Anneke van Giersbergen
Background information
Birth name	Anneke van Giersbergen
Born	March 8, 1973 (1973-03-08) (age 36) in Sint Michielsgestel, Netherlands
Occupations	Vocalist
Instruments	Vocals/Guitar/Keyboard
Years active	1994 to Present
Associated acts	The Gathering Lawn Agua de Annique Devin Townsend Project

Anneke van Giersbergen (born March 8, 1973) is the former singer of the Dutch band The Gathering, now involved in a solo project called Agua de Annique. She has also worked with Lawn, Farmer Boys, Ayreon, Napalm Death, Moonspell, Globus, Giant Squid, Devin Townsend and Within Temptation.

[edit] Biography

Van Giersbergen was born in Sint Michielsgestel, Netherlands. At the age of 8, she participated in soundmix contests. When she was 12, she was in her school choir. Later on, she joined her first band. She joined a few more bands before becoming part of the duo Bad Breath who played a mix of blues, jazz, folk and funk. ^[1]

She finally joined The Gathering in 1994.

In 1998, she sang on the Ayreon album Into the Electric Castle, a concept album telling the tale of an alien entity 'kidnapping' 8 human souls from different times. Anneke portrayed an Egyptian woman from the time of the pharaohs.

She appears on the album Rubicon from John Wetton and Geoffrey Downes on the tracks "To Catch a Thief" and "Tears of Joy".

She also appears on the 2006 album Smear Campaign by the grindcore/death metal band Napalm Death, on the tracks "Weltschmerz" and "In Deference" "... for good effect and relevance to the track."^[2]

On June 5, 2007 it was announced that Anneke would be leaving The Gathering in August 2007 to focus on a new project, Agua de Annique,^[3] and spend more time with her family.

On November 24, 2007 she performed the song "Somewhere" with Within Temptation in Eindhoven.^[4]

On February 7, 2008 she performed the song "Somewhere" with Within Temptation at the Ahoy Arena in Rotterdam featured in the Within Temptation live DVD Black Symphony.

Anneke also sings on the Ayreon album 01011001, released in early 2008. The character she portrays is one of the Forever, an alien being of the same race who kidnapped her character from Into the Electric Castle.

She sings on "Scorpion Flower" from the album Night Eternal (2008) from Moonspell. On 3 December 2008, she performed this song live with Moonspell in the 013, Tilburg.

Anneke collaborated with Devin Townsend on his album Addicted in 2009 and sang on most songs on it.^[5]

She appears as a guest vocalist on the debut album of The Human Experimente, a project which also features Robert Fripp, John Wetton, Adrian Belew, and Maynard James Keenan.

[edit] Musical roots and influences

Anneke's musical roots are in the classical and jazz music, but she enjoys rock and pop the most. Her main influences are Prince, Ella Fitzgerald and Thom Yorke (Radiohead).

[edit] Personal

On February 20, 2005, she gave birth to a son named Finn, whom she had with her husband Rob Snijders.

[edit] Discography

With The Gathering:

• Mandylion (1995)
• Adrenaline / Leaves - EP (1996)
• Nighttime Birds (1997)
• How to measure a planet? (1998)
• if then else (2000)
• Superheat - Live (2000)
• Amity - EP (2001)
• Black Light District - EP (2002)
• In Motion - DVD (2002)
• Souvenirs (2003)
• Sleepy Buildings - A Semi Acoustic Evening - Live (2004)
• Accessories - Rarities and B-Sides - Compilation (2005)
• A Sound Relief - DVD (2005)
• Home (2006)
• A Noise Severe - DVD (2007)

With Agua de Annique/solo:

• Air (2007)
• Pure Air (2009)
• In Parallel with Danny Cavanagh (2009)
• In Your Room (2009)

As guest vocalist:

• Farmer Boys - Countrified (1996) - track #9 Never Let Me Down Again (Depeche Mode cover song)
• Lawn - Backspace (1997) - Fix
• Ayreon - Into the Electric Castle (1998)
• Wetton/Downes: ICON II (2006) - Rubicon tracks #4 and #5
• Globus - Epicon (2006) - Track #2 Mighty Rivers Run, Track #7 Diem Ex Dei
• Napalm Death - Smear Campaign (2006) - Tracks 1 & 7, "Weltschmerz", "In Deference"
• Ayreon - 01011001 (2008)
• Moonspell - Night Eternal (2008) - Track #4 Scorpion Flower
• Within Temptation - Black Symphony (2008) - Track #10 Somewhere (Live Only)
• Giant Squid - The Ichthyologist (2009) - Track #6 Sevengill
• Devin Townsend - Addicted (2009)
• Within Temptation - An Acoustic Night At The Theatre (2009) - Track #6 Somewhere (Live Only)

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Aqua de Annique Official Website