Before we release the new singer and the live recordings recorded with her, I want to open up the singer switching process a little more. Conversations with the band a year back were fundamental at the time when we began to explore new options for the new singer. We didn’t make the singer search public, but we discussed what are the qualities we are looking from a new singer. One obvious thing was that the new singer was going to be a woman. Another obvious thing was that we would not be looking for any well-known singer or someone who already sings in many other bands/projects because Segmentia needs full attention of each of its members. The third important thing would be personality and work ethic. Sure, the basic qualities of a new singer like musicality, singing skills, and a desire to practice are important stuff, but we wanted to prune out options first through character and moral issues. In short, we would look for a rough diamond. I think I have made it clear to all the musicians and singers in the band from the beginning that this is not just a nice pastime, but we work professionally and keep moving forward. For some reason, however, it hasn’t always gone quite that way, and that’s why getting Segmentia together has taken a huge amount of time - for several years. Here I’m not just blaming others, but most of all myself for not being unconditional enough telling these things when I have interviewed a new singer or bassist into a band. I have learned a lot from this trip. It wasn’t the first time I asked our new singer to join the band - it seems to be even the third or fourth time during the years. This time, she finally began to consider that she might have something to give to Segmentia and that Segmentia would provide a framework for developing her as a singer but also as a person. Even when we want to take the band in a more melodic direction specifically vocally, we found a common tone in the negotiations from the very beginning. I think it is good that we have been patient and decided to so-called close this Shanghai EP by releasing a live recording of its songs and introducing our new singer at the same time. This way the old can stay behind and we look forward, focusing on the new material and the future. The next steps are already marked, and we will tell you about them later this fall. I sincerely hope that you are as excited about the future of Segmentia as we are. See you at gigs, hopefully very soon.

-Jere