You started with Angels & Agony about 12 years ago, what made you decide to start a band?

It’s not really something that I deliberately did or chose, it’s something that grew. When I was in art-school I made a dark graphic-novel project called Angels & Agony. I thought it would be nice to have music while reading it. Then I wrote some instrumental pieces to the artwork. And then I wrote more songs, and more. Those instrumental pieces became songs with lyrics. That’s how Angels & Agony was born, in a nut shell.

Music became more important, do you still draw these days?

Not really… Not as much as I’d want to though. I’d love to, but a day has only 24 hours.  And there’s only so much you can do. But I do the artwork of all Angels & Agony related things, so I’m still working in that area.

In retrospective, what are the best things that happened in all these years?

I rather not think in ‘best’ or ‘bad’ things. It’s just ‘things’ ;-) And there were and are a lot of good things. To name a few: the fact that we got signed with Out Of Line records was a good thing. Also that our good old friend Ronan Harris produced our debut album. And that they flew us in to Chicago for one single show. And to Mexico-City. Our tours with VNV Nation and Project Pitchfork, the festivals we played. The fact that we can make our albums the way we like, without restrictions. That John Fryer mixed our Unsion album, and that I got to work with him in London was a great experience. All the nice and friendly people we meet along the way. And all the not so nice people we meet; they all define us who we choose to be: Angels & Agony, it’s all in the name, the good, the bad. And the ugly ;-)

Being active with Angels & Agony for so long I guess it didn’t only gave you musical succes but also contributed to you as a person. What did it bring you personally?

I’m not really sure it brought us lots of success, really. There are many similar bands in our genre who have truck loads more success. I guess we are slow starters and long burners, instead of rocket starters and falling stars :). But I’ve experienced that the music business is not all that pretty. When you get really involved, it’s also about systems, money-systems, contacts & contracts, politics and envy. And, like stated with the previous question, it all brought us so many very good experiences we will never ever forget; being on the road for 5 days in Mexico for one show. People picking you up from the airport in a van, taking care of you in the best way thinkable. Taking you out for breakfast, lunch and diner. For me, it’s always very strange and awkward to have the experience that people are paying me money to come over. Also, it’s strange when you hear your songs played in a club and people are dancing to it.

I think it’s quite unique to keep a band together for so many years without line up changes, what’s the secret?

Erik (guitars, programming) and I go way back. We were in a band together in the late ’80s. Together with the first A&A singer, by the way. So when I asked them to join Angels & Agony, we knew each other really well. Then Marco became our manager and later joined us on stage. After a while, the singer had different opinions regarding the direction of the band, so he left. Fried (electronic drums) was our live sound engineer and then became our live drummer. We manage, partly, because we respect each other as a person. Sometimes, we do have differences of opinion but in the end, we know who we are and who the others are. We accept each other and work around personalities. Well, that’s what I’m trying to do anyway, haha!

In between Avatar and Unison is a long period without new released, why did this happen?

About 3 years. Because we needed the time to get the album done the way we liked it to be. The songs were done long before it was released though. John Fryer had to finish some other work first before starting on our Unison album. When Fryer did the mixing, I was working on the cd-artwork. Fryer’s work was finished late October, and the release was set in late January (Europe), early February (USA). Hardly any (regular) album is released around or in the holiday seasons. So there is a bit of what I call ‘politics’ ;-)

True. But it’s good to have people around who know what they’re doing; our label manager knows that releasing an album around Christmas will not do you any good. And a label needs time to do some promotion and advertising as well. So the time was spent usefully. And we got time to let the whole thing rest a bit. After some time we still liked the results.

How can you explain the differences between Avatar (more introvert) and Unison (more extravert)?

People evolve and grow. And so did I. After a dark period in my life, I chose for a new beginning. In many ways. And the current state of mind or state of being, more accurately,  is noticeable in the songs and music. I wanted the songs to have a new kind of power and energy I felt inside. Mitch Langeveld, co-producer of the album, knew exactly how to implement some new and raw elements I wanted to have. Some people say it’s not really Angels & Agony music. I say it is. It’s just another side and aspect of the whole. Well, I guess you don’t love your girlfriend just because she’s got nice hair, now do you? It’s because she’s friendly and caring. And sometimes because she’s so beautiful when she’s angry…:)

How are the responses on Unison so far?

We get a lot of good responses from the audiences. Also, the German magazines as Zillo, Sonic Seducer, Orkus and Gothic and several online-magazines were very positive. Not bad at all J. I do hope this positive rating does encourage our record sales, haha!

On your website it says: “The lyrics of Angels & Agony deal with metaphysical, philosophical issues, visions distilled from Buddhism and Tao, combined with intensely perceptive speculations on society, life and death. Ying & Yang, You & I, Angels & Agony”  Can we say you are a spiritual person? What role does spirituality play in your life?

Everyone who thinks about his/herself in the larger scheme of things is a spiritual person. Everyone asks the same questions: who am I? Where do I come from, where am I going? I am a spiritual person too. I’ve learned and experienced some things evolved and grown from Buddhism, and I implemented it in my daily life. I’m not praying or meditating all the time. It’s beyond that. I choose to experience that I am a part of the whole world and universe. That there’s no left or right. Not from a certain view-point. Believing is seeing. I try to expand my awareness. That’s ‘all’… (that’s a Zen one, hehe!)

To me it seems Angels & Agony is more popular outside the Netherlands than inside. Not unusual for dutch bands. Do you agree with this?

I think I can agree on that… The scene is fairly small compared to other countries. And our music is hard do define; we’re too soft for real EBM lovers. We’re too hard for synthie-pop. And we don’t use screaming distorted vocals. I think that’s really hot in our scene. But that’s my personal opinion. Dutch people are strange: sometimes they think you can’t be good because you’re from The Netherlands. When you do have some success abroad, they think: ‘Hmmm…maybe they’re not too bad anyway. But they think they’re too good to play here…’ It’s a circle, I guess. But, I must say, we don’t complain about our Dutch audience at all.

On november 3rd you will play at the terra gotha festival but earlier the day you will have a show in Belgium as well, how will you manage to do 2 shows on 1 day?

We are Angels. We can do anything. We play two shows in China too, at the same time. And one in Argentina.

Any last words for the readers?

I hope you’ll like our Terra Gotha show. I hope you will enjoy it as much as we do! :-D

*picture taken by Jennifer Bosters, invisibleimagery.nl*