THE GATHERING

Interview with Anneke (vocals)

First I'd like to say how happy I was to be able to talk to Anneke. I had been singing for a long time but it's when my former guitarist lent me Mandylion a few years ago that I started to believe that Metal was also suitable for female vocalists. In fact, it's this lady that made me expand my horizons to heavier genres and I don't regret it because it enriched me. When you look at how The Gathering have been evolving over the years, searching for new ways of expression, discovering new angles of their personalities as it where, you can only be strengthened in you idea that it is good to follow your heart instead of what fashion tells you will sell. And this band has proven that it works.

Q>> The evolution you guys went is really motivating for female singers to leave the little box that seems to be more or less defined for women in Metal where style is concerned. What's your opinion on this? Did you notice some evolution in "what is expected" from female vocalists in the genre over the years? What do you think accounts for the state of things?
A>> Yeah, there's been an evolution in the Metal world with female singers and also with females who listen to Metal but I think we as a band evolved as well to other styles of music. It's hard to say but I think that ten years ago, Metal was totally different from what it is now. Obviously, there's been an upsurge in the Gothic Metal scene, which has a lot more women in it. I think this is a good evolution, 'cause it means that more melody could come in. I can only say that we as a band evolved to more musical styles than Metal only. I never felt as if I was expected to behave this or that way. In the end, it's all about the music. Me being a female is never an issue in the band, since the vocals are equally important as the other instruments. The fact that I was a woman did indeed make a difference in the Metal world back then, because it was quite a new phenomenon but in the end people should just listen and decide if they like it or not.

Q>> Didn't you think that your gender was exploited marketing-wise?
A>> Oh, yes. Of course it was. Our old record company and the people who want to make money from this musical genre exploit gender very much. But we never participated in that. We just made the music and put it out there. Obviously promo pictures were made but the band never wanted to shove me in the front like "this is the woman". It was never a criterion for The Gathering as a band.

Q>> I guess you've noticed that "Souvenirs" is kind of a paradoxical term since The Gathering now clearly points to the future, not to the past... So, is it just a kind of wink or is there actually something related to the past on a certain level?
A>> Yes there is. I think it's very important to know what you did. You don't necessarily have to go back to the past to be able to use its experiences for the future. I think "Souvenirs" has a lot to do with the fact that musically, emotionally and personally you go through all these phases in life and you take this into the future with you. Because without the past, you don't have a future. Unless you were born today. But when you've had a life... you should just live and learn actually. I think that's a little bit what "Souvenirs" is about...

Q>> More than a new album, "Souvenirs" is a nice big collection of new sounds. Why did you decide to explore such new sonorities this time?
A>> I think it's also a part of the evolution we've been through and when you kind of grow up you like to make new decisions. We want to make different music with each record. Especially in terms of finding new sounds and new ways of writing together, new ways of recording also. We always try to put in some novelty to keep it fresh. Because what you did, you already did and doing it a second time isn't very exciting. We enjoy finding new sounds, new ways... Naturally, this leads to variation from one record to the next.

Q>> Do you think that this is part of the secret that has kept you together all this time as a band?
A>> I really think so. The most important thing is to remain friends. And if you can make music together on a nice quality level you're bound to make some new efforts. So it never gets boring. Then it's very okay to continue in the same direction...

Q>> I hear a lot of post-production effects too... Did lots of things change after the recording, during the mix or the mastering process? Were all these things planned or did you just experiment after the recording to see what could come out?
A>> Of course. I guess everything changes until the last moment. Mixing comes after recording so playing with sounds makes the song come out. That's quite necessary. Well, the recording also was kind of experimental. As was the writing process of the songs. Here, mixing and mastering went along accordingly. In fact, you never know what's going to come out... You really just write the song and then you kind of subject it to recordings and mixings. It is one big adventure, how a song evolves from its creation to its realization...

Q>> You were talking about the experiment in writing. What's so different about the way you guys compose together today?
A>> Every song needs a different approach. Sometimes someone comes up with an idea and everybody makes their ideas starting from there and sometimes you take one drum loop or one riff and you feed it through the computer and totally fuck it up with sound effects and all and that also can initialize a new song... There are loads of different ways to write, so I guess that with time we learned more and more of them.

Q>> Some tracks like "You Learn About It" sound not only Poppy but has also have a very "soft" atmosphere... Is it something you'll develop more in the future or will you keep a certain balance between harder and softer songs?
A>> I think the balance is nice. If you make an all-soft record - it could be nice you know - but we need this doomy, gloomy edge. Songs like "You Learn About It" are very pleasant to write and play, that is true. So I think we need both. Don't worry; we won't lose the hard edge. We are quite a Rock band I guess.

Q>> How did you experience the change in fan adherence? Did you notice a big change in the kind of people that buy your records over the years?
A>> There's definitely been a change. In the early days, a lot of Metal people liked our music but Punk, Rock and Gothic fans also did. Nowadays those people just go along and still like what we're doing. There are also a lot of metalheads who think we've become too soft. So they skipped but there are also a lot of new people who discovered our music: people from the Alternative crowd really like what we do. There are all kinds of The Gathering fans: some like the old stuff but not the new, others like the new but not the old... Today we have a very broad spectrum of different kinds of people buying our records, coming to our shows. And that's great.

Q>> Weren't you afraid to take these daring steps, just wondering off trodden paths?
A>> We were never afraid that we were going to lose our audience. I think that we just have to make the music from our hearts. And if people really like it, which they do, then we're very happy. If things "flop" or if we don't sell records anymore at all, then at least we gave it our best shot. We cannot make music that we don't feel. To us, music is the most important thing. So if you put everything in it and it doesn't work then of course that's very sad but we wouldn't start making all styles of music just to sell. We still and always feel good about what we do. And we're not scared of what other people might think.

Q>> Let's move to the heart of the album more, to its lyrical content. What can you tell us about it?
A>> It's all about how past and future relate. We are a band that looks ahead. But we take the past along. A lot of songs on the album talk about that. It was necessary too. You know, there have been some shitty things happening with our old label the past few years and we talk about that a little bit but in a nice poetic way, you know. Sometimes people can treat you very dishonestly... There's always a lot of personal experience in my lyrics.

Q>> It seems that The Gathering changed its music a lot since their very beginning, but YOU Anneke seem to follow some kind of direction that could be seen as your "fate" or something..., which is pretty good because one must recognize that authenticity is something that most fans expect from a singer... Have you ever thought about changing your style, both in a lyrical frame as in a technical frame?
A>> I think I really did. On Mandylion there's only high and loud singing. That suited the music very well. Now we have evolved musically but vocals evolve also. Today, there's more variation to be heard in my vocal lines and in my lyrics compared to ten years ago. I think I've evolved pretty nicely. I wouldn't want to shout every song nowadays because the songs don't need loud singing. They need dynamics and I think I got to that point.

Q>> Did you feel that you needed to get closer to the listener, to get more direct?
A>> When the music asks you to, then you do it. I tend to just follow what the music tells me and I try to follow that and add my musical ideas.

Q>> And while we're at it, what has been your "training scheme" as one might call it to become the singer you are today, to be able to deliver a top performance for your fans?
A>> I had some vocal lessons of course. For about fourteen years or so. But I learned a lot from singing live and in studios. These things made me kind of grow technically. To keep it that way, to grow and give it your best effort, you really have to stay healthy. You have to sleep well. When you're on tour you have to sleep a lot and do everything to maintain quality in your voice. I try to do that as much as I can. But exercises everyday: no... When I took vocal lessons, I was supposed to but I really was too lazy to train during free hours. But when I'm on tour - and generally too - I'm very careful with my voice. Giving away interviews and breathing cigarette smoke all evening does affect your voice but it's okay. The human body is quite strong. As for talking all day: you can also talk with technique. So if you talk and sing in a good way, it doesn't affect your voice. But it definitely affects your voice to be in a bar having to shout over the music to be able to have a conversation or to be smoking or breathing other people's cigarettes. If you have to sing a lot, you just make sure that you don't really go out. Hey, it's part of the things you have to do to deliver a good job. And that's fine with me. These restrictions don't frustrate me because that's the thing that I chose to do. Being in this band is a great job so I put all my efforts in that. I'm very happy to be in this position. When you have a regular job, you also have to go to bed early because you're supposed to get up early the next day and that comes with the job. I have to just mind what I do a little bit... That's okay.

Q>> How is Psychonaut doing? Are you glad you made the choice to have your own label or not? How hard is it to work in the Dutch Metal scene? I heard about many jealous people/hard competition and so on...
A>> We're very glad. When we fulfilled our contract with our old record company, we decided that we were going to do everything ourselves because this would provide us with a lot of creative freedom. Okay, it's smaller and we don't have a really big budget to do promotion and everything but it's a great feeling to do everything yourself and to have an overview on everything that you do. We feel very good about this, because there's no money machine behind it. It's become so simple. We just make the music and hope that people will like it. We do the interviews, we play the shows and we do everything that's necessary to make a good, good record and to sell and promote it. But in our very own way. We have a good name already, so we're quite confident that people will pick up the thread and appreciate what we do. If not, we at least gave it our best shot; there's nothing more you can do. Being in the music scene is hard in general but because we're known, we're very happy to spread worldwide instead of playing all our cards in one country. Also where style is concerned, it was more interesting for us to break free since we don't have to bare any kind of musical restriction now either. We just floated past any hard competition and jealousy because we don't compete with any other band. Creating our own label was some sort of a natural evolution too: a business evolution if you will. Besides, we'll be able to campaign our stuff the way we want to: we go on the pictures how we want to; we make the layout of the artwork like we want it. Okay, we always did that but there was always someone breathing down our necks saying, "If you use the color red, it won't sell" and things like that. That's how ridiculous it all is. And with our music it doesn't really matter what color you use, as long as it's beautiful.

A>> sigh...

Fae

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