Could you give us a brief band history, releases, etc?

Erika: AUTUMN TEARS was formed by Ted in late summer of 1995, originally as an acoustic guitar-based project. He quickly switched to keyboards and invited me to sing. We wrote music intensively for about five months, then recorded "Love Poems For Dying Children: Act I" in March 1996. Immediately, we began writing music for the second installment and began recording in the spring of 1997, with "The Garden Of Crystalline Dreams, Love Poems For Dying Children: Act II" being released in June 97. Due to an overburden of stress in my life, I quit the band shortly thereafter, and Ted spent the next six months looking for a new singer. He finally found Jen via the Internet, and wrote "The Intermission" which was included as a bonus track on the
re-release of Act I. After recording "The Intermission," the band went through a stagnant period, where I rejoined, and which finally ended with the release of the "Absolution" mini CD in July 99. Subsequently, we went into high gear, writing and recording the third Act, "Winter And The Broken Angel," which was just released in June 2000, after an endless string of delays. Now we are taking a rest and allowing ourselves some time to "reset" before we begin writing any new music.

Can you briefly explain the concept behind the "Love Poems For Dying Children" saga?

Erika: The concept is loosely based on personal events that took place in Ted's life (he writes all the lyrics and most of the music). Basically, the story is about Autumn the Beautiful, a vampiric creature who wishes for atonement for her evil deeds. She has only one companion left of all her "children" - an actual child, whose existence pains her the most. She wants to be redeemed for taking the life of this child but is unwilling to send the child to her natural death in order to achieve that redemption. Most of the story illustrates Autumn's inner battle with her conscience and desires (Benevolence and Deceit, respectively). Act III finds Autumn realizing that the child is starting to reject her, as her former companions had done, and she must now deal with this new development. In the end, her anger over her lot consumes her.

Are you happy with Act III "Winter And The Broken Angel"?

Erika: Predominantly, yes. Everybody hears stuff after you mix and master that you would have changed or redone. But for the most part we are all very, very happy with how it turned out.

Are you classically trained musicians? It must take a rather substantial amount of understanding of musical theory to create such complex musical arrangements?

Erika: Sorry to burst your bubble here, but the only one of us who has had any intensive training is Jen. Ted has done a tremendous amount of close listening to soundtracks and classical music, which is very clearly reflected in the compositions for Act III. That's basically what I do, too. You don't need music theory to write good music. You just need to have a good ear and a desire to pay attention to detail. I'm sure music theory helps but personally I could never even be bothered with learning how to read music, so theory was way out of the question.
 

Erika: From the very start, the majority of our fans have been metal people. Given that we marketed the first album to the metal crowd due to our connections there, the initial AUTUMN TEARS fanbase was made up of black and death metallers. We knew it would do well because we'd seen how ELEND, MORTIIS and ambient releases did in the scene. Now, five years later, we're finally starting to reach into the goth crowd. It was just a matter of establishing contacts in that particular scene. Truthfully, the music finds fans in any walk of life - AT's not shocking music, like death metal, which would scare people away.

How do you see symphonic music developing? Bands like yourselves, ARCANA and ELEND for example, seem to be creating large waves particularly in the "metal" underground scene.

Erika: Over the years, the progression has been towards more complexity in the music. The songs have become more challenging, especially with Elend with their use of the operatic / choir vocals. The same thing took place with us. There is always that natural desire to "outdo" your previous release, and with this type of music that usually means an increase in complexity. We plan to make the fourth album even more multidimensional than Act III, by adding in some heavier percussive elements and upping the tempo a bit.

Who are your main influences? Are you influenced by metal music at all?

Erika: Classical composers, modern day composers such as James Horner, early DEAD CAN DANCE, and some goth stuff - STOA, ANCHORAGE, and a few others. The only metal influence is black metal, which provided the inspiration for the evil vocals.

Have you or will you ever perform live?

Erika: Unfortunately, no, we will never perform live, unless we win the lottery and can somehow afford a full backing orchestra and at least 10 qualified backup singers. The mechanics of this music are just too complex for three people to perform. Even if we canned the music or sequenced it (which would probably be a troubleshooting nightmare - I can just see it now), the whole thing would be more karaoke than anything. We'd rather dedicate our efforts to a video, which would be a far more faithful representation of us visually.

Future plans?

Erika: We will be releasing a mini CD in the next six months or so, to hold every one over until the fourth CD is released. We have a couple songs in rough form right now and are just waiting to get our new MIDI software set up so we can spend less time in the studio and more time at home, writing. Also, in 2001, we should be starting to venture into the video process, but that's still in the very nascent stages.

Additional comments?

Erika: Thank you Fraser for the interview and the support. We hope everyone likes "Winter And The Broken Angel." Stay dark!