MONIQUE
JOOSTEN OP HEIJ
THE
EIGHTH SIN OF TEMPTATION…
By Darkzen
Beautiful
Dutch singer! the Symphonic Metal genre with the band Seventh Sin! a very soft
voice and melodic Mezzo Soprano light, good technique, really captivating and
excellent attitude!
Well
go! With the Interview!
Thank you very much for this interview!
Thanks
for the request Darkzen! It’s always a pleasure to talk to you.
How are you my dear friend?
I am very
well thank you! The band is doing great, that helps a lot! It’s my dream to be
able to tour all over the world and to make a living with our music. Things are
going very well lately, so I can see my dream coming true within the next few
years. That gives me a lot of energy!
As is custom in my interviews, tell us a little about
yourself! Who was Monique Joosten before, and now in Seventh Sin?
I grew up
in a very small town in the south of the Netherlands. Now I live there again. I
started singing when I was 6 or 7 years old. I started singing in the school
choir. I had some solo’s in the school musical a few years later and when I was
about 20 years old, I had my first stage experience. I had a chance to sing one
song on stage with a band and I grabbed it with both hands. I was so nervous!
But I kicked ass and I couldn’t sleep the entire following night because of all
the adrenaline. The next day I started looking for a band, I just knew that
this was what I wanted to do, the rest of my life, if possible. A little later
I met Roy and Bart at a local pub. They were in a band, and they were looking
for a singer. They had had a few singers, but didn’t find the right match. I
auditioned the next day and made it into the band. This is how I met Bart,
Wiro, and Roy who are members of Seventh Sin too. With this first band, we did a
lot of covers varying from Nightwish, Within Temptation and Lacuna Coil to
Radiohead and Moonspell. We also had our first experiences on stage. After a
few years of playing covers, we decided it was time to make a change. We
changed the band name to Seventh Sin and started to write our own songs. And
that was quite hard at first. We struggled to get the right line up, like most
bands do, and for me it was very hard to find my own voice again. As vocalist
of a cover band you always try to adept to the sound of the original singer.
Now I had to find my own sound. This is when I started taking singing lessons. Wiro,
Roy, Bart and myself are making music together for 12 years now. Vincent and
Ruben joined Seventh Sin later.
Which is your story within the genre Symphonic Metal?
How did you get here?
When I
was about 16 or 17 I had a boyfriend who was all into metal. He was a real CD
collector and he introduced me to metal. When I heard the album ‘Enter’ by
‘Within Temptation’ for the first time I knew I had to go that way. Then my
boyfriend at the time introduced me to Nightwish, Orphanage and some other
female fronted bands and I was totally hooked. I started practicing my high
notes every spare minute. I must have driven my parents and my sister to the
edge, but they didn’t complain too much. I think they must have seen much I
enjoyed it.
Tell us about your musical influences, in and out of
Metal?
I listen
to all kinds of music and there’s inspiration everywhere, you just have to open
your eyes, your ears and your mind. I listen to mainstream (rock) radio a lot,
and when I listen to a CD, it’s mostly Female Fronted Metal because I can sing
along then. I just love to sing. I love the Gathering (with Anneke), Nightwish
(with Floor), Within Temptation, but at the time I also rock bands like
Bastille. When I’m cleaning the house, I love to do that with music of my
recent purchase, death metal band In Slumber. I also love Therion, Empyrium, Hamerfall
and Blind Guardian, so I’ve got a broad taste in music.
What does the band name Seventh Sin mean to you?
When we
were in the cover band we had a really bad name. People just couldn’t remember
it and if they did, they made fun of it by changing some letters and giving the
band name an entirely different meaning.
So, when
we had the chance to pick a name again, we made sure it had to be remembered.
It also had to be a band name matching our style of music. We found that in
Seventh Sin.
Tell us a bit about your live shows, what about the
fan response?
We’ve
released an EP in 2006. This EP ‘Darkest
of all dreams’ got us noticed. After releasing this EP, we got to do a lot
of very nice support shows, mainly in our home country. Our first support show
was with the American symphonic metallers
KAMELOT. That was awesome! Before that show, we used to play in small
venues, with not too many people. This show got us noticed and opened the door
for new support shows. After KAMELOT we’ve shared stage with LEAVES’ EYES, EPICA, REVAMP, DELAIN and twice with STREAM OF PASSION a.o.
Early
this year, after a lot of setbacks we’ve released our first full length album ‘When Reality Ends’. We’ve had our
release party in the Netherlands after touring the UK for an entire week with
the Austrian symphonic metal band EDENBRIDGE.
For most band members this tour was the best week of their life. This is our
dream. To be able to play a gig every night, have fun as a band, meet a lot of
new people and seeing a bit of another country.
The fan
response is great, with this CD we’ve been to the UK, the Netherlands and
Germany and the response is the same everywhere. People are going out of their
minds and the live reviews are very encouraging.
Our CD
and our shows are received unbelievably well. This is so weird!! We are still
trying to wrap our minds around it. We did dream for this to happen, but to see
it actually come true is so strange! We’ve received such awesome responses it’s
still sometimes hard to believe that people are talking about us instead of one
of the awesome bands we’ve done support shows for. We’re still the same people
than before, with a little more confidence in our own musical capabilities and
with a lot of confidence in the future.
Can you tell us about your CD? How did you come up
with the idea?
At first
we wanted this new CD to be one story divided over a number of songs. However, it
just didn’t work out. We couldn’t get the songs right. A lot of them did make
it to this album, just not in the original order. In the end we’ve decided we
wanted to put our best songs on the album, instead of the songs matching the
concept. Now we see this was the right thing to do. The responses to this CD
are just stunning.
Did you do the song writing? How did you get inspired?
Most of
the lyrics are written by Roy (grunts and guitar) and me. In most cases I’ve
got an idea about what the song should be like lyrically. But I’m not a star at
saying things in poetic way. Then it also has to fit the music and the melody.
That’s where Roy steps in. He is a star in turning my ideas into great lyrics
that fit the music and the melody. Inspiration can come from everywhere. Until
now none of the songs I’ve been involved in, are autobiographical, so it’s
things I see or hear and that occupy my mind. Like Just an Ordinary Day. This song is based on a true story about a
man bringing his kids to school and getting shot to death in front of the
school. This story just wouldn’t let me go. I got it somewhat out of my system
by writing a song about it. Sometimes I still have to cry on stage singing this
song. Especially when I think of my own kids. Hysteria is about someone who’s losing her mind. I’ve had a burn
out a few years ago. A lot of songs on the CD are about losing control, and
having to make live decisions and having to choose between bad and even worse.
I think a lot of them have to do with my burn out. I just had to find a way of
dealing with my feelings at that time. This is my way of dealing with them. Typical
for the music of Seventh Sin is that we always try to surprise the listener in
one way or another. Wings of despair
is about someone who is flying through the air, feeling weightless and free. At
the end of the song you really understand what’s going on. Not so happy as it
started off.
What do you want to pass on to us with your music?
That’s a
difficult one! I relate to all sorts of music and for me it’s usually an
exhaust. I listen to music a lot, when I’m happy, angry, sad, it doesn’t
matter. I hope people will find the same in our music. I hope people will have
a good time listening to our music. There’s not really an underlying message in
our CD.
What is the meaning of the cover art of the album?
The songs
on the CD are a lot about the thin lines between right and wrong, good and bad,
sanity and insanity and about unexpected things that can happen en change your
entire life in a split second. The tree on the album cover represents that. One
half of the tree is full of leaves, at the top of its beauty. The other half of
the tree is dead.
Are you going to shoot any video clips on this album?
Yes, we
are thinking about shooting a video clip for ‘Hysteria’. We’re looking at
locations, a video crew, an actrice to star in the video, etc. It’s not an easy
job, but we’ll get it done! We’re starting with a lyical video for ‘Wings of
Despair’. We’ve asked our fans to participate through facebook and twitter by
sending us their work, photos, videos or any other type of art we can use in
the video. People that want to participate are still welcome to send us their
material.
Any surprises about this record?
For us
it’s just one big surprise. It looks like things are really taking off now.
Before the start of this year, apart from the Netherlands, no one had ever
heard of Seventh Sin. It looks like we’re in for something big. I can’t wait!!
Your voice, I love it! It is subtle and soft! What
kind of training have you had to get a voice like this?
I’ve
started singing at a young age. I never stopped singing. I sing every single
day. I’ve had a bit of professional vocal training to get my techniques right.
The rest is all a lot of practice.
Anything else you want to share me my friend?
Thanks
for giving me the opportunity to talk to you about myself and about Seventh
Sin. With this interview we will be able to reach some more people and that’s
what we want. To reach as many people as we can.
What can we expect from Seventh Sin this year?
We used
to do everything ourselves. That’s not possible anymore, Seventh Sin is
becoming a company now. We’ve joined a management this month and they are also going
to take care of the bookings and tours.
This year
we will do a lot more gigs in Europe, mostly the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany
and the UK. Next year we’ll be doing a lot of shows in Europe too. The plans
right now are to release a new CD in 2016 and start touring outside of Europe.
We might make it to Latin America too!!
Thank you very much my friend! The last words are
yours to all our readers!
Thank you
so much Darkzen!!
To your
readers I would like to say THANK YOU for your enormous support. You make us
feel so good when we are on stage, when we talk to you before or after a show,
when we read your messages on facebook and twitter, when you help us win ‘Band
of the month’, when you like and retweet everything we post. You are giving us
a big reward, you make us realize that we’ve grown during our difficult times
and we became stronger.
THANK YOU
SO MUCH!!!
And.....stay
metal \m/
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