THE GATHERING Interview with Anneke
08.03.00 via phone
ID: How do you feel about the cd, If Then Else?
Anneke: Well, we are very happy actually because we worked on it really, really long and hard. Especially hard. After How to Measure a Planet, which is really long, we just had this feeling that we wanted to make more kind of an in-your-face album. So there's a few songs—while we were writing—coming with guitars and a rock sound so we decided to make a short album, short songs. It worked very well for us. We put everything in it what was available in us. A lot of people really like it, so it couldn't be better actually.
ID: So it's to your satisfaction lyrically, musically, and recording-wise?
Anneke: Yes, but it's always possible to be better. So we already have ideas for the next album about recording and sound. Recording-wise, it went really well, and mixed really good by our old producer again, but it's maybe too neat. So the next album will be more rough-sounding.
ID: How would you compare the first two albums to the most recent? Do you feel there's a difference or that it's just a progression?
Anneke: Yeah, I think that's it, actually. Of course there's a comparison. It's quite honest music, it's all about atmosphere and feeling and emotion and all. The last albums are also about that, but more contemporary, of course. Mandylion was quite successful. It's boring to make something like that again [just] because it's successful. We decided to just go with the flow, see what comes out, and with every cd that's the same. The music is the boss, so you make the music that wants to be made.
ID: What might prompt a change in sound, or music or lyrics, for you personally?
Anneke: Well, we don't really listen to our own cds. We make them and then we put them in the box. Usually right after we record an album we know exactly what was not perfect about it and we want to do that better the next time. It's a process. You can't make a perfect album because you are not perfect yourself. You can't make perfect music, you give the job away of producing, mixing, mastering, so you come up with new ideas for the next album. That's why we make a next and a next and a next, you know? You learn by your old music to make new.
ID: I've read that you started singing around age 12 when you joined your school's choir, what made you choose your voice as an instrument as opposed to a tradtional orchestral instrument or something like that?
Anneke: Actually, I don't know. It's a feeling. I've been singing and dancing and all just when popped out of the stomach of my mother. So it was kind of natural for me to be doing this. Obviously, you collect people around you and make music. Then all of a sudden you realize, 'Okay, I'm a singer.' But you don't really think about it, it's just a feeling I guess.
ID: You probably just grew up singing with your favorite songs and you were probably like, 'Wow, I'm good at this!'
Anneke: [Laughs] People, indeed, like my vocal peak. The music teacher in school had us sing Whitney Houston songs, he would put on the tape and everybody had to sing along. I was the only one who could get the high notes. It was not beautiful, but it was more than most people could reach. So he was like, 'Oh, you're a soprano. That actually sounds quite good for somebody who's 12. Maybe you should take some vocal lessons.' Then I thought, 'Well, why not? It's nice.' And I did. I think the people around you realize before you do.
ID: What factors made you realize you wanted to sing professionally? Did you know you wanted to do this?
Anneke: Yeah, I knew; I had the feeling that I wanted to do that. So I did some schooling, because you're obligated to learn, then I started to work some jobs and all, and just make music. At one point it was going so well with The Gathering that now we can live off it. It was kind of a wish, but it was also kind of natural like, I will give up everything for this. And if it doesn't work, it doesn't work. I'll just do jobs or whatever and make music for fun. And if it does work, I can make a living off of it and can spend seven days a week doing stuff for the band like making music and playing and recording. So I'm really happy.
ID: That's awesome to get to do what you want to do in life, so you're very lucky.
Anneke: I am, I realize that.
ID: Who or what inspires you?
Anneke: I think everything and everybody. I think everyday life is a really important factor. Everything you go through, everybody you meet, the books you read, the movies you see, the music you hear, especially, and the relationships you have. Everything and everybody is inspiring me to make music. Last night, for instance, I was home alone and I was listening to my own four-track recordings and I was inspired by my own little song, I made another song about it. It could be anything. The sun shining could be a reason for a whole five-minute song.
ID: Do you consider yourself to be a positive person? You seem so positive to me.
Anneke: I am quite positive, yeah. I used to be not so happy, I was positive then, but I always had a tendency to nag and be frustrated about nagging. That's a circle you don't come out of unless you do something about it. Which I did.
ID: What did you do?
Anneke: [Laughs] Well…I got some therapy for myself. It's very, very good just to talk to somebody. She just like gave me a mirror and was like, 'Okay, you're this, you're Anneke, and you're worth it, you have to start realizing you're worth it. There's good and bad sides, and do something with it.' Indeed, the problem is like, if you're going through this vicious circle, you're feeling down, you wonder why you're feeling down, you don't know the answers so you feel down again. Then you know the answers and life's still difficult, but you understand it better. Then I had a positive attitude because I know you get positivity back if you bring it also. I think, anyway, you get what you give. It works, because I like to be smiling and there's a lot of reasons to be smiling. Things are going good and I really can enjoy them.
ID: Yeah, you just nailed it. I don't like people that are too happy and don't realize there's this reality to the world, too.
Anneke: Yeah, I think that's a great deal about music. You make music for yourself to just lose whatever you have on your mind. That's already 100% great, then there's many people who like your music and they feel better because the music made them feel better. We've got a lot of letters from people who, like, for instance, a girl losing her father and she said, 'The music of The Gathering made me feel a bit better when I was alone at night or when I was missing my father.' Then you think, 'Yeah, this is reason number one for making music because you're helping people.' It's kind of nice.
ID: Kind of on the same type of subject, most everyone has a hero or someone they look up to, who would that be for you?
Anneke: I think that's difficult [to answer] because there's a few people for especially an artist who inspired me throughout my whole life. Madonna, for being a woman…
ID: Yeah, she did a lot for the music industry as far as females go, I think.
Anneke: Yeah, yeah, definitely. Now she makes good records even, in the beginning it was not even that spectacular. Yeah, a half hour ago I saw her new video called "Music" and she's really…she has this huge cleavage and she's really out there and I love it! I don't dare [do] those things, but I take pride in the fact that we're both women and some women dare to do that stuff. I really have high, high respect for her. For the rest, Prince I like for everything. He's a great musician…and he looks good. [Giggles]
ID: [Laughs] Yeah…
Anneke: That's my perfect man, actually. I like a feminine side in men. I love it. But the band is always teasing me, like 'Prince is actually a woman' and 'How can you stand a guy like that?' 'He's smaller than you are!' Yeah! I think that's sexy!
ID: So do you like Duran Duran and all those other '80's bands, too?
Anneke: Yeah, I like it, but I think I was a bit too young when Duran Duran was at their peak of success in Europe, but now I start to appreciate them. They make the perfect pop songs.
ID: Yeah, I remember being about twelve and listening to Duran Duran, Prince, Madonna, Cyndi Lauper…
Anneke: Yeah…
ID: Do you ever find yourself comparing other female-fronted bands like Lacuna Coil, for instance, to yourself?
Anneke: I'm not really busy with that stuff. Of course, in the press, labelmates like that get compared a lot. I think the only reason is because there's female singers in each band. They're more heavy than we are, they're a way different style, so they are completely different. But they began a wave of heavy bands with female singers.
[Somehow this all leads into a discussion of the press and boyfriends and relationships.]
ID: Anyhow, getting back to the interview…
Anneke: Oh yeah, that's right.
ID: How do you react to people making statements such as 'You're as beautiful as your voice' and things like that?
Anneke: Well, I really like it.
ID: Oh, I'm sure!
Anneke: It's really nice, it's flattering. But I am realistic and I know that those people don't know me very well. What we are showing, we are showing our best side. You get really good pictures and then you put them on magazines and you make good music. You don't stop until it's good and then you put it on cd. So the people think, obviously, that you're all good. You look good and you sing good and you make good music. That is true, but there's so much more in a person. And you don't know how many BAD pictures there are of us! That's realistic. I sometimes think it's hard to imagine that Michael Jackson is pooing on the toilet, you know?
ID: [LAUGHS] Yeah!
Anneke: [Laughs] But he is! You never see him do that…
ID: THANKFULLY, I think!
Anneke: [Laughs] I love the fact that people love what you're doing, and your look even, and I take it as a huge, huge compliment. But I also know that those people only see one side of us.
ID: What are your thoughts on the way a musician's physical appearance affects their success as a band?
Anneke: I think…It's whatever you choose to do. For instance, The Gathering is a pretty normal, down to earth band. So we don't show off like, 'Here's our platform shoes.' It does not fit our music and it does not fit the way we are. But I love things like Prince or Bootsy Collins who dress up and they have a completely different show. I think it's both nice. I think you feel a lot of moods during the day. For instance, I listen to Slayer when I'm vacuum cleaning. I need Slayer. Or when I'm sitting in the evening, I just play some nice music.
ID: Tell me about the other projects you've been involved in including the jazz duo and the speed metal band…
Anneke: Okay. The jazz duo I had with my former boyfriend. We were called Bad Breath, we were playing folk, jazz, and blues. Actually, I recently played with him again because a bar we always go to needed a duo because one duo had cancelled the gig. So we played for like the first time in five years. It was really nice. I can sing a whole different way than I do with The Gathering.
ID: Did you ever record anything with that?
Anneke: Yeah, we had a demo. It was really, really old. The speed metal band I was in for awhile, but we only did one gig because we could never get any gigs. The guitarist of the group, he was really, really good. He was kind of a virtuouso at sixteen. We had a good band, but after awhile, speed metal is not my thing. That was right before I went into The Gathering. I told this guitarist that I was asked to sing in The Gathering, and he was like, 'Oh, you're leaving us!' I said, 'No, no, I'm really faithful. I don't know The Gathering anyway.' Then after a few months I started really getting to go really good, then I said, 'Actually, I don't have time anymore…' He said, 'Yeah, I told you.'
ID: Will you come to the US in support of this album?
Anneke: I hope so, but I don't think so because we've been to America last year, and that was really, really good and lovely, but it was costing a lot of money because Century Media didn't pay anything. So they let us pay for everything, we lost a lot of money and we don't have that amount to go back again. We try to go with the bigger bands and not pay so much. But we're still working on it. If it doesn't happen this year, we'll still keep working on it to come next year.
ID: That was your first US tour last year, wasn't it? How did that go?
Anneke: Yeah. Well, it's really different because American people are really different from European. Actually within Europe there's a lot of difference. We went from the west all the way to the east in three weeks, so we saw nearly everything there is to see. We saw, like, deserts and sea and everything. So for that aspect, it was reeeeally nice. We saw so much nature and we drove a LOT. We drove like 10,000 kilometers in three weeks and doing gigs as well. The people were even better because they sometimes drove for five hours to see us because America is HUGE, so you have to drive a lot to see your favorite bands. They did it for us and we were so honored. Sometimes only twenty people showed up because there was never any commercials made by the booker. Only people that saw our homepage came. But they made us feel so good. It was perfect aside from the business aspect.
ID: That right there shows that you're down to earth and will play for twenty people and not complain about it, [or cancel the show].
Anneke: Well, if they're twenty people that don't know us, we'll start playing because we want to convince those twenty people. And if they know us, then we're honored that they're there. Actually, in San Francisco there was twenty people and I shook all their hands after the show, 'Thank you for coming. Thank you for coming.' If there's 500 people you can't do that.
ID: What places were your favorite, or least favorite, to play? I know you had some troubles in Colorado…
Anneke: Oh, Colorado, yeah. Well, we didn't play there, so I don't know [about] there. I don't know which is the least…They were so different. Like I love California. I like the seaside and all. New York was really cool, too, but it was like so…fuzzy. It tires you out more. But we're Dutch, we're kind of relaxed people, so it's all very "uppy" and "fuzzy." Detroit was kind of a harsh city, but we played in a bad part of town also. When we were in the middle part [of America] where you see cowboys and all, that was kind of overwhelming because of the huge nature and there's really harsh people like in the restaurants. We were the only ones without cowboy hats. You feel a little bit intimidated. I feel most at home in San Francisco…[that] I really, really liked.
ID: Well, that's about it, so if you have any closing words to tell your fans or whatever…
Anneke: Thank you for reading it, if you are reading it until the end. If you have anything to say about anything that concerns the band about the music, you should let us know, good or bad. Go to our homepage and leave us a message.
