I recently spoke with EPICA vocalist Simone Simons about the band’s new double live album, The Classical Conspiracy. An excerpt is available below, with Simons discussing the band’s set list for the one-off show featuring a full orchestra and choir backing them up…
“We had to decide which classical songs we were going to play, and which Epica songs would be in the set. Oliver (Palotai / KAMELOT keyboardist) arranged the Epica songs for the orchestra we were going to play with, so it was a big job. We were in Hungary for a week to rehearse, so it was a lot of work, and for me the show itself was really stressful because we had a rehearsal on the same day at 10:00am and then the show in the evening. It was a really long show – one hour of classical music, one-and-a-half hours of Epica – and I was nervous because normally I perform with backing tracks, and they never make mistakes. Now I was working with a choir, which of course isn’t perfect, so it felt a little bit different because the rock I normally leaned on had changed, if you know what I mean.”
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