“It’s always special to play in a church because there’s a different vibe” – interview with Anneke van Giersbergen

There are some concerts that simply are going to be meant to go down in history, whether you’re a part of it or not. And for me, one of these shows is definitely the performance by Anneke van Giersbergen at the Metal Church in Wacken Open Air this past month. This is why, since I knew she was scheduled to play in Italy, I had to grab a chance to interview her about this spectacular show. Here’s what we talked about!

Good evening. How are you doing at the moment? 

Anneke van Giersbergen: I’m fine. I’m in Italy, so I’m happy. And we are so spoiled with the kindness and good food and the sun is shining. I get to play tonight with my band and I’m so happy, yeah.

You’re returning to Italy after two years from your previous show, how does it feel to be back in Italy? 

Anneke van Giersbergen: Feels very good because of the Italian mentality when it comes to music and arts and like people here and in the Mediterranean area, they’re, how do you say, so passionate. For us, it’s great to be here and play music and it’s been too long, two years too long. And before that, it was also long. Hopefully, we will be back every year, so we are happy. It’s not so far away so we should be here more or less.

Last month you played in Wacken Open Air and the performance at the Metal Church was something truly beyond spectacular, to me at least. What are your impressions, or did you notice any differences between the Metal Church and the previous performance you had there? 

Anneke van Giersbergen: Yeah obviously the church is such a special place. And it’s a little bit further away from the main stages and so on. So I was wondering will people find this place and be there! People were outside, they couldn’t get in because it was so crowded. It made me so happy. But it’s always special to play in a church because there’s a different vibe. There’s like this feeling of serenity and feeling of respect. Everybody who was there was very respectful of the environment, I like that so much. Sometimes I think when you play in a place like that, but for instance also tonight, there are people who like rock music. They’re with their hearts into the music. And if everybody was like this in the world, there would be so much peace, there would be well-being. Because it’s possible to have a bunch of people together, humanity cohesion and togetherness. Sometimes it makes me sad when you go outside, walk in the open air and the world is not pretty, but we can make it pretty because this is a good example. A festival is such a good example of being together. People helping people as it should. 

You’re also in a few days embarking on a Heavy Strings tour. What are your goals or what do you want to achieve with the Heavy Strings tour this year?

Anneke van Giersbergen: In Holland, there’s a big scene, we have a lot of theatres. We have a small country, but in every village, a lot of different sorts of people go to the theatre and they see a lot of different kinds of artists. I’ve been on theater in Holland since like around 6 or 7 years old. And the beauty of it is you can think of something like, “Hey, this is a good idea, maybe I can do this”. For instance Heavy Strings we play rock and metal classics with string quartets and the arrangements are so beautiful. You make this production, you go into the theatres and people come to see it. Also, people who are not in metal music or so; a lot of metalheads come to the shows, but also other people. And it’s so nice to play so I’m doing this for the second run. We did this before and with the theatre shows like this, only in Holland we could play like 80 shows. It’s great, it’s lovely. Everybody’s seated, everybody’s relaxed and you play and tell stories about metal and about how I love heavy metal and the songs of the artist. And then we play these beautiful arrangements. So it’s a lot of fun. So that starts next week again. Yeah.

Do you remember the first artist that you saw in a theatre in Holland? 

Anneke van Giersbergen: I don’t. I don’t remember the first because I was so young. A lot of people go when they’re like kids. There are also kid shows and stuff. 

Do you remember the one that you purchased, that you knew that you purchased the ticket maybe as an audience?

Anneke van Giersbergen: Yeah, for instance I saw the opera “Porgy and Bess”. And it’s a beautiful opera. I went to Amsterdam in this 100-year-old theatre, really beautiful. And it’s on the water, a really famous theatre. So it’s really pretty. I saw this with my mom this opera is an all-in-one act adapted for a theatre audience. Beautiful voices, beautiful music. It’s so different from a venue, like a rock venue. I like both. I like going to both, I like playing. 

Do you also like musicals?

I do. But I’m not I’m not such a big fan of musicals. But for instance, we went to see, with our kids, “The Lion King”. Of course, it’s fantastic. What a production and all the actors and singers are so great. Even though it’s not my number one thing to go to, when you go to a play like that, it’s so good. I really enjoyed it. 

You are a part of so many amazing projects, also your own band, and is it more exciting or challenging to be part of all of these projects?

Anneke van Giersbergen: Yeah, it’s both. It’s my own choice. Sometimes it’s a lot of work. And we have to concentrate on different things so that’s quite challenging. When you’re playing one show you have to prepare for the next tour or whatever. But I like it, I like doing different things because it also gives me a lot of inspiration so yeah, I really enjoy it. I tell Rob, my husband, (he’s also in the band and doing my management) “Oh, I need a vacation.” Then we have vacation and then we just keep on working. We never go on vacation.

What is your take on artificial intelligence? 

Anneke van Giersbergen: It’s a good question. Because it’s fairly new in our day-to-day world. I think if used well, we can do so much good with it. It helps in the medical world. I think it’s fantastic. I think a lot of harm can be done with AI. That’s a big fear, of course, of everybody. In music, I’d say, I think it’s also a help for you to write, or for us to write, or to make equipment better in every layer of what we do. I think in about ten years everything is, we can use the help of AI. I’m also not so scared that an artist can say, “Okay, I’m gonna write a song completely with AI and then make a hit”. I think real good music or hit music or real music is done by real people. There’s emotion in it, there’s energy in it. So if you write a song only based on AI, I don’t think that’s going to work. I think people will always feel that it’s not real and people want realness of the time. I think we could get help from AI to make better studios, help us with lyrics, better software, and better production. And even in writing, we have used a thesaurus for years we use Rhyme Words online. We use Google to look “What does this phrase mean?”. I Google all the time. It’s been there forever, since the nineties. So I think it can help us out a lot. Now, everybody’s going berserk over it, and I think in about 10 years we will all be normal about it. Just like Thesaurus or just like Googling, we can use it to our advantage. People will always hear or feel when it’s the artist making something even though we get a little help, so I’m not scared of it. Maybe we can use our phones to make a good video clip for our band. The thing is, a smartphone is also helping us out so much. We didn’t have that in the 80s. It’s going forward. I think we move forward and I think it’s a good thing.

If you could change one thing about the industry of music, which one would it be?

Anneke van Giersbergen: That’s a good tough question. I think the industry is just an industry. I think the people behind it are sometimes, not fair. The corporate world and the people who make money. There’s an industry that’s good, for us, for everybody who works in it, and for you as a journalist, but we should always look out for better payment for the artists. I think a lot of people are already thinking about this, and also thinking about how can we make this better for artists, better for beginning artists. But it’s ever-changing. I hope, maybe with AI one day we’ll have a better platform than Spotify. We have the community online. We always find each other online, people who listen to the same music. So I guess people should be more honest.

Do you get used to being recognized as Anneke, as a celebrity?

Anneke van Giersbergen: I think I have a good position. I’m not super world famous, so I can go on the streets and nobody will know me. But in this environment, in this festival, everybody knows me. If you were Madonna (she’s in Italy by the way, Madonna, at the moment, she’s celebrating her birthday) you could go on the street and there would be people around. I’m not Madonna, so that’s perfect. In the metal community, there are people who are very respectful in general. So I can just walk in the field, people come up to me, but people are nice. And if I say I’m tired they’re okay. In general, it’s such a great scene to be in. That’s why I like the scene so much because it’s so respectful. We treat all the artists and audience with respect like brothers and sisters, in the same scene. So I like my position. I like that I’m being very much respected for my old music and my new music. And that’s a very good position to be in. 

I wanted to play a little game with you if that’s alright. So you are going on an adventure. You can bring with you three objects. Besides, food and water. That’s already taken care of. Which three objects are you choosing?

Anneke van Giersbergen: I was thinking about less obvious I would definitely take a notepad. Pen and paper. Yeah, definitely to write, because I guess when I’m on an adventure, I will have inspiration, so I want to write. I would take, I don’t know the weather, but I would take good clothes to be warm or cold. So that, to be comfortable. I guess my guitar. Just to be able to play or to sing or to write or to do what I love the most. 

Anneke, thank you so much for taking the time to do this interview. Would you like to add anything else to our readers? 

Anneke van Giersbergen: Yeah, I sound like a broken record, but I really thoroughly enjoy being here. The thing is that in today’s world things are moving, changing a lot, really fast. But also after Corona, things got more expensive. Sometimes it’s damn difficult for bands to tour abroad. For me, I’ve been touring so many times, over 30 years I guess. And I like it so much. I know things change and there’s sometimes less of a chance to go around the world. So every time when I’m travelling, coming to another country that I love, and meeting people that I love, and having nice food, and the culture, I’m thoroughly happy. And that’s because I can do my passion, I can travel for my passion. I would advise, if anybody wants it, my advice is if you find your passion and if it makes you happy, you should always pursue it. Sometimes it’s hard work, and sometimes I say, “Why do I do this? Because it’s so tiring, and sometimes it doesn’t work”. Yeah, I invest time, money, sweat. Sometimes it doesn’t work out, it’s really miserable. Sometimes it does work out, and I’m so happy being here makes me so happy. I sound like a happy dog, like a puppy dog. But I think that’s the feeling that we all should pursue, if possible. And it can be anything, it can be school, it can be education, it can be work, it can be something else. And just do. And don’t be afraid to work hard for what you want. That’s what I would say.

Enjoy Anneke‘s latest album here: