By Jim Barber
When one thinks of Switzerland, the bright white snowcapped peaks are the images that often come first to mind, followed by the dark brown of Swiss chocolate, and the deep blue of Lake Geneva.
But one of the European nation’s most acclaimed, most prolific and most important musical artists will have everyone thinking of the colour green, which is the title of her latest album – a powerful statement of her growth and dynamism as an artist. It is filled with suitably lush melodies, expressed through verdantly compelling arrangements, complimented by sage songcraft and a vocal delivery as faceted and bright as a cut emerald.
Telli is as professional and profoundly talented as she is prolific. Green is her third studio album released on Metalville Records since 2022, following on the heels of Simple Talk that year, which made it to number two on the Swiss Charts, followed by the chart topping Addicted to Color in 2023. As of the publishing of this article, Green had already hit number one on the Swiss Charts. In between Addicted to Color and Green, she also released a live acoustic album. Black ‘N White.
When talking with Telli, you come to understand quickly that there is a disciplined, canny, driven businessperson coexisting alongside a remarkably passionate musical creator. There are no half-measures, no false starts. The consistency of the timing of the releases is deliberate, the creative spirit harnessed and focused in a way that not only allows for her proclivity to be prodigious, but which never dampens the spirit and excellent memorable, insistently fascinating nature of the music itself.
“Me and my team, we have a way we want to go in the next five years, ten years. And we knew that we have to do a lot of albums in the beginning. And it is also great to have these changes in style and approach from one album to the next so that people really get to know me as an artist. The first album was more in this really hard rock vein with some metal stuff in it. And it was actually the beginning of the growth of me as a songwriter, which you hear through these albums. But also it was a way to remind people who knew Seraina before about who I am and then introduce them to the new stuff. So it’s kind of on purpose, but it’s also not on purpose because it’s just what I feel. I’m basically always writing songs. And so it was clear that after Addicted to Color, we did like the acoustic album, so then we knew that we needed a new album and new music,” she said, as she not only talked about this potent and successful strategy of audience building, but also how she still believes the vehicle of the full album, including physical copies, is the best way to demonstrate her progress and evolution as an artist over time.
“I mean, I think it’s about the worth of the music. I mean, you work on a big project and you give it to the people. And for me, I couldn’t imagine only working with singles. It really depends on the style of music. For example, in hip hop, you only have singles and they do a lot of collaborations and then they have five different versions of the single. But I think we are still interested in albums in rock music. I sell a lot of albums. And this is also something that gets rock music into the charts, which is fun, because in the in the charts, for example, in Switzerland, there’s a lot of rock music, actually in the top positions with the album charts, because we actually still do albums. Yeah, it’s fun. I mean, we sell a lot of vinyl and CDs, especially at the shows. A lot of young people come and they have vinyl players again, which is cool. I almost sell more LPs than I sell CDs. I don’t see that it will ever totally go away because people still like to have this physical thing in their hands. It’s also great when you create an album because it’s also the artwork and like the cover, the lyrics in it, like how it looks. And this is great. I think a lot of music fans love to have this physical copy in their hands. And it’s good that young people still see that, because I think like for a while it went away because it’s much easier to listen to music by streaming. I also have Spotify. When I want to check out an album, I go on Spotify and I listen to it when I’m on the road with the car. It’s so easy and it’s really cool that this exists. But still, if I am a big fan of the band, then I have to actually get it and have a physical copy.”
One doesn’t need to be the most perceptive of humans to see there is some sort of creative trend happening with Telli’s music. Addicted to Color, Black ‘N White and now Green – there is a definite significance to the utilization of colour and now specific colours as a thematic thoroughfare from project to project.
“I think when I had the idea for Addicted to Color, I actually already sorted out some parts of a big colour project. It’s just something that was always there for me. Also, when I was studying music, I’ve always worked with colours. I remembered melodies and harmonies with colours and how it all played together. I had this in my head and the colour popped up and I knew, okay, this is it. It’s just a thing that is more to me than just having coloured hair. It’s a big thing. It’s actually a bigger project. It means I am already writing, so to say, on the next album and it’s going to stay colourful. It’s just a way how music appears for me. If you listen to a harmony or a melody, then it appears in a way, in certain colours. Some things have more light in it than others, for example. I don’t know, that’s just how I explain it and what it means to me. There is music that is more dark – It doesn’t have a lot of colour. Then there is music with a lot of colour. In the end, I was just writing songs I wanted to write. I just knew I wanted to call the album Green,” she said.
“It’s the first album I actually just wrote when I wanted to write. I didn’t think of it. I didn’t change anything about it. I didn’t give a shit about what someone would say about the song. I just wrote what I had in my head. There it is. I just said, ‘this is the theme for me for this album. It’s called Green.’ Green is also just one of my favorite colours.”
While how Telli processes or understands music through colour is the overarching construct behind her current music, there are more direct thematic elements to Telli’s songwriting as well. There are songs of empowerment, songs of the resilience of familial love, harrowing stories of self-doubt, but ultimately there is a through line of strength, positivity and connection which, coupled with Telli’s cinematic, charismatic, deeply soulful vocal performances, makes songs such as ‘Home’ and ‘17’ hit you right in the heart, mind, soul and spirit as a listener.
“It’s actually inspired by people I just met or have in my life. ‘Home,’ for example, was inspired by something my mother always told me. When we were younger, she always said, when we got into the teenager age, that it was going to be hard. You go outside into the world and you don’t fit in. Especially me, I didn’t fit into anything. I just always did my own stuff. I was sad a lot of times. But she always told me, no matter what happens, you can always come home. It sounds easy, but it was something that empowered me my whole life. Even if I f*** up really bad, I can come home. Even if I have to fight with my mother, she will still be there. Also, my dad and my whole family. I’m really happy that I have so many great people in my family who support me. They let me be me all my life. I can always be who I am. Even if people around us didn’t get why I look like that or why I do this music. This is why I wrote ‘Home.’ I just had this part of the lyrics in my head. It was there. This is how I wrote this whole album. In terms of the songwriting, I sat there with my guitar and I had this in my head. I don’t have a son, but I know what I would tell him. Then I started writing the song. It started with this beginning,” Telli explained.
“With ‘17,’ some years ago, I was teaching here in Switzerland. I had a young student [who was on a form of apprenticeship] for three years or something. One day she said that she wanted to write a song. She had no idea how to do that. She was taking singing lessons with me, but she didn’t play an instrument or anything. I said, okay, we can do that. I asked her, how should the song sound? Then I started to write some chords and melodies. She came in with her lyrics, and they just blew me away with what she wrote there. First of all, she was so true. She wrote down everything she feels. This is a really powerful thing in music. You can show your inner self. It’s just okay to do that. You can’t tell those thoughts to anybody in person, but you can write it in a song. It’s okay. She wrote about how bad she feels going out and seeing other people. She didn’t know how she should look. She thought everything she does is wrong. She said, I don’t even know how I should be. That inspired me so much that I actually wanted to write this song. It’s called ‘17,’ because she was 17 when that happened. It’s kind of like an age. I remember when I was 17. All of a sudden, people said, ‘you’re an adult now. You have to do that and that. You have to know that. You have to go to work.’ I was like, ‘what the fuck? Yesterday I was a child. Now I have to do all of this. I don’t even know how. Nobody tells me how.’ On the other side, you’re told you’re still a child. You can’t decide anything. This is a really hard time. I just wanted to give this song to our younger people, to our teenagers so that they feel heard. Also, for the parents. Just remember, we were all 17 once. We all felt the same. Maybe we’ll have a little more patience sometimes if we think back to those times.”
One of the most anthemic songs on the album, and one that features a truly exceptional vocal performance from Telli, is ‘Consequences.’
“’Consequences’ is really about our society and some things that are disturbing. If you look at one part of the song it’s about these big rock stars and the politicians – the ones who reach millions of people. They reach young people. Everyone listens to them. But so many of them don’t give a shit about what they talk about or how people see them. They go out and they are racist. They drink. They take drugs. They hit people and say stupid things. I would love to reach so many people to give them something good. I am asking these people in the song, why don’t you do that? Why not use your platform and reach out for good? Some people have the luck to be in that position. They have celebrity parents and grew up famous, or they just have lots of money. Or they are just on the right place. Why are people like that? Everyone listens to them even though hey don’t even have anything good to say. They don’t even think about it. For them there no consequences. For example, you are a big pop star. You are in a stadium. You are drunk there and a lot of kids will see you. They think, ‘she is so great. I also want to be like her. I want to drink too.’ You want it so that everyone sees you, and hears what you have to say, and listens to your music. You are a damn role model. If you do something like that, you may have millions of young people starting to drink. Maybe because they saw you drink alcohol so now it’s cool to them because you did it. I am always thinking a lot about this like this. It is why I don’t have alcohol on stage. I clearly say all the time that we don’t take drugs. We tell people that rock and roll has nothing to do with taking drugs and drinking. It is just music. It is a lifestyle,” she said.
“Another thing is when I go out and I see normal people who are mostly buried in their phones. They don’t see anything. They bump into you. they don’t even see you. Everything you do is affecting people around you. If you have kids they do everything they see you do. Everyone of us has this responsibility. We can’t just ignore it. We are all part of the same world.”
Telli also talked about her disappointment with aspects of the current music industry, specifically how the sexualization of women, or perhaps more accurately, the overt oversexualization of women, continues to be a significant factor in the commercial success of female artists across the spectrum of genres.
“it’s still there. I still see it. I mean if you if you look into the pop music. Look at these young, really talented, beautiful girls and all of them are just naked on stage. And I could throw up seeing it. And then there is like a new one who starts to break out. You think like, wow, she’s really creative. I like her style, blah, blah. Half a year later, she’s half naked on stage. And it’s like going on and on and on. I don’t know about metal. I still see a lot of women like playing with that. And I mean, that’s a thing we women have to think about as well. So as long as we play that game and as long as we think that we can only succeed if we show our bodies as long as that will exist, things are not getting any better, which is sad for all the young girls out there. And I see like bands, they they’re small in terms of being popular. And then at one point, like the lead singer looks much more beautiful and sexy on stage – all of a sudden, they have like a bigger success. So this is just what I see. But of course, there is like other examples,” she said, adding that bearing all this in mind, she has worked hard to cultivate an ‘image’ that puts the focus on her artistry and the quality and evocativeness of her music, not what she wears or how she portrays her physical being.
“I mean, I do it on purpose that I don’t show myself this way and I also make a point to speak up about it like I am doing right now. So I think that’s something that I was missing when I was younger, when I was a teenager. I missed having women I could look up to. I want to show people that we’re just strong. And that we’re also not only like in the front just showing ourselves off, but that we are good singers and do other things like writing songs and really doing the hard work behind the scenes and in the studio. And this is something that I feel strongly about. I just want to be a good role model to show like young girls that it’s possible to not only be the beautiful girl in the band, but you can also be like the band leader and you can write your own songs you can produce your own music. You can play your own guitar, you can play piano, you can play many instruments. If you like. You can actually do anything you want through talent and hard work.”
Telli has been a working professional musician, songwriter, performer for her entire adult life, since the age of 20. From 2010 to 2014 she fronted local hard rock/metal band Rizon, followed by a tenure with Surrillum, which lasted until 2017, overlapping her first big foray into a bigger musical world. In 2015, Telli’s powerfully emotive voice, incendiary onstage energy and melodically potent songwriting first came to prominence on a larger scale when she became the first lead vocalist/frontwoman for the all-female, pan-European metal band Burning Witches. She participated in the band’s first couple of albums, before deciding to go solo in 2019, using the opportunity afforded by being in that band to accelerate her performing and songwriting chops, as well as get a crash course in the vagaries and vicissitudes of the music industry – an education that has paid dividends since then.
“Actually, I’ve been creating music since I am like 20. So that was long before I actually started Burning Witches. And that was just one thing I did. But all of a sudden people knew us. They did love the music. They loved my singing and so I got better known for that. And I’m very grateful for that. But this is just a small part of me. And it was really fun to do that because I just love the power of the music, and I loved to play with those words and to sing that harsh. But I actually I studied jazz music and I started listening and playing and singing pop music, actually. So, yes, that is where I come from. And also blues and stuff like country music; this was always like around me and was a big part of why I got into music. And I also think it played a big part in my songwriting in Burning Witches, actually. I think that made the songs we did really cool because there was a lot of pop in it. And there were country elements too because people liked the singalong stuff with melodies that people really can connect. This is just my style. And this was Seraina in metal. And now it’s like I am bringing all the colors into my music,” she explained.
“When I was really young, it was mostly Christina Aguilera and a lot of like pop music that I was into. I just saw that a lot of people liked listen to their music, and this is why I started writing songs. Later on I think I saw like Melissa Etheridge, for example, playing guitar. And I was like, yeah, I mean, I can do that, too. Yeah, you can play guitar and write your own songs, even as a girl. So, yeah, it was it was women like that. But I also had a lot of male role models, I have to say, especially in the harder music. When I got into metal, I became a big fan of Rob Halford [Judas Priest] and Mikael Åkerfeldt from Opeth. These were like my heroes because they did music that is so creative and it’s something unique, and I wanted to create something like that, too. I wanted to create my own sound. And this is why I started playing the electric guitar to play stuff like that. I mean, there’s a lot of great rock musicians out there. There are also like the Foo Fighters, for example, and Pearl Jam. And it’s actually sad that there are not more women I can say.”
The power of music to change hearts and minds, to inspire, to build community and connection, these are not only why Telli’s songs resonate so powerfully with audiences, but why music is important to her as its creator. The therapeutic aspect of art and music cannot be overstated. Music heals, music binds and music can generate change from within or from without.
“You can write down anything on this paper. You can do a song out of it. If you imagine you have a dark thing in yourself, that consumes you, then you can create something out of it that other people can listen to and connect with it. The worst thing is to keep it in, to leave it in this dark spot. Especially when I started writing songs, it felt like a therapy, because I was writing stuff to help myself. But then other people told me, ‘I know exactly what you mean.’ We all have these feelings. This is normal. It’s also fine to have it. It’s fine to share it with other people. This is what the song ‘Let It All Out’ is about. This is the purpose of music. I realized why I wanted to do music. It’s not because of me, I just want people to listen to it so they feel safe, and feel happy, and feel heard like I do when I listen to my favorite music.”
In terms of touring in support of Green, Telli said many dates for Europe are in the works, but that she also really wants to come to North and South America as well.
“I remember one time when I was in Burning Witches, we travelled from Minnesota to Edmonton. I thin it took about 24 hours. We were opening for Visions of Atlantis at the time. I think we played a couple other shows in the western part of Canada too, but that’s the only time I’ve been over there,” she said.
For more information on upcoming shows, as well as Green, visit https://www.serainatelli.com.
- Jim Barber is a veteran award-winning journalist and author based in Napanee, Ontario, Canada, who has been writing about music and musicians for more than 30 years. Besides his journalistic endeavors, he works as a communications and marketing specialist and is an avid volunteer in his community. Contact him at bigjim1428@hotmail.com.
