THE GATHERING Drummer Discusses Band's Future

THE GATHERING drummer Hans Rutten has answered several fan questions regarding the future of the band in the wake of vocalist Anneke van Giersbergen's decision to leave the band:

Q: Why no farewell tour or even one gig at Paradiso in Amsterdam?

Hans: "The original idea was to tour until the Ankkarock festival [the last gig with Anneke], and fill up the gap between now and August doing some more festivals, maybe even some club gigs. While we toured North America, Anneke informed us she only wanted to play the last three gigs. She felt it was the right thing to do. We understand why people ask, even beg us, to give the fans one last chance to see the band live. Of course, we thought about doing a special last show. The fact is that Anneke explained to us she doesn't want to play with us anymore. It would be a emotionally tense show instead of something to look forward to."

Q: Is touring the main reason Anneke quits with the band?

Hans: "It's hard for us to answer this question. But no, I don't think so. Of course, being away from home while having a family is hard. Besides that there's also a 'health' issue. Going in and out of aeroplanes and air-conditioned buses is not healthy, especially when you are a singer. Being on the road can be pretty heavy sometimes. Jet lags, stinky backstages, sleeping in buses or not sleeping at all.. You name it, we saw it. We know Anneke had difficulties with touring, but I don't think we toured like crazy the last 2-3 years. When Anneke decided to quit and talked with us about her decision, we tried to convince her there would be a possible way out, even without touring, just making records. I think it was time for her to do something else, to have a fresh new start. An urge to do something else was so strong that she felt like she had to leave the band."

Q: Was Anneke's decision a big surprise?

Hans: "Yes and no. I personally had a very good conversation with her two weeks before she told us she decided to quit the band. She said she was still thrilled about recording a new GATHERING album and all the ideas we had going around. So yes, it was a big surprise. We just had a year off, as she was pregnant and we didn't tour that much at that time. She said she didn't have the time and energy to do things she would like to do. She wanted to have more time for her family, her own music and hobbies. We decided Anneke would only have to be involved in the musical part of the GATHERING and take some load of her shoulders. Eventually I think the idea of a solo album triggered the whole split."

Q: Why do you continue with the name THE GATHERING? Many people associate Anneke to THE GATHERING and THE GATHERING to Anneke. It would be difficult to get rid of this "female singer heritage" just like that.

Hans: "The departure of Anneke doesn't mean we will also just stop making music. It is her decision and we regret it very much. Not everybody knows THE GATHERING was founded by me, Hans, Rene and our former vocalist Bart Smits. Frank joined THE GATHERING 6 or 7 months later. We also had already made 2 albums before Anneke came to the band. Simply put; there was a GATHERING before Anneke, and there's a GATHERING after Anneke. We like to see this as a third era. People tend to forget we asked her to join THE GATHERING back in 1994. We gave her all the musical space, so she could grow, as she has a unique voice and is very talented. We are aware of the fact that Anneke's voice has been very important for the music of THE GATHERING. She became, at least for some people, more important then the other band members. As I said, she has a terrific voice, but she simply isn't THE GATHERING. We want to continue making music and like THE GATHERING always evolved we will again. Rene and Frank always came up with 90% of all the musical ideas. Four members of THE GATHERING continue, so why change the name? Even if we would change our name, we would be labelled as 'the ex-GATHERING members' anyway. It won't be an easy task, but in all the sadness we feel about Anneke's decision, there's also a lot of excitement going on right now. We can do whatever we want. All of a sudden there's a lot of fresh space surrounding us. We are aware that our new album might be the most important one we'll probably ever make. So we will take all the time we have, will not rush into things. Chemistry between the vocalist and the music is the most important thing in music, at least for me. I don't care about hotshot producers, fabulous guitar players, drummers who care more about what kind of endorsement deals they have. I care about chemistry, and with Anneke we had a terrific kind of symbiosis. We think this is possible with other vocalists. It will be different, it will take some time for people to get used to it."

Q: Is THE GATHERING planning on "hiring" a male singer only?

Hans: "It all depends. It depends on what will happen musically and what will be on our path. Sure is that we are open to work with both male and female vocals. We think it's exciting to work with new vocalists. First we'll work on the music and from there we'll decide what kind of voice would fit best. It's also possible that a song is strong enough without vocals. There are so many options right now. We really want to keep them open, at least for a while. In all these years we've made a lot of friends and met some great vocalists. I think a lot of them would like to work with us. In the past we already worked with Trickster G on our 'Souvenirs' album. There are more roads leading to Rome.

Q: Do you have any musical ideas for the new album?

Hans: "Like every GATHERING album, it will be different again. Especially this time; it will be a new era of the band. Especially Rene has some very strong new ideas. We think this time our music will be more guitar driven and more up tempo. We will not continue with what we did on 'Home', despite of the fact that we all love the record. Again; we will take our time.

Q: Will you, when you will play live again, do the "Anneke-era" songs?

Hans: "It's hard too say anything about this right now. As I see it now, we will focus on the new songs and maybe we'll also play some older material in a new way. Time will tell."