Who is Theresa?
-- Theresa is just a girl. She'd like to say she's a grown, responsible 27 year old woman, but she just can't seem to accept the fact the she works a real 9-5 job, pays her bills, and doesn't get into *too much* trouble. She wishes she could be Peter Pan and never grow up, but she knows in order to be successful with music she somehow needs to pay for her gear and equipment and her lifestyle. She still trying to find that balance in life between work and play. One of her greatest achievements in life is learning how to accept responsibility for her own actions - it took a while, but it's totally worth it. --
You started playing keyboards/piano at the age of 7. Your parents sended you to a folk musician for lessons, your lessons started as classical but quickly switched into classic rock tunes, 3 different styles of music of what you are playing today. Are these styles still of influence and what made you turn to electronic music?
-- Absolutely! All three of those styles are still an influence to me. My piano teacher from my childhood was a really cool woman. She and her husband were folk musicians that played on river boat tours down the Erie Canal. They were incredible musicians who had music in their hearts. As a kid, that was an amazing thing to witness. I was always more interested in getting my hands on the keys, and rarely did my theory homework. I wanted to be able to play the music I heard coming from my older brothers' room - everything from The Beatles, to Metallica, to Kansas and John Denver. I had to grow through learning classical compositions to get to the rock material - but I'm so glad I did. Every now and again I have to play Moonlight Sonata to remind myself how good it feels.
I am still inspired by folk musicians like Dar Williams and Tori Amos. They're raw and down to earth in the way they write and sing. Classic rock and even a little metal will get me pumped up to write a cool bass line and to really push my voice. I'm a sucker for singing along with the classic rock station in my car. And classical music always calms - and if I ever need a little inspiration for a minor chord progression, there's nothing better than listening to a little Mozart.
Although they may never admit it or recognize it, my family has had a huge impact of my musical adventures. My dad would tell me stories of his rock band back in high school/college called Blackwater. He and a few friends would play at school dances and parties playing covers of the biggest rock tunes at the time. And knowing my dad, they probably rocked the house. He still has his amp and teal color electric guitar sitting somewhere in the basement of their house. And my brother Mike would take guitar lessons from the same woman who tought me the piano - we'd go to our lessons together and watch each other play. I loved hearing him play and sing - he's got a great voice. And my oldest brother Jim was the one originally responsible for introducing me to electronic music. Once, when he came from college for a weekend he gave me a mixed tape he had of all the new bands he'd been hearing while at school - bands like KMFDM, Skinny Puppy, Lords of Acid - I was probably 15 at the time. It was like nothing I had EVER heard before. I must have listened to "Butterfly Wings" from Machines of Loving Grace at least a few hundred times before the tape corroded from too much use.
I went to New Orleans with a friend in 2003 for the annual Jazz Festival - too much drinking at night and sleeping during the day meant we only saw one day of the festival. But we were there for a week - and over the course of those 7 days we went into a club called the Whirling Derivsh in the French Quarter - and when we walked in "Boys and Girls" from Blur was playing loud and proud. I stayed there all night dancing like an idiot to music I'd never heard before. It was a breath of fresh air from all the pubs and jock bars we had gone to. That was my first personal, yet brief, introduction to the underground scene.
I still totally enjoy industrial music, but after Jason took me to Rochester's only goth/industrial/electronic club called Vertex, I heard the music that I had been waiting for all my life. I had been a huge fan of Vocal Trance and House techno back in college - and I would always wonder how in the world those sounds were made, how the songs were created with big builds and arpeggiation. I wanted to know how it was done, but had no one to teach me. Once Jason brought me to Vertex I somehow understood that everything I knew about music was about to change. He gave me electronic music with a traditional song structure, emotional lyrics, and even more emotional melodies. Thumpy "oontz oontz oontz" kinda beats which made me want to move. In one night I heard songs from bands like VNV Nation, Covenant, The Azoic, Depeche Mode, Dead Can Dance, Juno Reactor... the list goes on. I found my place and ever since then writing electronic music has felt like home.
-- Actually. if I could somehow convert a concert grand into a midi controller, I would. I love the weighted keys, the look and the feel of a piano. I am amazed by the mechanics of a piano. I love the beauty of a piano. But I lack the space and humidity control for one. And again, I would want the option of using it as a controller... Plus, how in the world could I ever go on tour with a midi controlled concert grand? :)
Jason of Silent auction had a big influence on you as well, in what way?
-- Jason has had an influence on me in almost every possible way. He is my main inspiration in life, in music, and in the ways to live life with sincerity (and he's my main kick-in-the-ass to get working). He is the person responsible for teaching me how to write electronic music and how to use the tools we work with and how to grow with them (technology is constantly changing and upgrading!). But he has taught me so much more than that alone. He is a total creative force in the studio! When we write together, we slip into our own little world where nothing else matters but our imaginations. He has taught me how to embrace my ideas and how to roll with them. He has taught me the difference between powerful sound and emotional sound. We're learning together how to master our own techniques and we've recently started to research the ins and outs of how to get better sound quality in our work - he's a positive critic and there's always something to be learned. But that's just the musician inspiration. I'd have to write a novel to tell you how he's an inspiration for me in life and love.
-- I was actually a part of Silent Auction before Chapter 2 even began. At the time I joined Silent Auction (as vocalist only) there were 3 Jasons in the band: Jason Barbero, Jason Rowe, and Jace Luce. Jason B asked me if I'd be willing to sing with them for a few songs at a show they were performing at here in Rochester for a Labor Day event. One of the songs was called "Everything" which I had a little lyrical influence on, and since it was a love song between Jason and myself, he thought it would be a great way to really pull the song together on stage if we sang it to each other. It was a turning point for me... it just felt right to me being up there singing in front of a few hundred people. And to think I was a nervous wreck everytime I had to do public speaking before that! There's something about standing on a stage under bright lights where you can barely make out figures in the crowd singing your heart out. "They" say if you're nervous speaking in front of people you should imagine them in their underwear... there's no need for that if you can't even see them. Plus, the event we were performing at was a goth/industrial club where everyone's dressed in their bras and fishnets anyway ;) It was great.
After that show, I started singing and performing on keys a little bit at more of the Silent Auction shows. I started writing my own music after Jason built a computer for me with all the neccessary programs and tools I needed to get into it. He showed me how to work with them, how to record my bare vocals and clean them up. I didn't have any kind of studio, just my bedroom in my apartment. Basic home audio speakers, crappy computer microphone with NO dynamics, and a very basic knowledge of writing electronic music. The first year of writing produced some of the most god-awful sounds (I can't really even call them songs), but it was all a learing process, just as it still is now. I eventually came up with a somewhat decent song, and Jason took it from me and rearranged it and totally gave it a life. I watched as he did it, and learned from that. We burned it to a CD and drove around Rochester with Jace Luce in the backseat listening to it over and over again, critiquing it, and deciding what should stay and what should go. I finally felt like a part of Silent Auction that night. That song stays in my "archive" of old work.
I eventually wrote more and more structured songs with real melodies and personality, and I put one of them, "Deprived" online through a site that encourages public critticism and feedback. I was contacted by a local electronic act, Tripthrottle, to open for them as a solo artist for one of their upcoming shows. It was then that I decided to give my "solo work" a name. Since I began my life in visual art (and still work on it when I can), I thought it would be appropriate to consider music/audio the second chapter in my life. Hence, Chapter 2. Simple, I know. But it stuck and it works. I still think it's funny when people I know actually call me "Chapter 2" instead of Terri. It's my other identity.
While preparing for that solo opening act, I knew I needed a new song that had more of that synthpop feel that I love so much to throw into the set. Jason had just written a song that I wanted to respond to - and instead of writing him a note or talking to him, I wrote him a song that night - "Reasons to Love" - I finished it in one night and threw it into the set. It was a hit. After claiming it as a Chapter 2 song for only a few weeks, we decided to give it to Silent Auction for the "Amber Lights" EP. My first real song given to the band. It was a little piece to a big puzzle that just fit perfectly.
Silent Auction began with Jason Barbero and Jason Rowe ten years ago. Jason Barbero has had music in his life just as long as I have, only for him it was and always will be a reason life makes any kind of sense at all. Music for him has been therapy, a friend, a lover, and an escape. All VERY important things. That is why I KNOW Silent Auction, whether in name or being, will always exist. Through the course of life, Jason Rowe and Jace Luce, along with a few other vocalists, have departed the band to conquer other life adventures like families, jobs, and other music opportunities. We are all still a "family" though. We encourage each other to do well with what we aim for, and help out whenever we can. And if/when the opportunity arises when we can have any of them help on a Silent Auction song, we will. Silent Auction isn't just an electronic band, it's a collaborative effort to create great synthpop/EBM/futurepop that will get people off their butts and on the dancefloor and will open them up to a new wave of underground music. We're not reinventing the wheel, we're just making the whole scene and genre personal. Silent Auction is a culmination of influences from 70s classic rock, to current pop, and harsh industrial. But we do have a sound we aim for, and if we stray away from that sound on any given song, than we add it to our solo projects. Now that Silent Auction is just Jason and myself, we write with the mindset that each song is a Silent Auction song - and if in the end it just doesn't "fit", then we keep it for our own projects. It's pretty simple, really. We do consider our music synthpop/futurepop, but we would love be able to cross genres at some point and get our work listened to by more than just the underground. Silent Auction has it's own identity, and we have to nurture it and help it grow if it's going to the success we want it to be. That is why we don't have much of a social life - we spend all our free time working on our music to make it the best it can be.
-- There was one night I went over to Jason's studio to test out the whole voice recording process (this was before the Labor Day event and before I ever sang in front of another human being) and I actually made him leave for an hour while I attempted my first recording! He sat in his car for over an hour in the rain. Poor guy. But is was the only way I could get comfortable with my own voice. Singing in the shower or in the car is one thing, but when you open yourself up like that in front of another person (especially one you're totally attracted to) you become incredibly vulnerable. When he came back in, he cleaned up my recording, threw a little reverb on it and a slight delay, and all of a sudden I heard my voice with real potential. It wasn't great by any means, but it gave me confidence. Oh, and a few bottles of beer helped, too.
How do you compose your songs?
-- Every song is different. Some of them begin with a bass line idea, a vocal melody that I throw in as a bell tone or a low cutoff synth, or a full out drum pattern that takes days to create. Then I build on that. I'm used to working in layers, just like painting - so that part makes sense to me. I have a song that I wrote on a flight from Las Vegas back to Rochester, "Fastlane" on the upcoming H on Earth album - it took me 6 hours to write the entire lyrical story, and it took me 6 days to write the music to accompany it (that's not including the weeks it took to master it and refine it). There's another song, "Detour" that I wrote the day following a VNV show we saw in Buffalo, NY, which began with a synth lead and nothing else. "Good Girl" started with a solid but bare song structure without any kind of vocal parts, and when Jason heard it the next morning, he had his way with it and together we wrote the lyrics. He really didn't change the song as I had it, he added to it and made it more full. There have been many, many songs that began as "tutorials" - where I had been learning a new process or tool, and through the educational process, I ended up with an awesome lead or hook, or a full song. Like I said, every song is different. Listening to new music from other artists or listening in on a stranger's conversation is a great way to get sparked on a new idea. This is a warning to everyone - watch out what you say when I'm around - I totally listen in! "Princess", one of my Chapter 2 songs, is totally the result of listening in on someone else.
Silent Auction brings positive songs in the so called “dark music” isn’t this a bit strange?
-- I think it's strange that some people are afraid of new ideas. We've heard this before, from people very close to us - but it always makes me wonder why they're so afraid of us bringing our music into a "dark" scene - what's better than shining a little light into a dark room? it makes you more aware of where you are and who you're with. It makes you appreciate all those things you've been too afraid to embrace, like who you really are and where you're coming from. It's OK to get in touch with those things that scare you or make you vulnerable - it's only by approaching those things that you overcome self-doubt and realize there are greater things out there than yourself. For me, and for Silent Auction and Chapter 2, bringing a more positive energy into the underground isn't something new - there are plenty of bands that are on the same wave as us that are played regularly at darkwave/industrial clubs or in select radio stations, and they almost always have a great reaction - because the people listening know that there is a balance. I love hearing our music in "dark" places - just as much as I love hearing it on the radio mixed in with indie rock and garage pop.
-- "Amber Lights" is what I consider our crossover album. It's short - it's a 6 track EP - but it's a bridge from the older Silent Auction sound into the new Silent Auction. We've been working on our newest album, H on Earth, for a few years - and it's worth every day we've spent on it. I'm hoping people who have heard Amber Lights will see the connection. It's not intentional, but it's turned into that piece of Silent Auction's past that gives light into all the new stuff we've been creating. When you've been working on one sound, or one project, for years and years (like Jason has with Silent Auction), turning it over and giving it new life can take a while. Amber Lights was a great way for us to expose our newer ideas in the only way we knew at the time. Since that EP, our sound has just grown. We're adding more pop, more change-ups, more bridges and hooks, and a much cleaner sound to our work. I think Amber Lights was the first project that really showed the potential for Silent Auction to cross genres. And, it was a breakthrough for me personally - it was the first album that I ever had one of my songs on. Having "Reasons to Love" on that EP was huge for me. And with my vocals on "Everything", that just added to the excitement. Watching Jason write songs like "Why" and "Pariah" was amazing. I got to witness the change in a person from melancholy and brooding to energized and full of passion.
How important is it to “touch” people with your songs and how do you try to achieve that?
-- It's more important than anything I can explain. Giving people a piece of yourself and letting them into your life, your world, is very personal and slightly scary. But when you hear back from someone you've never met and they tell you how much your words or your music touched them, or made sense to them, it's just amazing. It's the best feeling in the world. It was slightly strange the first time I ever heard someone tell me how the song "Reasons to Love" was a perfect explanation of how they felt about their love - It hadn't occurred to me that someone else might feel the same way I felt about Jason - but then I realized that I gave them words they may have had difficulty finding in how to explain their thoughts to the person who meant so much to them. It's like when you go to the store to find that "perfect" card for someone's birthday or anniversary, but none of them seem to say all that you wish it said. When I hear from someone that they could relate to a song, or that a certain song touched them, I feel like I just gave them the perfect greeting card. Well, maybe it's a little different from that, but you catch my drift.
Silent Auction is still unknown in Europe, why is this according you and how will you make Silent Auction more known?
-- We're still working on the whole promotion and distribution process of our band. We are signed onto an independent label, AngstLab Records, and it has been great for us as an up-and-coming band. But we do need more promotion. We're building our network of DJs, promoters, and other bands - but we what we really need is a place/person/ group of people that will help us get our songs played in clubs and radios overseas. We do have consistant play at clubs here in the US, but it's slightly scattered, and we would love to have an all around fan/listener base. It's not about fame and riches to us. We want to get to the point, like any musician, where we can live off our music. We want to get our passion for what we do to anyone willing to listen. We want to be able to go overseas and perform for people who know our music and enjoy it. We need guidance from musicians who are "there" - and we need the assistance from DJs in places we can't get to yet. We want to be able to perform for a crowd that gets as energized from the music as we do!
You also started your solo project “Chapter 2” why did you started this?
-- I started Chapter 2 as a place where I could place all the songs I wrote that were outside the Silent Auction idea. It has been and will remain my "side project". Silent Auction comes first, Chapter 2 comes second in priority. As I mentioned earlier, I write with the intention of giving every song to the band. But sometimes the songs take on a life of their own and I can't take away the parts that make them what they are just to fit them into one particular sound. Every now and again I get an invitation to perform as Chapter 2, and I think it's because that project offers a little more experimentation and little more rawness since those songs are not going through Jason to get "polished". As Chapter 2, I have the part of lead vocals, and I need Jason to back me up on the keys. Although it's still Jason and I, it's a different attitude - and there is an actual sound difference between Silent Auction and Chapter 2.
What are the differences in sound between Silent Auction and Chapter 2?
-- I led myself right into this one!! Silent Auction is cooperative between two people (and sometimes guests) that share the same passion for synthpop/futurepop and write with one goal in mind. Working in Silent Auction leads to an understanding that a song you wrote may be changed, altered, pumped up, rearranged, or shifted by the other person. On the off chance that I don't want that song touched at all, and it's too soft or too strange, then I keep it and throw it to Chapter 2 which gobbles it up and spits it out onto a myspace page. It doesn't happen often, which is why it takes a long time for Chapter 2 to gain new songs. But I have so many partial song ideas stored up, some of which I will get around to finishing, and some of which will most likely get thrown out, that I don't fear Chapter 2 going out of existence. Sometimes I'm too quick to claim a song for Chapter 2 and it's hard to make the switch back into Silent Auction. I was lucky with "Reasons to Love", "Detour", "What Remains", and "Silly Boy" (most of which are on the up coming H on Earth album). They made it in before it was too late. "Heart Attack", for example, should have been a Silent Auction song, but I was too quick to claim it. I will have to suffer with that. Silent Auction certainly has a larger name and a bigger listener base, so I may possibly only hurt a song if I keep it in Chapter 2 when it could be better fit with the band. Live and learn I guess. But one positive out of situations like that is when we perform - when we perform live as Silent Auction, we embrace the idea that we are two solo artists working together to create unified songs and we like to throw in some of our solo work into the band's set.
-- Good question. I know what our goals are for Silent Auction. But as for Chapter 2, I haven't put too much thought into it's potential. Ask me again in 5 years ;) In all seriousness, I would love for Chapter 2 to go far, but I want Silent Auction to go far first.
What are things you like and dislike in general?
-- Where do I start?! I can't stand people talking on their cell phones in restaurants, on line in a store (especially when someone's waiting on them), or while their driving. Text messaging is annoying. Dirty dishes sitting in the sink for more than a day bothers me. Black ice on the road makes me nervous - and seeing people drive 80 mph on black ice makes me even more nervous. People who can hear but don't listen piss me off. I have a workable case of megalophobia. Performing a show without getting a sound check makes me nervous, too.
I love when a kid laughs - it's so sincere. I love a good hug. I love my monitor speakers (M-Audio BX8s). For that matter, I love my whole studio set-up, which has been earned and payed for with hard work between Jason and myself. I love my main inspiration and best friend. I love having the person you love, love you back equally. I love a heavy but clean sounding bass accompanied by a clean kick drum. I love the fact that I can spend so much time with the one person I want to be with in such a creative way. I like to clean my apartment when I'm stressed. I love having the support of what I do from the people closest to me. I love being asked so many questions that I have the freedom to answer honestly.
As Chapter 2 you released a minicd, what we noticed first……it’s pink. Why pink and is it your favorite color?
--Jason gave me an incredible birthday present last year - 300 mini cds, printed with my name, Chapter 2, and website, www.purelfo.com, on them. It was his way of telling me to get off my butt and start promoting my solo work. The other part of the gift was the website for Chapter 2, which he's designing for me. He gave me the cds pre-printed, so I really didn't have the choice of color. I like the pink, though - I probably would have chosen that if I had the chance. Red is actually my favorite color. I'm not sure why, it just is. But I would never buy a red car. Again, not really sure why - I just wouldn't.
You also sended a few people some handmade ornaments for Christmas, seems craftwork is a big part of your life, can we say “creating things” is important?
-- Do you mean Kraftwerk? ;) In which case, yeah! They're awesome!.... But yes, creating things is massivly important to me. I like to make my world a little different with the things I make. And I like to share that with the people I know who will appreciate it. I go through spurts of creativity when it comes to craft - usually it's a seasonal thing. A few summers ago I was going around collecting every piece of junk wooden furniture I could find around the city. I refurbished them, making them more sturdy and repainting them with spray paint and detailing them with acrylics. I tried selling a few pieces, but couldn't find the right place that had the customers for that kind of thing. Most of them I gave away to friends, although I do still have a few pieces sitting around. Then I went through a phase where I went around to all the local records stores in my area that would donate old scratched up vinyls to me for free. I melted them down and make weird things from them. I still have a pair of lips I molded from an old Rolling Stone vinyl that I spray painted bright red. But my sparks change all the time, and I like that. It never gets boring - although it's hard finding the time to do those things now.
What kind of music do you prefer to listen to when you are painting?
-- I like to keep the air full of energy when I'm painting - so it's usually something like a mix of Bjork, Sasha & Digweed live editions, Madonna, Silent Auction (yes, I do listen to our own work even when I'm not writing), Shiny toy Guns, Goldfrapp, Benny Benassi, etc. But it's also a great time to get familiar with new music. I've been very lucky to have GREAT friends that give me mixed CDs of new music they think I'll like - and recently I've been hearing a lot of Blaqk Audio, Universal Hall Pass (amazing work!!! I'm so inspired by this woman - solo work from the lead woman of Splashdown), and The Veins coming through my speakers. I wish I had more time to paint.
What kind of things influence you in painting?
-- The same things that influence me in painting are the ones that influence me in music - Personal experiences in love, family, fear, hope; Events; Conversations (my own or other people's); Things I read about in the paper or hear about on the news. I like to relate real life experiences in what I create. However, when I draw or paint, I tend to let me imagination get the best of me. I start with something recognizable and transform it into something unrealistic or unimaginable. It's hard to explain my influences in painting/drawing - there are too many.
-- It doesn't have a title. It was done on a large sheet of newsprint paper with various shapes and colors swirled around in no particular order. It's done in a rainbow of fingerpaint. The 5 year old artist is my niece, and it's one of the most sincere paintings I've ever seen. It reminds me everyday to be genuine, honest, alive and colorful. It reminds me not to hold back. It makes complete sense to me even though it's just color and shapes. I am an illustrator by trade and education, so I'm always pulled in by paintings and drawings that tell a story. Same with music, but we're talking visual art here. I love the work that came from the Pop Art era. And I'm intrigued by the work of artists that push the limit in size and scale, like many muralists and spacial artists Christo and Jeanne-Claude.
What is the most useless thing mankind ever “created”?
--Money and Greed.
How does it come that this catholic schoolgirl turned into a little pervert?
-- HA! HAHA! I guess you could say it's a result of being too shy as a kid. Everyone eventually has to break out of their shell - and for me, I did it with style ;) It helps having a mess load of friends who are the same way.
What are your dreams for the future?
-- I would love to make Silent Auction a success. But my idea of success changes all the time. I dream of performing in front of a huge crowd, where they know the words and sing with us. I dream of collaborating with some of my biggest inspirations (other than #1 Jason) like Lyte from Detla-S or BT (it's a stretch, but everyone's gotta dream!). I dream of working on music every day for a living, and having time on the side to work on my artwork. I dream of owning a place that I call home - but not an ordinary house. I want to live in a restored building of some kind - something that has new beauty as a home, like a old warehouse or gas station. And I dream of getting married and having a family. I'm really a down-to-earth girl. I dream of making my life something I can continue to be proud of, and I look forward to working hard for every bit of it.
Terri is a girl who is desperately to find her own place in this dog eat dog world, how should this place be like?
-- Someone once told me about the "blue ocean" theory of life where everyone works towards success without tearing down another's success. If everyone could accept the fact that they're not going to best at everything, then they would be happy working towards the things they ARE good at. When people try too hard to be better than everyone else, they only end up causing hardship on the ones that could actually make it. It applies to business, to creativity, to life. It's great to do new things, but in the end no one is ever going to be the best at it all. Everyone's got a gift - we need to encourage each other to make the best of what we have.
Any last words for the readers?
-- Live within your means. Explore, create, and be honest. *And keep a watch out for H on Earth! ~ Silent Auction is silent no more.*
xoxo
-terri-