INTERVIEW 2
By Jeremy Wernow
I often wondered what would be next for the world of metal. Death metal has been around for a little while now and pretty much replaced thrash as the underground metal favorite. Now most thrash bands (but not all) have broken up, done something creative, or gone on to do the MTV rock star thing. Thinking about this leads me to think about the future of death metal. Think of all the bands of the new wave of British heavy metal? Where are they now? All I ever knew about the entire scene was what Lars Ulrich put on the NWOBHM compilation. It doesn't take much to imagine that when Black Sabbath came out there were probably a slew of wanna be's as well, whatever happened to them? Although the death metal scene is still big today, and there are plenty of black metal bands on the underground, a lot of bands are starting to change. They're either branching out or breaking up ( I just heard we recently lost Pungent Stench, I'm not happy). So what is all this retro babble about anyway? I started thinking about all this stuff when the Gathering came out with their latest album "Mandylion". Big changes have occurred with the Gathering, they can no longer be considered death metal in any sense. They had a slower more experimental approach to their music, but it still resembled death metal. The album before this apparently had a male singer with non death vocals, but I've never heard nor seen it, so I couldn't tell you anything more then that. I was severely taken back by this new album, the music is still metal, but the addition of a new singer, Anneke van Giersbergen, was a big change from their "Always" days. The music is still heavy and fairly slow, but now it's very melodic, with a lot more atmosphere. After my first brush with an international operator, which was a complete pain and I hope none of you out there will ever have to deal with one, I got to talk to Anneke from Holland and find out what her side of the story was.
Me: Why did the Gathering stop using death vocals?
Anneke: They were in the process of growing up, and they wanted to do different music. The singer wanted to stop growling.
Me: Yeah, it's gotta hurt after a while.
Anneke: Yeah, I think it's bad for your throat. There is a technique for it but I think few people know it. I give them five or six more years and then....
Me: What did you do before you joined the Gathering?
Anneke: I was in a duo called "Bad Breath" ( I think that's what she said) we were doing the jazzy bluesy type of thing. I've also been doing a band called Seventh Episode which was melodic speed metal. That was good music.
Me: Any material available in the states?
Anneke: No, there was a lot of bullshit going on.. The duo had a demo available but it's all local.
Me: How's the scene in Holland.
Anneke: The scene, in general, is very shitty. We have all these top 40 bands and house music, very stupid, on the surface type of stuff. I don't like the top 40 stuff, but the metal scene is very good. People want to do various things again, more progressive stuff, and the die hard death metal crowd is still there.
Me: I think it's withering in America (although it might be that I'm in a bad area).
Anneke: I think America is very trend sensitive, like Offspring - Green day type of shit. The big ideas stay.
Me: There are bands like Jethro Tull who have been around forever who have never even been on the top 40, but they make money. Anyway, more about the Gathering. What are the band's current plans?
Anneke: We are going to play, play, play. We're going to play in Holland a lot, we play like once or twice a week. Touring is a little difficult, because most of us are in school during the week. We'd like to finish that first. As of next year we'll tour and write a new songs.
Me: Are you going to take classes or tour during the summer?
Anneke: Definitely music during the summer.
Me: What are you studying?
Anneke: I'm not studying anything, neither is the guitarist René. The others study various things, one is doing things with computers, one is doing audio engineering, one is doing something in construction, building houses and another is doing child psychology.
Me: So this is like a hobby for a lot of them.
Anneke: It started as a hobby but it's getting pretty serious. I think they want to finish their degrees and then go with the music.
Me: That way you always have something to fall back on. Like the lead singers of Offspring or Bad Religion. Those guys are getting their doctorates! How did you get hooked up with the Gathering?
Anneke: When I was with the duo, a friend told me they were looking for a singer. I was going to play in the town where they live. So they saw me and they asked me to audition and I got chosen. There were about ten other singers trying out. They were all very good, but not the type for this type of music.
Me: Do you do anything now besides the Gathering
Anneke: I make my own music. I'm not in school, so I'm getting in and out of jobs.
Me: When you tour, who does the death vocals for older songs?
Anneke: I do, but I don't do death vocals. I just sing the lyrics, but my voice is higher. It fits very well, its good music. I go to people in the audience "Who wants to here and oldie?", and everyone goes "Yeah! Wait a minute, what are you going to do?". Reactions are pretty good.
Me: Should be interesting to hear if any live material gets put out.
Anneke: Yeah, we would have problems re-doing the songs, because then we'd have to go talk to the old record company.
Me: The others weren't too happy with the old company, were they?
Anneke: No not at all, It was a one man label, Foundation 2000, and it ripped them off big time.
Me: How much of the music do you actually write?
Anneke: I did all the lyrics and singing, most of the music was already written when I joined the band. They had a year off, and they were making music and had it done when I joined. It will be different now, we'll all be writing together.
Me: Some of the lyrics sound very bitter.
Anneke: The bitter ones are about boyfriends leaving. Sand and Mercury is about death.
Me: I was impressed by "Strange Machines". There are songs about relationships and dying and then there was this song about wanting to travel and time.
Anneke: The music was written inspired by the movie "Time Machine", the book by H.G. Wells. I just sat on my bed and thought I might as well do lyrics about traveling in time, because everyone wants to do it. I would want to do it all, but you can't. It's nice to fantasize about it. It's going to be the single.
Me: Is there any particular time you would most like to visit?
Anneke: None in particular, but I would like to be my parents age when they were my age, because I really like my parents. I have beer contests with my father, I would like to have been their friend when they were growing up. It was all flower power, I would like to have beer contests when they were my age.
Me: What are some of the advantages and disadvantages of being female in such a male dominated genre such as metal?
Anneke: I like it. I've always been around boys, I don't know why but I like being around guys. I get all the attention of course, so it's kind of funny, it's hard work but it's OK. I don't feel threatened by any male world or anything.
Me: Any video plans?
Anneke: Yeah I just heard about it today. The drummer from the band Celestial Seasons. is making the video with us, a little live stuff, a little computer stuff.
Me: My guess is it won't make it to America now that there's no metal video show anywhere.
Anneke: Century Media is pushing us really well, so we might have a chance.
Me: What are the Netherlands like as far as landscape or people?
Anneke: It's pretty nice, very flat, old buildings. It's very nice to live in, we've got a good social security system, we have freedom in what we want to say, and what we want to smoke and drink. It's a cool place to live although I would like to explore, see America.
Me: Have you been outside of Holland? Are the country's very different?
Anneke: The neighboring countries are good, but as far as places like Yugoslavia, it's poor and there's violence.
Me: Is it tough touring in different countries? Do you have to learn all the different laws and languages?
Anneke: I've only been to the neighboring countries, but the rest of the group have been to like Poland and Israel, Tel Aviv. It's crazy, there's screaming girls that come up and sit on their lap and everything. I hear it's pretty crazy. It's so different, different people, language, religion.
Me: Is religion big over there?
Anneke: Not so much in Holland as it is in America. It's all Catholic, but it's pretty limited. It's not like you, you have TV priests.
Me: Tell me about it, when I was growing up in Connecticut, just outside of New York, it wasn't too big, but now I'm in the south, in Florida, and there's a church on every corner.
Anneke: It's so stupid. People kill each other for religion, it so out of context.
Me: One of the ten commandments: " Thou shalt Not kill"
Anneke: It's the first I think.