Interview with the band members of Enshine (Jari Lindholm and Sébastien Pierre)

Reactorium Reviews would like to salute two musical astronauts Jari Lindholm and Sébastien Pierre from the band Enshine that agreed to take part in a short interview. For the past two years following the debut album "Origin" Jari and Seb were busy writing new material and now they are about to release their second album entitled "Singularity" via Rain Without End Records on October 18th.

1. Tell us what is the theme of the upcoming album? Is it a concept album? Was the title inspired by the motion picture "Interstellar"?  

Jari : It is not a concept album in the way that the songs are united under a single theme, but all the songs are still individual. We do implement a little bit of concept thinking in terms of tying the albums together though, as Origin being the beginning and the Singularity is the “becoming” or the continued development of the entity the first one gave birth to.

Seb : Interstellar was inspired by us. More seriously, we just wanted indeed to find a link between Origin and the future album(s). Like a neverending story with different chapters. The concept of the lyrics are hidden everytime as usual by metaphores, but deal with really precise scenarios. Resurgence for exemple is about a creature (could be human) who wakes up amongst many other species, in sort of cryotubes.He is the only one freed from his stasis, and explores the corridors of a huge spacecraft. He manages to use some HUD to find that an advanced alien race once abducted parts of various civilisations for obscure reasons, analyzing their dreams in this artificial coma state. Before taking control of the kind of abandoned space cargo, for unknown destination.

2. What do you do besides music?  Can you name any hobbies? Who is behind creating the artwork for your albums?  

Seb : My job is graphic designer. I made the visuals and videos for Enshine. I’m interested by science in general, and have the luck to work with scientists, enhancing my knowledge, and it has an impact on my inspiration.

Jari : I have a couple of different part time jobs dealing with various types of sales and services. I also run a small studio so sometimes I get recording or mixing work to do there, but currently I try to focus the time I have available for music on my own projects, they take up a lot of time anyway. Besides that I like watching documentaries, and doing some occasional woodwork also.

3. Do you plan on playing live in the future or do you want to keep Enshine as a studio project?

Jari : There are currently no concrete plans on how to accomplish that, for obvious reasons. We live too far apart to rehearse on any regular basis, we record the albums with the help of session musicians and I feel that there are very few people in my city who actually play this style of music, so putting together a live line-up might end up with everyone involved having to travel long distances to rehearse if we eventually find them. But I hope that we will be able to put together at least a few shows somewhere in the future! 

4. What inspires you two upon creating music?  

Jari : Life in general, the fluctuation between positive and negative feelings, I try to catch whatever I feel at the moment, be it euphora or despair, or anything in between.

Seb : One of the deepest feelings I can have, is everytime I try to apprehend the vastness of our ever-growing universe. Try to visualize it as an expanding sphere. Now try to conceptualize what is outside of it, devoid of space and time itself. And apply it to the infinity of our other dimensions. You end up thinking that everything is possible. Life and its absence are all part of a scheme still mysterious to us. What I try to reproduce in the lyrics and music in general is this fascination induced by our environment, perceived as so predictable, while the more we analyze its laws, the more we see how lost we are… Mankind is on the verge to renew (link between general relativity and quantum physics?) its science, and conflicts arise everywhere on Earth. All this is inspiring.

5. Would there be any new exclusive merchandise available for purchase when the new album is

released?  

Jari : We are working on some t-shirt ideas and maybe something more but that will be a surprise if so!

6. Which is your personal-favorite Enshine track of all time, including your new record?

Seb : I think my favorite so far could be Adrift, for it showed us we could achieve interesting clean vocals duet ideas for the band.

Jari : I think it really depends on my mood, since the mood of the songs are all different. But I think the ones I have listened to the most are Dual Existence and Adrift. Apex also has a pretty special meaning for me, personally.

7. Why don't you release instrumental versions of your albums? It's not that your vox are boring, yet instrumental versions always have a special flavor about them. You could sell these tracks as "special

editions" of your albums the way Dream Theater does.

Jari : I would in most cases prefer when there is a single representation that the artist judged to be the best one to release to the world and then stick with that!

8. Do you guys still keep in touch with Ehsan from AtomA? If not, why? If yes, would there be any collaborations or side projects with him on board?

Jari : Yes, we talk and hang out occasionally! We like to discuss music still but haven´t really talked about any future collaborations as such.

Seb : We are no longer in contact somehow, for no particular reason. But it would be exciting and challenging to work together some day.

9. What kind of equipment do you use when creating pre-production versions? How do you record clean vocals like such as in the track “Cinders”?  

Jari : Pre-production versions can be recorded with fairly simple tools. Usually we just program some rough drums in Cubase, add some guitars which are usually direct recorded with something like Axe FX 2 or Vox Amplug. But really it´s nothing more than a PC, soundcard, and some kind of guitar processor. The Amplug Lead actually ended up being used for the final versions of many leads etc. although the rhythm guitars are then miced up traditionally.

There wasn´t really anything unusual about recording the Cinders vocals besides that I had the mic more off axis and further away than usual. I guess the “sound” is created by layering / harmonizing and panning along with some long ambient tape echo and reverb effects. 

10. In every art one has tendency to reach a certain creativity plateau after which everything becomes

uninspired. What are the things that keep you afloat and drive your motivation to write and produce

music?     

Jari : It comes and goes of course. But for me it helps a bit having different types of music to work with in different projects. When I have used up my inspiration for one of them I can perhaps come back to another one and find something new.

Seb : Drugs. Joke apart, the answer I think is to get enough distance with what you achieved and what you plan to achieve then. Definitely, having several different projects help keep this distance and avoids feeling stuck. This is why Jari and me started a R’n’B album. Or not.

11. Could you tell us, please, what to expect from Enshine and Cold Insight music in the future? What kind of innovation are you going to implement? Tell us about your future plans in general.

Jari : I think nobody knows until we actually sit down and start writing material for the next one! The overall plan I believe, is simply to try to keep making the best and most immersive music we can.

Seb : For Enshine we will simply let the right moment lead us when we will meet again for it. For Cold Insight, I don’t have clear view for the (already started) second album but it shall be a continuity with Further Nowhere, with overall more various guitar sounds, and more immersive ambiences, and the use of SFX, making it sometimes like soundtracks. A hybrid album mixing metal, trance, AOR, and soundtracks, in a state of equilibrium.

12. Would you like to say anything to wrap up this interview? Any wishes or some regards to your

Eastern-European fans?

Jari: Thank you all very much for the support and the interest!

Seb: Russia seems to have a lot of loyal and devoted fans, and it really pleases us. Expect a journey as you never had with Singularity. 

Credits:  

Big thanks to the members of the VK Enshine community who helped us compiling some questions that were used in the final interview. To follow us on vk, please go to: http://vk.com/slumatomshine

Some useful links:

To preorder your copy of the new album "Singularity": https://www.naturmacht.com/shop/catalog
Listen to the new single "Adrift":

Listen to the album preview: