Angela Gossow - Arch Enemy - Interview - 2006

Angela Gossow vs Metal Hammer

In issue 147 (Xmas 2005), Metal Hammer ran an article on Arch Enemy (read it here), which quoted Arch Enemy’s notorious frontwoman, Angela Gossow, as saying – amongst other things – that she didn’t owe her fans anything more than the show they pay to see. A backlash ensued. Angela was not happy. In a later Spanish Inquisition she said of the feature’s author, “If I see that little c*** I’m going to knock his teeth out so he can’t any more interviews”.

It’s 10:56pm at Koko in Camden, and we’re nearing the end of Metal Hammer’s Golden Gods Awards 2006. Without warning Angela approaches and announces assertively that she would like to ‘talk about the article’. Firstly she explained her anger and frustration at being so often misunderstood. But after some probing, Angela started to open up; she told us about her growing up, and in doing so explained so much about how and why she has become the person she is. 

Metal Hammer offered to tell her story to the world – set the record straight. After nine weeks of trying, we finally met up with Angela for lunch, and a chat.. We sit at a table in a very trendy London hotel and the tape rolls.

“Why does everyone think you’re such a bitch?”

This is what happened: 

What was your issue with article?

“My issue was that you portrayed me as somebody who doesn’t care about their fans, someone cold. I don’t think that does me justice. I had a bit of a dark sinister humour day, because I wasn’t very happy. I don’t think any sane person would say ‘We hate our fans’, because that doesn’t make sense.”

What did you mean when you said you don’t ‘owe’ the fans anything?

 “People think that because they’ve bought a ticket that gives them the next 12 hours to access every member of the band. You wake up and there’s a couple of dudes standing there wanting to take pictures of you. I don’t have a problem with that as long as they step back and say ‘I’ll wait until you’re ready’. People come too close, they start hugging me [laughs], sometimes it’s really too much.”

Is that what happened the day Metal Hammer came to meet you in Sweden?

“Yes. You got me on a bad day, so I had asked Michael [Ammott, Angela’s boyfriend and Arch Enemy guitarist] to lead the interview.”

I heard that he didn’t want us to have this interview.

“He still doesn’t. He thinks - and I can understand why - that it’s not good to say personal things in the media. He’s going to hate it. I told him I would be careful.”

Why did you approach us at the Golden Gods Awards? 

“I thought ‘I’ve got to meet that cunt again and knock the shit out of him’ [laughs]. I wanted to set the record straight for those UK fans who still believe that I’m a complete asshole. I don’t want to come across like that. That’s not who I am. But next time you walk up to me and you’re unfriendly I might turn into one… [laughs]”

Don’t you think people like the idea that you are the hard-nosed bitch frontwoman of Arch Enemy?

“Yeah, but that’s just my stage persona.”

So what do people think the real Angela Gossow is like? 

“95% of people think that I’m an intelligent likeable person. Some people are afraid of me because they just see me on stage [and assume I’m like that]. I think some people are a bit intimidated, saying that I’m really tough. And that is part of my personality: I learned to be tough, to be ice cold. It was the only protection I had [growing up].”

Do you resent having to about personal things like that in the press?

“Yeah. I will just say ‘I don’t want to talk about that’. It’s human nature to be curious, and it sells well, but at the end of the day it takes the attention away from the music.”

Do you get annoyed by comparisons between yourself and Cristina Scabbia of Lacuna Coil?

“I’m not compared to her at all. She does something much more mainstream than me, whereas I can always say I am pure fucking metal. [Lacuna Coil] is way too commercial and corporate for me. I’m not going to do it because I think it’s going to hurt my credibility and the credibility of the band. I don’t think she can say, ‘well, I’m so metal’.”

Do magazines often ask about your relationship with Michael?

“Yes, but they didn’t in the beginning because no one knew - which was good. They just respected me as being a musician. By the time it came out, people started saying ‘That’s the only reason she got in the band, screwing the guitar player’. Since then I’ve had to fight against that prejudice.”

Do you think your outward persona is a defence mechanism against people being too ‘in your face’? 

“Yes, but now I’ve learned to say ‘No’ through therapy. 

Therapy? 

“Yeah. I had to say ‘No’ to tasks that are too much for me, because I had to do things I couldn’t cope with as a child. My mum is very strict and headstrong. I had a hard childhood and therapy has helped me.”

Angela smiles and tucks into her food. It is strange that someone usually so guarded, is being not only candid, but so fluid and forthcoming. It’s clear that Angela’s steely matter-of-fact manner has been misconstrued, but that she does little to combat it. 

So Angela is a defiant self-proclaimed true-metal goddess, but why? People like this don’t come from nowhere. When we spoke at the Golden Gods Awards Angela mentioned her tough childhood. Is it a raw nerve? Could we find an explanation in her youth? 

Tell us about your early life?

“My parents ran a big business, and they didn’t have time for the children. I have three younger siblings, and I had to look after them from the age of 12. My parents thought ‘You’re big now, so we don’t have to listen to you any more’. You’re kind of left alone. Suddenly you’re in a position when you really can’t face up to the world and those challenges. I really struggled with that.

Tell us about your parents.

“My mum is actually trained as a kindergarten worker. She knows how to raise kids, but she just didn’t have time for me because my father lost his job when I was 10. He got really depressed. We had to buy a bigger house because there was a new baby, but there was no money.”

What did they do about that?

“[They] opened an organic food shop which grew really big – but too quickly. My father worked at least 16 hours a day, and when he came home he did the paper work. He was always unfriendly. My mum was working full time too. That was the point where my parents’ marriage went downhill.”

What happened to you and your siblings?

“They kind of found substitutes for my parents, but I was left alone. I was a bit too old to get into a relationship with other [parent-role] people.”

That must have been very hard.

“I had the worst time when I was 14/15. I lost control of my life. I had to run the family, so I had no time for friends. We lived in a little village with no public transport, so I really couldn’t get out. I had nobody to talk to, and my parents were constantly fighting. My mum started drinking quite a bit in the evening, and my father was cheating on my mum so he was never home. We never knew where he was.”

Was your mother an alcoholic?

“She wasn’t an alcoholic, but she had to drink a bottle of wine to go to sleep. I couldn’t go to my father because obviously he was the ‘evil one’ causing [all the] grief. They kept talking about divorce. My father had all these suicidal fantasies: he would talk about hanging himself in the attic. My mum would say she just wanted to get in her car and drive away. She was crying her eyes out telling me all about it, because she didn’t have any friends either. I was left alone with it.”

How did all that make you feel?

“For years I had the feeling of falling. I dreamed it every night: I’m falling in a narrow tunnel and you can’t grab on to anything. I would wake up in a cold sweat. Nobody holds me, nobody saves me. I don’t know where I put it all really. I just kept it all inside. I think some things scar you for life.”

What was it like for you in school?

“I was insecure at school, and when I came home and it was worse. I thought I was the ugliest most boring person ever. What I knew I was good at was social interaction. I got along with everybody and no one really dared to get me the wrong way because I could stand my own ground, especially when I started to get into metal. I was the only girl who liked metal. I was an outsider, but people accepted me.” 

How did you parents feel about your love of metal?

“My mother tried to take that away from me because she was ultra Christian. She was part of a sect, an ultra Christian community - worse than the church. When I got my first boyfriend - when I was almost 18 - she called me a whore. She took my vinyl and black t-shirts away. She took the key to my room away so I couldn’t have any privacy, that’s why I moved out when I was 17 – I couldn’t take it any more.”

When we spoke you mentioned that you had eating disorders:

“Basically I stopped eating when I was about 15, because when I was 14 I gained a bit of weight. I was constantly eating because it was my comfort. I wasn’t aware of my appearance, but the kids at school and my father made me very aware of it. I thought I was so ugly and so fat, so I decided not to eat any more. My parents never really watched out for me, so they didn’t notice for ages.”

Are all these experiences prompt you to set up your MySpace page?

“I suppose so. It’s to show people about the private Angela. I get a lot of emails from young girls and boys saying ‘I wish I could be like you’, ‘I wish I could have self-confidence’, ‘I take a lot of drugs’, ‘I cut myself’, ‘I’m anorexic’. I say ‘look at me, I have been the same’. I grew out of it. It’s normal to feel that way when you’re 16/17’.”

Do you feel a sense of responsibility towards those kids? 

“Yes I do feel a sense of responsibility for kids. So many bands don’t acknowledge the responsibility they have. They’re nice to the kids, but they’re proud of their drug habits, trashing hotel rooms, and fucking everything that has tits. I guess that sense of responsibility does come from my family background and upbringing.”

Angela vs Metal Hammer

We said…

The original piece that appeared in MH 147 caused quite a stir as we found the Arch Enemy frontwoman to be less than welcoming, misanthropic, and even admitted not caring about her fans. She told us “People think that because they bought a ticket to the show, you owe them something more. No. You see the show and you go home. You don’t own me… After the shows I’m cold, I’m wet, I’m tired; the last thing I want to do is hang around and sign things… Leave. Me. Alone.”

The fans said...

After running the article, readers wrote in saying things like: “You’re wrong if you truly believe you don’t owe your fans more than a CD and a live show. You owe them your career. I don’t know why you appear so ungrateful. After reading your interview I cannot bring [my son] to see you, knowing that behind your smile you would see him as a tiresome burden.”

Next she said…

When the article was mentioned in our Arch Enemy Spanish Inquisition in MH 150, Angela responded with: “I haven’t read the piece. I know that it said, ‘We hate all our fans anyway’ but it was a joke. If I see that little c*** [writer James Gill] again, I’m going to kick his teeth out so he can’t do any more interviews.”

Read the original feature here.