The Gathering

interview by: Roberto Martinelli


Things had to be made right – last year we had brought you a very nice interview indeed with Hans Rutten, the drummer for Dutch sensation The Gathering. But it was supposed to be with the darling of the band, vocalist Anneke van Giersbergen. But some confusion about time differences meant we missed out.

Luckily for us, a new opportunity arose. And you couldn’t ask for better occasions to get some time to talk with van Giersbergen than for the release of The Gathering’s most lovely album, Sleepy Buildings. It should be added that our newfound, geeky interest in vocals, as well as the excitement shared around Maelstrom HQ from our girlfriend, the brilliant medicinal chemist Hanna Cho, a bigger Gathering fan than us, made us feel giddy. So the interview began with my assuring van Giersbergen that I indeed wrote for a real magazine, and off we went.

Maelstrom: You know, I’ve started taking vocal lessons. All the stuff about breathing and where to send the air... it’s fascinating. I’d like to ask you, when and where did you start singing, and what valuable lessons did you learn?

Anneke van Giersbergen (below): Well, I’m quite young, but I’ve been singing a lot of years. I had all these phases. I had been making music before then, but when I joined The Gathering, we had a lot of shows to do, and I was very scared that my voice wouldn’t hold it, and that I would be hoarse, and that I wasn’t good enough. And all that stressing made me sick. I would wear three scarves and not talk after shows... the most valuable lesson was to relax and enjoy it. Of course be careful with your body, and all, but not to stress. And obviously I became a better singer because I sang a lot, too.


Maelstrom: So you didn’t have as much experience playing in bands before The Gathering?

Anneke van Giersbergen: I did! But not at the same level. I played in bars and little venues. But I didn’t care then about being fit or good. It was just fun. But with The Gathering, if I got sick, then the whole show could be ruined, and that put a lot of pressure on me. But when I let that go after years, I got better because I knew I could do it. And that’s the secret.

Maelstrom: I recently saw the In Motion DVD. It’s quite old footage – at least nine or 10 years old.

Anneke van Giersbergen: Yes.

Maelstrom: The oldest stuff is from a Dynamo festival. It seemed that your style then involved a lot more jumping around (obviously, it’s a lot more metal)...

Anneke van Giersbergen: (giggles)

Maelstrom: ... and my image with you now, on the Sleepy Buildings album, is more sort of a “sit down with no shoes on” approach.

Anneke van Giersbergen: Yeah, it sounds like we’re old people now. When we recorded the Sleepy Buildings album, we were in a place with seats for the audience. But then, for the tour, I got tired of sitting down after a few shows, so we pepped it a little bit up. So we have the semi-acoustic thing, but we also do more of the intense songs. So I guess we’re somewhere in the middle of easy listening music – where you can close your eyes and relax – and songs that are a bit more intense, ones that make you want to dance or move a bit.

I think it’s a very nice state right now. But I know that after this quiet album, we want to be a bit more rock.

Maelstrom: I don’t know if this is what you like to call it, but Psychonaut Records, in their press release, called your last studio album “loungecore.”

Anneke van Giersbergen: Yeah! I think we got this from a journalist, and we liked it so much, we used it. The funny this is that every one makes their own words for it. And that’s really cool because it’s very interactive that way; we make the kind of music that you don’t really categorize that easily. Everybody starts to think for themself .

Maelstrom: So will it be more “loungecore” next time, or more rock?

Anneke van Giersbergen: I think it will be as pure as Sleepy Buildings, but a bit more rock. Well, the ideas that are popping up right now, and that we will assemble this year, are a bit to the heavy side – but you have to think “heavy” more in the Pink Floyd style... a bit more atmospheric, but with rough edges and guitar sounds. Not bombastic.

Maelstrom: You mentioned Sleepy Buildings as being pure. I think that’s an excellent adjective to use. In fact, it seems that its being a live record is an afterthought; it seems more like a studio record in terms of its sound and its importance. You’ve done a different take on your songs. But most importantly, the songs that you do from before you were in the band now totally have new life to them, and I find that to be this record’s greatest contribution.

Anneke van Giersbergen: .... that’s nice....

Maelstrom: I have an old, dusty CDR of Always somewhere, and I thought, “oh, I have to go find it!”

Anneke van Giersbergen: Yeah.... and you’ll notice that it’s *soo* different! We just undressed it, you know? The funny thing about those songs is that when you strip them to their essential bits, there’s always a really beautiful guitar or piano melody at their base. And what was really funny and nice and interesting for us to find out about our own music was that some songs really need the heavy riff or the big drums – they were written like that, but there are a lot of songs that were written as a beautiful melody. So we surprised ourselves with our own music.

Like the Always songs, and the song from Like a Dance, “Like Fountains” – which is a riff-o-rama, you know? So many riffs, and it’s very fast... we stripped it, and it’s a beautiful piano song.

Maelstrom: Let’s talk a little about the experience that you feel when you sing. Now, this is coming from my newfound, nerdy appreciation of vocals... but, what are you doing with your air?

Anneke van Giersbergen: There are a lot of techniques to use, and it’s a very personal thing from singer to singer. The way I learned it is to set the air in the mid-part of your stomach.

Maelstrom: The diaphragm?

Anneke van Giersbergen: Ah, yes. And to send it down, and then to push it. So, when you make an “ahhh,” you make a steady sound, instead of putting the air through your mouth and pushing it through there. Your throat is open, and you make a yawning sensation, with an open mouth. The little thing at the back of your throat is up.... I’m good in English, huh?

Maelstrom: No, you’re doing great! I think that thing at the back of the throat is called the epiglottis.

Anneke van Giersbergen: We call it a huig (she pronounced it “hauhhhhc” – Roberto)

Maelstrom: Your drummer, Hans, told me that he doesn’t really care for the record if_then_else. He says it’s a big mess.

Anneke van Giersbergen: (laugh)

Maelstrom: What’s your opinion on that?

Anneke van Giersbergen: (laugh) It *is* a big mess. There are some really beautiful jewels on it, like “Amity” and “Analog Park.” It’s a mess because they’re all nice songs, with a few beautiful songs, but they needed more work, and we didn’t have time. [The album] is not one atmosphere; it’s not one thing. It’s kind of a blanket made of all different fabrics. It sounds like a collection.

Maelstrom: I do agree with what you’re saying, but despite that, I think that it’s why it’s my favorite record of yours. Also, it reminds me of my trip to Norway, because I had taken the promo version of the album with me there, and I listened to “Amity” when I was visiting the famous church that was burnt down by the black metallers. And whenever I hear that song, I’m right back there again, walking through the woods in the rain, to see that place.

Anneke van Giersbergen: That’s one the funny and beautiful thing about music: it takes you places, and it always takes you back to the place where you coincidentally heard the song. So it’s really nice that you can refer to us as being in a forest.

Maelstrom: But I didn’t record and mix the record, so my perspective is entirely different than yours.

Anneke van Giersbergen: It is funny to see how we feel about it, having made it, and the way you do. [It means] that it’s not a waste of time, in that it made a feeling on which to pick something up. It wasn’t such a smashing album, but it does something else for you. There are a lot of people who really love if_then_else because the songs are [so different from one other]. It’s kind of a mixing pot. I don’t really get into it – I get into some songs on it... but I never really listen to my own albums anyway...

Maelstrom: Oh, really?

Anneke van Giersbergen: Well, once every half year I put on my favorites.

Maelstrom: Tell me what your favorites are.

Anneke van Giersbergen: I like How to Measure a Planet? a lot.

Maelstrom: Yeah, I could guess that from the track listing of Sleepy Buildings. You have more songs from that record than any other.

Anneke van Giersbergen: (laugh) True.

Maelstrom: Fair enough. You have a new bass player, Marjolein. Please tell us about her.

Anneke van Giersbergen: That’s really cool... but, first, Hugo, our old bass player, he was kind of fed up with the whole music business, and making music, kind of, as well. All these things were kind of slumbering, but it was there – he didn’t give it much energy anymore. And he had all the good reasons in the world to leave the band: he had a baby girl, and that gave him the push to leave the band so he could be home... and we’re very much away all the time. And we think about the band and the record company every minute of the day. It fills your life.

We had to look for somebody new; and it was quite difficult as Hugo is a very good bass player. We had to find someone who could also fit in: who has a sense of humor, who you can have fun with. In the end it’s all about making music and having a good time as well. So we found Marjolien in the old home town where most of us come from. She was the friend of a friend. We knew her from parties and being around and cafes and whatever. We knew she was making music, but we didn’t know how good she was. We knew she was studying guitar, and we asked her, kind of without reason, because she’s a nice girl, to audition for us. She was the first to audition and she was so good that we called her up the same evening, and she was in. She was very steady and she played four songs... better than us, as we hadn’t practiced for two months. It’s great fun because she’s very young and has very much energy. (Marjolein, below)


Maelstrom: Let me see how I can ask this question... having another woman in the band, how do you feel that will take some of the focus from male fans off of you?

Anneke van Giersbergen: Hehe. To be honest, it’s ok to divide the male attention. Ha. Because I have enough, really, to share. Hahaha. If I can say it like that. And I’m making a little joke about it because it’s not important at all.

Being a singer will always put you in the center of the stage, and people listen to you because you are speaking the lyrics – you tell the story. So I actually like it better this way, because I have a feeling Marjolein, as a girl, as a pretty girl – she looks very good with a bass on stage – she kind of lays a bridge between me and the rest of the band. Sometimes it’s even annoying how much attention I get and the rest of the guys don’t get. We’re all in one band, and we all write the music, and we do everything together. It’s only on stage that it seems like I’m in front. And to be honest with you, she’s pulling us more together than we ever were.

She’s gotten a lot of good attention from it, as well from a lot of women! People in America were shouting, “you go, girl!” “Yeah! We love you, girl!” Very American!

Maelstrom: You were mentioning how old you are. May I ask you your age?

Anneke van Giersbergen: I’m 31. Marjolein is 23. The rest of us are all around 30.

Maelstrom: Your hometown... is that Nijmegen?

Anneke van Giersbergen: It’s Oss. The Ruttens were born in Nijmegen, which, actually, Van Halen were born there.... no, wait.... who was it? (She confers with her husband, who just woke up fro a nap on the couch) Ah! No, it was... no! It *was* Van Halen. Do you know Van Halen?

Maelstrom: Yeah, sure.

Anneke van Giersbergen: Right. The two Van Halen brothers and the famous Rutten brothers are from Nijmegen. They were born in the same hospital as one of the Van Halen brothers... the guitarist...

Maelstrom: Eddie.

Anneke van Giersbergen: Oh, man. I’m very bad in history of music.

Maelstrom: That’s ok. Who’s your favorite singer. You said you don’t listen to your own records. Whose records do you put on?

Anneke van Giersbergen: Radiohead... Tom York is one of my favorite singers.

Maelstrom: Thanks very much for your time, Anneke.

Anneke van Giersbergen: Thank *you* very much for your time, and say hello to your girlfriend.

_________________
Look at me...There were more to see, there were more to be proud of….

INTERVIEW WITH ANNEKE VAN GIERSBERGEN


On a day with typical Dutch weather, my colleague (and big time The Gathering fan) Remco Nonhebel and I went to Nijmegen, to the office of Psychonaut Records, The Gathering's own label, to have an interview with Anneke Giersbergen. We started talking about past, present and future of The Gathering, and had a very pleasant chat indeed.

DPRP: The Gathering started out as, let's say, a Death Metal band. When you, Anneke joined the band, this style was quite radically changed. Was that your personal influence that caused this change?

Anneke: Well, the style was already a bit broader than just death metal, even with Bart grunting on Always... Subsequently The Gathering recorded an album (Almost A Dance) with Niels, who had a Mike Patton like sound, but the vocals didn't really match the music, so Niels left. The Gathering was then searching for a new vocalist, but continued to write music. Through a common friend I got in contact with the band and it just worked.

DPRP: So then you were lead singer of The Gathering. Did you have a vocal education before that?

Anneke: Well, 16 years of singing lessons, also classical, but I quitted lessons a couple of years ago. I wanted to go to the "Conservatorium" but then The Gathering came along. At that point, I thought I could as well learn the trade in practice. The music for Mandylion was already almost finished when I joined, only the vocal lines needed to be written. I had great joy in doing that and thought, well let's just skip the Conservatorium. This way you learn all facets of music, including the business side.

DPRP: Talking about the early years, you have recently released Downfall, The Early Years. Is there still a market for that?

Anneke:: It goes OK. Always and Almost A Dance have been re-released a couple of times now, and these still sell a couple of thousands. People either want to complete the oeuvre, or they really like the old stuff and collect it. There is also still a demand for demos from that period.

DPRP: Looking at styles, people often see you as the ones who paved the way for bands like Within Temptation or After Forever. Do you see that this way too?

Anneke: I don't know.... I can see where it comes from, we were among the first in The Netherlands or even Europe who combined heavy music with relaxed female vocals. But it was never conceptualised that way, we just threw it all together and it worked and was new. But don't forget that Within Temptation are also already 12 years working, they exist almost as long as we do. At a certain time there was just an underground genre arising with female vocals. Currently it is very hot, Within Temptation is doing really well, but we sort of drifted away from that style. We found new music, new people, new inspiration, even though the record company asked us to make a second Mandylion, which is still our best sold record.

DPRP: But do you want to do that? I mean you are not Mike Oldfield...

Anneke: Well if your as big as Mike Oldfield, you can get away with that, but... well maybe we would have been even bigger but is that what we want? Mandylion is really something special, you cannot do that a second time. We can still hear some flaws on it, but...

DPRP: Well, there are bands that rerecord their success album.

Anneke: Yeah, there was talk about rerecording Strange Machines (our "hit single"), but no. It would be repeating ourselves and it was a great time.

DPRP: Today somebody asked me about the style of The Gathering. How would you describe your current style?

Anneke: Hans, our drummer had a nice name for it. He calls it Trip-Rock. It contains a lot of atmosphere and lots of melody. Maybe it's melodic rock or heavy pop.

DPRP: Looking at Black Light District, the new album, it also contains some psychedelic influences. It has some Pink Floyd influences, but even more obvious is Porcupine Tree.

Anneke Yes, and Godspeed You Black Emperor, which especially Hans listens to a lot recently.

DPRP: You were quite a festival band, but recently it seems to have calmed down. Did I miss anything?

Anneke We were at some European festivals. We are with a big promoter, Mojo, and they could put you on Pinkpop every year, but we don't need that every year. I believe that we are better in venues or at festivals in tents rather then open air. We have to create an intimate atmosphere.

DPRP: But it must give quite a kick seeing so many people in front of you.

Anneke Yeah, I remember in 1996 on Dynamo, when we played a crowd of 60,000 people, during the Strange Machines period. It was really cool. But in venues we really blossom. It's not our goal to become really big, and we have very little airplay on radio or tv. Our goal is just play, play and play. Basically everywhere we play, the venues are full, so I'm quite pleased with the way it goes.

DPRP: Your albums all have one particular overall sound on them. Do you compose deliberately on that, or is it something that just happens.

Anneke: There is indeed such a thing as a The Gathering sound. It is something that evolves, we all influence each other and we hear new music all the time. But whether we make free-style jazz or heavy metal, you always hear that it's René on guitar and Hans on drums and me on vocals. When we play together we have a certain atmosphere, a feel, a kind of honesty in our play.



DPRP: But on one record you have one feel. You never suddenly play a really uplifting song.

Anneke: No, we sometimes make them, but after playing them for a while they become really boring, and don't make it to the album. We create moods. If_then_else for instance is more of a collection of different tracks and in my opinion is one of the lesser The Gathering albums. It was mixed too quickly, recorded too hastily. It didn't have time to mature. This was partly due to the record company and partly due to ourselves. We wanted to get the last album of our contract out of the way. They pressured us to make a certain kind of music. After Mandylion they sort of let us down a bit, even though we were one of the biggest bands on the label. But now we took a lot of time for the new record and the EP.

DPRP: How far are you with the new album then?

Anneke: It should be finished in about a month [so about at the time you read this, RS]. In October it will be mastered.

DPRP:Does it have a title already?

Anneke: No! That is one of the most difficult things there is. Basically the day the album is going to be pressed is the moment we come up with a title . It's more that there are no opinions about a title within the band that that there are strong feelings about titles. Often we take the title of the best track or the best sounding title of a track as the album's title. Sometimes one of us says: I may have a title, but I'm afraid to tell... Then he writes it on a piece of paper and lets us read it and we say...neeehh [laughter]. Most of the time the boys come up with the titles. I'm the kind of person that is inclined to take the first line of the chorus as a title, but they believe a title should be all-saying. So our Frank, our keyboard player comes up with How To Measure A Planet, which is a brilliant title. But then, keyboard players are a funny breed...[laughs]. But it captures the mood of the album perfectly, even though we often write about the darker sides of life. We write about them, and by writing and playing we are able to let go, so we end up being happy people again. And we hope the same happens with our audience.

DPRP: Indeed one can hear this on The Black Light District and the second track Debris. But I had difficulty interpreting the third track on the EP, Broken Glass.

Anneke: Yes, I can imagine that. It's a bit of a vague track, a feel-good track even though it is played in a fragile way. So one could think it's a sad song, but the lyrics...are mere fractions of thoughts..it's quite metaphorical and positive. The version of Broken Glass that will end up on the forthcoming album will be much heavier, maybe the music will explain the lyrics more clearly in that version. I get a lot of questions about its theme, but on the other hand, everybody can make up his own mind on it, it's funny to see all kind of theories coming up about them.

DPRP: Is the Black Light District a taste of what is to come for the "big" album?

Anneke: In a sense yes, as they are written at the same time. But, these three tracks did not fit the mood of the rest of the tracks, so that's why we decided to bring them out separately. Something like Debris is too spiky for the other tracks on the new album, but it is still worthwhile to bring out, with some video tracks and the other two tracks.

DPRP: In these videos we see you guys experiment a lot in the studio. Is that the way you compose, by sitting in the studio and experiment, or does one of you enter the studio with a ready-made song?

Anneke: Well, somewhere in between. We write tracks in our practice room, or at home in a group, and practice them as an entire song with the whole band. Next we go to the studio and try to reproduce them. But what happens then is that we get more and more ideas which we bring in. We dump it all on tape and start mixing, in which process a lot gets thrown away. Maybe you saw in the videos that I walked around the studio with a tank microphone around my neck, we taped that for hours, but nothing of that will end up on the album. But a track is never finished. We decide that a track is finished after the mixing. A song should speak for itself, it will evolve automatically. Sometimes René comes to the studio with a very heavy track and we start playing heavy guitar heavy drums, fearsome bass...to end up as Emity or Marooned. Both started out as really heavy tracks, but after a week you realize it doesn't work. So you strip it down to only René's riff, and ask Frank to play something over it, something with bells or something, and suddenly it acquires feeling. René is very good at melodies, so that stays good, even if you were to play them on bagpipes...

DPRP: But if you start cutting-and-pasting, don't you consider the fact that you won't be able to play that live?

Anneke: No, not really. If it's really difficult to play them live, well don't play them live! The same is true for duets. On the new album we have a duet with Trickster G of Ulver. There is no way you can do that live when the guy is not around. But a track like Debris you can strip down to a live version and you just sample the most clearly heard sounds.

DPRP: Now you have your own label, and you have had some time to start it up. Do you have the feeling you're all up and running with Psychonaut?

Anneke: Yes, even though it is a tremendous amount of work and quite a responsibility. The Gathering is already a firm for a couple of years. So we already had some experience in business for the last couple of years. At a certain point we had collected a couple of good people and management around us, so we have support. I myself am not a business woman, so you need to hire people who do that kind of stuff for you so we can concentrate on making music. The label is a kind of appendix of The Gathering so we are not going to sign other bands at this point in time. It's important that the band can work well, so that's why we have this construction, and we can support ourselves. It is an enormous amount of work, seven days a week, but we can all make a living of The Gathering and that's superb.

DPRP:With the forthcoming album, are you going to do all marketing, distribution etc. yourselves then?

Anneke: No, fortunately not. We are going to sign with a big record company who is going to do that for us. We have negotiated a lot last year, and the album will be available worldwide.

DPRP: Do you have any plans for a tour connected to the new album?

Anneke: Yes, we are going to play a lot in Holland in October, in smaller venues. After the album is out, we are going to tour in Europe to return to Holland in the bigger venues, because we believe it is important to play a lot again in Holland.

DPRP: January is a bit strange moment to release a record, one would expect maybe a release just before Christmas ?

Anneke: Well you have a point there, but as it turns out "our" kind of music is not sold a lot around that time, it's more the "Best of" albums that are popular then. So in fact it does not matter to much when you release it. Around January, the venues reopen, around summer you cannot play in halls, but then you have the festivals....we believe we are better in venues. Maybe we will release a single before the album. We never really did that, and maybe we'll give it a try. But it is difficult to pick the right track for a single. We want to make that something special.

DPRP: Talking about special things, how about a DVD?

Anneke: We are considering recording a concert for DVD. We have a very good lighting guy, and are able to produce a good atmosphere in a hall, we might want to try to capture that on DVD. I mean it is the medium of the future, even I own one !

DPRP: Something completely different. A lot of sympho fans will know you from the Ayreon album Into The Electric Castle. Did you do a lot of these side-projects?

Anneke: Not really. no. I am too busy with the band normally. It was very nice to work with Arjan, who is a very passionate man. He locks himself up and creates an album. It is quite healthy to work with someone else for a change. The band is very close, I see them more then my own boyfriend! Well almost...I am asked more often, but don't do that a lot. But it was nice to be on the same record as someone like Fish. I listened to the record in its entirety lately again, and it is remarkable how he manages to get all these characters together. But it is not really my "thing". I asked Arjan if I could do the softer tracks, I am not into that really bombastic thing.

DPRP: How do you see The Gathering in ten years time ?

Anneke: Basically the same as it is now. Playing, touring, recording albums....I'm not much of a business women, but maybe if the record company grows we can have some people working for us, and give young promising bands an honest deal. But that's not yet relevant.

DPRP: How about you touring outside Holland?

Anneke: We played from Mexico to Finland to Belarus. Somehow, we don't seem to catch on in the East. Even though we produce Special Edition albums for the Japanese market, we don't really sell well there. They appear to be more into metal bands with high pitched male voices, like Elegy for instance. Germany is in contrast with that. One can tour forever there. They have lots of medium large venues, and the Germans are like a sponge, they really absorb all new music. I love playing over there.

DPRP: How about being a support act of a really large band.

Anneke: The problem is that it is very expensive. We had the option to tour with Type-O-Negative in their glory days, which would have cost us lots of money, even though their manager loved our music and had dropped the price already, and our record company did not want to finance that. It is a shame that they did not want to pay that. As for our own support acts, we would like to have bands that are melodic, so they create some atmosphere already. Unfortunately, venue owners often book us with metal acts, so the audience is already tired when we enter the stage.

DPRP: Thank you Anneke for your time, and good luck with the tour and the album!

_________________
Look at me...There were more to see, there were more to be proud of….

interview by: Roberto Martinelli

Everyone’s got ‘em. Those songs that bring you back to a certain experience you had that was marked by a strong emotional state. Students of a technique called neuro linguistic programming call these things anchors. That’s kind of a cold way to think about it. It’s more like flavors. The Gathering’s latest album, Souvenirs, is about such connections.

It’s certainly been a huge transformation since the group’s first record in 1992, when they were a doom metal band with pinch harmonic riffs, weedy keyboards and growly vocals. From the release of the first Anneke van Giersbergen-fronted record, The Gathering slowly eschewed their metal leanings, but never lost the emotionally heavy yet exquisite melody.

Since their last triumph, 2000's if_then_else, Holland’s favorite melancholic rock band has embraced the jazz/ trip elements from that record and devoted an entire work to them. It’s been a metamorphosis of somewhat Ulverian proportions, which is quite fitting as Kris Rygg, Ulver’s main man, guest sings on Souvenirs. I spoke to drummer Hans Rutten about how things were going.

Maelstrom: Tell me about the new record.


Hans Rutten: This time we worked a lot on the rhythm section. We wanted more drums and bass oriented songs.

Maelstrom: You have a lot more of this jazz-type drumming. It’s more laid back and a lot of interesting use of the high hat. They’re not odd times, but they feel sort of odd. It’s a huge contrast with your first record with Anneke, Mandylion. Just in terms of the drums, it’s a lot more interesting now.

Hans Rutten: Thanks very much. I think so, too.

Maelstrom: What was the impetus that made you start to go in this direction?

Hans Rutten: We never said to each other, “let’s not make a metal record this time.” It just sort of happens. We listen to a lot of music. We let our compositions run freely. There are a lot of exciting bands right now that affect us. We’re not trying to copy them, but we’re trying to rebuild the Gathering sound every album. We had some feedback on if_then_else; we discussed what we liked and what we didn’t like. Things we liked a lot were songs like “Amity” and “Analog Park.” We flirted with a bit of stoner rock things with “Colorado Incident” and “Shot to Pieces,” but it’s not our strongest point. There are better stoner rock bands.

Maelstrom: I don’t think there are enough of them.

Hans Rutten: That also!... We at really at our best at songs like “Amity.” That was the starting point of Souvenirs. Hugo (Geerligs, bass) and I also wanted to achieve something more organic, and as you said, laid back. We wanted to have a groove in it.

Maelstrom: You don’t play with your hi-hat open on the new record. The result is that it’s a lot quieter.

Hans Rutten: It is. It’s all to achieve a crystal clear sound. The bombast is gone. At first we had massive guitars. Those are gone. With an open hi-hat, you fill the entire high spectrum. I come from a doom metal band: Always, our first record, has doom oriented drums. There’s more in life than doom metal. I still love doom metal, but you want to grow and do new things.

Maelstrom: Kris Rygg does a duet with Anneke on the new album. Have you met Kris Rygg?

Hans Rutten: No.

Maelstrom: How did The Gathering hook up with him?

Hans Rutten: I bought the Ulver Perdition City album, and I really loved it. The development of Ulver touched me a lot. It’s more or less the same story as The Gathering. I really love Perdition City very, very much. I think it’s a masterpiece. I sent him an email and wanted to give him a CD. He was very enthusiastic. We sent him a demo, and he sang on it and made some piano lines in his own studio. He promised us that he’d sing this song with us when we play in Oslo, though he hates to play live. It’ll be a very cultish kind of thing.

Maelstrom: You mentioned briefly about things you didn’t like about if_then_else. Like what?

Hans Rutten: Production-wise, it was a total mess. We did some stupid things. Going from analog to digital, some things went wrong. We didn’t have enough time or enough money, so we had to finish the album not totally satisfied, though we were satisfied about a lot of songs. This time, we said to each other that we would finish it first and then make an announcement, which is obviously quite difficult to do. We had already written a good bit of it in 2001. It’s like a good bottle of wine. “Kill your darlings” is a good term for it. We killed a lot of darlings, because we had the time.

Maelstrom: I have to say that in spite of your comments, if_then_else is my favorite Gathering album. I like the songs a lot. Speaking of this record, I wanted to ask you about the last track, “Pathfinder.” It’s a wonderful end to this record. Is there any sort of theme about this? You’ve got this sort of bee-like, humming sound. It’s really wonderful.

Hans Rutten: Well, it’s just a nice title. It was a sort of imaginary film title track. At that time, we wrote the theme from “The Cyclist.” We love to create movies in our head - maybe it’s a stupid hobby - and then write the music to it. That’s what happened with “Pathfinder.”

Maelstrom: One of the big contrasts I find between Souvenirs and the last records is that Souvenirs is a lot more cut and dried. What I mean is, the last two records seemed to have a theme or a lot of parts like on “Pathfinder” or “Analog Park” that have this ambient wandering in it. It gave a lot more fullness to the record, whereas this one sounds like 10 separate songs that start and end.

Hans Rutten: Exactly. We wanted to have a more homogeneous idea. The diversity on the last record was maybe a strong point, yet also a weak point. “Pathfinder” is totally different from “Shot to Pieces.” It’s a bit too much diversity. So we decided to create an atmosphere to stay in for Souvenirs. We wanted too much on if_then_else. It was too much a playground.

Maelstrom: I really discovered if_then_else when I took the promo of it on my trip to Norway in 2000. I went to Bergen and was checking out the famous Fantoft church. It rains in Bergen like, 265 days out of the year. It was pouring down rain, and I’m standing there, listening to my walkman, listening to “Amity.” Whenever I hear that...

Hans Rutten: ...you’re back.

Maelstrom: I’m back there, wandering through these little patches of forest, visiting this church, and it makes me so happy.

Hans Rutten: Exactly. So “Amity” is a musical souvenir for you.

Maelstrom: Yup.

Hans Rutten: Well, that explains a bit the title of Souvenirs. I think that’s the best compliment we can get. “Amity” is connected with some image you have. That’s really great to hear. I have a lot of songs myself - not Gathering songs, of course - that draw me back into time to very good moments; sometimes bad moments. Most of the time good moments: holidays, ex-girlfriends, whatever.

Maelstrom: Can you think of a song that brings you back like that?

Hans Rutten: Well, I’m a big Police fan. If I hear Ghost in the Machine, which was the first album I ever bought, I go back in time to my youth. I’m with my mother and she’s making sandwiches for me. I smell the air, I smell the house, I smell the old cat walking around. When I put on that album, no matter how depressed I am, I’m there again. It’s a sort of catharsis.

Maelstrom: Where do you live in Holland?

Hans Rutten: In live in a small city near the German border, called Nijmegen. It’s a very old city, built by the Romans 2,000 years ago. In fact, I live in a house that dates from the 15th Century, or something. One of the first stone houses in Nijmegen. That’s interesting, and sometimes a bit spooky, because it’s really alive. It’s an organic building. That’s what I really like a lot. I had two American friends from Chicago stay with me, and they didn’t sleep at all. They heard a lot of noises. Not animals or mice...the house is very old and you hear everything.

Maelstrom: What are you most fanatical about?

Hans Rutten: I’m quite fanatical about defending things. It could be my girlfriend, the band, whatever. If somebody comes to the band and says something negative, I’m in flames, really. I’ve got a bad temper. Not killing somebody, but flaming. I know it’s not that good, but it’s there.

Maelstrom: You you’re the aggressive, passionate one in the band?

Hans Rutten: (laugh) Yeah. My brother (René Rutten, guitar) also.

Maelstrom: So it runs in the family.

Hans Rutten: Our name is Rutten. We originally come from Norway. It means “rotten” in Norwegian. I think our ancestors were a bunch of Vikings - really harsh and loud and drinking beer. Roaming and plundering the little Dutch rivers. I think there’s still a bit of that left.

Maelstrom: If you guys are the fierce ones, what about the other people in the band?

Hans Rutten: They’re the more relaxed ones. René and I are by far the most hot-blooded ones. The other ones are always telling us to take it easy. So there’s a balance.

Maelstrom: If you look for Gathering records, you can still find them in the metal section, at least in the United States.

Hans Rutten: In Holland also. It’s a stigma we can’t get rid of.

Maelstrom: You’re not on Century Media anymore, right?

Hans Rutten: No.

Maelstrom: Why not?

Hans Rutten: The contract was fulfilled.

Maelstrom: They gave you pretty good promotion, didn’t they?

Hans Rutten: Maybe in America... We wanted to go on and continue and do something else.

Maelstrom: So you’re on your own label now?

Hans Rutten: Yes, Psychonaut is our own. It’s very good to start our own thing.

Maelstrom: Are you going to have other bands?

Hans Rutten: Not this year. We are a very big band on a very small label, so we have a lot of work. In the end, we will sign bands.

Maelstrom: On your upcoming tours, whom are you playing with?

Hans Rutten: In our tour in Norway, we’ll play with Pale Forest, a very interesting Norwegian band.

Maelstrom: They’re also considered a metal band, though.

Hans Rutten: Yeah, but they’re not metal at all.

Maelstrom: I know, but...

Hans Rutten: ...but they’re still in the metal section, yeah. But, what is metal? Maybe we have to redefine metal, then.

Maelstrom: I’m not arguing with you about that.

Hans Rutten: No, I know.

Maelstrom: It’s kind of funny that you’re going out with bands that are...

Hans Rutten: ...post metal...

Maelstrom: ...considered metal, but there’s nothing really metal about them.

Hans Rutten: There’s a post metal scene going on... Art rock. Of course we still feel connected because we’re still in the metal scene, but we make more friendly music. Strange. I think maybe we have to redefine metal. For me, metal is not only distorted guitars and loud drums and making strange, satanic poses. It’s maybe a bit more broad than everybody thinks.

Maelstrom: For example, we were talking about Kris Rygg before. Kris Rygg sells most of his Jester Records albums through metal channels, even though Jester has nothing to do with metal at all.

Hans Rutten: It’s the darkness. There’s still a sort of doomy darkness that’s present in his material. You have to get connected to something, or else you don’t have an audience at all. You need a starting point, even if you’re a pioneer. With metal, you can experiment a lot. It’s a very healthy, experimental playground.

Maelstrom: Will you see yourself ever playing the Wacken Open Air festival again?

Hans Rutten: Uhh...we’d have to consider it.

Maelstrom: What was your experience like?

Hans Rutten: We played in ‘99, after our American tour. We had enormous jet lag. I don’t even remember anymore. I was half awake. It was a good response. We played quite a lot of How to Measure a Planet songs, so the reaction was quite mellow, which is normal. There was sun, a lot of drunken Germans sitting in the grass.

Maelstrom: Do you think your fan base is mostly male or mostly female?

Hans Rutten: It think it’s around 50/50. It’s good. Metal and rock and alternative kind of people come. It’s really great. We’re really crossing over, and it feels good.


(http://www.maelstrom.nu/ezine/interview_iss13_149.php)

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Look at me...There were more to see, there were more to be proud of….

Souvenirs" seems to be one of the biggest musical development and stylistical change in the band's history so far. Do you feel the same way and what has happened in the last three years since the release of "if_then_else" that lead to this development?

Thank you for the compliments. We feel also that it is again a step forward in our own musically development. We felt ok after releasing "if_then_else" but not satisfied enough. We felt that if we had more time we could write and produce better songs. So that explains why it took a long time when "Souvenirs" was finally finished.


How has been the general feedback of "Souvenirs" so far?

Actually, very good. Of course there are always people who cannot understand the kind of progression we are into, but overal people are positivly surprised by it.


Is it more a help or a burden that you're still being connected to your metal past and that not everyone is open enough for your musical development?

I think both. If it wasn't for our past we weren't were we are now. We realise that. But sometimes I feel that we cannot reach certain people because we are connected with the word: metal. But I do believe that a lot of metal music lovers are open enough to listen to us. So we are not afraid of that.




In which way did producer Zlaya Hadzich influence the album, not only soundwise?

His influence was very big. He was the right man in the right time. He helped us really to think differently in songwriting and sounddesign. He did an exellent job and I believe it never worked out that good without him.


"You learn about it" is my ears the most beautiful ballad that was ever written by The Gathering. Was this song also meant as a balance to the more sombre atmosphere of the rest of the album?

Yes. This song is quite uplifting and keeps the album in balance so that it will not tumble into a dark depressive abyss. Altough I believe that the lyrics will make it a dark song anyway.


In which way did the guest musicians on the album influence the music?

This helped also a lot. A guest musician can make an ok song into an absolute top song. Trickster G from Ulver, a band from Norway, did that for example. With his vocal additions he made the song "A life all mine" a magical one.


Additionally to the music, has also something changed with the lyrics? Did they become more personal, more sombre this time?

Some lyrics are personal, but some are written in the "We" form and concern things we went through as a band. The lyrics are dark indeed, because all of us went through some difficult times.




Throughout the last 2 years you worked on 20 songs, from which the most are available now on "Black Light District" and "Souvenirs". What will happen with the others?

We don't know yet. Maybe they will end up on a B-side for a single or another EP. Some are good enough for a next record. But we'll never throw them away.


What did you expect with the release of "Black Light District", was it also a kind of try-out, how everthing works with your own label?

Yes, it is always good to hear that your music is being bought and hopefully listened. On the other hand, we do not care much about sale figures.


Did the end of the contract with Century Media and building up your own label Psychonaut Records also influence your musical development?

In a way yes. We now have to do everything ourselves which is OK, but hard work. But it also inspires to work hard for it, and to write good songs.


Are there also plans to sign other artists to your label?

Not yet. First we try to do our own thing, but we'll see what crosses our path in the future.

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Look at me...There were more to see, there were more to be proud of….

MAY 2005 - Yeah, I know, y'all want to hear from Anneke. Well too bad. She just had a baby, so you're going to have to cut her some slack. Cut us some too, while you're at it. THE GATHERING's newest member is bass player Marjolein Kooijman. She joined their ranks last year and has now had the opportunity to experience playing live in front of rabid crowds for one of Europe's most talented heavy bands. As the band begins to pull together and head into the studio to begin work on the follow-up to 2003's soaring "Souvenirs" disc, we wanted to find out a little about how she is fitting in. She is joined by drummer Hans Rutten in an attempt to share the current status of the band while attempting to understand and respond to my ridiculous questions. You'll see what I mean...



PD: How is Anneke and the baby? What is everybody up to?

Marjolein Kooijman: Nice question. I visited Anneke 2 weeks ago to see her and of course little Finn. All I can say everyone was doing fine. Last week the band started rehearsing again, and Anneke will join us in April.

PD: The "Sleepy Buildings" live set has been keeping my urges for new GATHERING at bay for the time being.

Marjolein: Good!

PD: Marjolein, you're the newest member of the band. Tell us a little about your recent joining the band and how the reaction has been, etc..

Marjolein: Last year I felt very good about playing with THE GATHERING. It's funny how my opinion/ feeling about playing in this band keeps evolving. I learn more and more. At first I was totally amazed about everything. They're one of my favorite bands! I really like to play with the band. I like to rehearse, to talk about the music and about new ideas. Touring is something very weird, everything happens in a flash. It's quite amazing! I learned so much in a short time. I have the idea that my 'musical ear' has improved a lot.

PD: So, are you the bright-eyed and bushy-tailed freshman, so to speak?

Marjolein: Well, last year I got to know everyone, and I think they're really good people. Sometimes too good, like almost every true musician. Sometimes I feel like I'm "the young impatient one". I want to rehearse, make music, record, study music, learn to play new instruments and so on. Of course the others know each other for a much longer time, but everyone is cool & relaxed. We're friends & its fun!

PD: That's great. Now, I remember reading that THE GATHERING has recorded some tracks with a symphony orchestra backing them. This would be a fascinating album. What do you think you would do differently than other metal bands that have attempted this type of thing?

Marjolein: Hard question for me to answer. I really like orchestral music (PORTISHEAD did a recording like that, BJORK toured with a string quartet I think) and I’ve always loved cinematic music. It’s hard to tell which songs would wok!


PD: Did you guys really play some dates with THE MISFITS a few years back? I remember reading that at one point. I'm guessing Anneke didn't dye her hair black and pull it over her eyes for those dates.

Hans Rutten: Yes, we played with THE MISFITS in the same venue where Dimebag from PANTERA was shot down. A horrible thing. THE MISFITS were very nice to us, though we didn’t fit that well together musically.

PD: I know you are fans of those early CAMEL records. Perhaps Eerie Von could have joined you onstage for a cover of "Slow Yourself Down"?

Hans: Who? I don’t know Eerie Von, I am sorry. Are we speaking about the same band? We love "Mirage", great album of CAMEL!

PD: Never mind. Let's talk about your music a bit more. I've spent hours listening to "In Motion#2", marveling at the sentiment. How did that song come to be, and how does it relate to "In Motion #1", besides the melody overlap?

Hans: We wrote that piece of music in 1993/94. I really can’t recall how we did it or what lit the fire of that particular song. In "Motion#1", it is more like a helicopter view, and "Motion#2" dives deeper into the material lyric-wise. There is not really a great relationship going on between both songs.

PD: I'm always surprised at how many people still don't "get" THE GATHERING. Which album has received the most negative press so far?

Marjolein: "Almost a Dance", by far. "How to Measure…" well, it took some time for people. I guess we are making music which is not instant. You need to have some time to get into it, to get familiar with our music.

PD: Agreed. For example, some of the tracks on "Souvenirs" just creep up on you over time and hook you. It seems that tracks like "We Just Stopped Breathing" are the true progressions for the band. Those haunting keyboard melodies take multiple listens to sink in. Has anything changed in the songwriting process since the days earlier and perhaps more immediate tracks like "Confusion"?









Hans: Yes, we are always curious in searching and trying to learn from various other aritists; how they arrange, etc.. In the beginning, we recorded every song in a ‘live’ way. Nowadays we record with Pro Tools, and this changes a lot. We are way more flexible and things can go 100% in the opposite direction. A rock song can end up as a sort of ambiental drone and vice-versa.

PD: With "Souvenirs", it seems that the band really hit a high watermark. There's a point where a band begins to emerge its own sound, their influences less detectable. In your opinion, what album marked your real "breakout" stylistically?

Marjolein: I’m an outsider on this one of course but I can give you my opinion. The first albums "Always" and "Almost a Dance" were already something different, pure and original. Female lead vocals on "Mandylion" changed the sound even more into something very original. The big style-breakout is "How to Measure a Planet", but "Souvenirs" is indeed high quality music!

PD: THE GATHERING has toured pretty extensively. Tell me, who's really lazier, Europeans or Americans? Do you think the oriental countries will eventually consume all of us with their discipline and work ethic, while we sit in line complaining about slow fast-food drive through service?


Marjolein: Haha,a typical question! The US-Europe comparison! The picture that pops in my mind looks like this: I see some older people who live somewhere in the south of Europe (Spain or Italy) and they’re always smiling, taking it easy, going fishing, drinking wine and so on . Here in the Netherlands there’s a TV commercial for Italian olive oil that looks exactly like that. My prejudiced mind thinks something else of the American people. I think of all the fat people I saw on TV. They are slow, do boring things and live in a controlled system.

PD: Is there any limit to the use of the xylophone in metal music?

Marjolein: I love to sound of marimba and xylophone! To me style-genres are only meant to place types of music in an easier way. The music you hear in your mind, the music you play, and the instruments come first. After that people label it, like “metal music with a xylophone”!

PD: Does writing metallic riffs fit into the band's future plans or do they hold you back? Perhaps they seem less and less like a tool you need, like using blunt hand saws after you discover circular saws and power tools?

Hans: It depends. Nowadays we don’t need it, as you said. We are looking more and more for dynamics which you can’t achieve only making riff-o-rama orientated music. Of course, it will pop up now and then, but not as a main target.

PD: THE GATHERING perfected female-fronted progressive metal. Then, moved forward to create an original and totally captivating sound that seems to breathe with it's own life. There had to be naysayers in the beginning that doubted you'd have such success. What were some of the things you heard in the early-mid 90s, and what is your perspective now?

Hans: Of course we heard it was commercially not a good move to play in a band only with female voice. To be honest, if you have to listen to somebody else and follow the taste of the crowd, surely we wouldn’t exist anymore. THE GATHERING is a band which is always searching, always travelling and finding new ways to improve ourselves. We make music for ourselves.

PD: Nice answer! Thanks guys! I think we did OK with this interview!

Marjolein: Agreed! Thanks and best wishes!

Hans: Thanks!

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Look at me...There were more to see, there were more to be proud of….

Marjolein Kooijman was born in 's-Hertogenbosch, The Netherlands. As a little girl she was always fascinated by MTV and especially the guitars. At the age of 14 she took up her dad's guitar and loved it right away. One day a friend showed her how to play bass and that sound made some deep impact. She has been playing with The Gathering for two years now and right now Marjolein is studying guitar and bass-guitar at the Rock Academy in Tilburg.



Marjolein Kooijman, where are you based? Oss, the Netherlands

At what age did you first take a bass in your hands? I think I was about 14 years old

What attracted you to playing bass? It's deep & warm sound.

Did you play any other instrument before you started playing bass? I played guitar already

Can you remember the first piece you ever learned on bass? 'Come As U Are' by Nirvana

What was your very first public performance? With my first band, Wings Of Solitude, we played at a school party haha! We were really LOUD!!!

What’s your current band? The Gathering

What’s your main bass? Fender Jazzbass USA (Black, rosewood fingerboard), Musicman Stingray (Ferrari Red, maple fretboard.); Alder bodies. maple necks.

What strings to you like best? I'm still looking for the perfect strings. Right now I use D'Addario's and Ernie Balls

What is your backline bass amp setup? I use a Eden tube amp with two 410 cab's.

Fingers, plectrum or both? mainly fingers, sometimes Dunlop 1 mm plectrum.

Have you played double (upright) or acoustic bass? I'm learning to play upright bass, it's not easy. I love that sound, It's on most of my favourite records.

What type of music do you play? alternative rock, triphop

Who do you listen to when you’re not playing? My favourite band The Cinamatic Orchestra

Have you recorded/released any CDs? The Gathering have released many CDs with their former bass-player. My first recording is a live-DVD called 'A Sound Relief'. Next Autumn we'll be recording our new studio album.

What was your best gig/venue ever? My favourite gig ever was in Santiago, Chile. The crowd completely blew me away, it was so much fun

Were you ever on a TV show? Yeah, MTV Russia

What’s your favourite album/CD? Dummy by Portishead

Do you play/own any other instruments? I have a lot of guitars: a Gibson Les Paul, a Fender Strat and some acoustic guitars.

Do you sing? Sometimes, but I'm a little shy

Have you ever performed onstage without your bass? I play guitar in another band, but it's been a while since we performed live.

Have you played outside your own country? Since I'm playing with The Gathering I've been all around the world. Pretty amazing!

What’s your opinion on basses with more than 4 strings? I like a low B-string, that's enough for me. My Stingray is tuned down to BEAD

What do you feel is the bass-players function in a band? The groove is most important to me, I also like it when there's something fresh about the music. This can be anything, also the bassline.

What are your ambitions? Making good music from the heart & improve myself in doing this.



(http://www.bassgirls.com/bass_kooijmanm.htm)

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Look at me...There were more to see, there were more to be proud of….

Asxeto kai den exei na kanei me thn Marjolein ayth ka8ayth alla stantar epai3e rolo kai h entopiothta sthn epilogh. Papoutsi apo ton topo sou ktl pou leme ki emeis sto Ellanta.








8ea.

Swsth genikws h mikrh!

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tHMXXFG_McI
Soundgaze.gr - Fix Your Gaze On Music
Το Πολυμίξερ της Μουσικής

proswpika polu tin goustarw


to onoma tou proigoumenou group tis den einai kai kommati twn celtic frost?

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Look at me...There were more to see, there were more to be proud of….

mas ksegelases me to onoma tou topic kai to anoiksame apo periergeia. allh fora na anafereis interview kai loipes ahdies

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you own me...

thank u!

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the owls are not what they seem

Anneke Van Giersbergen, front woman for Holland’s The Gathering says that Sleepy Buildings: A Semi Acoustic Evening is a special record for the band because it’s one that they she and her band mates and not the label decided to make. Although calling Van Giersbergen laid back would be an understatement of epic proportions, the singer has definite ideas about her craft and the the business of being in a band. She recently shared some of these insights with Sea Of Tranquility’s Jedd Beaudoin



Sea of Tranquility: Tell me a little about the genesis of this record.

Anneke Van Giersbergen: We actually had the idea for this record for a long time. We thought it might be nice if we had these old songs in a new jacket. But it was something we only talked about every once in a while. Then we got into a discussion with Century Media about the last album we should make for them. They wanted us to have a Best Of thing. The idea of doing a record like this triggered again, about old songs in a new jacket and the acoustic thing. We thought that maybe we could do that. That’s more special than just putting old songs on a new CD. So we just did it.

SoT: Have you heard from people who are just coming to the band now, who maybe didn’t know the old material and are now excited about it?

AVG: No, no. Maybe this is also an oeuvre album, like people who already like the Gathering and have some of our records want this to complete the oeuvre, something special. I haven’t met any people yet who’ve said they were introduced to the Gathering through this. But the first two CDs, from before my time, were a bit more obscure and people got to listen to them as well. That’s really old stuff.

SoT: What was it like for you to join a band that was already formed and where there already certain relationships in place?







AVG: For me it was a spread bed, as we call it. I was singing in a lot of different kinds of bands and I had a duo and it was really good and fun to do but obviously we’d only play small cafés and stuff like that. When I joined the Gathering, they were already up and running. They were highly popular in the underground scene. For me, it was ... I was their missing link. For me, it was a band that I wanted to be in because I wanted to move to a higher level in music, to actually go out and play somewhere, where there more people than 20. We were happy with each other and so it was a puzzle that was made complete.

SoT: What was your first gig with the Gathering like?

AVG: We rehearsed a lot. We actually played a lot before the album came out. People didn’t know what was happening. While the band was quite popular with the first album, which had growling voices, the second album, especially in Holland, flopped a little bit. The vocalist didn’t really fit. So, when I joined, people were thinking, “Oh, another singer.” I remember standing on the stage and people were folding their arms like I had to prove myself. They were waiting. They’d all come to see us. They were waiting to see what would happen. After the show, they came up to me and shook my hand and they were kind of surprised. It was a good surprise. They looked at it like, “Well see this first and then form an opinion.”

SoT: You were over in the States recently with Agalloch and November's Doom. How did that go?

AVG: Very well, actually. Both of those bands are very heavy. Agalloch are very atmospheric. They fit very nice with us and they’re really cool guys. The people that came to see us were great and there were more people there than in ‘99 when we played. Obviously, that was a long time ago but we were very happily surprised. But I have to say: You have a huge country. We had to drive, drive, drive, then sleep four hours because there were not enough hours in a day. We were dead when we came back. But we also got to play Mexico and Chile, so that was one goal––getting from Canada to Chile. We had twelve flights in one week. But it was great and we hope to come back to the U.S. this year.







SoT: It seems like maybe this is a good time for the Gathering to enter American radio. Has that happened yet?

AVG: Yes. We’re actually played a lot on college radio, which I like a lot because the college kids are interesting. I think that’s good exposure and that it’s good to be part of that scene. All in all, we get press from a lot of genres but the mass press like MTV and big stuff is hard for us. It’s hard for us to get our foot in the door, even in Europe. It’s quite hard to be in the mass scene. But we have a good status. We have good status in the metal scene but also in the gothic scene and also in prog rock and pop scenes and alternative scenes. So we have people everywhere, which I think gives us more visibility than being in front of the Britney Spears audience.

SoT: [Laughs.]

AVG: But the great thing is that we have a following where people will see us one time and then come back to see what we’re up to next year. That’s fantastic.

SoT: You know, this is a real pleasure for me to talk to you. I’ve actually been waiting for a long time. I wanted to very badly right after Souvenirs came out because I loved that record very deeply. Can you share with me your thoughts on that record now that some time has gone by since its release?

AVG: A lot of stuff happened around that record. It took three years to make. We formed our own little label then, too. Those were very busy times. But, also, a lot of stuff changed in the band. We were at kind of a low point because we had some business stuff that didn’t really work out and forming a label took a lot of effort. We didn’t know shit about running a label, so we had to find out from scratch and that took so much energy and so much time and so much .... I don’t like the office, you know? [Laughs.]

SoT: [Laughs.]

AVG: It’s not my strong point. So, we did everything we could to make it and now we have people there who work for us and it’s going smoothly. But forming the label was great. We took everything back. We had our creative freedom. Everything was ours again. That felt very good. We had the strength to go on. But we had stuff going on with Century Media and sometimes we just didn’t have inspiration at all, so everything, in all, good and bad, we put into that record. We were actually in position and at a time where we were going to give up and quit the band. It was too much. But we didn’t. We came through and now the band is stronger than ever. It’s a good thing. But that’s really a blood, sweat and tears album. That explains all the layers ... there’s a lot of stuff there. There’s big production and so on and we also tried new ways of writing and new ways of recording. I wrote five lyrics to every song because none were good enough. I sang every song a million times and only in the last part of the whole thing process did we hear what the record was going to be like and we knew then that it was going to be very good. Then we felt our enthusiasm coming back again. Realizing it on our own little label was awesome because people really seemed to like it. We even sold some. We were quite happy, you know. We just barely survived but we’re happy to be here.

SoT: Have you ever thought of leaving Holland?







AVG: It’s very small and it’s very easy to live here. There’s no big political chaos. It’s just an easy country to live in. Our roots are here. It’s very nice to move around and travel so much, so it’s always nice to come home and be around the things that make you feel nice and feel at home. I think about a lot about moving south to Spain or wherever because of the climate but also because the people can sometimes be cold and the culture is not very good here. There’s not a very good music scene. People don’t really seem to care.

SoT: What does the rest of 2004 have in store for The Gathering?

AVG: We’re going to tour some more and then later this year. But we’re also going to try and write some new songs this year and in 2005 we’ll start on a new album. And we’re working on a DVD.

SoT:Ah-ha!

AVG: Yeah.

SoT: Wow. Will it be live or videos or some combination?

AVG: Probably a little bit of both. We have so many ideas that will probably never even fit on a DVD. That’s a luxurious problem. We taped a lot of the American and European tours, so you have live stuff and other things. And I think we’re going to tape one show so that it’s done in a good way and featured and then maybe some extra stuff with videos and photos. We’re still thinking about it but we’re already taping a lot of stuff.




by Jedd Beaudoin


(http://www.seaoftranquility.org/article ... ad&order=0)

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Look at me...There were more to see, there were more to be proud of….

bassgirls.com???

^

Gamath h synentey3h!

Pantws egw akoma paleyw na akousw th Marjolein sto "Sound Relief"...
Sygkrinw ton hxo pou vgazei to mpaso ths me ton hxo pou vgazei h mpota tou Hans kai trellainomai. Thn e8apsan oloklhrh thn kopela.

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You have probably already read the review of ‘Black Light District’, The Gathering’s new mini-CD on our site. I decided to e-mail Frank Boeijen from the band, and ask him about their new sound and their new album.




Frank, since `How to measure a planet` you have gone more experimental. Why do you think that happened at this moment, and not earlier or later?
Frank: The first 2 albums (‘Mandylion’ and ‘Nighttime Birds’) were recorded and produced in the same studio and with the same producers.(Woodhouse studio, producer: Sigi Bemm)
For us it somehow did not feel right anymore after we recorded ‘Nighttime Birds’. We felt we could create a more original sound with another producer and other studio. All bands from Century Media were recording at Woodhouse with Sigi, who is an excellent producer but just did not fit anymore to our sound.
We got in touch with Attie Bauw, a very talented Dutch producer, who was eager to start working with a more adventurous state of mind.

During the making of the more experimental albums, how did you all stay on the same line of thought? Did you all `evolve` together, or one by one?
Depends on what you mean by `the more experimental albums`. In fact, we were all at the same line of thought with every album.
If we were not, we would never have been able to finish all those albums altogether.

Could you describe the writing process of the songs, and has it changed over the past few years, and albums?
Actually: not really. We all make up our tunes alone at home or during travel. Later, at rehearsal, we try to make songs of all the ideas that are being played. Especially in the studio, very good songs are born, because there you can alter them very quickly. It is the other way around as well: Sometimes, in the studio, things which seemed OK at the rehearsals, or at home, sound totally awful.

In foreign countries, like Mexico and Germany, you are much more `famous` than in Holland. Why do you think that is? Would you like to be more famous ‘at home`?
Do you believe so? I am not really aware of that. But I feel the difference when we play in Holland or for example Germany or France. It seems that, in comparison with Dutch audiences, a foreign audience listens much closer to the music during a concert.



We have a number of really quiet parts in our songs. In Holland you hear chit-chat noise, while outside Holland everybody listens. It is like they lack respect towards the artist who is playing and trying to say something with the music.
Concerning the famous thing: I am OK with that, also in Holland. It would be hell if I could not cross the street anymore just because I was famous.

What will the new album be like? We have heard a preview of it on Black Light District. Will it be the same?
The new album will sound different from Black Light District. That is why we released the songs on BLD in the first place: because they would not suit the album. It may have the same dark atmosphere as BLD, but the songs are different in arrangements and sounds. The album turned out to be very modern and groovy, but also very dark and moody. Our working title is "Souvenirs", and that will most likely be the definitive title as well.

We are still mixing it, and we are trying to master it very soon. We hope to release the new album somewhere in February.



© Rockezine Oct 15, 2002

_________________
Look at me...There were more to see, there were more to be proud of….

As a special favour to REZ, -The Gathering isn`t doing any `big` interviews at the moment-, me and Frank Alders were invited by Hans Rutten at his cosy home in `downtown` Nijmegen. Frank Boeijen was also there and the 2 hour plus conversation we had about the band made us clear that a beautiful future is on the horizon for the band. Due to the fact that the band would be doing doing a short tour in Holland at the end of october we agreed to bring this interview to the REZ site around that time, so the public will know what the band will be doing in the next couple of months...or longer.




So, The Gathering, 5 years after `Mandylion`, how do you look back at that time, hasn`t it been going very fast for you?
HR: I don`t ever look back...and no, I don`t think it was going that fast for us. Now that we are going to take a 7 month break we do get the time to rest.
We will be busy with the band but we won`t be performing for a long, long time. I do think back about certain shows from the past and re-enjoy them, that is a thing that is happening now when I`m at home on the couch with a beer...there are a lot of shows from a lot of tours we did that were special.

But the last 5 years were very important and now that you can overlook them, what was the most enjoyable time? `Nighttime Birds` kinda was the definitive album wasn`t it?
HR: I really enjoy to look at the future...`Nighttime Birds` was a playing safe album for us. For the first time we could continue with the same band and same producers. But continuation isn`t our strongest thing and we always want to evolve ourselves.
FB: The album `Nighttime Birds` meant taking a step back actually.

I remember a gig in the past, when Niels Duffhues was in the band, in Wageningen where you said that The Gathering would be making more Progressive styled music ala Rush. Do you think that `vision` has come true?
FB: No, the `Almost A Dance` period was a very big learning period for us, it became clear that we had to learn a lot in the business and our musical ideas changed automatically anyway.

The `Mandylion` album did meant a boost for the band, major success in and outside Holland, you had to learn quickly...
HR: Success...for us the real success was `How To Measure A Planet`, that album is our highlight musically wise, although there certainly are a few flaws on it.
Perhaps it should have been a single album instead of a double and the order of songs should have been different.

`HTMAP` was about making it clear that the musicians are the band The Gathering and that there was a certain evolvement going on in the music...
HR: ...we always did that. We don`t want to make the same album over and over again. There always be lovers and haters and that`s very normal in music.
Bands as AC/DC and Motörhead are happy with it but bands like Opeth for instance also keep changing and improving with each album. They certainly do have a lot to offer to the Metal genre.
I have much more respect for such bands than for all those copycat bands. Nu Metal, a genre that is getting a lot of criticism from the traditional Metal people, but it is a genre that brings something new to the scene...I don`t understand that criticism.

They too have to cope with copycats though...
HR: That will always happen, a certain style becomes hot and bands jump on that bandwagon. It is up to the listener to pick the true musicians and music and that can be hard sometime.

A thing that has happened with The Gathering also of course, you were one of the very first to bring keyboards in Metal...
HR: We were laughed at! And now almost every Metal band has keyboards on stage...

Because there are so much record labels these days it isn`t hard to have an album released. And every label wants to have their own Dream Theater, The Gathering etc.


This creates a polluting music scene because not all bands are actually that good or original.
HR: There are too much bands and labels. A lot of crap comes out and people are losing interest because of that. The copycats are drowning the good bands that way.
FB:Especially when you are young, you don`t have a clue about who`s original or not. The kids all buy that shit.

So you feel that `HTMAP` is The Gatherings` musical highlight, your `Masterwork`?
FB: Yes, we want to equal that album, and we always will.

Did `If_Then_Else` equal `HTMAP` for instance?
HR: In some parts it did, insome parts it didn`t. The pressure that we felt from the record company made us bring out the material before it had the chance to ripe. There is no bad material on it, but some songs could have been better when there would have been more time on our hands.
FB: There definately was more in this project than actually came out, it was a rushed album for us.

So you say that `I_T_E` could have been a better album?
HR: It would be more homogeneous, it lacks a bit of that now. The albums before all had a certain homogenic feeling. It was the first time we produced ourselves and we didn`t have the time to do what we wanted to do.
The next album will be co-produced with someone, we are sure about that already.

But I think that `I_T_E` has its` very own charm, maybe because of the difference between all tracks...
HR: Oh yes, it certainly has that. And the variety of styles almost makes it a compilation album in a way.
It also felt that a circle was closed, all things we`ve ever done into one album. I do think that the best songs we have made are on it though...
FB: Sure, there are some very good pieces of music on `I_T_E`.

How do you select the songs that will be on an album as a band, along the way or do you take time to listen to each others ideas when the time comes to record the next album?
FB: The most important thing is taking the time with that. When you can take a little distance it`s then that you will see where some ideas are heading to. The more songs we have the more we can say these are fitting together nicely, these should be done more that way. That can`t be done in just 6 months time.

Why did you release `Downfall; The Early Years`, purely out of nostalgia?
HR: Yes, to complete the picture. We were glad to get the chance to show people that we didn`t start as a Death Metal band. The rehearsal section shows us experimenting, even back then. Hammerheart wanted to release it for us, something we didn`t want to do ourselves.
Guido from Hammerheart wanted to do it very much, out of nostalgic reasons and because of the fact that the `Always` era of us is still populair. We are very proud of those days but we don`t look back at it that often.
FB: We were all in puberty 10 years ago, I was 17! I am more proud of the `Always` period then on the `Almost A Dance` time, it was wonderful.

Can you imagine being in music for another 20 or 30 years? The first 10 brought you were you are today...
FB: 20, 30 years is very long, I don`t know...I can`t see myself playing at Unitas in Wageningen for instance, it depends where you are at that time.
HR: I can imagine it, but I don`t think I want to play that seriously when I`m 50. There are different levels of making music possible. We never anticipated that music would provide a living, it kind of happened that way, luckily, so maybe on an amateuristic level at that time...that would do for me.

So you won`t be found on stage playing music from now just to make a living like so many other bands are doing now...
HR: No, those people are pinned down to a certain style of making music and can never do anything else. They are trapped and simply can`tstick out their necks to do something else.

Moonspell for instance, just released an album where they return to the old style...
HR: Because they weren`t selling any albums probably. The fans that left when they changed the style won`t return, I`m sure. I don`t think that a return of a band to an earlier style ever turned out a success. They had the urge to experiment, re-invent themselves, which is always a good thing to my taste. But when money and things like that become more important it is easy to return to the familiar path.
FB: A real pity because I don`t care about that kind of music...

This rules an album like `Mandylion` out for the future of The Gathering...
HR: We couldn`t be able to make an album like that again because we have changed mentally and physically. We outgrew those days, there are bands around who do try something like an earlier album again but it always fails. It cannot be done, not for us.

A big period of rest is coming up for you, what exactly are the plans?
FB: Doing a lot of studio time to build a large song collection.
HR: Write as many songs as possible and do some maintenance band and musically wise. When all turns the way we want, but we aren`t sure of that at this moment, an EP will be released in the Spring of 2002 and a full album after the summer.
To support the EP we want to do some festival gigs again, but again it depends how things work out with our label we are still on at this moment. We are having some problems that could turn out difficult for us...we`ll see.

I guess you already have a lot of new material in stock?
FB: Written and recorded already. 12 songs by now but some of them aren`t finished yet, we do add stuff in with computers and other gadgets. We want to have as much songs ready as possible so we have the luxury of choice when a new album is actually coming up.
HR: Maybe we will have material for 2 albums ready by then, we will see what we have ready then. It will be a dark album soundwise, that I can say already now. We can turn a negative event into positive energy and translate that into music.



Wouldn`t a concept album be something for The Gathering?
FB: No I don`t think so. I love to leave some room for imagination so people can interpret for their own.
HR: We do build in a common thread now and then but a whole concept wouldn`t work for us.

The new songs that you have made already, are they different to your previous work again?
HR: Some of them have to be finished. We have `Session 1` and `Session 2` at this moment and it total I think there are about 16 pieces of music written. Some are almost finished, some need a lot of work.
This process wil continue so I guess we will be having 20-25 pieces ready next year. That will be the first time for us, it`s a luxury indeed to have that much material and create an album that is finished from the beginning to the end, as homogenic as possible.
And this can be reached with different kinds of songs of course.

Sure, dark and agressive songs varied by lighter songs can create a homogenic feeling too...
HR: Agression is a word that we scrapped a long time ago...compare the mood of a couple of new ones with songs as `Marooned`, `Amity` and `Analog Park`. Dark and athmosperic...

How often are you together in the rehearsal room?
FB: Up to 3 times a week and for the whole day, back in Oss.
HR: We don`t `rehearse` like other band maybe do, do old material over and over again. We are actually together to focus on the new stuff and the feeling of having plenty of time now is liberating.
We are very busy with the band, as always.



What is Anneke`s role there and then, is she always there with you too?
HR: Yes, and she jams with us just as well. Although we sometimes go a little too fast for her in the creating music way. It is hard for her to keep up with us, she has an extra job to come up with lyrics and vocal lines...
Beacuse so many of us write music lots of ideas are often tried out and not everything will be used. She floats in the middle and the pace is sometimes too fast. She also has her own ideas and in this band all ideas are given an honest chance. Everyone is involved in the creative process.
FB: We do discuss about some ideas and never make decisions spontaneaously. But we ultimately have to like all five, if there are some doubts left we simply don`t do it.

And on that note we leave the band to themselves. The Gathering still has a lot of plans for the future and when the problems with the record label have become straightened out a refreshed band will emerge. I do expect a lot from it, the new songs that were featured in the set at the last shows were impressive enough...

(Winston Arntz)


© Rockezine Sep 09, 2001

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Look at me...There were more to see, there were more to be proud of….

TARTAREAN DESIRE WEBZINE

This interview with the vocalist Anneke van Giersbergen of the Dutch atmospheric metal band The Gathering was done through e-mail in June 2002.

Hello, how are you doing?
Fine, thank you!

You have just released your new mini album "Black Light District", could you tell us a little about it?
It is an EP with 3 songs. These are the songs we wrote during the last 1 and a half years together with many more which will be out on a full length release later on. These 3 songs did not fit the concept of the moody and dark album but were very beautiful and so we released them on this EP. They are all 3 very different from each other but certainly worthwile listening.

You have now left Century Media in favor of creating your own label Psychonaut Records, what were the reasons for this?
We have now total creative and business freedom. It is good to make your own decisions. For the full length release we will look for a partner who can help us out to get the CD released everywhere.

Will Psychonaut Records promote other bands than The Gathering?
For now we will promote only the Gathering but in the future we might try giving other bands a fair deal and a chance in the music industry.

Who handles the artwork for The Gathering these days?
We do it ourselves with help from a company specialized in that field.

You have had a very long and prosperous career so far, which one of your albums are you most satisfied with and why?
We all love "How to measure a planet". It was a good period, we had a great producer and that album was a big experiment with songs and recording techniques. The songs turned out very good we think.

Dutch metal has become very successful on an international level during the last five or so years with bands like Ayreon, Within Temptation, God Dethroned, After Forever and of course yourselves just to mention the most well known. Is there even more to come?
It is a growing thing, there are a lot of young bands out here, who knows?

Is the general attitude towards metal more supportive in Holland today than it was ten years ago?
The masses yes, but the underground do not like this very much because it is not underground anymore. I think it is all silly, we should listen to the music we like, whether it is liked by many people or not. Sometimes these genres get picked up by a lot of people and that is nice for the bands because they get some exposure and they get to play everywhere.

What will you occupy yourselves with for the rest of 2002?
We will finish the songs for the full length album and in the mean time we will play some festivals around Europe in August. From October until way in 2003 we will tour.

What is the best thing about being a musician?
Expressing yourself.

What are your top five albums ever?
1- Sign o the times- Prince
2- Revolver- the Beatles
3- Kid A- Radiohead
4- Three of a perfect pair- King crimson
5- My beautiful demon- Ben Christophers

Now to my own and brand new right or wrong section. You are just going to tell us whether you think the following acts would be right or wrong:

I think these questions are too silly to answer!

a) If someone killed Hitler prior to his mass murder campaigns.

b) To burn down a church because it's "evil".

c) To burn down a church because it represents oppression.

d) Sado-masochism.

e) Death penalty.

f) To lie if it will be of benefit to yourself.

g) Censorship.

h) Religion.

i) Communism.


Any final words of wisdom for the fans?
If people want more info about the band please check out http://www.gathering.nl. That's it!

_________________
Look at me...There were more to see, there were more to be proud of….

With a musical career spanning over nearly a decade, The Gathering may definitely be granted the right to evolve in their craft. Starting out with what can be described as a "symphonic" doom album, _Always_, the band developed a strong underground following, so atmospheric, meaningful and very nearly mystical was their art, that was only to be tarnished by their rather unpopular second output, _Almost a Dance_. However, with the arrival of the enrapturing Anneke van Giersbergen on vocals, the band developed a new sensitivity on _Mandylion_, which rapidly grew to be predominant in their music, and explains the immense distance between the brooding melancholy of _Always_ and the psychedelic, dreamy, somewhat non-metallic feel of their latest work, _How to Measure a Planet?_. Justice must be done to The Gathering for firmly taking the perilous decision to evolve, rather than opting for the cheap behavior that may best be called "the Metallica syndrome". In the following interview, drummer Hans Rutten displays great conviction when talking about The Gathering's new offering; a talkative, sincere, and gentle musician, who shows no shame in tending to leave the metal world, and displays great pride in having left a timeless milestone in it.

CoC: Firstly, what's gone on in the band since the recording of _Nighttime Birds_?

Hans Rutten: Jelmer [Wiersma, guitars] parted ways with us, because he didn't feel like playing guitar anymore. It's very simple, he was fed up playing guitar, he couldn't write any songs anymore, so we talked to him -- and we're still very good friends. He wanted to do something else, he wanted to do more "electronic" music, and now he's working as an engineer, mixing bands in a venue, so he's happy, and we're happy. We didn't feel like searching for another guitar player, because Anneke [van Giersbergen, vocals] can play a little guitar, and one guitar is enough for us now. I guess you can hear it in the songs, [they're] less bombastic... We had a lot of possibilities all of a sudden, and I guess we used them. So, after _Nighttime Birds_, we toured a lot, especially with Lacuna Coil, and we came to write a lot of material. So, we recorded a double album this summer, in Amsterdam, because we were a bit fed up with recording in Germany, for many reasons. I personally think too many bands record at the Woodhouse studios nowadays, they all have the same sound, everybody's complaining about it at Century Media -- well, not at Century Media, but the bands are complaining; for Century Media of course, it's very easy [convenient?] to have a home studio. So we decided to do it in Amsterdam, with Attie Bauw as a producer, and it was very long, because it was a double album -- we spent two months in the studio, but this is it: it's finished, we've mastered it, and now, we're doing interviews for it!

CoC: You were talking about the electronic music Jelmer is now into; what do you think of the way more and more metal bands are integrating electronic sounds and influences in their music?

HR: I think it's good to develop, not to be conservative and always play the same kind of music. You can say if you like it, and that's a matter of tastes, but I think it's good; experimental music is always good, otherwise it's no music for me -- music has to be something exciting and something new, and I'm really fed up with bands who make the same record every time, with the same producer, and so on... So I think it's good, I like it.

CoC: The way you're using keyboards in The Gathering is over time becoming less atmospheric and more experimental, and kind of psychedelic as well...

HR: Correct.

CoC: What's this due to?

HR: Well, we already did this on _Mandylion_ and _Nighttime Birds_. Frank [Boeijen, keyboards] and our producer Attie had a lot of ideas to experiment, and we did it a lot... I think the keyboards are very atmospheric, but in another way; this album is different from _Nighttime Birds_, so we did something else.

CoC: I guess the whole of your music is becoming more psychedelic, from what I've heard of _How to Measure a Planet?_... Somehow moving away from metal, towards a form of psychedelic... rock, maybe?

HR: Yeah, maybe a sort of doomy, gloomy rock, yes, correct. I think it's very diverse; we have songs like "Liberty Bell" and "Rescue Me", which are typical [The] Gathering songs to me, and on the second CD [_How to Measure a Planet?_ has been released in a limited 2CD edition -- David], you've got songs like "Probably Built in the Fifties", which is very heavy, or "Illuminating", which is another typical [The] Gathering song; but the title song "How to Measure a Planet?" is also on CD #2, but that lasts for 28 minutes, it's a very long, epic soundscape, a kind of psychedelic trip. There's a lot of diversity on this album, I think you cannot say it's only psychedelic; some songs are very short, and, for example, "Frail", the opening song, is very "relaxed" -- we wanted to open this CD in a very relaxed way, because we've always opened in a very heavy way, and I guess we're a little fed up with only playing heavy guitars; for us, it's not exciting anymore -- yeah, that's why we made this diverse album, I guess.

CoC: Do you still believe The Gathering rate as a metal band, or...?

HR: I don't know... I still love metal, progressive metal acts like Prong, Voivod, bands who develop, which is in my opinion very, very good. But it's music, so it's only... categorizing, as always, I hate it! Some songs on _HtMaP?_ are metal, some songs are psychedelic, some songs are really melodic...

CoC: I noticed you pay great attention to the visual appearance of your albums. When you look at your new release, are you satisfied with the layout and the cover?

HR: Yeah, it turned out quite well, I guess we're very happy with it; especially the CD booklet itself, it's very nice. We've always had and still have discussions with record companies -- Century Media didn't think [the cover] was "fairytale" enough, but this album is not "fairytale". We already wrote two "fairytale" albums, and this is something else, which they didn't like that much, but hey, it's their problem, because I'm playing in the band, it's our thing. It's a very creative kind of layout, maybe a bit more modern, also.

CoC: On the whole, are you satisfied with the way things are going with Century Media?

HR: What do you want, the honest answer or...? <laughs>

CoC: Go ahead, give me the honest answer!

HR: Of course, yeah! Century Media is only doing -metal-, and in quite a good way, I guess, but they're only pushing bands in a metal direction, and I really think Century Media have no -metal- acts anymore. I don't consider a team-up as a real metal band, or Moonspell, Samael or Lacuna Coil as metal acts -- I think Lacuna Coil are a pop-rock act, and I like them very much, but they're not really -metal- anymore, though they're more or less stuck in the "metal" field.

CoC: There are still bands like Old Man's Child, Twin Obscenity...

HR: They're black metal, and they don't sell that much, they're not the biggest acts. Of course, there's black metal, Century Media want to jump onto the bandwagon, it's stupid... Real black metal acts come from small labels, I guess -- it's underground music, but it's been booming, a lot of people have bought it, and Century Media wanted to make some money...

CoC: It's dying out pretty fast now, actually.

HR: It is going down now, and right now, it's something else -- heavy metal is coming back, acts like HammerFall... and Century Media have -no- acts like HammerFall [Nocturnal Rites? -- David]; Nuclear Blast have bands like HammerFall, they also have Manowar, and they're worth a lot of money. Nuclear Blast is a metal label, and they've signed metal acts, they have real heavy metal acts; I think Century Media have to make the crossover to another audience; metal is important, but [so are] the independent magazines and press, they need it... otherwise they'll drown.

CoC: Considering the Dutch metal scene... Holland is known for The Gathering, but also more brutal acts such as Consolation, Altar, Gorefest... What do you think of these?

HR: I only know a band like Gorefest. We're in the same business, we're colleagues, so we talk a lot, if we see each other, which is very difficult because they're touring, we do our own stuff, but it's always nice talks with Gorefest, and also with Within Temptation and Orphanage... We're not friends, but colleagues, we appreciate each other. But I don't think Holland has some -very- good acts. I think Scandinavia is quite good, but Holland... no. I don't think there's anything really good at the moment right now. It's a bit of a pity.

CoC: _Always_ is considered as a cult album in the underground metal world... how do you feel about this?

HR: Great! I have a new story about it: the record company Foundation 2000 are bankrupt, they're totally gone, and we have the rights back for our first two CDs; that means _Almost a Dance_, but especially _Always_. I know _Always_ is an underground classic, and I'm very, very proud of it, because it still has a very good atmosphere. Of course I'm doing something totally different right now, but I don't neglect it, it was a period with which I had a lot of fun, and you can hear it on the album. It was recorded in five days, and there are a lot of good songs on it, it's very atmospheric... We've started a little label to release it, and I'm also going to release the first two demos, which are very hard to get, especially with good quality -- I know the quality sucks anyway because they were recorded in a very poor situation, but a lot of people still ask for them. I'm very happy we've got the rights back, so I can do something big for the old fans; I know there are a lot of fans who don't like The Gathering anymore, but who still like _Always_, and I want to do something for them as well. I'm also very busy doing it on vinyl, [there will be] a very limited vinyl version.

CoC: Looking back upon your previous albums, before _Mandylion_, would you ever consider re-recording them with your current style, with Anneke on vocals?

HR: No, no, we did them at that time, it would be very stupid. We may do some live songs from that period with Anneke...

CoC: As a band, you've been going for ten years, of which about four years with Anneke. What changes do you feel she's brought to the band?

HR: She didn't change the music, I guess, because we all write the music; Anneke also wrote some music for the last album... She brought the band a beautiful voice, which fits in perfectly with our musical ideas, and of course we became a bigger act thanks to Anneke.

CoC: The approach to your music seems different now; when you look back on the philosophies and expectations in The Gathering when you started out and what they are now, what has changed?

HR: What can I say? We walk our own way, and I know we've got a lot of success, but we're not making music because of the success, otherwise we would never have made a double album: commercially, it's almost suicide. We love music, that's why we made this album, our heart lies in making music...

CoC: What are the lyrical guidelines to _HtMaP?_? Anneke seems to have made the band move away from the sort of mysticism there was in the beginning towards a more dreamy, sensual approach...

HR: Yeah, of course, she's a female, and females always sing about love, though there's not that much of that on this album anymore; there's a little kind of concept behind this album -- as a band we travel a lot, we see a lot of things, we get a lot of impressions which we turn into music, and that's closer to what this album is about. For example, the song "How to Measure a Planet?" is inspired by the movie "2001" -- the song could even be the soundtrack to the movie, it's so long... Some songs are more about a kind of inside traveling, for example, a song like "Liberty Bell" is about the excitement of going into a space shuttle or a rocket, and there's a lot of excitement in the song, musically. The song is really about an astronaut sitting in his chair, who feels the excitement!

CoC: Did you ever consider that you had written sad songs on _Always_?

HR: Yeah, but Bart [the band's first singer -- I think I got this right... -- David] was into a totally different kind of poetics; Anneke's style is more, in a way, girls' writing, very poetic and very "hidden". I guess Anneke is more direct in her writing, there are a lot of differences between them.

CoC: Talking about Anneke's writing, what inspired the track "Fear the Sea"?

HR: The song is about water in all its aspects, and water is the bringer and the giver of life -- when you're an embryo, you're in water --, life came out of water, and that's a little bit what the song is about. We don't understand the power of it, it's so common, people don't think about it anymore -- that's the sort of hidden message behind it.

CoC: As a band, you seem to get a lot of inspiration from the majesty of nature and the elements...

HR: Especially on _Nighttime Birds_.

CoC: ... Can this be considered as a form of paganism?

HR: Yes, we have a lot of admiration for nature. I think it's beautiful, I love to watch it on Discovery Channel -- see something, and think "that's the place where I want to go"... and you get back to the traveling aspect of this album, as we all like to travel and see things. There's not that much nature on _How to Measure a Planet?_. This is more the traveling aspect, to go into space but also into yourself, with or without drugs... It's a very introspective album, it's very introvert, it's not party music like Pantera -- put it on, drink beer, and have a party --; no, this is more difficult, something to put on before you go to sleep, to float away...

CoC: Okay, the last words are yours, anything to add?

HR: Yeah, it's a difficult album, it's not "poppy" as some people say, it's not cheap. You have to listen to it more carefully, there's still a lot of guitars -- some people disagree with me, but I still think there are a lot of heavy songs and heaviness, and intense songs don't have to be necessarily guitar-oriented for us, so you have to give it more time...

CoC: Metal audiences are kind of narrow-minded...

HR: It's a pity, there are a lot more flavors in the musical world than metal. I'm a metalhead, I always was a metalhead; as a kid, I'd always go see Iron Maiden, but when I see what Iron Maiden are becoming now... They don't have the guts to change, and I think that's the most stupid thing you can do -- you have to change, and this album is a big change, there's more space, more experimenting, but yeah, give it a chance.

CoC: Thanks for your time, it was really nice talking to you...

HR: Yeah, me too, thank you for the show, good interview!



by: David Rocher (http://www.chroniclesofchaos.com/Articles.aspx?id=1-200)

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Look at me...There were more to see, there were more to be proud of….

Interview with Anneke by Jim Mills

Do you do anything to warm up your throat?
Yeah, well usually just before the show, I warm it up before singing a little bit, but I'm usually too lazy for it but I only do it when I'm on tour, so I drink herb tea, it's all good! Herb tea with lemon and stuff like that but the most important thing is to be healthy in general, you know? Because the instrument is your body, sleep good and eat good and there shouldn't be any problem.
Exactly. So do you work out or do any training?
I should! A few months ago, I quit eating sugar and candy because it takes away your energy. I got very tired because I was very much a candy eater. So this is very good and my step 2 should be to work out a little bit.
I have a whole bunch of questions here and some of them are kind of goofy too.
Okay
But they aren't like the Grimoire of Exalted Deeds, are you familiar with that magazine?
Noooo…
Okay
Is that bad?
You will have to ask Matt Bower [Century Media publicist] about that. Is there a certain song that you guys play first to warm up the show?
Yeah, well now a days we start the set the "The Big Sleep" which is a good one for me because then I can warm up my voice.
There are a few songs on the new record that seem directed towards a lover or boyfriend or girlfriend. So I was going to ask you if that was the case with someone you are seeing?
Yeah, there's the song "Frail" which is about that stuff but it can also be about giving your self into a feeling which can be like the love thing. It can be about anything, but it's defiantly about love.
Okay, when do your lyrics and the concepts come to you?
Well at the month, could be on anything, the train,watching TV,when sleeping, but the best ones usually come when I'm sleeping and I wake up with an idea in the middle of the night and you write it down within 5 minutes but that's not often. I usually have sit down at my desk and write hundreds of sentences and pick out the best ones.
Who influences you musically?
Everything!! Like the people you see, the music you hear, the situation you are in, it could be heavy subjects but it could also be light subjects just the stuff you like. The stuff you think about while day-dreaming. It's also for the rest of the guys.
Do you watch movies a lot?
Umm, yeah when I have the chance I do.
Do you have a day job?
No, not really. My day job is the Gathering.
Really? Our band Dark Funeral, are you familiar with them?
Yeah, I've heard about them.
They came over to the states and did a couple of shows and I found out they all have jobs and a lot of bands now days still keep their day jobs. I was just curious to know if you still worked.
Usually if we don't make the money with the band, we do day jobs, but now for a half of a year, we could live from the band so that was perfect.
Do you play any instruments?
Guitar. I played guitar on the last album.
Who do you listen to now, what bands?
I'm really, we are really into the latest RadioHead and Massive Attack. Stuff like that. Today, I bought the latest Queens of the Stoneage.
I haven't heard them yet.
Really? It is really god if you the like the stoner stuff like Queens, Kyuss, Celestial Season. Madonna is really good.
Really?
Yeah.
How do you feel about power metal?
Umm, I like it to a certain extent you know? It gives you energy and I like that but I would never buy it.
You think it is cheesy don't you?
Yeah it is!
(laughing)
Don't you think?
Yeah we have some power metal on the label.
I mean it's kind of like all kinds of music if it is done well, it's good you know? It's like power metal is not my cup of tea.
Have you ever been approached to do, or join an extreme metal band?
No.
Would you ever do one?
No, I don't think so because it's not really what I want to do, if I would have my voice do anything, it would be something I really, really liked you know? Cause that's what it is all about!! I think if I wouldn't be in this band and making money and having a really good time, then I would have to so stuff with other people but now I have a choice you know? That's cool.
So when did you join the Gathering?
I think about five years ago.
How did they find you?
We had a mutual friend. The guy I use to date, he knew the Gathering and he to me that they were looking for a singer so then they arranged it cause I was in a jazz folk band who was called Bed Breathing and we were playing and than the mutual friend got is a gig in the town where the Gathering lived and they came and saw is and they asked me to participate in an audition and I was chosen.
Are you religious at all?
Mmm, lot really. I believe in myself.
That's good, we like that.
Okay.
Who's your favorite producer that you worked with?
I think that would be the latest one, Andy. He's great. He has a vision and his way of making music and his way of talking about it, we really like it. He's really a thinker and he loves the music, you know?
From what I noticed, the vocals on Mandyion and Nightime are much more in front of the music where as on the new record they seem a little more fuzzy and soothing.
Yeah.
For me my mail style of music and is Death and Black metal, but you guys are my favorite bands.
Oh that is cool.
You guys have such a big appeal to the metal fans plus to the music industry period, people like Fowley (Deceased), are you familiar with him?
Yeah, yeah.
He is a fan too.
Yeah, I know.
I find it kind of weird who some the fans are that the Gathering attracts. Does it bother you guys that you guys could have mass appeal but you guys don't?
(Laughing) Well, see the way it's going now, it is really going well and Holland we are kind of a national band and the vast of Europe sees us as underground metal. But whatever and it's going really well because we got a lot of different people going to the shows but at the same time, if we were at a major label, we would get a bit more exposure because of the connections outside of Holland, but I don't know. I think it would be better at a non-metal label you know, but than again, in the metal scene they really like us, so I think we have to focus on everybody, but for us the problem is just not only metal, but also everybody else.
Are you into sports at all?
No, not really everyone likes soccer so I got to the games every now and then.
Does Century Media plan to have you guys do any shows over here in the states?
It is very difficult because it is so big. A couple of years ago, we had an offer to play with Type O Negative and it would have cost is soo much money. So we don't want to lose so much money just to play here in America.



(http://www.jensmetalpage.com/interviews_gathering.htm)

_________________
Look at me...There were more to see, there were more to be proud of….

1.How were you approached to sing for THE GATHERING?
I was singing in a jazz-blues duo called BAD BREATH and a friend of mine told me that THE GATHERING was looking for a singer. So he took us to a café where The Gathering always are and they saw me and asked me to join audition and was chosen!!

2.Did you hear the older material before trying out for rehearsal for The Gathering? What’s your opinion of the old singer?
I didn’t know The Gathering before I joined but of course now I do and I really like their music. They have their very own sound and you see it doesn’t really matter who sings! I like Bart’s voice.

3.Did you write the lyrics on this album (add name of the album I’m talking about here) or was it all of you together? What can you tell us about each song? What kind of feelings did you get while singing them?
The lyrics; I wrote them myself. Strange Machines is about traveling through time. I would be so nice to take a look into the past and see your parents when they were our age or whatever it’s a fantasy I know…
Eleanor is about people who wear masks, a lot of people pretend to be somebody they are not. And it takes no only a lot of energy out of them, but I guess they are not happy in the long run…
In Motion #1, it’s actually only feeling, on paper. Not really a story but you can feel the story behind part #1 or the explanation in #2, In Motion #2 is about someone who is living but it feels like the other half of you has died, very heavy!?
Leaves is also about someone who is leaving but in another way. Somebody you don’t really know and touched your heart anyway.
Few the Sea is about water and nature, we drink the water without thinking about where it comes from but the truth is that we are not that strong as people. If nature wants to wipe us out from this planet it can, so if you think about that, than what’s the use in making wars and bombs and all that shit!!
Sand and Mercury. I was thinking about how it would be if you had your last hour and how you would feel if you would say goodbye to your loved one. I saw it happening in my family and that breaks your heart! Sentimental shit isn’t it!?
If I sing them, most of the time I feel the same way I did when I was writing them, it works, cause it’s therapy for me…

4.Do you have any plans of touring the USA? Who would you enjoy touring with?
We would love to come to the USA but obviously there is a big money problem. We don’t sell enough to have people paying us to come so maybe by the time we make another album we might be able to go with a great band. We would like anyone with atmosphere like TYPE O NEGATIVE, BJORK, it really doesn’t matter. There are also a lot of Century Media bands which are great!

5.Asides from singing, do you play any other instruments?
Yes, I play a little but guitar, mostly in my duo and to make my own songs.

6.What does The Gathering have in store for the next album?
This time we have more difference. Fast songs and very tragic slow songs and also we want to experiment with new and different instruments.

7.Do you worry that some of The Gathering’s audience will not take this change lightly? (In regards to having a new and different singer).
Some people don’t like this of course, they want growling voices. That’s ok, everybody has his own taste, but we gained very many people from all sorts of genres of music so we are very happy with the people who like us. But a lot of old fans stayed! They are very faithful and that’s good to see.

8.How has CENTURY MEDIA helped with the distribution of your album?
Century Media is for us a good record company. They do a lot of advertisement and take us very seriously.

9.Can you site any influential female bands/ performers/ artists? What is your opinion of how women in the underground music scene have portrayed themselves?
I don’t know that many females in the underground, I’m not really inspired by them. But I like THE 3RD AND THE MORTAL a lot.

10.What other kinds of bands and music are you into? And aside from THE GATHERING, what other hobbies do you have?
I love FRANK SINATRA, KING CRIMSON, ELLA FITZGERALD, BARBARA STREISAND, PRINCE, BOOTSY COLLINS.

11.Any last enchanting words?
Thanks for having us in your zine! Greetings to everyone who’s reading.



(http://www.angelfire.com/ny3/ENDEMONIAD ... ering.html)

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Look at me...There were more to see, there were more to be proud of….