END OF THE DREAM

“Our ambition is to reach as many people as possible”

End Of The Dream is a female fronted metal band hailing from Den Bosch (NL). The band was formed by singer Micky Huijsmans, guitar picker/keyboarder Armen Shamelian and guitar player Robin van Ekeren. In 2015 End Of The Dream self-released their debut album `All I Am’ and the CD got great reviews. A month ago the band released their follow up album `Until You Break’ and now is the time to talk with vocalist Micky about that new album and their future plans

The new album is called `Until You Break’, could you please tell me what the main differences between your debut and the new album are?
,,I think the difference between the two is quiet prominent. We have matured as individuals but also as musicians. I think our producer Joost [van den Broek] picked up on that and pushed us even further.’’

Joost was there right from the start this time, was that planned and how was the cooperation this time. Why is Joost the right producer for End Of The Dream?
,,This was definitely planned. For our first record we had already written the songs and we only recorded the drums in the studio. But for the new album `Until You Break’ we wanted to take it a step further by involving Joost in the writing process and by recording almost everything in the studio. We wanted to work with him again because he always delivers top quality products; it’s that simple in fact. Besides that he really knows how to make everyone feel comfortable in the studio, so they can perform their best.’’

Could you enlighten us about the title of the new album?
,,It’s the title of one of the songs just like on our previous album `All I Am’. We chose this one because we think `Until We Break’ as a song represents this album and our growth the best. I also think it fits well with the previous album title.’’

Your new album contains a couple of great, melodic tracks, what is your favourite song of the album at this moment?
,,My absolute favourite right now is the song ,,I Am Nothing’’, because I think it stands out from the rest of the album. We performed it live at our release show and I totally loved performing it. ,,I Am Nothing’’ just has something sad, desperate and dramatic which I really love. Another great song is ,,The Heart In Me’’, that is just really nice to perform live as well, but for different reasons. That song sends so much energy to the listeners and that is amazing to witness on stage.”



Armen writes all of the lyrics, do you not have the “ambition” to write lyrics for the band, as you have to sing the stuff?
,,I would love to, I already write lyrics for other projects I am working on and I definitely want to do it for End Of The Dream as well. The same goes for the vocal parts in general. I understand that it seems a bit weird for a singer not to write their own lyrics and vocal parts, but to understand that you must know how Armen writes an End Of The Dream song. He doesn’t necessarily start with a guitar riff; he has something in mind, which usually revolves around the vocals. So that is why it is not really easy to change the writing process and involve other people of the band into that process. But it is something I would really like to experiment with in the future.’’

Your voice, which by the way sounds like Simone Simons and Marcela Bovio, has improved again on this new album. What do you do to keep your voice in good shape and to improve your vocal performance?
,,I have never heard the comparison with Marcela actually, but thanks for that! I am doing a music study in The Netherlands called The Metal Factory where she and loads of other amazing skilled musicians teach. This definitely helped me a lot. I have been doing music full time for the past two years now; whether it is the business side of the music industry or learning how to write songs. I pretty much sing and practice every day, so that is how I keep everything in condition.’’

Did you have singing lessons or are you an auto-didactic?
,,I have had singing lessons almost every week since I was 13 years old and I have had three teachers so far. My first four years I had pop/rock training and after that I switched to classical music from a different teacher. As I said before I now have singing lessons from Marcela Bovio.’’

You now have a new drummer, Pim Geraets, why did Pieter leave the band?
,,Sometimes I forget that Pim is not on the first record, laughing… Pieter quit the band right after the recording of `All I Am’. He was working really hard on his career and worked so many hours a week that he didn’t feel like he had time and energy left for the band. There were absolutely no hard feelings whatsoever. Pieter even came to the release show for `Until You Break’, so that was really nice.’’

The name of the band has something to do with Dream Theater and Evanescence, or am I completely off track here?
,,When we were searching for a name of the band we had a really hard time finding something that would fit our musical style and did not really exist already. I was looking through our lyrics to find something and later I was looking through other band’s lyrics. Nothing quite seemed to fit until I came up with the idea of using a title from an Evanescence song called ,,End Of The Dream’’. It just fit the atmosphere very well, so we decided to go with that.’’



What are musically speaking your main influences, or in other words, what are your musical heroes or role models?
,,I do not think it can be narrowed down like that actually. Our influences can vary so much. From Michael Jackson to Bring Me The Horizon and from Mariah Carey to Evanescence. I think you can create the most original music by listening to stuff that is not the genre that you are in with your band.’’

What is your ambition?
,,Our ambition is to reach as many people as possible. I love to perform and be on tour. We have done some tours last year and in those relatively short periods of time you learn so many things about yourself, but also about your music and people in general.”

Future plans?
,,For now we have some shows in The Netherlands and Germany, but in the long run we are looking at some really awesome stuff. Unfortunately I cannot spill the tea on that one [laughing…].”

Well, that is indeed rather unfortunate, as we would love to know about that “awesome stuff”…. Thanks for your time.
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