I had the amazing privilege of talking with the brilliant Emilie Autumn, coming to Slim’s next week!
Recommendation: Mark your calendars for 2.2.12 and GO GET YOUR TICKETS! The show promises to be amazing: violin pyrotechnics, girl fights, sarcastic morbidity, burlesque, corsets and much, much more. Take a step into the asylum!
Here’s our talky-talk!
Q: Where are you right now?
A: Oh, I don’t know, we’re on a bus…somewhere in reality…I’ll have to get back to you on that…
Q: Are you excited to come to San Francisco?
A: Oh yeah, I considered moving there, it’s a great place. San Francisco has amazing, crazy audiences. Last time we played at the Bottom of the Hill and it was great. The dressing rooms are behind the stage outside and we have a lot of costume changes so we had to push through the crowd and go outside, and it was raining. It was a lot of fun and there was the best, freaky energy.
And last time we were in the Haight-Ashbury area some guy chased after me screaming and when he finally caught up he said, “Well are you going to give me some change for not cutting you up with a chainsaw?” We don’t carry any change with us…everyone pays with debit cards now. Sorry, dude.
Q: Have you ever played at Slim’s before?
A: I can’t wait to punk that shit out out of that place and show off my new mohawk. It’s blond and pink (of course). I think we have to make it a tradition to come play San Francisco and rock out.
Q: What are your inspirations for who you are on stage and who you are in life? It’s a loaded question, I know.
A: No, no, it’s okay. I inspire myself. There are definitely a lot of influences in my life, but everything I do now is true and it’s me. It’s about the reality of the asylum and all that starts with me. It’s like I bought this real estate and everyone is joining me now in the asylum.
[The stage show] definitely is influenced by these backwards takes on history. It’s sort of like Gothic but in the old meaning, there aren’t any black clothes, it’s a very different look.
Interesting fact, even though you didn’t ask, I’m just gonna throw it at you, but in the Victorian culture there were certain rules on how to mourn. If your husband died, there was a certain time frame for you to mourn. Today, black is the color you wear to a funeral, but when a child died white was the color you wore. So it’s a little more real to that time. What we wear on stage is morbid, but not with black, a lot of reds and white. Sort of an inside joke within the band.
Q: Inside jokes help keep the band close, huh?
A: Sure, but we’re pretty close now. Especially since we’ve incorporated a fight scene into the show. It’s pretty unexpected since people are used to seeing us make out on stage, but then we come out throwing punches.
Q: It’s going to be a pretty awesome show.
A: Yeah, we’re fucked up that way. Like we have a new song “Girls Girls Girls” in which I’m a barker selling these girls. The musical, it’s not a rock record, it’s a soundtrack, is about the asinine way people have acted in the past. The lyrics are hilarious. I’m selling these girls sort of treating them as someone would treat a pet. There are texts from that period that basically asked if women were human. They equated them with a monkey. So we’re about making a joke of the morbidity of reality, between what’s not changed and what’s fucked up. So we use humor, sexuality and sarcasm to get the message out instead of just being preachy.
Q: People like to be entertained instead of having a lesson shoved down their throats nowadays.
A: It’s always been like that. It’s like vaudeville or burlesque. And not the “Betty Paige” meaning. Burlesque used to make fun of society, sort of like a social commentary. So we’re like that with corsets, fighting and fun.
Q: It’s DEFINITELY going to be an amazing show. Can’t wait to see you next week!
A: Can wait to be there! See you soon!
Check back neck week for some awesome shots of Emilie!