In the midst of a busy schedule filled with solo touring and her upcoming European tour of The Gathering celebrating Mandylion, recording, Dutch powerhouse Anneke van Giersbergen continues to evolve as a musician without ever standing still. With the upcoming release of La Vie on April 18 for Record Store Day—part of an ambitious three-part EP series—she embraces both artistic freedom and a deeply personal approach to songwriting. In this conversation, we dive into the creative process behind the project, her decision to go independent, and the strong musical chemistry that defines her current band and live performances.
Welcome to Anneke van Giersbergen
First of all I wanted to welcome you back here and thank you for your time. Currently, you are super busy and I you have a lot of things going on.
Thank you so much for having me.
The new EP La Vie
I’d like to start with the release of your second EP, La Vie, which will be officially released on 18 April for Record Store Day. Since this is the second part of a three-part EP project, La Vie, L’Amour et L’Amour, I wanted to ask: when did you first start gathering ideas for it?
Actually, all of the songs are like mixed up a little bit because some songs I wrote them like a year ago. And some one a half a year ago and there some songs are that really new. The coolest thing about this process is that I can write, record, release, continue writing, recording, releasing with the three EPs.
You know, so you don’t have to write everything in like half a year or a year and then record the whole thing with the eight piece band, you know, all at once in the studio. It’s such a big task. And nowadays, all the band members, they have their own bands.
Unfortunatly, things aren’t as when you know in the old days in which you had one band and we did everything together. However, as a solo artist it’s fantastic because also I can pick and choose whichever project I’m in I can pick and choose musicians and or a studio or producer. So, it gives me also a lot of freedom to work this way to make these three EPs which it will become an album. It gives me a lot of freedom to just write and revisit all the stuff that I wrote, and just mix it up and and put in these three EPs. Long answer [laughs].
Anneke van Giersbergen and the musicians
No, it doesn’t matter. Well, as you probably know, I’ve been following throughout your numerous tours and the theater and the rock side of your career. So what I noticed the last years that you collaborate with the same musicians. For me, also means that there is the magic between this musician that you work with. There are some elements that are coming back constantly throughout the time these last years.
Yeah, that’s true. When you work with different kinds of people for different projects, you find that some people you work with is such a pleasure and it worked so well with them that you asked them for another project. For instance, Gijs [Coolen], one of the guitar players, I’ve been working with him for 13 years. And like almost everything I do, I just ask him because he’s so versatile because he play both the theater and rock shows. And the acoustic material too. We became a good friend over the years.
Indeed, like you have just said, I have now this eight-piece rock band, all the guys and Allie [Summers] are so incredible and they’re so good. We have this kind of spark when we are on stage together. It’s also why I shot the video for the new single, Red Sky as a band performance video.
Shooting the new single Red Sky [part 1]
That was actually my next question because I didn’t, first of all, I know we know you as a solo artist. And, I watched the video, by the way, great single.
Thank you.\
Shooting the new single Red Sky [part 2]
I didn’t expect that you were shooting it with your band now. Now I need to use your band in a way because we are so used to see you perform just alone yourself but I think it was really a deliberated choice this time to feature the band.
Absolutely, yeah. You guessed right, because, like I said, I have such a great band, and I wanted to really show everybody the band. Also because when we play live, people talk to me afterwards, and they say, “you have such a good chemistry on stage”. It’s such a joy to see people make music and enjoying making music together. Given the great feedback I always get from the fans, I decided to shoot it as a band video.
Because everything I do under my own name, you know, rock and roll wise, I want to do these guys because they’re great. I’m happy of how the video turned out.
Anneke van Giersbergen going independent
You know, I wanted also to recall one important thing. This time for this EP, you have chosen to self-release it because, the previous project, it was released with Inside Out. Instead, since La Vie, you have decided to going independent and completely expose yourself, if you allow me the term. Was it also that a deliberate choice?
Yes. I fulfilled my contract with the record company. Then there’s always the question if you sign a contract and you sign it for so many albums and if you’re done there’s always the question “Okay what’s the next step?”. Do we re-sign with the same label? Do we shop for a new label? Maybe another label it fits better with the time frame and the the things you want to do that moment and what they do.
But there’s also a choice of creating your own record company and self-release it. So, become an independent artist. Indeed, we chose to do that. I founded a record label together with Rob [Snijder], my husband, my manager and my drummer.
Anneke van Giersbergen going independent [part 2]
We decided to self-release it and it’s going very well. Obviously you have more freedom when you self-release your material. We had lot of freedom with Inside Out, it was a nice label to be on and I have no complaints there. However, we’re not neither the smallest artist in the world nor I’m also not the biggest artist in the world. Sometimes being in between it gives you also a little bit more freedom to work for yourself, to make your own choices and create your own time path.
We have all the right peopje around us such as booking agents and pressing plant which we already worked with them. Given all this, it’s kind of a logical step and it feels good, it’s nice.
Never make compromises
What I’ve always liked about you is that you never make compromises. If you decide to play with a pop artist, for example, you just do it and don’t seem to care about expectations. I also like that you keep moving between theater, more acoustic projects, and the rock side of your work. So I understand what you mean when you say it’s time to create a home where both sides of your artistic path can belong, because with Inside Out, you want more than just the rock side — if you see what I mean.
So, yeah, I completely agree on that also. Yeah, it’s so true. Although, like I said, I had all the freedom in the world at InsideOutMusic, you’re still a part of a big mechanism. And now it gives a little, even a little bit more freedom, especially with the timeplanning.
Like you said, I can do the theater shows and then, you know, wait with writing and recording or just tour the whole year or write and record the whole year. It’s all up to us right now. It’s nice.
What lies behind La Mort
So, La Mort [which in French means the death] is the second part of this triptych. And I wanted to ask you, what represents this second part of this triptych? But it can also mean something else. So I wanted to understand from you, which is your interpretation of that?
Yeah, you’re so right. I mean, l’amour, death, you know, it sounds very gloomy, very doomy, but it is a part of life, right? Life, death, love, that’s the whole thing. And I’m always writing about life and my life and the things I see, I feel, and I go through, and the people around me, you know.
It was so obvious to me that just name those EPs La Vie, La Mort, L’Amour, because it’s the essence of life. So this second EP is not so much about death. It’s not four songs about death. Like you said, it means so much more than only the end of life.
But if we think about the end of life, if we think about death, we also think about life and how we live it. And all the questions about life that we have are in my lyrics. However, there is a song about my dad which he passed away two years ago. So that’s very much one-on-one, you know, has to do with a passing. The other songs are about life as well and about love. So, all the songs are mixed up a little bit in the three EPs.
Celebrating La Mort
I don’t remember where I read this, but in which culture. But in one specific culture, Death is since was like the celebration of a person. I don’t recall which specific culture of religion. But it looks like that in a way in this EP you are celebrating the death.
Yeah. I guess, you know, for instance, in Mexico you have the Day of the Death, right? They celebrate the lives of people who are not with them anymore, which I think is a beautiful thing because death doesn’t mean that they are all gone. Their spirits are still here because we have all those memories about people who passed.
And it makes it less morbid to celebrate one’s life instead of only grieving. You know, grieving is a part of it. But we in the West, we have a different, it used to be such a taboo on death or illness, being ill or being mentally ill or physically ill. That’s all changing a little bit now.
But I feel like you said, in other cultures, they’re much more comfortable with talking about these things. You know, I do like that. And in music, we can too, right? We can write lyrics and and people who listen to this music can listen to it and think about and talk about it.
The upcoming third EP of Anneke van Giersbergen
Indeed, I think it’s a good thing. The EP La Mort it will be followed by the last part L’amour. Considering a bit that the logistic, your solo upcoming tour in April and The Gathering’s celebrative tour. Will the next and third part will be released next year?
You’re absolutely right. Actually, the plan was this year but like you said, it’s gonna be a busy year. I want to you know save up all my energy and use all my energy for the live shows because it’s all gonna be rock and roll shows. Normally I have a theater tour, then some acoustic things and lastly some band shows but now this is gonna only be like heavy shit [laughs].
For the rest, I wiped out my agenda empty. I don’t do a lot of stuff beyond all the planned shows. However, I already have some a lot of ideas for new songs for the third EP as well. Maybe if I have some some days off I will start writing but the release will be for sure not this year.
Planning, planning, planning.
Since we are talking about tour and more generally about planning,I I have here the dates. So you are gonna be on tour from April, and will play in Hengelo, Tilburg, Haarlem, Leeuwarden, Deventer and Nijmegen. It’s really a tight schedule if we consider The Gathering’s celebrative tour on which you’ll tour the whole Europe. I ask myself how do you manage [laughs]?
It’s a good question [laughs]. I ask myself this every once in a while as well. Actually, it’s going to be busy. I had the whole month of January off. I had a lot of free time and I tried to get as fit and rested as possible. Then, we have awesome people who take care of the schedule, airplanes bookings and the show productions. It’s not only me but all the guys are going to travel as best as we can. Other than that, I just hope to not get the flu.
Well, crossing my fingers.
Yes.
Anneke van Giersbergen about The Gathering: “very happy to be together on stage”
I was there in Nijmegen for The Gathering shows. I was completely flabbergasted. And if I watch all the dates that you have planned until October, it’s gonna be really busy.
But also a lot of fun when we did the five shows. We were all so happy that we did this. We could play the old songs and very happy to be together on stage. That also provides a lot of energy.
Last words
So saying this, I wanted to thank you for your time. Hopefully, I’ll catch soon in tour here in the Netherlands.
Thank you. And see you soon.