Within Temptation Vocalist Sharon den Adel on ‘Entertain You’ + Coronavirus

2020-05-27

Within Temptation – Story by Anne Erickson

Sharon Den Adel of Within Temptation talks with Anne Erickson about life in The Netherlands during the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, the band’s new single and more in this in-depth interview

The coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic has turned the world upside down, and musicians were at the forefront of that impact. Sporting events and entertainment were among the first things to do, as mass gathering shut down across the world to prevent the spread of the novel virus.

Within Temptation vocalist Sharon den Adel is living this new reality of staying home while she’s used to be on the road, performing at massive arenas across the world. Still, she sees some positive in the industry right now.

“It’s a crazy time, but everybody gets creative in a different ways, and it’s challenging for everyone to be thinking out of the box and traditional ways, but this is one of the nice things happening,” den Adel tells Audio Ink Radio.

Den Andel spoke with Anne Erickson of Audio Ink Radio about Within Temptation’s latest single, “Entertain You,” what she’s up to on lock down in The Netherlands, the status of Within Temptation’s upcoming tour with Evanescence and more. Read the full interview below, and listen via the podcast.

Anne Erickson: Congratulations on the new single, “Entertain You.” I love the guitars and the whole presentation. Tell me about the idea behind “Entertain You.”

Sharon Den Andel: The song is about the fact that we have this urge to satisfy our personal needs to feel good about ourselves, and sometimes we do that by pointing at people who are different than the majority of society and use them, sometimes without realizing it, as a sort of entertainment without realizing the consequences of that. Like filming people who are different. Or, for example, someone gets in a fight and instead of helping you start filming it. It happens a lot in the Netherlands, and that’s a strange sort of trend. A lot of times, the people they pick on are the people who stand out because they are different in color or religion, or maybe they’re gay– it can be anything. We feel the need to write about this issue in society, and I think it’s very important to talk about these things and address that there’s still a problem.

The song has had a great reaction from your fans.

I’m excited about that! It’s such a different song than most people are used to from us. I think I was really happy about the response, because we were a little bit scared about it. It’s quite different from what we’ve done before, in my option. But maybe that’s always what I feel because we’re always trying to stretch our abilities and possibilities with our music.

You were supposed to be out on tour with Evanescence this spring, but because of covronavirus, that tour was postponed to September. Do you think it’s pretty solid that the tour will happen then?

No, it’s a very unsure everything, especially because of the fact that here in the Netherlands, they say until 100 people you’re allowed to get together, as long as you can guarantee the distance of one and a half meters, of course. Well, these the venues are huge that we’re playing, so that’s not possible, and I don’t think it’s going to change in September. I hope so, but they say that only big events are only allowed if there’s a vaccine or medicine for this virus. So, I don’t see this happening unless there’s someone coming up with a miracle! I hope so, but I don’t know. It’s maybe not realistic at this moment yet.

How are you seeing the coronavirus pandemic impact the music world?

You see that the whole industry is hit hard. I think not just the bands and the venues, but also very much the crews. All those people who are self-employed most of the time, and they go from job to job with different bands, and nobody saw this coming. I think it’s for the whole industry really heavy. But how it’s impacting, a lot of people are doing online stuff and trying to keep their fans happy by doing old shows online. We did a broadcast of festivals we played at and special shows we did in 2008, so those things are nice to give, but eventually, people are hungry for the real thing, and that’s not going to happen yet. But, I’m happy that people are creators, everybody stands together and everybody knows it’s really very unfortunate what’s happening to all of us, but we’re all still standing together. It does give the feeling that we’re all in this together among musicians.

Do you think concerts will ever go back to normal, or will it be different going forward?

I think there will be a new normal until there’s vaccine or medicine, and then it will go back to the old nominal. At least that’s what I hope! (Laughs)

What have you been doing with your downtime?

I’ve been watching a lot of Netflix. I’m in need of some new ones! (Laughs) I’m painting my house and doing all the things I wanted to do that I’ve never had time for, and I’ve done them all and am ready for a new challenge. And after the release of this new single, I’ll probably start writing again, so I’m excited for that.

Do you each have your own home studios, so you could record your own parts of the new music?

We can do everything except record the drums, and that’s where we need to go to a special studio, but as long as the drummer is only one in there, and the technician stays his distance, it’s possible, so we can record stuff now for the future. But, it’s not like you’re all together in the studio and listening and encouraging each other. But, that’s the way it is now, and that’s fine. As long as we can continue with what we want to do.

Do you plan to release new music before this is all over?

I think so. That’s our plan, anyway. We’ve only recorded two songs and have a lot of of the demos, which are very far, so we can finish them quite quickly. So, we’re going to start with that and make those demos real songs, and eventually next year, we’re going to release a few new songs again. Eventually there will be a new album, but the album isn’t complete yet, so we have to start writing some extra new songs to make the album complete.

Anne Erickson
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Posted by Anne Erickson | Features, Interviews, Metal, Music

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