Sophie posted a nice link in the dutch part of the forum:
http://3voor12.vpro.nl/artikelen/artikel/41682644So, because not all a capable of reading and understanding the truly beautiful language of the dutchies,
i made a quick&dirty translation to english.
[and don't blame me for errors or misunderstanding, i am neigher dutch nor english]
“Welcome to The Gathering family!!”, wrote an italian fan on the MySpace-Site of Silje Wergeland, the new singer of the Gathering. The band from Nijmegen had put 3 new songs on their Myspace-Site creating a wave of reactions over whole europe, north/southamerica. For sure the fans didnt forget about the band up to now - supporting them though bad and good times and looked for their new album The West Pole which soon will be released.
That a new album was to come wasn't for sure. In 2007 frontwoman Anneke van Giersberen decided to quit The Gathering and focused on her own band Agua de Annique. „At that time for some weeks we had been really confused“ says Frank Boeijen, keyboard player of The Gathering. „Of course we got taken out of the field/green, she had been 12 years in the band. But we also had a past before Anneke, so after this time of confusion we decided that we just wanted to carry on. We knew it wouldn't be easy and it would need a bunch of time to put the band back on track, but we didn't want to stop.
„With internet about 250 people made auditions. Thats the cool thing about internet: music doesn't have anymore borders, besides some logistics. First off we wanted to work with some guest-singers, but the norwegan Silje Wergeland has an awesome voice and overwhelming ambition. Because it at once made „click“ with her, we decided she should become our permanent singer. By the way: on the album are two other singers: the dutch Anne van den Hoogen and the mexican Marcela Bovio.
Silje is from Norway but today she lives in England. Isn't this difficult with rehearsing and touring? According to Frank this is a question of good planning. „She often flies by airport Weeze and thats close to here. For rehearsing she came over a couple of weeks. Live acts you have to plan more often in blocks.
The last release was 3 years ago. How exciting is it to again make a new record? „Very exciting! So we also have been very happy about the positive reactions for the new numbers. Writing in the beginning was demanding and we didnt want to be too hasty. The new album had to sound strong and fresh. More than half of the new songs are uptempo and guitar orientated. It was time for something energetic , back to rock, but with some new influences. Recently we have listened for example to Dredg and Arcade Fire. Our calm songs are beautyful too, but that we had made alot. Now it was time for something different: A spring-feeling with guitars. Treasure is the most positive song we ever made. In former times we also made some proper depressive things.
In one of your bogs you wrote that the new cd was „a monster to mix“. Why it was so difficult? Frank tells: „Uptempo songs with lots of distortion are more difficult to mix than calm songs. You have to well balance them out to make it sound as you want it to sound. The record was mixed by Zlaya Hadzich. Fortunately now the master is finished and the cd can be pressed. The production was made on our own. On one hand for the money but mostly for the challange. All you learn in doing it you can use in the future.
The West Pole will be in the shops in may. In june Canada and America will follow. Certainly then we also can admire The Gathering live. First off the band will do a couple of try-outs then followed by festivals and later a clubtour in europa – in which of course the Netherlands will be visited. Is it difficult to organize after your front-woman quitted? For Frank this won't be problematic: „We still have the same booking-agency, working from London. In the last years we built up a considerable publicity, so the venues still do know us. We notice we still are welcome. For the big festivals the cd will be released too late, hopefully we can do some this year and can, after playing us into the audience later this year, do some next year. We fit to several festivals because we do some crossover in between rock and pop.
With the uptempo songs of the new cd we can compile a very interesting festival-set. Also we will do older songs, but we still have to decide which ones. It will be strange with a new singer, but its still your oeuvre (work)
The band exists almost for 20 years. People get older and change their lives. Since a short time guitar player Rene Rutten runs his own guitar-shop 'Guitars & Amps' and drummer Hans Rutten got two children. But that doesn't change the ambition: „We still have the urge being creative. We know each other very well, we perfectly fit and dare to be very honest among us. We still want to go on the road; there is nothing better than step into the bus for some live-act. For this i really understand the Rolling Stones! Why should you stop this when you have a bunch of children???
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