"We hope to provide a decent dose of role modeling"

The new album is finally here. How excited are you?

Anna: It's super exciting because it's been so long since the first record and sometimes I can't even believe that this is really happening now. We are finally releasing this second album. 

Marina: It's exactly the same feeling for me. It's still a little bit hard to believe that it's out now.

Anna: And the crazy thing is the songs have been kind of part of our lives already. And it's such a great feeling to finally share this.

You've started to write your own songs instead of only doing covers. Why did you choose to go in this direction and how was it?

Anna: After the first record was released and was getting a bit more quiet we were already thinking about doing our own seconds for the second album, if there ever was one. And when we went into the creative process for the second album we started writing these songs together with our producer Hannes Braun (note: vocals in Kissin’ Dynamite).

Marina: Anna and I are usually always very excited about writing our own material anywhere. So I think that's something that just sort of happened with Exit Eden as well. We initially just started thinking about our own stuff. It's just an organic way of how things work in our minds.

Was it possible to bring more of your own personalities into the new songs when everything was written by yourself?

Marina: Compared to the first record, definitely. We still have, let's say our personas in Exit Eden. Also when it comes to using our voices, we don't want to overlap things very much. We try to  stick to a certain realm of possibilities within our parts as a group. Because we are three singers it's different than in our own bands. With Exit Eden, it's definitely a little bit more like Marina, you're going to take the mezzo soprano and musical-like parts and Anna's going to be obviously more aggressive and rocky, and Clémentine (note: Clémentine Delaunay, vocals in Exit Eden and Visions of Atlantis) is just going to put her own interpretation into her parts. And that's how we kind of stick to our thing. But at the same time I do believe that there is more from our own personalities there. You can hear more from Clémentine singing, you can hear more from me and you can definitely hear more from Anna, which is what everybody wanted after the first album (laughs).

Anna: You're so sweet! 

When you wrote these songs, you always had three different voices in your mind. Is this quite difficult because there are three different singers with three different voices or would you say it's always a bit easier because there's a much broader spectrum you can work with?

Anna: I didn't even think of the different voices so much during the songwriting process. I was only more or less thinking of a song without any arrangement and having the different parts. When I had my ideas in the songs I wasn't really thinking, this is something I could sing, or that I kind of changed personalities or perspectives. I feel more of a songwriter apart from being part of the band. 

Hold Back Your Fear is an exemption. This is a song that is actually written the way that you need different singers because you have one person being introduced and then you have the other two people kind of narrating about it and telling the story about what happened. 

Your first single from the new album Run! features Marco Hietala (ex-Nightwish) and the video went through the roof. Did you know Marco before or how did his contribution happen?

Marina: This was actually a pretty funny idea. It was very spontaneous. Our producer Hannes just wrote a part to that song while I was there recording at the studio. We instantly liked it and thought that we could maybe have Anna sing here in the way Marco would do and then we started jamming in a way that Marco would sing. It was just supposed to be an inspiration back then and it sounded great so we recorded all the voices there and that was it.

And then a few weeks after I received an email saying “by the way, Marco is going to actually sing Run!”  Turns out Hannes has actually asked if there was a possibility to get Marco, and they contacted Marco and he accepted.

Anna: For me the seed was planted at that exact moment. We didn't really even think of having a feature on this record because  we're three singers already. It just happened super spontaneous. 

I don’t even know who can take credit for this. Perhaps the universe.

That’s an amazing story! What’s your favorite song on the new Album?

Marina: I have a favorite song and it's very weird for me to say it's my favorite song because I'm singing on it. 

Anna: I just thought you were going to say Dying in my Dreams, the song you wrote with Hannes. I would find that valid. (laughs)

Marina: No, I really love Elysium. Since I heard the demo, that was my favorite song already and I didn't change my mind. 

Anna: I also love this one. It’s just so beautiful. But in general it’s hard to pick a favorite. 

I really do love Hold Back Your Fear because it's so special the way Marina starts on that. It's so lovely singing with so much emotion in the first lines. And then it has such a nice build up with the different parts and it's like something new is happening every few seconds. 

It’s been six years since your last album release, which is relatable since you’re all working on different projects. Were there any learnings or experiences in your other bands that went into the new Exit Eden album?

Anna: There's always so much personal stuff going on when you write music or lyrics and original songs. But for me not much has changed. I think the new songs are very empowering. And that's what’s always my goal, to have a song being empowering, lyrical wise or from the music. We try to help people through bad times and it doesn't matter when they are released. They will always hopefully be a source of strength for people that listen to us.

Since you are spread all around the world, did you record the album all in the same studio?

Marina: We all went to Hannes studio in the south of Germany. We weren't there all at the same time because it would be counter-productive. (laughs)

We were there I guess a week at a time. And then we recorded it one by one. Hannes puzzled everything together afterwards, but we recorded directly with him, which was super important because he's also a singer on top of being an amazing producer and having him as a vocal producer was a key ingredient to our new album sound.

The album release is a big milestone next year. Are there any other surprises planned for your fans for 2024?

Anna: Nothing we can share yet right now. But we would absolutely love to play live and just play big festivals or even a tour to Germany or Europe or the U.S. We really would love to hit the road with these beautiful songs and this wonderful music.

So all I have to say right now is if you want to see us live, you should come to League of Distortion and Phantom Elite and Visions of Atlantis. That's guaranteed to happen next year.

Femmes Fatales is all about pure feminine energy and independence, representing the power of women. We at dark divas have kind of the same vision. Is there anything you want to share with your fans on how to succeed in a male-driven world or the music business?

Marina: I hope we can increase the representation of women in the metal world, which is super important because if you see people who look like you, who are like you doing stuff it kind of gets in your brain. When you see a woman in metal, little girls are going to see it and think “That's cool. I want to do that too!” And I hope that the three of us together can provide a dose of representation.

And also we are from different countries and slightly different ethnicities and I hope that I can help in a way just by presenting that it’s possible for everyone out there to do what we do.

Anna: I love the way you said this. I didn't even think about this. But you're absolutely right. With us being from different countries in Exit Eden it shows people or women around the world that you can be someone, you can be in a band, you can front a band. No matter where you're from or what gender you are. This could be something that we really stand for.

Is there anything else you would like to share with the world?

Anna: Shameless self-promo? (laughs)

I'm really, really grateful that people are still interested in Exit Eden, because during that time I was actually feeling a bit pressure. I was like, what if life passes by so fast and who can guarantee us that something that was released in 2017 still has interest in 2024? So this is something I'm really, really grateful for. And we've experienced this at our shows with our own bands that people came up to us and say that they are super sad that there is not going to be a second album or they ask if there will be a second Exit Eden album. And at some point when we knew there would be one, we were able to say, stay tuned, you will get something and there will be something.

And we put so much energy and so much of our personal love and work into this album and we're so happy to share it now with the people. And of course we are also asking for support from all the fans out there. Check out our personal bands, League of Distortion, Phantom Elite and Visions of Atlantis.