recently jeremy came into contact with the band Ophelia's Sweet Demise. ive listened to the cd dark serenade many times says jeremy and it gets better with each listen. Katrine DeWinter of the band sent us at shivering chaos a creative writing on the band.....and here it is for all of our readers to enjoy.
NEW YEAR'S RESOLUTIONS
Ophelia's Sweet Demise began, in it's earliest moments, with bassist
Daniel Kufahl exiting the
stage after a New Year's gig in 1997. Unsatisfied with the musical
direction of that situation,
the time had come to leave and find new musicians and a new sound.
Helping him carry his
equipment outside was one Tracy Schmidt, 'guitaristo mysteriouso'. The
two teamed up with a
vision to form a collaborative band, and explore the dark sounds that
were both of their true
interests.
Mr. Kufahl, it seems, is quite the instigator. It was a conversation
with keyboardist Katrine
DeWinter a few days later (at a club, because we are social animals)
that produced the initial
core of the OSD lineup.
VOODOO WHO-DOO?
We follow our little trio into the original basement practice area, with
never enough light and
an ashtray shortage. However enthusiasm abounds, even in such dark
surroundings. It was after
practice one evening when, in the first of many band outings, Kat,
Daniel and Tracy found
themselves at the Foundation, a punk rock bar in the neighborhood, and
being
a Tuesday, it was Tiki night. A round of Voodoo juice and it was time
to discuss band names.
Kat recalls "I just remember Daniel suggesting 'Ophelia's Sweet Demise',
and even after the
explaination of the origin, Tracy and I still loved it - in fact rolling
with laughter. You see,
it is the name of his 'secret love cult' - nonexistant, mind you - but
the idea is silly and the
name is beautiful, and so there it was. In fact, the two people that
shared Dan's converstation
when he first uttered the words in succesion turned up a couple of
minutes later. They approved,
and so how can one deny the hand of fate."
And so outfitted with an appropriate name, OSD became official. "We
looked for a drummer for
some time," says Kat," but couldn't find anyone suitable. Drummers seem
to be rare and different
creatures. So, I continued programming drums and here we are. I still
want some electronic drum
pads to hit on stage. I want the muscular arms that go with them too.
Grrrr!"
So our little group has got a name, songs and gear. But hmmm... what to
put it in?
A HEARSE IS A HEARSE, A CURSE A CURSE -
UNLESS OF COURSE YOU'RE DEAD....
Kat: "So we found this great old hearse, a 1973 Cadillac, really
beautiful and in great condition.
The guy gave us a good deal on it, and not only that, he gave us 20$
back for gas. As soon as the
title was handed over, a few drops of rain fell on the paper. After
that, it didn't stop raining
for days, literally! I mean, floods and everything. It was early
morning, like before noon, and
Dan and I drove to Tracy's house to show her. The very first time she
saw it, it was parked across
the street from her front door. She opened the door and there it was,
in pouring rain and
lightening - couldn't have been better."
WE GOT RHYTHM, WE GOT MUSIC, WE'VE GOT PATRICK...
Kat: So we continued writing new songs, and really wanted to add a
rhythm guitarist. Tracy has
a very particular way of writing, and instead of her curbing her natural
writing instincts, we
wanted to find someone with more of an inclination for playing rhythm -
more of a
edgy sort of thing. That sounds scary doesn't it? Anyway, we went
through a couple people, at
different times and both turned out - well, not so good, otherwise
they'd be here now. About a
year after the last one was gone, we opened for the Damned. We did our
set, and the security guy
comes up to me and says "There are these guys that want to talk to
someone from OSD." I go to
talk to them, and it turns out that they were cops looking for one of
our former guitarists!
So of course they guy was no longer with the band, but the cops said
they would've let him play
the set, then arrest him. That would've been quite an exit - off in
cuffs... People would
probably thought it had been staged anyway...
About October of 1998, we did find someone to play rhythm, and I really
don't think we could've
found anyone better. Patrick King joined the group, and he picks up on
music faster than I've
ever seen anyone else in my life! He also can sing, and used to play
cello, so who knows what
may happen in the future. We've been on a bit of a break from playing
live so we can focus on
writing new songs, and it's really great that we can have all four of us
involved. So obviously
Patrick's not on the recordings thus far, but the next one he will be.
FOR THE RECORD
Kat: Hmmm.. how to sum things up... In the two years that we've been
around so far, there are
really a lot of stories and memories and really wonderful people we've
had the opportunity to
meet and work with. And every day we keep going on and on - it's really
what we do, the thing
we all love best. I think without OSD, there would be this very large,
gaping whole in our hearts
and our lives. We don't do anything else with our time! Personally, I
have a very large bucket
of things I'd like to do - one of them is remixing a couple of our older
songs and doing more of
a club sort of mix - perhaps 'Siva' and 'Black Tears'. We'd also like
to travel and play shows,
anywhere we can really. That would be something we'd be looking at for
this summer. And beyond
that, we'd like to continue writing and playing - we're very easily
amused! I think Daniel
should take up acting sometime as well - watch his eyebrows, very
expressive eyebrows...
VITAL STATS
Ophelia's Sweet Demise
Katrine DeWinter - vocals, keyboards, drums & programming
favourite food and cure-all: bread
Daniel Kufahl - vocals, bass guitar
favourite take-out: Sweet & Sour Chicken from Emperor of China
Tracy Schmidt - guitar, flute
favourite energy source: ridiculously strong black coffee with one ice
cube
Patrick King - guitar
our favorite calming influence, drinks a lot of water and plays
barefoot
DISCOGRAPHY
Absinthe (EP) released Oct. 97
Dark Serenade released Sept. 98
Praying for Something New
Kayan Records compilation features OSD track
ambigous release date
