UR Chicago Magazine Interview, August, 2002
CHICAGO-BASED EMILIE AUTUMN FIGHTS THE MAJORS WITH HER BADASS BRAND OF POP, HER OWN LABEL, AND THE INTERNET
Emilie Autumn looks like a major label's wet dream: torn-up fishnets over her arms, combat boots up to her knees, bright magenta hair down to her waist and a cynical sneer that would be badass if it wasn't so bewitching. Her look is an alloy of Courtney Love, Pink, Annie Lennox and Lord of the Rings; her music is a unique array of classical, punk, Celtic and jazz. With all this quirk, plus her ability to shred on a fiddle, play piano, sing and write her own songs, Autumn seems ripe for major label picking as the next "bad girl" of pop. You can see the billboards already: "Autumn's early this year - Emilie Autumn."
But Mizz Autumn is mature for her 22 years; she's been down that road, and judging by her attitude toward the mainstream music machine, she's learned a thing or two. Sipping on tea and looking generally out of place at the swanky Renaissance Hotel, Autumn demurs, "I've worked with major labels in the past, and I feel somewhat qualified to criticize them. I was pursued by a major in my teens and spent a summer locked in a studio, writing songs that were immediately torn apart by a team of fat, rich, Europeans who thought it was OK to slap my ass. I was told to stop playing my fiddle on songs because they said that the general public was intimidated by anything that remotely reminded them of 'classical' music, and I was told that I had to add more words like 'love' and 'baby' to my songs because 'that's what people want.'"
Courted by the likes of Universal and EMI at a young age, Autumn chose to shun major label backing and take full control over her music. "I was told by the labels to get a tan and cut my hair, but then I was also told to be more shocking and controversial," she says. "It didn't make sense, and bearing in mind that this particular brand of hell is the norm, not the exception, who in their right mind would want to work with people like this?"
Autumn's DIY spirit and frustration with the manipulative higher powers that be is what lead her to start Traitor Records. As a platform to make whatever music Autumn wants and release it however she wants without having to justify it to anyone else, Traitor is still in its infancy, but with three self-releases under her belt and one on the way, Autumn is bright-eyed about the label's future. "At Traitor, we're working on a new way of selling where the user can freely download an album while waiting for the hard copy to arrive in the mail - a solution we hope will make everybody happy," she says. "My goal is to have all my work available 24/7 to anyone, anywhere in the world, all at one central source, bypassing conventional distribution and retail methods."
Emilieautumn.com is the only place fans can find her albums, and Autumn plans to keep it that way, for better or for worse. A champion of internet downloading and internet radio, Autumn is on a crusade to make as much music free to as many people as possible and to battle what is currently (post-Napster) considered copyright infringement or illegal recording. Her point is simple: People have the right and should have the opportunity (via internet radio and file sharing services) to expose themselves to a larger variety of music that the "shit" mainstream radio offers.
"[Audiences] won't buy less music, they'll buy more, but their tastes won't be as easily dictated and predicted. Look at Wilco's last release, "Autumn says, referring to the healthy sales of Wilco's fourth album, Yankee Hotel Foxtrot (Nonesuch), despite its availability on the internet for more than a year.
Autumn wants to push this fact, even though it may cost her worldwide fame and fortune. Tugging at her fishnets and clicking her combat heels, she says, "Personally, I would rather be known only to a select audience while staying true to my artistic instinct than achieve the overrated fame that leaves you artistically empty and personally miserable."
Emilie Autumn headlined Halsted Market Days 8/10 and Girlbar 8/16
Jeremy Ohmes