Emilie Autumn Liddell is an American singer-songwriter, poet, author and violinist. Autumn’s musical style is described by her as “Fairy Pop”, “Fantasy Rock” or “Victoriandustrial”. It is influenced by glam rock and from plays, novels, and history, particularly the Victorian era. Performing with her all-female backup dancers The Bloody Crumpets, Autumn incorporates elements of classical music, cabaret, electronica, and glam rock with theatrics, and burlesque.
Growing up in Malibu, Autumn began learning the violin at the age of four and left regular school five years later with the goal of becoming a world-class violinist; she practiced eight or nine hours a day and read a wide range of literature. Progressing to writing her own music, she studied under various teachers and went to Indian University, which she left over issues regarding the relationship between classical music and the appearance of the performer. Through her own independent label Traitor Records, Autumn debuted in 1997 with her classical album On a Day: Music for Violin & Continuo, followed by the release in 2003 of her album Enchant.
Autumn began work on her concept album Opheliac in August 2004, and recorded it at Mad Villain Studios in Chicago. In August 2005, she created the costumes for Corgan’s music video for the track “Walking Shade”; she also contributed violin and vocals for the track “DIA” from his 2005 album TheFutureEmbrace. In late 2005, Autumn also recorded vocals and violin for “The Gates of Eternity” from Attrition’s 2008 album All Mine Enemys Whispers: The Story of Mary Ann Cotton, a concept album focusing on the Victorian serial killer Mary Ann Cotton. Autumn later protested the release of the song, claiming that it was unfinished, “altered without her permission”, and had been intended only as a possible collaboration with Martin Bowes.
Autumn’s debut novel, The Asylum for Wayward Victorian Girls, was self-published in late 2009, with a second edition following in 2010. Because of the book’s nature and possible autobiographical sections, she claimed its release was delayed because some did not want it published. The book combines Autumn’s own real life journal entries, including those chronicling her time in a psych ward, and the diary of a fictional Victorian-era asylum inmate named “Emily”. Autumn has said that the intent of the book was to show “there’s very little difference from asylums for ladies in 1841 and the ones for us now,” and that the subject of mental illness remains misunderstood.
In June 2010, Autumn released the acronym of her upcoming album, F.L.A.G., on her Twitter account, before revealing the full title as Fight Like a Girl. In her words, the meaning behind the title is “about taking all these things that make women the underdogs and using them to your advantage”. Based on her novel, The Asylum for Wayward Victorian Girls, the album has been described as “an operatic feminist treatise set inside an insane asylum, wherein the female inmates gradually realize their own strength in numbers”.
