Boyd Kant: I’m ashamed to admit this, but I just got your album a few weeks ago,
it’s really incredible-quite a departure from Lycia. It seems a bit more...surreal.Tara Vanflower: More chaotic, perhaps...a bit less structured.
Boyd Kant: How is Mike doing lately?
Tara: Well, he’s starting to feel better now, although
he recently had yet another problem. Around this time last year, he almost died. I’m
not sure if I mentioned it to you before, but Lycia is pretty much non-existent as of
right now. We were going to end it a year ago, but Mike decided to keep going, but after
this last incident...
Boyd Kant: You figured it best to slow down.
Tara: Yeah, slow down. Not keep worrying about things that
really aren’t so big in the "grand scheme of things".
Boyd Kant: I’m sure the fans will understand.
Tara: Pretty much everyone has been really supportive,
except a few. One guy in particular wrote to us and was just appalled that we were taking
away his band! He doesn’t even know us, he doesn’t know what we’ve been
through…and it’s not like we would just throw Lycia away for some ridiculous
reason, especially Mike, I mean, he’s been doing this for like twelve years. Do you
really think he’s just going to forget about all the work he put into Lycia?
It’s just ridiculous.
Boyd Kant: I guess some people just see you as a piece
of art, or a commodity.
Tara: Or something.
Boyd Kant: Did Mike enjoy helping you with your album?
Tara: Yeah, it was sort of interesting because it
wasn’t anything like recording a Lycia album, there were no preconceived ideas or
expectations of what anything should sound like, we just went in and experimented,
recorded, basically had fun. He just sort of kicked back and recorded, for once the burden
wasn’t on his shoulders…it was on mine! (Laughs)
Boyd Kant: Was there a lot of anxiety over the album
for you?
Tara: Well, it’s kind of hard to explain. It’s
like…you’re around it so much, and you’re doing these little details over
and over, after awhile it doesn’t feel like it’s even "your album".
Even after it’s finished you feel sort of disassociated from it, like it’s
something that is it’s own "self". Like you’ve just pushed your child
out of the house or something.
Boyd Kant: A separate entity.
Tara: Yeah. There was a little bit of apprehension as to
whether or not people would like it, but for the most part people seem to. I like it, and
to me that matters most.
Boyd Kant: So, what about the Estraya project?
(Acoustic side-project.)
Tara: Well, we had been working on the new label (Lyceum)
and we were ready to go full ahead with the new album, we had them pressed up, the whole
bit, and then the thing with Mike happened. So that delayed things, and then there were a
ton of other problems that came up, it was just one thing after another, on and on. As far
as I know, Projekt is selling the ones they have, and we have the rest sitting in our
living room, some of which we may give to friends who have record labels. I’ll have
some copies with me at the Cornerstone Festival this summer, so people can buy them there.
Otherwise, the project is pretty much on hold. Mike is at the point right now where
he’s not even sure if he wants to do anything with music ever again. So, we’re
not even worrying about that right now, we’re just focusing on him feeling better
physically.
[At this point, the conversation turns to touring and
the problems of under-promotion. I tell her about the Eva O. show back in ’95 at The
Empire, now Ybor City’s premier booty-shaking glow-stick club. The show was a prime
example of under-promotion. There was one ad poster hanging inside the venue, one schedule
listing in a local music magazine, and probably twenty people at the show.]
Boyd Kant: It was amazing to watch her play that damned
guitar, she went completely wild on that thing. For a crowd of so few people she really
put on a good show, it was intense.
Tara: I’ve never met her in person, but I’ve
heard she’s very sweet.
Boyd Kant: Yeah, I talked with her briefly after the
set, she was really nice, and she’s such a cute, short little person.
Tara: Really? She always looks so tall in the pictures you
see of her.
[Tara is not really into the "goth-rock"
thing so much as the softer, more melodic form of electronic music. She tells me she has
been listening to Trance to the Sun, talk-radio, even the legendary Clash. And of course,
Swans, which we conclude are more country than "country".]
Boyd Kant: I’ve heard you use Swans as a crucial
reference point in your musical influences, you describe them as dark and beautiful, yet
so very Midwestern American in their overall feel. What about the music you grew up
listening to, the old country music, has that influenced you?
Tara: I wouldn’t say it’s influenced me that
much, although I definitely do relate a lot of the old country music to being very young
and carefree and happy. And I do like country music, but nothing from the past thirty
years or so. All of my family are from West Virginia, and my grandfather and others used
to play the fiddle and banjo, so I guess it’s always been a very strong part of me,
an influence perhaps subconsciously in other areas.
Boyd Kant: I often argue with others that Swans are
much more "country" in spirit and essence than a lot of these phony
"country artists" cluttering the airwaves. I think old Hank Williams
would’ve agreed.
Tara: Yes! That’s right, absolutely! I just think that
Michael Gira is a genius, everything that man does is so perfect. And, you know, even
though he says that The Burning World is not that great of an album, It’s such a
perfect album to listen to when you’re traveling through the Midwest. It’s my
favorite of theirs, a perfect piece of Americana. Gira and Jarboe are both amazing
musicians, it’s a shame that they’ve gotten such little recognition. Those
people deserve to be very wealthy; they are the two most under-appreciated people I know
of.
Boyd Kant: Weren’t you supposed to do a song with
Jarboe?
Tara: Yes, I was, but there was scheduling conflicts, so
nothing really came of it.
Boyd Kant: You seem to have very strong Christian
ideals.
Tara: Yes.
Boyd Kant: Yet I was curious to find your name
mentioned in the liner note acknowledgements of albums by both Type-O Negative and The
Electric Hellfire Club, both known for mocking Christianity, in Thomas Thorn’s case,
openly attacking it.
Tara: Really? I didn’t know they mentioned my name,
that’s surprising. They were both on the same tour us awhile ago, really nice guys,
all of them. I mean, I really don’t care what anyone believes, as long as they
don’t try to change my beliefs, everyone has a right to think what they want. I
really don’t know anything about the Hellfire Club, or any of that music, I just
heard some of the songs they did at the shows. I’m actually really amazed at some of
the people I’ve met since I got into this business; sometimes it freaks me out.
Boyd Kant: What really freaks you out in particular
when you look back?
Tara: I guess the freakiest thing thats happened so far was at a show in San Francisco
awhile back. Marilyn Manson and Smashing Pumpkins decided to show up at the club we were
playing, it was horrible. That guy "Twiggy whoever" walks up to me and asks me
whose equipment is on the stage, obviously he knows we're the band that's about to
perform, because we were the first people they approached. So I'm like: "It's Lycias
equipment." and he says, " Well, we wanna play." I told him he was going to
have to talk to Mike. So, he goes over to Mike and tells him they want to play onstage,
and Mike goes, "Well, do have any equipment with you?" "No."
"Well, I guess you wont be playing." It was great. They thought that because
they're such big rock stars wed bend over for them or something. And the really great part
is that our audience completely ignored them.
Boyd Kant: Thats really funny.
Tara: I can’t stand their music, anyway.
Boyd Kant: Do you believe in the Devil as an actual
being or living entity?
Tara: Yes.
Boyd Kant: Okay. On a less metaphysical note...how are
your cats?
Tara: (laughs) Uh…great, I guess. They’re
snuggled up on the couch right now. They got "kitty condos" for Christmas, which
they seem to like.
Boyd Kant: That Projekt benefit album you appeared on
was a great one (A cat-shaped hole in my heart), Christians and Satanist alike can agree
on the importance of cats! Are there any other benefit albums you would like to see made?
Tara: Well, on a personal note, perhaps one for aid in the
research of diabetes, it affects a lot of people.
Boyd Kant: Definitely a good idea. Another cat album,
also!
[With that, we said our farewells, and
ended the conversation, which clocked in at just over 42 minutes. For details on her
appearance at the Cornerstone Festival, contact the Tara Vanflower website. For details on
Lycia or related merchandise, contact the Projekt website.]
Visit
Lycium Music
The Official Tara Vanflower Web
The
Estraya Project
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