Tag yourself: Within Temptation album edition! I’m an edgy bitch.

Sharon of Within Temptation opens up about her darkest day

Since Within Temptation breakthrough, Sharon den Adel life was one big pink day. Until that one message.

DARKEST DAY

Leather jacket, glasses on top of her head, fresh and cheerful. This is how Sharon enters the grand café. Sunlight falls through the windows on the wooden floor and shines on the earring in her right ear, a dragonfly. Outside the trees rustle. She lives in Soest, but this cafe in Baarn is close by. And it does not matter: it is equally beautiful everywhere. An oasis of peace and green, something for a singer of a world famous metal band. No loud guitars, no busy tour schedule.

No, the band life is not always easy. Sharon really experienced that on her darkest day. It is the year 2015. She had just flown back to the Netherlands after having been on holiday with her family. Her family stayed for a while, but for Sharon and Within Temptation a few European shows were booked. She had one day in the Netherlands.

When she came home that day, she was told that someone in her immediate family was seriously and probably incurably ill. “Now it turns out that medical science is very far with new means and treatments, but for him it was unfortunately too late. He was still there, but his life was hanging on a silken thread.” Her family did not want to tell her when she was on vacation. And now, after this news, after the ground had been swept away under her feet, she had to go straight to the tour bus. Canceling was not an option: Within Temptation has become a company, with many employees, still apart from the concert halls and fans who expected her. “It was unreal. I did not want to leave, even though my family told me that I should go. I told everyone directly in the bus. On the way I was reading about the disease and what to do about it. I could not accept it.”

On stage, during the shows after the news, the atmosphere was different than usual. “Music is a catalyst for me, so the emotion was interwoven with everything I sang. I missed my husband and children. I wanted to go back to my family, drink wine with my parents, talk about life.“

The disadvantages of international fame. If something happens, chances are that you are abroad. The show must go on. “Sometimes that goes wrong, and that is what happened to me. When we were back in the Netherlands, I no longer had any inspiration for new music, at least not for Within Temptation. We make bombastic, tough music. There is victory in it, and I did not need that, I did not have that emotion, I was locked up.”

There was a road out of the impasse, but that road was outside the belt. “Of course the members were shocked, they were looking forward to making a new record.” The songs Sharon wrote felt good, but did not fit into the standard genre. They were smaller, more sensitive. “The producer with whom I wrote them also immediately noticed. With these songs we had to do something else.“ This was her solo project: My Indigo. She made a record that made her blood and creativity flow again, even in such a way that she could write for Within Temptation again.

PINK DAY

She drinks her fresh mint tea, eats the biscuit and stares out of the window. The dragonfly sparkles and distracts from her frown. “A beautiful day, a beautiful day …” When she hears that childbirths are no longer allowed, because otherwise almost all the candidates in this category would choose, she goes for the day when Within Temptation really broke through.

“It was at Pinkpop in 2001.” Laughing: “Very long ago. I was 21. We were about five years old. We were already big in the underground, and we already played in large halls, but we were still in that niche of metal and alternative. The gig at Pinkpop was overwhelming. The tent was packed and popped apart. Everyone sang along. That was the tipping point, we felt that something had changed. After that we also saw people who did not belong to the metal subculture at performances and signing sessions. People of all plumes, say.”

The radio stations and music channels on TV, however, still did not have it. “Nobody wanted to play us. When we drove home after Pinkpop, we heard callers on the radio requesting us, but we were not played. I remember that we were played at Radio 3 for the first time at night. You also had The Box, a music channel on TV. We had told our fans that they could request our video clip there, but that was not possible at all. We were not in the package. We got a phone call, if we would please rectify the news to our fans, because they were called flat. But it was not to stop, a few months later you could request us and we were immediately played a lot.”

It was a shift in the landscape of pop music. You did not hear metal until Within Temptation. Then suddenly. "Besides, I was a woman. You also had little to no bands with singers in metal.” In other words, they actually had no chance of success. But it had happened: Within Temptation was broken by the general music lover. “That was great, but also alienating. We have always remained faithful to our music, and to what we wanted to make. I have always believed in it. We went full. And suddenly we broke through with music that people said it was not possible. We were full.“ They still make the music they want to make. The success remains as great as ever. Soon they will be in the AFAS Live twice in succession, and then we are only talking about the Netherlands, because they are also popular in Germany, Finland, Russia and even the USA.

She has to go, Sharon. Soon the children will be out of school. She walks outside, where the sun shines and where the squirrels and birds know nothing about loud guitars and success.

The Netherlands got to know Sharon den Adel (43) as front woman of the metal band Within Temptation. Last year she announced her solo project: My Indigo. Her first (eponymous) album is now a fact. Sharon has a relationship with guitarist Robert Westerholt, with whom she has a daughter and two sons.

Translation by Hands of Darkness

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“I wanted to draw on the epic sound that we created in the beginning. That is why I came across these big sort of Victorian dresses. I started renting them from specialized shops. I also wore my Dr Martens underneath because I wanted to have something closest to the shoes they were in the past. It was also a combination of the romantic part of the dress and the heavy boots underneath was a good contrast for me. The response always made people remember the band. For the longest time people did not know the name of the band because we had a difficult name to pronounce so it would become known as the band with the dress (laughs).” ~ Sharon den Adel (2014)

Ruud Jolie has repsonded to an article that was published which claimed that the new Within Temptation album will be the last, as well as rumours about the name/style/collaborations/release date. Spoiler: It’s not true.

No, I’m not ok with this… Rumour has it, that the new Within Temptation album will be their last.

Sorry, I need a minute… I’m not ok… Really, really hope this is not true.