Enshine Interview (Jari Lindholm)

Enshine is an international band made up of musicians from Sweden and France. This band has been in the dense and heavy world of Metal since 2009, and this band has always had a defined path within its music, because it has been inclined towards Melodic Death with Doom Metal, and this concept has been embodied since its first album called "Origin" (2013), an album that I didn't know at the time, but thanks to this third production called "Elevation" released independently, one finds a very solid path that motivates one to know what happened with the band in the past.

Para leer la entrevista en español: Entrevista a Enshine

Metallerium: Welcome to the Metallerium website and thank you for taking the time for this interview. How are you and the band? How are you feeling now that Elevation is released?

Enshine: Thank you, quite well and feeling relieved that the album is finally out after so many years working on it!

Metallerium: Elevation arrives roughly a decade after Singularity. How has the vision for Enshine matured during this long hiatus, and did the "Elevation" title reflect a personal or musical goal to reach new heights?

Enshine: I think my personal vision for it has developed in the way that while I´ve always felt that it is meant as an introspective experience, this time we took that concept a few steps further. There is maybe a bit less optimistic or upbeat feeling in the music which I think we may have had here and there in the past but not to be replaced by pessimism or negativity, just a more meditative atmosphere overall.

Metallerium: Critics have noted that the riffs on Elevation feel "more enormous" than ever. Was there a conscious effort to increase the "heaviness" or "aggression" compared to the airier atmosphere of Origin?

Enshine: I wanted to give the guitars a bit more space this time, so the synth arrangements are a little sparser compared to the previous albums, only doing what is necessary and not piling so many layers on top. I spent a lot of time in preparation for the recording experimenting with various guitar speaker and mic combinations so when the time came to record, I had a clearer goal of how to create the sound.

Metallerium: "Shimmering" has been highlighted as a standout opening track. Can you discuss the writing of that specific guitar solo and how it sets the tone for the rest of the record?

Enshine: Yes, I wanted to start off the album with a more energetic track and this was the last song written for it, it was written with the intention to complete the dynamic progression between the songs. The riff behind the solo draws some distant inspiration from a famous swedish pop/rock band from the 80´s / 90´s, but with the solo on top and the surrounding instrumentation turns it into something totally different. When writing the actual solos, I just loop and improvise until I stumble upon interesting bits to use.

Metallerium: The core of Enshine is the collaboration between you and Sebastien Pierre (France). How has your remote working relationship evolved since 2013, and did the creative process for Elevation differ from your early demo days on Myspace?  

Enshine: When we did the first demos and album there was already a lot of material done when we got together in the studio to work on it. On the second album we started writing more together, doing a few writing sessions in France where we wrote a new song each day which was a lot of fun. This time around we got together a couple times here in Sweden to write but this was then interrupted for a long time by covid and being unable to travel. During those early demo sessions for this album, we got some “bonus material” recorded that ended up on the Transcending Fire EP but it took quite a while to get back on track with writing after that long break. So, it was late in the process of writing that we were able to get together again and refine the ideas together.

Metallerium: Jari, you’ve mentioned that Enshine is a "highly individual expression," like a painting. How do you balance this personal vision with the contributions of session musicians or Sebastien’s lyricism?

Enshine: I think that balance works fine, while I do have a strong vision for the sound of Enshine I also think it is important to involve the ideas of other participants. It adds some surprises (for me at least) and makes the result more varied. Especially regarding the vocals, as my focus and inspiration rarely reaches beyond the instrumental part of the music.

Metallerium: Sebastien often handles the graphic design and artwork, which frequently features celestial themes (stars, galaxies). How does the visual "blue" aesthetic of previous albums translate into the visual identity of Elevation?

Enshine: We´ve gravitated a lot towards the blue themes yes, it often creates the right mood and fits these celestial images. this time however we chose a slightly different color theme for the sake of variation.

Metallerium: You’ve described Enshine as the "sum of combined influences" from past projects like Slumber and Atoma. Do you feel Elevation finally steps completely out of those shadows, or is it a direct continuation of that lineage?

Enshine: I don´t remember the exact quote you are referring to, but I suppose I must have meant the sum of my sources of inspiration in general, not having been inspired by my own previous projects. At least nowadays I must struggle not to be influenced by my own projects as I don´t want to repeat things too closely which I have already done in previous songs. But besides that, I do think of the three albums we have made as a sort of trilogy so there is a lineage that way.

Metallerium: Your debut Origin was described as "metal for the thinking man". When writing, do you prioritize the "vibe" and ambient soundscapes over traditional song structures, or do the melodies always come first?

Enshine: I take that as a very big compliment! The writing can happen in so many ways, sometimes yes, I will try to create an atmosphere to begin with. Other times I might just jam up some random guitar riff, then find a melody on top, then removing the first layer I recorded and try different variations underneath that melody. and other times it can start with a drum rhythm. Just trying to catch anything that comes to mind and turns out to be usable, how it happens is decided by the randomness of the universe.

Metallerium: For years, Enshine was primarily a studio project. With the release of Elevation in 2026, are there finally concrete plans to assemble a live lineup and bring these atmospheric soundscapes to the stage?

Enshine: Unfortunately, no, it will remain a studio project for practical reasons, the geographical differences most of all.

Metallerium: You’ve recently engaged with fans about whether your music fits into "Darkwave" or "Dreampop". Do you find these labels restrictive, or do you enjoy experimenting with "sub-sub-genres" to describe Enshine's unique sound?

Enshine: I think I must not have been part of that discussion personally and I don´t really see how we fit either of those genres. I think we fall somewhere between doom/death and melodic death metal but we´re maybe a little faster than one and a little slower than the other, if asked I usually just say it´s atmospheric metal or something along that line.

Metallerium: Thank you for the interview; it was a pleasure speaking with you. Congratulations on this new album "Elevate”. Perhaps you'd like to add something for your Latin American fans and Metallerium followers? 

Enshine: Many thanks for the interview, and greetings to all your readers!