WITHIN TEMPTATION Interview with Sharon den Adel (vocals)

Why did you decide to bring out an acoustic album?

Well, because we did the theatre show almost a year ago, and we never brought any actually out acoustically. I think our music suits to release in an acoustic way. And I think… well, it’s also because the new album won’t be coming out until next year probably. And this is a nice thing in between which we haven’t done before. It will surprise fans also in a way that we can sound differently acoustic, and that the songs and basics are still so solid that they can, that you can make new arrangements and make them sound sometimes quite different and very good.

In the released “normal” versions your songs usually sound very bombastic and complex. Now you stripped them down almost completely. What makes it special to you to play these “stripped-down” versions? Is it more satisfying to get to the core of a song?

Well, it’s like an adventure because you know the songs for many years how they are, and then you have to strip them down, like you say. And you want to make them as beautiful as possible. Still, you don’t want to strip them down completely, but you make new arrangements. And that’s a big adventure because you never know how they will sound then eventually. And then they become a little bit, they become different in a way, and they become interesting to listen to again because you know them for so long, and then when they have these new arrangements and everything, it changes a lot. I think especially because of what was nice for me, like I said, is we haven’t done this before. We have so many different elements to Within Temptation: it’s the bombastic side, but also this small and intimate side, I think. And this was our way to show that we can sound this way also.

Has it been a lot of work to find the new arrangements for these songs? Or was it more like: “Oh, I know exactly how this song is going to sound like..!”?

No. Some songs were very easy and with some songs it took a lot more time. And some songs didn’t get on the setlist because they took too much time. And it was like: ‘Ok, we know we can do it, but it’s not for this serie of theatre shows we’re gonna do it. Maybe next time!’ Like MOTHER EARTH we wanted to have that also acoustically but it took too much time. It was like: ‘ok, this is a very difficult song because it’s so extremely bombastic and also rhythm-wise that we couldn’t change it to an acoustic one that quick. Not quick enough. ‘
It already took a long time to make it because you want to make it beautiful. You don’t want to strip it down completely just so it is only guitar and piano and vocals. You want to do it special, with a cello and a violin. And you want everything has to match. And yeah - I think that’s the reason.

You just mentioned “Mother Earth”: Did you have other songs where you first thought it should work out easily, but were facing difficulties when actually trying to find a new arrangement? Also, you didn’t use any songs of your first albums…

We did.  In the past we played some songs acoustically from the first one. But we want to present new songs that haven’t been heard acoustically yet. We didn’t play “Ice Queen” either which we played a lot of times before, acoustically of course. And “Restless” is the only song we ever played acoustically. But yeah, you also have to… or maybe that’s a good idea for the next try. I’ll keep it in mind. But you’re totally right: we didn’t take any songs off that because I think we could but we didn’t work on it. We didn’t think of it actually. Also because I think they were maybe too far off when you have like death grunts to be sang in a normal way. And who is gonna sing it, because there is no male vocalist who can sing that well normally on stage. Ruud is still learning a lot. He has a nice voice but it’s also learning performing on stage. Singing is different than guitars. So it will take some, a few more years maybe (laughs).

A lot of bands have been recording acoustic shows at venues, but few of them recorded the show in an actual theatre where the acoustics are very much different from a normal live club. What was the most difficult thing about recording a live show in a theatre?

Sometimes it’s drums, of course, because when you sing something you are gonna hear the drums over your microphone. And we couldn’t play with a plastic glass… how do you say it… wall. And well, that’s sometimes difficult to record because then you hear sometimes music comes back through your microphone again, so I hear the drums far away. I hear them directly but I also hear them through the venue again. So acoustics-wise sometimes it’s like a little bit difficult. But that was the only thing actually that was difficult to record. But the other side was, we also tried to film it actually. And that was more of a difficult thing because we tried, we wanted to work with visual illusions - if you can imagine something about that - 3D-projections. And we tried to film it. And that totally failed because of the fact, if you want to do visual projections, illusions, then you can’t use too much light. And, you know, then you can’t film it. We are gonna try to film it still, next tour that we are gonna do in the theatres and maybe do them in a different way or something. With the same result of course. Because I think not only to hear the songs was very nice but also to see it, because we made a theatre show, a real theatre show of it.

With theatrical elements you are probably referring to the holograms of your duet partners Keith Caputo or Anneke van Giersbergen which appeared during the actual songs…

That was the fun part of it because people thought like: ‘Is she really here? Is she really there? Is she or is this… a hologram!?’ You know, they didn’t know what was happening. And that was really funny. And that surprised a lot of people because they didn’t expect something like that, of course. And so it became really theater-y in a way.

You already have a new theatre tour booked for the beginning of next year. Are you planning to do the same show again or do you have something completely different in mind?

There was a big group of fans that couldn’t see these shows or didn’t go. And afterwards they were very, well, in a way sad that they didn’t go because it was a sold-out tour. And so we decided - because also the theatres were very enthusiastic about it - and they said, like: ‘Ok, could you come back in 2010?’ And we were like: ‘Yeah, we liked it a lot!’ And maybe also our fans will appreciate it that there are new shows coming up with the same show, maybe a few alterations here and there and a few different songs, but the biggest part will be the same. And then other people will have the chance as well to see it.

Well, at least the fans in the Netherlands and in Belgium… Why did you decide to do the theatre tour only in these countries? I’m sure there are fans in Germany and elsewhere in Europe who are dying to see that show… Why not Germany?

We would love to go to Germany. And if they will have us we will come here and do the same thing. But what we were told was that it’s not very usual for theatres in Germany to have bands play or perform in this way. There are not that many nice venues. And I was not sure about it, that’s what I was told. And maybe also it’s nice in a way that we start it in the Netherlands and Belgium where there is this culture of theatres taking in bands and let them perform acoustically. So we have it like, ‘ok, we have proof that it was really successful and now we can go to Germany and hopefully people will get enthusiastic in Germany as well.’ And I’m meaning the theatres, of course fans will like to see it. But theatres should maybe also see a future in that because, well, in Holland it was like: people would not go that much anymore to theatres. But nowadays all these bands are coming in, there is a new audience coming to the theatre. And that’s something that’s interesting for them also. To see and think long-term, of course.