Emilie Autumn on VonPod
Date: April 2, 2026
This interview is far too long to make a transcript, but here the cliffnotes:
EA will "always" live in the Asylum.
Girls Will be Girls will be released "this month" (April 2026).
EA has arthritis in her knees from performing.
About Opheliac, FLAG, and being shackled to record labels:
EA talks about The End Records and how she had to spend "a hell of a lot of money to get... 'Fight Like A Girl' from that label because I felt that that was not a good fit..." (I thought she misspoke here, but she intentionally mentions FLAG, not Opheliac.)
EA has never sold her Masters.
EA: "And sometimes you...just make it happen and sell your costumes and you get your record back."
Opheliac 20th Anniversary:
EA has no plans for anything, but that may change because it keeps getting mentioned.
Music Stems:
EA's Opheliac hard drives are in her closet. She doesn't have a way to open them (at present) with her current set up, but she believes they're functional.
EA does not have the stems for 4 O'clock or Unlaced (the album). She has to rebuild things like 4 O'clock from scratch for the musical.
About TAFWVG Changes:
EA talks about some of the changes that were "made against her will" when she was signed with a literary agent in NYC. The agent came to her with a plan to make The Asylum... a YA Novel for mass release, which was why some of the more mature elements were removed and ages were lowered.
About the Musical:
Delayed due to an ongoing film project EA is working on.
COVID put a hard stop on a lot of the things that were getting scheduled, like workshops. (Even though workshops were planned after COVID hit?)
EA claims the musical will go to London.
A musical playlist exists on YouTube, but she thinks it's private. (Maybe? There's already a playlist that's public. I think she misspoke.)
"Time for Tea" probably won't make it into the musical.
The score has electronic backing tracks and symphonic orchestra portions. EA would like a full orchestra for the musical, but she's aware of the reality that it probably won't happen.
EA is "the lead role for the beginning."
She's worried about understudies being able to sing in the range she's written [for Emilie and Emily]. She acknowledges that she's not a Broadway singer -- the concern comes from a place of her range being weird and untrained, not her somehow being "too good" to replicate.
The Rats are an "ancient greek chorus."
EA has recently been given opportunities to "put this on now" but it wasn't with the right people.
EA acknowledges that she'll have to collaborate for the musical, despite admitting to not working well with people. She notes Scenic Design specifically.
Design isn't currently aimed towards realism.
EA does not want to direct the musical.
Most roles are double cast: Dr. Sharp / Stockill; Emilie / Emily; Head Nurse / Madame Mournington
The musical has a different ending than the book(s).
About 4 O'clock and Trisol:
"Garish light of day" was not an intentional Phantom reference.
4 O'clock was written in a "house in the woods" in Germany.
She was very new to the label (Trisol) and they wanted to make sure she had "sections" in record stores, which required a minimum of 5 CDs for an artist. That was the driving force for the Trisol re-releases, including A Bit O' This & That, Enchant, 4 o'Clock, Laced/Unlaced, etc.
She had no keyboard when she recorded it. She just picked out the notes one-by-one on her laptop.
Future projects:
There are non-Asylum projects in the works.
EA and Marc are co-starring and co-directing a new film. EA is scoring and orchestrating the film, which is not a musical, but very "music-driven." Filming is "coming up."
EA wants puppetry over CGI.
Opheliac lore:
EA had been diagnosed with "extreme clinical depression" but had not gotten her bipolar diagnosis before her suicide attempt.
EA was 25 when she wrote and recorded Opheliac. She was 27 when she attempted suicide / was committed.
EA credits the difference in her performing style with her asylum stay, but reaffirms that Opheliac was written before she was committed.
