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The Original Shadow Cabinet

 

This page contains comments Donnette has made relating to her albumĀ Chaos And Wonder.


How did you meet the members of your current band?

Dave (keyboards) was the friend of a friend, Bruce worked with Jim McGrath, and I stole him deliberately and without regret from the band he and Jim were in. Jim was introduced to me by Alma Cz who ran First Warning when the first Hex was released; she was another very good friend of mine who has up and disappeared into thin air.

Is your band going to tour in the UK?
I hope so! Nothing planned yet, though.

Is your new album going to be distributed in the UK?
Escapist Music (Hollywood, California, USA) has worldwide distribution rights, I think they will accept UK currency equivalent to $10 US. Currently, several locations are being considered as exclusive retailers for the record, one per country. If the record does become available in the UK, it will likely be at one location only. This was a limited pressing, so availability is also a factor. Brian has the P.O. address elsewhere in these pages. Your most reliable (and probably most economical) method of obtaining the record is by mail order. One caveat: they seem to be moving pretty quickly.


So given that you didn't like the album cover, how did the concept come about, and at what point did you realize it wasn't what you wanted ?

We wanted to have a record cover that would capture people's attention by doing something in art that's impossible in life. It was inspired by the Medusa myth. I don't particularly have any reason to dislike the cover, I don't think it's very flattering, that's all. Vanity. That's why I allowed an override to my veto. That and because sometimes expedience overrides everything else. That was all true in this case.


I mentioned a CD I had with songs from the 18th and 19th centuries...

I love historical music, in fact inĀ Lemon Tree Home Away, I use the word lemman, which is a Middle English word for darling. Lullay is another word from Middle (or Old) English, meaning, roughly, hush-a-bye. I was trying to make a point about having little control over our history and our early lives, and the way people tend to try to resolve their most tragic moments by repeating them in new ways (brute earth moves in figure eights).


Why do the credits listed the musicians as [instrument-name] matrix ?

A nod to the S matrix. [Brian : Which is... ?]


A few more explantions about the sleeve notes.

Fender-Martin Formulae is a humble way of saying I played most of the guitars, notably on my 1968 Telecaster and my Martin 12-string. Spirit organs (sort of a spook show thing) and Gabriel’s trumpet (Dave really does play the trumpet, so that’s a live trumpet you hear in Gabriel) are both pretty obvious. Babbla obscura salta is the spoken part in Black Salt, just Latinized to be ostentatious. Harmonic conversion refers to guidance with which harmonies and how they were used, with which Rick really did a lot of work.


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