Interview with Tillian & Album Review
By Zohar Belkin
- Prologue
Tillian is a female fronted progressive rock band from Israel, with a wide musical scope ranging from epic rock/metal orchestrations to intimate ballads with deeply touching lyrics.
The journey began in 2014 when singer-songwriter Leah Marcu started working on a solo album, drawing from her personal turmoil as well as her background in psychology and mysticism. By 2017 the solo project transformed into a band of 7 members, forming an active musical clan that piqued the curiosity of the local scene with its single releases and theatrical live shows. This enabled Tillian to cultivate a growing fanbase and social media presence while finishing the production of the album.
- Lotus Graveyard
The album “Lotus Graveyard” is a 11 piece, 50 minutes long masterpiece created by the members of TILLIAN, in the leadership of LEAH MARCU – The result is not other than Amazing. The songs are built well, and the production is sharp and supreme.
Through the 50 minutes TILLIAN takes you through a musical journey to the beautiful realms of Progressive Rock, filled in with a lot of Progressive Metal attributes, and the female delicate singing makes this album burst with musical colorfulness, and heavily emotional lyrics makes it a perfect Progressive album – that even not big prog fans can relate to and like.
The association between the instruments is also very good – the instruments blend all-together well, and the Cello and the Keyboards are implied perfectly into the songs, bringing out new harmonies and musical lines that enrich the listeners experience.
Overall, I give this album a 10 out of 10. This is one of the best releases of the last years from Israel, and this band has a huge potential to thrive and become international.
- We know that TILLIAN was started as your solo project. What made it evolve into a band?Being in a band is in my roots. I had one throughout my teens and into the 20’s, fell in love with the dusty-metallic smell of rehearsal rooms and the post-gig glow (or depression). Then came a busy time with life, career and all that stuff, but I was still writing music and wanted to create something out of it. Along came Ciro, the producer of ‘Lotus Graveyard’ and we started working in the studio. But the urge to form Tillian as a band was always there, I yearned for the warm familiarity of a musical clan, creating, exploring and working together. Managing a band DIY style is not easy, but I was lucky to join forces with my awesome bandmates.
- Are you planning on touring with the album?
Yes, since the release of the album we had a great debut show in Tel-Aviv and also recently featured in a local metal festival. We are actively looking for opportunities to play shows abroad, sending promos to venues and festivals.
- Tell us about the band members – do they have any other projects?
Yes, and quite varied ones! For example Alex our cellist is playing with a popular orchestra that does a fusion of eastern and western music. On the other hand, Alon, our bass player rocks out with ‘The Prowlers’, an Iron Maiden tribute band and also ‘Romuvos’, a Viking folk metal band. Our guitar player Opher was in the progrock band ‘Solstice Coil’ and also in a Muse tribute band.
MHF Magazine/Zohar Belkin
