Lindsay Schoolcraft, keyboardist and backing vocalist for Cradle Of Filth, is featured in a new interview with Metal Godesses. She discusses several topics including the music that inspired her side project, Antiqva. An excerpt is available below.

On music

Lindsay: "Music has been a coping mechanism and a tool for me to survive. I may one day write a book about it. I’ve been through some pretty hard things in my life. Your demons don’t really go away, you just learn how to live with them, how to cope and say 'I’m not listening to you today! You’re wrong!' You’re always fighting with the voices in your head, but when I’m onstage I just forget about all that and get to be someone else. I’m still me; just a stage version of me. I love that, and I think that for our fans it’s such an escape. I’ve talked to fans who deal with big problems too – when you do this over and over again, sometimes you forget these things because it becomes the norm, but I’ve had fans come up to me and tell me 'Man, you’re really helping me get through a hard time,' or 'Your music helped me through a hard time,' and that’s why I do this. I don’t just do it for myself, I do it for the fans, too. It’s a healing thing, for sure."

On how "Carmina Burana" inspired the creation of Antiqva

Lindsay: "When I was 12, it was my first time going to Europe, and I went to Germany. I remember on the plane on the way home, you could plug in your headphones into the seat and listen to the radio channels. I picked the classical channel, just trying to go to sleep, but then this song came on. It was an hour of shuffled classical hits – some Beethoven, some Bach, the regulars – and this song kept coming on. I would wait for it to come on every single hour, on this eight-hour flight. That melody… it just hit me. It was one of the darkest, scariest, most powerful pieces of music I’d ever heard. Later, I was in Toronto as a teenager, when there was still this record store called Sam the Record Man, that had a classical section. I was bold, ‘cause I was determined to find this piece of music, and I went up to the guy and said 'I’m sure you get this all the time… I’m just going to sing the melody. It’s an epic, evil-sounding choir.' And I sang it for him, and he went 'Oh, I know exactly what that is!' and – bless him – he went and got me this CD, back when CD’s were still a thing. It was $20, which was not cheap back then. And I’ve had that CD ever since. So when Xen and I were having dinner, I just said 'Man… I wish more people would write music like Carl Orff’s song.' And he said, 'That’s my favorite song ever.' And I said, 'That’s MY favorite song ever!' And an hour later, on the way back to the train, I just said 'Do you want to start a band? Do you want to start a project?' And now, it’s snowballed into this massive project. I’m on the road right now, trying to make sure everyone’s on top of things and they have the files they need. It’s beautiful – I love that piece of music. Every time I go back and listen, it hits me so hard. It’s so good!"

Read the complete interview here.

Following is an excerpt from the exclusive BraveWords feature announcing Antiqva's launch.

Antiqva is an idea spawned at the end of 2015 by Ne Obliviscaris vocalist Xenoyr and Cradle Of Filth keyboardist / backing vocalist Lindsay Schoolcraft. Of mutual minds, they craved more from extreme music, and so wanting to combine the darker elements of classical music, church organ, Gregorian chant, and the potency of black metal guitars, they set out envisioning a way to bring this creative endeavour to life. Their mission is to pay homage to an old, live and organic feel, and so fuelled by a drive to bring forth honest music from their niche genres they have attracted a confident team of experienced musicians who also believe in their vision. Together, they hope to captivate and move their audiences bringing that black, burning spirit back to life.

BraveWords: What was it that drew you the two of you together and made you decide that putting a band together would be a worthwhile venture?

Xen: "It's a bit of a long story, however in short, the idea was brought up in Rome when Cradle and NeO were touring together in 2015. We both craved another musical avenue to express what we couldn't do so in our respective bands. I'd been planning for years to attempt something more black metal orientated, as I knew NeO would never go down that path, and needed an avenue to pursue my darker tastes. I love what we do in NeO, but black metal is not something that NeO is… NeO is a vast array of influences, various shades of light and dark, and many colours. Antiqva is something else altogether."

Lindsay: "This is something that I really wanted to do because when you meet someone and you have the same creative energy, it's stupid not to make it happen. Me and Xen spent a lot of time together on that first tour in Europe. We'd get coffee together almost every day and then go out sightseeing because the rest of the guys would sleep in. It's rare that they would go out. I was up early every day and so was Xen. We got to talking, and we're certainly not unhappy in our bands, but Xen wanted to do something in a more black metal outfit and I wanted to do something more classically driven. I presented small bits and pieces of this material to the guys in Cradle a few years ago, and they thought it was cool but it didn't fit with the sound that defines the band. In the past Cradle had more of that classical vibe and they've been moving in a different direction.

"With the new Cradle Of Filth album, as long as those guys are happy, I'm happy, and I'm there to do what's best for the band. But, a lot of the stuff I had was being left at the wayside and I told Xen about it. He loves classical music as well, so I sent him some demos which were just atrocious (laughs). But, it was something we wanted to do because we seem to share a brain; I tell people Xen is my evil twin and we were separated at birth because we're so much alike. We decided to go forward and make this happen in our free time. Obviously we feel some pressure because NeO is becoming more and more popular, and Cradle Of Filth is a big band to a lot of people, but Antiqva is something fun for us and I think we need that outlet."

Go to this location for the complete story.