Exclusive interview to Melissa Ferlaak
Jim asks: Tell us about your beginnings in music.
Hi Jim, and thanks for the question! Well, my very beginning was getting jealous of my older sister getting a bouquet of roses from my dad for her winning a singing contest (I was maybe 7 years old, haha!). In high school I sang in the musicals and choir and then decided I wanted to go to college to be an elementary music teacher.
The wonderful singer Melissa Ferlaak (Adyta, Aesma Daeva, Visions Of Atlantis, Echoterra) granted us an exclusive interview through our good friend Lola Nagel, for which I am very grateful.
Into my 3rd year, my voice teacher and music department chair convinced me that I ought to pursue opera performance, so I changed my degree to performance, auditioned for Master’s programs and got into New England Conservatory’s program.
Also in my senior year, John Prassas and I started working together, which really became my passion alongside opera. And the two, metal and opera have lived side by side in my top musical interests ever since.
Sergoth asks: How was your experience with Aesma Daeva? What did you feel when interpreting songs like "D'Oreste (Mozart)" and "Since the Machine"? In the future you'd like to play duets with some Grunter? Or interpretate a particular song, such as Beauty and the Beast?
Hi Sergoth! Aesma Daeva shaped me in every sense of the word. I feel as though I owe the guys in AD so much. John shaped my musicality because his music is so challenging to sing. Earl shaped my knowledge of metal which translated into a deep passion for this genre of music.
I feel like sometimes I learned more playing in Aesma Daeva than I did in my Masters’ program honestly, about how to be an artist and not just a singer.
D’Oreste and Since the Machine are two very different characters and two very different subjects, however the passion is consistent with each.