Since ARISE FROM THORNS appears as a quite young band, please enlighten us a bit in regards to your past, present and future…

Michelle:  Well, Scott created AFT back in 1996 as an attempt to do something different.  He played in a lot of metal bands and he really wanted to do something different, so he and Trevor worked on a couple of songs, and I did not join the band until May 1997.  Since then we have recorded a full length debut CD, a short 3 song demo tape which we aren’t really doing anything with at the moment because it needs to be re-recorded, and we have played several shows here in Northern Virginia.  As for our future plans, we hope to work with the right label, but really we just want to create good music.

If someone asks you a ‘style-wise’ question concerning ARISE FROM THORNS, what would you answer?

Michelle:  We have a hard time putting our music into a category, I would say that our music is progressive, mostly acoustic, with a little bit of a folk feel that is passionate and beautiful.

‘They express their philosophy about life, the afterlife, the Earth, and the Universe through their lyrics and melodies’. Such is one of the statements I discovered in the letter enclosed with the CD you’ve sent me… Perhaps, you can tell us more when it comes to your personal philosophy? Moreover, I strongly believe that your band’s name, “Arise From Thorns”, is somehow connected with your Weltanschaung (i.e. the world outlook and ideology)…?

Trevor:  In general, music has become a wholly spiritualess experience.  As we know, the art of our time reflects the sentiments and actions of our society. Popular music in general has no element of spirituality, and it is our grand effort to re-establish the spritual element in music and in people.  There are bands out there that have a great spiritual sense about them, but unfortunately they are not widely revered by a majority of people. ARISE FROM THORNS’ beliefs are about the world from which we are created, and on a larger and less obvious scale, the universe.  We as a people have forgotten about the Earth, and we trample her and take from her like never before.  We have lost our direct connection with her, and this I believe is part of the reason that the majority of people have lost their spirituality.  Of course there is more to be said about this, and I am making generalizations, but there are obvious truths which can be argued.

The aforementioned ‘promotional’ letter also includes the following phrase: “The forest is old and the leaves are falling” and it might be interesting to know if it has any special meaning?

Trevor:  This statement basically means that since man has lost his connection with the infinetely renewable resource, the Earth, represented by the forest in our statement, she has grown old, and she is dying.  The antithesis to this is of course, “The forest, she is born again, and her children have returned.”

“Fire Of Night” features a verse by Walt Whitman and I wonder about the reasons you were guided by placing his words there…

Trevor:  I was fortunate to study some philosophy in school from some of the world’s greatest “Earthly thinkers.”  Gentlemen like Thoreau, Whitman, and Leopold all have great ideas, and I have have been influenced a great deal by them.  The aforementioned verse was chosen because it is appropriate and effective to help convey our sentiments.

The CD’s booklet doesn’t feature any info regarding the recording place and sound engineer’s name; why?

Michelle: Unfortunately we had a horrible time dealing with the printing company that printed our booklets.  They printed over 500 booklets of the wrong version of the CD booklet.  We made several changes on the booklet and they printed an old version.  That is why there are mistakes on the final copy. But to give credit where it is due, we recorded at Neptune Studios in Occoquan, Virginia and our main engineer was JP Maheu.

What was the reason for inviting Richard Ellis as a guest bass guitar player? I mean, your brother Scott also plays bass and does in a proper way, so…?

Michelle: We wanted Richard to play on the CD because he is an excellent bassist and a very good friend of ours.  Unfortunately he was away at school at the time we were recording and he didn’t have much time to learn the material or to record it.  So he only ended up on two songs.  As for the other songs, Scott really added the bass tracks at the last minute, we really improvised a lot on this album.

Why does your self-titled CD appears as a self-financed output? Personally, I consider your stuff to be enough worthy to be released through some honest UG label…

Michelle: We self-financed the album because we wrote and recorded the songs before anyone had ever heard of us.  We did not play any live shows until much after the CD was released.  We are still searching for the right label. It is hard to find a label that would be appropriate for our sound.

By the way, there’s a weird thing I noticed when it comes to US bands… Surprisingly, a lot of them (including undoubtedly outstanding acts!) prefer to unleash their creations on their own… Do you have any explanation for that?

Trevor:  Well, a lot of popular American acts are really not very good.  The music is really simple and boring and repetative and empty.  Hopefully, the impending musical revolution will change the matter.

ARISE FROM THORNS looks almost like a family project – Scott is a brother of yours and Trevor appears as your ‘beloved one’, right? Don’t you think that it may harm your band’s development in future? For example, in case of having some musical discords…

Michelle: Very good point.  Yes, the three of us are very close, as Scott is my brother and Trevor has been my “beloved one” for over three years now.  So far no major problems have occurred, we are very fortunate in that we all get along very well and we have learned how to work with each other.  We definitely all have different roles in the band and so far this system is working out fine.  The real problem is finding additional band members who will fit in and work as well together as the three of us currently do.

The booklet features you thanking Scott ‘for opening my eyes to the beauty in creating wonderful music’… Was he the one to lead you in the world of metal and gothic / dark wave stuff?

Michelle: I thank both Scott and Trevor for opening my eyes to music because they were the ones who encouraged me to have the confidence to sing and play out loud.  Until I started doing music I was painfully shy and would not sing in front of anyone.  But they really made me feel as though I had talent and that I could create music.  So I definitely owe a lot to them, without music I don’t know what I would do.

Have you ever thought of getting married? What is view on the civil marriage’s institution?

Michelle: I think I would like to get married one day, but not for awhile yet. I think marriage should be taken seriously, not necessarily for religious reasons, but because you are agreeing to make a commitment with a partner for life.  I don’t think people realize this (at least not in America, the divorce rate here is 50%!!) because so many people these days just get married for the hell of it and I believe it should be taken more seriously than that.

Let’s discuss this subject a bit further… From Marxism’s point of view, to get a perfect slave you just have to ruin his family; moreover, I heard people saying that f.ex. US government consciously enslaves it’s nation this way… Any comments?

Trevor: I think that people like to examine their situation and speculate conspiracy against them. Americans enslave themselves.  We invite the advertiser to barage our minds with trivial facts about goods and services that are not needed so that we may “pad” our existence with useless purchasing.  People cannot seem to be comfortable with themselves and the natural world, a simple and highly rewarding relationship.

Lots of people are talking about such thing as a ‘necessity of being responsible for our actions’ nowadays, and I believe that it’s very timely and urgent problem of today’s world – to be responsible for anything you do. For example, let’s recall Alan Ginzberg who said he’s sorry for pulling many of us into becoming keen of LSD… You see, ‘he is SORRY’! He’s just sorry while millions were dying (and still ARE dying) “thanks” to suchlike drugs…! I think, that’s a perfect example of total loss of responsibility. Now he says that it was CIA who made him (secretly, of course!) to do that. So, besides that he doesn’t want to carry any responsibility for his actions, he tries to put the blame on someone another and that’s totally weird to me! Is it the same with you or not?

Trevor: Once again, our society invites carelessness and recklessness, and we do not punish the guilty any more.  Orenthal James (OJ) Simpson killed two people and left a truckload full of evidence, and yet the jury (the American people) let him off.  The president of the U.S. is a rapist and mysoginist and a liar and the American people let him off.  You are correct...there is clearly a trend of recklessness without conscience our consequences, and I would like to say the I am not one of those people.

Have you ever thought about the ‘insane’ persons (not the ones like Diamanda Galas, no. I mean, those who’re suffering from so-called ‘mental illness’) and THEIR place in OUR world? Should we just get rid of them? Or maybe it’s US who are insane, insane and too dull-witted to understand the things which are accessible to THEM? Maybe, those persons already crossed the threshold of anything that belonged to mankind inside of them, and possibly reached another, higher level of being?

Trevor: Interesting question.  Actually I have pondered this myself before, as one of my friends was disagnosed three years ago with schizo-affective disorder. I think that we can reason that an insane person is not a higher level of being as you have suggested.  An insane person that cannot take care of the most simple daily functions like bathing, eating, and drinking without being told and guided and therefore cannot be on a higher level, though everything is relative and all sides are speculative.

What is your attitude to government? Furthermore, what sort of government would you prefer to have over there, in USA – the one consisting of dull-witted, narrow-minded but in the same time honest peasants or the one based on corruption, though consisting of well-educated and sage mafia’s representatives?

Michelle: I agree with Thomas Jefferson’s (third American President, politician, inventor, architect, philosopher) attitude towards government.  He wanted there to be little government control and wanted people essentially to take care of themselves and be responsible for their own actions.  It would be nice if people would have some sort of innate morality and we would not have to rely on corrupt politicians to rule our countries.  But in reality, I would guess that roughly 2 percent of the population in this country have good morals and could make good, sound judgements regarding their own lives.  So for now we need government control or society would be absolutely mad and people would be out of control!!

Is there anything you know regarding Russia? Have you ever heard any metal / gothic bands coming from my nativeland?

Michelle: To be honest with you I know very little about the music scene in Russia, however I would be interested in learning more about what Russian bands are doing.

Trevor: The only music that I have that is unsolicited from Russia is a band called TRIO BARAKO (mispelled?).  It is comprised of a trio playing baroque instrument and music, and it is quite lovely.

Well, now it’s time for you to tell us few words of your future plans and wish our readers (as well as me, heh heh) anything you’d like…

Michelle: Well, thank you very much for this well thought out and thought provoking interview!! Definitely one of the best interviews we have had the opportunity to do!  For information regarding the CD, new material, and T-shirts, please e-mail me at:  Siouxxxi@aol.com, or write us at: P.O. Box 1077, Dale City, Virginia, 22193, USA
Or you can find us on the web at:  http://listen.to/arisefromthorns
 
Trevor: Thank you very much for providing a musical forum that can examine the issues that influence music, art, and thought.