Vicky
When you talk about Doom Metal, and especially about talented vocalists in this genre, one of the first singers to come to mind is, without a doubt, Heike Langhans. As some of you may know, Heike was until a few years ago the lead vocalist of Draconian, and she is now a part of many great projects: Remina, Sojourner, :LOR3L3I: and Light Field Reverie. I had a while ago the opportunity to interview the incredible Heike Langhans (whom I thank once again for everything), about her overall career, from her beginnings until 2026. Enjoy!
Vicky: Tell us a bit, please, about your early days as a singer. How did you realize you can sing, and what was your first on-stage appearance?
Heike Langhans: When I was very young, I used to sing along to absolutely every song on the radio. My father is the biggest music lover and always had loud music playing in the house on weekends, which allowed me to belt aloud with confidence. He loved playing his acoustic guitar at parties and people seemed pleasantly surprised when I sang along, so I took that to mean something.
My earliest stage experience happened in primary school. I joined a choir and we sang at tournaments or events weekly, which I think was quite formative in terms of specific singing techniques I use to this day, even if I’m not formally trained. However, my personality traits didn’t allow me to stay put in a group, because I had too many ideas of my own and a burning need to create something different. Something that wasn’t as perfect, but more meaningful. I’ve always liked darker, more melancholic or emotional things generally and choir just seemed a bit too cautious and religious in nature (i.e. boring). Since then, I have been on stage at different occasions with different bands, but I will always prefer studio work over the stage.
Vicky: What was the first group you have joined?
Heike Langhans: My first band was an all-girl 4-piece grunge band called Cable 3. I smile every time I think about it, because it was the best memories of my teenage life. Every school holiday I’d travel to this quaint coastal town to visit my grandparents where my girl besties also lived. We’d hang out all day, every day and go on so many adventures all over. Our band was more photoshoots, cover songs and hanging out at the pool (billiards?) hall than making any original music, but we had a blast and made some great memories.
Vicky: Let’s talk a bit about Draconian. You played with them for around ten years. Looking back, how do you see this time spent in the band? Would you change anything about it, if you could?
Heike Langhans: I will always be so grateful for my time and experience with Draconian. I learned a lot about the music industry; other countries and cultures; people and myself. Everyone constantly told me I’m too hard on myself, but when you are surrounded by what you perceive as excellence, you can’t help but push to improve and evolve at every given moment. I do not take for granted the platform they gave me and in a way that motivates me to keep up the momentum that reflects my appreciation for that platform.
There’s a lot I would have changed if I could’ve, but those things were never in my control to begin with and I don’t dwell on things I have no control over. Many delays were also caused by bureaucratic factors that ultimately had a hand in causing my departure from the band as well. Such is life though. Everything happens as it should and I don’t challenge entropy.
Vicky: You are currently involved in several projects – :LOR3L3I:, Remina, Sojourner, and Light Field Reverie. What are your favorite songs to perform live and why?
Heike Langhans: :LOR3L3I: is my darkwave solo project that existed long before I joined any bands, but also the first thing to be postponed in order to prioritise other projects. This year will finally see a finished album and although I don’t plan to perform it live, I know it would have been the most enjoyable to perform. Simply because I believe my fragile voice is better suited for an electronic music setting. Something people might not know about me, is that I actually find singing live over loud music quite challenging. The tone of my voice is one tick away from crying at all times, which means extreme need for control and sensible volume. In studio, my settings are dialed in so meticulously and allows me to perform near-perfectly. Live, however, setups are often wildly unbalanced. loud or unpredictable depending on venue and gear. It can be something as simple as the bass monitor on stage being loud enough to deafen my in-ears. What we call ‘Everything louder than everything else’ hell! I can’t turn my in-ears up to the point of causing hearing damage, so I end up being thrown off my game a bit and then beat myself up about it afterwards, haha! Maybe it’s the German blood in my veins. We hate technical issues.
All that said, I’ve made my peace with it nowadays and just have as much fun as possible! So to answer your question, my favorite song to perform live might still be up for debate.
Vicky: 2025 has been a very busy year for you, with the release of The Silver Sea by Remina, but also features on albums such as We, the Dead (HellLight), From Amber To Sun (Pilgrimage), and Isolate X (Mesarthim). How do you perceive the three LPs you were featured on, beside the Remina material?
Heike Langhans: Space and Doom. Two of my favorite things, which makes it easy to agree to collaborate. Even more so when the lads involved are already friends or good people we’ve met along the journey.
We first fell into HellLight’s orbit at a Doom Metal festival in Belgium and they played an ass-kicking set. Turns out they were also such nice dudes to hang out with and we kept in touch. We asked drummer Renan Bianchi to feature on a Remina song and in-turn I was happy to make an appearance on their album as well. They are just awesome!
Pilgrimage (Malta and The Netherlands) is another band we cross paths with every now and then and can say we’ve maintained a good friendship with. We’ll always hang out when we have the chance and they have helped us in emergency situations when Mike’s guitar never made it to the airport before a show etc. Just all-round great and humble guys with a killer Death Doom sound as well. They wrote a few songs on their latest album with my vocal accompaniments in mind, which really made it easy to fulfill the vision for them. Like adding the missing ghost to the portrait if you will.
Mesarthim holds a special place in our hearts and we consider them close friends already, so of course we had dibs on our favorite track to revamp for the Isolate X album. If Mike and I had more time, we’d all be in another band together and don’t think we haven’t talked about it! 😉
Vicky: The Silver Sea is an exquisite album, in terms of production, but also when it comes to the artwork. How did you come up with the concept behind it?
Heike Langhans: Thank you kindly! The theme for the band overall deals a lot with the human exploration of space, the general unknown and the wonders or horrors that might lurk there. I am fascinated with the idea of ancient structures in places you would not expect to find them and the untold lore of how they came to be. Both albums so far show a structure in space at grand scale with odd features and the figures that discovered them.
The Silver Sea refers to both the debris field after a space battle, but also the seas of liquid metal on a distant planet which these debris have fallen into. Upon crashing on the planet portrayed in the album art, an eerie black monolith with ley line grids and a red crystal is discovered. It protrudes from a dark well deep within the metallic ocean and is shrouded in mystery. All very nerdy stuff, I know.
Vicky: Walk us a little through the writing process of The Silver Sea. How are Remina tracks born?
Heike Langhans: Sometimes Mike and I will sit and look at new VST’s or play around with plugins and sounds, which usually leads to the start of some section we inevitably turn into a song. It’s a very experimental process where our shared enthusiasm turns into a state of hyperfocus and I have to say, it’s very productive.
Other times we’ll work on our own music ideas using the ‘song-a-day’ method. At the end of the allotted time, we present each other the ideas and decide what we’ll use. Then we restructure accordingly. I write more using my voice, synths and electronic beats and then I pass it on to Mike, who is the multi-instrumentalist and engineer – diligently recording everything, every one and doing all the mixing and mastering. He works so damn hard that man!
Vicky: Your latest release with Remina also has guest appearances by Mick Moss (Antimatter), and Tony Dunn (Sgàile, Cnoc an Tursa, Blackwork). How did you start collaborating with these two musicians?
Heike Langhans: Mike and Tony have been friends for a long time and while Mike was mixing one of his albums, I heard his voice and said ‘Tony WILL be on our next album, so help me hypothetical gods!’. His tone is strong, unique and cuts through the atmosphere like a laser. I wrote the vocal idea for ‘Vanta Ray’ specifically with his vocals in mind and wanted to give him equal parts in the entire song. It turned out to be a fan-favorite so we made the right call.
As for Mick, we’ve always been huge Antimatter fans and finally got to share the stage with them in Romania a couple of years ago. We also had great fun with the guys backstage as our humor and culture probably drew us together a bit. We talked about some shows together, but our journey hurled us to the other side of the planet, so I asked him to duet with me on a song instead. ‘Algol’ is the more theatrical song on the album and I really wanted that deep and emotional male counterpart to help tell the story. Once again, I wrote it with only his vocals in mind and I am sure he knew it the first time he heard it.
Vicky: You are both a wonderful singer-songwriter and keyboardist, and a very talented graphic designer. Where do you find inspiration for your art?
Heike Langhans: A weird and wild imagination. Also, elements in dreams, art, books, games, film & series. Sometimes it’s hard to pin-point something as a whole, because even small details in everyday life will form some kind of synchronicity that will coalesce into new ideas. Unfortunately, I cannot avoid the neurodivergent elephant in the room, but I try to use my overactive brain for good and creative purposes.
Vicky: How do music and visual arts combine, from your perspective?
Heike Langhans: They absolutely belong together and I die a little inside every time I see the two not brought together properly. Certain sound combinations trigger certain colors or shapes in my mind, so I usually create a strong and consistent visual identity for each band/project. If I had the time and resources, each song would have its own bespoke video as well.
Vicky: What artists have had the most impact on you?
Heike Langhans: This is a very tough question to answer, because I am constantly searching for something even more impactful and I’m not the same person as even 5 years ago. However, the only elements that have stayed permanently rooted in my soul came from the Art Nouveau/Deco era, as well as old nautical paintings of ships in stormy seas.
Apart from that, I have always loved artists like H.R Giger, Kay Nielsen, Tsutomu Nihei, Beksiński, Freydoon Rassouli and the great Sci-Fi artists like Syd Mead, Paul Lehr, Hajime Sorayama and John Harris. Lately, I enjoy newer artists like Fedor Barkhatov, Aria Fawn, Serena Malyon and sculptor Scott Radke to name a few.
Vicky: What is your favorite author? How about your favorite book?
Heike Langhans: Another tough question, because there are just too many and so many intricate reasons. I enjoy the concepts of H.P Lovecraft, the writing style of Clive Barker, the personal musings of Carl Sagan and visual story-telling of Tsutomu Nihei and Junji Ito. There was a large window of time between age 20 and 30 where I read nothing but non-fiction astronomy books by various writers where the focus was more on the accuracy of the information than the writing and I would be lying if I said I remembered most of their names. Since then, I have enjoyed Clive Barker’s ‘Imajica’ and ‘Books of Blood’; The Expanse book series by James S.A Corey and (currently) the HALO book series by 10 different authors. Mike still has a whole library of horror books and manga I will get my hands and eyes on when time allows for it!
Vicky: 2025 has been a good year in terms of new material. What would you say is your favorite album released last year and why?
Heike Langhans: I have no idea, haha! It’s the one year where I spent so much time writing new music that I listened to very little of anything. I would be dishonest if I picked even one. According to my Spotify, I’m still stuck in 2024, because my most listened to album last year was Soror Dolorosa’s album Mond. I did however enjoy the new singles in 2025 from Bad Omens and HEALTH, but their albums are out this year. This is why no one ever sees me posting top 10 AOTY lists!
Vicky: What do you think the world of Rock/Metal will look like in 40 years from now?
Heike Langhans: Not to sound too pessimistic and dystopian, but if A.I. and rapidfire-content culture hasn’t already destroyed our brains, values, energy efficiency and everything we hold sacred by then – Hopefully a world where it exists as it does today. We seem to be stuck in a time capsule where we recreate everything from decades before, over and over, but with added technology, in larger quantities and at a faster pace. Holding on to nostalgia for dear life, because it reminds us of better times, while watching the true essence of it all, leaving one particle at a time with every iteration from a society where history is rewritten and the original intent is lost. This is not necessarily meant to sound negative or nihilistic, but it’s becoming obvious.
The real question is, will Rock/Metal be authentic or a mass-produced fashion trend on the TikTok equivalent of its time. I look at what Goth and Punk has become since Hot Topic, fast fashion and social media. Accessible, but fake and marred by identity politics.
Vicky: How do you see the future for your bands?
Heike Langhans: We’re just happy to make music and manifest all our nerdy notions as long as humanly possible. We play live occasionally, but prefer the journey of creation the most. Now that we have a full band in New Zealand with Light Field Reverie, we’ll happily
do some road trips and play some gigs while enjoying the beautiful scenery with friends. At this point we just have to stop ourselves from joining or creating even more projects with other friends!
Vicky: I need your help to create a customized top 20 featuring the songs that have influenced you most in your career and the ones that you really like.
Heike Langhans: Here’s a mixed bag of songs I’ve never tired from and ones that remind me of memories with my best friend Delene:
TOOL – “Jimmy”;
Dark Fortress – (The whole Ylem album start to finish actually);
Fields Of The Nephilim – “And There Will Be Your Heart Also”;
Khoma – “Medea”;
Draconian – “Morphine Cloud”;
Doom – “Dead Words Speak”;
Tiamat – “A Deeper Kind of Slumber”;
Marillion – “Out of This World”;
Pink Floyd – “The Gunner’s Dream” / “The Final Cut” (Don’t make me choose);
Swallow The Sun – “The Ship”;
Trees of Eternity – “Black Ocean”;
Agents of Oblivion – “The Hangman’s Daughter”;
Tristania – “Deadlocked”;
Wolves In The Throne Room – “A Looming Resonance”;
Primordial – “Gallows Hymn”;
Portishead – “Undenied”;
The Cure – “Pictures of You”;
Saron Gas – “Tied My Hands”;
YOB – “The Great Cessation”;
Clint Mansell – “Together We Will Live Forever”.
Vicky: Now that we have finished this interview, we can relax, gather around the table in a restaurant, like friends do. What would you order from the menu, drink-wise? (I’ll tell you from the beginning that I’m going to start with some black tea).
Heike Langhans: It depends on the restaurant and time of day, really! Morning to midday – a proper New Zealand Flat White coffee or some Thai Milk Tea. At night I’d happily have a glass of Rosé or Pinotage. If it’s a pub restaurant – Gimme a G&T! Cheers!
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