Carie Van Heden - AnsoticcA
Interview By Lindz Riot
Though German
y is a small mass of land it has quite the dynamic of people especially when it comes to musicians. Finally out of Berlin comes a symphonic metal band worthy to dominate the stages! AnsoticcA, fronted by the powerful and lovely Carie van Heden, is a fresh project worth listening to. Their release of "Rise" has already gotten great reviews and still has much farther to go! Their lead singer joins us at femme metal to give us the inside story.
Hello Carie! Welcome to the Femme Metal webzine and thanks so much for doing this interview with us.
First off we would like to know how AnsoticcA came to be. When and where did you all come together to write and play your music?
Hello Femme Metal webzine team! So we start with the beginning of the band… AnsoticcA was originally created by its songwriters Adrian and Maarten. Very soon it was clear that they wanted to work with a female singer and after a try out of some singers they asked me to join the band. When the album was finished we wanted to bring the project on stage. For rocking in live-shows we therefore had to look for further band-members. Now AnsoticcA consists of 5 members: Adrian Delborg – Guitars, JayZee – Bass, Maarten de Vries – Keys, Zack Rabarti – Drums and me, Carie van Heden – Vocals. Unfortunately Adrian is not able to play live shows at the moment, so the guitar parts are live represented by another talented musician, Vincent Laboor. In the very beginning of AnsoticcA I studied and lived in the Netherlands and moved to Berlin in 2010. The rest of the guys also live in the area of Berlin at the moment.
How long have you been in the band now and how are you enjoying being the front woman?
I joined the band in 2009. Being the front woman of a metal band was really new to me but I really enjoy it. I love metal because this kind of music allows me to show a wide range of emotions: from calm and lovely parts to strong, powerful and angry parts. In addition performing metal on stage is pure fun! I love the audience, the music and the vibe on stage. Also the boys are great! With such musicians on my side making music is just gorgeous.
Congrats on your newest release "Rise", its really great stuff! How has the response been from fans and friends since you’ve released it?
Thanks for your compliment. Holding the album in my hands after 2 years of work is just awesome – an indescribable feeling. When I walk into a music store and see our album is standing there – I mean together with the most successful bands of the world – it takes my breath away. One of my dreams came true. We didn’t know how the album would be perceived and now after the first weeks, we are very happy about the positive feedback. We gained fans all over the world and in the media, e.g. Metal Hammer, Metal Temple, Rockhard, Dark Spy - we received very good reviews. If you want to read some of them, you can visit our homepage. In the next months we will face hard work. Interviews, promotional gigs, concerts, even some TV shows are in discussion at the moment. I am so curious what will happen next year. Especially I’m looking forward to play the songs live.
That’s amazing! I saw that you had a guest appearance from Johan van Stratum the bassist of Stream of Passion on your album. What was his contribution in the recording process and what was it like working with him?
Johan is a good friend of mine from the Rockacademie, where we both studied. I always wanted to make some music with him and with the debut album of AnsoticcA there was the perfect chance to do so. He played all bass parts based on the notation of Maarten and Adrian. He is a very good studio musician and we really appreciate his work! It was impressive to hear the difference between the songs before Johan played the bass and after his recordings. If you read this Johan, thanks again for your great support! ;)
How does the writing process of AnsoticcA work? Who is the main lyricists and who writes mainly the music?
Music and lyrics are both composed by Maarten and Adrian. The whole recording and composing process started in Oct 2008 when Adrian and Maarten locked up in the Rockfeld Records studio to create some symphonic metal tracks. The only precondition was a clear focus on melody and driving rhythm parts. Both of them felt quite early that there was some magic happening right from the beginning. When I entered the studio the songs were already finished. My part was to revive the songs with the help of my voice.
It was also Maarten and Adrian! They really did the whole song writing part and they did a good job in my opinion ;)
You have classified AnsoticcA as Symphonic Metal, what are some of the band’s main musical influences that have led you to create your sound?
5 musicians – 5 musical backgrounds. That’s the shortest way to describe the influences. AnsoticcA’s sound is strongly influenced by the fact that it’s members come from different musical fields, starting with death metal over progressive rock up to pop and film music. So it is very hard to name one or two major influences because there are so much that get into the sound of AnsoticcA. But due to the fact that we’re a gothic metal band – you’ll definitely find elements on the album that are typical for that genre.
Moving away from the band for a bit, for you what is your musical background and who inspired you to start singing?
When I started to make music I listened a lot to pop music. This was followed by a lot of female fronted rock, e.g. Alanis Morissette, Melissa Etheridge, Skunk Anansie, P!nk, Anouk, Beth Hart etc. I still love this kind of music! There was not really one single artist that inspired me to sing. I loved the music on the radio and I wanted to be able to play these songs with my guitar. During my study in the Netherlands I got in contact with various music genres like Soul, RnB but also with the wide field of metal music: e.g. I listened to music of Within Temptation, visited a concert of the Deftones, downloaded all albums of Mr. Big and started to listen to Dream Theater. This was the time when I started the first recordings for AnsoticcA.
I had read that you have taken vocal instruction from Floor Jansen of After Forever and ReVamp! That’s amazing! What was it like working with her and what is the most valuable lesson she taught you?
I did not take lessons from Floor. I studied at the same school as she did – the Rockacademie in Tilburg (NL). Floor gave some workshops in Tilburg. But the focus was the music business and not any vocal coaching. Anyway, I would love to talk to Floor about singing. I’m not sure whether she studied the same technique and I would really like to exchange singing experiences with her.
Oh sorry, I don’t know where I read that. But you have such a powerful voice like her, I just figured you took Instruction from her. So I also saw that you have your birthday on June 8th which makes you a Gemini. Do you feel you fit your star sign’s characteristics?
There might be some that fit quite well =) I’m very curious and do a lot of things at the same time. I seldom take rests and have two personalities: the business woman – marketing manager at a media concern and the rock singer – front woman of AnsoticcA. But I’m not that familiar with all Gemini characteristics. Maybe there are even more that match with my personality…
Well fair enough. Back to the band: What is the music scene like in Germany? How has Europe responded to AnsoticcA on stage?
As I have mentioned before, we gain a lot of positive feedback from all over the world for "Rise". We were playing some supporting gigs at the time of the release, in Germany as well as in the Netherlands. The reactions from the audience were simply overwhelming. It seemed that the listeners had as much fun in front of the stage as we had on stage. We were really happy with these first live gigs as they were a first proof for AnsoticcA’s live capabilities. That’s why we concentrate on the realization of much more live appearances in 2011. From what we have experienced so far, there has not been so much difference between the different countries, people came there to have fun and listen to good music and experience an entertaining performance. I believe that is what it is all about – entertainment. It doesn’t matter whether it takes place in Germany, Netherlands or elsewhere, if people come to a concert they do it mostly for the same reason – to get entertained. That’s what we aim for.
What is next for AnsoticcA? What are your hopes for the future of the band?
We will concentrate on our live appearances in 2011. Together with our label Rockfeld Records we are working hard to structure a tour. Within the next month there will still be some promotion work to do, Interviews, performances and even some TV appearance. There are also plans for the second album, we will be back in the studio to work on the follow up to "Rise" in early 2011. We are really curious what will happen the next month.