SHADOWSIDE Interview with Dani Nolden

XM: So what’s the band been up to so far this year?
Dani: Since we came back from the tour with W.A.S.P. last year, we have been pretty much focusing on the album and the album only. We had a 3 week vacation before going in the studio in early 2011, then since then we have recorded, then watched and took close care of every step together with our management, from mixing to artwork and then straight to promoting. Now we have started rehearsals as well since we’ll start playing live again right after the album release.

XM: “Inner Monster Out” Is set to be released very soon. What was the recording process like for the album?
Dani: It was incredibly smooth, never before I had such a good time during an album recording like I had this time. Living in the studio surely had a huge impact on the band’s performance… at least on mine it surely had. Before I used to record in Sao Paulo, which is about 1-2 hours away from where I live depending on the traffic and since it just wouldn’t make sense financially to stay at a hotel for a whole month, I used to drive back and forth so I usually had to face 3-4 hours of traveling everyday just to watch the guys recording and then by the time it was my turn to record, I would be so drained and stressed out that all I wanted was to be done with it and wouldn’t really have the energy to sing for several hours straight. So with the past albums I was always a little unhappy with a few things here and there. But this time it was completely different. We worked with Fredrik Nordström as our producer and he has this whole home set up right in the studio so the routine was wake up and get to work everyday. There were no distractions, I had Inner Monster Out on my mind at all times and the whole band was in a really good mood. We were all in love with this material since day one, because we wrote it all together… the songwriting process was already extremely easy and fun for us so it was just natural that we were all excited to bring these songs to life. We took 3 weeks to record it all, but we had booked 4 weeks… so at the end we started taking our sweet time to finish stuff just so we had something to do on the last week other than stare at each other’s faces and play video games (laughs). I’m really happy with what we accomplished. It’s exactly what we all aimed for,musically and technically. It sounds crystal clear, current, yet we still kept our roots and it sounds nothing like any of our own personal influences, even though we managed to please every single band member. We love it and it’s nothing like what each of us grew up listening to and that’s exactly what we hoped to achieve.

XM: You have Björn "Speed" Strid, Mikael Stanne, and Niklas Isfeldt featured in the title track, how did you get them all on board for this tune?
Dani: Inner Monster Out is a song with lyrics a little Hannibal Lecter inspired and nowadays there’s that TV series called Dexter that’s kinda what it’s about too. It’s about the possibility of becoming the monster itself if you are one who fights them. When I first started writing it, I imagined these different characters playing the song… a detective trying to find a brutal serial killer and having to figure out what his next move would be by actually understanding… feeling what he feels. The serial killer himself… and voices in the detective’s head. The more I developed the story, the more I realized that it would just sound absolutely dumb to sing it all by myself and that this song would not be released If we couldn’t find the right voices for it. They had to be voices that matched our music yet sound nothing like myself. The first name we thought of was Björn, he sounds brutal but has an amazingly beautiful singing voice as well so I wrote some parts for him and on those parts, I didn’t want anybody else so if he had said “no” we would have been screwed (laughs). Luckily our manager is good friends with him so she passed him the message that we wanted to have him as a guest and he said yes. Next to come on board was Niklas, Fredrik made the connection for us since they are in the same band. I really like his voice since I first heard it on Dream Evil’s first record. Mikael Stanne came as a fantastic surprise. While we were recording in Sweden, we made friends with Anders Jivarp, Dark Tranquillity’s drummer, so we invited him over to check out how the album was going and he came to visit us while Björn was recording and brought Mikael with him. In the middle of a conversation in Swedish, Mikael stands up and both him and Fredrik ask me if it’s ok if he records too. My first reaction was to laugh… for the simple fact that they didn’t even have to ask (laughs). I’m a big fan of Stanne’s voice, ever since 2001 or so. My first band was heavily influenced by Dark Tranquillity. Before I started writing any parts for anyone on this song, he was definitely one of the singers I wanted to invite but I had no way of contacting him, nor had any friends in common that could make that bridge so I didn’t develop the idea, however there he was, asking me if he could sing. Hell yeah, he can freaking sing (laughs). It was an honour. It was a fantastic experience to have such a team of musicians to lend their awesome voices to us, and to myself it was a real pleasure as a singer to share a song with them.

XM: Can you tell me a little about the songs on this release.
Dani: Both music and lyrics on this record are very deep and intense. I went very introspective on it and wrote about people’s and my own perversions, personality disorders, fears, hopes and everything that makes us human, all the good ,the bad and in between that we all have, some more and some less but we all have something “screwed up” inside. The music matches that… it feels very strong to me. It’s heavy, angry, you can sense the energy and tension in it yet it’s also beautiful music. It’s extremely Metal,we came up with riffs that even extreme Metal fans might enjoy but the melodies are catchy. We were given the nickname of Brazilian Metal Hurricane a few years back… well, this album certainly translates that even better now. It’s extremely hard to pick a favorite track but some songs that will make people understand that I mean are Waste of Life, Angel with Horns, A Smile Upon Death, I’m Your Mind, Habitchual. One thing is certain: if we managed to fully please ourselves when we all have such distinct tastes and are also very picky about what we like to listen to and play, it’s likely we’ll please a very good number of people! (laughs) Our old fan base so far loves what they have heard but they are also very surprised that we came up with this. I think that’s great… once you cease surprising people and become predictable, you start to get boring.

XM: What was the filming process like for the Angels with Horns video? Who came up with the story board and ideas for the video?
Dani: The story board was all done by the directors Thiago Pinheiro and Leo Alves of Kaiowas Studio.They read the lyrics and came up with the ideas. The story behind that song is a little serious joke about myself taken to the extreme. A few friends of mine inspired me to write it because they started calling me “angel with horns”. They used to say I was innocent and sweet like a child sometimes but that I was also capable of being straight up evil when I wanted to…when necessary or just for the fun of it (laughs). So whenever I was trying to convince them of having good intentions, they’d tell me “no point… I can see the horns, Dani” (laughs). So I imagined what it would be like to embrace it and exaggerate it. That brought me the final story… escapism. A man trying to run from a life he considers boring, putting all his hopes and dreams on a screwed up person that will pull him closer at the same time that she’s just going to play with him and twist his thoughts. He knows he’ll never have her and that’s exactly why he pursues her… because he knows, deep down he knows it’s all in his head. So it’s kinda like a dark joke and I had a great time filming it… the actors did a really good job, they made it fun yet passed the message across that It’s not going to be a story with a cute ending. The whole idea behind it is that if you invest all your hopes on an illusion and take what and who you have for granted, you’re bound to get hurt.

XM: Have you had any formal vocal training?
Dani: No. I took 2 months of classes, learned some breathing techniques then my teacher started picking on me for wanting to sing Metal, saying women could not sound like what I wanted to sound like and could not sing those songs written for men… and one day she asked me to bring her a song that I would practice for about a month and she said that was way too low for a female before she had even heard me singing it. So I thought someone with pre-conceived ideas wouldn’t be right for me and just went the self-teaching way.

XM: Who has been your biggest influence in metal while growing up? Have you ever met them?
Dani: I never met my biggest influences, which are Skid Row and Judas Priest but I did meet Helloween, who was probably the band that gave me the kick in the ass towards wanting to be a professional musician. I was already a singer but I liked their live energy so much that they were the ones that made me think “yes, this is what I want to do with my life!” And it’s pretty cool that we actually toured with them in Brazil a few years ago. I’ve been friends with Weiki for a long time and ever since the tour I chat a little with some of the other guys too whenever we meet. They’re a friendly bunch.

XM: What band where you most excited to open for so far and are there any bands that you would love the opportunity to tour with?
Dani: Iron Maiden,that’s for sure! Of course we loved sharing the stage with all the bands we had the opportunity to do so, especially W.A.S.P. since they gave us such a huge opportunity and are such an amazing band, but Iron Maiden was just brilliant. We had already been picked to support them in Brazil in 2009 however we got cancelled on the last minute due to a storm that delayed the whole schedule and forced the promoters to cut us off the bill. That day was the worst day of my life, it was so disappointing to have come so close and it just made it worse that I thought we’d never be given that chance again. However when they came back to Brazil in 2011 we were asked again, this time in Rio de Janeiro and it was fantastic, 18,000 people going absolutely mad, we had a great time. In the future, well, Iron Maiden of course again (laughs). But there are lots of great bands out there I’d love to tour with. There are the obvious huge ones like Metallica and others of the kind but others like Helloween themselves, Dark Tranquillity, Nightwish, that we opened for in the past, more modern stuff like In Flames… anyone who puts on a great show and acts nice towards the support band would be excelled.

XM: What’s it like being the only woman in the band? I see women like ourselves in the metal scene (be it musicians, vocalists or those behind the scenes) as forces of empowerment. How do you think woman are portrayed overall in the metal music industry?
Dani: Sometimes it’s hard being the only woman just because I don’t have anyone to do woman-stuff with me (laughs). Only a girl knows what it’s like, we are expected to look our best at all times and it’s not always easy on the road and being with guys at all times can be sometimes a little heavy on the mind. However we have a great group going on and whenever one needs space and quiet time, no one acts annoying and we are all given as much privacy as it’s possible. Curtains closed means “I don’t feel like talking” and everybody respects each other’s space. I just miss having a female friend to talk to, other than that I have no problems with being on the road. I’m actually the last one to miss home, I always want to tour just a little while longer (laughs). But you are right, we are forces of empowerment. I don’t believe anything is forbidden to women nowadays and I think it’s time we all stop telling ourselves and to the world “oh but it’s just so much harder for women to be taken seriously”. Maybe it is, maybe it isn’t… but it is the way it is so we just have to suck it up and make it happen, you know? And the more successful women there are out there, no matter what field it is, the more we show younger girls that the world has indeed changed and we can do whatever we want to do. It’s not going to be easy, but it’s not easy for men too. I think women are still being portrayed a little as objects of desire instead of front women but that’s also changing. I see the most successful ladies in the metal world are the ones who put on the best performances and act more like metal musicians and less like models. That’s the way to go in my opinion because no one will stay beautiful forever so if you want to be a musician, you have to make people pay attention to the music first. Everything else is a bonus, but we can’t let that become more important than the musicianship.

XM: I noticed that you have a section in your MySpace photos that is for food on the road, great shots lol! What would you say is the best dish you’ve had while out on the road and is there any that you would not recommend?
Dani: (laughs) I have to update that actually! Vegetarians, please don’t kill me… but I had moose meat in Sweden and loved it (laughs). After the recordings, I went on a little vacation trip to Abisko, way up North in Sweden because I wanted to see the Aurora Borealis – and yeah I saw it! (laughs) So I stayed at this pretty little hotel but they had no dinner choice… it was either that or cheese sandwich so I went with it and tried a local fish and moose. It was absolutely delicious. The Indian food I had while in the UK was also great… hot as hell but really good, chicken breast with butter sauce. I don’t think I’ve eaten anything bad until now that I’d tell people to stay away… it’s just that sometimes I have to eat so much of one thing that I get sick of it. On our first US tour, we had no idea where to go apart from Denny’s and this Chinese place so when we finally discovered something different, our drummer Fabio cried in joy. Real tears, no joke (laughs). He’s the one that started with the whole food photography actually. He got me hooked… now whenever I see the pictures of my favorite dishes, I remember how good it was (laughs).

XM: I too am a huge soccer fan, both Euro Cup and World Cup (France is my team!). I have a lot of Portuguese and Brazilian fans who when it comes to Euro Cup they all jump on the Portugal band wagon but when it comes to world they root for Brazil. Which team do you prefer and why? Who is your favorite player of all time?
Dani: My first team would be Brazil for being Brazilian… I don’t like being obvious but I am (laughs). But I really like to see France play, Spain too. Spain on the last World Cup was just on fire. My team in Brazil is Sao Paulo and the player I most enjoyed seeing active was Zidane. Nowadays I like Messi.

XM: If you could have been involved in the production, writing or recording of any album which would it be and why?
Dani: Painkiller of Judas Priest, Bat out of Hell of Meatloaf and anything of Queen. To me that is all pure genius and I’d love to have been involved with those albums, even if it was just performing on them originally. To me that is all groundbreaking music that influenced a whole generation and made a huge difference in the music world. I’m sure the creators and all musicians that worked on them are very proud of what they accomplished.

XM: What do you like to do when you aren't devoting your time to Shadowside?
Dani: I love video and computer games, reading books, watching movies. Now I’m into martial arts as well as I started taking Kung Fu lessons recently. I’m a sports fan but female soccer isn’t that much popular and most girls playing as amateurs just don’t know how to play so it’s no fun (laughs). Surfing is something I still appreciate too even though I have trouble finding the time for it.

XM: What are the bands plans for the remainder of 2011?
Dani: After the Inner Monster Out is released, we’ll work a lot on the promotion and then hope to go out on tour again. It’s been almost a whole year since we lasted toured so I need my fix (laughs). Maybe we’ll find a band to support this Winter in Europe or the Americas or we’ll just play some shows on our own. But we definitely want to spend the rest of 2011 and a good part of 2012 on stage!

XM: On behalf of xplosivemetal.com I would like to thank you for taking the time to answer a few questions with us. Anything else you'd like to mention or promote for Shadowside or yourself?
Dani: First of all, thank you for the support and I hope everyone has a great time listening to Inner Monster Out, play it loud, get crazy, rock to it and come say hi on Facebook, we love to hear from our fans, both old and new. Horns up and see you soon!