DATE OF INTERVIEW:

EMILIE AUTUMN

10th March 2012

METAL DISCOVERY: I looked at the lyrics for ‘It’s Time for Tea’ as well and it seems to have a bit of irony in there by using, I might’ve misread this, but using tea as an empowerment metaphor…

EMILIE: No, not at all, you got it.

(Emilie Autumn on creating beauty from adversity)

"...this is all out of something that was incredibly negative so, in the end, I can’t really be that mad about it!"

Emilie Autumn backstage at Rock City, Nottingham, UK, 10th March 2012

Photograph copyright © 2012 Mark Holmes - www.metal-discovery.com

Interview & Photography by Mark Holmes

RELATED LINKS

Emilie Autumn Official Website:

EMILIE AUTUMN DISCOGRAPHY

Your Sugar Sits Untouched (2000)

Albums

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Thanks to Nina Potthoff for arranging the interview

Enchant (2003)

Liar/Dead Is The New Alive EP (2006)

Emilie Autumn Official Facebook:

Opheliac (2006)

Emilie Autumn Official Twitter:

Laced/Unlaced (2007)

4 o'Clock EP (2008)

A Bit O' This & That (2007)

Girls Just Wanna Have Fun & Bohemian Rhapsody EP (2008)

The Opheliac Companion (2009)

Opheliac - Deluxe Edition (2010)

Emilie Autumn Official MySpace:

MD: I guess irony because you have a civilised cup of tea symbolising revenge; is that supposed to work like that?

EMILIE: Well, what is happening at that particular moment in the story that I was saying is they stand…it is like this anthem; it’s much more poppy sounding than anything else on the record at all which is on purpose. It’s supposed to be, you know, taking this very serious message verse-wise in-between the choruses which are very, very catchy…verse-wise, some extremely strong, daring lyrics and then coming up with this chorus which is like let’s fucking sing and dance and celebrate we’re about to go into battle for all the right reasons, and we’re going to win this one. So that is that moment where they realise there’s more of us than there are of you so let’s just straighten this thing out.

And then ‘It’s Time For Tea’, the second song in the show, is actually when they start running down the stairs and go on their rampage. The irony of that is really…it’s a couple of things – it’s that when they go, the clock…which is why there’s a clock on stage, this whole symbolism, it’s this massive clock that’s down below in the entrance hall; it’s massive and you can hear it anywhere in this massive building, and so the clock strikes four, classic tea-time, and alright, it’s time for tea, let’s do this, and they go.

And that’s also story-wise and personally this whole…the kind of sad joke in bipolar is this completely weird fucking phenomenon that is in psychological books and things is that all over the world it’s a very common thing to, when you’re in a certain state, to wake up on the fucking dot. Like, you look up and it is exactly four o’clock. And that’s your insomnia, weird hour; that’s when you can’t go back to sleep. That’s what the song ‘Four o’Clock’ is about, is it keeps referencing this number because it gets to the fact of, you know, in the show there’s this mad tea party that happens and it gets very messy, and it’s all about taking what we all know is the supposedly cliché, the archetypal, the proper things about this particular time that we think of as Victorian as being so proper but it’s not and it’s all about the seedy underbelly of that time; it’s not about glamourising it at all. It’s quite the opposite. It’s like let’s be honest and see how this has affected where we are now and how we’ve not come very far in a lot of ways and that’s a huge problem. But that’s the joke of it and it’s also about looking at all this mess and having some fun with it because if we didn’t you’d just have to crawl up in a ball and die.

MD: That’s kind of a nice segue onto my next question – you mentioned ‘One Foot in Front of the Other’ and kind of implicit in that title there seems to be a degree of optimism, like a final message of positivity?

EMILIE: It actually is; it totally is. I thought that was an important thing to come to and include in all of this in that we can’t just…this has never been, and I want to make very clear this part of the story, this has never been about wallowing in all of this… “these terrible things have happened…you’re crazy…” blah, blah, blah…it’s not about that. First and foremost, it’s about telling a good story and people shouldn’t need to know whether it’s true or whether it’s anything. They should just be able to listen to the music, enjoy it, go to the show, be entertained…if you want to see girls run around in corsets that’s awesome, totally as valid as anything else. If you follow this on a psychological study level, awesome. If you’ve read the book and you think that’s fun and interesting and that it’s kind of like here’s Stephen King and Harry Potter meshed up, that’s fine. But, in the end, really, it is always about the empowerment of the individual and also of the group of realising that you’re not alone.

It’s a huge message that I’ve learned from Plague Rats over the years and that is something that I often hear from them is that it’s not about me, this girl who looks a certain way, who sings these songs or puts on this stuff and dances around. It’s about something so much bigger which makes me a lot more comfortable because if it was all about me I’d feel very self-absorbed and bad about it. But it’s about this whole Asylum world that everybody has a part in and it’s this thinking out of my brain that has become very, very physically real. And now, these beautiful people are kind of building real estate on this land and making it very real and part of their lives, and to do that we need to see a somewhat…not that there is never an outcome, there’s not until we cross over into something else and even then it’s never over until it’s over and it’s never over…but there needs to be some way to go on and not just keep talking or singing about. And it’s kind of also another joke on myself which the song starts with: “How did it come to this where every song I sing is just another list of pain and suffering?” Like at some point, we need to talk about how to fucking move on and accept that it’s not gonna get better, but we’re gonna keep going. So, yes, optimism!

MD: Heeey!

[laughs]

MD: Having the acronym of ‘F.L.A.G.’ seems quite pertinent, like having a flag as a banner to symbolise something…

EMILIE: I didn’t even think about it!

MD: So was that just serendipity then rather than words deliberately chosen to arrive at that acronym?

EMILIE: I didn’t think about it until an actual Plague Rat tweeted something and said, “isn’t that cool”, because we’ve always had the Suffer flag and then we have this big, red flag that we’re whipping around that symbolises all of this stuff. That’s my main weapon for the ‘It’s Time For Tea’ song and the girls hand that to me at the end of the ‘F.L.A.G.’ song and now this becomes a weapon. But I didn’t think of that at the time at all…I try to be clever, how did I not think of that?! It’s actually a lot cooler that they have got in this world so much with me that they have begun to see things that I may not even see.

Honestly, it couldn’t even be any more gratifying to see this thing grow without me, especially I hear like in Russia where I’ve never been, would love to but haven’t, and Plague Rats are having muffin meet-ups and tea parties there where they dance around and do this stuff but it’s not just about me. I might have been the catalyst to bring them together but it’s not anymore; it’s about them and this Asylum world and bringing it into themselves. In the end, that’s the most amazing thing. This is about them and in my ideal world they wouldn’t even have to listen to my stuff when they’re having tea parties or they wouldn’t even have to bring me up at all. It’s just about them and their place in this thing. It’s all about individuality, being as different as you possibly can be because, for all of us, I feel that makes us very beautiful and also very dangerous.

MD: It must be very nice to see you’re having that kind of positive effect in the world in all these different places.

EMILIE: Yeah, and it’s so small; we’re not curing AIDS in Africa, we’re not curing cancer, we’re not doing all of those things so, in the real world, anything that I can possibly provide is so small but for those people I get to be fortunate enough to share some small part of their lives. It’s very meaningful and then being selfish for me, personally, this helps me an incredible amount just to know that in some way at least I’m accomplishing my personal goal which is always to make something very ugly into something, just like all for me, into something very beautiful. And that’s the thing, not into just something okay or positive, or useful or helpful to people, making it into something beautiful. And that’s what’s happening so I just hope that I can keep on going with that and doing it and making things into some form of art to where you almost don’t really mind that they happened anymore because I would never have known people and I would never have known you if all of this stuff hadn’t. And now I can wear whatever, and a kitty hat, and sit here and have tea…

MD: …it’s very nice tea, by the way…

EMILIE: …thank you…and now have a company that’s doing this and this is all out of something that was incredibly negative so, in the end, I can’t really be that mad about it!

[laughs]

EMILIE: Yeah, I’m very lucky at this point and at least, if nothing else, at least I realise it.

MD: I know I’ve run out of time now so they’re good closing words. Thank you very much indeed.

EMILIE: Oh my love, I’m going to embrace you, the old friends that we are…thank you so much for being here and I didn’t know that I was going to see you again today so this is great!