When fourteen-year-old Talena Atfield received a cheap red guitar for Christmas, she was thrilled. She vowed to one day be a part of a band and wasted no time in gathering a few similarly inclined friends. Apparently her band mates were not nearly as dedicated as she; they never actually practiced and the project was eventually discontinued.
Two years later, Talena acquired a rag-tag drum kit. Never one to give up easily, she jumped at the chance to serve as drummer in yet another London band. Although this band had more focus and eventually did play a show, she was unexpectedly given the boot shortly afterwards. To this day, Talena still does not know why.
Although Talena attempted several more times to organize friends and form a band, nothing ever stuck and she began to lose hope. Convinced she would never realize her musical aspirations, Talena ceased her attempts to join the London band scene.
In October of 1999, Talena received a telephone call from her friend, Mercedes, who was the drummer for a local band called Kittie. The band was on the road to stardom – they were touring the states, they had just landed a record deal with Artemis, and their first music video shoot was a week away. There was only one problem: their bassist had just quit. Mercedes asked Talena if she'd be interested in filling in. Talena had always been a Kittie supporter, & she thought it would be nice to have something to do in her spare time, so although she had never touched a bass in her life, she willingly agreed.
Within a week, Talena had mastered the band's songs and was ready to tour. She joined her three newfound band mates in New York to film the video for "Brackish." Since then, she has been a key member in one of the most promising new acts to arrive on the metal scene. Although it took a while for Talena to find the right band, she's become an absolutely indispensable member of Kittie: a dedicated bassist and a formidable stage presence.
Talena's reason for leaving Kittie:
according to Talena:"I would like to clear something up, the money wasn't an issue for me and that was not the reason for my departure, they replaced me before i even left. They gave me an altimadum, to sign something that i was unable to sign because it did not benifit me in the least and did not give me control over myself, they said to sign it or leave because they had already found someone new to play bass. And that right there was enough for me to decide on, if they could replace me that quickly without even talking to me then they obviously didnt want me there anyways."
« Last Edit: March 29th, 2002, 6:19pm by Talena »
