Boudoir - ProfilesArchive

About Me

BOUDOIR is a project formed by two founding members of San Francisco's SMITTEN, Ala Sharon and Damon Fries. Influenced by groups like SLOWDIVE, SECRET SHINE, DEAD CAN DANCE, COCTEAU TWINS, and MY BLOODY VALENTINE, BOUDOIR could be considered an electronic, darker version of SMITTEN, with samplers and synthesizers texturing the moody songs beneath Ala's soaring, echoed vocals and Damon's dreamy, swirling and heavy guitars. The songs revolve around themes of lust, sorrow and alienation, the music always sad and longing, but beautiful.Before BOUDOIR and SMITTEN, Ala had performed as vocalist and keyboardist with groups THE CATHERINES in Kansas City, whilst Damon had played in punk-pop groups PARASITES and THE PLAGIARISTS in California, as well as being an indie radio DJ for several years. SMITTEN formed in San Francisco in 1994, influenced by the dreampop/ethereal sounds of bands on 4AD and Creation Records. They released an EP and an album ("Stellar"), which charted well in the US college radio charts, even reaching number one in some cities. They toured the US in 1996, but constant lineup changes and creative differences slowed the progress of the band, and they peacefully disbanded while recording a follow-up album, "Fear Of A Happy Planet".Damon and Ala started the new project, BOUDOIR in 1998, and have found much more attention after moving to Europe. They relocated to Amsterdam in mid-1998, where, after adjusting to the appropriate culture shocks, they have released their debut album as BOUDOIR, "Currency of the Soul", on Pandaimonium Records via Ronny Moorings from Clan Of Xymox. Pandaimonium already released the first official BOUDOIR track, "SPACEJAM", on the sampler "Songs of Pain" in 2002.BOUDOIR made its premiere live European performance at the illustrious Gotham Festival at the Paradiso in Amsterdam in 2002. The group received a highly enthusiastic and warm response from the crowd despite being relatively unknown.In addition to BOUDOIR, Damon is busy with his very-different electro-industrial project, Jesus Complex.

My Interests

Music:

Member Since: 9/21/2005
Band Website: swirlysound.com/boudoir
Band Members: Damon Fries - guitars/keyboards/programming/vocals Ala Sharon - vocals
Influences: My Bloody Valentine, Slowdive, Secret Shine, Dead Can Dance, Cocteau Twins, 4AD, Blind Mr Jones, Brian Eno, Dubstar, Love Spirals Downward, Miranda Sex Garden, Spiritualized, Strangelove, Stereolab, Telescopes, Windy & Carl, Monster Movie, Malory, Vangelis, Pale Saints and all things swirly/ethereal....
Sounds Like: the influences????
Record Label: Pandaimonium/Xymox Control
Type of Label: Indie

My Blog

Demo/sketch from new album now online

As promised, a "work in progress" demo, "Out Of Sight", from the upcoming album is temporarily up on our myspace page. It's a demo - a rough sketch and will be fleshed out over the coming months, bu...
Posted by Boudoir on Thu, 11 Oct 2007 10:34:00 PST

Drunken songwriting in the days before computers took over...

While going through some old tapes looking for unfinished demo ideas for the new BOUDOIR album, I came across this little thing, from back in the "good ole days" before computers, full of tape hiss a...
Posted by Boudoir on Thu, 02 Aug 2007 04:09:00 PST

New album on the wayyyyyy....

It's been pretty quiet in Boudoir-land, but this is just a quick note to announce work is being done on the second album, tentatively titled "Separation Anxiety". Most of the songs are written and in ...
Posted by Boudoir on Mon, 09 Jul 2007 03:34:00 PST

BOUDOIR Liveeeeeeeeeeeeee

BOUDOIR crept out of the woodworks at a recent party at Winston Kingdom in Amsterdam and played "Unalone" live for the first time in 4 years!!! ...
Posted by Boudoir on Tue, 20 Mar 2007 07:05:00 PST

Boudoir music in film

Although we haven't seen it yet, some BOUDOIR music will apparently be appearing in a new film, "Flogging Margaret" - it is in fact an unreleased instrumental called "Grey Skies". Keep an eye out for...
Posted by Boudoir on Sun, 08 Oct 2006 01:20:00 PST

mp3s of Ala's old group THE CATHERINES now online...

By popular demand, we've put some mp3s of Ala's old group THE CATHERINES on the download page of our website - these tracks were recorded quite a while ago in Kansas City with REM-producer Scott Litt ...
Posted by Boudoir on Mon, 08 May 2006 04:58:00 PST

Playlist for shoegaze/ethereal/dark 80s nite in Amsterdam!

Swirly D (Boudoir) and DJ Idan (Sophya) DJ'd a swirly/ethereal/dreampop/dark 80s night at the Drink Inn in Amsterdam....here's the playlist: Smitten: Connected Ivy: I Guess I'm A Little Too Sensit...
Posted by Boudoir on Tue, 24 Jan 2006 07:37:00 PST

SMITTEN song titles and movies.....

Strange, now a second movie has come out with the title of a song from our SMITTEN "Stellar" album.....first was "Space Jam"....now "Broken Flowers".....so will there be any movies next year with titl...
Posted by Boudoir on Sun, 20 Nov 2005 08:33:00 PST

Shoegaze/ethereal/dreampop party in Amsterdam

Idan from Sophya and I are thinking of trying our hands at a shoegaze/ethereal/dreampop DJ night in Amsterdam. Any ideas for names for such an event? I suppose we'll probably end up naming it after...
Posted by Boudoir on Thu, 29 Sep 2005 07:13:00 PST