13th April 2023

Exclusive Interview: Emetropia talk “An Acoustic Endeavour”!

Sometimes it takes bravely to dare to be different and with “An Acoustic Endeavor” Symphonic Metal act Emetropia proved that who dares wins. An EP of re-imaginings that takes dynamics in Metal driven by big orchestras and choirs and strips it back to the essentials before adding wonderfully thoughtful nuance, not only do the songs sound different, but refreshed and rejuvenated, given a new lease of life in their altered state. After reviewing the record we spoke to keyboard playing wizard Liam Strand about how it all happened…

The whole concept of “An Acoustic Endeavour” is a bold and brave one, how much convincing did you need to do to get everyone on board with creating something that is so delicate and stripped back in comparison with your usual material? “Not a lot! I pitched the idea of The Old Gods – Requiem and the EP to the band, and since we are versatile in our music taste (and a progressive band), everyone was on board and excited for the endeavour!”

We’ve described the EP as transforming Symphonic Metal to acoustic Folk Metal with Jazzy nuances and 1970’s Progressive Rock moments. What’s the strangest description of your music you’ve heard? “It has to be when a reviewer of one of the concerts on the Pirates tour together with Visions of Atlantis and Secret Rule described us as “avant-garde”. And while we’re at it, reviewers unanimously described Lord of the Blizzards (from our debut album) as clearly inspired by Edenbridge, which is super interesting because when we wrote it in 2016, we hadn’t even begun listening to Edenbridge”

Having spent the time and energy creating the new EP, do you have any grand plans to create any new works in a similar style? Have you thought about returning to other albums for an EP of reimagining, given the success of this one? “We learned a lot of techniques when creating the EP, which we will make use of when writing and recording future albums. The EP itselfs was a fun and learnful thing to do, but we don’t want to get stuck in a formula of how we release music, not every album has to be followed up with an acoustic version. Perhaps we will release electronic versions next time? Who knows? Only time will tell.”

The playful changes to the song titles with “A Summer Breeze” becoming “A Gentle Breeze” is one of those clever little touches that makes all the difference. On that subject, you had Robin Hakanen Martio create the artwork for the record; what make you choose the band photo for the cover art having previously gone with imagery? “Thanks, we’re really satisfied with the playful titles. Well, imagery can be beautiful and help listeners experience the world the music takes place etc, but for the EP, we wanted a more intimate feeling – “get to know us”. Having worked with Robin before, we believed he was the guy to welcome listeners for an intimate moment with us”

If we are made up of our genes and our influences, what is in your jeans and who would you consider your influences? “In my jeans you find my AirPods Pro because I always need to listen to the new demo I recorded haha. In general, we describe our influences as Epica, Therion and Amorphis, but for our new EP we were heavily inspired by some Swedish pop/rock acts like Mando Diao, Weeping Willows, and First Aid Kit, but also more folk bands like Tuomas Holopainen’s “Auri”.”

What’s next for Emetropia? “We just had an amazing release party at Kulturgaraget, Avesta, where they allowed us to stay the following day so we could discuss our next endeavor (Hint: It’s not an acoustic one)”

“An Acoustic Endeavor” by Emetropia is out now and available over at bandcamp.