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Emilie Autumn

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Emilie Autumn
Born (1979-09-22) September 22, 1979 (age 44)
Malibu, California, U.S.

Emilie Autumn (born in Malibu, California, on September 22, 1979) is an American singer-songwriter, poet, and violinist who is best known for her wide range of musical styles and her use of theatrics.[1] She began learning the violin at the age of four and left regular school five years later with the goal of becoming a world-class violinist; she practiced nine hours a day and read a wide range of literature. Progressing to writing her own music and poetry, she went to the Colburn School of Performing Arts, and then Indiana University's Music Conservatory, which she left over issues regarding the relationship between classical music and the appearance of the performer. Through her own independent label Traitor Records, Autumn debuted with her classical album On a Day: Music for Violin & Continuo in 1997, followed by 2002's supernaturally themed album Enchant.

After appearing in singer Courtney Love's backing band on her America's Sweetheart tour and returning to the United States, Autumn attempted suicide after having an abortion and was kept on suicide watch in a Los Angeles mental hospital. After being released, she had her cell block number tattooed on her arm as a way of remembering what had happened to her. She released the 2006 album Opheliac with the German label Trisol Music Group. In 2007, she released Laced/Unlaced; the re-release of On a Day... appeared as Laced with songs on the electric violin as Unlaced. She later left Trisol to join New York-based The End Records in 2009 and release Opheliac in the United States, where previously it had only been available as an import. Currently she is working on an upcoming album entitled Fight Like a Girl.

Autumn draws influence for her music—the style of which she has alternatively labeled as "Victoriandustrial" and glam rock—from plays, novels, and history, particularly the Victorian era, with her only musical influence being the English violinist Nigel Kennedy. Her live performances, which she calls dinner theatre because of her practice of throwing tea and tea-time snacks offstage, make use of burlesque to counterbalance the morbid topics; Autumn incorporates theatrics with an all-female backing band called The Bloody Crumpets. Outspoken about living with bipolar disorder and the conditions in modern-day mental hospitals, she has written an autobiography, the 2009 The Asylum for Wayward Victorian Girls.

Life and career

1979–2001: Early life and beginnings

Autumn attributes her ability to write music in her mind to the fact that she played Pachelbel's Canon in D mentally every night to suppress the voices in her mind and sleep.[2]

Emilie Autumn was born in Malibu, California, on September 22, 1979.[3] According to Autumn, "being surrounded by nature and sea had a lot to do with [her] development as a 'free spirit.' "[4] Her mother worked as a seamstress and Autumn claims she is descended from the Liddell family.[3][5] A German circus performer,[5] her father immigrated to America at the age of nine and ran away at age fourteen; Autumn claims that he suffered abuse from his father and a "difficult and cruel upbringing".[6] He did not share a close relationship with his daughter.[6] She also has a sister.[4] While not musicians, her family enjoyed various genres of music.[4]

She started learning the violin at four, something that helped her to cope with bipolar disorder—which caused her to have drastic mood swings and hear voices constantly—and abuse that began when she was six years old.[7][8] Autumn later admitted that she had "absolutely no idea" what a violin was at that time, remarking that "I might have thought it was a kind of pony for all I know, but I don't remember being disappointed."[2] Four years later, Autumn made her musical debut as a solo violinist, backed by an orchestra, and won a competition.[4] At the age of nine,[note 1][9][7] she left regular school with the goal of becoming a world-class violinist[9] and later went to the Colburn School of Performing Arts.[3] Growing up, she owned a large CD collection of "violin concertos, symphonies, chamber music, opera, and a little jazz".[4] She began writing her own music and poetry at age thirteen/fourteen, though she never planned to sing any of her songs.[4][10] At fourteen, she attended the Music Conservatory at Indiana University.[9] After two years at the university, she left because she disagreed with their views on individuality and classical music.[9]

While convinced that she would only play violin, eighteen-year-old Autumn decided to sing on one of her songs as a way of demonstrating to a major music producer, who wanted to sign her on a label, how it should sound.[4] She became unhappy with the changes done to her songs and decided to break away from the label and create her own independent record label, Traitor Records.[4] Through it, she debuted with her 1997 classical album On a Day: Music for Violin & Continuo;[3][4] the title is a reference to Shakespeare and the fact that the album took only a day to record.[4] She also debuted with her poetry book Across The Sky & Other Poems in 2000, later re-released in 2005 as Your Sugar Sits Untouched with a music-accompanied audiobook.[10][11][12] As part of a recording project, Autumn traveled to Chicago, Illinois, in 2001, but finally decided to stay because she enjoyed the public transportation system and music scene there.[4] She released the 2001 extended play (EP) Chambermaid while finishing Enchant—she alternatively labeled the musical style on Chambermaid as "fantasy rock" and cabaret—and wrote the 2002 charity single "By the Sword" after the events of September 11, 2001.[3][4] According to her, the song is about strength and not violence; the act of swearing by the sword represents "an unbreakable promise to right a wrong, to stay true."[4]

2002–2005: Enchant and collaborations

In 2002, she released her concept album Enchant, which spanned multiple musical styles: "new age, pop and trip-hop chamber music".[13][7] The theme of Enchant revolved around the supernatural realm and its effect on the modern-day world. Autumn labeled it as "fantasy rock", which dealt with "dreams and stories and ghosts and faeries who'll bite your head off if you dare to touch them".[4] The faery-themed "Enchant Puzzle" appeared on the artwork of the album; her reward for the person who would solve it consisted of faery-related items.[4] At the same time of Enchant's release, Autumn had several side projects: Convent, for which she recorded all four voices; Ravensong, "a classical baroque ensemble" that she formed with friends in California; and The Jane Brooks Project, which she dedicated to the real-life, 16th-century Jane Brooks—a woman executed for witchcraft.[4]

In the supernaturally themed album Enchant, Autumn drew imagery from faery folklore.[4]

On the night of the Enchant release party, Autumn learned that Courtney Love had invited her to record an album, America's Sweetheart, and embark on the tour to promote it.[4] Contributing violin and vocals to it,[14] Autumn appeared together with Love's backing band The Chelsea on the 2004 tour.[7][15] In 2004, she recorded violin and vocals for Billy Corgan's album The Future Embrace,[14] and created the costumes for his music video.[2] In retrospect, Autumn felt working with both artists and promoting their albums had "stunted" her musical career, and drug use that she had witnessed on Love's tour disgusted her.[7][2] In September 2004, her father died from lung cancer, even though he had quit smoking twenty years earlier.[6] Near the end of 2004, she was filmed for an appearance on an episode of HGTV's Crafters Coast to Coast, showing viewers how to create faery wings and sushi-styled soap—both products she sold in her online "web design and couture fashion house", WillowTech House.[4][16] Later in 2005, she recorded vocals and violin for "The Gates of Eternity" from Attrition's 2008 album All Mine Enemys Whispers: The Story of Mary Ann Cotton, a concept album focusing on the Victorian serial killer Mary Ann Cotton.[17][18] Autumn later protested the release of the song, claiming that it was unfinished, "altered without her permission," and had been intended only as a possible collaboration with Martin Bowes.[18]

2006–2009: Opheliac, Laced/Unlaced, and A Bit O' This & That

Autumn released the limited-edition EP Opheliac, a demo to her concept album of the same name, through her own label, Traitor Records; while the Opheliac EPs were being shipped, Autumn claimed that her offices had been robbed, causing the delay in the album release and the shipping of the EPs.[19] In January 2006, she performed a song from the album, "Misery Loves Company", on the Chicago-based television station WGN,[20] before the album's release by the German label Trisol Music Group in October 23 of the same year.[21] She recorded Opheliac because "it was the documentation of a completely life-changing and life-ending experience".[22] At one time, Autumn did have plans to film a music video for her song "Liar", which included "bloody bathtubs".[23] Her favorite song on Opheliac is "The Art of Suicide" because she felt it was "the most honest" and "most complete thing [she has] written."[23]

The title of Opheliac is a reference to Shakespeare's character Ophelia from the play Hamlet, whom Autumn felt a connection to,[22] and the archetype of the "self-destructive" woman.[24]

She released several more EPs and albums. November 2006 saw the release of the double feature EP Liar/Dead Is the New Alive, which featured remixes of songs from Opheliac and new material.[25] Her March 2007 album, Laced/Unlaced, consisted of two discs: Laced, her take on classical violin pieces, and Unlaced, new songs for the electric violin.[26] She decided to release On a Day as Laced because she "felt that it made a nice contrast to the metal shredding fiddle album, "Unlaced," and [...] loved that it was the perfect representation of "then" versus "now."[2] Five months later, she released A Bit O' This & That: a collection of her covers, including songs from The Beatles and The Smiths, classical pieces, and her own songs.[27] In 2008, she released 4 o'Clock, which contained remixes of songs from Opheliac, new songs, and a reading from her autobiography The Asylum for Wayward Victorian Girls.[28]

Autumn broke away from Trisol Music Group to join The End Records and re-release Opheliac in the United States on October 27, 2009; previously, it was only available there as an import.[24][22][29] The re-release included extras such as pictures, bonus tracks, an excerpt from The Asylum for Wayward Victorian Girls, and a video.[29] In addition to appearing on Adult Swim cartoon Metalocalypse as a guest artist in 2006[30] and on the subsequent 2007 album The Dethalbum,[31] Autumn collaborated with other musicians. She contributed backing vocals and violin to "Dry" by Die Warzau and made an appearance in the music video for "Born Again".[32] She played violin on the song "UR A WMN NOW" from OTEP's 2009 album, Smash the Control Machine.[14] Her track "Organ Grinder" from the 4 o'Clock EP appeared on the European edition of the Saw III soundtrack, while a remixed version of "Dead Is The New Alive" was on the international version of the Saw IV soundtrack.[14]

2010–present: Fight Like A Girl

In June 2010, Autumn released the acronym of her upcoming album, F.L.A.G., on Twitter,[33] before revealing the full title in an interview as Fight Like A Girl.[34] She explained the concept behind "fighting like a girl" as self-defense without honor or rules.[32] Planned to be "a bit more violent... bloodier [and]...a little more metal," Fight Like A Girl acts as a continuation of The Asylum for Wayward Victorian Girls and has the inmates fighting back against their abusers.[32]

Influences and musical style

Autumn in Frankfurt, 2007

A classically trained musician, Autumn draws influence from plays, novels, and history, particularly the Victorian era.[5][22] She enjoys the works of Robert Browning, his wife Elizabeth, and Edgar Allan Poe.[5] She incorporates sounds resembling Victorian machinery such as locomotives, which she noted was "sort of a steampunk thing".[22] While a young Autumn cited Itzhak Perlman as an influence because of the happiness she believed he felt when he played, her only musical influence is Nigel Kennedy.[4] She takes inspiration for her songs from her life experiences and mixes in "layers and layers of references, connections, other stories and metaphors".[5]

Autumn describes her music and style as "Psychotic Vaudeville Burlesque."[35] She alternatively labels her music and style as "Victoriandustrial'", a term she coined, and glam rock because of her use of glitter onstage.[22][36][32] According to Autumn, her music "wasn't meant to be cutesy" and is labeled as industrial mainly because of her use of drums and yelling.[22] Labeled as steampunk, neo-Victorian, and Industrial Gothic,[36] her music encompasses a wide range of styles.[1] 2002's Enchant drew on "new age chamber music, trip-hop baroque, and experimental space pop"[37] while the 2006 release Opheliac featured "cabaret, electronic, symphonic, new age, and good ol' rock & roll (and heavy on the theatrical bombast)."[21]

For her live performances, which she calls dinner theatre because of her practice of throwing tea and tea-time snacks offstage, Autumn makes use of burlesque—"a show that was mainly using humour and sexuality to make a mockery of things that were going on socially and politically"[36]—to counterbalance the morbid topics such as abuse and self-mutilation.[7] She incorporates handmade costumes,[36] fire tricks, theatrics, and a female backing band, The Bloody Crumpets: Naughty Veronica, Captain Maggot, The Blessed Contessa, Little Lucina, and the model Ulorin Vex.[1][32][38] Her wish for the live shows is to be an "anti-repression statement" and empowerment.[24]

Public image

File:Emilie Autumn In Essen Zeche Carl.jpg
While naturally a blonde, Autumn dyed her hair purple at seventeen, before progressing to orange, red, and then varying shades of both.[23]

Identifying as an asexual,[39] Autumn follows the vegan lifestyle. At the age of eleven, she went vegetarian after being unable to rationalize why she should eat farm animals but not her pet; in her late-teens, she turned vegan.[40] She believes that there is a link between the treatment of women and animals in society.[40] Additionally, Autumn has bipolar disorder and takes medication for it.[7] Some of her songs—"Manic Depression", "Swallow", and "Misery Loves Company" from Opheliac—deal with living with the disorder.[41] While she would "prefer to not have it [...] and probably be a lot happier," she believes that it gives her a different perspective on life and plans to "use it for all it’s [sic] worth so that [she is] not a victim of it."[24] Autumn also keeps a ritual of drawing a heart on her cheek as a symbol of protection and reminder of her humanity.[7] She cares for two pet rats, Sir Edward and Basil, and a cat, Fish.[40] and endorses companies such as Manic Panic and Samson Tech.[38]

Institutionalization and autobiography

Returning from Courtney Love's 2004 tour, Autumn resumed working on her own career and became pregnant, although she had been on birth control.[7] Terrified of childbirth and unwilling to pass on her bipolar disorder, she decided to have an abortion.[7] Later, she attempted suicide, which caused her to be admitted to a Los Angeles mental institution and kept on suicide watch.[7][36] On her experience there, she commented: "No one tried to break me out or contact me, and I wasn’t allowed to call anyone. Now, I watch One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest, and realise it’s actually a pretty accurate portrayal of a modern-day asylum."[7]

After being released, she had her cell block number tattooed on her arm as a way of remembering what happened to her[7] and penned her autobiography, The Asylum for Wayward Victorian Girls, which was published in December 2009.[22] The release was delayed because some did not want it published.[22] Based on her diary written in red crayon while institutionalized, the book incorporated talking rats and the diary of a fictional Victorian inmate named "Emily".[7][40] Autumn explained that "one of the main messages is" that many of the patients were not insane and that the subject of mental illness remains misunderstood.[24]

Discography

Albums

EPs and singles

Guest contributions

Bibliography

Notes

  1. ^ In a 2003 interview, she stated that she was ten years old when she made the decision to leave school to pursue learning the violin.[4]

References

  1. ^ a b c "Weekend Hotlist". Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. December 3, 2009. Retrieved January 3, 2010.
  2. ^ a b c d e "Interview with Emilie Autumn". VampireFreaks.com. June 14, 2008. Retrieved November 11, 2010.
  3. ^ a b c d e Wilson, MacKenzie. "Emilie Autumn". Allmusic. Retrieved August 11, 2010.
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u Elliot, Russell W. (October 15, 2003). "Emilie Autumn at Musical Discoveries". Musical Discoveries. Retrieved August 12, 2010.
  5. ^ a b c d e "Battered Rose >> Teatime Suffering". Zoe French. Retrieved December 10, 2010.
  6. ^ a b c Autumn, Emilie (September 28, 2004). "My dad's gone, and more pleasant notes on the world today..." Official site. Retrieved September 21, 2010.
  7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n "Emilie Autumn Interview". Bizarre. April 2010. Retrieved September 29, 2010. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  8. ^ Bryant, Tom (February 13, 2010). "Girl Interrupted. Abuse, attempted suicide and bipolar disorder..." (1299). Kerrang!: 44. If you've had difficult things happening or have had an upbringing that was really fucked up — (mine) had massive amounts of abuse since I was six years old and rape — then it's sometimes hard to tell exactly what [causes a suicide attempt] {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  9. ^ a b c d Rowland, Jay (16 December 2009). "Secrets From The Asylum: A Chat With Emilie Autumn". Shred News. Retrieved 3 January 2010.
  10. ^ a b "Your Sugar Sits Untouched". Official site. Retrieved December 9, 2010.
  11. ^ Autumn, Emilie (August 31, 2005). "Poetry Book Pre-Orders!". Official site. Retrieved November 16, 2010.
  12. ^ Autumn, Emilie (August 9, 2005). "Your Sugar..." Official site. Retrieved November 16, 2010. ...I've had to take a couple of days away from the grueling "Opheliac" to record the audio and finalize artwork for the re-release of poetry book, formerly called "Across The Sky" before it sold out, now called "Your Sugar Sits Untouched"
  13. ^ "Enchant". Official site. Retrieved August 16, 2010.
  14. ^ a b c d "Music". Official site. Retrieved September 24, 2009.
  15. ^ "Courtney Love & The Chelsea Tour". IGN. October 7, 2004. Retrieved November 15, 2010.
  16. ^ Autumn, Emilie (November 17, 2004). "My HGTV Adventure: Chapter I". Official site. Retrieved December 2, 2010. {{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |1= (help)
  17. ^ Raggett, Ned. "All Mine Enemys Whispers: The Story of Mary Ann Cotton". Allmusic. Retrieved December 1, 2010.
  18. ^ a b "Attrition "All mine enemys..." - not authorized". Official site. March 1, 2008. Retrieved December 1, 2010.
  19. ^ Autumn, Emilie (July 22, 2008). "In Which Opheliac EP's Are Given Away In My Unmentionables". Official site. Retrieved December 2, 2010. {{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |1= (help)
  20. ^ Autumn, Emilie (January 2, 2006). "Be Immortalized on Television!!!". Official site. Retrieved December 2, 2010.
  21. ^ a b Prato, Greg. "Opheliac". Allmusic. Retrieved August 12, 2010.
  22. ^ a b c d e f g h i Ohanesian, Liz (October 23, 2009). "Interview: Neo-Victorian Violinist, Singer Emilie Autumn". LA Weekly. Retrieved March 20, 2010. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  23. ^ a b c "Battered Rose >> Little Xmas Secrets". Zoe French. December 23, 2006. Retrieved November 29, 2010.
  24. ^ a b c d e Holmes, Mark (January 30, 2010). "Metal Discovery: Interview with Emilie Autumn". Metal Discovery. pp. 1–2. Retrieved July 5, 2010.
  25. ^ "Liar/Dead Is the New Alive". Official site. Retrieved August 16, 2010.
  26. ^ "Laced/Unlaced". Official site. Retrieved August 16, 2010.
  27. ^ "A Bit O' This & That". Official site. Retrieved August 16, 2010.
  28. ^ "4 o'Clock". Official site. Retrieved August 16, 2010.
  29. ^ a b "Opheliac -- The Deluxe Edition". Official site. Retrieved August 16, 2010.
  30. ^ Autumn, Emilie (October 9, 2006). "Watch Metalocalypse Tonight!!". Official site. Retrieved December 8, 2010. {{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |1= (help)
  31. ^ "The Dethalbum". Allmusic. Retrieved November 16, 2010.
  32. ^ a b c d e Yücel, Ilker (April 28, 2010). "Interview: Emilie Autumn–Everything and Nothing". ReGen Magazine. Retrieved November 17, 2010. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  33. ^ Autumn, Emilie (June 11, 2010). "PRs! I'll let you in on so..." Twitter. Retrieved November 11, 2010.
  34. ^ "Entrevista con Emilie Autumn" (in Spanish). Rockombia.org. November 2010. Retrieved November 20, 2010.
  35. ^ Z., Mickey. "Interview with a Vegan Vaudeville Violinist: Talking Music, Justice, and Rodent Love with the One and Only Emilie Autumn". Green Planet. Retrieved August 12, 2010.
  36. ^ a b c d e Holmes, Mark (March 9, 2010). "Metal Discovery: Interview with Emilie Autumn". Metal Discovery. pp. 1–4. Retrieved July 5, 2010.
  37. ^ Spano, Charles. "Enchant". Allmusic. Retrieved September 11, 2010.
  38. ^ Steinfeld, Dave (June 2010). "Interview with Emilie Autumn". Curve. Retrieved July 5, 2010. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  39. ^ a b c d Harkens, Ray. "Pro Violinist Emilie Autumn's Interview". Peta2. Retrieved August 12, 2010.
  40. ^ "Story". Official site. Retrieved August 12, 2010.
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