Pic courtesy of: Benedictum "From my perspective you give it what you’ve got and see how people react. The reactions were very positive so that is a plus, now we just need to give out some more!!"

CR: Hey Veronica how are you? What’s new with Benedictum?
Veronica Freeman: Well I am just fine! How are you?? We are all here right now getting ready to practice, just did a radio interview and are getting ready to head to Wacken on Thursday.
We have finally laid down the last tracks for the new album so we are getting excited about that and hopefully it will be well received.

CR: Are you guys getting ready for some new gigs? If so please tell me about them!
Veronica Freeman: Well Wacken for one, but by the time this interview is posted we will have already played it I am sure, and then we have the Female Metal Voices Festival in Belgium in October on the 19th.

CR: You guys recently returned from touring Europe if I’m not mistaken, how was that? Are Europeans more into Benedictum than your country men?
Veronica Freeman: OH MY GOD!! We had soooo much fun on tour. It was an eye opening experience I can tell you that! I was the only woman on the bus with 11 men so it was …hmmm interesting to say the least ha ha!!! Being around Doro was AWESOME she is a great woman and a class act. We made a lot of great friends and I would not trade that experience for anything in the world.
As far as European Fans I would say at this time yes, they are more into us. For starters, we were promoted much more there, and our style is very European but I must give credit to the U.S. fans that we are gaining. The album was released later here than in Europe and many people are just now finding out about us! We were contacted by the promoters of the Chicago Powerfest this year and we had a kick ass show in front of a GREAT crowd right on U.S. turf! We would love to do more things like that in the future, many people had never heard of us and it was cool to win over some new fans.

CR: Let’s get into Uncreation… great album (I mean it!) now that the record has been out for quite some time, did it achieve everything you guys were expecting from your debut?
Veronica Freeman: To be honest, it went beyond my expectations. From my perspective you give it what you’ve got and see how people react. The reactions were very positive so that is a plus, now we just need to give out some more!!

CR: I must confess the first time I hear “Uncreation” I had no idea that behind those powerful vocals there was a woman, the album really brought me back to DIO on Sabbath, have you heard people surprise that you are the one behind those vocals?
Veronica Freeman: All the time! Many people think it is a male singing but it is just me the “V”.
Obviously Dio is a strong influence on me and that makes me feel GREAT when people say things like that.

CR: In the song “Benedictus” there are some passages on Latin (hope that is Latin…I’m guessing here) what motivated you to wrote those lines and what do they mean?
Veronica Freeman: Ah the truth?? I was in a writing slump, couldn’t think of any lyrics at all and I was under pressure at that time to get some new stuff written. On the way home from practice I blasted the music and just started making up words as I went along. They sounded like Latin so in order to make it legit I got a Latin to English dictionary and translated a few phrases and made it work with a few other phrases in Latin I already knew!

CR: Do you personally have any “number” of copies of Uncreation that you will like Benedictum to sell? Do musicians think about that?
Veronica Freeman: Not really a set number but you better believe I think about it all the time. I would love to sell enough albums to really get some money behind us. That changes everything. At the level we are now we still need to “feed the beast” so to speak and we put in a lot of our own resources in to keeping things going. The one thing about having the majority of the fan base in Europe is getting there. We are on the west coast of the States so to get to Europe is not cheap. But it IS WELL worth it!

CR: Veronica is it you on the album cover? If so why is that?
Veronica Freeman: Yep! That’s me. We had the artist just do his thing. I gave him a few pictures that I had of me and he did the work. I had no idea what he was going to do but it came out cool.

CR: You seem to be a woman very comfortable with your body, with your attributes, some metal fans lately after the so called woman revolution in metal (there has always been woman in metal but it is until a couple of years back that we have seen an explosion of bands been led by a woman) have complain that some labels use the woman on the band to sell more records by placing her on front of everything, something like luring all of US perverts to check out a band just for the pretty lady on the cover, and your song “Misogyny” sort of talks about that (I heard it was about serial killers, but it sort of applies here!)… Did your views about the music business change once the album was published? Have you ever felt used because of your body? (This question with nothing but respect!)
Veronica Freeman: Oh no worries at all (about the respect I mean). Kind of funny though, I am NOT that comfortable with myself. I crack up when I see some of those pictures. I never thought I would be getting questions about them. Just never really thought about it but there they are ha ha! Really as you said women have been in metal for YEARS. I think as with anything else, there is nothing wrong with putting a nice label on a product. The key has to be the product itself. At the end of the day this has to be about the music, if something draws you in cool, but it needs to be backed up with some substance.
Same thing with men, they put lots of guys out there to make the women go crazy and always have, I guess that is just how they market things. I have never felt used because of my body… hmmm that could be fun ha ha!!

	Pic courtesy of: Benedictum "I still feel the same way each time before I go on stage… I am a wreck! I still get really nervous until it is show time and then it is a joy"

CR: “Uncreation” sounds like it demands a lot from you, mostly I believe when it comes to play it live, I mean the songs can get extremely intense, how do you set your mind before going on stage?
Veronica Freeman: Your questions are so coooool! Thanks for this one. I still feel the same way each time before I go on stage… I am a wreck! I still get really nervous until it is show time and then it is a joy. There are times when it really is extremely demanding physically. I have almost passed out a few times… but I just love it. I set my mind that this is the moment I have always longed for, that point in time when I get to express myself and live a little bit of my dreams.

CR: If I’m not mistaken Jeff Pilson produced Uncreation, do you guys Intend keep working with him?
Veronica Freeman: ABSOLUTELY YES! We call him an honorary member of Benedictum. We learned so much from working with him and he is producing the new album too! We have collectively come out of the experience with so much as artists after working with him. We LOVE him!!

CR: I have been reading that one of your influences is Tina Turner, what is so especial about Ms Turner that you find appealing? What did you think of her in Madmax?
Veronica Freeman: Aaaah Thunderdome! That was cool to see her on the big screen. I find that she is so powerful, intense yet so personable. When I see shots of her live or have seen her on TV she just exudes such great energy and passion for her craft. It is inspiring! I regret the fact that I have never had the chance to see her live.

CR: Benedictum has been confirmed to play at “Wacken Open Air festival” one of the most prestigious festival in what metal music is all about, how did this came to happen, what was your initial reaction to the news?
Veronica Freeman: We were on tour with Doro when we got the news that it was confirmed. We were blown away. We had our booking agent at the time put out some feelers and they said yes. This will be yet another dream come true and I hope I am not shaking too much inside. I know I will be nervous but I just cant wait. All of us are blown away by the chance to do this.

CR: Benedictum was in tour with Doro, what did you learn by seen her knowing that she has been involved in metal for so many years now?
Veronica Freeman: I learned a lot. I must say she really does make sure and take care of herself. She has learned so much over the years. How to pace yourself and give a consistent performance night after night. I was just in awe of her. Each show was as stellar as the last.
On top of that she is so sweet and charming and has such loyal and dedicated fans and rightly so. She is a fabulous performer and a great lady.

CR: I was checking out Metal Storm and saw that you guys ended up as front runners for Heavy metal album of the year, very deserving by the way (even though I really hate the latest Maiden album… just my opinion off course!!!), what do you think has been the role that internet magazines have been playing in metal during this past year? How much does it matter to the band that an online magazine awards you with a nomination like this?
Veronica Freeman: It means a lot! We don’t kid ourselves at all about the internet. It is how so many musicians get noticed and get press at this time. The days of huge marketing campaigns backed by lots of money are not happening the way it used to for this genre of music especially. So the internet is a great vehicle for people to listen to music they may never have heard of. We are grateful for that!

	Pic courtesy of: Benedictum "The days of huge marketing campaigns backed by lots of money are not happening the way it used to for this genre of music especially"

CR: You write the lyrics right? Where do you get the inspiration to do so… and do you sometimes plan what you want to write about or this will be a process were you just wait for the “inspiration” to come to you?
Veronica Freeman: Yes I do write the lyrics. My inspiration varies. I sometimes write expirentially, about something I deeply feel or have lived through and at other times there will be a subject that I find interesting (like with Wicca) and I will want to write about that. The whole process of writing and singing is very cathartic for me. It is like my personal therapy.

CR: A couple of “weird” question!!!!

CR: How many marriage proposals have you get during tour?
Veronica Freeman: I believe I have received 5!

CR: Why women are obsessed with their weight?
Veronica Freeman: Ask me that when I am done with this diet!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!:-)

CR: Please what is the first thing that comes to your mind when you hear or read this word… Iraq
Veronica Freeman: Tragedy….truth or lie

CR: When can we expect a new Benedictum album? (this is not weird)
Veronica Freeman: No this is not weird my dear. You can expect it in January of 2008 if everything goes as planned.

CR: Well thank you very much for taking the time to write back, hope the questions weren’t too boring!!! Please if you will like to add anything else do so…
Veronica Freeman: First off I would like to thank you for giving us the opportunity to do this interview. Thanks for getting the word about us out there and your questions were GREAT.
All I can add is if you haven’t listened to us…. Please do! We are just doing what we love to do!