Musicians

SPOTLIGHT ON PAGAN BANDS - Butterfly Messiah

SPOTLIGHT ON PAGAN BANDS

Butterfly Messiah
interviewed by Dean Jones 

One of Paganism’s new breed of darker, edgier bands, Butterfly Messiah, began in 1998 when Robert Davis (percussion) and Shannon Garson (vocals) merged their individual styles into one elusive and captivating aesthetic. Soon joined by Josh Harrington (keyboards), the threesome developed songs that span the genres of EBM, Ambient and Synthpop to create a sound that cannot be put in any simple pigeonhole. We caught up with the busy band to ask them about their music, their faith and the crossroads between the two.

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Creating Beauty with Regan High Priestess

Creating Beauty with Regan High Priestess
interview by Michael Night Sky,
photography by Michael Helms styling by Octavia Moon 

Regan High Priestess was looking forward to a comfortable future; well on her way to completing a degree in Computer Information Systems, she could have had her choice of lucrative high-tech jobs. Then, one evening she found herself in the audience of Cirque du Soleil’s Mystére, and her world turned upside-down. As she sat weeping at the beauty of the performance, she realized her true vocation. “I realized that I had to follow my calling — a calling to create beauty in the world.” Returning home, she changed her major to music. At first her parents were alarmed; concerned about Regan forsaking computer science for a career in the arts. But they supported her choice, and later she went on to obtain a graduate degree in Scoring for Motion Pictures and Television from the University of Southern California.

Regan’s persistence was rewarded: her work has appeared in trailers for films including Team America and The New World, and her powerful stage presence and intense, sensuous music has won rave reviews from both Pagan and non-Pagan audiences at such venues as Burning Man and Pantheacon. We connected with Regan recently to discuss her spirituality, art, and how she connects the two.

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The First Goth Wiccan Band


©2012 Holly Golightly

The First Goth Wiccan Band
by Jason Pitzl-Waters & Jacqueline Enstrom-Waters 

Fifteen years ago, Paganism was only hinted at by a few in the rock music world. Small whispers suggesting reverence for the moon or nature might slip into a lyric or a bit of myth might get wound into a line, but few would openly sing about being Pagan in a modern world. But the ground breaking work of Inkubus Sukkubus, comprised of Tony McKormack, Candia Ridley and Adam Henderson, have been giving us rock-and-roll that isn’t afraid of the Occult for well over a decade.

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Emerald Rose

SPOTLIGHT ON PAGAN BANDS

Emerald Rose
interviewed by Dean Jones 

One of Paganism’s hottest professional bands, Emerald Rose consists of Brian “Logan” Sullivan (guitar/vocals), Arthur Hinds (vocal/percussion), Clyde Gilbert (bass/ vocals) and Larry Morris (pennywhistle/vocals/ percussion). They play folk and traditional tunes, but infuse rock sensibilities into their music as well. Emerald Rose has produced three CDs and has a following among Pagans and non-Pagans alike. We asked them to describe their music.

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A Darker Shade of Pagan

A Darker Shade of Pagan
by Jason Pitzl-Waters &
Jacqueline Enstrom-Waters
 


©2012 Holly Golightly

We confess: we don’t like pagan music. At least, we don’t like what most folks think of as “pagan music.”

Don’t get us wrong. We’ve heard a rendition or two of Goddess chants that had that certain “something” and we’ve used space-agey soundscapes with intermingled nature sounds once or twice in ritual. Heck, we even own a pseudo-Native American drumming CD with the sound of rain in the background. Yet 99% of the time when someone has played a pagan or Wiccan tape for us saying “but you’ve just got to hear this one, it’s great!” what we heard just didn’t “do it” for us at all. After spending over a decade in the pagan movement, being subjected to “pagan” tunes, we had given up in defeat, believing we’d never find an album that evoked the delicate and dark enchantment of a cold Samhain night or an artist who could evoke a spell of pure witchy-ness that made you want to put on your best ritual gear, light all your candles and call up your pagan pals for a spontaneous night of spell work. It seemed if you weren’t a fan of folk music, you were out of luck.

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If Twilight Has A Voice

If Twilight Has A Voice
The Music of Wendy Rule
Interview by Phil Brucato

To hear her sing is to move from the comfortable world of electric light and synthetic darkness into someplace more primal. There’s an implacable quality to that voice — a wilderness where nurture and terror combine. Wendy’s art goes beyond the trite pretenses of Goth or Folkishness. Her voice can shift from maiden to crone in a single note, and although the emotional texture of her work seems melancholy, it’s too rich to be so narrowly defined.

An old soul in a trickster’s guise, Wendy hails from Melbourne, Australia. For the last decade, however, the world has been her home. Touring with her brand of ritual cabaret theatre, Wendy has walked faerie paths outside Yorkshire, watched sunrises in Berlin, and breathed the ashes of post-9/11 New York. Still, it’s wilderness that inspires her most deeply. She might draw influences from smoky jazz clubs and wild techno raves, but if you want to find the true source of her artistry, just walk along a woodland river and watch the sun go down.

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