By Keith Walsh
There’s something about Goth musicians that makes me believe that it’s more than just dressing up for them. One example of someone doing something dramatic with Electro Goth is Danielle Blizzard, whose band Autumn Stay just released a new video “Closer To The Edge” in which she delivers a theatrical performance that blurs the lines between reality and drama. 

“One of my majors in college was theater,” Blizzard told me, “so I am all about the theatrics, I think. Yeah, over the top and I mean I do listen to — not like old-school goth. I’m not a fan of some older goth music. But I like new age goth. I definitely dig the f#$%  out of Eric’s band. Adoration Destroyed all day long….and also The Birthday Massacre.”  Adoration Destroyed is the band of Erik Gustafson, who directed the brilliant video for “Closer The Edge.”

Horror Show Theatrics
The video is loaded with religious symbolism, featuring lyrics about madness and the struggle to survive. And while Blizzard’s visual presence is informed by her studies of theater, the lyrical content is the real deal. “I was one day at the gym and I was angry and pissed off — and yeah and I just started typing these lyrics — I felt like I was about to lose my f#$%ing mind.”

With its horror show theatrics (including an appearance by Autumn Stay’s guitarist Stephen Douglas as a plague doctor) the video makes use of an ideal locale: a church in Texas where Blizzard’s father serves as pastor. I asked her if he disapproved of the theatrical darkness of her music. “He actually has been really supportive, ever since I started my music career,” she said..”My parents weren’t into metal or anything like that. So I didn’t start getting into metal and rock until college and it wasn’t until college where I started to dive into darker bands and things of that nature, and he’s always been real supportive.”

I wondered how being a pastor’s kid encouraged Blizzard’s sense of drama in music. “I wasn’t always a pastor’s kid growing up. He’s been the pastor at this church for like the past, maybe like seven-ish years and it’s just this really cute little quaint church. And my dad has, I believe a degree in radio television and film. So he was all about it. My mom was like, ‘y’all are going to desecrate the church. How dare you do a horror film in there!’”

‘A Moving Painting’
Under Gustafson’s expert production, the video fits Autumn Stay’s moody new type of electronic goth perfectly. ”Goth had this great birthing of electronic fusion music,” Blizzard said, “a lot of it. We wanted that Gothic aesthetic. We wanted it to be so beautiful and the colors so vivid that your eyes would — say you didn’t even like the music – your eyes were so glued in because of the color work, because of the scene, because of the church and everything blending together, including this beautiful visual moving painting.”

Autumn Stay started out as a dark metal band with traditional guitar, bass, and drums supporting Blizzard’s vocals, but the main group is now a duo of Blizzard and Douglas, with additional members joining for live performances. Along with Blizzard’s vocals and Douglas’s guitar, “Closer To The Edge” features cutting-edge electronic production by Kevin Gutierrez of Assembly Line Studios.

I asked Douglas how he changed his guitar sound to match the new style that Autumn Stay is exploring. “The only things we really did different with this single is we changed our tuning, from Drop C to Drop A. So we made it a little bit heavier sounding.  It just sounds like a mixed up metal song. Yeah it’s ironic, it’s heavier but you can’t even really tell it’s that much heavier, because it’s not a traditional metal song, It’s a new sounding genre.”

A new sounding genre is just what this duo set out to create. As Blizzard explains, “So I’m a huge electronic fan and we all kind of came together and we said, ‘you know, will you like this, and I like this, and how can we make this something new and refreshing and different? You want to be stuck into the metal box?’ And I personally said ‘no, if I can get out of that metal box, I want to branch out. I want to be able to do whatever the f$#% I want to do and I want to one day do pop or or jazz. I want to make sure I can bust out of that box and do what I want.’”

Autumn Stay On Facebook
Autumn Stay On YouTube
Autumn Stay On Spotify
Erik Gustafson Cinematography
Assembly Line Studios

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