What Xandria created with their 2003 debut "Kill The Sun" seems to be the beginning of a long-term career, after the band already had caused a sensation in the underground scene with their Demo | 1997songs made public in the internet. Right away, the band attracted as many fans as to make the debut album enter the German Media Control charts. Afterwards, Xandria toured Germany. The second album "Ravenheart" hit the German charts on number 36 in 2004, remained there for several weeks and by far surpassed the success of the first piece of work. The "Ravenheart" video was played on music television and the press fell over themselves with enthusiasm. In summer 2004 the band for example played the main stages of "Summer Breeze Festival" and "Busan International Rock Festival" in South Korea - the biggest festival in South East Asia - and filled 30,000 spectators with enthusiasm.
What does makes up the immense fascination of the band? Lisa, Marco, Gerit, Philip and Nils unify modern rock with mystic soundscapes into a soundtrack of a different, really characteristic world. In Xandria's world, everyone is allowed to be as vulnerable as strong, to show feelings and to live all beautiful dreams which seem forbidden in the cold reality. "We want to give our audience courage - on their way back to everyday-life - to manage to also there stand for their feelings and to be strong enough to get through all pains and obstacles."
"India" is the new album of the band from Bielefeld, and it is offering several surprises: This time joining in are the "Deutsche Filmorchester Babelsberg" (engl.: the German movie soundtrack orchestra in Berlin), providing atmospheric moments, as well as an Irish folk band and guest appearances of Lyriel singer Jessica Thierjung and Grant Stevens from Australia. Nevertheless, it will not be completely different, of course. On this album, too, there is the combination of atmosphere and heaviness that is typical of Xandria - this time staged even better by means of a more powerful production. A concept in which India is a symbol for a goal you set yourself, provides the frame for the songs. But on your way you discover things in life that are far more fascinating, just like Columbus found America instead of India. Songs of dreamy atmosphere and heaviness, from orchestral soundtrack landscapes to a symbiosis of spacy sounds and hard guitar riffs - Xandria are true to their variability.
Xandria are on their way on an adventure trip to new musical worlds and they will take you along, if only you want to.
Already in the mid-nineties, there is a short-term predecessor of today's band Xandria. Inspired by bands like Tiamat and Paradise Lost, Marco Heubaum and a friend of his want to dare their first musical steps in the fascinating fields of hard metal sounds and atmospheric soundscapes. But due to different views on the musical orientation, the now completed band (including a female singer whom Marco - singer and guitar player - supported with some backing vocals) splits inDemo | 1997. As a result, Marco is honing his own musical vision for a while, before looking for musicians again.
1999 sees today's band in a rehearsal room, where Marco introduces his first songs for the project to the new Xandria line-up, consisting of Roland Krueger with his former colleagues of a just faded Bielefeld metal band. Among those songs are "Kill The Sun", "Casablanca" and "So you disappear", which came into being in its original version as early as 1994 as the first song of this musical journey.
2000 is the year that makes the project a real band, after five songs which had been recorded at a small studio had been presented to the public for the first time at the end of the year in the internet: On sites like "mp3.de" or "besonic.com", the songs of the Demo | 1997unexpectedly become the underground hits of the year, a huge fan base is growing very fast, among others, for example, in the U.S.A., too, through the site "mp3.com" - so much feedback could not remain without consequences, and Marco shaped the project into a real band. After two changes in line-up, the band now consists of Marco, Lisa, Gerit, Roland and Andy, Philip's predecessor, who is to join in as late as the year to follow. As an interesting background information it can be added that on the first Demo | 1997songs half of the vocals are provided by Marco himself, because the idea of using female vocals originally was thought for a few parts only, which became more and more as time went by. At first, only "Kill The Sun" was to be presented by a female voice - inspired by "Lady Rosenred", a song by the Swedish band Lake of Tears. But now Marco more and more derives pleasure from Lisa's vocal performance, and already on those songs written now in the new line-up (among those, for example, is "Ginger"), Marco is hardly to be found as a singer.
In 2001 the band is more and more well-known in the underground, and the band is booked for first small concerts. Also, first connections to the music business develop, among others to Udo Zimmer, later to become Xandria's manager, who actually detects the five-piece on one of those music community websites that established Xandria's popularity. Several labels come knocking at the door, things are getting more serious, and his musical studies in far Oldenburg force second guitar player Andy to decide against the band that is now working hard to be prepared for the step into a bigger public. Philip is looked for and found via ad in their home town Bielefeld, but Lisa and him find out that they already have been acquainted with each other.
2002 sees the band playing live gigs in the underground and working hard on new demos because Drakkar Records show interest and want to hear more from the band whose technical artistic standard of course has developed since the 2000 Demo | 1997recordings. Finally, Drakkar are convinced, the parties agree and sign the record deal in December - while the band is already working on the first longplayer with producer Dirk Riegner.
In 2003, eventually, it is time: "Kill The Sun" hits the stores in May and even enters the German album Top 100 - a remarkable success for a debut. After the band had already played several shows with Subway to Sally in spring, the first bigger tour is launched with Tanzwut. During these three weeks across Germany the band gains lots of new fans and parties extensively with them. After festivals like "Méra Luna" and another tour with the gothic band ASP, Xandria during the winter entrenched themselves in the studio again. The year so full of events has left its marks with many new ideas and thus Xandria do not want to wait with the second album, which now is taking shape in co-operation with the successful producer of Wolfsheim, José Alvarez-Brill, in his Belgian studio.
2004 starts with sad news for Xandria. because bassplayer Roland quits the band for professional reasons. The quest for a replacement begins, and after many auditions, finally, a successor is found in Nils Middelhauve. He is not unknown to the band, either: Several years ago, Lisa supported Nils' former band Visible Touch as a solo artist. They were also known by Marco, who had written on them in a local fanzine once. And so it could go on.
The second album "Ravenheart" hits the stores on May 24th, and turns out to be a surprise success: Top 40 in the German album charts, where the album remains for seven weeks. Xandria's first video shot for the song "Ravenheart" enjoyed high popularity with the TV watchers, for it had become a short film full of fantasy with many atmospheric pictures and as such stands out of the tiring clip standard. Meanwhile, Xandria has been heard of in the Far East as well and the band is invited to the biggest Open Air festival of South East Asia: The gig at "Busan International Rock Festival" becomes a real show highlight in front of 30,000 enthusiastic spectators.
After a show at "Summer Breeze Festival", the second video for the song "Eversleeping" is shot in an old castle near Berlin. The single - an E.P., actually, for it includes three new songs (among others a remake of a very old band song fromDemo | 1997, "So Sweet") - is released on October, 11th and remains in the charts for two weeks.
Afterwards, the band kicks off their first, much longed for headlining tour in November, together with Finnish bands Entwine and Lab as supporting acts, which is a hell of a fun to everyone and establishes the band as a premier live band. Especially the higher percentage of rock sound was appreciated by the fans, and thus this newly gained energy found its way into the new songs already being written. The band enters the studio for the first time in December to work on the successor of "Ravenheart".
The first half of 2005 sees the band without a break working in the studio and writing new songs. There are many new ideas, for example the co-operation with the famous German movie score orchestra "Deutsches Filmorchester Babelsberg" and an Irish folk band, to venture into new sound dimensions. After months of work, which forced much sweat, stress and many discussions from the band, the album is finished eventually. And it was worth working on: It surely is the most ambitious and mature piece of work so far. The claim to sound harder and more band-oriented was realized besides the typical soundscapes to the band's satisfaction. August, 22nd becomes the date of release.But before that, Nils and Lisa get married after having been a couple for almost one year, and thus the fans will not find a Lisa Schaphaus on the CD but a Lisa Middelhauve ...
(biographie and band history from official site)
