DRAGONY are about to embark on their first UK appearance. This will be at Power Metal Quest Fest on the 12th of October; and not only that, but they will also be unleashing a new album. Rock Out Stand Out’s Lotty Whittingham caught up with lead vocalist Siegfried ‘The Dragonslayer’ Samer, and they spoke about Power Metal Quest Fest, Hic Svnt Dracones, mental health, and which historical figures Siegfried would like to see in a rap battle.
Hello, Siegfried; it’s a pleasure to speak with you. Let’s talk about Power Metal Quest Fest; is this going to be Dragony’s first UK appearance?
Yes, it is. I have personally been there with Visions Of Atlantis in the past, I think, once. I am thinking it might have just been the one time, but for Dragony, it’s the first time.
And no better city than Birmingham.
Exactly: the birthplace of heavy metal. So it’s really cool.
And no better festival than Power Metal Quest Fest, am I right?
Yes, right! I think the festival has grown in the past few years considerably, especially in Europe. There’s Power Metal Quest Fest and there’s Epic Fest in Denmark; I think those are now the two household names for power and melodic metal festivals. I really like that these exist, because when you look around the festival scene, there are usually regular metal festivals and extreme metal festivals. But for the lighter side of metal, so to speak, there isn’t that much, and it’s sometimes frowned upon; so it’s great to have a place where like-minded people can go and live as their inner power metal nerds.
Speaking of Power Metal Quest Fest: are there any bands you’re looking forward to seeing and checking out?
I am very curious about the younger bands on the bill. I’ve been in contact with the guys from Tales Of Time for example, so that’s going to be interesting. As you know, those bands don’t have the opportunity to tour that much yet, because they are just starting out or still growing; so they don’t get a chance to play in Europe a lot of the time.
On the other hand, of course Twilight Force are an amazing headliner, and I will be very curious to see them with the new line-up. So that’s going to be interesting, and they are always great.
What can we expect from a live set from Dragony?
The thing is, our new album Hic Svnt Dracones is coming out the day before, so it’s going to be our first official show with the new songs. We played a few at a festival in Germany to test the waters, to see what works and what doesn’t work so well live. So far, the songs we have tried work really well live. So the focus will be on the new album; you will get a lot of the new songs, but of course there will be a couple of the classics from our back catalogue thrown in.
Excellent – I was going to talk about Hic Svnt Dracones. Which songs from that have you played live so far?
The thing is, I would say the album is half and half. One half is the straightforward songs that are really suitable for a live setting, and those are the ones we will be playing live a lot. They are also the ones we picked for the singles, because they are a bit more accessible and you can catch the audience more easily with those; so for example, our first single for the album, ‘Beyond the Rainbow Bridge’, is going to be part of that set. We actually played this as our last song instead of ‘Wolves of the North’, which is what we usually end our set with. It’s an excellent closer and this could be our future closer for live shows; let’s see.
‘Dragon of the Sea’ will be on the setlist; we have also released ‘Twilight of the Gods’ which will be part of our set, and those are shorter songs. The songs from the other half of the album are better to listen to at home on your speakers or your headphones, because you have a lot of stuff to discover. So I think there’s a good balance on this album, where you have the straightforward songs that will work live, and then the more complex ones that are better to listen to at home where you can discover all the complex details.
The title track gives me a Neverending Story vibe. One of the key differences between this album and Viribus Unitus I noticed was that there are more symphonic elements in Hic Svnt Dracones.
Yes, that’s interesting, because it’s same as the previous album, as in half of the songs have orchestration and half don’t. So songs like ‘Beyond the Rainbow Bridge’, ‘Twilight of the Gods’, and ‘Raging of the Sea’ have keyboards and synths but no orchestra. Then in the title track and ‘Ill Met By Moonlight’, we have the big orchestral parts.
We did work with a different orchestra arranger this time – Lasse Elkjaer from Denmark – because our usual guy, Lukas Knoebl, who has done orchestrations since our second album Shadowplay, was not available due to other work commitments. But he recommended Lasse from his other work, and he has also studied film scoring, lives in LA, and his approach is more scenic. So he takes every part of each song and gives it a specific feel, like how you would score a film scene. That works really well and I think that’s why the orchestral parts stand out a little bit more on their own in this album, even though both albums had the same amount of orchestration.
Interesting thing about ‘Ill Met By Moonlight’: the title is a quote from A Midsummer Night’s Dream. The song is about the second colony of Roanoke Island, which was the lost colony. So this colony mysteriously vanished, and after that happened, the English sent a certain expedition there to check on them. When they arrived, there was no one to be found, and they didn’t know what was going on; so they assumed a dark fate had met them. One of the ships that was on this expedition looking for these colonists was called Moonlight, so basically, they were “ill met by Moonlight”.
Speaking of ‘Ill Met By Moonlight’, I’m not sure whether you’ve heard the latest Kamelot album.
I have, yes; ‘Ill Met By Moonlight’ is a very Kamelot song.
I was going to say I got the vibes of ‘New Babylon’ from that track.
Yes, so it was that song, and going further back, ‘To Mega Therion’ by Therion, which has a similar vibe. I think ‘New Babylon’ is a modern interpretation of that, and I thought this was a cool type of song that I would want to have on our album as well. We worked it out with our producer Frank [Pitters] and we think it turned out really well.
Out of curiosity, is there a guest vocalist on the track ‘Dreamchasers’?
Yes, there is: it’s Ambre [Vourvahis] from Xandria.
Did you create that track with a guest vocalist in mind?
Yes, because it’s a conversation between Queen Elizabeth I and Sir Walter Raleigh. It’s where Sir Walter Raleigh gets the charter to found this colony in the New World from Queen Elizabeth I. So Ambre is taking the role of the Queen, and I am singing the part of Sir Walter Raleigh.
One of the things that have stuck out to me with the Dragony albums I have listened to so far is the opening instrumentals. The beginning of the one on this album reminded me of the theme tune from Jaws.
I can understand that. For Viribus Unitus, it was the very famous waltz ‘The Blue Danube’, which worked really well, as the story for Viribus Unitus actually starts the year of the Austrian-Hungarian Compromise, where the empire started to fall apart as the Hungarians wanted more power and wanted to be more autonomous. This was when this waltz was performed for the first time, so it’s a great opening track for that.
For Hic Svnt Draconis, since the story is set in the New World, this part is actually from ‘Symphony No. 9’ by Antonín Dvořák, a famous Czech composer; and this symphony has the title ‘From the New World’. So it’s not something we made up; this is a famous classical piece from Antonín Dvořák.
For this album, what was the most challenging track to put together?
You’d think the answer would be the title track because it’s so long, but actually that one was probably written in one afternoon. I had the chorus that I wrote at home, plus a little bit of the atmospheric, orchestral intro. Then our producer and I finished the rest of the song in one go.
I think that something that was surprisingly hard to put together was a song like ‘The World Serpent’, because it’s a pretty straightforward and standard power metal song. It reminds me a lot of HammerFall, who are one of my all-time favourite bands. But because it doesn’t have much in terms of keys and synths, and is basically very guitar driven, we needed to find some methods to still keep it interesting. We were thinking for a lot of the time, “What could we do here?” until we came up with the idea to add those little guitar solos in the intro and between the verses. That’s what kind of finalised the song, so this was a bit tricky to come up with. So it wasn’t necessarily a hard thing to work on because it was complicated, but it was hard in terms of finding the right thing in the end.
One of the things we like to talk about on our website is mental health and keeping the conversation going. What’s the biggest lesson you have learnt when it comes to looking after your wellbeing?
I think the most important thing for me at some point was learning to sometimes say no to things. Personally, it was when I was with Visions Of Atlantis back in 2013-2015; I also had Dragony and I was working full-time, plus doing university stuff. So that was a bit much, and I was getting close to a burnout type situation. When I saw that Visions Of Atlantis were picking up steam and they wanted to go towards a full-time schedule, I had to say, “It’s been a great time with you guys; it was cool to have done this one album with you, and I am happy to help finish the promo cycle for that one. But for the next album, we’ll need to find a new singer because I am not going to be able to keep up with that schedule.” So learn to say no, and know your own limits.
Definitely; and is there anything you like to do to relax and unwind?
I’m hugely into video games and have been since I was a kid, so I play a lot games. It helps me to turn off my brain for a few hours, and I don’t have to think about all the other things I usually do.
Is there any advice you would give to a friend or loved one who was struggling?
If possible, I would invite them to meet up and go somewhere for lunch or a coffee, and see what’s up. Since the COVID situation, we have our home offices set up and have video cameras for video chats; so if they live far away, that’s also something I would do. Be present for them.
Which five people would you take with you to help the dragons? They can be anyone.
Okay, since you mentioned The Neverending Story, let’s take Atreyu with us. Five is a lot of people – too many choices! [laughs] I would also take David Hasselhoff for comic relief, and as the bard. I would take Russell Allen from Symphony X as he is my man-crush; I also think that with him you don’t need the extra two. He is the paladin of prog metal! [laughs]
What would be the best epic rap battle in history?
I think since we mentioned him already, definitely Shakespeare; I think he would throw down some mean verses. I think he could rap-battle with Roman philosopher Cicero; he was very well known for his oratory skills. It would be interesting.
Do you have a message for Dragony fans, our readers, and those going to Power Metal Quest Fest?
We’re super excited to come to the UK and to the birthplace of metal. So that’s going to be really awesome. I hope you guys enjoy the new album Hic Svnt Dracones, and we’re going to be playing a lot of songs from that album at Power Metal Quest Fest, so get your rear ends over there – or as you say in the UK, get your arses over there – and come and see us.
Check out DRAGONY at Power Metal Quest Fest on the 12th of October and their
upcoming album.
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