Behind the Scenes of our official photoshoot for Pirates! (Patreon)

Hello me Hearties!

Today I wanna share with you some exclusive pictures from our photoshoot for Pirates! 🏴‍☠️

We are currently posting these pictures on our social media and I thought it's about time that I tell you a bit more about this project!

So! It's during the songwriting process of "Pirates" that we decided to go all in with the pirate theme. If you've been following VOA since 2018, you know that we have been flirting with this universe for quite some time. Don't you remember the members of Ye Banished Privateers featuring in the video for "The Deep & The Dark" ? Haven't you listened to the song called "The Silent Mutiny" from the same record? ;)

If it would have been up to me our band would have been a pirate band since I joined late 2013! As I was going to write lyrics for the band, I had to make its universe my own. I had to find my way and visions to draw inspiration from. So I worked on my own idea of the band's visual and lyrical universe. VOA always had an ocean related imagery which I loved and wanted to keep. Then I considered the metal aspect. Metalheads often live in an unconventional way, rejecting the mainstream world. And there is something quite rebellious about me too. So I was asking myself....who are the rebels of the ocean?!...The Pirates!! It was crystal clear to me! But back then, Thomas, our drummer and band leader, wasn't convinced by the idea, didn't know how we could make pirates look cool and serious and I hadn't gained his trust about my ability to create all of this, so we dropped the idea. 😔
It was a real bummer for me as I knew it would have helped us become more recognizable and more unique, but I had to let it go.

So you can imagine how happy I was when our producer supported this idea for this record and when Thomas changed his mind!! 🤩 It made sense as our songs got darker and heavier, that our visual universe followed the mood and got darker too.

Right in the middle of the song-writing process, this concept was finally adopted (yaaayy!!). It made it so much easier for me to picture us, to write the rest of the lyrics and some of our video scripts! I could unleash my creativity and have some visual fantasies come true! (Yes acting on a pirate ship was part of them haha!)

But let’s come back to the first project, the PHOTOSHOOT. I had to create a pirate image for VOA, from scratch, that would be obviously pirate-ish and yet personal, credible and matching with the symphonic metal world. If pirates wear some colors due to getting or stealing clothes here and there, I wanted us all dressed in black. I wanted the unity, classiness and seriousness of the black color. I worked many hours with Sophia to design the clothes, find the fabrics in order to create homogeneous yet different outfits! The shoes are also custom made. Meek found an amazing Italian shoemaker who could make the perfect long lasting pirate boots the guys needed! When it comes to my boots, I found a great pair from an online second hand store! (Yes, Vinted hehe!).

It was finally time to take our pictures. We knew we wanted to do this in a studio, not in an outdoor place like we did for “Wanderers” as we wanted the result to be in line with the mood of our cover artwork. Shooting outdoor at night in winter would have been a bit too challenging (this was before we shot the “Melancholy Angel” video 😅...I will post about this shooting soon!)! So, we went for a green screen shooting, planning to add background elements in the post production!

It was right in the middle of January 2022, and we struggle to find a studio in Austria. We have the chance that Meek works in a nice creative complex in Udine and we could get the photo studio there right on time!

We chose to do these pictures with Stefan Heilemann for he’s very creative and experienced shooting bands. I invite you to check his work here! 

The clothes wouldn’t have been enough without the right accessories! I went shopping many times in second hand stores to find the stock of belts and jewels that would complete our looks!

We also did our best to find the most pirate-looking blades, swords and guns, very aware that we created some anachronisms along the way haha! But it was never my intention to make us historically relevant anyway. I wanted to create a phantasy, imaginary pirate universe for VOA!

We also needed props! I didn’t know how much could be done and how good it could look with photoshop so Meek and I took time to scout for objects and also to bring some of our personal belongings to the studio! The big chest in the center of the set is mine, I bought it years ago on a flea market and when it’s not on set haha it’s in my bedroom! Another smaller chest belongs to Meek’s mum and the rest we borrowed from several places around Udine!

On the shooting day, it took quite some time for all of us to get ready for the shooting. I had not seen the Austrians before so we finalized their outfits there, choosing the belts and jewels for each one of them.

Then we went through the talented hands of Alice for make up! It was fun for the guys to see themselves for the first time with a smoky eye! Meek instantly loved himself as a pirate and felt totally empowered with his outfit, his hat that we found together in NYC and this make up!

Regarding my own make up, I wanted smoky eyes that wouldn’t look too fake and too modern. As well as enhanced lips without tons of color. At some point Alice asked if I wanted that we see my natural small freckles and I said yes and she put some freckles back on my nose and cheeks above the foundation. I really liked it! But I struggled to find the right tool afterwards to be able to do some myself!

The photoshoot  was discussed between Heile and myself. We agreed on creating different ambiances and real “actions” for each picture in order to come up with interesting poses, enable to vehicle more of the universe of the band than regular band pics can. He had wonderful ideas. He told us “this pic is about you arriving on an island and not being sure if the environment is friendly or hostile”…. “this pic is about you ready to jump at your enemy and fight!”…”This one is about having fun, killing time together!”…After the band photos were shot we jumped to individual ones.

It was really fun and inspiring even if demanding! I loved how concerned with details he was, making sure the light, the space between us, all our expressions, were coherent! And we all totally fell in love with the result! I was amazed by the post production too, how the elements he added worked really well even if not real!

It was a long enjoyable demanding creative day! The kind of days that flys by and you wish you could do it all over again!

Next I will share behind the scenes material and exclusive information around our video shoots! We faced many challenges, some you can absolutely not guess! 🔥

So stay tuned for more!

PS: I am also planning to make a live hangout, it's about time we have a nice chat all together!

Thank you for reading!
With love, 

Clémentine