RUUD JOLIE (Guitarist Within Temptation & Maiden UniteD)

“I am 100% happy with all 12 songs on my new album.”

Six years ago For All We Know, the “side” project of Within Temptation guitar picker Ruud Jolie, released their debut album. Now `Take Me Home’, the second album of For All We Know is recently released. Jolie worked closely together with vocalist Wudstik to create this new album and the band still consists of the same musicians as on the debut. The song ,,We Are The Light’’ is the first single of the album and that one features Anneke van Giersbergen as guest vocalist.

Ruud, could you please tell something about the title of the new album to start with?
,,When I was writing most of the lyrics for this album I was going through some sort of a depression and that was a tough time, but I did a lot of things to fight it, such as lots of walks in the woods, meditation and sports. Of course writing lyrics also helped a lot as well as some sort of therapy. The title ‘Take Me Home’ means for me, getting back to my normal self. I am almost home again at this moment, so…”

Is that the reason why it took you so long to make a new album?
,,Well, yes, but it is also rather simple actually. I am not making money from All We Know, so I cannot focus on it for a 100%. Furthermore I released two albums with my Iron Maiden acoustic project and two albums with Within Tempation in the meantime and some other stuff as well. I toured a lot with both bands and besides that I am absolutely not easily satisfied when it comes to writing music and lyrics, so it usually takes rather long.”

What are the main differences between the debut album and `Take Me Home’?
,,I think this album has more extremes, meaning: soft songs are really soft, like ,,Some Will’’, and heavy songs like ,,Prophets In Disguise’’ are really heavy. And I think this album sounds more positive, it is still heavy, but not angry heavy all the time. I read a review somewhere that stated that `Take Me Home’ is an easy listening album. Well, I do not agree with that at all. There is some pretty heavy stuff on the album as well.”



The first single is ,,We Are The Light’’, why did you pick that one?
,,I think that song perfectly reflects what the sound of For All We Know on this album is all about; heavy but with a positive vibe! Furthermore there are a lot of dynamics in the mid-section of ,,We Are The Light’’ and of course the fact that Anneke van Giersbergen sings on it does not really hurt either, marketing-wise speaking and thinking.”

Why did you choose Anneke to perform on this track?
,,The debut album had a lot of guests artists like Sharon Den Adel, Daniel Gildenlöw (Pain Of Salvation), John Wesley and Richie Faulkner (Judas Priest). This time I wanted the new album to be more of a band effort. But during the recordings of this song Wudstik stopped mid-sentence and spoke into the microphone: “You know who would sound great on this song together with me?” Well, you can guess who he meant, hahaha….”

Would you consider that song to be radio friendly?
,,Huhm……depends on which radio… I do not think it is mainstream though. On the other hand anything could become mainstream. One example: I think it was in the year 2003 or something and Within Temptation played at the TMF Awards in Belgium. There were a lot of boy bands and pretty boy/girl “one day fly” singers AND Slipknot was there. During the shows all the 14-year-old boys and girls were singing along with every band, not only the boy bands and us, but they also knew all the words from that Slipknot song. That just proved to me that if you present any song or band on a silver platter on TV or radio people will eventually like it.”



The artwork is from the Colombian artist Ana Correal, could you please tell something about that?
,,The artwork features the same surreal character from the debut album. He is on stage in an old theatre surrounded by clouds and next to him hang two windows, one green with nature and the other one with a grey dark city, which is the same city as the one on the debut cover being Bogota of course. But he is holding another sort of window, which radiates just light. His mind is made of stone and is crumbling and the debris is floating away.”

Could you please give a short comment on all of the 12 tracks of Take Me Home?
Breathe In: ,,This serves as an intro for the record and has a very uplifting vibe. It is actually a re-arrangement of a piece of music I wrote for my goddaughter’s first birthday. We gave her a short movie with footage from her first year and I wrote the music for it. When Wudstik heard it he got the idea to have it as the intro for the new album.’’
Take Me Home: ,,The title track. Pretty much about believing in yourself and staying close to yourself. A pretty heavy but “happy” heavy song as opposed to “angry” heavy. If you know what I mean, [laughing]…’’
Fade Away: ,,For FAWK this one is a pretty straightforward song, until you listen to the vocals, [laughing]…’’
They’ll Win: ,,A very atmospheric and dark song. No guitars until the end, so this will be my beer intake song in case we will do live shows.’’
Let Me Fly: ,,This song could have been on the debut album I guess. It is acoustic with a heavy mid-section. A very therapeutic song lyric wise.’’
The Big Wheel: ,,The working title of this song was ,,Mind’s Eye’’ and this song is written for 80% by Wudstik. He sent me a demo one day and I took it apart and made into this.’’
Breathe Hold: ,,The synthesizer’s intro was something Wudstik came up with but he didn’t think much of it. But when I heard it I could pretty much instantly hear the melody, so we used it. It works as a segue for the next song.’’
Colours: ,,A pretty frantic song drum wise, Leo did an amazing job.’’
We Are The Light: ,,Features the great Anneke as we already talked about that.’’
Some Will: ,,The softest song we ever recorded. There is a video on You Tube that shows Wudstik and me play a bit of this song and the video ends with new album 2014 or something…, well that didn’t happen, hahaha…’’
Prophets In Disguise: ,,Maybe the heaviest one on the album, Wudstik is even doing some grunting here. He wrote the lyrics for this one because I was completely drained by then.’’
Breathe Out: ,,A very personal track for me. The outro has a feel good vibe though it is really heavy. By the way, there are some references in the artwork and there are also quite some musical references to the first album. Some melodies or riffs might sound familiar, not because I didn’t have enough inspiration but it is something I like in film music; the same melody can have a completely different vibe with a completely different arrangement. I tried to achieve something like that as well.”



What is your favourite track so far?
,,That changes every day. I am 100% happy with all 12 tracks!”

Could you please describe the sound of your music to an alien?
,,Not really, but I would advise them to listen to it while probing the next human….”

Any plans for a DVD?
,,Naaaaaaaaaaaah, no one buys DVDs anymore.”

Touring plans?
,,Yes, we are thinking of doing some shows next year. I will keep you guys posted.”
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Header photo by Lars Griemelijkhuijsen

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