yo en hacerla, gracias por todo el apoyo brindado y muchas gracias gracias a Wazzara por permitir que un medio tan pequeño tenga el privilegio de dar a conocer este trabajo.
Hasta la Próxima.
Arkhon.
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