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ABOUT
EMILIE AUTUMN:
Courtney
Love's "anarchy violinist" returns
to the stage and is keeping the spotlight all to herself.
With appearances on Leno and Letterman,
glossy magazine covers, and guest spots on the albums
of such artists as Love, Billy
Corgan, Metalocalypse, and more
under her corset strings, Emilie Autumn's
devilishly dark lyrics, metal-shredding violin solos,
and industrial-strength voice reinvent "gothic"
for the masses, and goths have never had so much fun.
Chosen
by Interview Magazine as one of their
"14 Artists to Watch," EA's theatrical
stage show is a sexy circus of gothic burlesque backed
by her all-girl band known underground as the Bloody
Crumpets. But as the sole composer, performer,
and producer of her latest album, "OPHELIAC,"
EA gets personal. Written in the style she calls "victoriandustrial,"
this unique musical adventure draws upon EA's experience
as a child-prodigy classical violinist growing up on the
stages of concert halls around the world, and combines
it with her passion for harsh industrialism, agressive
metal, and opera. As EA herself explains, "I
learnt to walk in the backstages of theatres and opera
houses, amongst the beautiful chaos of costume changes,
circus performers, sweaty ballerinas, dripping make-up,
and far too much glitter. Then, I went mad and was locked
up. What did you think that would sound like?"
Accentuated
by EA's signature metal-style electric violin shredding,
heartbreakingly lush orchestrations, and menacing lyrics
growled with enough intensity to make your hairs stand
on end, the resulting noise is a harpsichord-heavy romp
through Victorian asylums where screaming is allowed and
girls always get revenge.
2007
and 2008 were filled with nearly non-stop European touring
from EA and her traveling circus, and the Asylum stage
show has grown with each incarnation, quickly changing
viewer's expectations from rock show to Broadway musical
complete with singing, dancing, fire-eating, stilt-walking,
aerial flying, and much, much more. November 2008 marked
the first Asylum show in the US, a sold-out New York extravaganza,
and 2009 will bring the touring production back to the
US for the first North American Asylum Tour. At the end
of April, 2009, EA and her Crumpets (Aprella,
Naughty Veronica, The Blessed
Contessa, and Captain Maggot)
completed their European tour entitled "The
Asylum: The Gate Part II," and are now shooting
music videos and preparing for the next tour, which will
be entitled "The Asylum: The Key," and
which promises to allow the audience further inside of
EA's alternate reality than ever before.
Of
course, for those who don't want to wait to get past the
Asylum gates, EA's new book, "The Asylum
for Wayward Victorian Girls," is soon to
be released. Written and lavishly illustrated by EA, "The
Asylum..." book is more than a gorgeous
volume that will take up most of the space on your coffee
table --it is also perhaps the most complete account of
bipolar disorder ever penned, and will take readers behind
the doors of both modern day psych ward and Victorian
insane asylum in this true life horror tale of madness,
murder, and medical experimentation.
But
beware: It is much easier to get into the Asylum than
it is to get out...
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