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Interview: The Violet Collection - Mp3.com v23.0
2000.11.24

"Performance: n 1. a presentation of an artistic work to an audience for example, a play or piece of music"

The Violet Collection - MP3.com v23.0 In today's culture of readily accessible music on demand it's very easy to forget that songs are meant to be performed in front of other people. Gabrielle Penabaz, otherwise known as St. Eve is very much aware of the need to perform, as anyone who's seen one of her shows will attest. Gabrielle took a few minutes to answer some questions about her work, so why don't you take a few minutes to find out what she has to say?

1) Your work is very much geared towards live performance. How does this influence the way that you write?
Performance doesn't influence the inspiration of the song, but it affects the production to some extent. In the past when I had a band it was actually more limiting because I had to worry about the ability to play everything live, etc. In the past few years I believe audiences have come to appreciate the show aspect moreso than the fidelity to each note being played live. While I certainly enjoy seeing live musicians, in my case it isn't currently feasible. So, I put the backing tracks on cd and sing live over it. This means I can really put anything I want on the cd because I'm not even pretending to play it. This gives a lot of freedom in the studio. I don't have to worry about dats, multitracks, midi-gear their headaches, and the like on stage. I concentrate on singing and the physical aspects of performance.

2) Do you have a visual image in your mind as the song is composed, or does that come afterwards as a result of the song?
The songs come and I receive them. That may be a cliché, but they exist because they're pretty true. Sometimes it's a lyric or a groove that arrives and I go from there. While I'm a visual person, for sure, I'm also very verbal and I can fall in love with a common word one day and write a whole song about it, especially if I find a good adjective to dress it up in. The images come after and often change. The better the song, the more it can evolve with you and evoke new images from time to time. That often comes from the inherent power and flexibility in the words themselves.

3) Some of the descriptions of your shows sound quite challenging to the standard idea of what one would expect at a live show. What role does the audience play in your performance
Especially the alien autopsy. People kept getting hit in the face by accident with the little glow-in the-dark skeleton keychains I kept tossing out from my friend's belly. But hey, they got free keychains. Most of the time the audience is quite safe. I try not to get any fake blood or flourescent paint on people. I'm careful with the tarps, etc. It's all self-inflicted. I don't believe in assaulting as I hate that sort of thing as an audience member, but if they reach into the stage, there is a quotient for a small degree of chaos like the wildly inebriated guy who thought he'd join me onstage at the Limelight. I nearly pushed him off but one of my gogo dancers saved, uh, me from him.

4) Tell me a little bit about the name St Eve.
It started off as a musing and developed into an organization which I work under as a performer and event planner (T.H.O.S.E. = The House of St. Eve). "Eve" has power, ya know? I felt that it was time to recognize the saintly side of the biblical Eve, the part of "her" that is sacrificed continuously by patriarchy. The basic story we get is that Eve is bad for eating from the tree of knowledge of good and evil, and I believe that this act requires a lot of chutzpah. Putting your butt on the line for knowledge is a sacred thing. While she represents much female iconography and can stand in for quite a few goddess archetypes, I think what she did is quite forward and therefore archetypically "male". So, getting into "St. Eve" isn't about gender issues at all, but an attempt to celebrate the active principle in receiving the creative impulse. So, if you were to try to draw this, you could use greco-roman god imagery and paint up a hermaphrodite type of power, finding everything you need inside to create your, forgive this word, reality. It's like revering the inherent yang in the yin. Blah blah blah I can go on for days.

5) Scooby Doo: What were they thinking when they introduced Scrappy Doo?
Merchandising. What's more, how did they ever imagine that the show would survive without the dynamic that came from Fred, Thelma, and Daphne? I haven't seen the show since they were all in a platonic menage › trois so I don't want to hear the bad news.

6) Dream question: Given an unlimited budget, and the opportunity to perform at any venue, what would be the ultimate St Eve experience?
And you thought I blabbed on the St. Eve name question! Warning: The following is going to sound awfully gothic. The ultimate performing experience would be somehow location specific, like a really fantastical castle or bizarre palace (possibly a bit run down, but not unsafe - watch out for that keychain!) Great theatrical lighting and sound (are you listening, Universe?). Different levels to assist in little surprises and curious shapes to project multi-media stuff. Maybe we can shuttle the audience around to different rooms with installations for different experiences. And really fabulous food and drink afterwards. Sounds like a party, yes?