elyse has been singing all her life. Her mother and grandmother were both phenomenal singers.
She got her start in bands by responding to an ad on the bulletin board at the only indie record store in her hometown in the south suburbs of Chicago. They all had fairly different musical tastes, and somehow ended up with the band name, "Note the Position of the Rifle." This is where she met Kirsten Strom.
Before long, elyse and Kirsten split off into their own band, "Dead Reckoning." Kirsten did most of the writing and singing, while elyse played bass and provided background vocals. When elyse moved to the north side of Chicago, and Kirsten was immersed in her studies at The School of the Art Institute, they disbanded. Presently, besides being an Art History Professor at Grand Valley State University in Grand Rapids, Michigan, Kirsten is still prolific in making extremely unique music and collecting a huge variety of instruments. She has made some of elyse’s very favorite music.
In Chicago, she collaborated with friends, and then joined the band, "Garden of Dreams." Although they didn’t have a lot of shows while she was in the band, they played the first Convergence, and a few out-of-state festivals. elyse left the band when she moved to (*gasp*) Ohio. (then Ann Arbor, MI to Santa Cruz, CA, and now Austin, TX)
Since then, elyse has been "The Band," as they say, writing and performing all the instrumentation and vocals. The one exception is Michael Verzani ’s contribution of double bass on Pasthene. He was also kind enough to professionally record and mix all these tracks. elyse is not a fan of writing lyrics, which is how the word "aphasia" jumped out at her for her project.
The tracks on this site are 5-6 years old, and her voice has progressed a great deal with years of study. elyse is currently studying music/voice at Austin Community College. Her voice teachers are the amazing Elizabeth Cass , and the wonderful Susan Fernandez. She hopes to write and record more music as soon as she has the gumption to do so. She especially looks forward to collaborating with her partner, Vlad Andreev.
Please do visit the Life Toward Twilight site. Daniel Tuttle is a master at making eerie, noise and classically-influenced soundscapes, and I contribute vocals for his music.
Recently, elyse was involved in a spectacular show, "The Phoenix Parade," during Convergence 13 in Portland. She opened the show singing three arias/art songs, and closed, modeling for Kambriel. This unofficial Convergence event was organized by Kamrbiel and friends at the last possible moment. We are thankful to everyone who made the event possible. If/until we get permission to post the video, please visit The Someday Lounge video archives for the Phoenix Parade on May 25, 2007 (Please keep in mind that this wasn’t the best audio recording. My voice has more depth than this, honest! :)..
