Progression is inevitable. As we get older we progress and change as a result of our experiences, our thoughts, and our goals. Much is the same with the music of the Gathering. Starting out as a unique death metal act, change and progression was a major part of each successive album. >From the addition of the talented Anneke to the slow transformation into their patented "trip rock" sound, one couldn't tell the albums 'Always' and 'Souvenirs' were written by the same creative forces. Metal Update had a chat with vocalist Anneke about their own record label, their new bassist, and their ever changing sound.

METAL UPDATE: First of all, I must compliment you on your performance in Cambridge, MA at the Middle East a couple months back.

ANNEKE VAN GIERSBERGEN: All right. You were there?

MU: Yes I was, and I was really blown away. I had no idea it was going to sound that good live. A lot of people I know acted the same way. We were just all floored completely. You've really come a long way with your sound and it's presented very well in the live setting. How was that brief tour overall? I know there were some problems with a show in Canada and the whole Brooklyn deal.

AVG: Yeah, that was kind of linked. To start off with your two part question, the tour in America was really nice because we were there last in 1999. We did a tour from west to east and that was really amazing as well, but we had to start an audience there. Sometimes there was 20 people, sometimes there was 100, sometimes more. And it was already good because people in America are really into our music. The people who knew we were coming were really into it and we loved it. It was really nice. So when we came back there was more people everywhere, and we were really delighted that people were so respectful and so nice about our music and we had a really, really good feeling overall. And yeah, shit happens. Shit happened in Canada this time. Every 400 hundred shows we have a cancellation because things are really bad. But it happened in Canada and it's just a very bad venue with an even crazier owner that didn't give us any equipment to play on. Things went from bad to worse. And we actually wanted to play two shows there, because this one show in Brooklyn, NY . . . what was the name of the club?

MU: That was L'amours.

AVG: Ah, L'amours! Yes. That didn't go through so we did a second show in Canada, but that was so bad that we didn't do a second show. That's all there was to it. We kind of blew it up a little bit on the internet, but it's just a bad venue. There are more bad venues in the world.

MU: Understandable.

AVG: It was quite funny. We got some publicity out of it.

MU: What inspired the launching of Psychonaut Records?

AVG: Well, we spent a lot of time with the record company, on a different label, on Century Media. I don't know. It always kind of collides, business and creativity. We just wanted to bring them closer together. And we decided when we fulfilled the contract - now with 'Sleepy Buildings' - but before then we started thinking, "How can we do this? How can we make our business better and not dance to the greater . . . dance like puppets, like marionettes." That's what it became, which is totally logical because any good business wants to make money. It always collides. And that's a very logical thing. We just didn't want it anymore. We spoke even to major labels. We speak to them all the time because they want us as well. And we speak to independents. They always have a catch, and we don't like that. We just want to make our music and be honest and pure about it. It's a tough thing to do because obviously we don't have all the power and we certainly don't have all the wisdom. We just try and it kind of works out because people are interested and they make an effort to find out what we are up to. It goes really well so we are very happy about it. It's just hard work. It's OK. It feels good. And it feels good not to dance to the big people.

MU: Is 'Sleepy Buildings' your last release for Century Media?

AVG: Yes. Negotiations for that one lasted so long that we started our own record label in that period. So we released already two things on our label.

MU: Yeah, I was wondering how you were able to pull that off.

AVG: Right. (laughs) We just did it, actually. And then we finished negotiations with Century Media and we came to this very lovely special idea to wrap it up.



MU: It definitely worked out well. Sometimes live recordings can be kinda blah, but you guys did something special obviously.

AVG: We had to because I know that not all live shows or live albums or even best of albums, because that was the initial idea, can be blah. But this is a very good connection between those two things. People of Century Media who worked with us to release this, they worked really hard and they really like it. So we have a very good vibe as well going on work-wise, but as well the audience really likes it. I'm happy.

MU: Definitely. I think the fans are too.

AVG: Good!

MU: Do any of you have jobs besides Psychonaut Records and the band?

AVG: No.

MU: You're making a living off of it?

AVG: Normally we do. Every once in a while we have to get jobs because it may be a bad year, once every so many years. During the recordings of the albums 'Souvenirs' and 'Black Light District' we had a bit of a bad year. We had to get jobs. Starting up Psychonaut Records we put all the money we had into it. Normally we live off of it. It's not a big living, but it's just good.

MU: Was the semi-acoustic performance of 'Sleepy Buildings' done with the intentions of releasing it as an album?

AVG: Yes. Actually when we were negotiating with Century Media about the last album, we had this idea for a long time, making old songs into new songs. Stripping them down. So, these ideas came together when we wanted to do this last album. So that was really the intention to make it. And then we rewrote these songs and then we recorded them in these live shows and put them on an album.

MU: Why did you only perform the older material?

AVG: Because it's a Century Media release so we only had Century Media songs, which is from six albums. It is a lot of albums, but 'Black Light District' and 'Souvenirs' are from Psychonaut so we didn't put them on the Century Media album. Actually it's kind of a business thing.

MU: I know all about it. (laughter) I know the deal. They own theirs, you own yours.

AVG: It's so complicated, the thing is emotion-wise it's a new era for us to make music on our own label. It gets new ideas and it gets new feelings and it gets new moods, so it's very logical to end an era with this album and start a new one with 'Black Light District' and 'Souvenirs'.

MU: OK. Now did you feel the need to reconstruct those songs to fit with your current sound?

AVG: Not really. I think that's automatically what you do because the songs we make now are because we live now. The things that we rewrite now are because we have the feelings and emotions that we have right now because we are in a time zone. That makes it all very logical. We don't really think about making stuff sound like the 80's because we're not in the 80's. So for us, we don't really think about that stuff, we just make it.

MU: How much rearranging was involved to perform the tracks in this semi-acoustic manner?

AVG: We had a long list of songs because Century Media made a list of favorites and we did as well. So we had a long list and we didn't have a lot of time to rewrite and record these things because there was a deadline. If we didn't have the deadline, we probably would have taken a much longer time to rewrite the songs. But we didn't have so much time. I think this may be better because it's more spontaneous now. We started playing all these songs in the rehearsal room from the big list, and some songs we didn't feel anything about it. It just didn't work in a different way. And some songs within five minutes time we had a good idea about it and the way we should write it, rewrite it, or the way it should go. So that made it very spontaneous because we didn't mess our heads up with a song. For instance, like "Strange Machines" because that was a hit and so you should put it on the album. We tried it and it didn't really work out so gone with it. We threw it away. Next song. And it becomes better because it's more spontaneous. And the best songs, they survive.



MU: Your sound has clearly evolved since you joined the band and recorded 'Mandylion'. What triggered the evolution into the trip rock sound you have now?

AVG: Good question. I think the only answer is that we're not busy with that, with these matters. We just make our music and it's a natural evolution from being in that period of time and listening to different kinds of music, you make that kind of music. And when you grow older and you see a lot of things, you hear a lot of things, there's so much more influence that you make a new album every year and you make a slightly different album every year because your time is different. Your way of experiences is different. Your way of playing live and recording is different. Also your influences are way different. And your perspective and everything has to do with your music. It's a reflection of what you think and do and feel.

MU: What are your current influences?

AVG: What we really like nowadays is the contemporary dark pop music like Radiohead and Massive Attack and Obo. There's a lot of these really good English bands that we like, so we get a lot of inspiration from that. Apart from that, we kind of like to listen to classical music and I think we'll always listen to the Beatles and Pink Floyd. There's also the electronic feel like Moby, Fatboy Slim that we kind of listen to, so there's a broad spectrum.

MU: What one album have you been listening to the most lately?

AVG: There's one album that I personally really, really love and that is the album of Damien Rice. Have you heard of him?

MU: No, I've never heard of him.

AVG: OK. You have to buy it live because it's really beautiful. His name is Damien Rice and he made an album called 'O'. He's a singer/songwriter but he has a band, and he works on his album, works with strings and it's really heartfelt. He's from Ireland and everything he does is straight from his heart. It's beautiful stuff. I listen to them actually all the time.

MU: We'll have to try to check that out. What triggered the departure of longtime bassist Hugo?

AVG: He really didn't feel like making music anymore on this level with this band in this industry. He kind of got a bit fed up with everything, which is maybe also a logical thing after 15 years with the same band. On top of that, he's got little baby girl together with his wife, Suzanne. That kind of triggered him. I think that pushed him over to the decision to split. In the band, you are busy with it every day, the whole day. You have to be really careful deciding your personal life, the band and stuff like that. He just didn't want to make the effort anymore. So, we're just a logical group. We parted with him on good terms, and it's all right. But we had to find a new bass player of course. It was quite difficult because Hugo was a very good one.

MU: So who is this new bassist?

AVG: Well, she is called Marjolein and she is very young. She's 23 and she's really good, so we're very lucky we found her in our own hometown, where most of us come from. She's a friend of a friend, and we knew she was making music, and we knew she was studying guitar. But we didn't know much about her other than she's a really nice person. So for some reason we asked her to audition four songs with us. And she wanted to and she came and played four songs really well. So we asked her the same night. She was the first audition actually. So we were very, very lucky because we wanted to continue and we wanted to make new songs, where we had a tour coming up and everything. So we were quite happy with her. She's great. She's doing a great job and she really looks good on stage so we're quite happy.

MU: Definitely. So she is working out well?

AVG: Yes.

MU: Now how long have you been playing guitar in the band?

AVG: Well, off and on actually always. The thing is sometimes we don't play songs I play guitar on, but I have to say that I'm playing more and more now. Especially after Jelmer left, which is already a few years ago, of course. Sometimes I do some second things when I write songs for the band on guitar, so it's logical that I play some guitar. I just kind of fill things up.

MU: So you do help in the songwriting?

AVG: Yeah. It's very much divided. We all write music together.

MU: What do you think the future Gathering material is going to sound like?

AVG: I'd have to say we have lots of ideas, but we haven't assembled them yet. I think it's going to be as pure as 'Sleepy Buildings'. Make it as empty and pure as we can make it, because 'Souvenirs' was an album that was full of stuff - sounds and production and layers. There was a lot of stuff happening, which is great. We really feel like it's the best thing that we ever did, but you cannot top it. You have to go into another direction to make something new again. Otherwise it will always become the 'Souvenirs Part II' which is not that good. More guitars, but it's going to be more upbeat than 'Sleepy Buildings' because that's just a bit more soft album, kinda a semi-acoustic one. But we're gonna definitely go back to rock.

MU: It seems to me like you guys have never done a full US tour. Have they always been kind of short?

AVG: We did one in '99, which lasted for 3 weeks. We drove from West to East. We drove all the way. But because your country is so immensely huge, it's very difficult to tour in, unless you fly or have a tour bus. But we try. We want to come back actually this year and do better logistically and try to play some more.

MU: Have you had any other offers to come here, besides the two times?

AVG: The years before we had some good offers, but again it was kind of difficult to plan a tour because we're not huge but we're not small either. Sometimes when you are in between you have nice crowds but it's also more expensive to play in smaller venues of course. So it's always been a business/logistical thing. We're getting better and better there and we have more and more contacts and I hope we can come more often because we really like it.

MU: I think it would help you out if you were able to do a full US tour. It seems like it went over really well.

AVG: Yeah, it was. It was great. That was really an audience that we liked. And also with a bigger band and gain some audience as well. That would be cool, you know? But it was special and everybody came to see the Gathering. It's always special wherever you play. But a country as big as America, it's always good to play in front of a few hundred people because it's very tough out there.

MU: If you could open for any band, who do you think would be the most beneficial for you?

AVG: We've been trying Radiohead for years.

MU: That's a tough one. That would be good though.

AVG: Yeah, I think that would be a good crowd for us.

AVG: We've been trying Radiohead for years.

MU: What are some future plans for the band?

AVG: This year it's going to be a lot of playing. We're doing some festivals and we're doing a lot of Dutch shows as well. We hope to tour some more - hopefully America and then in Europe some more. In between, we're going to write our new stuff and we're working on a DVD as well, because we've taped the tours we've been on so far this year. So we're going to release a DVD sometime this year I hope. So that's quite busy, and then next year I hope we're going to work on the new album. You never know but that's kind of the plan.

LINKS

THE GATHERING
http://www.gathering.nl

PSYCHONAUT RECORDS
http://www.psychonautrecords.com

CENTURY MEDIA
http://www.centurymedia.com

METAL UPDATE
http://www.metalupdate.com

CREDITS

Interview: Scott McCooe [ scott@metalupdate.com ]
Editor: Brant Wintersteen [ editor@metalupdate.com ]
Webmaster: Sean Jennings [ sean@metalupdate.com ]