Check out everything about Illumishade’s first album.

Hello Playfonics, Fabienne is a singer, songwriter and musician. Currently, vocalist of the folk metal band Eluveitie. Owner of a powerful voice and a contagious sympathy, Fabienne is about to release her first album by her band Illumishade. A few weeks ago we had the privilege to chat about the backstage of this beautiful project. It is a must.

Follow our chat below and follow Fabienne and Illumishade on the official channels.

Playfonic: Your voice and stage presence is known worldwide for being the vocalist of the folk metal band Eluveitie. But, you have great side projects, as is the case with Illumishade. What does the name Illumishade represent and whose idea was this project?

Hello and thank you so much for having me!
Yes, in the gaps of Eluveitie I am working on ILLUMISHADE now!
It all basically started cause I did my masterdegree at a music-
highschool last autumn and my task was to build a band and play
music! For me it was clear to build a story around the music – or
music around a story! 😉 And the name represents the important
aspect of our concepts: the contrasts! I love singing hard songs, but
also ballads. The contrasts play a big role in our story as well. Lights
and Shadows – like in our bandname!

Playfonic: During the process of creating the songs and clips were you on tour with Eluveitie? How was it possible to reconcile these 2 works?

It was an intense time indeed! 😉 2019 was super busy with
Eluveitie and I hardly had time at home to work on ILLUMISHADE. I
had my midi-keyboard with me on tour and on festivals and used it
everywhere – in the bus, in the plane, in the hotelroom, backstage,
before and after the shows! 😉

Playfonic: Sorority is a term widely propagated nowadays, due to its importance. However, the media and the fan community itself often  create conspiracies where they fuel female rivalry. We saw a story where you showed Anna Murphy in the studio. What is your opinion
about the need for female unity today? Will we have Anna Murphy on Illumishade’s debut album (production, composition, featuring, etc.)?

It was such a great experience to work with Anna! She engineered
my backing vocals and you can only imagine – two singers going
crazy on backings with the motto: More is more hahaa!! 😉 We had a
fun time and I am sure it will not be the last time that I work with
her – it is very inspiring and I admire her as a musician and great
singer!

Playfonic: Illumishade’s first single is the Worlds end. You produced a beautiful clip and showed a level of quality of the highest magnitude. Music has won many admirers in Brazil and Latin America. We saw covers
of the song and a positive review. Worlds End was written by you?

Thank you so much for your kind words! World’s End has a very special story actually. In summer 2019 we all were in the mountains in a songwriting/rehearsal-week and on the very last evening we realised, that we need one more song. Jonas sat into a corner for an hour – and he came up with it! That’s one of his specialities – being creative under pressure! First it was planed to only be a short song – I loved it so much that I wrote a bridge-part to it and also thanks to your drummer we have an interesting rhythm-change going on too! I love working like that! 🙂

Playfonic: Who are the composers on this album? What is the main aspect that you would like people to feel when hearing this song?

Basically it is Jonas and me bringing the main-ideas of the song into the band and we develop them all together! We spent one week in the Swiss mountains together – and so many things happened with the songs. I really like our work-flow. Also Mirjam plays an essential part –
she brings magic to the songs with her sounds and her orchestrations.
My wish is that people can dive into our world and forget everything
around them for a while! Everybody has a place in our world and I wish
everybody feels at home in our world of ILLUMISHADE!

Playfonic: Do you intend to release a physical version of the album?

Yes, definitely! This is something wonderful in our metal-community, people appreciate a physical CD! The support is so big and we are so thankful for that!

Playfonic: How do you rate Illumishade’s musical style / sonority and why choose this path?

What I love about our project is that we all have different influences and we leave space for them! And for different ideas, there are no borders! It’s a playground and we let creativity flow! And our album is what came out! 😉 We don’t want to put any label on it, everybody can decide for themselves!

Playfonic: In this historic moment of the world pandemic, caused by the covid-19, what was the main negative impact that you had in the process of production and promotion of Illumishade and how did you manage to solve it?

Luckily we did all our recordings already before the studio closed!
Without the corona-virus we probably would have met up more
often to talk about the songs and visiting our mixing-engineer,
Claudio Rodriguez, more often during the process.
The interesting part will come now when printing the physical CD
and the merch – we really hope everything will be delivered in time!

Playfonic: The guardian, the bound, the patron, the sage, the scout and the spirit form the troop of warriors who defend the heart of the world. Each with its own unique symbology and skills. You have created a grand and engaging narrative for Illumishade, including fan pages on instagram for each of the characters. Did this idea come before the songs or did you get inspired by the songs to build them? How did the idea for this complex and interesting concept come about?

When I knew I have to write music and build a band for my master-degree, I knew, I want to build the whole music around a story. I have always been a fan of musicals and fantasyworlds! I love diving into another world, get lost for a while and forget about reality. It also inspires me so much, I already have so many ideas for upcoming albums! 😉 And the other members in the band plus Tamara, my best friend that takes the role of management and laben -(we are a do-it-yourself-project) really loved the idea too! We are working now with a concept writer together, especially Tamara and her to develop more and more of our enchanting world of ILLUMISHADE!

Playfonic: For fans of Illumishade who don’t live in Europe, how can they purchase the band’s official products?

We have our own online-store on
www.illumishade.ch/store
Thank you for asking! <3

Playfonic: Fabienne, it was a great pleasure to talk to you about Illumishade. We wish you a lot of success in this new trajectory and always count on our support, admiration and gratitude. The band and their music are brilliant. If you can, leave a message for the band’s fans and Playfonic readers.

Thank you sooo much for having me! And thank you to everybody that took their time to read the interview! Stay safe you all and take good care!

Tomorrow will be the release of the album, don’t miss it !!

We are very grateful to Fabienne and Illumishade for this beautiful opportunity. We hope you enjoyed it.

Read: ILLUMISHADE FIRST ALBUM REVIEW

Illumishade official networks: Site , Facebook , Instagram 

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