Gabriëlle Driessen is a talented young Italian/Venezuelan vocalist and cellist living in Oviedo. She recently released her first single, “Deathly Waltz,” from her upcoming album, “Beyond Our Endlessness.” We reviewed the song (released on digital platforms) on VeroRock.it and were captivated by it: iridescent sounds expressing a variety of styles (from symphonic to black metal), and her distinctive vocal timbre, which ranges from dreamlike moments to lyricism and growls. In “Deathly Waltz,” creative process and passion are expressed through a refined melody and orchestral arrangements that open evocative soundscapes. Gabriëlle granted us this delightful interview to get to know herself better, sharing her story, the musical journey she began as a teenager, thanks also to a strong family tradition, and the incredible enthusiasm that springs from her debut project.
● Welcome to VeroRock.it Gabriëlle. “Deathly Waltz”, a beautiful and peculiar piece, is the first single released by your full length “Beyond Our Endlessness” that will see the light soon. Can you comment on the genesis of the song, its contents and give us some anticipation on your debut album? Will it be preceded by other singles? Thank you so much for the warm welcome and the sweet words regarding “Deathly Waltz”, dear Carlo! Of course, the first idea of “Deathly Waltz” came after dreaming with the storyline of the song and the first two lines of the chorus. I dreamed I was a widow (in the 1750 era in a beautiful Chateau in France) mourning the loss of her beloved husband after being poisoned by his twin brother. In the dream, Estelle (the widow) is haunted by the ghost of Bastien (aka the Ghost Prince/her husband) in her own dreams for a year nonstop! The thing is: she begs him in every dream at night to take her soul away because she doesn’t want to live anymore without him. After her forced marriage with Ambroise (Bastien’s twin brother) which happened immediately after Bastien’s funeral, she got trapped in a whirlwind of pain, sorrow and grief. She didn’t want to marry Ambroise, she only wanted to follow Bastien in death. Bastien came as a ghost when the veil came thin during Samhain (October 31 st ) and asked a final waltz with her wedding gown (their favourite dance when he was alive) as the unique condition to fulfil her plea. Estelle agreed and they got trapped in the deathly and frenetic waltz we already know until he finally took her soul away to the afterlife! So, you can see, the genesis of the song came directly from my dreams hahaha. Answering the question regarding the album: It will be a pleasure! The album will be a kind of concept album, some songs will be connected, but not all of them because everything will make sense as a whole. Each song tells the story of an important moment in the trilogy of books I’m currently writing, everything around Bastien’s and Estelle’s love but in different lifetimes and with different names. The trilogy has the same name of the album “Beyond Our Endlessnes”. This first album will have 12 songs in total. And regarding the singles: each one of the songs will be a single, the release is intended as a “waterfall release” in order every song can have their own moment to shine by itself before having all of them in an album. The second single is already recorded, mixed and mastered, we only have to finish the artwork cover and shoot the music video for the release, if everything goes well, probably it will be yours before the first semester of the year ends! We’re currently working in the production of the third song.
● Can you briefly tell us about your musical growth, when was it born and how did this great passion develop? Sure! I grew in a household filled with music: my father is a self- taught lyrical tenor, so the opera arias sung by tenors were the everyday, especially Nessun Dorma and the music from Il Divo. My brother has the piano as a hobby, so the music was everywhere. In fact, I obsessed with the cello when I was a child because I heard it in the intro of “VII” by Akiko Shikata thanks to my brother! I first started with the violin, but we weren’t really meant to be, it was something brief until I could find a cello teacher and that happened when I was 13 years old. My classical singing training started way before, when I was 11 years old after noticing I have some talent to sing very high notes with an operatic placement (thanks Der Hölle Rache and Epica hahaha!). With time, during my 20’s I started to dive into contemporary singing techniques to find and add new colours to my voice and almost at the same time I started to work on my growls and grunts, and also during this very same time I was studying musicology in the University of Oviedo!
● “Deathly Waltz” sublimates a miscellany of genres: black metal, symphonic prog, gothic, ethereal atmospheres, lyrical. Tell us about your enthusiasm in combining this range of styles and if there is one in particular that captivates you the most? Do you have any stylistic models (groups) to inspire you? Oh, yes! It was really funny to mix all of these genres together! Hahaha. The black metal intervention wasn’t planned in the first 20 demos of the song, it really came as a prank after starting to work with Yamil. He sent me a video where I could hear one of the chorus of the song with the blast beats and this black metal vibe and he was completely joking around but I crazy loved that idea so I asked him to put the blast beats and the vibe in the second and the last chorus to show the development in the madness and how frenetic the waltz became hahaha! Regarding the favorite ones I will surely say that symphonic gothic metal and ethereal atmospheres with a touch of lyrical are definitely my type! The bands inspired me the most are: Blackbriar, Epica, End of the Dream, Abstracted Mind, Eleine and Ad Infinitum!
● Do you also have parallel musical projects or collaborations with other artists? Yes, I’m currently working on a parallel musical project with another talented singer and songwriter but we’re going very slow because she has plenty on her hands right now with her band and her solo project hehe! As soon as we’re ready to share the first single I’ll let you know.
● Can you tell us about the video of “Deathly Waltz”, which is really intriguing and demonstrates your impetus for the theatricality typical of art-rock? Sure! The storyline came straight from the dream I mentioned before, so I told the story to the videographer, and he developed the scenes around that. Finding the location for the shooting was really really hard.
● Precisely because of the cinematic and original traits of your style, have you ever considered the hypothesis of proposing your music as a soundtrack for film or television works? Thank you so much for your sweet words! Yes, I would love to see my music as a soundtrack for a gothic horror romance. It’s already the soundtrack for my books, but having my music as the soundtrack of any movie of the genre would be a big honour!
● Would You like to say hello to the readers of verorock.it? Hello, beautiful readers of verorock.it! Nice to meet you all! I hope to see you along this wonderful musical journey!
Thank you for your kindness and availability Gabriëlle and see you soon for your new album. Thanks to you for the opportunity and space! I had a lovely time answering your questions.
