The guys from Hamburg, Germany caused a stir with their latest album “Beyond the Borders”, we invited them for an interview.
How are you? How are the preparations for the upcoming tour going? Your current album ‘Beyond the Borders’ is highly regarded in the scene, and rightly so. When listening, one doesn’t feel like they’re listening to different songs, but rather a whole story – truly great work, it’s on repeat for me. Tell us a bit about how this album came about and how you’ve received the response.
Terra Atlantica:
Well, the preparation for the tour is going great, except for our financial situation… But we’ll figure that out as well. This is our first tour and we are very excited and looking forward to it! The new album is a sequel to the first two albums storywise and continues to tell the tale of the legendary Atlantis. You can read the story on our website if you are interested. The second album ‘Age of Steam’ was already received very well in the scene so we wanted to build up on that. This time we experimented a bit more with different music styles though. The idea behind ‘Beyond the Borders’ was to make it feel like a musical, which I think worked out very well.
There are now a few metal bands that have devoted themselves to “pirate metal.” You’re sort of like that, but not really. What sets you apart from bands like Alestorm and Visions of Atlantis?
Terra Atlantica:
You are correct by saying ‘not really’ for we are in fact not pirates but honorable seafarers. That’s already a big difference. In our music we are very fond of clean vocals and harmonic choirs, You won’t find any rough pirate vocals in our songs. Visions of Atlantis would be a more suitable comparison but we try to recreate a more classic power metal style.
“The idea behind ‘Beyond the Borders’ was to make it feel like a musical, which I think worked out very well.
Terra Atlantica about their Album “Beyond The Borders”
How does the songwriting process work for you? Who has the spark for your songs?
Terra Atlantica:
All the songs were written by Tristan, except for the song ‘A City once Divine’ and ‘Sun of Pontevedra’, in which Nico also took part in the songwriting. Mostly Tristan writes the songs alone, then records a demo and presents it to the band. Then we discuss a bit about possible changes. Sometimes songs are completely disposed as well. But that doesn’t happen very often.
When can we expect new songs from you? Can you tell us anything about that?
Terra Atlantica:
I can tell you that the work on the fourth album has already begun! It might be possible that you will have to wait a bit for it though, as we decided to take a different approach this time and not set a deadline to when the album should be finished. We did that the last time and it was very stressful and didn’t exactly improve the quality of the album. We learned from that. But you will definitely hear some new material from us this year. There is a secret project in the making…
If someone offered you a “pirate metal” tour with Alestorm, Visions of Atlantis and Rumahoy, would you accept it? What slot do you think you deserve in that lineup?
Terra Atlantica:
Yes of course. That would be awesome. We’d be very busy though fighting all those pirates all the time. I would place us between Rumahoy and Visions of Atlantis.
In our music we are very fond of clean vocals and harmonic choirs, you won’t find any rough pirate vocals in our songs.
Terra Atlantica about them not being “Pirates” 😉
“Beyond the Borders” is your third album. Is this the first album where you have noticed an increase in your fame? When comparing your Spotify numbers to other metal bands similar to you, it quickly becomes clear that the numbers are still relatively “low.” What do you think is the reason for this? Are we finally seeing the well-deserved rise of Terra Atlantica?
Terra Atlantica:
I wouldn’t say that the numbers are low. We are quite happy with them at this point. We made a huge step from the first to the second album and then another huge step from the second to third one. Following this pattern, the fourth album will be our breakthrough. Just as it was planned 😀 What would be helpful is if we had a manager or a booking agent who would get us onto the big festivals. But for now we have the Superpower tour as support for Grailknights and Victorius starting at the end of march. Maybe that will help.
Your albums, as mentioned earlier, are not a string of random songs, but a written story. You also publish the story on your website. Who comes up with it and what is it based on? Or are they real stories? How did you come to this? And when will the story for the latest album be released?
Terra Atlantica:
Like the songs, the story is written by Tristan. In the beginning we just came up with the idea to write about nautical themes and Atlantis but he quickly developed this complex story to connect the songs. While the events described in the story of course never happened like that, you could say they are based on actual events in Tristan’s life for he uses the music to process his experiences and emotions. The interpretation of the songs should be left to the listener 😉
The story for the third album should have been released a long time ago but Tristan is too lazy to write it down. It will come soon!
What would be helpful is if we had a manager or a booking agent who would get us onto the big festivals.
Terra Atlantica about the question why the Spotify numbers are a bit “low”.
Here you have space to speak to your fans.
Terra Atlantica:
We’d like to thank our loyal fanbase for bringing us to where we now are! We already have a lot of shows planned for this year and we hope to see you all on the road, escpecially on the Superpower tour. Thank you for the interview!
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