Interview - Sylvaine - 3rd March 2026
Interview By: Wal Reid
Interviewee: Kathrine Shepard, aka Sylvaine
Date: 3rd March 2026
With her return to Aotearoa just days away, Kathrine Shepard, aka Sylvaine, is gearing up for her sole New Zealand performance at Auckland’s Powerstation on Sunday 15th March – a rare chance for Kiwi fans to experience her atmospheric world up close.
The metal goddess is supporting mercurial Faroese singer, composer and sonic alchemist Eivør Pálsdóttir for an unforgettable Australasian tour this month, following Eivør’s triumphant sold-out tour of Europe and a critically praised run across the United States earlier this year.
Sylvaine is animated even on the teeny Zoom screen, as she proceeds to tell me halfway across the world in Norway, that it’s starting to snow. I’m thankful it’s warmer here, reflecting the stark contrast between our hemispheres. She has four days to get used to Auckland and the country before performing and admits she can't wait to get a feel for the place. But what does the Norwegian chanteuse know about our fair shores?
Oh, my goodness, what do I know about New Zealand? The thing is, I have heard that New Zealand and Norway are similar-looking in terms of nature. I can't imagine that to be true. I feel like New Zealand's going to be far more exotic than here. But still, I have heard that several times.
I had spoken to a very nice Australian woman on the train home from the airport after a show once. She was like, ‘You'd better go to Australia before you tour, instead of New Zealand, because New Zealand's going to look familiar for you. And I was like, ‘Is it?’ I know that it's supposedly the Norway of Oceania.
It’s a sentiment that makes me smile, but I just can’t resist suggesting that maybe Norway is the New Zealand of Scandinavia. She proceeds in a soft American Norwegian lilt.
Well, first and foremost, thank you so much for having me. I'm very happy to be chatting with you today, and again, I’m amazed when people take an interest in my music, so thank you very much for this chat.
Music started for me quite early, because my family basically has been in music. My Mom is kind of more on the organisation side. She worked at the labels, she worked in promotion, as a concert promoter, arranging festivals, stuff like that. And then my Dad is a musician. He was a drummer and was a professional musician for, I don't know, thirty years in the US playing nightclub circuits with different bands. Then eventually ended up touring over here in Scandinavia and that’s where he met my Mom.
Shepard was born in San Diego to a Norwegian mother and an American father, before moving with her family to Oslo at a young age. She is a classically trained vocalist and received a bachelor's degree in musicology from the University of Oslo. The name Sylvaine was inspired by the word ‘sylvan’ (meaning forest) and the surname of French poet Paul Verlaine.
I think because music was so present in my everyday life as a kid, it’s kind of probably influenced me a little bit. I just had these memories of being quite obsessive with music from an early age. So, as I grew up, and I think it was when I was more in my teenage years, I was kind of like, “okay, how can I make this something I do every day of my life?”, because it's a way that I can express myself. It seems to release things that I can't do in other ways. That's basically how this started. I was about 14, then I started making choices that ultimately have led me to where I am now.
Sylvaine mixes elements of metal with classical overtones. It’s a sweet balance of cacophony, melodic and ethereal choral sonics. She can deviate between softer melodic songs to full-on ‘banshee’ mode, her voice reminiscent of black metal vocalists and the style featuring on her latest album, Nova.
I never really made a conscious choice of, I want this to sound like a weird Metal-Folk Pop hybrid or something. I started with, you know, melodic rock. My favourite band when I was growing up was Aerosmith. I started with more regular rock bands. From there, it just got heavier. I didn't start with actual black metal stuff until I was much older. It got heavier; it got a bit darker. Then at some point, I discovered Type O Negative, which became a massive influence.
As a listener, I was increasingly attracted to musical projects that had opposing elements in them, finding some kind of balance between light and dark. I think it's natural that when I went to make my own music, that came out. It wasn't really a conscious choice of, like, ‘Oh, I really want this to have hard beats,’ or, you know, tremolo picking of black metal, then wanting to have big choral parts – I think that comes from my love of the human voice. I think it’s such a cool instrument. It has so many different textures.
Speaking about her vocals, talk swings around her raunchier paint-peeling vocals on the heavy track Earthbound or the spine curdling vocals on channelling her alter-ego. It’s a gift that comes to her naturally, although she is quick to point out her screaming vocals are not about anger.
The funny part was that no one taught me how to do this. I had been classically trained and had vocal training for a long time. Before that, I think it was about seven years before I even attempted this kind of voice. I was in the studio with a friend of mine and he literally kept trying to push me in this chorus that I was recording for him. He was like, ‘OK, but could you go edgier?’ I recorded it for my first album and then the second, then it just kind of became the norm.
When I use the screaming vocals, it's usually because I feel like the emotions in the song are so, what can I say, urgent? They're so pressing that sometimes a clean voice can't really express the full extent of how urgent and big these feelings are to me. I feel like the screaming voice can take over because it has another emotional range that the clean voice might not be able to reach. So very often it's not a cry for help, it's like, ‘Listen to me. I really need you to listen to me right now, because this is serious shit.’
Speaking of touring, she won’t be bringing her band to New Zealand this time – her ‘little family’, as she calls them. Fans can expect an immersive, emotionally charged performance, as Sylvaine offers a more intimate, stripped-back version of her signature blend of post‑metal, ethereal vocals, and ambient soundscapes.
She’ll take the stage on Sunday 15th March at Auckland’s Powerstation, her one and only New Zealand show. And as our conversation drifts from tour logistics into the heart of her creative world, it’s clear there’s a lot more on her horizon. Talk spirals into the new album, the emotional terrain she’s been navigating, and what lies beyond this run of shows. It’s the perfect moment to ask what she’s expecting next, both musically and personally, as she continues shaping the next chapter of Sylvaine.
Everyone has said that, like, ‘You’re lucky. You're going to a place where it's actually going to be nice.’ I’m like, ‘I know.’ I'm just looking forward to having actual sunlight. Because I saw sunlight yesterday and it made such a difference.
I'm very excited to be back on tour with Eivør again because I haven't seen them for a little while now. Our last tour was February last year, so it's, like, over a year ago. I love those humans. They're lovely touring companions and I can't wait to be out on an adventure with them again. I’m excited to see the fans in New Zealand and Australia, because I run my social media myself. I've been communicating with people all over the world, including New Zealand and Australia, and I'm just so excited to share those moments with people and to meet them after the shows.
Other Credits:
Sylvaine will join Faroese artist Eivør on her 2026 Australia and New Zealand tour as a special guest, performing solo sets. The tour runs from March 15–25, 2026, with stops in Auckland, Adelaide, Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane, and Perth, featuring a mix of Nordic folk and atmospheric Blackgaze.
2026 Tour Dates (with Eivør)
• March 15: Auckland, NZ – Powerstation
• March 18: Adelaide, AU – The Gov
• March 20: Melbourne, AU – Northcote Theatre
• March 21: Sydney, AU – Metro Theatre
• March 22: Brisbane, AU – Princess Theatre
• March 25: Perth, AU – Astor Theatre
