With:	Marco van der Velde [Guitars, vocals]
Conducted by:	KwonVerge
Published:	03.11.2005
Band profile:	The Wounded

- First of all Marco I'd like to thank you for the chance of interviewing you and congratulate you on "Atlantic" which is an album that has touched me deeply.

Thanks you for sending the interview?.


- Would you mind telling us a few words concerning the history of The Wounded for the music fans that haven't heard of you yet?

You can read that in our biography on our website, I wrote it to answer the history questions.


- So far you have three official full-length releases, with "Atlantic" being the latest one and at the same time a very mature work in all aspects; music, lyrics, vocals, atmosphere, emotions. Everything is well-put and well-expressed making "Atlantic" a fabulous release for the heavier gothic/dark scene. How much time did you spend in the studio and how did you feel after having finished the compositions consisting of "Atlantic"?

Atlantic is an album which we made with the lin up we are still working in.
SO this project was the best until now.
I think it's the best album we made.
It took about half a year to record and mix it.
We wanted the best result possible.
The press was very enthusiastic about it, we loved it, our fans loved it.
So were all happy about it.


- The album at times is heavy enough so as to be called as metal, at others flows in gothic rock/dark wave soundscapes as they were formed back in the 80s, expressed by your very own musical prism. There's a balance between heaviness and more atmosphere-oriented passages, did you want to achieve this balance or it just came out this way?


The wounded is not a band that was put together working by a certain formula or something like that.
We never thought we going to make that kind of music with that kind of atmosphere and so on.
We just play what we like ourselves in the first place.
We play what we feel.
My lyrics are about me, or about my thoughts.
Some call it gothic other atmospheric new wave and others call it symphonic doom.
Maybe the truth is somewhere in the middle id don't know.
I only know we just do what we do.
Every single song has a spirit.
It has a soul a face and a character.
It's the same with people some are very interesting, but you get bored after a while, other are not interesting at first site, but later on become someone you really want to be with no matter what.
Atlantic in that way is the room full of people in which I like to be the most.
It has the same feeling, when you create a song, and it starts to work out, its like if a child gets born.
There is euphoria.
I will never betray my own children.
I got my favorites.
But hell, they are all inheritance.
A part of my existence.


- The keyboard melodies refer to the general psychedelic rock sound with their devout, floating and serene feeling adding to the overall aesthetic of the band making its atmosphere more intense and affected. What's your point of view?

Just play with the flow of the song.
Give it that what it needs and no more.
Don't show your capacity as a musician, don't show to everybody how good you are.
Just play in the spirit of the song.
Its all for the music not about the musician.
A keyboard can give the song a certain push in its atmosphere, or soul.
An instrument his soul has to be used for the song, not to show of the musician in order to get a girl at the end of the night. hehe






- Concerning your vocals now, Marco, allow me to say that you have a deeply emotional and utterly expressive voice, you're pouring yourself in "Atlantic" and every single word you utter is filled with an intense emotional burden. They harmonize beautifully with the overall feeling and philosophy of the music of The Wounded and it seems that you are living the compositions while singing. I adore your heart-rending interpretation, so vivid and sincere. Would you like to unfold yourself telling us how it is for you to express yourself while singing?

Its so simple.
I just feel the music, and live the lyric.
I am a very bad actor.
I'm a bit nervous on stage.
Me and the rest of the band are really not the kind of guys that come on stage screaming here we are look at us.
No its all about the music, the passion for it.
And when you step down from stage, and people come and tell you the gig was great.
That's all we need.
On the album it's the same.
While recording I mostly did the singing at night.
That's when I feel alive the most.
Nothing depressive about it, its just that I feel a certain serenity at night.

Northern lights is about death and dealing with it.
You can believe in spirits or not, it does hurt.
The voice was recorded directly after I returned from a cremation of a person who was a friend to my family.
I mean, we didn't' planned it that way in the studio, it just went that way.
Maybe it had to be that way.
Anyway, I mean how real can it get.
I am not a showman on stage, I just close my eyes and sing , feel, flow and live the song.
It feels a bit as if you stand in the bath room singing while your stereo plays songs of your favorite band, and you fantasize your in it.
With the difference that I am in one of my favorite bands.
Lucky me?


- Concerning your influences as a singer and a musician. Which are your biggest influences, first as a singer and, then, as a musician?

First of all I do what I do and my feelings are the biggest influences.
As a singer I am influenced by many singers.
Far to much to write down.
I can think of influences from all kind of directions.
From country music to death metal.
Anathema, pink floyd, Paradise lost are bands that influenced us in the very beginning.
Later on, man I really don't know.
A tune you here on the radio, maybe even a bird that sings a certain whistle.
And it stays in my head like what happened with we are darker.
Or against all gods was born when I drove on my moped.
The sound got in my mind and It just became that what later was formed into a song.


- Let's move to the lyrics of the band. What I really admire about your lyrics is the fact that they always remain poetic up to an extent and at the same time they are written in a straight to your face way, written straight from the artist's heart to the listener's. When is the ideal moment for you to express yourself through your lyrics and pour yourself into them?

Any time, every minute of the day.
Yet not every single day I like writing stuff.
But with the lyrics it's the same as with the music.
I just do what I do.
Write what I think and change it the way I like it.
It has to be honest for me, something I experienced, a certain vision about something or what ever. It has have to do something with me.
I mean I have to sing it on stage so?






- Would you mind telling us a few words concerning the lyrics of "Atlantic"? They have an intense esoteric touch and it is obvious that you put heart and soul into them. For example, I personally loved the sincere and caustic "18. Cart Dust" referring to all those that always care too much about what other people do and they are waiting for the moment to strike them down with their bitter words in order to make their self-confidence grow, as you're mentioning correctly in your lyrics. But what they can't imagine while thinking this way is that in the end we're all the same, ending in the same grave, becoming the same dust.

Indeed that's what 18 carat dust is about.
I never really like to explain what is going on in the lyrics.
I mean I just stopped doing that because you spoil the interpretation of the listener a bit with it.
And the thing is that the message is not that hidden.
Lyrics are always somehow the less important thing on an album for people.
I guess for a song its just as important as the music, I mean the words give the song a face.
I write down what I think, sometimes when a song is created , a lyric is already been written.
Sometimes it works the other way around.
I never write following rules.
There are even self created words in the songs maybe.
Garland is for example about the last 30 seconds of a soldiers life, his thoughts.
Hollow world is about escaping the inescapable.
Moving to another world while realizing you cant escape your demons by moving away.
Atlantic about the end of mankind, mankind made nature a part of mankind while I believe we can never control it, and in time we will become part of nature again.
The way it should be.
I will miss my computer in my next lives that's for sure.
Damn.


- What I deeply appreciated on "Atlantic" as well was the fact that the cover you did on Nirvana's "Smells Like Teen Spirit" wasn't just a copy of the song, you made it sound as if it was one of your songs and you did a real cover, not a remake of the song, offering a very interesting and beautiful-sounding version of it.

No I thought respecting the original more by not just copying it.
The song and the rest of the music from nirvana and bands like pearl jam meant a lot to me growing up.
Somehow people became popular by being normal not by acting as a complete idiot.
Like Ed Vedder wrote in a pearl jam lyric.
"I change by not changing at all."
For me that was a quote that started a revolution in my mind.
People where writing letters, some call it fan mail, telling me how much our music meant to them.
So we put a song on Atlantic that meant a lot to me.


- Judging from what I read in the website of The Wounded you're preparing your next musical work and, judging from "Atlantic", my expectations are very high since the specific album sent shivers down my spine. What should we expect from The Wounded in the near future?

More of the same yet in another jacket maybe.
At least I can say our music always will be honest.
For example I had an idea that if it would become a song counting 3 a 4 minutes, it would be perfect for the radio.
Yet in the rehear shall the song asked for a middle part.
We did it and with that, we blew the chance to score a direct hit hahahah






- Are you still searching for a new label or you have found the one to keep your dream of releasing your albums alive?

Still searching, still talking.
Music business, a must be evil?


- What should someone expect from The Wounded live? From your compositions, since they are so filled with emotions and since they are so expressive, I would expect a lot and an atmosphere filled with intense emotions.

People always come to the conclusion that we are a live band, better live than on an album.
That's maybe because when its live for the audience its also live for us.
The thing is now, the songs you play you play now.
Feel it, live it.
That expression is what you see.


- Since you are from Netherlands I couldn't resist and I will ask you. What's your opinion about Clan Of Xymox? They are one of my favorite 80s dark wave bands and when I saw them live for the first time I felt unique emotions. Apart from Clan Of Xymox, what does gothic rock and dark wave mean to you?

I don't really know them that much, we played a few time on a festival where the played also.
Andy is a big fan, and so we always see their show.
I like them very much live.
One of the best bands we have here.


- In my humble opinion The Wounded at the moment is one of the best and most original gothic metal bands around, being metal and paying tribute to the glorious gothic rock/dark wave scene of the 80s in their own way. What do you think?

I think that is very nice to here, Im honored.


- For one more time, thanks a lot for the interview and also I'd like to thank for having composed an album of such emotional grandeur to accompany my sleepless nights, "Atlantic". End the interview in any way you like and hope to hear something new from The Wounded soon.

Thanks for your kind words.
We will do our best to keep the wounded spirit alive, and with lots of luck we get somewhere near on a stage preaching our thought, and maybe you will be witnessing it with a few bears in front of you and with a lovely bird in your arms.
Screaming hallelujah! what a fine night to think about the last minute of my life.