BONE ORCHARD PRESS
Interview with Bone Orchard and Tyves (editor) of Crawling Tunes Magazine from Germany
see photo below of Magazine cover
Crawling Tunes Magazine is available for sale but it is in German
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www.crawlingtunes.com at myspace
Tyves -What connects you with the term "gothic"?
Lyrically we are gothic in the way that an Appalachian murder ballad or a play by Sam Sheperd is "gothic." It's an interpetation of the American experience that is often violent, vaguely menacing and slightly surreal. Musically, I was very influenced by proto-goth bands like Joy Division and Bauhaus, though those influences are now more implied than obvious.--Daniel
There's the obvious murder ballad we do, but many of our songs are about looking into the dark abyss whether it be inside oneself or the outside world. Many of the lyrics can appear quite despairing in a way. An example from "Frontier, Frontier ""Death rides into the sunset in a dirty cadillac, playing music from the void with his windows painted black. Though you can't read the language on his custom license plates, Temptation sets up road blocks to make sure you won't escape." It's interesting, because Daniel and I are both quite hopeful people. I think it's because we're not afraid to look at the darkness that exists within. And we've both seen our share of darkness that's for sure. --Carol
Tyves- How came it to the idea to form a band? and especially a kind of that band you are!
When we first met Carol and I had a conversation about one of our favorite books, which was "The Hawkline Monster" by Richard Brautigan. The back cover of the book described it as a Gothic Western and Carol applied that term to my music. It was obvious we shared the same sensibilities so once we arrived in New Mexico we decided to start making music together.--Daniel
We had been together a long time before we formed the band, although we'd both been performing for years. Dan always had the (wrong) idea you can't have a band with your wife. One summer night, we were camping out on the Rio Grande, we started singing together and soon we had a band. That was 9 years ago. Dan's always said it was the best decision he's made. Since I'd first met Dan, his was the music that was the closest to what I envisioned; sort of a gothic western appalachian roots rock sound, so the vision just became more complete as we continued together. We never really thought about the style, we just created what we loved. --Carol
Tyves- what are your influences? do you like for example calexico oder james taylor?
Caxico is a very astute guess. I love those guys for their cinematic qualities. Other influences: The Velvet Underground, Joy Division, the Gun Glub, X, The Carter Family, The Stanley Brothers, Johnny Cash, Mark Knopfler, Neil Diamond, Nick Cave and Ennio Morricone ---Daniel
We both enjoyed the same bands as well as some of the same authors Edgar Allen Poe, Cormac McCarthey, etc. also appalachian music and vampires. I grew up in California with a father who loved the old west, gunfighters and vampires, who would take our family to old ghost towns where we'd all spend hours exploring "boothill" (the old cemeteries) and he'd read us Frankenstein and Dracula as bedtime stories. I guess you could say my gothic tendencies were inherited. I like to call it a melancholy beauty. ---Carol
Tyves - what's the concept of "a romance of ghosts"? is it telling a complete story or has every song its own story?
Many of the songs are stories in themselves (such as Missouri Raider or Dancing With the Ghost of William Bonney) and some of them are just atmospheric expressions of a particular emotional state. The concept of "A Romance of Ghosts" is that the songs are tales from beyond the veil that separates our idea of the darkness of the American West from the popular and safe idea of the West as expressed by status-quo culture heroes like John Wayne or Roy Rogers.--Daniel
Well the music may not always be so obviously haunting but the lyrics can be. And the lyrics are very important to us. These are stories of loss; of life....of love...of innocence...of oneself. You know, all the classic sorrows. An artist friend,, Kristine Keheley, named one of her paintings "A Romance of Ghosts" so we really have to attribute that title to her. We saw it while we were finishing our cd and the title was so apropo to what we'd created. Love it when art inspires art. --Carol
Tyves- i wish (& that means really JUST ME) there would be some more slowlier songs on your last
album... are you playing with the thought to release a new one soon and is there a concept yet?
We also enjoy the slower numbers, but we often perform in saloons in Colorado and New Mexico and sometimes have to balance our love of musical atmosphere with the crowd's desire to dance.--Daniel
We have so many songs ready to go we could do 3 new cds. But funny you should ask that, we're thinking of "Nocturnes and Strange Lullabies" as a work -in - progress title for our next cd which will have alot of our original slower tunes. We also do a great version of the old Sonny and Cher song "Bang, Bang you shot me down" that can get quite eerie and pyschodelic. But we're still paying off the last cd...so it might just be a little bit longer before we get that one out. --Carol
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2003-2007
Bone Orchard.