Who is Tara Vanflower?

The same dork who had few friends in high school, twirled baton, had a million pets, and loved the Cleveland Browns.


And what has changed since your childhood?

I’m not nearly as nice as I was as a child. I had no malice in me whatsoever. I went through a very dark part in my life that turned me into a not-very-nice human being. I’d say I’m mostly healed from that period, but there are scars that get left behind and you can never return to that childlike innocence once it’s gone. The positive is that I no longer care what people think of me for the most part so I’ll stand up for what I believe without fear of what others will think.


And what age did you get in contact in music, did you grow up in a musical family?

My grandpa played the fiddle and the guitar, but I never knew him as a musician. I started playing the flute in 5th grade but since I have no patience for the learning things I can’t pretty much just immediately do, I quit in the 6th grade. I didn’t get re-interested in music until after I graduated high school. I met a few musicians and thought putting my poetry to music would be pretty cool.


What role does music play in your life?

Not nearly as big a role as it used to. It will always be a part of me and the way my brain works. I have always been a writer first and sort of fell into music by chance.


Is being a writer the same as being a storyteller or are there differences?

For me I think they’re pretty much the same thing. I write what I would want to read. Naturally the stories sometimes take turns you wish they wouldn’t take, but the story is what it is and you have to do what needs to be done. They sort of take a life of their own to some degree. I want to write visually... meaning it’s important to paint a whole picture with my words so that the reader can see and feel what I see and feel. I want to be true to the world of my characters and tell their story as best I can. So, yeah, for me it’s the same thing. HAHA

Lycia has been around since the late 80s. It’s pretty much Mike’s vehicle and those others of us who were involved were more of an extension of his ideas.


When did you discover you could sing, are you a trained singer?

I have always sung. I am in no way trained at anything I do. I was in choir in high school, but that was almost more of a social outlet since all my friends were in choir. I still haven’t discovered that I can sing. I just do what I do.


The music of Lycia is very dark, how do you guys rehearse without getting depressed?

I don’t see the music as depressing at all to be honest. The events that happened that inspired some of the work is depressing, but it’s more reflective in my opinion. It just is what it is. Expecting your own music to affect your emotions so deeply would be like saying Stephen King should be walking around scared to death all the time. Nothing depresses me but my view of the world itself and the stuff I see going on to people I love and the helpless feeling that causes. Naturally, anyone who creates honestly will feel what they’re creating, but once I walk away from it I leave it behind….or try to anyway. Um, I think I just contradicted myself! haha


If you could pick any view that you would see when you look out the window in the morning, what would you prefer and why?

OOOOOO! Good question! Hmm…. I would like my view to be varied. Today the view I would like to see would be the view I had from my home in Ohio. A deep, lush forest and green, green grass…breeze blowing through the trees making the leaves sing.


Does this answer reflect you as a person as well, someone who likes a variety of things? How do you approach new things, with an open mind or with some reservation?

My tastes and personality are extremely varied. I love dark experimental music and films and I also love bluegrass and cheesy 80s stuff. I make this sort of weird/disturbing art and love darker things and yet I also love sports, am a registered Republican and a Christian. I fit everywhere and nowhere. Too weird to be normal and too normal to be weird. I don’t care though. I don’t need or desire to fit anyone’s mold. I find it very, very humorous when someone tries to pigeonhole who I am based on their own set of dogmas. I get a lot of people trying to get me to defend some of the things I’m about. Um, no, I don’t have to. I don’t judge anyone else and I expect the same level of respect.

There’s no way I could answer that question. It’s kind of like asking me to pick which one of my dogs I like better. Each piece I’ve written represents a specific time and place and usually once it’s been written and reflected upon it’s almost sort of a testament to something I no longer feel. Like looking at a photograph of a place you used to live but no longer relate to.


Is writing poetry for you a way to look at things, perhaps in another perspective and also some kind of closure of things that have happened?

I’m sure that’s the case. There some sort of release you get when you allow words to flow how they may. It’s almost like a creating a sort of subconscious diary. I can look back at things I’ve written and know exactly what it meant at the time it was written, but at the same time I might no longer relate to it because we all evolve daily. A lot of things I’ve created in terms of lyrics I really didn’t know the meaning of as it was written but can look back in retrospect and understand it completely.


Are there different sources of inspiration for you in writing music or poems or making drawings?

Absolutely. It can be anything from a dream, to a person, to an idea, or just a phrase that comes to mind that starts the ball rolling. There’s no rhyme or reason to it. Everything I do creatively comes from that same sort of intangible place that you always hope to get back to.


Your latest project is Lives of Ilya, what can you tell about it and how was it to work with Daniele Serra?

I adore Dani completely. We’ve had this project finished for a long time now and can’t wait to hold it in our hands. It should be back from the printer any time now. There will be several release parties across the country and that is very exciting for me! It’s basically a collection of life ‘snippets’ from a vampire named Ilya who appears briefly in Violet Misery. I plan to tell her story more over the course of several episodes and potentially a full book of her own one day.


How do you create “art”, can you sit down and be focussed for work or do you wait till you have inspiration?

I have to be in the right place mentally and I have no clue how to get there all on my own. There’s this strange thing that happens to you when everything just flows or clicks and you have to get it out before the moment passes.


How does the ideal Tara day looks like?

Waking around 6 AM. Having coffee and breakfast with Mike. Taking the dogs to the dog park or maybe going for a hike out in the desert. Getting some writing and/or music done. Watching some soap operas. (I know, I know) Taking a nap. Doing some exercising. Etc. Nothing too terribly interesting.

Well, creating for one thing. I don’t nearly have enough time to create, hence the reason my projects are sitting around half finished. That stressed me out, believe me. But I think more than that I would like more time to connect with the wonderful people I’ve met online. There are so many I wish I had more time to get to know on a deeper level, but unfortunately there just isn’t enough time to do it. I feel really bad when people write to me these wonderful emails and I don’t have the time to give them the energy that they deserve. It makes me sad.


What kind of superpower would you like to have and why?

I would like to be invisible and immortal. That way I wouldn’t have to worry about my health and I could spy on people. I love people watching…especially when they don’t know they’re being watched. I know that sounds really horrible, but I don’t mean it in a perverted way. I just find people’s behaviour fascinating.


You mention your health, in what way is this having an influence on your dreams and the things you want to do? 

As of this moment I don’t have any truly horrible health problems besides the nagging allergies and anxiety issues, which have pretty much cleared up thanks to my friends Zoloft and Taebo. But so many who are close to me have either died from cancer, or nearly died from other things, so worrying about health is always on my mind to some degree. I’m trying really hard to take care of myself by eating right and exercising. This is something I have at times been very, very good at and at others failed colossally.  I just think it’s immensely important to take care of yourself wholly. My goal is to be independent of all medicine at some point. Immortality sounds good to me. I’ve been mourning that passage of time since I was a little kid.


What was the most important day in your life and why?

Probably the day I decided to send Mike VanPortfleet that first fan letter…and the day he decided to write me back. Those two decisions have changed the course of my life forever.


Any last words for the readers?

I just want to thank you personally for contacting me. You’ve been fun to talk with. And I want everyone to know how truly touched I am by their kindness. It means the world to me.

www.myspace.com/lycia
www.lyciummusic.com