Arch Enemy’s Angela Gossow: “I’m the boss”

At the start of yet another American tour, Kirsty Evans had a chance to catch up with Arch Enemy vocalist Angela Gossow, one of the most ass-kicking women in metal. Having recently participated in an academic conference on women in metal, Angela had plenty to say about the subject. Young women just getting into the music scene should pay close attention. Consider this your insider’s guide to what to do and what not to do if you want a real, lasting career.

How did you get involved in the women in metal conference in Cologne?

They actually approached me. It’s a music university in Cologne, they’re attached to the Philharmonic Orchestra, so it’s all very traditional. There’s a young professor who started to bring in more experimental styles, and lately heavy metal. There are lots of studies about gender and heavy metal out there, because it’s obviously fascinating.

It’s so macho, and yet there are more and more women getting into it, so there was huge interest in this topic. In Germany we have the Wacken Festival, with about 100,000 metal fans, Germany is the heart of heavy metal in Europe, so it kind of fit.

Did you feel like it was productive? Did you personally get anything out of it?

For me, this was the first time I gave a vocal workshop. I talked about what I do for two hours. I’ve never really looked at it from a more scientific or how you teach it point of view. I had 200 people there.

What was your background before you joined Arch Enemy?

I was an advertising and graphics marketing manager for a big company. I’ve been in bands since 1990 as a hobby though. I went to university and studied Economics. I’ve had a real job.

I’m not a dreamer, so I never actually thought that I could do this as a profession. But when I joined Arch Enemy it got very popular, and metal itself got a lot bigger and more accepted. Now we have bands like Slipknot or Metallica that are huge.

Metal seems to be a lot bigger in Europe, in America it’s still more of a fringe thing.

In America you have a few really big bands – Lamb of God, Slayer, Metallica, Megadeth and Slipknot, and that’s it. There’s no solid middle section. I think it’s definitely harder in America. When we play in Canada we play easily in front of 1500-2000 people every night.

In America it’s really a mixed bag – it goes from 400 to 1200 or 1600, up and down all the time. New York City is no problem, but when you get out of New York, it’s not like in Europe where you can find metalheads all over the place.

After touring both Europe and America, do you have any theory as to why that is?

Maybe the societies are different. America is a lot bigger and I think a lot more traditional still when it comes to the role of women as well. It’s not so balanced. It’s more of a sausage fest in America. In Europe there are a lot more women at metal shows and I think they bring a different vibe. It’s nicer; it feels more like real society.

What percentage of the audience would you say are women in Europe?

Maybe 40%, as opposed to 20% in America.

Do you feel like there’s been any progress for women in the scene in the time that you personally have been involved?

I think it’s easier for women to actually get into bands, because it’s been proven that it works. In fact it sometimes works in favor of a band; it’s a good promotional thing. But in terms of being seen as a sex object first, it hasn’t changed, it’s still the same old game. People comment on your looks first before they listen to what you do, it’s a bit boring really for women.

Do you feel like there’s still pressure on you to dress up?

There’s no pressure on me really because I have my own style, but I think thatespecially for young women, they’re too outfit-orientated because they get a lot of applause for it when they look hot. I think it’s a bit of a double edged sword – if you’re just seen as a hot chick no one’s going to listen to your drum playing or your guitar playing or your singing. Some just use it as a tool to get attention.

We’ve always avoided that, which is sometimes not possible because it just happens. I was once in the hottest chicks of metal thing for Revolver and I f*cking hated it. I didn’t want to do it, but the label just did it anyway, submitted a picture and there you go – suddenly you see your picture in some stupid feature that you don’t want to be associated with. It’s really hard to fight that, but we’ve done pretty well. Arch Enemy is seen as a band, not that hot chick Angela being backed up by some dudes.

Do you have any control over how you’re marketed?

Now we do because we don’t have a record deal. We have a licensing deal, so they can only work with what they give them. Before that we had a record deal, up till Doomsday Machine, and then you don’t have many rights. It’s just the way it is.

In terms of Arch Enemy do you feel like the rest of the guys are supportive of how you want to be seen?

Well, I manage Arch Enemy now, since 2008, so I make all the decisions anyway. (laughs) We fired our old management, we fired the booking agent, and since then it’s only things that I want. (laughs)

We get a lot of hate from guys because they’re very afraid of this, some of them are afraid and appalled. They hate it that women take over, and I’m the boss in Arch Enemy, so to speak. I’ve got four guys that totally stand behind me like a wall, there’s 100% support. We speak about everything, and then I execute it. It works great.

Was it because of your business background that you ended up taking over?

Yeah, I have a very profound knowledge of business and financing. I understand the way the marketing system works, and I know the ways you can promote your band without having to expose your tits. There are many other ways – writing great albums, and being on tour. That’s what we do best.

We tour a lot, and that’s why we always stay out there and in the minds of our fans. We don’t have to do the cheap promo stuff. I’m so happy that I have a good education and I know what I’m doing because the music business is full of traps and most bands bleed, they don’t make anything out of it.

It seems like nowadays you pretty much have to be touring to make any money.

It depends what kind of deal you have. If you have a full-on record deal, you don’t see much in terms of royalties. If you have a 360 deal, the label also earns money from your merchandise sales and your show fees. We just have a licensing deal so we own all our own publishing, and that way we actually make money. People still buy the actual product and that’s enough, if you have the right deal.

We have a royalty rate of 80%. Bands have to start small and work their way up – there’s a long building phase, and our phase was 10 years. Many bands don’t survive that.

Arch Enemy existed before you took over as vocalist, right? When you took over what was the reaction from fans like?

Very surprised, a bit shocked, and excited. When I joined in 2001 there weren’t many women around at all so that was a bold move from the band, and actually a lot more accepted than we thought.

It kind of seems like the more extreme the band is the less anyone cares about sex or race.

I honestly think that extreme metal fans are very open-minded people, because they’ve approached a kind of music that’s already outside mainstream standards, so they can accept a lot og other things as well. Like Suffocation, they’ve been around forever and they have a black guitar player and it’s never been an issue. I never thought about it – metal is so male and white, right?

It’s almost 100% white.

Which is weird. But nowadays there are bands like God Forbid or Suffocation. I’ve never really thought about it because I’m from Europe and it’s not really an issue – I don’t know how it is for Americans.

There’s more of a resistance to bands who don’t sing in English in America

Here French bands sing in French, a lot of Scandinavian bands sing in Swedish or Finnish or Norwegian, and there are people like me – I’m German, I live in Sweden, and I sing in English. I don’t feel weird when I speak English; it’s just part of the way I communicate. For me all languages have their right to exist and I acknowledge them, I’d like to learn them. I think America is more single-minded when it comes to language.

In terms of where you are right now, since you’ve been around for a while, do you feel pressure to represent women in the metal scene?

I have a very clear picture of women in metal and how they should be, and that’s who I am. I’m a strong woman who is not afraid to say what she thinks, but I don’t play too much on my gender because I’m a musician first. I don’t feel pressure – I’m proud and happy that I have that opportunity to give a good example of women in metal and set some things straight. Sometimes I feel like I have to correct the mistakes of my other female peers.

If you were to talk to a young woman getting into the scene right now, what would you tell her?

Make sure you’re a good musician and you have confidence in what you do, and think carefully about how you want to be seen. Do you want to be seen as a sex object – long legs, big tits, very exposed – or do you want to be seen as someone who’s mastered her instrument and is seen as a valid contributor to the band as a musician?

It’s easy to get attention by being a bit slutty and talking about crazy sex things during interviews, and they’re always very happy when they get these interviews, but it puts you in a corner that you might not get out of later if you’ve grown up and you’re like, hello, I’m a really good keyboard player or a killer shredder, but nobody sees it any more because you’ve become an icon for something else. It happens quickly because you’re so young and a bit insecure maybe and it works so well for the band, but you sacrifice your own integrity.

So you feel like obviously people are going to try to push you in that direction, but to a certain extent it’s something that you can control if you’re really determined to?

Well you can control what kind of photo sessions you do, that’s one thing. You can also be careful what you talk about. If an interview goes in the direction of sex and backstage story stuff you should just say, hey, I’ve got an album out, I’d like to talk about the music instead. So you can steer interviews in the right direction but it’s mostly photo shoots – you should say no to those where you have to expose too much of yourself.

When you see younger women going in that direction do you ever feel like pulling them aside and going, hey, maybe this isn’t a good idea?

It’s totally embarrassing, it’s so retro. It’s like, come on. We should be past the days where you soap the car in the background of a video. Just don’t do it. You don’t have to any more.

What do think about where we are now in terms of women in metal compared to where we were 10 or 15 years ago?

The number of women has definitely increased and that’s an indication that thing are changing, because the balance is changing. There’s also a female audience now that you have to address, and they don’t put that same kind of sexy image pressure on you. They actually want to know who you are as a musician. There’s a part of the audience now that wants something else.

Do you think that pressure on women is ever going to go away?

Not really. I think that human minds work in primitive ways, and women are always going to be seen as sex objects. I have to find my way to live with it, and I don’t do it if I don’t want to. If you’re aware of it you can find ways to get around it.

The opportunities are there nowadays, women do have the power to steer our own fate and how we want to be perceived. We’re not total victims any more. You just have to choose the path you walk on.

And choose wisely, because to a certain extent once you make the choice you may end up finding it hard to change paths.

The problem is that most people make these decisions when they’re young, say 16 or 18, and most people aren’t very wise at that age. It takes a lot of guts and strength to say no, it’s not the easiest thing. It’s very important to teach women how to say no.

If I had a daughter, and some of the guys in the band who have daughters, that’s what they learn first – how to say no to things they don’t want to do. How to say no to men, how to say no to requests that they don’t feel comfortable with, how to be proud of themselves and not too attached to their physical appearance. That’s something that you can teach young women.