Anneke: Hi, you're welcome!

Kari: Hi!

Liv:Hi!

Anneke:  Liv and I met at a summer festival about a year ago, and we already knew each other from so long ago, so when we met we kind of hit it off and we said "Maybe we should do something together!" We took a picture, we put it on Facebook and I've really liked this picture. And then I was also in contact with Kari Rueslåtten for my album actually, for a song, and I thought maybe it's really nice if we put the three ladies together, because, you know, we all came from the same background, we were among the first ladies to do Metal music, and yeah, we  thought maybe it's nice to make a live show and do old songs from our old bands.

Kari: It's very flattering and  of course very nice to hear, but it's also a strange feeling..(laughs)

Kari: Well, no, we didn't have any idea of it. We knew that we wanted to do our own style which was kind of a mix of Doom Metal with Prog Rock and female vocals, and that was the concept. When we started, we didn't think anybody was going to think  this was a good idea but we liked the idea ourselves.   So it's quite nice to know it has an impact.

Anneke: No, just like Kari, absolutely not. We just did our thing, and The Gathering was just looking for a singer, and I happened to be the best one to audit, and I had to be a girl, right? (laughs)

Liv: It was just an idea. In Norway, you have access to rehearsal rooms if you want to, and it doesn't cost you anything. We just went rehearsing a week later, we found out "Wow, yeah! Let's do something new!" We were lucky to know somebody who owned a studio, and we recorded four songs and we sent a cassette to fifteen labels and four weeks later we had a deal with a big label in Germany. So somebody must have been interested in the shit we were doing. (laughs) So yeah, I feel honored that many bands are  following the steps of The 3rd and The Mortal, The Gathering and Theatre of Tragedy.

Anneke: I'm happy it's changing all the time, you know, it's a new day, and it's  new kids on the block. (laughs) And I really like that the new female-fronted scene has now like a few girls who are doing the melodic singing but also the growling voice and that's pretty good. I do like this new way.

Kari: I remember, back in the day, there were like no women, no girls anywhere. There's a complete difference now, and it's much more common to have female singers but also women in other places in the band, like managers, sound engineers.. But it's still a long way to go. It's still much more common to  be a singer than in any other position in the band.

Liv: I'm filled with hope and positive thinking because Doro is still going on, she's still around and she's amazing. So I think the future is bright. Come on, girls, we got to hang on!

Anneke: Well, we're going to play a pretty long set, with old songs from our old bands, the biggest songs and  the beautiful ballads, then some songs from our solos and some duets. There's a lot of stuff going on for this show and we wanted to make a whole evening with this atmosphere from the old days and from now and the beauty is that, as we are now, all in different solo careers, the music, if  your put it together, it fits so well.

Liv: I would call it a historical journey for the three of us. We would like to show where we come from and what we have achieved during all these years. I'm really looking forward to sharing the stage with Annie and Kari. It's going to be amazing.

Kari: Now I'm really looking forward and I've heard so much about it too. I feel very excited, there are so many people coming there, who are also looking forward to it and requesting favorite songs, you know. So, it's
going to be really nice.

Kari: Yeah, definitely, there will be more songs from "Tears Laid in Earth".

Anneke: Actually, Liv is releasing her album, right now, and Kari is releasing an album right next week, I think, and I'm going to release a new album early next year. So we're all super busy. So, for now,  we're just looking at the live shows.

Anneke: I loved people like Kate Bush, she's an amazing singer. But outside of this genre, I was also listening to "Black Music" like Diana Ross, Marvin Gaye, Michael Jackson. I also loved Barbra Streisand. So I got my inspiration from all over the place. In Metal, there was Doro and nobody else in the scene.

Liv: Nobody else.  I remember still when I hear Doro for the first time and I just thought "is it really possible?" But she sang with a rough voice and I remember trying to copy that but I couldn't it. (laughs) It was impossible to do, so it had to be the clear voice.

Liv: Ozzy Osbourne (laughs) I was trying to imitate him, and I was also trying to imitate Montserrat Caballé and later, Kate Bush, Tori Amos, Lisa Gerrard and Madonna.

Kari: I didn't know about this until like two years ago. It was very flattering that the things we did back then, like I said in the beginning of this interview, did impress others.  I think also it started  when I was on a long break from music and it actually made me think "Why shouldn't I do more music?" I'm actually grateful that Tuomas actually mentioned that in an interview, because that inspired me in turn.   He's a really nice person and very talented, so I'm really lucky to have him for the remake of this song.

Anneke: I think we're like every other working mother, we just have weird hours, but it's always a weighing scale of work and being at home together, and I really like to combine touring with family life because Rob,  my husband, is also my manager and drummer, and Finn [her son] is also coming on tour  with us when we do a bit of a longer tour. So yeah, for me it's perfect but it's  hard work, you know, like I said, every working mother has the same problem.

Liv: It is easier and if we  bring along Leon [her son], then it's better to have both of us on tour, but if we can't take Leon out of school, because you need a special permission for it, it gets really difficult to cope with, especially if the tour is like six or seven weeks long. So we try to have him on the tour as often as possible. I'm very lucky to be able to do it.

Kari: I definitely wanted to have some time to raise a family but also because I was doing this since I was very young, so I really wanted to do something else too, I started studying psychology and I've done  different things too. I also had children and of course it makes traveling a completely different matter and that's one of the reasons as well.

Kari: Now that I'm really getting into the setlist and learning the songs because I'm going to sing them, I'm getting to know some of them differently now than when I was just listening. So, right now I think that my favorite by Liv would be "Silence"  which is really sticking to my mind (laughs) That song is really nice, it's really melodic, and for Anneke it's "1000 Miles" which I think is both kind of intimate and touching but also massive. It's a really good song.

Liv: My favorite by Anneke is "Drive" and "1000 Miles" and by Kari it's "Trollferd" and "Exile".

Anneke: Actually I love Liv's ballads, they're very catchy indeed, they stick to my head all day long, but I love this very new stuff she's making now for her new album "Vervain", it's one of the most cool rocky songs, and I think this one is going to really work live. And for Kari, I love her old stuff with The 3rd and The Mortal, it's super doomy, it's dark but I love this ballad "Why So Lonely" it's so beautiful. So, I like that the three of us are doing a bit of a different thing, you know, Liv is a very Rock 'n Roll Lady, and Kari is like this romantic and beautiful ballads, I think I'm somewhere in the middle there and I think it's going to be a good combination.

Kari: Thank you!

Anneke: Thank you!

Liv: Thank you, bye!