Reflections of a Starbright Candice Night

“Did you ever have a dream? I did. I’ll tell you mine. As a child I always dreamed of being a singer. I had a vivid imagination and it was easy for me to transport myself to a simpler, more magical time. I took acting and singing lessons from the age of 4 and became involved in modeling, commercial work and little theater productions.”

“As a teen music was my great escape. I knew I had to be around music for my career so I went to work at a radio station and as chance would have it met my husband. It was 1989. He was in Deep Purple and challenged our radio station to a charity soccer match.”

“He took me on the road with him in 1993 and when he needed a singer for his Difficult To Cure Solo, asked me to be his voice. He then reformed Rainbow and needed a lyricist. I co-wrote 4 songs on the Stranger In Us All album and won my first of many gold records and awards.”

“In our downtime we wrote music that was a release from the stress of the world. A place of fantasy, of star filled skies, castles on hillsides and honor and chivalry. Breathing new life into melodies from the 12th to 15 hundreds we added new lyrics and instrumentation. This musical escape became our band: Blackmore’s Night.”

“We have performed in this incarnation for 18 years releasing many albums almost yearly. We tour castles with an 8-piece band and play a wide variety of music from Renaissance to Rock to Folk to ballads and instrumentals. We wear garb from another time and encourage our audience to do the same to be a part of the journey.” - Candice Night

And now Award-winning artist Candice Night returns with her new album “Sea Glass.” In a career that spans over 25 years - and following on from her other solo albums such as Reflections (2011) and Starlight Starbright (2015) - the multi-instrumentalist, vocalist, composer, and lyricist is back with an album that finds Candice at a new plateau in her life and her music.

With 50mph December winds outside her window, everyone asleep, thus allowing her the serenity of doing this interview in a very quiet household at 3:30am, we discussed everything from her new solo album, how she sees herself as a vocalist of such ongoing quality, on through to the reveal of new Blackmore’s Night material and, oh yeah ... her thoughts on penguins!

Candice Night Q’s (Pt. 1)

Being that your new album Sea Glass is a collection of heartfelt songs inspired by life, love and reflection, how did your creative sound differ here on this new recording as opposed to your previous outputs? - “I think, as with anything in life, as you grow, your style matures and different experiences color your world. These songs were born of such personal moments in my life, moments that shaped me for better and for worse, but my healing process is to be able to write songs that help me process those experiences. They’re deeply personal.”

“I also changed the producer who I recorded with. I found it very different to actually leave my home recording studio and try something new. I worked at Cove City Studios with Brendan Keenan for much of my album. He was able to process the ideas that I had in my head and get them onto my record almost exactly, which is incredibly rewarding in itself.”

Indeed, what were some of the biggest obstacles along the way to bringing this album to fruition and how did you overcome them? - “Probably just time constraints. As a working mom, the household basically comes to a halt if I’m not the one doing everything here, so for much of the past 10 years my family has been my primary focus, and my work secondary. But now that my kids are teenagers, it’s easier for me to take a few hours away and go to a studio and work. I continue doing everything the household needs when I step back in the door, but they’re growing up quickly and don’t need me doting as much as they once did.”

As for your Sea Glass album, I understand that it is a deeply personal one to you, and so I was wondering (without intruding) if can you please explain just why you felt you would create this new album from such a personal perspective; within the context of how it came together, both thematically and musically? - “10 years has passed since my last solo album, Starlight Starbright, which I wrote as a lullaby album for my children. Over the past 10 years, not only has there been much joy, watching my kids grow from toddlers to teens, but much heartache as well.”

“In 2018 I lost my father to cancer. He fought with all he had for the last year of his life and I feel like nothing will ever fill the hole in my heart that is there now. In 2019 I was diagnosed with cancer while on the road on tour with Rainbow and then back to back Blackmore’s Night shows. I actually had to have surgery in between shows but they didn’t cut deep enough to remove the margins, so I needed more surgeries when I returned home.”

“That’s part of the fragmented pieces referred to in my song Sea Glass. While this is all going on, Covid happened, plunging our whole world into darkness, fear and uncertainty. I was trying at that point to create a sense of normalcy in the lives of my very young children who were basically being told they were unable to go outside, see friends, and be part of a normal existence. Everything became a world of screens for them. School, entertainment, social interactions were all done on devices.”

“I didn’t want them to become dependent on that world. So I would take them outside to the beach. We would walk along the sand and get fresh air, chase waves, feel the breeze in our hair and sun on our faces. We were safe by being away from people but it didn’t feel restricted as nature is a great healer of souls. One day one of my children brought me a brilliant emerald green piece of sea glass. Holding it to the sun, it was illuminated. These pieces were hard to find but each day became a scavenger hunt to find more: Sapphire blues, amber browns.”

“It brought us much joy in a time of darkness. It was then I realized the parallel between humans and sea glass. That became the inspiration for that song. Each song on the album represents a different very strong memory that deeply touched my life over the past decade.”

Indeed, a lot of words and terms have already been used to describe your solo music over the years, but how would you yourself sum up your sound on this new album ... and in just five (5) words? - “Reflective, heartfelt, acoustic, introspective, emotional.”

Please tell us (in a couple of sentences or less) a little more about what these tracks noted below mean to you and how they came to be:

Sea Glass - “The realization that sea glass is akin to humankind. We get shattered by experiences in life, scattered, tossed and tumbled as sea glass does upon the ocean. We return to the place we were, our edges softened by time and wear, the same yet different somehow. Those we are broken, and will break many times throughout our lives, we must hold these pieces up to the sun, find our joy and what illuminates us still.”

Dark Carnival - “Written on my haunted piano, inspired by eastern European dark smoky restaurants that we have frequented throughout our travels. Instrumental and ghostly.”

The Last Goodbye - “Having been in a relationship for 36 years and knowing it takes a lot of hard work, I’ve seen many couples meet, fall in love, get married and then get divorced. All relationships wax and wane like the phases of the moon. People evolve and change, so when is that last fight, that last goodbye really the complete end of all you have put into your relationship?”

When I Want To Fly - “This track was sent to me many years ago by a Russian band, Severo Vostock- they wanted me to put English words to their song. I fell in love with the track as it reminded me of early Jethro Tull, prog rock style. I added my lyrics and vocals, but they lost the record label deal so the song sat on a shelf for many years. They gave me permission to release it here.”

And was Sea Glass always going to be the albums name or was there another that nearly won the race come the time to take your hands off the project? - “I thought that each song really represented its own piece of sea glass, musically. I had other ideas for titles, one was Promise Me from that track, and a few other words that were visually beautiful but not titles on the album, but Sea glass made the most sense.”

What can you tell us about the cover art shoot and what was going through your mind in that particular chosen shot? - “I sent the idea of what I wanted over to the record label, the girl looking out to the ocean, a vast sea of uncertainty but also promise and possibilities, you can’t see her face so she could be anyone ... even you, surrounded by sea glass pieces glowing around her. We went back and forth a few times as I had a definite idea of what I wanted and the one you see is the one that I closely gave all aspects of to our team to create.”

What are some of the last albums (CD, vinyl, cassette, et al) you yourself physically purchased (vintage and/or new releases) and which one have you already gone back to listen to more and why? - “It’s been too long since I purchased a CD, and now cars don’t even have CD players. I tend to listen to Pandora at home when I’m working and there are some great obscure stations on there that even Ritchie likes. Medieval and Renaissance themed especially.”

“I have purchased some vinyl recently, but they’re for my daughter as she now has a record player and spends a lot of time listening to music in her room. Those albums are mostly Taylor Swift and mainly for her birthday or holidays.”

Blackmore’s Night Q’s

You and Ritchie were due to tour at the tail end of this year, but due to health reasons for Ritchie you had to cancel. But my question is that as I am sure Blackmore’s Night will tour again in 2026, and with it you would be continuing to highlight nearly 30 years as a recording/touring entity, in your opinion what has kept this musical venture as alive in spirit and as on the loved-by-millions musical train tracks as it has all these decades? - “I hope we can get back on the road. Ritchie had a back attack of vertigo and was taken to hospital in NJ. It was frightening as he had never had vertigo before so we weren’t sure where the symptoms were coming from and how to fix it. Even returning home he was unable to get into a car to get to the doctor so the healing process has been a slow one.”

“I went to go see Heart play the other day, my first time seeing them, and Nancy said “We get paid to do the travel, when you’re onstage ... this is the cherry on top,” and that’s so true. It’s the long car rides, the cancelled or delayed planes, the sleepless nights in hotel rooms with wedding parties or loud people outside in the hallways near your room so you can’t sleep.”

“That’s what is so hard about touring. Stepping on stage is the reward, the fun part. I think when people come to the shows they like the fact that the show, the music, the people are so honest. There’s no posing, no false airs, we love what we do, we are a close tight knit group of friends who are at the top of their musical game and we are enjoying every moment onstage and sharing those honest moments with the fans.”

“It’s truly like being at a party at our home. Ritchie is handing out drinks, we’re taking requests, telling stories, bringing people on stage with us, but we are also taking them along with us on a time travel trip through the ages that will take you away from the pressures of the modern world. We will play songs that will touch your heart, make you laugh, make you cry, make you reflect. It’s a family show so there are no boundaries between age, gender or walk of life. It’s simply good melodic music that anyone can sing along to and be part of our world.”

Blackmore’s Night’s first album (1997) was entitled Shadow Of The Moon and its last one was called Nature’s Light (2021) and so has there, to you, been a marked change in the way the band creates its music, harnesses its unique sound from back then to now, perhaps? - “I think we are always learning. Each album has been a page in our scrapbook of our lives. The first album has such an innocence to it, I had never been a lead singer before and we were trying a whole new genre of music so different from anything Ritchie had done. It was a labor of love and a total gamble considering he was known worldwide for decades of rock music.”

“But when we toured we realized our set list needed some more upbeat music to get the crowd on their feet. That was where Under A Violet Moon came in. Between the title track, Morning Star, Spanish Nights, those songs were written to weave into the mystical elements from the first album that were a bit too sedate for a live audience. Fires At Midnight found us with Ritchie playing more electric guitar and I learned to play shawms and infused that into the songs. We now had a different texture with the double reeds. Ghost of a Rose had more orchestral elements. Each step was a learning process and it continues to date.”

And given you used to joke on stage that the next song is going way back, back into the "BC" era, with this new tour about to kick off in November, has that "BC" statement (Before Candice - Before Children - Before Corona) now morphed into a new "BC," perhaps? - “If we didn’t have to cancel the shows, it would’ve been Before Christmas, but alas ...”

And can you please give us a delightful exclusive (given we are called Exclusive Magazine, after all) and possibly reveal that BN will be bringing out a new album sometime soon? - “I can definitely tell you we have 4 songs already recorded for the next album, and that we have about 4 more written and ready to be recorded. Hoping once Ritchie clears this rough patch of vertigo we can get our producer back up here to record them and more so that would bring us to a late 2026 release ... possibly.”

Richie Blackmore / Rainbow Q

Now, as I have interviewed you a few times before like this, and you jokingly pay mention to the fact that your other half is usually in the background somewhere close, I was wondering if you could please turn around and ask him (from me) what his favorite period of time was when playing live and/or recording with any version of Rainbow down the years? - “As I am doing this interview in a very quiet household at 3:30am with 50 mile December winds outside my window, it’s very peaceful and everyone is asleep. Even the cat. However, knowing my husband’s answers for the past nearly 4 decades, he would tell you his favorite time and memories of playing with a band would be in the Three Musketeers. I think when it comes to Rainbow he would have good memories and stories of every incarnation, but I know that one of his favorite songs he’s ever recorded was Street Of Dreams.”

OK, my Ritchie fanning is done for now, and I truly hope he gets better, stronger and healthier soon - “I’ll let him know when he wakes up tomorrow afternoon. He’s on musician hours.”

Candice Night Q’s (Pt. 2)

From Reflections (2011) through to Starlight Starbright (2015) and last year’s Sea Glass (2025), listening to all three as I construct these questions, it honestly doesn’t sound like your voice has changed at all. So what have you done for/with your vocal cords over the years to keep them as brilliantly soulful, as undeniably, ethereally melodic all these years? - “Thank you. I actually think that my voice has increased in range and gotten a lot stronger over the years. My husband would, jokingly, say that’s due to me yelling at the kids. Honestly, I take care of my voice. I am not a drinker, never even had a beer in my life! Not a smoker. I drink mostly water and always make my own brew of fresh ginger, hot water, honey and a splash of tabasco when on the road. Stay hydrated.”

“Mainly I just get lost in the emotion of the music. I close my eyes and it really takes me on an incredible journey and I think what I feel comes out in my voice when I’m singing. It’s from a place of true love and emotion. Sometimes when I’m singing on stage with my eyes closed so lost in the song I forget there are people out there watching!”

What would you like all the readers of this interview to know about the upcoming Blackmore’s Night album and what to expect? - “The album that will be out this year ... I hope? Very much in Blackmore’s Night style, there is a bit of everything. Some amazing instrumentals by Ritchie, a couple of cover songs, and lots of originals.”

Finally, and yes, we ask everyone we interview this very same question (as we are putting together a kid’s book), we here at Exclusive Magazine love Penguins and so we were wondering if you had any love for them and/or had a story of one (soft toy, zoo, chocolate bar, relative, etc.) that you could share with us? - “Oh my goodness I love this! I have a great picture of myself and my kids out here at the Riverhead Aquarium (Atlantis) with a penguin [see above]. Of course they sat my son right next to the penguin and told us all not to touch him to which my son instantly tried to touch the penguin!”

“Luckily, the penguin didn’t mind, we switched the kids’ seats, I kept my hand on my son to reign him back in - in case he tried again - and we got a great picture. And I know you’re only talking penguins, but when my daughter was 4 years old watching Dora the Explorer in her little princess chair, my husband said to her “You’re watching penguins on TV?” She very seriously looked at him and corrected him “They’re puffins!” Years later we went to Iceland and saw they had puffins everywhere! Postcards, socks, shirts, stuffed toys. So she sent Ritchie a puffin postcard and then brought him home a big stuffed puffin! We never saw them in Iceland as they’re only there in summer for a couple of weeks, but she always said she wanted to go back to Iceland to see the Puffins!”

“So, I try to give my kids experiences and memories and I found that you can take a boat in Maine to Eastern Egg Rock to see them. We set out on the boat on a very misty morning, like something out of a Stephen King novel and got to see the puffins! Digressing a bit from your original penguin story, but puffins are still important!”