Emilie Autumn

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Emilie Autumn
Autumn performs live at Nachtleben 2007.
Autumn performs live at Nachtleben 2007.
Background information
Born September 22, 1979 (1979-09-22) (age 28)
Malibu, California, U.S.
Genre(s) Dark Cabaret, Synth Pop, Darkwave, Ambient, IDM
Occupation(s) Musician, writer, poet
Instrument(s) Vocals, Violin, Harpsichord, Piano, Viola, Viola de Gamba
Years active 2000 – present
Label(s) Traitor Records, Trisol Music Group GmbH
Associated acts Emilie Autumn and the Bloody Crumpets, Ravensong, The Jane Brooks Project, Convent
Website emilieautumn.com
Notable instrument(s)
Vocals, Electric violin

Emilie Autumn (born September 22, 1979) is an American singer-songwriter, poet, and violinist currently living in Chicago who is best known for her wide range of musical styles, especially her usage of theatrics.

On her early album, Enchant, Autumn explores a softer side of music, drawing from a more classical, cabaret sound, which she referred to as "fantasy rock". Later, however, she abandoned her fairy-winged, camouflaged, pink-haired image for an edgier look, incorporating styles from the Victorian era and bright red and pink hair. Her music changed again for her later album, Opheliac, producing an angrier sound and moving from fantasy rock to an industrial sound, incorporating electronic beats and her trademark instruments, the violin and harpischord, to create a sound that she dubbed "violindustrial" and "Victoriandustrial".

In the past, Autumn was signed to a major label, but as they took more and more control over her work, she left and formed her own record label, Traitor Records. She currently has a distribution deal with Trisol Music Group GmbH and is touring with material from Opheliac and "4 o'Clock". In the past, she has toured with Courtney Love and recorded backup vocals and the violin for Love and Billy Corgan. Autumn also has her own company, WillowTechHouse, which sells clothing and accessories, however it has been closed for some time. WillowTechHouse was also where Emilie's own perfume, Mistress, was sold.

Contents

[edit] Biography

[edit] Early life

Autumn was born on September 22, 1979 in Malibu, California. Although her family was not traditionally musical, they had a great respect for music of all genres, ensuring that it held a profound importance for Autumn from an early age. At the age of four, Autumn commenced her training on the violin. Six years later, she enrolled at the Colburn School of Performing Arts where she began to experiment with improvisational playing, inspired by the renowned violinist Nigel Kennedy. In 2003 she would state that she "ate, slept, and breathed his recordings, much to the great and oft' noted chagrin of [her] teachers". Due to shunning and physical harassment from her school peers, Autumn soon abandoned conventional schooling, preferring to continue her music lessons at home while reading "everything under the sun from music history to feminist literature to Shakespeare". At fifteen, Autumn won a place at the prestigious Indiana University School of Music in Bloomington, Indiana but left after two years due to clashes with university authorities over her unorthodox musical and clothing tastes. By then Autumn already sported the brightly-colored long hair (beginning with purple at age seventeen [1]; it was not until later that her hair became the flamboyant pink and red colors for which she is well known), corsets and combat boots that would characterize her "Enchant" era. Autumn is originally blonde and has green eyes, and she has stated that she will not alter her eye color because she is afraid of contacts. Musically, she was attracted to "great voices" and "great writers" such as Annie Lennox, Sting, Morrissey and Jimi Hendrix. [2]

Autumn has stated that she was raped when she was young, which has served as an inspiration for many of her songs.[3] She will not go into more detail, though, since the experience is probably still traumatic for her, or that she would rather keep it private.

Returning home to Los Angeles, Autumn's interests spread to classical music spanning from the medieval era, through the Renaissance to the Baroque period. She also continued to explore modern genres such as rock and Jazz. The next year, having begun to sing in her songs as well as play the violin, Autumn was signed to an unknown major record label. However, the producers quickly began to alter her material, depriving her of artistic control. In a 2003 interview with the Musical Discoveries website, Autumn described the experience:

"But things deteriorate rapidly when another writer is flown in, another arranger is flown in, and suddenly my songs don't sound like mine anymore, and my violin is being thinned out because the producers wholeheartedly believe that the general public is "threatened" by any reference to what could be seen as "classical." Of course, I balk, and where I was once treated like a princess, I'm now dealt with as a rebellious ingrate who has to be kept in line with constant monitoring and excessive restraints."

Furious at her treatment and subsequent lack of support from her manager, Autumn broke ties with the label and continued to develop her writing and violin and vocal skills independently, performing with friends as a baroque ensemble named "Ravensong". In 2000 she established her own label called Traitor Records in order to release a classical violin recording, On a Day.... [4] Recorded in 1997, On a Day... is now out of print but was recently re-released as the Laced disc on Autumn's double-disc instrumental album Laced/Unlaced (2007).

By early 2001, Autumn had relocated to Chicago and had begun to record her debut full-length album Enchant. As a preview, she released an EP for the song "Chambermaid".

As a tribute to the victims of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, Autumn released a charity single entitled By The Sword, donating the proceeds to the American Red Cross and AmeriCares. [5]

In 2003 Autumn completed the fourteen-track album Enchant which showcased her unique brand of alternative music known as "fantasy rock", combining rock, classical, cabaret and Celtic influences. While allowing fans to download the entire album for free from her website, Autumn included a password in the purchased, physical version's packaging which granted access to bonus tracks and videos. Although only available digitally for some time after the physical copies sold out, Autumn recently re-released Enchant in 2007 with Trisol Music Group.

[edit] Rise to fame (2003–2005)

Though an active performer and recording artist with a cult following of her own, Autumn first gained widespread notoriety in 2003 when she was discovered by former Hole frontwoman Courtney Love, who brought Autumn to France to work on Love's debut solo album, America's Sweetheart (2004). Autumn then toured with Love as part of the all-female band The Chelsea[6], making appearances on The Tonight Show and the Late Show with David Letterman. Through Love, Autumn became acquainted with Smashing Pumpkins' frontman Billy Corgan.

When The Chelsea's tour was halted due to Love's multiple legal issues, Autumn returned to Chicago and began working with Corgan. "DIA", a song from his solo album TheFutureEmbrace, features her violin and backing vocals. On December 23, 2004, Autumn performed with Corgan and Dennis DeYoung on the WGN Morning Show in Chicago. She continued to work with him until the spring of 2005. As a part of her "punktorian" fashion label WillowTech House, she designed and tailored costumes for the music video for Corgan's single "Walking Shade". [7]

[edit] Later solo career (2005–present)

Autumn was finally able to return to working on her own album in September 2005. She began the full-time recording of Opheliac at Mad Villain Studios in Chicago. This work is in a darker and more aggressive vein than her previous work, incorporating the electro-industrial genre, growling vocals, harpsichords and her trademark violin into what she calls "Victoriandustrial." Autumn has described the album as greatly autobiographical.

In late 2005 she added a backup band to her live line-up, to whom she refers as "The Bloody Crumpets". Autumn and the Bloody Crumpets performed the new material on the WGN Morning Show on January 12, 2006, followed by a sold-out performance at Double Door in Chicago on January 13. A limited edition EP, containing eight tracks from the final version of Opheliac, was released in spring 2006 under her own label. On August 18, 2006, Autumn announced that she was releasing a double-disc deluxe edition of her Opheliac album, having signed a distribution deal with Trisol Music Group. [8]

In the winter of 2006, before embarking on a European tour, Autumn recorded a new two-disc, entirely instrumental album called Laced/Unlaced. The first disc, Laced, is a re-release of her classical album On A Day... (2000), with an additional five tracks of live performances. The second disc, Unlaced, features her distinct "violindustrial" style, consisting of original pieces played on the electric violin, backed by the harpsichord, drum machines and synthesizers. [9]

Emilie Autumn performing at M'era Luna on 2007-08-11, during her European tour
Emilie Autumn performing at M'era Luna on 2007-08-11, during her European tour

She first performed her new material in Europe on May 26, 2007, at the Wave Gotik Treffen music festival in Germany. From June 22, 2007 to August 11, 2007, Autumn toured in Europe to promote her albums Opheliac and Unlaced. She played in Germany, Austria, England, and The Netherlands. During her acts, she was accompanied by The Bloody Crumpets consisting of Lady Aprella, Lucina, Vecona, and Veronica Varlow. [10]

In August 2007 Autumn re-released limited deluxe editions of her debut album Enchant and a compilation of previously unreleased or out of print tracks entitled A Bit O' This & That. [11]

In the winter of 2007, Autumn embarked on another European tour, with concerts and festivals in Belgium, Germany, Austria, The Netherlands, Italy, and more. In the spring of 2008, she will return to England.[12] She will continue to be accompanied by Vecona, Lady Aprella, Veronica Varlow, and Lucina while in the United Kingdom. On February 15, on her official website, Autumn announced a new edition to The Bloody Crumpets: alternative fashion model Ulorin Vex. It has also been revealed that Apnea will not tour with the group while in the UK.[13] Lady Joo Hee will also tour with Autumn in the UK, as a cellist.

Autumn is finishing a "gothic children's book for adults only", titled The Alphabet Book of X-Boyfriends, which is filled with her own illustrations. She is also working on another book she calls The Asylum For Wayward Victorian Girls, the release date for which has been delayed due to technical problems, and which was promoted on her latest single "4 o'Clock".

She also has her own company called WillowTech House, where she sells some clothing articles that bear the company's logo, perfume scent "Mistress" (which can be sold as an eau de parfum or body wash among other options), along with accessories and fairy wings, both of which are handmade by Autumn herself. WillowTech House is co-owned by Lee Ann Helmer, also known as fLee, Queen of Tarts. Autumn and fLee are the company's two designers. The company's website is currently on hiatus as updates are being made.

On October 4, 2007 Autumn announced that she was releasing a new single, entitled "4 o'Clock", which was released January 18, 2008. [14]

Her song "Organ Grinder" was on the European edition of the Saw III soundtrack, and "Dead is the New Alive (Manipulator Mix by Dope Stars Inc)" was on the worldwide version of the Saw IV soundtrack, and is the version used by Autumn when performing Dead Is The New Alive in concert.

[edit] Television appearances

Autumn was featured in an episode of HGTV's That's Clever! (then Crafters Coast To Coast), creating a pair of "Floral Tea Party Fairy Wings" and sushi soap available from her fashion/lifestyle label, WillowTech House (which is currently on hiatus and its website is being redone).[15]

Autumn has been a guest artist on the Adult Swim cartoon Metalocalypse, in which she performed all violins as the London Philharmonic Orchestra in the episode "Fatkid at the Detharmonic". She also appeared on The Dethalbum.

[edit] Discography

[edit] Albums

[edit] EPs and singles

[edit] Special editions

  • Opheliac (Digipak)
  • Liar/Dead Is The New Alive (Digipak)
  • Laced/Unlaced (Double CD and hardcover photo book)
  • Enchant (CD and limited hardcover-digibook)
  • A Bit O' This & That (CD and limited hardcover-digibook)

[edit] Guest contributions

[edit] Bibliography

  • Across The Sky & Other Poems (2001, out of print)
  • Your Sugar Sits Untouched (2005 partial re-release of Across The Sky & Other Poems, updated with new poems and containing an audio recording of Autumn reading her work- now also apparently out of print)
  • The Asylum For Wayward Victorian Girls (to be released in 2008)

[edit] References

  1. ^ http://www.batteredrose.com/chat3.php Little Xmas Secrets online chat with fans (December 23, 2006). Retrieved September 13, 2007.
  2. ^ http://www.batteredrose.com/bio.php Copy of "Enchant"-era biography posted on Autumn's official site. Retrieved September 13, 2007.
  3. ^ Emilie Autumn at Musical Discoveries
  4. ^ http://www.musicaldiscoveries.com/reviews/emilieautumn.htm Interview by Russell W. Elliot, 2003. Retrieved September 13, 2007.
  5. ^ http://www.batteredrose.com/bytheswordsingle.php Retrieved September 13, 2007.
  6. ^ IGN: Courtney Love & The Chelsea Tour
  7. ^ http://forum.emilieautumn.com/viewtopic.php?t=749 Retrieved September 13, 2007.
  8. ^ http://emilieautumn.com/opheliac.html Retrieved September 13, 2007.
  9. ^ http://emilieautumn.com/lacedunlaced.html Retrieved September 13, 2007.
  10. ^ http://www.batteredrose.com/bc.php Retrieved September 13, 2007.
  11. ^ http://emilieautumn.com/thisandthat.html Retrieved September 13, 2007.
  12. ^ http://forum.emilieautumn.com/viewtopic.php?t=2412 Retrieved September 13, 2007.
  13. ^ Welcome To The Asylum :: The Official Site Of Emilie Autumn
  14. ^ http://www.emilieautumn.com/NL/Oct4.html Retrieved October 8, 2007
  15. ^ "That's Clever" Episode HCLVR-1A28 featuring Emilie Autumn on the HGTV website. Retrieved November 25, 2007.

[edit] External links

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