The Gathering : ‘Home’ is where the art is…

-Since last time we met, many things happen in the life of The Gathering: Clash Century Media, end of contract, and then ‘Black light district’ EP: what can you tell about this song?

-Anneke : Yes, for us it was our first effort on our own label. We were very proud of it! And then, ‘Souvenirs’ was also made in the same effort. We felt like something new: record, record company, new producer too, and we’re very happy to play it live too!

-Then you launched your own label Psychonaut: is it only devoted to the Gathering or do you intend to sign other artists?

-Anneke : It’s only for us, for the moment…

-Frank: The conceptions we have about it right now are to release and plan to release this album and the further stuff. We actually licence this album to other companies, one of the most important being Sanctuary Records, who does most of the countries in the world, and they also assume promotion and all that part of things, like financial aspect. All the rights go after that to Psychonaut.

-Anneke: You’re a mother for a year now and a married woman, was does it change to your life as an artist?

A: It didn’t change it, it just made it busier. That’s what kind of happens, and it’s great of course. He turned one year this week, and that’s wonderful. I’m very happy to make music and have a child at the same time, and we’ll combine this year with touring and take him with us, in Europe at least. It sounds great!

-And does it change in the vocals? Your way of composing?

-A: Not really: of course, it has a deep impact on your body, but it didn’t affect my voice, that didn’t change at all, as well as my writing: maybe things are more intense, but I didn’t write any lyrics about a baby or stuff like that.

-In the meantime, you issued an acoustic LP ‘Sleepy buildings’, and more recently this live DVD ‘Sound relief’: this time, you’re totally happy with it? It wasn’t the case with the previous one…

-F: Yes! It’s a double DVD, and we really wanted it to be, because most of the time, there’s only one concert and some interaction, and we really wanted to have two discs, with a second one full of extra and bonus material, like this movie about the tour in 2OO2.The first one is of course the concert we did in Paradiso Amsterdam, which is semi acoustic, the softer side of us, but in the future we plan another DVD, which will be more rock.

-There are live parts, home video, interviews, and 3-D animation clips on the bonus disc. Who did that?

-A: we found an artist, Michel, who created this animation, and he really makes beautiful stuff. We were really happy with that and asked him to make some more for the show.

-It looks a little like the stuff Neurosis use on their DVD…

-F: Yes, and it’s quite nice, but all the videos seen here has been used as projections for live concerts.

-You have a new member since we met: Marjolein. Is she totally in osmosis with the band today? Did she take part in the writing process of this album?

-A : Yes, she has been with us for two years now, and she’s not only a great musician, but she has good hearing an plays very well guitar, bass, and she can sing. In the new album, we really used her, because she can play anything, including contrabass, she sings second voice and plays guitar parts as well. She’s a great girl, always happy and it’s very nice to travel with her and be with her is very cool. She’s part of the writing process and wrote her own bass lines and guitar parts. We are really a group kind of process.

-F : We are very creative like that and, if you have a leader and a sort of backing band, it doesn’t work that well

-This year have seen the new edition of ‘Mandylion’ (95) plus second CD, demos 94 and 95 with commentaries, and also of ‘Accessoiries, rarities and B-sides, still by Century Media: did you agree with that or did they took it and put it out without your assent?

-A : Yes, we agreed with it, and it was actually nice because they asked us, because they had the rights on all songs. They really made an effort in asking us to participate. There’s a new artwork and René, our guitar player, even found old demos under his bed, so we could play them! An also, we could kind of control what would be on it. I didn’t expect it, but people really like it and have it for the collection.

-In the process, did you re-discover some songs in listening to them long time after?

-F: No, of course it was nice to do it again, some we really didn’t do for years, but not good enough to get really enthusiastic about it. That’s why they didn’t end into an album anyway.

-Did you have the idea to re-record some songs with a new sound or new arrangements?

-A: We did it with the semi acoustic live album, but it was very funny to hear all those old demos, and you can really hear how our sound changed since, and also from the demos to the end of the record, which is really nice.

-We can find three covers, including Dead Can Dance’s In power we trust, love advocated’: was it a role model as a singer for you?

-A: Yes, but the entire band really liked this kind of music in the beginning.

-F: In the early nineties, we were really into Dead Can Dance, especially the old material, and that’s why we did this song from the first album.

-New album: ‘Home’ what stands behind this title for a band whose trademark was to explore countries, music and styles? One year with no touring because of your pregnancy?

-A: Yes it could be! And it’s very nice because everyone comes up with a new idea about it, that’s great. But our ‘home’ is a broad word, and you can really put many things into it. Also, we felt very at home during the recording process: we were together for a month in a little church, in a small village, only focused on music, and felt good with our producer there, we eat and slept there, and we came up with that title in that place, which felt like home. And also, the music and the songs have that kind of whole kind of story, and, at the end, you feel like home again, kind of. But the funny thing is that, as a listener, you can think something else, because it’s open music and open lyrics, so it’s up to you to decide what to do with it.

-How would you definite this new lp, compared with ‘Souvenirs’?

-A: ‘Souvenirs’ is more produced, a lot of layers, of stuff happening, which is great because each time you hear it you hear something new, and there’s also wonderful songs on it. There’s a great album, but you can’t top it, do better in production, because you took this road, and we made it the best we could so then you have to do something else.

-F: And this one has been done a little bit more spontaneous, because we did it in only four weeks time, it’s very short compared to ‘Souvenirs’.

-A :Yes, a very long time…and ‘Souvenirs’ was also a lot of mixing, re-recording, re-mixing: this time, four weeks in the making, plus two weeks for the mixing, six weeks in total, which is very fast for us. And very pure, space organic!

-Prod: Atti Bauw (How to measure a planet?) again: why and was it challenging to work again with him after all those years?

-A: Yes, it was a challenge for us, because we were so proud of the ‘How to measure a planet?’ album, one of our favourites, and it’s really cool because this record were definitely not another kind of record we were used to make, so then we did some other things and then, for this record, we asked him if he wanted to join us again, and then we remembered why it was so good working with him, because he’s very inspirational guy when he talks about music, he really gets your up-and-movings musically, he really gets the best from you as a instrumentalist, or vocalist or musician. He came up with that idea to go somewhere else, not in a usual studio but to take that studio somewhere nice.

-F: He saw this place, in South of Holland, with that little church, it looked great and said that we could bring our stuff there and implant our little laboratory. There was also sleeping accommodation facilities, so we slept overnight there, and we had a second room with small computer studio as well, where he could work on two groups, we had a kitchen, a big table, we had great time…

-Like…home?

-A: Exactly!

-Do you think you’ll work with him in the near future?

-A: He’s from that kind of very good people who comes back in your life, and maybe, in two or three years, when he’ll not be so busy, we’ll ask him again. But he’s also someone who improves himself, as a musician but also as a producer: he listen to things that happen nowadays, he listen contemporary music, so he’ll never be behind. He’s not afraid to experiment, to try to do things differently and so he evolves as well. So I see ourselves to work with him again.

-Your previous records had interactive parts: will this one be the same? Will we see videos for this album?

-A: This one will have a book with lyrics and stuff, and not really videos or so, just some Internet things. We are still working on it.

-F: On our new tour, it will be projections.

-One song, Solace, is partly sung in Spanish and partly in other languages…

-A: Well, it’s a very strange song, for us as well, and we really developed it in the studio, in making a new sound for it. The voices are representing in fact the chaos around us in life and tell all kind of different things. The singing vocals kind of ease you down, they are kind of your solace, and we wanted this kind of two worlds into one song, with the steady rhythm of life facing you and those vocals calling you down.

-I’ve read you composed a score for a Dutch movie, ‘The quiet one’ by, Suragawa…

-F:It’s in fact a project of a friend of us, who was doing a film school, a graduation project, the last he had to do to get his graduation from that school. We didn’t know that guy before but he called us, saying he was a fan of our music and that he wanted to use apart of it or maybe could we write something for it. We were very flattered of course, because we all love cinema a lot, and we said that, of course, we were gonna try to write something new for the film. It’s a half hour film, a short movie, and we saw it on Deutsch national television as well…

-A: He was actually prized for it as well, and he goes around with his film in festivals, to show it to the industry, he won some prizes, and he’s really up coming director. The song we composed for it is already on the record, ‘The Quiet One’. We wrote only one song for this film where there was no music at all. We would really enjoy composing a real and full score. –F: Many artists like another art form, which there is cinema of course, and they are quite close to each other, and sometime make a record or a movie can be quite similar.

-And your biography? Still in the process?

-F: Yes, there’s one guy in Belgium, and he’s still busy with it. But I really don’t know when it’s gonna be finished. He seems to gather information.

A: It’s not an official thing, really from his hands. But it’s cool: it’s gonna be a nice book with a kind of story in it, and must be very documented.

Each time we meet, you have a different haircut, a different colour, and your records participate to the same dynamic, which is your trademark…so, what will be tomorrow?

-A : We make this music all year long, we write it, record it, perform it, so if every year is the same songs in, it’s impossible. Of course we play the old songs live and that’s wonderful because they link with the new songs. So there’s one big thing, with people who like the old stuff coming to our shows because they really like it and they like old songs and that’s why we play them live. In the end we keep ourselves fresh, but also our listeners: we don’t want them bored!

Interview made in Paris, on February 24th 2OO6.

Thanks to Roger Wessier for his precious help.