Autumn

Jeff Leyda- Bass player( pictured on the left)

Neil Mckay- guitar, programming,pictured on right)

Jeff-Julie is vocalist #7 I think. Most of the other singers that we'd worked with either ended up quiting on us or being incapable of performing the duties of being the frontperson. Neil and don't write any lyrics or vocal melodies, so julie has a lot of work to do. I think the main difference is that she's completely dedicated to the band.

We've been through some really hard times together and for anyone to stick with it as much as she has has got to be close to sainthood. I often wonder why she doesn't dump us and move on to a solo career! She's certainly talented enough.

Jeff-stupidity, We've all been doing it for so long now that it is really hard to think of doing anything else. All 3 of us have had our moments where we think "I have GOT to get OUT of this band!" but then next week at practice, we're right back in it... All of us are definately very passionite, if not obsessive, about music and we're all quite comfortable working with each other and knowing how each of us operate.

Jeff-I've personally learned a lot about songwriting and music theory from the other 2 members. I have no formal training and the other 2 do, so I tend to be the sponge of the group. If anything, I've taught the other 2 patience in dealing with my (lack of) abilities!

Jeff- were sort of "discovered" at roughly the same time by matt ballesteros (owner of tess records and drummer for this ascension) and william faith. During the summer of 1994, This Ascension toured through minneapolis and we opened for them and gave them demo tapes of our material (the band was only 5 months old at the time) and schmoozed with them during their stay here. About 1 month later, faith and the muse came through minneapolis with the procession tour and we gave william a demo tape as well.

Jeff-By the time that both the TA and F+TM tours were over, both Matt and William (who were both working for tess at the time) mentioned getting a tape from us to each other and things took off from there. I believe we were signed the following summer. (sorry my memory isn't too good!)

Jeff-Having william work with us was a blast. We got along so well with him and meshed our ideas quite well into the 1st album. He taught us a lot about producing, and now we're having a try at it ourselves on our 2nd album. He's a great guy, amazing musician and really, really fun to be around.

Jeff-Yes, we've gotten into some nasty arguments before about various things; some of them not even band related. I think that comes with the territory of being in a band though. You can't go on tour for 5 weeks without some tempers flaring. On tour things are way different than simply rehearsing or recording and trouble always brews! We're coming into a time right now where we are all re-evaluating our roles in the band versus things happening at home. Neil is married with a child, Julie is engaged... We're no longer young kids with nothing to do but write music-we're old farts who wish we were younger! I think we all are at a comfort level now that we know that it wouldn't be the end of the world if the band dissolved, which actually makes things more concrete in a way. We can be flexible enough to take our time, let things settle and pick up again after things have cooled down some.

Jeff-Currently, being in autumn is less than part time for all of us. The band would have to start supporting us before we could dedicate any significant amount of time to it, and the odds of that happening are slim to none.

Getting to tour europe would be a dream. I tend not to place too much hope in the future for practicality reasons. I think we've done really well for ourselves with the minimal effort we've put into self promotion so far, so if the band were to crumble tomorrow, I'd stil be quite happy with what we have gotten accomplished. We've touched some souls with our music, generated some fans and friends around the world. What more could I possibly want?

Jeff-We've played shows with the above, but not toured. Every time we can play in front of even 1 new person and "convert them" into being an autumn fan, it's a sucess for us. Those above mentioned bands are huge in the scene, and riding their coattails by opening for them is a great way toward exposure. We've also developed some friendships with the bands we've played with, Lycia especially, and it becomes much easier to get a show together if you've already developed a relationship with another band. Combining efforts and fanbases is key in the fickle world of goth music!

Jeff-It's been quite positive. I think we generally put on a fairly energetic stage show, which helps get fans interested in what we're doing. With the drum machine, we can also replicate almost exactly the same sound on stage as we do on CD, so people who are familiar with our recordings can relate quickly to our live show.

Jeff-Overall, the best part of performing live to me is being able to feed off the energy returned by the crowd and put it back into the performance and build from there. It's addicitive.

Jeff-There's been so many... I think right now is a very exciting moment as we're on the verge of a new album release, we've been asked to play a big show this fall, people are excited about hearing new material, etc

Jeff-Quite nice! Tess has really good reputation for releasing quality music and we're flattered and proud to be a part of it. The label is small enough that we get personalized attention and big enough to have good distrobution and have a good customer base. Best of both worlds!

Jeff-Plenty! At the time we came up with the name in 1992, we didn't know of any other bands using the name. The internet wasn't a very good searching tool at the time, so we started using it. Over the last several years, we've found at least FIVE other bands who have either used or are currently using the name. Musical ranges between the bands go from pop rock, 70's rock, hardcore, new age/darkwave, country/garage and us. I've heard rumors of an autumn band from turkey and russia as well.

Jeff-Neil tends to be the catalyst for most of the songs, but we all add our portions to the end product.

Jeff-Both "a waiting time" and "desert winds..." were songs that Neil and I had written before julie had joined the band. That's one of the nice things about 1st albums is that you've got years and years to write it and can weed out all the good songs to put on the debut!

Jeff-Julie will have to answer how the lyrics came about... Seconds we all wrote together. It was one of the 1st songs we ever wrote together as a group (actually, it may have been the 1st song completely written together) The lyrics for that song come from a creative writing paper that julie did back in high school!

Jeff-We did a lot of experimenting with this new album. 1st off, we produced it ourselves mostly, with some additional outside help from various people. We had to record the album locally in our spare time, since none of of could afford to take a solid month off work like we did for our 1st album. It was also recorded on older analog recording equipment, just to see if there would be a different "feel" to the album if recorded on analog instead of digital equipment like we used last time. (the answer: no not really!)

Jeff-Musically, we played around with a live drummer on a song, we used some more electronic sounds and synthesized bass parts for a song, there is more acoustic guitar on this album, and also more distorted guitar. The album as a whole is more downbeat and introspective than the last album, which seemed to be more of an angry sounding album overall.

Jeff-We've been told the songwriting has matured on this album; I can't rightly remove myself enough from the songs to give my opinion about us growing any. I think the album overall is more diverse, without running too far in any one direction to scare people away.

Jeff-not really... I wanted to come up with something profound, but it just isn't happening. Thanks though, for everyone who has supported us through the years. And thanks for granting us this interview.

Jeff-whew. that was actually a lot of fun.

-jeff!

Neil-July 1,1999

Neil-She really makes our music stand out in a very complimentary way than any of the other vocalists could do. Before Julie, we thought our songs were very powerful musically but the vocalists really lacked the ability to match the effect. Julie is the only singer to ever do that so now the vocals, music, musicianship, and lyrics are very strong. With Julie being such a strong vocalist, it is also inspiring to keep writing strong material.

Neil-I really go for that wall of sound effect and I sometimes try to emulate two guitarists at once. I'm classically trained and I try to get what I can from that and put it into Autum. I play a lot of harmony and bass notes at the same time. With my reverb and chorus pedals, I get a pretty big orchestral sound at times. How would I describe my guitar style? Kind of a big, dark, reverby, dreamy wash while maintaing some distinct melodies and chord progressions.

Neil-Passion for music. There are times when we don't get along. This happens in all bands and even that element fuels our energy. WE're very real people who make music for the sake of making music which just happens to be on the darker side.

Neil-I think we've helped each other with quite a bit of our mucical insecurities, most of them anyway. A big one for me was when I started writing with distortion. Jeff and Julie really thought this was a good direction to take with some songs so they encouraged me in a good way.

Neil-It was fun working with William. I gave him a really rough demo tape we had recorded and he could hear what was going on musically through the rough mixing and studios work. We had a lot of fun working with him and Chad Blinman. When we weren't recording, we were laughing till our stomachs hurt.

Neil-Oh yes. Priorities change and you wonder if you can spend enough time on the band to make it worthwhile not only to yourself but to your bandmates and your fans. As a musician, you always need to be aware of others needs and your responsibilies to them. There's also a time when you outgrow your fellow musicians or a band member drastically changes musical direction which hasn't happened to us yet.

Neil-I would like to do more classical Guitar and orchestral work while continuing to enlarge our sound.

Neil-I think maybe just getting word around about us. We have a very good relatonship with Lycia and have talked a few times about doind a tour together.

Neil-Very positive feedback. I don't smile too much on stage so I think I might appear to be a little to pretensious though I'm not. I like it when people come up and talk to me. I appreciate any comments from consrtuctive critisism to compiments.

Neil-Going out and signing with Tess Records! That was a dream come true.

Neil-It's good. Tess is small so we don't have a lot of exposure but it is a reputable label. It was nice to be label mates with Faith and the Muse and Clan of Xymox.

Neil-not that I know of. I would like to hear them though. I think they are more Darkwave and electronic.

Neil-I write most of the music instumentally. I'm always composing. I always have song I'm working on whether it be mentally or if I'm sitting down with the guitar or keyboard. My main influences are the Chameleons U.K., Clan of Xymox, a lot of new wave ( a Flock of Seagulls, Gary Numan, Ultravox), Rockabilly, early country, and the classical guitar. All of these play into what I write. Julie writes all of the lyrics and vocal lines. Jeff and I have nothing to do with that except maybe once in a while one of us will suggest a vocal piece and play it on guitar or bass.

Neil-Musically? While writing "A Waiting Time", I was really listening to a lot of The Sisters and The Church. I always kind of wanted to something with a slight middle-east feel to it so that's where "Desert Winds" came from. "Seconds":I was looking for a new sound, something more dark and ominous yet powerful. With regular chorus and reverb, it sounded a little like Chris Isaac, then I put a little distortion on and "Seconds" was born. Jeff's booming bass helped also with "Seconds".

Neil-I recorded a song in the traditional stlye of my Dakota (Sioux) people, just me and a hand drum. I did this to honor my people and ancestors and also give people a taste of something they may never get a chance to listen to otherwise, the music that has been here prior to European contact. I also use more distrotion than ever before but in my own "AUTUMN" way. We had a live drummer sit in on one of our songs. I also wrote a song Julie titled "Still Breathing" which is mostly electronic but still sounds like AUTUMN. It's still us with some new areas explored.

Neil-I would like to encourage bands and composers to explore their own unique gifts that they have for songwriting instead of trying to emulate other bands. I do my best to tap into the energy of the bands that influence me rather than the sound of a particular band. The early-eighties for example. There was a new band a week that sounded different. They were all feeding off this common energy shared among the Punks, Goths, New Wavers, New Romantics. They were coming up with some pretty cool stuff while maintaining thier own unique sound.

See this interview soon in Black Monday Magazine