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, Otep, Billy Corgan, TV's "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 glam-rock burlesque backed by her all-girl band known underground as the Bloody Crumpets. But as the sole composer, performer, and producer of her latest full-length 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 all things Vaudeville. 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 do you think that would sound like?"
Accentuated by EA's signature electric violin pyrotechnics, heartbreakingly lush orchestrations, and menacing lyrics growled with enough intensity to make your hair 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 viewers' 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 performance in the USA, a sold-out New York extravaganza, and 2009 will bring the touring production back to the States 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 audiences further inside EA's alternate reality than ever before.
Of course, for those who can't wait to get past the Asylum gates, EA's debut autobiographical novel, "The Asylum for Wayward Victorian Girls," is soon to be released in 2009. 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 one of the most complete accounts 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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