ARCH ENEMY Singer Angela Gossow - "I’ve Got A Lot Of Aggression; My Mind Almost Explodes Every Time I Go On Stage"
October 23, 2008, 16 years ago
Antenna.nu recently spoke to ARCH ENEMY singer Angela Gossow regarding a number of topics including their forthcoming Tyrants Of The Rising Sun - Live In Japan CD/DVD to be released on November 24th. An excerpt from the interview follows.
Antenna.nu: When looking at the new live DVD, I still get amazed by your brutal and raunchy growls and I find it had to compare you with any other female growler because you’re just so superior to anyone! How did you get that voice?
?Angela: "It has got something to do with my body language and I’ve got a lot of aggression; my mind almost explodes every time I go on stage. And I think that this aggression makes my voice so powerful. I’ve got so much energy and I think that not so many females have got that much aggression and energy! There’s so much power in me and I even sometimes have to hold it back."
Antenna.nu: I remember back in the 1980’s when only few females were represented on the metal scene and ‘respect’ was hardly one of the key words in defining their impact; they were in fact treated like sexual object rather than artists. But it gradually changed throughout the 1990’s when female musicians popped up in popular acts. Have you ever been met with any problems being a female in this business?
?Angela: "Yeah, when I began in the early 1990’s… I think it was a mirror of that time. Females had to be the sweet housewife and many females probably cared little about a career because she was just going to get married and have children anyway. It was a generation, but we’ve come a long way. Today females can vacate any position in society and the same goes for the metal scene. The female musician doesn’t just worry about her bikini line but she actually knows how to hold her guitar or the microphone. When I started out in 1991, only few females were involved in the metal scene, and it has become easier, but I still have to fight."
Antenna.nu: Does it offend you that female musicians were reduced to sexual objects - in spite of the fact that they could actually be great musicians?
?Angela: "I think… it just made me wanting to get better! And I think that I’ve taken ‘my revenge’."
Head here to read the interview in its entirety.