www.autumn-band.com
www.myspace.com/autumnband
www.metalblade.com
Hi Autumn, Congratulations’ on the release of your New Album Altitude I really dig the melodic vocals, instrumental powerful metal sounds.
Q. Can you tell us how Altitude takes the listener on a musical journey of thrilling adventure of deep emotions filled with such imagery that the listener can picture the lyrics and how these song tracks captures the bands hearts and vivid imaginations and messages the band hopes to bring to the listener?
Jan: Thank you for your kind words! We are very happy and excited about the result as well. We hope it has become an album that will stay interesting after many listening sessions. Our intention was to make it not just a number of random songs glued together, but more a coherent collection of songs that share some kind of connection or tension (also in the lyrics) which makes you want to listen to the complete album again, instead of skipping to only your personal favourites after a while. I hope we succeeded.
Q. Who is writes Autumns lyrics that are filled with relationships, loss of innocence, mourning, spiritual dreams or rather enchantment, jealousy I don’t think I ever came across with lyrics that intensifies these emotions into such vivid imagery?
Jan: Thanks! Most lyrics are written by the two brothers, Mats and Jens. They are in my opinion very talented writers and have the ability to make clever use of metaphors to express their feelings and thoughts. They have written down the meaning behind the lyrics and we have put this on our website. You can find it at this link:
www.autumn-band.com/altitude_own_words.html
I wrote one lyric myself, it is one of the bonus-tracks, so I am not sure if it will be released in Canada. The song is called Closure and deals about not being able to say goodbye anymore to someone very close.
Q. Having listened to your full stream song tracks from your MySpace page www.myspace.com/autumnband one song stood out immediately that I could relate to “Heart Demands” and I thought wow what motivates or inspires the band to come up with these awesome lyrics?
Jan: Mats (our guitar player) wrote these lyrics and he explains them in the following way:
“The Heart Demands is a song about the way modern man lives his life. Lyrically, it’s a follow-up to Satellites off the My New Time album in a way. Haste has got a firm grip on us. Our jobs have got us running, because we collectively accept it. But if you think about it, who’s really dictating our pace? We’re on the run, crippling ourselves in pursuit of happiness. The song’s bridge is a musical and lyrical moment of contemplation. In our illusion of haste and ambition, years have flown past. We haven’t stopped to think long enough about the things that make life worth living and there’s a gaping hole in our feelings and recollections. In a way, we have deceived ourselves and each other. Maybe it’s time for a step back and a look around.”
Q. I totally dig your 2 videos Satellites and the acoustic version will you be producing more music videos from your song tracks such as Skydancer or My New Time?
Jan: We are working on a video for this album. I cannot tell you which song it will be and what the video will be like, because we have not completely finished the preparations for this, but there will be a video.
Q. I was very impressed reading your bio there was originally 40 tracks the band started out with will the remainder of the tracks be in the works for another upcoming Album?
Jan: Some of them will, but a lot have been discarded forever, hehe. Since we all write music for the band, you can have a lot of ideas for songs to choose from. I like this process most, since you have to choose (democratically) the best songs. Our selection consisted ultimately from some 19 or 20 songs. So we will definitely use some of the songs that not where in the final selection in the pre-production of the next album.
Q. Were any challenges the band faced while producing Altitude?
Jan: This was the first time we did parts of the actual recordings at home. That means that you have to work very disciplined since there is no producer saying it is ok or it should be recorded once more. We learned a lot from this process. Normally we write and record the pre-productions at home, so we where al little pre-pared, but it was definitely a challenge.
Q. Can you tell us a little about the current lineup, such as do they share the same influences for their music and do they like to try new techniques to their sound?
Marjan Welman-Vocals
Jerome Vrielink-Bass
Jan Munnik-Keyboards
Jan Grijpstra-Drums
Mats van der Valk-Guitar/Vocals
Jens van der Valk-Guitar/Vocals
Jan: We are with six people. Our 2 guitar-players are brothers and they also do some background vocals. Marjan Welman is our lead singer and Jan Munnik is playing the synths. Then we have Jerome Vrielink on the bass and I am playing the drums. Obviously our musical interest is overlapping, but we are all very general orientated. From stoner- to symphonic rock, but also the more extreme kinds of music, like death- and thrash metal are very much appreciated. We al write the songs together, so everyone can put its influences in the music.
Q. How about the quality and care that went into the recording of Altitude was this recorded live or with the help of digital techniques using the computer?
Jan: Yes, we recorded part of the album, mostly drums and some guitars, at the graveland studios (www.gravelandstudio.com) of Arno Krabman and nienke de Jong (our former singer). The synths, guitars and vocals were recorded by ourselves in a home-studio.
Q. Is there an Engineer or producer that has helped with the mixing and mastering of Altitude?
Jan: The mixing and mastering was done by Jochem Jacobs of the splitsecondsound studios (www.splitsecondsound.nl). Both in the Netherlands.
Q. Autumn has another release through Metal Blade called Thy New Time 2007 and are there still copies left of Summers End which can be purchased through your main website www.autumn-band.com ?
Jan: Yes, My new time was released by Metal Blade in 2007 and can be obtained via their web-shop at www.metalblade.com. Our second album was released via Universal and can be purchased via our site or at our shows. The first album is unfortunately not for sale anymore, since this album was released via another label (Sony Music) in 2002 and has been removed from their catalogue.
Q. Exciting News Autumn is going to appear in Metal Female Voices Festival can you tell us the highlights of this event do they provide touring support and other promotions?
Jan: Yes, we are looking forward to that. It is a nice festival and it will be our third appearance on this festival. I’m not sure yet about the organisation, but they will definitely do a lot of promotion soon. The line-up will be (and has been) a very international one.
Q. Exciting News Autumn is going to appear in Metal Female Voices Festival can you tell us the highlights of this event do they provide touring support and other promotions?
Jan: Yes, we are looking forward to that. It is a nice festival and it will be our third appearance on this festival. I’m not sure yet about the organisation, but they will definitely do a lot of promotion soon. The line-up will be (and has been) a very international one.
Q. What is the bands focus for 2009 in terms of career objectives and goals will you be working on a 4th Album or concentrating on tours to promote Altitude?
Jan: We will do as many shows or tours as possible, but at the moment we are not sure yet what’s to come concerning that. In the meanwhile we already generated some preliminary ideas for the next album, so I think it will be a matter of time before we start writing actively for the next album (which will actually be the fifth one).
Jan: We will do as many shows or tours as possible, but at the moment we are not sure yet what’s to come concerning that. In the meanwhile we already generated some preliminary ideas for the next album, so I think it will be a matter of time before we start writing actively for the next album (which will actually be the fifth one).
Q. Before we wrap up our interview do you have any shout outs for friends and fans?
Jan: Thank you for your interest in the band. I hope your readers will check the album when it will be released in Canada (I believe on the 3th of March). As you mentioned before, you can listen to a preview of the complete album on our MySpace site.
Take care,
Jan:
I want to thank Autumn and Metal Blade Records for this interview opportunity. Horns High, You Rock
HMTV Canada
Jan: Thank you for your interest in the band. I hope your readers will check the album when it will be released in Canada (I believe on the 3th of March). As you mentioned before, you can listen to a preview of the complete album on our MySpace site.
www.myspace.com/autumnband
Take care,
Jan:
I want to thank Autumn and Metal Blade Records for this interview opportunity. Horns High, You Rock
HMTV Canada
