Dear legions, We hope you're all doing okay! A lot of preparations here for the upcoming mix and master but you know what? It's going good! Almost there and mix starts on February 16th! Exciting! Disclaimer for this post: It's a longer one, more text than pictures - so grab a coffee or tea and feel free to read it if you want ❤︎At the same time we are working on upcoming tour, music videos, photo shoots, music, artworks.. , less fun things also occur - but you are here to learn about how the life is behind the scenes for a band like us, and therefor we every now and then share maybe less fun insights - but necessary ones to know about.Why we find this one necessary to express is because it is good to be aware. After all, we do stand united.. right? So some things are just a bit more important for you to know about to also maybe understand why either one of us go more silent sometimes.A year ago I started to get messages outside of our server from a fan of ours, and after reading I chose to never reply on these messages. The messages had a certain character that was all over the place and made me quite uncomfortable how the love towards me was expressed, but also - one of the main focus was about Lucifer, yes - the devil. All those 3 vibes combined gave a quite an odd appearance that made me uncomfortable, and also a bit worried about this fan. I chose to not reply to the DMs because I figured it was first a bit harmless - and most likely it may run out in the sand after a while since I never replied. People can get bored when they don't get your reply, right? It didn't get less. It continued. To a point where words about ending the persons own life started to be a part of the messages. Also that the main goal was to see me first before doing so. Even giving away dates of where this person would appear outside of the Eleine HQ etc. We did what we can do - we checked for suicidal hotlines and places to turn in this persons home country, and Rikard did me the big favor and wrote from our Patreon page, a DM to this person informing that we will never agree to meeting this person, and also give suicide hotline numbers to call and express how they feel, to hopefully get some more professional help. This individual is obviously not doing well mentally, and is in need of help.The reply we got back from person was, and I quote: "I am writing to tell you that I completely reject the message Rikard sent me on Patreon. I will only accept a not if Lucifer himself come to me or my room and tells me personally to my face that I can't go".From that moment, we just left it. The person got banned from the Discord server, to see if this could maybe help out a bit mentally. The messages to me in DM's continued, and I didn't look very often so I did notice at some point I had several. I obviously considered blocking, but we wanted to take it slow just in case - because sometimes people can react very hard and "explode" if they get shut down like that everywhere at the same time. I always want to believe in the good in people, and that if people are given a second chance they may take it. But it got pretty clear that this person just ain't capable or willing to realize what they're doing is.. not okay. Last Wednesday after leaving the studio I had to go to the mall 10 min away from home for an appointment with my optician. While there, approx. 30 min after leaving, my apartment's door phone calls that is connected to my cellphone."Hello, is this Madeleine?", the Swedish male voice says."Yes, it is - why and who are you if I may ask? You're not the mail man I assume?" I reply "Well.. my name is xx, and I am standing here with a guy that has travelled from xx country (within EU) and he says he is here to meet you and you guys have decided this." he replied.I got into a state of shock to be honest. I have been trying to talk with both professionals, business colleagues and just whoever about the situations with all the messages - and honestly, everyone has said the same: "This person is not well. You guys have provided hotlines and done basically what you can do. But I recommend you're not replying to him, ever." No matter who it has been I've talked to about this - everyone has encouraged me to not reply, which was also what I felt was the right thing to do. Hopefully making the interest cease, for the person to go elsewhere and hopefully search for help. No one thought the messages and talks about showing up would ever happen for real, because the Lucifer part and some other details written sounded.. well, very all over the place and as if it was not fully legit.I told the man on the phone: "I never, ever thought that he would show up. I will have to call the police because I have never replied to him, never agreed to meet him and he has talked about ending his own life but wanting to meet me first and who knows what he would be capable of doing?"When my sentence was done the phone hung up. It's an apartment phone and they're time limited. I didn't know who this person was, I didn't have his number to call him up so I just stood there not knowing what to do. After 5 minutes of confusion from my end and a confused optician, I got a phone call from a hidden number - it was the police. They basically said this man had called the police for me because he did feel this person that just showed up was a bit off, and when realizing what the person had said about meeting wasn't true - and that I felt scared was enough for him to call the police. How did this person find my place? Here's the weird part. The person had for some reason chosen an address where he thought our HQ was located, outside of Landskrona. While arriving there after taking a taxi 3 hours from an airport far away (?!), he has just sat down in the out door furnitures outside of this address. The man living there opened his door sometime in the afternoon and saw a stranger sit in his garden. He asked if he could help him with anything and this person presented that he had a booked meeting with me. In my personal opinion, this is odd enough. But.. what I regret to know is that the man living there recognized my name and what I do, and search for my address. Then he brings this person who just showed up, to him a complete stranger, in his own car all the way to my apartment building's door.
Luckily this Swedish man took the first interactions with the person and not me. I really have no idea how that would have turned out.It also appeared this person hadn't booked anywhere to stay, and didn't have any money left. Which made us all think.. what was the plan then? Where did you intend to go?The police were amazing though. The custom police went there to talk with this person, they called me and asked me to fill in more about the case and when they heard and learnt that I have never replied nor accepted him arriving, but also the part of Lucifer they truly got serious. They wanted to bring this person to the borders and make sure he left the country. But, this person started saying that he will commit suicide and self harm, so per law they had to leave him at the psychiatric ER not far away. The police understood I felt very, very uncomfortable with this. Since there's no guarantee the ER keeps him. If they determine that he is not a threat to himself, they will let him go. So the police told me that I should stay at home on the Thursday, and if the person would appear again I'll make sure I call the police and this time they should be able to handle it properly. Remember; I have never seen a single photo of this person. I wasn't there, luckily, and just missed this person with 15-20 min, so I had no idea who to look for through the window. It was scary, and honestly - still is. I am not assuming someone would show up to hurt me, but it is the feeling of someone absolutely not showing ANY respect for me as a person and my life, that thinks it is okay to just show up like that and.. expect what from me really? I felt violated I guess is the word I am searching for. I mean.. I love meeting our fans. This was just not the right way to go. I don't want that to be affected by me feeling scared because 1 individual decides to harass me through DM's and show up by my door after traveling so very far. I refuse to let it affect how I feel about meeting fans, I just can't help but still feel a bit affected mentally from it. It was a bit overwhelming to say the least. I am certain everything will be okay, and the person has now been blocked from Patreon etc. And I won't let this bring me down in any way, Rikard and I just felt that it is important to share with you so you know why I may be a bit absent for now, and also give you an insight in something that apparently can happen whenever you've decided to go with this profession. All in all, thank you for reading this - thank you for being so supportive and remember how appreciated you are. Our fans are our everything, without you - there is no us. With love, Madeleine & Rikard