Amanda Somerville


Amanda Somerville is an American singer-songwriter and vocal coach who resides in Wolfsburg, Germany. She is known primarily for her work with many European symphonic metal bands.

Biography

Personal life

Somerville was raised in Flushing, Michigan. She attended Flushing Senior High School, graduating in 1997, graduating a full year early and winning a scholarship for graduating with high honors to the University of Michigan–Flint, where she majored in psychology. Somerville moved to Wolfsburg, Germany in 1999, where she has resided, working mainly in Germany and the Netherlands.
On August 19, 2013, she announced that she was engaged to be married to After Forever's former guitarist Sander Gommans, and the pair were married on July 28, 2014. On January 8, 2015, she announced that she and Gommans were expecting their first child. On July 17, 2015, their daughter, Lana Elise Gommans, was born. In 2018, their twin daughters Anya and Juliet were born.

Music career

Somerville has written and recorded with bands such as After Forever, Edguy, Kamelot, Epica, Avantasia, and Docker's Guild, and has produced two solo albums. Her solo releases to date are primarily soft and elegant pop rock with some hard rock, folk and soul music influences. Somerville herself wrote and contributed instrumentally to all of the songs on her solo albums, with only one exception, "Out" from the album Windows.
She collaborated with several of these metal bands alongside producers Sascha Paeth and Michael Rodenberg, which led her to collaborate with multi-instrumentalist Robert Hunecke-Rizzo, co-writing the rock opera Aina. Later she made a similar collaboration with guitarist Sander Gommans, providing vocals and lyrical concept for the project HDK. In 2008, she toured America with Dutch heavy metal band Epica, while regular vocalist Simone Simons recovered from a staph infection.

Kiske/Somerville

In 2010, she collaborated with Michael Kiske on a musical project entitled Kiske/Somerville. The band is a melodic metal act put together by Frontiers Records, a similar project as Allen/Lande. Songwriting and producing was done by Primal Fear bassist Mat Sinner with collaboration by guitarist Magnus Karlsson, Sander Gommans, Jimmy Kresic and Somerville herself. Their first single, "Silence", was released on August 20. Their self-titled album was released on 24 September 2010 by Frontiers Records, after the single accompanied by a music video for "Silence". A music video was also made for the song "If I Had One Wish." Somerville contributed creatively to the album by writing three of its songs: "A Thousand Suns," "Arise" and "Set Afire," all co-written with Sander Gommans.

Avantasia

Somerville was also one of the live guest vocalists for Tobias Sammet's metal opera Avantasia world tours in 2008, 2010, 2013 and 2016. Her role onstage included singing backing vocals during the whole setlist and performing lead vocals for the songs "Farewell," "The Wicked Symphony," "Lost in Space" and "Sign of the Cross."

Trillium

In 2011, Somerville finally released her first heavy metal-oriented project, called Trillium, with the record company Frontiers Records. The project has contributions by Sascha Paeth, Michael Rodenberg, Sander Gommans and a guest appearance of Jørn Lande on a duet vocal track with Somerville.

Trillium live band members

Somerville was featured on Douglas R. Docker's space metal opera Docker's Guild. In 2012, she appeared on the song "Black Swan", a duet with Göran Edman on the debut album The Mystic Technocracy - Season 1: The Age of Ignorance. In 2016, she was featured again in the "Flash Gordon Suite", from Queen's soundtrack of the same name, on the album The Heisenberg Diaries - Book A: Sounds of Future past.

New HDK, Kiske/Somerville albums and beyond

In 2014, a new HDK album called Serenades of the Netherworld was released, featuring Somerville and Geert Kroes on vocals, and once again produced and composed by Sander Gommans. This was also the year Somerville and Gommans were married. Somerville was also part of a metal opera project from the Middle East, produced by Lebanese guitarist Amadeus Awad, with an album called The Book of Gates. She played the part of the Queen of the Nile.
In 2015, the second Kiske/Somerville album, entitled City of Heroes, was announced and released, once again featuring bassist Mat Sinner as producer and in a songwriting partnership with guitarist Magnus Karlsson, who was also in charge of the keyboards, while Veronika Lukesova was the drummer. The song "Breaking Neptune" was written by Somerville and Gommans, and two music videos were filmed for the songs "City of Heroes" and "Walk on Water".

Exit Eden

In 2017, another new project was announced. Called Exit Eden, it features Somerville and three other female singers from the rock/metal scene: Clémentine Delauney, Marina La Torraca and newcomer Anna Brunner. The band was conceived with the plan "to show the world that almost every classic song can be transformed into a solid Metal-Rock song", a concept similar to Finland's Northern Kings. The tracklist of their debut album, Rhapsodies In Black, features some pop hits such as Madonna's "Frozen", Adele's "Skyfall" and Lady Gaga's "Paparazzi". The album was released on August 4, 2017 via Napalm Records worldwide and via Starwatch in Germany, Switzerland and Austria. Simone Simons appears on two tracks of the album.

Discography

Solo

Somerville's contributions include vocals, coaching, production, engineering and choir conductor:

Featured vocals

YearSongArtistAlbum
2007"Lost in Space" & "The Story Ain't Over"AvantasiaLost in Space
2007"Lost in Space" & "Lost in Space "AvantasiaLost in Space
2007"Ghost Opera", "Love You to Death", "Mourning Star" & "Season's End"KamelotGhost Opera
2008"What Kind of Love" & "Lost in Space"AvantasiaThe Scarecrow
2010"Femme Fatale" & "Black Rose, Pt.II"SebastienTears of White Roses
2010"The Zodiac"KamelotPoetry for the Poisoned
2011"Changing Fate"SerenityDeath & Legacy
2011"Farewell" & "Sign of the Cross/The Seven Angels / All songs "AvantasiaThe Flying Opera
2011"Into Shadow"DesDemonThrough the Gates
2011"Symphony of Aggression"MaYaNQuarterpast
2011"The Hunger", "Secrets", "Smoke and Mirrors" & "The Infinite Overture Pt. I"Infinity OvertureThe Infinite Overture Pt. I
2011"Blood Red Rose"The BoyscoutBlood Red Rose – A Rock Fantasy
2012"To Crawl or to Fly" & "Whispers Inside You"Soulspell Metal OperaHollow's Gathering
2012"Send My Message Home"PelleKBag of Tricks
2012"Black Swans"Docker's GuildThe Mystic Technocracy - Season 1: The Age of Ignorance
2013"Time Bomb"Siber SkyTime Bomb
2013"Cold Winter"WolfpakkCry Wolf
2014All songs Amadeus Awad's EONThe Book of Gates
2014"King of the Elves"ElvenkingPagan Manifesto
2016All songsMagni Animi ViriHeroes Temporis
2016"Codex Atlanticus" & "The Perfect Woman"SerenityCodex Atlanticus
2016"Flash Gordon Suite"Docker's GuildThe Heisenberg Diaries - Book A: Sounds of Future Past
2016All songs AvantasiaGhostlights
2020TBA AyreonTransitus
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Coaching, production, engineering and choir conductor