AUTUMN

Pride comes before the fall

In my very subjective opinion the newest full length album of that Dutch progressive atmospheric metal act has been one of the biggest surprises of the year. „Altitude” really fascinates me, I can sit and listen to that record for hours, everyday, everynight and everywhere. Great music, poetic lyrics, sensual voice of band's new female singer Marjan Welman, it all creates a unique atmosphere and makes it easy to escape from the real world. AUTUMN's creative imagination stands out in the crowd. Guitarist Jens van der Valk spent some time on a very long conversation with Metal Portal. Enjoy!

-Hell-o Jens! I suppose you've been quite busy lately, promoting your brand new album so I'm grateful to you for taking some time for Metal Portal... How are you doing?
Doing just fine! And you’re very welcome, we’re just as grateful for your interest in Autumn!

-Your new effort entitled „Altitude” was released in mid February via Metal Blade. This is actually your second album for that German label. Is everything working fine? Are you satisfied with this cooperation?
We’re definitely satisfied with how things have worked out between us so far. Both on a professional level as well as on a personal level, we get along really well and seem to understand what Autumn needs to grow. „My New Time” was breaking ground for both Autumn and Metal Blade and considering the album was the first genuine international step for us, we covered a lot of ground since its release. I feel we’re well represented and „Altitude” is in good hands once again!

-But do you feel special? Do you think they are doing enough to make you feel a bit... pampered?
Well, it is the music industry of course, so it’s rather hard for an artist to feel pampered without feeling a need to be suspicious, hahaha! You know, considering the circumstances, we’ve got nothing to complain about! In these tough economic times, we’re very fortunate to be able to say that we’ve got the full support of a record company that is a major player in its field and has a solid global distribution and promotion network!

-My previous questions were intentional. Your new album is absolutely phenomenal and I can't stop to listen to it since I've got a promo CD. It's destined for success! That's why I think you guys deserve special treatment.
Thanks a lot for your kind words! As a matter of fact, we do get special treatment to some degree. We’re far from a typical Metal Blade band and the guys at the German headquarters took a deliberate risk signing us. In many ways, for them it meant adopting different methods of promoting, tapping into different media channels, into a whole new market even. They’ve put a lot of time and energy into taking the hurdles involved and in this way we do feel appreciated and even pampered! But we need to remain realistic at the same time: Had we been your average death metal band, we would undoubtedly have profited more from the same amount of promotion. Both Autumn and Metal Blade need to keep focussed, working on how to maximize the effect of promotion in order to release all the potential „Altitude” has in store.

-OK, let's stop this little verbal blowjob and go back to work. Your new album surprised me VERY positively. In my opinion it's much more creative, mature and soulful, compared to your previous recordings. Well, only one year has passed since you released your previous album „My New Time” so could you explain me that phenomenon? Have you been taking some new pills or what?
Hahaha, no, totally pill free! Actually, we’ve been on a sort of creative high since we started writing for the „My New Time” album. We stumbled upon this chemistry within the line-up that had formed just prior to the „MNT” era. It enabled us to engage in a very fast writing process that resulted in some 40 songs written, from which „My New Time” was finally distilled. After having done the first shows for the album, all of us were poised to start writing new songs again, so we didn’t waste much time. With five composers in the band, it didn’t take us very long to come up with plenty of material to start thinking about recording the follow up to „My New Time.” The quality of the song writing was aided by the fact that we got to know eachother increasingly well, both as musicians and as persons, throughout touring the „My New Time” album so we were able to write with more focus and more confidence in each other’s interpretation of the material.

-Don't get me wrong, I think that „My New Time” was a damn good album. I remember when I was listening to it for the first time, it instantly caught my attention. The response for this album was also quite good so... How do you see that record now? Are you still proud of it?
Very proud indeed! It’s a shame it was only our first international release, since I feel it deserved more attention. Comparing „MNT” to „Altitude” I feel we’ve progressed in a very natural way, made the songs more layered, more varied, a bit less straightforward. You might indeed say we’ve matured in a way. Yet, „My New Time” was and still is a statement of who and where we were as a band back then and its catchy, energetic character is still pretty much a part of Autumn ’09. In my opinion, Autumn’s sound is captured in both albums and „My New Time” will remain an integral part of our setlist.

-Due to a pretty bad distribution many people (including me) still haven't had an opportunity to listen to you first two full length albums, I mean "When Lust Evokes The Curse" and "Summer's End". Are they worth the bother?
-Yeah, it goes to show that being on a major label doesn’t guarantee solid distribution! „WLETC” was released through Sony/EPIC and „Summer’s End” through Universal. Great to work with them and instrumental in putting our name on the map in Holland, Belgium and partly Germany, but further into Europe, they were too dependant on headquarters in other countries and then it doesn’t help if your name isn’t Britney Spears or Robbie Williams, hahaha! Are they worth the bother? Depends. We’ve made giant leaps between the first three albums. „When Lust..” in many ways is a very original album with a unique atmosphere, unfortunately graced with a rather appalling sound quality. It was written by an entirely different line-up in much more organic way, jamming on indeas. „Summer’s End” lay the foundation for the Autumn sound like it exists today, but with a more metal/gothic feel to it. Quite a few people still consider it our best album for precisely that reason. So, if you’re into more traditional female fronted gotic/metal or are interested in retracing Autumn’s steps to the beginning, these CD’s have got plenty going for them!

-In the early days AUTUMN was strongly identified with Dutch gothic metal scene, bands like WITHIN TEMPTATION or EPICA. How relevant are such associations for you now? In other words, what would you say to people who think that AUTUMN is another worthless clone of the aforementioned famous acts?
I certainly wouldn’t call direct associations with any of the bands very relevant or fair, since, for example, we were around long before Epica and share very little musical resemblance with them. However, we are quite grateful for having been/still being part of the Dutch gothic scene. We’ve never saught to distance ourselves from that movement, and it has helped us build up what we are and have achieved as a band. Since the early days our sound has certainly diversified, and though many of our fans from those days still stay true to Autumn, most people probably rightly question if we still really fit that gothic-niche. In my opinion, we’ve got a little bit of everything in our system, and there’s certainly enough gothic in there to allow us to hit the stage on the Wave Gothic treffen in Leipzig, or the M’Era Luna Festival, but I don’t think anyone in their right mind can accuse us of being a clone of any band or movement!

-How would you define precisely the music you are playing now? I find it very hard...
Ha, it is quite difficult, eh? I don’t have a clear cut answer for you either. In my opinion, it’s a form of diverse heavy groovy-related rock with a twist of this and a hint of that, hehehe! Rather vague, I agree! It’s being advertised as female fronted melodic power rock with a gothic edge. That might be as close to the truth as anything!

-How much of an influence was THE GATHERING on your band? I think your music features some elements they have been known for. How do you respond to that?
Actually, looking at present day Autumn, I don’t think we’ve been conciously influenced by them that much. However, they are an inspiration: We have a healthy respect for The Gathering and their progression throughout the years, showing that it is very well possible for a band to diversify and transcend genres while still staying true to itself and its fans. Musically, however, I feel we are worlds apart. But maybe I’m not the best judge of that. Curious to hear your opinion on the elements you’re referring to! Looking at Autumn in the early years, around ’95/’96, The Gathering’s „Always” album definitely was of major importance in pointing the direction in which Autumn’s musicians decided to branch off from the death metal the were making at the time. So in that sense, we owe a lot the The Gathering!

-Ok, so now let's try to find out what's unique and special about AUTUMN, comparing this band to the whole music scene surounding you. Do you have a special offer you would like to promote on the contemporary music scene? Don't be so shy, advertise yourselves!
-I’m not so sure we’re more special than any band that tries to follow its heart when making music, but I’m pretty sure that is what it takes to stand out from the crowd: the desire to make music that is special to yourself, and share that with your audience. Through the connection you make with your music and the enthousiasm and persistence that comes with it, you get noticed after a while. In my opinion, Autumn deserves a place in the crowded female fronted heavy scene, because we are an honest, down to earth band that’s purely in it for making the music that we love and that truly appreciates likened souls that can relate in any way to what we do, be it a single individual or 100,000