Anneke van Giersbergen (Agua de Annique)
March 2008
It came as a shocking surprise to most of The Gathering fanbase that you left the band. Was it something you thought about before?
It's difficult to say. Over the years I had thoughts like, "Hmm, what if I did this or that" and then the feeling goes away and then comes back again. These are just small things but they are like little bells ringing inside. All these little things became one big thing like I wanted to be with my kids and family a little bit more and I wanted to work with other people a little bit more and to do more projects and different things, and of course I wanted to make this album. So all these things at one time came together so I said to myself, "This is it, I'll have to do it." And then I didn't wait to tell the guys so I immediately told them about my decision. That was in March last year so already a year ago. Time goes by fast.
I don't think they were happy about your decision...
Well, they didn't like it. Of course after 13 years you're so used to each other, you're so close and it seems like nothing can happen to it. I think they were in a bit of a disbelief at first and they didn't like it of course. It's a big change for the band so they were not too happy about it.
Are you still in touch with them?
No, not at the moment. We are going kind of our own ways and I hope and I think that our paths will cross again in the future but for the moment there's no contact.
What musical period of The Gathering did you enjoy the most?
Good question. Every period had its own charm. Every album has been so different because we learned a lot so every time we did a new album we did something different. But I really like the period of How To Measure A Planet because then we really chose to do something different. We chose a different producer and a different way of recording and it was very inspirational and very inspiring. We had a lot of idea for that record. We also had a lot of ideas when we made Nighttime Birds but not all the ideas could go on the record because it was kind of a follow up to Mandylion but with How To Measure A Planet we let it all go and that was a nice feeling.
That album was probably one of the first times you shocked your fanbase...
Yeah but The Gathering did it already when they found a girl to sing. (Laughs) In those days it was not common.
I'm sure you already received feedback from The Gathering fans. What are they saying?
Luckily the most of them really like it because of course I took my vocal sounds with me and that's also a big part of my music so people who like my vocal sound and my melodic, they usually like the new stuff as well. But of course there are people who like The Gathering's music better that's more layered, more detailed and atmospheric.
Did you also get nasty comments like that you ruined The Gathering and stuff?
Yeah, I get those comments as well. (Laughs) That's only natural I think. It's a change and in some people's life it's a big change including our lives of course so I can understand people reacting on it.
So, how did you get Agua de Annique together?
Well, Rob, the drummer, is my husband. It's really cool because I really like to work with him and now we're sharing this band and it's great. Joris, the guitar player and Jacques, the bass player, they are friends of ours and they both said yes when I mentioned about this band to them the first time. I'm very lucky because they are both very good and nice persons.
You mentioned the word "band" so do you consider it more than a project of yours?
Yeah, it is kind of my band because I write all the songs and I decide on the gigs and artwork and all these ideas. But on the other hand this line-up for the moment is steady because we're doing great together and it feels like a band. The nice thing is that they all make their own music as well, they release their own records all three of them, so they know what it's like to make music themselves and to perform so it's a band feeling.
What was the idea behind the band's name Agua de Annique?
Well, I wanted to have a real band name because Anneke van Giersbergen doesn't really sound good and it's not catchy but I wanted to have a name that refers to my name. Annique is kind of the French pronunciation of Anneke and Agua is for water and I just liked "Anneke's Water" as a name. I love water as a metaphor. It's versatile and inspiring and I love it. Anneke's Water seemed nice, I don't know why, I just came up with it.
You definitely gave a tough job for people to write it down...
Yes, that's true. (Laughs) People ask me about it all the time so that's a good thing too.
The album's title "Air" goes well hand in hand with Anneke's Water. Was it on purpose?
Yeah, that's true. They fit together. They are my favourite elements and they need each other. I really liked the concept of it.
Is it "fresh air" or you also used material written in the past?
This record has some old stuff on it. I write a lot of songs all the time and I wrote a lot of songs in the past and not every song was used on The Gathering albums so they were unreleased. I lot of stuff I used to sing when I would do those small shows that I did on my own with only a guitar. So yeah, the songs were there but they were never released so I took a few of them and did it with the band now. For example songs like Asleep, Take Care Of Me are older ones but I think more than half of the album is newly written in the last years.
What is the newest song and the oldest written?
The oldest one is I think Take Care Of Me and the newest one is Day After Yesterday.
How would you describe the musical direction of Air?
Good question. I'm not sure because it's quite broad. I'm coming from a dark background I and I like the darkness of rock and metal music and I like the romantics in it and you can still hear it in my voice in the melodies. But I also like alternative music and pop music so I think it's kind of a light rock or a heavy pop album.
You'll tell me if I'm right or wrong but I find your voice a lot more emotional than on the last few The Gathering outputs...
Yeah, I can't really tell but it can be. Maybe the big difference with this release and the other ones that we never discussed about the lyrics or how to sing it and we had no producer giving me ideas. I think this was the purest form of recording for me because I wrote the songs at home and the way they sounded there with the piano and the guitar they sounded the same way in the studio. Then we added the other instruments but the songs remained very pure and maybe that's what you can hear. It's just even more from the heart. The Gathering music was also from the heart but that was a process with 5-6 people thinking about music and adding their ideas so it became a collective thing.
Do you plan going the same route in the future?
Yes, I would like to because it's a very nice way for me just to do it and not to think about things so much. I like this way but I can also imagine that maybe on the next album we'll think a bit more about guitar sounds and little details in production-wise. But for the rest I'll just keep on writing and recording my songs the purest form I know and we'll see what happens.
What lyrical themes do you touch upon in your songs?
Just every day life, I guess. You Are Nice is a very simple song about someone you like. The only thing it says is "I like you, I like you", that's it. It's very shallow but sometimes you feel like that. Trail Of Grief is a lot deeper and dark and metaphorical so there are differences in the ways of writing. But they are all from every day life.
Are there any songs influenced by the split with The Gathering?
No, not really. Maybe that will come in the future. (Laughs)
My favourite song is Yalin that I've listened to more 70 times in the last two months.
Wow, that's great! It's kind of a sad song. It's about a friend. She was very young and she took her own life in the past. It's just thoughts about that thing that if you could talk to her if she lived now then you could apologise. It's a very personal song.
What would be your favourite one?
Yalin is right up there, I like it very much. It's a very nice song. But it's difficult to say though. I also like Lost And Found a lot, which is nice and slow and heavy in the end and I really like to play that live. And I like Witnesses a lot which is really rocky with a lot of energy in it. So probably these three are my favourites.
New band, new album and a brand new image for you with the stewardess outfit. Where is this coming from?
I like stewardesses for a long time. (Laughs) We've been flying a lot with The Gathering and all the time I was just fascinated of how thy are working and how they are taking care of other people. It really seems that they have to have it in their blood. Also they are very precise in their job ad I thought it was just fascinating because they have all the quality that I do not have and I can really admire that. So all in all I just thought that the stewardess should be the ambassador for this band on this album.
So next time maybe a pilot?
Yeah, maybe. (Laughs) But it will be something else.
Btw, do you enjoy flying? Most musicians used to complain about that and all the travelling.
I like flying. Well, it's tiring, you don't get fit from flying. (Laugh) I like to be up in the sky. I like to sit down and read a book or listening to music. You're not able to do anything else and it's peaceful to me. And also I like to be in the sky ad even though it's only a few kilometres but I'm closer to heaven and it's the great nothing. I like all that stuff but of course I know it's not healthy for your body and it's tiring, so there's a downside to it.
What was the longest trip you did on a plane?
Well, we had a flight from Chile to Amsterdam and with stops and changing planes it took 40 hours. We had to stop in Mexico, then in the US at two places and then in Spain before we arrived in Holland. We had to wait for so long in between the flights so that all in all took 40 hours and it was amazing.
Besides The Gathering fans what kind of audience do you think you can reach with your music?
I think I could also reach some of the alternative crowd. Nowadays the alternative scene is so big that it's also mainstream. I think people who enjoy bands like Placebo or Radiohead, so pop music with any edge and some depths, I think I can belong there as well as in the rock and metal music as I really love it as well.
Do you see mainstream radio and TV potential with this album?
No, I don't think so because it's too dark for a Top40 stuff. So I don't think I could be that main-main-mainstream and it's not what I want to anyway. (Laughs) It's just fine for me to make music and draw some people to the clubs. That's just fine by me.
Did you release a single and shoot a video?
I made a video for Day After Yesterday and that's also been the first single but I only released it digitally. I don't press singles as I don't really have money for pressing and I know that it's difficult to enter Top40 with these kinda songs, so I don't really make a lot of trouble with it. But we did a video for it, which is an animated video that was done by someone else for us. We are planning to do more videos but we want to wait until the second album is out. I have already enough stuff for the second record that we're going to record in the summer. I think it's going to be released in early 2009.
And can we expect a real tour anytime soon?
Well, not really, because I want to be at home a little bit more. We toured intensively with The Gathering all these years, which was fantastic by the way, because I love touring. So I wish I could tour the whole world but it's difficult logistically because we're not such a big band as The Gathering was, so we have to start a little bit more down the bottom. It's kinda impossible to do a big tour with a new band but you never know what's going to happen. But also I don't want to be away from my boy for weeks in a row, so maybe we can do small tours. We're looking into that but there are no big plans now. We're doing a lot of club shows in Holland and a few in abroad.
How about these gigs, what sort of setlist you played?
We usually play a lot of songs from the new album, then we play Alone from The Gathering and we have a cover of a famous Dutch band, so Dutch people like it. And we also play a song from Joris, our guitar player, who has really beautiful songs. And besides we also play some new songs that will appear on the next album. This makes up an 80 minutes long set, which is nice.
Don't you plan playing more The Gathering tunes?
Maybe we'll change it or maybe we'll play more because people really like it. We'll see.
What was the song that you enjoyed the most playing live off Air?
Witnesses is so energetic and people were dancing to it so for me and for the band it's a great one to play. Trail Of Grief is also very intense and I really love playing that one too.
For closing, what were the three albums that you liked the most in 2007?
What a good question! I have to think about it. Only from last year? Sometimes you don't discover more than three albums in one year.
Yes but it's already March 2008.
That's true. (Laughs) Let me see. I like the new Ulver album Shadows of the Sun, I love it. I play that all the time. The last Queens of the Stone Age album, which is Era Vulgaris. It's a fantastic album. And I like the new Peter Pan Speedrock, you know this band?
Never heard!
It's speed rock, the name says it. (Laughs) You have to check it out. It's really like muscle rock. They are from Eindhoven, Holland, a city where people only make rock'n'roll. Their new album is called Pursuit Until Capture. It's really energetic god fast rock.