Interview Autumn

Can you speak to us about your new album called " My New Time " ?

Jens: Overall, I feel the emphasis with this album is more on groove and intensity than on bombast. For one, the songs in general are more compact, more catchy. They get to the point quicker and are more clearly structured. Compared to previous albums, we’ve stripped the songs down to the essence to keep them clear and powerful. While recording, we added quite a few details and arrangements, but always keeping the core structure in mind. Although many may argue ‘My New Time’ is less ‘metal’ than ‘Summer’s End’ so to speak, it’s definitely more of a heavy guitar album and in my opinion more powerful than its predecessor.

Who is responsible for song writing ?

Jens: This time, instead of jamming together, we filtered our individual ideas and sent song concepts and structures to each other to elaborate upon. Since all of us have recording equipment at home, this meant we could take our time to come up with the best approach to individual songs. Working in this way, the songs formed layer by layer and this generated some surprising and inspiring results. We were able to work more focussed, motivated and much, much faster. We ended up having to choose a recording selection out of 40 songs. Tough choices, but this allowed us to filter out any weaker elements and ensure a well balanced and powerful selection of songs. This could never have been possible, had we not been through the changes of the past years.

How did you proceed for the composition ?

Jerome: We all live quite some distance (even in Holland) from one another so we don’t really rehearse all that often. The writing was mostly done by sending each other demo tracks that were recorded at home. When someone had ideas for a song, the new material was sent through email and the rest could give feedback and add their own musical touch. So although most of the songs did not evolve through a process of ‘jamming’, they are a collective product grown out of an individual idea.

Can you speak to us about the recording sessions ?

Jens: A very relaxed and productive atmosphere, I must say! When you’re working in a studio, there’s always gonna be some stress over some deadline of course, but this time we were actually able to take our time an pace ourselves into getting the maximum potential out of the recorded songs. What surely aided in this process was the fact that we had spent quite a lot of time on pre-production and making demos for most of the songs, so we came well prepared. Producer Arno Krabman then helped us lift the songs up to a higher level still, by suggesting some clever little arrangements and byencouraging us to look for the extremes in experimenting, which generated some refreshing ideas. All in all, we were done in a couple of weeks and are very satisfied with this way of working!

What are the lyrics talking about ? Where do you find inspiration ?

Jerome: Most of the lyrics for the album were written by Jens and Mats. The subjects vary from personal themes to more abstract poetic representations that don’t necessarily correspond to real-life experiences. Some can even be seen as humorous allegories; there is for instance one song that is quite a lucid metaphor for a very common house-pet, see if you can find out which… I feel Jens and Mats did a great job on writing lyrics that match well with the atmosphere of the songs they were written to.

What are the biggest differences between this new album and the previous ?

Jan: The differentiation already started on the previous album when we tried to put more groove in the guitar riffs. If you listen to songs like Gallery Of Reality or Summer’s End, you can find similarities with the current album. We just went a step further in this evolution which is most striking in the lack of staccato bass drum lines on this album. I tried to put more groove in the drums on this album. Also the often catchy synth lines of Jan Munnik contribute to the overall feeling that this album is somewhat different from the previous ones.

Jens: Most marked changes can be heard in the keys, which have taken an altogether different place in Autumn’s music compared to the Summer’s End era: The majority of parts are more sober, creating space for guitars and vocals and a transparent, energetic mix. At the same time, they most often form the main hooks, twists and melodies in these new songs. The parts you’ll be humming for days. Also, Nienke has outdone herself vocally, focussing more on power and raw emotion in her main lines than on creating many extra vocal lines. Lyrically, we’ve kept the words closer to our hearts for this album. This allowed Nienke to really dig her teeth into the lyrics and put all her feelings into her vocals.

Jan: Epilogue and Closest Friends Conspire. Epilogue has a scheme (soft verses and heavy chords, that I like a lot. Also Nienke has given all of herself vocally and an amazing solo between piano and guitar finishes the song completely.
Closest friends has the ultimate guitar riff. This is the groove that we were looking for.

Jan: My biggest influence is still Faith no More. They mixed so many styles into their music, yet were able to keep their own identity. Besides that they made great music and I am heavily influenced by their drummer.

Jan: I think it is very much alive and more diverse than ever. Different styles mix perfectly and it seems that the sky is the limit.

Jan: Well, one exiting moment, adrenaline wise, was the moment that our tourbus broke down and we still had to drive several hours to get to the venue, where we were going to shoot a video clip for the b-side of our Gallery Of Reality single. We made it just in time in the venue, completely filled with adrenaline, but probably played the best show of the tour. The live clip of Premeditated Dying was the result of this.

Jan: In the Fall of this year we will probably do a tour through Germany and the rest of Europe should follow shortly after that.

Jens: Well, we’re aiming for European touring in Fall, as Jan mentioned. Hopefully we’ll be able to hit the U.S. in Winter. We’ll do as many shows and festivals as this album needs, until we feel the urge to hit the studio again for the next one. I have the feeling that’ll be quite soon! We’ve lost a lot of time in the past with line up changes and switching between record labels all the time. We’d like to go full steam ahead from now on. Lots of good material still lying around and a healthy productive vibe in the band. We’ve only just gotten to know each other’s musical possibilities. Aching to write new stuff!

Jens: Yeah, keep listening to Metal Choc! Support alternative and heavy music on radio, it’s very much needed! Hope to see you all on tour soon!

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