Already in
the
mid-nineties,
there is a
short-term
predecessor
of today's
band Xandria.
Inspired by
bands like
Tiamat and
Paradise
Lost, Marco
Heubaum and
a friend of
his want to
dare their
first
musical
steps in the
fascinating
fields of
hard metal
sounds and
atmospheric
soundscapes.
But due to
different
views on the
musical
orientation,
the now
completed
band
(including a
female
singer whom
Marco -
singer and
guitar
player -
supported
with some
backing
vocals)
splits in
1997. As a
result,
Marco is
honing his
own musical
vision for a
while,
before
looking for
musicians
again.
1999 sees today's band in a rehearsal room, where Marco introduces his first songs for the project to the new Xandria line-up, consisting of Roland Krueger with his former colleagues of a just faded Bielefeld metal band. Among those songs are "Kill the Sun", "Casablanca" and "So you disappear", which came into being in its original version as early as 1994 as the first song of this musical journey.
2000 is the year that makes the project a real band, after five songs which had been recorded at a small studio had been presented to the public for the first time at the end of the year in the internet: On sites like "mp3.de" or "besonic.com", the songs of the demo unexpectedly become the underground hits of the year, a huge fan base is growing very fast, among others, for example, in the U.S.A., too, through the site "mp3.com" - so much feedback could not remain without consequences, and Marco shaped the project into a real band. After two changes in line-up, the band now consists of Marco, Lisa, Gerit, Roland and Andy, Philip's predecessor, who is to join in as late as the year to follow. As an interesting background information it can be added that on the first demo songs half of the vocals are provided by Marco himself, because the idea of using female vocals originally was thought for a few parts only, which became more and more as time went by. At first, only "Kill the Sun" was to be presented by a female voice - inspired by "Lady Rosenred", a song by the Swedish band Lake of Tears. But now Marco more and more derives pleasure from Lisa's vocal performance, and already on those songs written now in the new line-up (among those, for example, is "Ginger"), Marco is hardly to be found as a singer.
In 2001 the band is more and more well-known in the underground, and the band is booked for first small concerts. Also, first connections to the music business develop, among others to Udo Zimmer, later to become Xandria's manager, who actually detects the five-piece on one of those music community websites that established Xandria's popularity. Several labels come knocking at the door, things are getting more serious, and his musical studies in far Oldenburg force second guitar player Andy to decide against the band that is now working hard to be prepared for the step into a bigger public. Philip is looked for and found via ad in their home town Bielefeld, but Lisa and him find out that they already have been acquainted with each other.
2002 sees the band playing live gigs in the underground and working hard on new demos because Drakkar Records show interest and want to hear more from the band whose technical artistic standard of course has developed since the 2000 demo recordings. Finally, Drakkar are convinced, the parties agree and sign the record deal in December - while the band is already working on the first longplayer with producer Dirk Riegner.
In 2003, eventually, it is time: "Kill the Sun" hits the stores in May and even enters the German album Top 100 - a remarkable success for a debut. After the band had already played several shows with Subway to Sally in spring, the first bigger tour is launched with Tanzwut. During these three weeks across Germany the band gains lots of new fans and parties extensively with them. After festivals like "Méra Luna" and another tour with the gothic band ASP, Xandria during the winter entrenched themselves in the studio again. The year so full of events has left its marks with many new ideas and thus Xandria do not want to wait with the second album, which now is taking shape in co-operation with the successful producer of Wolfsheim, José Alvarez-Brill, in his Belgian studio.
2004 starts with sad news for Xandria. because bassplayer Roland quits the band for professional reasons. The quest for a replacement begins, and after many auditions, finally, a successor is found in Nils Middelhauve. He is not unknown to the band, either: Several years ago, Lisa supported Nils' former band Visible Touch as a solo artist. They were also known by Marco, who had written on them in a local fanzine once. And so it could go on. The second album "Ravenheart" hits the stores on May 24th, and turns out to be a surprise success: Top 40 in the German album charts, where the album remains for seven weeks. Xandria's first video shot for the song "Ravenheart" enjoyed high popularity with the TV watchers, for it had become a short film full of fantasy with many atmospheric pictures and as such stands out of the tiring clip standard. Meanwhile, Xandria has been heard of in the Far East as well and the band is invited to the biggest Open Air festival of South East Asia: The gig at "Busan International Rock Festival" becomes a real show highlight in front of 30,000 enthusiastic spectators. After a show at "Summer Breeze Festival", the second video for the song "Eversleeping" is shot in an old castle near Berlin. The single - an E.P., actually, for it includes three new songs (among others a remake of a very old band song from 1997, "So Sweet") - is released on October, 11th and remains in the charts for two weeks. Afterwards, the band kicks off their first, much longed for headlining tour in November, together with Finnish bands Entwine and Lab as supporting acts, which is a hell of a fun to everyone and establishes the band as a premier live band. Especially the higher percentage of rock sound was appreciated by the fans, and thus this newly gained energy found its way into the new songs already being written. The band enters the studio for the first time in December to work on the successor of "Ravenheart".
The first half of 2005 sees the band without a break working in the studio and writing new songs. There are many new ideas, for example the co-operation with the famous German movie score orchestra "Deutsches Filmorchester Babelsberg" and an Irish folk band, to venture into new sound dimensions. After months of work, which forced much sweat, stress and many discussions from the band, the album is finished eventually. And it was worth working on: It surely is the most ambitious and mature piece of work so far. The claim to sound a bit harder was realized besides the typical soundscapes to the band's satisfaction. August, 22nd becomes the date of release.But before that, Nils and Lisa get married after having been a couple for almost one year, and thus the fans will not find a Lisa Schaphaus on the CD but a Lisa Middelhauve.
2006 finally the tour to India takes off. In the cold months of Winter the band plays some warmth into the hearts of their fans. Festivals and shows in England, Russia and Mexico follow, before the band concentrates on songwriting again, after having collected many new ideas over the year. The band realizes that the new material is more rock and band oriented, and the logical decision is to head for a studio that is famous for its good rock sound: the Principal studios, that are very close to the hometown of Xandria, Bielefeld. And its also a logical decision to take on production duties on their own this time.
2007 then begins at Principal studios in Senden, Münster (Germany). The recordings are done within a very short period of time, because it was the plan not to put month after month in small details, to conserve spontanity and vitality. That´s one reason why it´s achieved the first time, that the band´s vitality and dynamics the fans love about their live shows is really put on a record. For two songs Entwine frontman Mika Tauriainen, who is well known to to the band since the tour 2004, when Entwine supported Xandria, can be heard with guest appereances. The completed album “Salomé – The Seventh Veil” is released on May 25th, and around that date Xandria do some shows to celebrate it the right way with their fans.
1999 sees today's band in a rehearsal room, where Marco introduces his first songs for the project to the new Xandria line-up, consisting of Roland Krueger with his former colleagues of a just faded Bielefeld metal band. Among those songs are "Kill the Sun", "Casablanca" and "So you disappear", which came into being in its original version as early as 1994 as the first song of this musical journey.
2000 is the year that makes the project a real band, after five songs which had been recorded at a small studio had been presented to the public for the first time at the end of the year in the internet: On sites like "mp3.de" or "besonic.com", the songs of the demo unexpectedly become the underground hits of the year, a huge fan base is growing very fast, among others, for example, in the U.S.A., too, through the site "mp3.com" - so much feedback could not remain without consequences, and Marco shaped the project into a real band. After two changes in line-up, the band now consists of Marco, Lisa, Gerit, Roland and Andy, Philip's predecessor, who is to join in as late as the year to follow. As an interesting background information it can be added that on the first demo songs half of the vocals are provided by Marco himself, because the idea of using female vocals originally was thought for a few parts only, which became more and more as time went by. At first, only "Kill the Sun" was to be presented by a female voice - inspired by "Lady Rosenred", a song by the Swedish band Lake of Tears. But now Marco more and more derives pleasure from Lisa's vocal performance, and already on those songs written now in the new line-up (among those, for example, is "Ginger"), Marco is hardly to be found as a singer.
In 2001 the band is more and more well-known in the underground, and the band is booked for first small concerts. Also, first connections to the music business develop, among others to Udo Zimmer, later to become Xandria's manager, who actually detects the five-piece on one of those music community websites that established Xandria's popularity. Several labels come knocking at the door, things are getting more serious, and his musical studies in far Oldenburg force second guitar player Andy to decide against the band that is now working hard to be prepared for the step into a bigger public. Philip is looked for and found via ad in their home town Bielefeld, but Lisa and him find out that they already have been acquainted with each other.
2002 sees the band playing live gigs in the underground and working hard on new demos because Drakkar Records show interest and want to hear more from the band whose technical artistic standard of course has developed since the 2000 demo recordings. Finally, Drakkar are convinced, the parties agree and sign the record deal in December - while the band is already working on the first longplayer with producer Dirk Riegner.
In 2003, eventually, it is time: "Kill the Sun" hits the stores in May and even enters the German album Top 100 - a remarkable success for a debut. After the band had already played several shows with Subway to Sally in spring, the first bigger tour is launched with Tanzwut. During these three weeks across Germany the band gains lots of new fans and parties extensively with them. After festivals like "Méra Luna" and another tour with the gothic band ASP, Xandria during the winter entrenched themselves in the studio again. The year so full of events has left its marks with many new ideas and thus Xandria do not want to wait with the second album, which now is taking shape in co-operation with the successful producer of Wolfsheim, José Alvarez-Brill, in his Belgian studio.
2004 starts with sad news for Xandria. because bassplayer Roland quits the band for professional reasons. The quest for a replacement begins, and after many auditions, finally, a successor is found in Nils Middelhauve. He is not unknown to the band, either: Several years ago, Lisa supported Nils' former band Visible Touch as a solo artist. They were also known by Marco, who had written on them in a local fanzine once. And so it could go on. The second album "Ravenheart" hits the stores on May 24th, and turns out to be a surprise success: Top 40 in the German album charts, where the album remains for seven weeks. Xandria's first video shot for the song "Ravenheart" enjoyed high popularity with the TV watchers, for it had become a short film full of fantasy with many atmospheric pictures and as such stands out of the tiring clip standard. Meanwhile, Xandria has been heard of in the Far East as well and the band is invited to the biggest Open Air festival of South East Asia: The gig at "Busan International Rock Festival" becomes a real show highlight in front of 30,000 enthusiastic spectators. After a show at "Summer Breeze Festival", the second video for the song "Eversleeping" is shot in an old castle near Berlin. The single - an E.P., actually, for it includes three new songs (among others a remake of a very old band song from 1997, "So Sweet") - is released on October, 11th and remains in the charts for two weeks. Afterwards, the band kicks off their first, much longed for headlining tour in November, together with Finnish bands Entwine and Lab as supporting acts, which is a hell of a fun to everyone and establishes the band as a premier live band. Especially the higher percentage of rock sound was appreciated by the fans, and thus this newly gained energy found its way into the new songs already being written. The band enters the studio for the first time in December to work on the successor of "Ravenheart".
The first half of 2005 sees the band without a break working in the studio and writing new songs. There are many new ideas, for example the co-operation with the famous German movie score orchestra "Deutsches Filmorchester Babelsberg" and an Irish folk band, to venture into new sound dimensions. After months of work, which forced much sweat, stress and many discussions from the band, the album is finished eventually. And it was worth working on: It surely is the most ambitious and mature piece of work so far. The claim to sound a bit harder was realized besides the typical soundscapes to the band's satisfaction. August, 22nd becomes the date of release.But before that, Nils and Lisa get married after having been a couple for almost one year, and thus the fans will not find a Lisa Schaphaus on the CD but a Lisa Middelhauve.
2006 finally the tour to India takes off. In the cold months of Winter the band plays some warmth into the hearts of their fans. Festivals and shows in England, Russia and Mexico follow, before the band concentrates on songwriting again, after having collected many new ideas over the year. The band realizes that the new material is more rock and band oriented, and the logical decision is to head for a studio that is famous for its good rock sound: the Principal studios, that are very close to the hometown of Xandria, Bielefeld. And its also a logical decision to take on production duties on their own this time.
2007 then begins at Principal studios in Senden, Münster (Germany). The recordings are done within a very short period of time, because it was the plan not to put month after month in small details, to conserve spontanity and vitality. That´s one reason why it´s achieved the first time, that the band´s vitality and dynamics the fans love about their live shows is really put on a record. For two songs Entwine frontman Mika Tauriainen, who is well known to to the band since the tour 2004, when Entwine supported Xandria, can be heard with guest appereances. The completed album “Salomé – The Seventh Veil” is released on May 25th, and around that date Xandria do some shows to celebrate it the right way with their fans.