Just before their show in Warsaw, Poland, singer Sharon den Adel gave a short interview with INTERIA.TV. Read the short recap and watch the interview below.
RESIST
It took a long time to make a new album. RESIST is set for release December 2018 via Vertigo Records. It’s their first record in almost five years, their last studio album, “Hydra“, was released early 2014. Within Temptation singer Sharon den Adel explains;
It’s almost five years. It took me a while for several years. With “Hydra” we toured for a long time. When we came back I had no inspiration, plus things in my personal area happened, I was blocked. And I needed to figure out if I wanted to do the touring and if I still wanted to write music for Within Temptation or even to be in the band. And because I was not in a very good place at the time.
She explains she did not know how to continue with Within Temptation where she did not know in what direction she wanted to bring Within Temptation for the next studio album. In an earlier interview Sharon den Adel explained “RESIST” is going to be an album which takes the nowadays pop songs into a new level, with heavy guitars and strong lyrics.
Recorded in one year
After Sharon released her solo album, “My Indigo“, she started writing for Within Temptation songs again. The album was written and recorded in just over a year – started summer of 2017 and finished during the summer of 2018, she explains;
After “My Indigo” I felt the inspiration and motivation for Within Temptation again. We wrote, recorded and produced the album actually just in a year, started last summer and finished this summer.
Digital art by Emmanuel Shiu. Click to enlarge.
Game changer
The seventh full length studio album of Within Temptation is in some ways a game changer for Sharon den Adel
The album is… You can still hear it’s us but we’ve never sounded this way before. It’s a very groovy album and it has a lot of urban sounds in it. It’s maybe a little bit less symphonic, but it’s metal and it has rock elements. We áre symphonic on this album, but not everywhere on every song. In certain places, where it’s beautiful and it has a purpose, the album is still symphonic.
Last album?
Last year, the rumours were going around Within Temptation was about to drop their last album. In this interview, the same question dropped. Sharon den Adel finally answered this rumour in a special way:
I don’t know if Within Temptation will exist twenty more years, but we did find a new love for writing new music again. It’ll be a different kind of Within Temptation again, but not that much different actually. It’s still Within Temptation, but in a different musical direction I guess. It’s still very cinematic and epic in a way, but with a different sound to it. We have found a new road and maybe we will maintain from that bubble. We only look one album ahead, so I have no idea about the future. I like to play now, I love it. I’m living in the here and now, but what I’m going to do in three years from now? I don’t know yet.
Sharon den Adel for VROUW Glossy. Click to explore more.
The Reckoning
The first single taken from their upcoming album “RESIST” is in collaboration with Papa Roach singer Jacoby Shaddix. “The Reckoning” was released on 14 September 2018.
We met Jacoby at Graspop Metal Meeting, a big metal festival in Belgium. We were next to each other in the backstage area and we bumped into each other and gotten into a conversation. I always liked Papa Roach and he knew the band, we just never met before. Like we’ve done in the past with Tarja, we also never met before.
Resist…
What should we actually resist? What is the story behind the album? Sharon den Adel explains;
What we wanted to say with the album is actually… We were actually very inspired by the digital age we’re living in right now. On the internet nowadays we’re always trackable and traceable all time of the day and that concerns me in a way. Especially because we do not know who’s on the other side of the computer watching us. Is it a company or is it the government. Big companies have so much power nowadays. All the algorithms nowadays are based on what you like and they put you into certain boxes. But maybe I would like to see something different than the algorithms and I hate that I’m caved in into what they think what I’m supposed to see. Whether it’s news, or music or when I buy something on Amazon for instance, it’s weird that after one year, I still get recommendations on things I bought a year back. I want to see everything, not just the things they can sell based on what I bought. And of course you have related artists, but I would like to see bigger pictures, but how do we discover new bands, that’s difficult nowadays.
But also with technology, news feeds for instance. If I go onto the internet and visit a news website and read certain articles, when I shut down my phone and turn it back on again, I get the same kinds of interest. I, of course, have only one political view, but I would like to hear more different things so I can make up my own mind about what I think is right or not right. When people focus on what they want to hear, you will never see the bigger picture. That can be dangerous.
Sharon explains how she thinks people should be more critical about how to use the internet and what people know about you. Even on the official website of Within Temptation, you can see what the world can see from you. You should resist temptation in a way.
The seventh full length studio album of the Dutch rock band is set for release December 2018 and is available for pre-order now.
Watch the full interview Sharon den Adel had with the Polish INTERIA.TV here.
“RESIST” by Within Temptation. Click to pre-order.
