Music inspires us all. However, what music inspires and moves some of our favorite artists? Let’s find out! We asked Sharon den Adel of Within Temptation what albums she believed to be the most influential to her and music in general. This is what she had to say!
- Hybrid Theory – Linkin Park
Linkin Park was one of the bands that were for us influential but I think for the whole scene at the time when they broke through. They were having such a nice cross-over with styles. That was for me and I think for a lot of other bands, an eye-opener. They were using loops and all these different kinds of music styles.
- Nirvana – Nirvana
Nirvana was for me personally an important album. The first album they released, it really made me realize I wanted to make music more than ever. Nirvana was for me the most important band ever. They were unreal in way that they were intense, they were pure, they were honest. Honesty was just everywhere in the music. And that’s what music is all about so that was very important to me as a kid growing up although they’re not much older than me. I think like 10 years or so max. But it was amazing what they did. I was so in love with the band. Not with the people, but really the music. That was really something. That for me is the standard like what you feel is what you have to write. Keep as close as possible to your music.
- You Want It Darker – Leonard Cohen
I love him for the lyrics and his philosophy and how he puts that in his lyrics. That was the last album before he died. I think that was a really lovely album.
- From the Choirgirl Hotel – Tori Amos
Tori Amos because I love her… I don’t even think that she has the best voice but she has the most intense I think and the way she works on the piano it’s just mesmerizing. You just get hypnotized about what she’s doing. I really love that as well.
- Type O Negative
Which is also one of the bands that was one that I loved so much when we were making music and we started making music. It was also one of the bands that I loved very much.
And I met him once at the Dynamo Open Air backstage. It was a actually a nice story also. They had a backstage within the backstage. And there was a small fake gap between the wall they made and I was walking by it and in a flash when I turned my head, I saw Peter Steele sitting there like, “Oh my god it’s him!” So I stuck my head between the backstage and was like, “Hi Peter! Oh I love your music. Can I have your autograph. I know I’m intruding I hope you don’t hate me for it!” He said, “Oh don’t worry about it. Come sit with me.” And I did and I really had a really nice chat about The Beatles and the bands he was inspired by. He was such a gentle cool guy and so respectful for somebody he didn’t know. He didn’t know what kind of music we were making. And that was the first time we ever played on the festival. It was our first gig ever. It was so early in our musical career that we never had the opportunity to really develop ourselves before we went on such a big stage already. We played on the second stage at Dynamo, which was at that time the biggest festival in Europe. But he was there and he was on the main stage. I talked to him and he was one of my heroes. So sorry to say that I never met him afterwards again but always stayed a big fan of his music and of his band.
Check out Sharon’s Interview in RockRevoltMagazine
