Phantom Elite are a Brazilian/Dutch Metal band. Encyclopaedia Metallum lists 2016 as the founding year. The band was founded by Sander Gommans (ex-After Forever) to bring the music of his project “HDK” live on stage. He sought and found young musicians and turned his dream into reality. However, he himself was obviously never a member of the band. I was able to see the singer of the band, Marina La Torraca, live for the first time in 2017, as one of the four front ladies of Exit Eden. The debut “Wasteland” was released in the same year. The melodic metal with a lot of progressive elements impressed me from the beginning. And in 2018 I had the pleasure of seeing the band live on stage at FemME in Eindhoven. Recently, the follow-up “Titanium” was released. So, I curiously asked singer Marina about it.
MHF: Hi, I’m Rainer and I write for Metalheads Forever Magazine. Thank you very much for letting me do this interview with you. How are you?
I am doing well, thank you so much. Hope you’re well too!
MHF: Yes, thanks. Please introduce the band briefly.
Phantom Elite is a, let’s say, modern metal band with touches of symphonic, progressive, and alternative. Not being afraid of experimenting and setting a high bar is our motto. ????
MHF: Sander Gommans founded the band a few years ago. How did the contact with him happened?
I learned Sander and Amanda Somerville (his wife) many years ago, during the vocal recordings of an album for a veeery old band of mine. A couple years later I contacted him asking if he knew a band for me to sing, and we actually started PE together from there on!
MHF: Do I understand correctly that Sander is/was not a regular member of the band, but has always supported and promoted the band?
Yep, that’s right! In “Wasteland” he was also a key songwriter. Now we are taking over the writing and he’s more in the overview and executive production side of things.
MHF: The Encyclopaedia Metallum describes your music as Symphonic Metal. In my opinion, that is only half the truth. How would you describe your sound?
Well, like I said before, I don’t think we’re very symphonic at all. 😀 It’s hard for us also to put our sound into only one category. It’s more of a modern mix of metal sub-genres.
MHF: Do you have any musical role models?
Absolutely! There endless artists I personally admire, but to name a few: Amanda and Sander for their loyalty, professionalism and balance in family vs. work life; Periphery for being not only a super creative band, but also for its top notch musicianship and out-of-the-box thinking business wise; Gojira and Meshuggah for their live commitment; Andre Matos (RIP) has always inspired me for his musicianship, creativity, and for being a fellow countryman; Gerard Way from MCR for being almost like a Renaissance artist; and the list goes on and on. ????
MHF: Marina, you are from Brazil (Sao Paulo), but now you live in Germany, where it is much colder. What made you move from South America to Europe?
Haha, yes, it’s definetly colder. I actually came to Germany to learn some German (I had spared some money that would be enough for 2 months, haha). That turned into an exchange program with a German university, which changed into me finding work here, which changed into me staying here! It snowballed and it wasn’t planned at all.
MHF: The band members live in different countries. How difficult is it to work together?
Oh, Joeri lives with me, so that makes everything easier. ???? Max and Siebe can easily come over for meetings, or we can go meet them. We’re not more than a couple hours away from each other by car. And Sander is practically a city-neighbor!
MHF: You recorded “Titanium” during the Corona pandemic. How difficult was the production during that time?
The whole lockdown and special rules started when we were finishing the recordings, thank goodness. So, we dodged the bullet there. The only thing is that I had to finish recording some vocals at home with a blanket over my head, but nothing too horrible.
MHF: In the album booklet all musicians are listed as composers. How do you go about songwriting? Do you write the songs together in the studio or do you rather use electronic media?
Yep, that’s right. We use mostly electronic media, either all together at the same studio, or dancing with back and forth of files, which is way more practical – especially nowadays. Our guitarist Max wrote most of the instrumentals this time and he’s already very production-oriented in the process of writing, so it makes more sense to write like this.
MHF: In the list of producers, you can read many well-known names. How did this collaboration work out?
Well, Sander co-produced with us – which was great and brought the songs to the next level in terms of structure or commerciality of the tracks, and Amanda did an amazing job in guiding and recording my vocals, bringing all vocal lines and backing vocals to the next level. Hannes Braun performed his magic in the mixing of it all, and Jacob Jansen mastered the album. A hell of a good team, and it definitely added a lot to the final product!
MHF: The lyrics are written by Marina. What topics do you write about and where do you get the inspiration for this?
“Titanium” is very much about finding strength in hard times and keeping the fight going (who knew it would be such a good fit with what the world is going through right now). I have an overall tendency of writing about introspective and personal themes, but in this album it was more intentional. The inspiration came really from inside and from things we had to go through together as a band in order to keep going.
MHF: Marina, you presented the songs of the album for your patron already one day before the release. What was it like to meet your fans in a video chat? How important is contact with the fans to you?
Oh, it was just lovely! I would have loved to have a live party release (it was all planned!). Next time, for sure! ????
The listeners and the contact with them give me pretty much the energy I need to keep doing what I do. That’s exactly what I like so much about being in a band (as opposed to being a theater/show singer), and more specifically about the metal scene.
MHF: There are four years between “Wasteland” and “Titanium”. How do the two albums differ from each other?
That much? Theoretically only 3, haha. Well, it’s practically a different band. Only Sander and I are “left” from the first line-up, so obviously that influences the music. For example “Wasteland” is more proggy, and “Titanium” is more modern and heavy. I also think we learned from our past mistakes and therefore were able to make some decisions that improved the overall result.
MHF: But between “Wasteland” and “Titanium” there are also various changes in the line-up. The only constant is the singer. Are such changes rather a burden or do they inspire the work?
Yep. ???? Changing line up is never easy, but this one was for the absolute best – without diminishing the ex-bandmembers, of course! I just mean that we found ourselves a little group of like-minded people that we are happy to call a family (which is for me, at this height of my career, the MOST important thing, can’t stress this enough). It took a while to learn how to work with each other, but we’re on a very good path. I really hope this constellation goes on as fruitful and promising as it is!
MHF: Do you already have plans for the time after the pandemic?
Oh, absolutely! We’re working on material to promote “Titanium” further, and at the same time having our eyes on touring AND new songs.
MHF: Thank you again for the interview. Do you want to say something to the fans at the end?
Thank you so much! Stay tuned for all things PE on our social media. And if you’re insterested in what I’m up to, feel free to follow me/join my Patreon community as well. ???? I’ll have some pretty cool news to share throughout the year! See y’all around!
Phantom Elite are:
Marina La Torraca – Vocals,
Max van Esch – Guitars, Bass
Joeri Warmerdam – Drums
Koen Stam – Keyboards
