Since their formation, Illusions of Grandeur have toured in the United States as well as across the UK and Europe and made appearances at various festivals including Sav Fest, Dewey Beach Music Festival, and Witney Music Festival. Illusions of Grandeur has shared the stage with artists as varied as DOPE, Motograter, September Mourning, New Year’s Day, Puddle of Mudd, and Otep. Illusions of Grandeur’s fierce and energetic live show has gained them a legion of fans dubbed “The Siren Nation” who follow them worldwide, at live shows, and on social media. Check out our interview with The Siren herself, Maggie Carlton!

Beginnings:

CM and I met in 2012 at a radio show, live band event he was having at his studio, Toil Records. I was in a band from Philadelphia at the time and CM interviewed us.

Behind the name:

Remember looking for bands on Craigslist? I read so many ads that said, bands looking for members… ”no illusions of grandeur here”. I thought that would make a great band name… Illusions of Grandeur. Three words dreams are made of.

Inspiration:

Places can be very inspiring. I love writing near the ocean or by water in general. It’s also very inspiring when we are in other countries. It gives you a new perspective you never had and creates new ideas. Bands that we love… there are so many. Korn, In This Moment, Pantera, Judas Priest, Queen, to name a few.

Inspiration behind “The Songs of the Siren”:

The storyline is based on fantasy, mythology, and personal experiences. It was exciting to finally put it all down and hear the album from cover to cover. It’s inspiring to go on the journey of the writing process and creating the album in our own studio. We are working on and starting to release singles from the second album, The Siren, right now! The first single, Crossing Over, was released on October 16th. Look for the second single, Down, on December 16th, 2020!

Teamwork:

CM does most of the writing. He will put an outline of a song idea together and share it with the band to get everyone’s input and ideas. I will then take the music and add melody and lyrics to it. The band works well together. Communication and teamwork are keys. We handle the band like a business and everyone understands.

COVID-19:

COVID-19 has affected us much like a lot of other bands. We weren’t able to do our overseas tour this year, which we were really really looking forward to doing. We did use the time wisely, however. CM and I sat down night after night and put all of our energy into the new album. We used it to create and are still going strong.

Online concerts:

Yes absolutely! We actually just did a live video for an online concert in South American. I’m sure there will be more to come.

Illusions of Grandeur will attend at Metal Heroes Online II Festival this weekend – don’t miss it out!