With DEAR MOTHER’s 2021 debut album ‘Bulletproof’, Merel Bechtold could finally show the world what she has to offer creatively. It showed her finally making the music she wanted to make herself rather than being an, admittedly busy, touring guitarist. This week, there finally is a follow-up in the shape of the surprisingly heavy EP ‘Necessary Darkness’.

“This is the first time for me that I am actually writing a follow-up to something”, Bechtold explains. “I was so happy with ‘Bulletproof’, and I had the idea that it wasn’t possible to do much better than that. ‘Bulletproof’ was actually an album I have listened to a lot myself. That might be a weird thing to say, but that was exactly what the purpose of the album was: to write music I would want to listen to myself.

However, if you listen to your own stuff a lot, that doesn’t really inspire you to make something new. So then it became a matter of deciding whether we were going to do the same thing or maybe try something else. It took quite some time for us to find out what it was that we wanted to do in the future.

Also, when we put together the setlist for our first concerts, we noticed that our set had quite a large number of relatively soft songs. If you play live, you want to be able to put your foot on the gas every once in a while. So that’s why I thought: let’s just write a bunch of heavier songs.

‘Bulletproof’ was relatively easy to write once we had figured out what it was going to be. When you are writing a follow-up, you really want it to be just as good, if not better. That creates quite a bit of pressure and I noticed I found that very difficult to deal with. Meanwhile, we have written a couple of songs for the following album, and I am trying to let go of expectations. I think that is an important thing to do when you make music for yourself.”

Experiment

The creation of ‘Necessary Darkness’ itself also posed a number of challenges. “We have recorded the tracks one song at a time”, Bechtold explains. “Written a song, recorded it, then released it. Quite a strange way to do things, but it was something we wanted to try. It really was just an experiment. But I would not recommend it. I’m not going to do it this way ever again, because it is quite exhausting. Especially when it comes to arranging songs. By the time the song is mixed, I have already put so much energy into it that I don’t really feel like starting work on the next song right away. It wasn’t exactly the most efficient process.”

Also, working with initial producer Kellen McGregor proved quite difficult. “We just wanted to try something else this time around”, Bechtold says. “But we realized quite quickly that it wasn’t a great match. I edit and produce everything myself, but when I sent that to him, I was already told that it had not been quantized. But that was exactly the idea; that is the way we recorded the guitars and bass.

In the end, he did quantize it and as a result, you can hear that all the dynamics have gone. On the other hand, we try to work with that guy for what he can do. So if we start suggesting loads of alterations ourselves, I don’t think we fully utilize his strengths as a producer.

We had already recorded a bass part for ‘Threads’, but Kellen really wanted midi bass. I have to say that it does make quite a big difference within his production style, so I can understand his preference for midi bass. But for us as musicians, it wasn’t very satisfying. It was an experiment, we tried, and now we know it doesn’t work for us. That is why we started working with Mantis Audio again, with whom we recorded ‘Bulletproof’ and ‘Wildfire’, for the last song ‘Delusion’.”

Experience

Another experiment on ‘Necessary Darkness’ is the fact that Bechtold can be heard as a singer for the first time ever, on ‘Delusion’. “It wasn’t supposed to be that way”, she says apologetically. “Because I can’t sing at all. For that bridge, I had a vocal melody that was a variation on the current chorus, with the idea that David (Pear, singer) would record it. But it was too high for David, so that’s when we came up with the idea to ask a guest vocalist for the song.

Ultimately, it turned out that we were a bit too late for that, as apparently, it’s not possible to get someone for that at a week’s notice. And we also didn’t want to ask someone from the symphonic metal scene, because we are trying to do something very different with DEAR MOTHER. So David suggested: why don’t you sing it?

I did not want to do that at all, but there was no time to find anyone else, so I called Marcela (Bovia, singer of Stream Of Passion and Dark Horse | White Horse): ‘Marcela, could you please help me?’ So she has coached me.

Singing is something completely different than what I’m used to. You just feel so naked. Especially if you never sing. I have never even been inside a karaoke bar, because it scares me to death and I know it won’t be good. But Marcela said: there’s only one way to do this, and that’s at the top of your lungs. Quite an experience, I can tell you…”

Another first for Bechtold is the fact that she has contributed to writing the vocal melodies on ‘Necessary Darkness’. “Usually, I give David complete freedom to come up with his own vocal melodies”, she emphasizes. “But since we got a little stuck this time around, I have written the choruses for ‘Unbreakable’ and ‘Threads’. And the verses for ‘Delusion’. It was the first time I got involved with the vocals. But I noticed that we needed each other for that this time around.”

Lock

‘Bulletproof’ was recorded as a three-piece, with Bechtold recording all the guitar parts. When the time came to actually play the material live, there was only one guitarist she could think of to be at her side in DEAR MOTHER: Ferry ‘Punto’ Duijsens, best known for playing with Ayreon, Anneke van Giersbergen and Dreadlock Pussy.

“Ferry and I lock really well together”, Bechtold explains. “On a personal level as well. That is exactly why I picked him, as that personal aspect is at least as important in this band as the musical aspect. I have experienced how different that can be, but also how to do it well.

The Gentle Storm, for instance, was a lovely group of people. I really enjoyed my time with that band. In fact, that band more or less became the inspiration for what I wanted DEAR MOTHER to be on a personal level. A band in which everything just works well, in which clear communication plays a big role and everyone can do what they feel like.”

Outside of the band, there is another important person for DEAR MOTHER: “I always let my mother listen to everything I write. And then I watch her while she’s listening, how she reacts to it. She will say it when a part goes on too long. She isn’t very musical at all, so she has a completely different musical experience than I do. That is always a good test, so I always let her check everything first. After that, I will tweak a few things and send it to David, so he can start working on it.”