Live-Metal.Net - Interviews: Autumn

3/28/09

Though probably unknown to most, there is, next to Within Temptation, another female-fronted Dutch metal band with gothic influences. Autumn has been a figure in female-fronted metal for the last seven years. Since starting as more of a classic gothic metal act, the band has incorporated a vast amount of musical influences—including metal, alternative and rock—over their last two albums. Now with a new vocalist in Marjan Welman (who appears on Ayreon's 01011001 album), the band has just released its newest album, Altitude (review) on Metal Blade Records. Altitude is a captivating listening experience from start to finish, and the music is driving and diverse. Songs like “Paradise Nox” and “Skydancer” are destined to be classics of the subgenre. As stated by the band, in order for the listener to capture it's whirlwind of emotions, Altitude is best when listened to as a whole.

Recently, Autumn drummer Jan Grijpstra checked in with Live-Metal.net's Jeff Maki to discuss the new album, their talented new vocalist and where Autumn fits in within the grand scheme of things.

Live-Metal.net: First off, for our readers that aren't familiar with the band, could you provide us with a little background as to how you started out?

Jan Grijpstra: We started some 12 years ago, but released our first album seven years ago in 2002, called When Lust Evokes the Curse. In 2004, we released the album Summer’s End and in 2007, the album My New Time. Now we are back again with number four, Altitude. The last two albums were released by Metal Blade. We seem to have evolved from the classic female-fronted gothic metal, to more symphonic rock during these four albums, but since I have been there along for the whole ride, I can't see the real transitions. I always felt it was a natural evolution that comes with listening to different bands and becoming a more experienced musician through time.

Explain the departure of your original vocalist Nienke and the search that led to new vocalist Marjan Welman joining the band.

The motivation of Nienke to leave the band was the fact that she had heart problems that were diagnosed by the doctors as being the symptoms of a starting burnout, meaning that she had to cut back in activities. She was then forced to stop with the thing that occupied most of her time, namely the band. She made the right choice since she feels much better nowadays. She has taken up other things in her life like working in the studio (where we recorded a part of the Altitude record) with her partner, Arno Krabman, and playing in her new band Dejafuse.

We had already seen Marjan a few years ago during a festival when she was playing with her band Elister and we were very impressed at that time. So when Nienke decided to quit, the first one who came into our minds was Marjan. Luckily she was very enthusiastic. So it did not take us long to find a new singer.

There's been an uprising in female-fronted metal acts in recent years. How does Autumn fit in and do you even consider yourselves a "female metal band"?

I think we are more rock oriented, but especially in the beginning of our career we were put under this flag. We don't really mind what people call us, as long as we get a fair chance by listeners. Therefore, we have put the entire Altitude album on our MySpace page, so that people can judge for themselves if they like our music and want to buy the album. People can then take the opportunity to see in what genre we would fit best.

Either way, where do you think your biggest audience lies? Is it in fans of other female acts, metal fans, alternative?

I think our music attracts people that like different styles and genres, not only the female acts. I'm not sure, though.

What other bands have had the biggest influence on your sound?

Since all six of us write the music, it is hard to point out specific bands, since every member listens to different bands. My favorite influence is Faith No More.

It means (together with the artwork and some other songs) that sometimes it's good to take a distance from the lives we live and take a second to actually enjoy the moment. Life is such a rush sometimes that we can't really enjoy it anymore and just keep on going. This is a theme within the record as well, but also the theme of parting ways, either or not forced, amongst others.

You describe yourselves as "an album band." How much harder do you think it is to get people to listen to an album in its entirety than it was years ago?

I am not sure. I always listen to albums in total, mainly to get “into” the album, but also to get used to the sound and to see if I can find connections between songs. Because of the simplicity of downloading, people are probably less into albums and more into downloading only the favorite or most popular songs of the album. So it could be harder. It's not that we force people to listen to Altitude as a whole, but we think there is a kind of connection between the songs that is worth checking out.

Some of the material sounds really moody to me, melancholy and not always upbeat. How does this translate into a live setting?