Prog Me: Sharon den Adel

This Month: Sharon den Adel (Within Temptation)

OK COMPUTER?

I’m always finding new apps for my iPhone – I use CameraBag and Photo POW! to make silly pictures when I have time to kill. I’ve just downloaded another one that gives you low-cost phone calls from the USA, which is really useful when I’m travelling and need to call home.

MASTERMIND?

I read a lot of fantasy books but George R.R. Martin is my favourite author. I read A Game Of Thrones about 10 years ago, before the series got turned into a TV show, so I think it would be that!

RELICS?

I have a gold bracelet my great-grandmother gave me when I was 13. I think it was given to her by her own parents and I’ve added charms for hope, belief, love, luck and an ‘S’ for Sharon.

SOUND & VISION

My guilty pleasure is Grease – that’s what got me into singing when I was about four years old, and the soundtrack was one of the first cassettes I bought. I also got The Moody Blues’ Days of Future Passed, The Electric Light Orchestra and Jeff Wayne’s Musical Version Of The War Of The Worlds, which scared the hell out of me!

SUPPER’S READY!

Goat’s cheese salad with peanuts and some freshly baked bread, still hot from the oven so the cheese melts over it. And to drink? A glass of Spanish red wine.

Contributing to Prog since the very first issue, writer and broadcaster Natasha Scharf was the magazine’s News Editor before she took up her current role of Deputy Editor, and has interviewed some of the best-known acts in the progressive music world from ELP, Yes and Marillion to Nightwish, Dream Theater and TesseracT. Starting young, she set up her first music fanzine in the late 80s and became a regular contributor to local newspapers and magazines over the next decade. The 00s would see her running the dark music magazine, Meltdown, as well as contributing to Metal Hammer, Classic Rock, Terrorizer and Artrocker. Author of music subculture books The Art Of Gothic and Worldwide Gothic, she’s since written album sleeve notes for Cherry Red, and also co-wrote Tarja Turunen’s memoirs, Singing In My Blood. Beyond the written word, Natasha has spent several decades as a club DJ, spinning tunes at aftershow parties for Metallica, Motörhead and Nine Inch Nails. She’s currently the only member of the Prog team to have appeared on the magazine’s cover.