Maaike Siegerist

Maaike Siegerist – Long Earth

Looking at many bands, prog included, the change of lead singers often requires metaphorical big feet, to fill the previous incumbent’s shoes and there can be long debates as to who was the most suited. I am sure that, in this case the wonderful Maaike Siegerist, she is well up to the challenge of replacing the exceptional Margin Haggerty. Long Earth’s previous album, An Ordinary Life, was released in July 2024, and quite rightly so, received rave reviews, and I’m sure the next one will be equally successful. I was therefore delighted to talk recently to Long Earth’s new vocalist Maaike Siegerist…


Darren Walker: Hello, Maaike. On behalf of The Progressive Aspect, and myself, thank you for your time. For those not familiar with Long Earth and your music, how would you describe their music and your musical style?

Maaike Siegerist: Thanks for inviting me. Long Earth is a progressive rock band, and I think it’s got quite a bit of an 80s vibe to some of their music. Michael Baxter’s keyboards really sound like they’re from the 80s, but authentically so. And then Renaldo McKim’s guitar playing is beautiful and he’s got great atmospheric effects. So, I think, those two elements together really define the sound of the band.

As for my own music, I’ve got multiple projects as well. Under my own name, I am a writer, singer and songwriter with lots of jazz influences. With my second album being really jazz inspired. Along with that I’ve got a second project called Dora Lachais and with that I make more spooky music and also some more exploratory electronic tracks. So that’s what I do.

Darren: Have you always wanted to be a musician? And was your family musical?

Maaike: I’ve always wanted to be a singer and that’s mainly down to my dad. My parents didn’t play music themselves, but my dad is a big music fan, so he was always buying records listening to them, along with watching concerts on the television. So I was exposed to Annie Lennox, Mike Oldfield with Maggie Riley. And I saw and heard them and I thought that’s cool, and it was what I would like to do. He never told me ‘Go and do that’, but it was just something that I saw and heard because my dad is so into music. So it started with those influences and also Donna Summer and En Vogue. He listened to lots of different genres. And from there I departed, listening to the things I later discovered for myself

Darren: Who are your musical heroes? And have you ever met any of them?

Maaike: Oh, that’s a hard question because I like many different genres as well. And one of them is classic jazz, and many of the heroes from that genre are no longer with us. Although Kurt Elling is an amazing singer and I’ve been fortunate enough to hear him sing live a few times. Of course, Annie Lennox is still alive, but I’ve never seen her. I wanted to buy tickets to go see her but I was something like number 50,000, or something in the queue, so that wasn’t going to happen. When I was in my teens, I really got into Gothic metal because that’s big in the Netherlands. So it was actually Within Temptation and Nightwish, who I have seen both multiple times, that made me want to take singing lessons because I wanted to be able to sing really high or really dramatically. They are amazing.

Darren: I like Nightwish as well, but with some of the more heavy genres of metal, I just don’t know how they can do that screaming singing.

Maaike: I can enjoy the music but I don’t know how to do it, so I’m not gonna try because I don’t want to wreck my vocal cords.

Maaike Siegerist

Darren: From the Gothic metal, how did you get into Prog?

Maaike: After being in a covers band in high school we became a gothic metal band, we only recorded the demo. We were quite bad but, as Dave Grohl once said, that’s OK, as that’s how you start. And then my second guitar band after that was a prog metal band Alarion. They already existed and the guitarist boss invited me to join them as their singer. And so I did that for a few years. Also they only recorded the demo and that’s maybe also for the best. But after I left them. I did record an album, it contained some of the songs which I co-wrote, but with other people singing. I’ve always liked the heavier genres and from there I also started listening to more prog bands and I really love Threshold, especially the album Dead Reckoning. It’s maybe a bit heavier than Long Earth, but that’s OK.

Darren: What’s the appetite for prog rock in Holland? Do you think Long Earth will find a receptive audience there?

Maaike: There are venues where the audiences love heavier rock in general and there is definitely an audience of Prog and I definitely think that they would appreciate, and dare I say love, Long Earth.

Darren: Do you think you’ll do the sort of Peter Gabriel thing and record some songs in Dutch, or even record re-record a whole album?

Maaike: I have thought about that, but I’m not sure about re-recording albums because what the band made is what they made. I don’t really write in Dutch in general. I tried and it is really hard. English is your native language, so everything comes in quite directly. But as a Dutch person I like singing in English, it’s a second language and it creates a little bit of distance so that I can be a bit more poetic with it. To me, when singing in Dutch, it comes across very direct and I don’t really like doing that these days. When you’re only hearing Dutch all day, you don’t really notice, but when you come back at it after living in the UK for a while, you’re like, I’m not sure about that sound. That is why I am happy to sing in English.

Darren: Although you are originally from the Netherlands, how did you end up in Scotland?

Maaike: In 2013 I went on a song-writing retreat in Scotland. It was recommended to me by a friend who said it was an amazing experience, and it was. I was there with something like other 25 songwriters in a big mansion somewhere in Dumfries and Galloway. And it was one of the most amazing weeks of my life. Just writing songs every day and being with all these creative people. Then the people running the retreat said we’ve got this song-writing Masters Degree course at a Scottish university, and I was like, OK, that sounds good. So I saved money for a year and then I went to study for the degree. Obviously it meant leaving the Netherlands and I’ve never wanted to go back since.

Long Earth

Darren: How did you end up singing with Long Earth?

Maaike: I moved to Glasgow two years ago and started to go to a lot of open mic nights in the city. One of them is at the Glad Café which is a really lovely community minded venue. In the house band at the open mic were David McLaughlin the bass player and Alex Smith, who was the drummer of Long Earth so that’s how I met them and got to see them every month. Eventually, in May 2023, they asked me to open for them when they were playing at the Glad Café. We played a joint night there, so that’s how they know me and my voice.

Darren: As you’ve got such a sultry, evocative jazz style voice, were there any challenges with your style moving over to the already existing back catalogue of Long Earth songs.

Maaike: The main challenge is that all songs were written by a man for a man’s voice, so. There’s one song I sing in the in the original key, it’s a bit low, but I can do it. Many of the other songs required me to rewrite bits of the melody so they fitted better in my range. With regard to the jazz style, I don’t consciously sing jazz style. And maybe being with the band has been helping me to reconnect more with my rocky side, which I hadn’t really been using. I’ll never be. I’ll never be a raw sounding singer, but you can add a bit more balls rather than how I sing on my jazz stuff, yeah.

Darren: I know it’s only been recently announced that you’re becoming a member of the band, but how advanced are the plans for the a next album?

Maaike: We’ve only done one rehearsal since I joined, but we have been working on some new ideas because they had two tracks that might have gone on the previous one, but didn’t, so we are looking at those. Also, they were very enthusiastic to try out my ideas and songs, so I brought in one of my songs and it’s immediately been accepted, but sort of rearranged to fit more within the prog vibes. There’s a lot more work to be done on it, but I think it will work and I’m really happy they liked my idea.

Darren: I’m looking forward to hearing them when they come out. But what are the tour plans? Are there any concerts to be announced?

Maaike: I can only tell you the few that are now on the website. On Sunday 25th May 2025, we play at Ivory Blacks in Glasgow together with the Ghost of the Machine. We are also playing the Soundle Music Festival on Saturday 7th of June 2025, I am looking forward to both of them.

Long Earth

Darren: Obviously you’ve been recording and singing before joining Long Earth, so have there been any memorable things that have happened to you while recording or playing live?

Maaike: I recorded my first album as part of my song-writing Masters at University. For me it was a learning experience because I also learned how to do my own recordings. This included mic positioning and the mixing so that whole project was a year out of my life and I learned so much and I worked with so many lovely musicians. I got to record in one of the churches in town because I became friends with the musical director and she played a beautiful piano in the church. We simply went in, I put my microphones on the piano and she played along; we just kept going. So that was that was amazing.

The second album I did more like, around lockdown, so a lot of just sitting by myself at home might not be as notable. Often the song-writing part is actually more fun than the recording part. I also wrote on a retreat last year, and those things are always really amazing experiences. Just being with fellow song-writers, having fun, but also just making time to be creative and sharing the songs. And then afterwards needing a lot of sleep.

Darren: On behalf of The Progressive Aspect and myself, thank you very much for your time. It’s been wonderful.

Maaike: Thank you.


LINKS
Maaike Siegerist – Website | Facebook | Bandcamp | YouTube | X | Instagram
Long Earth – Website | Facebook | Bandcamp | YouTube | X