August 18, 2014 interview

 

Chrigel with joiz.ch  RE: Origins.  Excerpts Transcribed from the subtitled videos at the bottom

 

In the end we focus ourselves on the celtic history and culture.  And we did it again on this album...

 

I find, We deal with history and when you do that you owe it to history that you do it adequately.  You owe it to the people of the past that it’s correct.  Imagine if someone in a thousand years writes something about you and doesn’t do his research properly.. and writes total bullshit about you?...

 

How shall I put it?  We actually work very scientific.  Especially with ‘Origins’,  that was pure science and a lot of hard work for the text.  And at times it is really dry.  But, how shall I say it, in that part of the work it’s all about the content and facts.  But with those facts the text actually happens and that text can be personal and emotionally marked.  And I think that’s important, how shall I say it,  I mean I don’t want to give a history lesson with my texts.  If you want to learn about the history, then go into a library or study but you don’t have to buy an Eluveitie album!...  

 

But with my texts I try to give history a bit of emotions.   That’s also something, that apart from the historic soundness which is something I think belongs into a song.  I also think that whenever you look into history it’s important that you never forget that especially when you take a look at history which lies further back than 200 years, it’s always so objectified.  You read of wars and it’s always talked about so objectively because you can’t relate to it, but in the end they were people like you and me.  With feelings and dreams and everything!  There are personal fates that happened there.  And that’s something you always have to remind yourself about when working with history.   And that’s why I try to do with my texts, so I don’t think it’s a contradiction with science. 

 

[In the research you did, a lot of emotional and spiritual facts are missing.  They were very hard to figure out?]

 

The thing is that the Celts wrote normally as any other population, but never when it was about spiritual things...

 

Because they have the belief because of the druids who taught that..That it, how shall I say it, isn’t good or unmoral if you write down spiritual facts.  Because of two reasons.  Firstly they said, these things we have to know.  You have to have it in your heart and not look it up in a book.  And secondly, the things have to stay flexible and alive.  And when you write it down, then it’s captured.  A religious belief becomes a dogma. And they wanted to prevent that.  And for that reason they didn’t write down any spiritual or mythological.   And because of that one only knows the things out of second or third hand.  Thanks to atic history writers, mostly from Greece or Rome that doesn’t make it easy to buy a lie...  

 

If ever a Greek scientist ever went to Gaul and wrote down what he saw, then he wrote something about a culture that was unfamiliar to him.  And you have these kinds of situations today too and you know that it’s different to every person.  If you send ten Swiss guys to Africa to a Suaheli tribe then you’ll get ten different images of that tribe.  Everyone describes it differently.  It was like that then as well.  And so if you now have a text about the Celts from a Greek scientist then you first have to look at that scientist.  When did he live?  What education?  What kind of cultural surroundings.  That started off with political motivated things right up to some kind of career things.  Any kind of Greek philosopher who wanted a career and profile themselves in front of an audience by telling a lot of exotic things.  And it’s stuff like that you have to look at.   And one day you manage to somehow get a half realistic image.