About Me
Born: Detroit, Michigan, USA 26th, October, 1965 at 11:25am to my unwed birthmother who gave me up to the Florence Crittenton Home/Catholic Charities from where I was adopted by a new military father into his religiously fanatical, obsessive-compulsive household. Thirty years later after the death of my mother, my father and sister (also adopted, no blood relation) schemed me out of the family and out of their lives. Not to say they didn't have their good points. I wouldn't be who and where I am today without them. My adopted mother was a good person and in a way she saved me from certain suicide or being institutionalized. My cats took over from there..So,...I have appeared in films: Never Met Picasso( dir. Stephen Kijak), Stroke (dir. Rob Nilsson), Omewenne (dir. George Kuchar), Sirens of the 23rd Century (Dir. Jennifer Kroot), on stage(Nico...My Empty Pages, Grimm Guignol,The Sick and Twisted Players), a bit of modelling for photographers, painters(including Mary Pacios writer of Childhood Shadows:The Black Dahlia), clothing designers, as a comic book character, a writer of poems-plays-stories-but....this is about MUSIC, my greatest artistic joy and what I am most proud of.............It was back in the 198o's in San Francisco that I was first presented to an audience at a house party with my band "Despair". The band consisted of myself as composer and singer, 7teen-the keyboardist, Janestra-the noise violinist, Sarah and Zina the backup vocalists. Despair disbanded after one performance. The response was quite positive despite it being only a party. I dropped the name, thinking it a bit precious, a spent the next couple of years hiding away writing songs.
Around 1986 I met both Paula Keyth and Rozz Williams who were both very encouraging towards my work. At the time Paula was in her own band Nimbus, and Rozz was beginning his new project, Premature Ejaculation. I had no money and no means to record with except a cheap mic and a stereo system. Rozz was working as a dishwasher on Haight Street. Paula was caught up in the chaos of the Mission District. I had a 4-track recording of my Despair demo and was in luck when in 1988 my rather abusive father coughed up a Tascam Porta-5 which changed the way I recorded.
By this time Rozz had married Eva O and were living in a studio apartment in the same building as me in the Tenderloin District. It was Eva and Rozz who would accompany my crippled with shyness form to open mic nights , Eva literally sitting me down in front of the house piano and setting up the mic for me. The audience loved my work-I was shocked. Rozz and Eva had this sort of "I told you" look on their faces.
Due to my fragile psychological state at the time (I was certifiably psychotic-depressive) Paula got me some time in a rehearsal room at the notorious Capp Street Studios where everyone was shooting this or that into their jugulars or whatever vein hadn't collapsed yet. With me was an old highschool chum, Xenyasha. She and I spent the next few hours creating an early version of my first fully themed tape, WOES OF A JILTED BRIDE. As I remember it Xenyasha and I were both completely out of it and fading in and out of focus-happily the music also expresses this. I wanted that warped old filmscore sound and I got it.
After this recording I began simply at home collecting songs I'd written, recording them( with guests Kris Force, Haluk Kecclioglu, Johanna Khayat), and through Daniel Maulson of Katharsis-mixing them down, and through Chuck Collison's Happiest Tapes on Earth-releasing them. Chuck only released three of my recordings...the others I released via a local music window at Rough Trade Records on Haight Street.
I was not great at playing keyboards live as I suffered(and still do) from Depersonalization Disorder-not great for coordination, so I was at the mercy of backing tapes and creating characters and scenery to accompany my voice (with sound people Jano Sanguine, and George Miller). Lots of costumes(Allister Bane, Elkie Winters Kathleen Crowley,Savage Garden, with myself as mask maker-later I would have the privilege of costumers Mr David and Billy De Herrera) and film loops (Duncan MacLeod) made me the mummified bride, the nixie of the mill pond, the spider, the spinster, the Cat Goddess, the Snow Queen and so many others.
In the Nineties (sans broken down Tascam recorder) the band thing came back and I found myself working with a myriad of different artists from Angel Corpus Christi, Thoth, Jonathan Ehmann, Steven Dye (who also ran film loops and made a large racket for me) Thomas O, Vudi, Kaya Duir, Tahnee Barbee, Amy Malick, Debbie Fox, Heidi Vincent, Gian Franco, Tommy Hicks, Kathy Kline, Carolyn Engelmann, and so many others-most importantly Tom Marzella,Stephen Heinen and my long time collaborater Michael Richard. I had also guested with Grux and Caroliner Rainbow on their eighth album RINGS ON THE AWKWARD SHADOW, and found my way into the slowcore/sadcore scene through American Music Club. I had a side project called A Playhouse for Psychotic Children with Michael Richard with guests Kris Force and Fred Lomberg-Holmes. Amber Asylum covered PFPC's Jorinda and Joringel, itself a translation of a rhyme from the Grimms' Brothers.
I came out with several recordings from this period but was VERY unlucky with labels crashing or being neglectful. It wasn't until Rozz introduced me to Erik Christides that I was accepted on to the Merry Maladies cd, and Moon Trent placing me on a benefit cd called Milkshake for Timmy Kat Records. Sadly at this stage my mother, grand mother, my cat Wednesday, and Rozz died and left me feeling more fragile than ever. But then William Faith placed me on a comp called Blackout and Chris Graves ( who along with Kevin his partner created and run my website) placed me on the Rozz Tribute Cd The Tongue Achieves the Dialect with a song in Rozz's words and my music called "IN Winds of Time My Body" along with a cover of "Ashes". Maybe the spirits are looking out for me?
In 2000 my right lung collapsed and my voice faltered. Maybe the spirits wanted me to take a break, but for how long and for what reason? I relocated to the Netherlands and then to the UK. In the midst of this I was trying with my work again. Arthur DeLandes in The Netherlands and William Faith in L.A. came to my aid and more recording began.
And now? I am slowly working towards creating a new look for my website www.omewenne.net and a solo label for my work...and learning to record digitally for myself.
I live now out in stormy endless Cornwall near the sea and the crows...I like it....
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