How has music inspired you?
Natalie:
Music has always moved me in ways I cannot describe. From being a little girl curious about love, to being a teenager, curious about life. I’ve always treated music as if it were always the background to my experiences. It is an addiction. Music is a drug. It is a comfort.
DJ Infinit:
Music has shaped the friends I make along with the way I live my life.
Travis:
The beautiful thing about music is, that it has no bounds. It is immaterial, it is something you must listen to and feel and you must make time for it. The nature of music is what makes it so rewarding to create. Music had the power to snag me from a well paying design career to attempt becoming a successful producer. The way some music gives me the good chills, I wanted to be able to do the same for other people. I hope we have succeeded in that task.
Your musical inspirations:
Natalie:
I would have to say that one of my biggest inspirations always was with other female vocalists. As a little girl,I would dream of being like them (Whitney Houston, Mariah Carey, Toni Braxton, Celine Dion, Sade). As I grew older and as my voice matured, my musical horizions broadened and I became inspired by many other artists such as Jewel, Garbage, Cranberries, Bjork, Paul Oakenfold, Moby, Radiohead, Coldplay, Portishead, Incubus, Deftones, Ben Harper, Ani Difranco, Tori Amos, Fiona Apple, Sneaker Pimps (becoming x), Kosheen, Goldfrapp, Soulstice...the list goes on and on!
DJ Infinit:
I grew up listening to all the pioneers of what was called hip-hop, not to be confused with the commercial crap you hear on the radio. From the great MC's such as Kool G. Rap to to the indescribable talent of DJ Q-Bert, they have greatly influenced the style of music I help create.
Travis:
All the music I have ever enjoyed listening to has influenced me somehow whether profoundly or subconsciously. Some of the more profound ones are: Portishead of course, the first time I ever heard them I remembered exactly what I was doing and where I was and how amazed and delighted I was to find this absurd kind of music. I am a huge female artist fan so people like Tori Amos, Fiona Apple, Stevie Nicks, and Jewel are people who have made a tremendous impact on me. Groups such as Esthero, Mono, Soulstice, Sneaker Pimps, and Poe have given me stars to shoot for in my own music.
* Has music helped you through a difficult or traumatic time in your life?
Natalie:
It ABSOLUTELY has been a savior to me throughout the years. Its so amazing to me how a certain song can completely change my mood. Music has gotten me through break-ups, personal issues, EVERYTHING.
DJ Infinit:
There are times when I am angry and need to let off steam, I will get on the turntables and scratch or dig through my crates to relieve my mood. And of course when someone is going through heartbreak there is an infinite(no pun intended) number of songs that will help you release your pain.
Travis:
Not sure if you mean our music or music from other artists but I will answer both. The accomplishment of creating this album is a constant cloud under me that keeps me from falling. If other things in my life aren’t going so well, I can look at this album as something that is truly something I can be proud of and that makes a difference in peoples lives. AS far as other peoples music, I wouldn’t even be writing this if it hasn’t. For example the next question will exemplify this.
* Any CD’s or songs that are meaningful to you?
Natalie:
Jewel's cd "Spirit" is a favorite of mine. I listened to it so much when I was in high school. Also, Ben Harper's song "Waiting on an Angel" is amazing. It reminds me of a dear friend Sancken. Again, the list of songs is so long.
DJ Infinit:
I can directly relate to the song "Kim" by Eminem because my relationship has taken me there quite a few times.
Travis: Fiona Apple’s “Tidal” is simply perfection. I have listened to it a thousand times. I never get sick of it. Her songwriting is amazing, they are simple yet very complex.” The Child is gone” is a favorite of mine off this CD. I feel like I am floating when I listen to it. The song” Be a Dolphin” by Poe is one of my absolute favorites. This song talks about how you must forget all the bad that happens to you and just be a dolphin and swim even if you are drowning.
* How did you get into the music business?
Natalie:
I became very interested in a music career when I was around 15. Everyone seemed to be trying to get a "record deal" though. It’s so hard to be heard. And everyone wants a piece of the pie. It took so much patience. I almost moved to L.A. on a whim because I was so desperate to be heard. Who knew I would end up in Philly recording independently. I love the way the wind has taken me. I actually own my music. I don't have to follow anyone else's orders or meet up to their expectations.
DJ Infinit:
Well I can't say I'm in the business yet but I have been a turntablist for 17 years and love the culture of it all.
Travis:
To me the only way to pick a career is to imagine the best job possible, and then get that job. And for me, being able to work with the most talents female artists and produce and record them is my dream job, and that’s what I do. It will take some time to be able to make it a full time career, but will be worth the effort. I started Plain Jane Records, an all female artist record label, to put out DD’s first album and to hopefully work with many more talented artists.
* Discuss the creative or songwriting process –
Natalie:
Everyone does it differently. I usually sit in a quiet room with a few musicians and we just sort through different riffs until we find one that moves me. Then I write lyrics. Every sound creates a different emotion. So I can't really write lyrics before I write the music. Unless I know exactly what Im looking for.
DJ Infinit:
The process of making music for me is that I go to my vinyl library and pull out a bunch of sounds and try to fit pieces of a puzzle together while creating the pieces at the same time. It works many different ways when we are all together. It can start with an idea, concept or a riff from an instrument, from there it kinda slowly rolls together with input from all of us and eventually the core of the song evolves. The process of editing and adding things often becomes a never ending process because there are always things you think you need to change.
Travis:
Well, this isn’t so cut and dry, every song is different. But let me use Mermaid as an interesting example. The bare bones beat was put together using a few piano concerto samples and beats. Then Natalie listened to it to see if it gave her any inspiration. She really liked the beauty of it. The beat wasn’t going anywhere, and we were kinda having writer’s block. Somehow me and Natalie started talking about Mermaids, and she said how she always had this reoccurring dream that she was a mermaid. I was like, that’s it, that’s what the song should be about. Then my brother went finding all different sound scapes that went with the theme. And slowly the complex beat took shape. All of us actually tried a hand in song writing and gave Natalie ideas for the lyrics. I actually wrote the chorus, which was a rare thing cause Natalie usually writes everything herself. We came together really well on this song in the end, although it took the longest to write.
* Discuss your feelings about the powerful or life-changing effects that music can have on a person
Natalie:
I actually wanted to study music therapy in college. Its a mystery to me. I don't understand why music moves us the way it does. Maybe its b/c emotion has always been tied into music. I've always seen it as an outlet. A way to communicate what is really going on inside of my head. I have a 6 month old and I am a firm believer in exposing her to several styles of music. I am confident that her brain development will benefit greatly from listening to the different elements in music.
DJ Infinit:
Music is a powerful thing, second only to love. It can make your day or help you through your troubled times.
Travis:
Music heals, no doubt about it. Even a sad love song heals, because it helps you get your emotions out. Being able to just turn up a song that speaks to you while driving alone and just scream out the words, is priceless. When people complain about paying 15 dollars for a cd I get so angry when I know how much blood sweat and tears goes into making a record, well at least our record. 15 dollars is a steal for a record that is well produced, that you will listen to for a lifetime.
If you can imagine Portishead, with more accessible vocals, rich harmonies, classical style piano playing, gorgeous string sections and the most amazing beats ever programmed, then you have Daughter Darling.
www.daughterdarling.com www.cdbaby.com/cd/daughterdarling
Photographer: Chad Michael Ward Photographer: Anthony Epes
How has music inspired you?
kaRIN: Music has always been a part of my life. As I child, I used to make up my own songs. I used to love to go to someone's house who had a piano and just pretend that I could play, and then I would sing my heart out. During my teenage years, many of my friends played guitar and we sat around and played and sang every song we knew. To the present, where singing is the most important thing to me, I feel like I have to sing, it is the best possible way for me to release my emotions.
Your musical inspirations
kaRIN: Just to create more and be happy with what I do. It is not enough to make something…I really want it to be something special on all levels…that can also be a source of frustration as well, but when it’s good it is very satisfying. It definitely helps me to have an extremely talented partner Statik, who has the capacity to bring what we do to a higher level.
Has music helped you through a difficult or traumatic time in your life?
kaRIN: Yes, many times. The first time I joined a band seriously, was because I had been dumped from a terrible relationship and was feeling like I could become destructive to myself. I knew the best thing for me was to pour myself into music, where I could vent and channel my distress. Later, to deal with the sickness and then death of my mother, I immersed myself in music. I totally believe in taking events in your life and even though they are not good, you can make them into something positive if you want to.
Any meaningful CDs/songs?
kaRIN: Do you mean that I have written, or that I have heard? Of the ones that I have written, each one holds a special place in my heart, as they come from a pure place and become a journal of sorts. One of the songs that really touches me is the last song on our first album Beneath the Skin, it is called 95 & 7. It is a very abstract song, written right after the death of my mother and it deals with life after death and going through a tunnel or white light and the mystery of what happens in that in between space of life and death. As far as songs that other people have done…there are so many. It is usually through the words that I connect or disconnect the most. I love both Lisa Gerrard (Dead can Dance) and Elizabeth Frazier (Cocteau Twins), as they are able to express so much without words. Some of the artists and words that particularly touch me are Kate Bush, "if I only could make a deal with God, I'd get him to swap our places…", Pink Floyd, "We're just two lost souls living in a fish bowl year after year, running over the same old ground, have you found the same old fear, wish you were here". David Bowie's song Couple of Kooks, Iggy Pop's, Lust for Life, I could go on and on… ultimately words are very important to me. I always listen to them and they have the potential to reach deep inside of me.
Discuss the creative or songwriting process
kaRIN: For me, it is the great release. I am usually by myself with my machines and I just let myself go into the music and let words come out. The music always dictates the feel. Then I continue to evolve and develop the song until I am happy with it. I don't try to force it, I just keep at it until it works, it can take a long time until I am satisfied with it. I will focus my energy into it and then it will finally click. Occasionally, I will write in my sleep and then wake up with it.
Discuss your feelings about the powerful or life-changing effects that music can have on a person.
kaRIN: I think that music and art have the power to bring people to another place, stop them dead in their tracks, teach them, enlighten them, make them think differently and make it feel worthwhile to be alive.
kaRIN
Sensual, powerful, exotic, and alluring.
COLLIDE creates an aural sculpture that manages to defy categorization.
It is at once deep and smooth as glass, with undulating waves of sound that seduce the senses.
E-mail--Xcollide@aol.com
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New CD Vortex--release date May 18.
* How has music inspired you? Your musical inspirations?
Music is the most important thing in my life...and the one thing that keeps me truly balanced. I am inspired by music and creativity everyday..it surrounds me. The artist's whose music inspires me most are: Tom Wait's, Ryan Adams, and Patti Smith.
* Has music helped you through a difficult or traumatic time in your life?
Music has helped me though many difficult and traumatic times in my life. My first record "Home" is purely based on all the changes that were happening to me at that time. Tragedy often makes for great songs though.
* Any songs or CD’s which are meaningful to you?
I love anything by Tom Wait's, Patti Smith, Counting Crows or Ryan Adams. To me these artist's are all groundbreaking in their own way and have created art that is meaningful and important and they are not concerned with commerciality as much as staying true to the music.
* Discuss the creative or songwriting process--
My songwriting process unfortunately happens to be quite a tormenting one. Writing songs is an agonizing process because of the pressure I put on myself. I am a perfectionist by nature and I won't write something just for the sake of writing. I want my songs to mean something to me and to other people. Lyrics are especially important. Too much importance gets placed on commerciality and salability which makes the real music harder to get through so I try hard to put out quality instead of quantity.
* Discuss your feelings about the powerful or life-changing effects that music can have on a person --
Without sounding too corny, music is the soundtrack to our lives. It is there in the most pivotal moments and experiences whether tragic or happy. Music can trigger a memory or a feeling that we once had and that we may be trying to get back or remember again. It serves as a timeline for every event in our lives.
Annie Minogue's album, "HOME" was released on the Nippon Crown label in Japan and her songs have been featured on MTV's The Real World, MSNBC, the Japanese News, Songwriter's Hall Of Fame Showcase and in the independent feature "Out of the Black." Songs from her latest release "Love Parade" have been featured on the television show "Dawson's Creek" and she was recently a finalist in the Rock Category of the USA Songwriting Competition. Annie's worked with some of the biggest names in the business such as producers/mixers Leif Mases (Jeff Beck, Led Zeppelin) Peter Moshay (Mariah Carey, Hall & Oates and Jennifer Lopez) and George Marino (Joan Osborne, The Black Crowes, Led Zeppelin and Guns N' Roses).
http://www.annieminogue.com/ http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/minogue2
* How has music inspired you? Your musical inspirations?
MR: It’s in my blood. The love of music and creating music began very
early, my mother was a trained soprano, my father a baritone, so
listening to my mother play piano and sing - music and the love of
music was around from the very beginning. My mother died when I was
five, and I began to live in my own world after that; due to this, I
was very strange to other children, I didn't connect well. Music took
me away from my surroundings and helped create other worlds; I used to
stage operas in my head from when I was about 7 years old. My earliest
influences were The Beatles, Marlene Dietrich, old Hollywood musicals,
stage shows like Jesus Christ Superstar, which must have influenced my
theatrical side. I became a punk in 1980, and began singing for bands
in the Washington DC hardcore punk scene, yet always I had a theatrical
side... After almost 25 years of creating and releasing music, I am
very satisfied with Faith and the Muse. Our music stretches from
personal acoustic pieces to full orchestral explosion; all of my
influences come to the surface.
* Has music helped you through a difficult or traumatic time in your
life?
MR: Absolutely. Music, like poetry, can tell Truths to a person. I
see my songs sometimes visually, like a surrounding atmosphere that can
rise up when the time beckons. I wrote a number of songs during or
about painful times on my life, and after one of my fans experiences
something similar, they suddenly can see into or connect with the song.
I often write about the feminine view of life, the differences between
the truth and ideal of "woman", and I think my music really connects to
the listener on many levels.
* Discuss the creative or songwriting process --
MR: It changes one song to the next. My influences come from all
sides, actually - mythology, history, literature. I may write about
the pain of unrequited love, the dim memory of childhood dreams, the
perfection of youth and the deification of one who passes while young,
always to be remembered that way... I often begin with my poetry and
write the soundscape to it, other times I may start with a drumbeat and
create a lyrical anthem.
* Discuss your feelings about the powerful or life-changing effects
that music can have on a person --
MR: Our current CD is called "The Burning Season" - it is a call for
cleansing, for rebirth, for fire. My themes always run around a
mythological or historical sense of the current view of the world - the
more things seem to change, it all reflects on the fact that things
never change. Life must still be what you make it, and that is what I
express to those who listen to my music or read my poetry or even look
upon my artwork. I want to empower, as I know that music has that
ability, it can change a person's view of themselves, it connects, it
revives.
Monica
Combining the surreal mixture of lyrical emotion with sonic texture and aesthetic color, amidst a diverse musical background ranging from Dark Alternative and Electronic with elements of Celtic, World music and Neo-Classical, Faith And The Muse provide one of the rarest experiences in art, theater and music.
As artists and songwriters, William Faith and Monica Richards have created their own unique universe by allowing no boundaries to the music they create, reaching across historical genre and cultural style: a lyrical, rhythmic connection to the sublime and the beautiful. From personal acoustic pieces and traditional/tribal folk melodies to grand orchestral production and dark rock epics, this diverse combination of simplicity and complexity places Faith And The Muse in their own musical category. Monica Richards' distinctive, charismatic voice possesses the emotion of a Greek Chorus, and along with Faith's immeasurable capacity for instrumentation, the duo reveals an unusual poetic vision of the world around us, fluent in all musical languages, with an eclectic sense of sonic experimentation that can only be defined as Faith And The Muse. Each album they have released, with stunning visual concepts created by Richards, has been hailed as a singular piece of lyrical and musical history, taking the listener on a journey through the ages with the underlying message that something amazing transcends the mundane..
http://www.mercyground.com/
Art & Poetry site:
http://www.mercyground.com/thestudio
THE MERCYGROUND
P.O. Box 2286
Hollywood, CA 90078-2286
USA
info@mercyground.com
* How has music inspired you?
I find my principal inspirations in old legends and myths, in literature
(especially fantastic literature), in my life and my own experiences, in the
actuality, in other cultures(I love the anthropology)…Opera also influences me as I learn to sing it. Feelings are always present in the opera repertory and I try to do the same in my songs.
* Has music helped you through a difficult or traumatic time in your life?
Music always helps me in any time of my life. It helped me to overcome my
adolescent complexes, my shyness. Music helps me when I am sad, it permits
me to express my feelings, it is a real relief. When I am nervous or angry,
music helps me to calm down.
* Any meaningful CDs/songs?
I am influenced by some artists and bands like Kate Bush, Tori Amos, Bjork,
Dead Can Dance… Maria Callas is also a great reference for me because she
has a real power to express feelings. I recommend her music if you are
feeling bad!
* Discuss the creative or songwriting process–
This is a very magical moment for me. I let my fingers travel on the harp
and I just listen. Sometimes a melody emerges sometimes not… It depends on
my inspiration. After that I try to sing on the melody, I put words on the
notes. These are words that I have in mind or feelings that the music
inspires to me. It is a bit hard to explain, this is just a special moment
when my mind is free and when thoughts that are hidden in it can come out
* Discuss your feelings about the powerful or life-changing effects that
music can have on a person–
Music can help you to be more self confident, to build your own personality
Playing or listening music can be a cure for depression or sadness.
Sometimes, you listen to a song and you realise that you are not alone, that
other people can understand you…Music can express feelings that are too strong to be expressed by the way of words.
www.keltia.info
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