Artists like Enya, Delores O’Riordan (The Cranberries), and Kathrine Shepard — known as Sylvaine — exude beauty and serenity that reflect their Celtic influence. Combined with the nuances of metal, Sylvaine weaves a complete emotional escape in her music that is unique to her experience and one-of-a-kind personality.
Based in Norway, her music has a creative magic to it that befits a fantasy world beyond our earthly existence. Despite the frequent screams of black metal sprinkled into each album, melodic ambiance forms her overarching sound.
Shepard’s kind demeanor, as well as her bubbly personality, is quite the contrast to her music, which articulates sadness and introspection. She is complex, yet simple; honest, yet mysterious. It was a privilege to learn about her upcoming album, her inspiration as an artist, and what it is like to be human during seasons of brokenness and loss.
Before we get started, I know some artists even remotely associated to black metal prefer anonymity. Do you prefer to go by Kathrine or Sylvaine?
That’s the thing, you know. People call me Sylvaine; people call me Kathrine. I’m OK with both, actually.
Just so you know, I truly love your music. As a huge fan, I wanted to go over some of your history, your upcoming album, and you as a person.
Well, thank you so much, first and foremost. That’s so nice. It never gets old to hear that, so that’s super cool. Thank you for giving me the opportunity to speak to the readers of HM, as well.
You live in Oslo, Norway, correct?
I do. I’ve kind of been living back and forth between Oslo and Paris for a few years now. I’ve been stationed in Oslo since the pandemic hit.
Photo by: Daria Endresen
Why Paris?
Well, basically, I started out meeting musicians over there, so I kind of started building my live band there, because a lot of people move around the world for love, and I was not an exception. So, I started meeting a lot of musicians there. My label is there, so I have a lot of ties with friends. It just made sense for me to live there and stay there. But I’ve always been half between France and Norway and probably will be for the foreseeable future, as well.
You have released three albums and an EP thus far. The new record, Nova, is coming out in March. You’re also classically trained, which is so cool for a metal artist. Tell me about your classical background.
So, I basically went to three different music schools. I started in high school, because here in Norway, you can choose what direction you want to take in high school. I already knew that I wanted to do music, so I chose music for my high school direction, as well as this boarding school, that’s again a Norwegian thing that’s called a folk high school that you usually apply to between the end of high school and the beginning of university or college. It’s not really a gap year, but instead of a gap year, you can go and do a specific curriculum. I chose band, so it was still music.
Then, I finished with a bachelor’s degree in musicology from the University of Oslo. Throughout those years and a little bit before I had a singing teacher; I was classically trained from these different schools. It was really interesting because I have a classical background in terms of composition. When I write music, I sometimes score it out. In the very beginning, I was scoring out everything, which was very complicated when you are working with band music. I’m classically trained in vocals as well. I’m not an opera singer; I’m not trying to say that by any means, but I just have been trained with a classical background.
What instruments do you play?
The one that’s closest to my heart and I’ve been doing the longest, even from when I was a kid, is vocals. The first instrument that I got into was drums, because my dad is a drummer. He would bring me to rehearsals and let me bash around on his kit [Laughs]. I sing, I play guitar, I play bass, I play piano, and I also like to work with percussion, synthesizers, and electronic stuff. I’m not saying I’m the best in the world at any of those, but I can play them.
That’s amazing! Let’s pivot to your new album, Nova. I personally consider your music to be mystical, magical, heavy, and light. As the actual artist, how would you describe Nova?
I think Nova is a natural step and evolution from Atoms Aligned, Coming Undone. Every record is a natural progression from the previous record, and it’s the same with Nova. I think the idea that I had with Atoms Aligned, Coming Undone was pushing the boundaries further between the light and the dark, between the harsh and the atmospheric, the heavy and the melodic. It’s even more extreme on Nova. It has the heaviest song, which I just released, “Mono No Ware.” It is the most stripped-down thing that I ever did. It’s an album that is full of contrasts. Even the cover of the album is about a new beginning, but something is ending, so you always have a duality between the two ways of seeing things.
It’s a sad album; I’m not going to lie. It’s a sad record. I remember when I was making it, I was telling some people around, “This album is going to be dark.” But I listened to it the first time and I didn’t perceive it as dark and heavy, but more like, “That’s sad” [Laughs]. It’s full of balancing opposing forces and it’s a melancholy record.
“I believe the soul is a separate entity of our actual body. It comes from somewhere else; it’s not from this place. It is existing before and after we are born into this world.”
One thing I deeply enjoy about your previous albums is how they are very contemplative and introspective. For me, it’s not sad, but it causes me to examine myself as a spiritual being. What inspired this album?
Sylvaine as a project was basically an outlet for me to explore the thing that I can’t put into words, like an audio diary. Every album is frozen in time how I was feeling, who I was then, and what I was doing in my life. All the records are related to that spiritual severance; they all have that side of it. To make it short and sweet, I believe the soul is a separate entity of our actual body. It comes from somewhere else; it’s not from this place. It is existing before and after we are born into this world. Basically, when we are here in this “meat car,” if we can call it that [Laughs], and some of us really feel the issues of the disconnection of what you are in your energetic form versus what you are here, and being limited by the senses, being limited by the human system and the difficulties of that. That’s what started Sylvaine.
When I started writing my first album, Silent Chamber, Noisy Heart, it was a collection of songs that had been written for many years from when I was 16 up until I was 23 or something. It wasn’t as defined in the beginning; it was more like a soul-searching thing. As the years went by, it’s clear this is the main arch of the project.
Nova speaks about loss. It’s still connected to the spiritual side, and in this case, loss can be loss of connection with what we truly are. But at the same time, it’s also the most down-to-earth record I’ve ever had. I was going through some really heavy stuff in 2019 and 2020 that inspired me to write this record. And then, as we all know in 2020, the global situation went to shit, as well. So, at the same time I was going through my own personal chaos, and I felt like I lost complete control, then the world went into this state of turmoil, as well, so everyone had a kind of collective loss. It speaks about transitions — how nothing in life lasts forever. It always transcends and the beauty of that because it means that every time something is over you have a new chance, a new beginning; but it’s still heartbreaking to let go of things and even things you thought were super solid and were going to stay here forever, you can see fading away.
It was really strange how my personal situation coincided with the global situation, and it just made the record even more accessible to everyone, because everyone had a feeling of loss. It was a collective loss on a bigger or smaller scale for the last few years because of this pandemic.
I think the pandemic has influenced a lot of art. As for music, it’s going to be interesting to see the philosophy and the vibe that comes out of it. The happenings in the world often influence what we express in our art. As for your name, I know it was derived from the poet, Paul Verlaine. What is the connection there?
I was at university when I was recording my first record, and I hadn’t told anyone about it because I was sure I was going to fail. I’ve always had a great self-confidence when it comes to music [Laughs], so I didn’t tell anyone about it.
I remember sitting on the subway going through the studio sessions I had booked there at the university and testing out names. I knew from the beginning that this project was going to be about opposing forces, about dualling forces — light, dark. It’s something that attracted me in music since I was a teenager, so I knew that was going to go into Sylvaine as a project. I thought it would be cool to have something that is urban and something that is nature-based.
The first word that came to mind was “sylvan” because if I look out of my window, I can see one of the biggest forests of Oslo. Nature has been a big part of my life since I was a kid. I was born in the States, but I grew up here, so it’s been a really big influence on me as a person. I thought about “sylvan” because the word means something that pertains to the forest. There’s already a project called Sylvan and there are also a lot of projects that have derivatives of that word. I thought, “What if I try to mix that with something else?”
The urban side — even if it’s urban, it’s kind of like grandma-style [Laughs]. It’s like old poetry. I’m such a grandma. Poetry has been something that’s been inspiring me since I was a teenager, like a lot of the old French romantic poets, like a lot of the old English romantic poets, the American gothic writers, and stuff like that. I like the name Verlaine; in French, it’s beautiful. I like the way it looks when you write it. I just tried to adapt it and that’s how Sylvaine came out of it. I later discovered that it’s also a French name and it’s a butterfly too!
Photo by: Daria Endresen
How do you like working with your label, Season of Mist?
I have worked with Season for the last two albums and the upcoming one, as well. I think I signed a contract with them back in 2014 or 2015. At the time when I was signing for Wistful, I had like 5 different labels I was speaking to that were interested in the project. It became very clear right away that Season was the most serious about it. They were offering me a very good contract, they were vocal about the enthusiasm on the project, and they thought it could grow from where it was, so I decided to give them a shot and it’s been really, really good working with them. They’ve been a great label. They’ve been very open about how they work, which I know is not always the case. There’s no weird stuff happening in a corner somewhere. The people who are there at the moment are fantastic. They’re a great team to work with. They’ve done an excellent job for Nova so far and it’s not even released yet!
You announced your upcoming tour in North America, which I noticed is coming through Charlotte, which is where I’m located. I am definitely planning on being there!
Very cool. I look forward to seeing you in Charlotte. We have been asked so much in the last few years when we are coming to North America. Being a band that is stationed in Europe, moving over to the U.S. takes a bit more than doing a European tour, so it’s taken us a few years since we’ve gotten to that spot. Once again, this was because of Season of Mist, because of their North American division, which has been so supportive of Sylvaine for the last few years. We really can’t believe we got this opportunity for our very first tour in North America. It’s pretty amazing to go with such a great band like Amorphis and Hoaxed, as well. I know COVID is an issue and we’re just going to have to see what happens there, but I can’t tell you how much I’m crossing my fingers that this happens, because it would be so fun to meet the people in North America and to play for them.
Outside of music, who are you?
One thing I know that I get a lot when I meet people after shows and with people who I meet in general is that they describe me as a positive and bubbly person, which is kind of funny considering my music is rather introspective, or some people might perceive it as sad or dark. I think I am a positive person. I think I’ve been a person my whole life who is not jaded. That makes life much more colorful, so I think that as I grow older, I’ve been able to keep that childlikeness. I like to explore as children would do.
When there are heavy things to deal with, I tend to internalize it or put it into my music, so people don’t see that side of me very often. Otherwise, I’m a very spiritual person; that’s something that’s very important to me. And when I say spiritual I don’t mean organized religion, but my own spiritual reality. Because of that, I led myself into yoga, so that’s also a big part of my life and how I connect with spirituality. I’m very much a caregiver type; I really love to make people happy. That sounds really stupid to it say like that. I think that’s what I like the most in life — when I can see that what I’m doing is benefiting someone else, whether it’s music, or it’s classes that I’m giving, or random acts.
That’s not stupid at all. For the last, fun question: how can fans best support you?
I feel extremely lucky that I have the best fans ever. I get that question a lot. I think it’s not an easy answer, because all the options that are available financially always come with some kind of compromise. I think one of the best things people can do is to share the music. If you really like something, tell a friend, tell someone else, share it with people. Even if there’s only one other person who listens to you, that’s amazing. That’s how art travels around and how we reach people.
And then when it comes to the financial side, I think anything helps at this point. Because of COVID obviously, we all lost our income from the live aspect of things. The actual sales of merch went up quite a bit, even though people were using their cash elsewhere, which I thought was very kind. Going to shows also helps. If you have a favorite record, buy it instead of just having it on streaming platforms. Still stream it. You can’t get away from it; we’re in a streaming society. But the fact of the matter is that the way the artists are taken advantage of is insane. So, if you really love something, share it, and think about getting a copy of that record. That’s probably the best way.
You can follow Sylvaine on Instagram, Facebook, and Bandcamp.
