MaYaN and Epica mastermind Mark Jansen sat down with Metal Wani's Carl O'Rourke to talk in depth about MaYan's upcoming new album, Dhyana, crowdfunding to enlist an orchestra, as well as writing/studio plans for a new Epica record.

On how the initial response to Mayan's new album, Dhyana:

Jansen: "I'm really overwhelmed, because the first reviews have come in and we saw, I think, twelve or thirteen, and they were all good. Even some ten out of tens. So I don't know what to say, I'm really happy about it. I guess the hard work is paying off!"

On enlisting The City of Prague Philharmonic Orchestra for the record: 

Jansen: "The Epica album did set a certain standard and, to be honest, I didn't want to go back to a lower standard with Mayan. So, I said to our producer, Joost (van den Broek), how can we make this happen? So that the new Mayan album sounds as great as the last Epica album. And then he said, we can make that happen. The only thing we don't have is a real orchestra. Then I thought, we need to make that happen as well. We just didn't have the budget to make it happen. That's why we did the Indiegogo campaign, and fortunately the fans did help us out in a great way, so we managed to do it. We could do the production we had in mind, that we were reaming of. Even with limited resources we could have the production that isn't less than the last Epica production in my eyes, in my opinion. So I'm a really happy man!"

On lineup changes and rotating live members due to other outstanding commitments, yet Mayan always manage to persevere:

Jansen: "There was one guy, he said to me, 'I've seen Mayan nine times, and none of these times was the same!' He said 'I never know what I can expect, all the time, there's a different guy, but every time I'm entertained!'.

On The Essence Of Epica book being the band's prime focus as it is currently in the making:

Jansen: "At this moment, indeed we are very busy with the book. I am also collecting old pictures that I've found on my old computers. I'm also collecting old things that I can find that will also be interesting for the book. Besides that, I wrote one song already for a future Epica release. But we will have a lot of time now, because we will probably hit the studio the end of 2019. So there's plenty of time to write new stuff. That's also intentionally like this, that we don't rush it too much this time."

Epica recently announced their unique collaboration with the Dutch Grammy-award winning Metropole Orkest. The Metropole Orkestis a world-renowned orchestra who have performed and/or recorded with the world biggest superstars such as Sting, Bono, and Brian Eno.

In the summer of 2017, with the help from their massive fan base, Epica won a high-profiled competition organized by the Metropole Orkest. First prize was a recording of a song of their choice with the orchestra. In between Epica's heavy touring schedule, the band was able to conjure up a unique, never-before-seen 'Big Band meets Symphonic Metal' rendition of "Beyond The Matrix". As a bonus to all voters, runner-up in the competition and friend of the band, Arjen Lucassen (Ayreon) contributed a beautiful guest-solo to the song.

Coen Janssen commented on writing process “We came up with ’the battle‘ to fully display the strengths of both worlds; our heaviness and their jazziness, but how to combine it in one piece… In comes Tom Trapp, arranger extraordinaire. He fully understood the way we wanted to build up the piece and he translated it into this amazing arrangement for the Metropole Orchestra. From ambient soundscapes to heavy symphonic to over-the-top big band parts... this song has it all!! Expect the unexpected!!! It was an absolute pleasure and honour to see such professionals work from up close and I learned a lot every step of the way. The way the conductor, arranger and orchestra communicate and play is something I‘ve rarely seen before. A unique experience that resulted in a unique version of 'Beyond the Matrix'.“

Epica vs Metropole Orkest - "Beyond The Matrix" - The Battle will be released as a limited-edition vinyl and digital download on October 26th through Nuclear Blast. You can pre-order the limited-edition 10-inch and bundles from the band‘s webshop  or from the Nuclear Blast Mail Order.