Archive for Silent Film

“Musical Séance and the Sublime Art of Darkness:” Jill Tracy Interviewed in Diabolique Magazine

By jilltracy
Sunday, December 31st, 2017

***From the archives: This is one of my all-time favorite interviews!
Diabolique Editor-in-Chief Kat Ellinger and I dive deep…
(Original Oct 2016 post can be found HERE.)  ***

“Musical Séance and the Sublime Art of Darkness:”

Resembling the lovechild of H.H. Holmes and a silent era siren, when it comes to dark music there is only one Jill Tracy. As a singer, pianist, and performer, she conjures a timeless netherworld that opens up the portals to forgotten places; nightmarish, magickal, bathed in perpetual twilight. It is not surprising that since her breakthrough album, sophomore effort 1999’s Diabolical Streak (a follow-up to 1996’s Quintessentially Unreal)—which includes morbid classics like Evil Night Together, The Fine Art of Poisoning, and Pulling Your Insides Out—Tracy has gone from strength to strength, gathering worldwide acclaim. Constantly evolving, tirelessly, endlessly, she is a creative force to be reckoned with.

Diabolique caught up with Tracy to talk to her about her origins, her love for the occult, the macabre, her fascination with the otherworldly, and how this fuels her creative canvass. Tracy also shares with us her inspirations, her thoughts on the commodification of music and struggle with being a truly unique independent artist, as well as discussing some of her collaborations and current work with Philadelphia’s Mütter Museum.

 

Diabolique: How did you start out, and how has your music evolved over time?

Tracy: Strangely, I have come full circle, enamoured with minimalism, and doing solo shows again. That’s how it began, me at a piano—but when I first started out, I felt like it was not enough—I wanted a band. It had to be big! Most of my songs do have a heaviness- a cinematic, dark vibe, and I thought the only way I could achieve this intensity was to have more instruments. (Little did I know.) So the band grew from 3 players up to 11! I affectionately called them “The Malcontent Orchestra.” I’d joke onstage that “in a band of Malcontents you never knew who would show up,” so we had this great revolving cast of rock star guests. Even if the band was only 4 people, we’d call it The Malcontent Orchestra. It was fabulous. But in time, became overwhelming and limiting, not only for me—but rehearsals, travels, schedules, being able to make money. I was producing events, winning awards, but I was miserable. I felt like I had lost myself (and the music) in the din. All the nuances I strive so hard to achieve in my voice and piano were buried. I realized how much I wanted to utilize space and breath between the notes. Textures. The quiet can be rapturous, the most intense thing in the entire arrangement. The soul lives in the silence.

In the past few years, I have been excavating my work down to its essence, to what truly serves the songs, performing often as a trio, duo—or me alone—sharing eerie tales, memoir, scores and songs, manifesting my elegant netherworld. Falling in love with the experience that got me writing music in the first place.

 

Diabolique: How did you discover your love of the piano?

Tracy: I never wanted to play the piano. I always wanted to sing, but the piano discovered me in a sense. I was a misfit child, felt out-of-sorts with this world (still do.) I always believed there was another place, a magic, hidden realm that one could discover with the proper methods. I tried to build a time machine in my bedroom closet. I thought one could travel through the shadows.

I read about time travel, the belief in other dimensions, spirits, ghosts—I would lecture to my stuffed animals about the solar system and constellations. All I wanted to do was to discover or manifest hidden worlds. I knew they existed. My mission was to figure out how to find them.

I began making frequent visits to an elderly widow who lived next door. Her home was encrusted with bric-a-brac, old photos and dolls—porcelain-painted Siamese cats with jewels for eyes. In the basement was an ancient upright piano, covered entirely in beige and gold-flecked paint. It sat next to the washer and dryer, under buzzing fluorescent lights.

There was something atrocious, yet reverent about this thing. It kept calling me. I knew nothing about the instrument, but I kept venturing next door, poised on the golden bench for hours, letting thoughts and spectres rush through my fingertips, as it transported me far away. (I used to call it “thinking.”)

I didn’t know what I was doing– but didn’t want to do anything else. This became my portal—and still is.

 


Jill Tracy after-dark with 139 human skulls in the Hyrtl Skull Collection, Mütter Museum, Philadelphia.
Photo by Evi Numen

 

Diabolique: You’ve become synonymous with your elegant, dark style and sound. When did you discover it?

Tracy: Thank you. I love that I am synonymous with my style, which essentially is just ME. I’ve looked like this for years! (laughs) I wouldn’t know any other way.

I’ve always been drawn to the shadowy intrigue of the silent screen era, gypsies and fortune tellers, the occult, and 1970s rock. My style is a collection of passions. I’ve always felt any glamour worth its shimmer has an equally ragged edge.

I did the proverbial running-away to New York City after high school, lived on the third floor of a former coffin factory. All I owned was a mattress on the floor and an old baby grand piano. (This was circa 1990, back when you could still be a struggling artist in NYC.) I used to sit in the wee hours at the candle-lit piano, peering through the massive floor-to-ceiling windows into the streetlights and vacant lot below. I never felt more inspired— or more alone. My music became my spell, my incantation, my catharsis. It was so private to me, in fact, that it was years before I would even let anyone hear it.

 

Diabolique: Could you tell about some of your musical influences— also could you explain the influence of cinematic music on your overall sound?

Tracy: I have always been drawn to the mysterious—fantastical, otherworldly imagery. Worlds sans-time. I’m obsessed with Alfred Hitchcock, Bernard Herrmann, Ray Bradbury, Rod Serling, Jean Cocteau. Through classic cinema, film noir, and Serling’s The Twilight Zone, I was captivated by the glorious mystery, elegance, and succinct, yet smart storytelling. Often it was what you didn’t see that really put the fear in you. Not to mention the dreamlike, sensual look to the films, dangerous romance, unsettling camera angles, surreal lighting and shadows.

I used to stay up all night as a kid, watching old horror movies on Chiller Theater. I’d often turn the volume down on the TV and make up my own music. We had an old Hammond organ in the house. I learned that MUSIC conjured the emotional response. The music held all the power.

What was it about certain notes or scales? Why does a certain scale make us feel scared, aroused, and then another scale or chord is joyful? Is it simply mathematics, conditioning, or something visceral? Magical?

Composer Bernard Herrmann tells the tale of how Hitchcock originally wanted silence during the infamous Psycho shower scene! Can you even imagine it today without the trademark shrieking violins? That’s a vital part of what makes that scene so memorable. And those violins alone evoke fear and violence whenever we hear them.

The rock bands that first inspired me had the same beautiful sense of mystique and grace—Pink Floyd, David Bowie, early Peter Gabriel, Japan, The Cure. Even listening to Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath, early Genesis— there was something majestic—and timeless. These artists were well read, and made us want to pull books off the shelves. I learned about Aleister Crowley from listening to Bowie, learned about Nabokov from The Police. This sense of grace, mastery, and sophistication is sadly lacking today.

I realized back then I wanted to create work that was timeless and singular.


Late night New York City alleyways during filming of the music video “Pulling Your Insides Out.”
Photo by Jeremy Carr

 

Diabolique: Could you explain the ideas behind your lyrical content?

Tracy: My work is about honoring the mystery, the forgotten, that beautiful allure of the darkness, the stories lost in Time, the ecstasy of melancholy—La Douleur Exquise “the exquisite pain.”

I often focus on the struggle of being yourself in a world that is trying its hardest to turn you into everybody else. Staying true to yourself; that’s the hardest and most glorious battle of all.

 

Diabolique: How do you combine aspects of performance and music for your live act? What could people expect at one of your shows?

Tracy: With environment and story playing such a role, I love to design events curious to the venue. I created an ongoing after-dark series at the wondrous San Francisco Conservatory of Flowers where I hosted night tours of the gardens and performed music. I curated each evening on a different intriguing theme— like the strange history of perfumes, poisonous plants and the arsenic craze, spirits that supposedly lived in various woods of violins.

I spent weeks researching and exploring the abandoned (and supposedly haunted) historical buildings of The Presidio (dating back to 1776), composed music based on my findings— then presented an evening inside the Officers Club Ballroom. I worked with the historical librarian to uncover almost 100 gorgeous archival photos which I projected behind me—early 1900s abandoned psychiatric ward, morgue and hospital wards, as I revealed their tales. The best part was performing the very piece of music I composed inside, on a 1903 Steinway grand, inspired by the centuries-old legend of the lady ghost who is often seen dancing in that very space.

That’s the magic music allows—like a trap door or portal, it transports us—to a place we never knew existed, but wish to go. I am a gatekeeper of emotions. My favorite thing is to be able to take an audience to that place with me.

 

Diabolique: How does composing music in unusual locations, or via strange objects, as in your Musical Séances, differ from writing songs?

Tracy: When I am writing songs, I’m emotionally connected and in charge. I’m masterful of every word, creak in my voice, arrangement, breath between the notes. It’s purposeful. There is a destination.

When I channel music, it’s the complete opposite, I have to surrender. I am the conduit, a passenger. I have NO idea where I am going. That is both the thrill and the challenge.

I’ve learned to compose spontaneously via various energy sources, whether found objects, environments, etc. I am clairaudient, so I often hear unexplained music and voices.

The Musical Séance is a live travelling show, my long-time collaboration with violinist Paul Mercer. It’s a collective summoning driven by beloved objects the audience brings with them. Items of personal significance—such as a photo, talisman, jewelry, toy. This is a very crucial part of manifesting the music. Every object holds its story, its spirit— energy, resonance, impressions from anyone who has ever held the object, to the experiences and emotions passed through it.

These compositions are delicate living things. They materialize, transport, and in the same second—they vanish. That’s the amazing thing about The Musical Seance—you never know what to expect, and each experience is entirely different, extremely emotional, for us, as well as the audience. It creates this rare synergy with everyone in the entire room.

It’s the closest thing to time travel.

Often, the curiosities themselves are just as compelling as the music they inspire. We’ve encountered everything from cremated cats, dentures, haunted paintings, 16th century swords, antlers, x-rays, gingerbread man, a lock of hair from a drowned boy.

But one thing I’ve learned is—everyone in the world has a story to tell that will break your heart.


Jill Tracy composing inside the Mütter Museum, Philadelphia. Photo by Evil Numen

 

Diabolique: So, tell us about some of your collaborators. What have been some of your most memorable moments, and favourite people to work with?

Tracy: My work has attracted a very eclectic group. I’ve been fortunate to collaborate with the likes of David J (Bauhaus), Steven Severin (Siouxsie and the Banshees), UK silent film composer Stephen Horne, thereminist Armen Ra, Film Noir Foundation, SF Silent Film Festival, experimental filmmaker Bill Domonkos, Jello Biafra, Death Salon, Atlas Obscura, photographer Evi Numen (Mütter Museum,) filmmaker Jeremy Carr, Tuvan throat singer Soriah, master percussionist Randy Odell, the list goes on and on.

Some of my favorite collaborative moments: When famed author Lemony Snicket (Daniel Handler) and I performed a concert as a piano/accordion duo to celebrate the 100th anniversary of Fantômas, the beloved French pulp “Lord of Terror.” We played our hilarious, spine-tingling version of the original “Ballad of Fantômas” with all 26 verses!

I got to share the stage with legendary Doors’ keyboardist Ray Manzarek while we played keyboards, and discussed how literature influenced our music.

I acted in several seasons of classic Grand Guignol with renowned troupe Thrillpeddlers—dying onstage in all sorts of violent ways: plunging off a balcony while singing Tosca, being hypnotized by a mad scientist, killed in a violent train crash, torn apart by a savage wolf boy!

Allowing yourself to be terrified and scream onstage in front of an audience is profoundly liberating and cathartic.

 

Diabolique: Your act is often described as dark cabaret, would you agree with the label, and what does the term mean to you? How would you describe your work within the context of “Gothic”?

Tracy: All these terms are annoying. They negate the artist, to serve the marketing—and constantly spun around in a blender. We must now cram everything in watered-down boxes to sell it to the unknowing herd.

Someone asked me the other day—“do you strive to be more dark cabaret, noir jazz, or witch rock?” I wanted to strangle them! (laughs) Keep in mind my first release was in 1995 (with an EP before that), long before these terms or this type of mindset-marketing existed. Hell, I just write what I feel. There is never a pre-conceived “box.”

The sad thing is this hyper-branding ruins the impact, the poignancy, the meaning of a piece of art on its own terms. To merely slap it with a label is ignoring it. But hey, this is about business, not art, they tell you. Hello Internet.

That’s why, sadly, art has less meaning in people’s lives. When I was growing up, that’s how you bonded with someone. (Certainly if you were an outlier.) What bands do you listen to? What books are you reading? What are your favorite films?

Now, it’s what phone do you have? What apps? How many Facebook friends do you have? Tech has become the barometer.

This constant commodification is ruining culture in general. It’s ruined so much of what music is, and what impact it had on your life. Music was expression. It could be dangerous, subversive, it STOOD for something. If you saw someone from across the room with a Gang of 4 t-shirt, you knew they were a kindred spirit. There would be that constant, crazed search for your favorite band photos, t-shirt or buttons in the back of magazines, or at an obscure record store. You had to put effort into the quest! It meant something! Now it’s pointless stock at at Hot Topic or Target.

I saw a guy in LA recently wearing a Nirvana t-shirt. I asked him about Kurt Cobain, he said he did not know who that was.

I’ve read comments on my own music videos that say “I really like this music, but don’t know what this style is called, it’s so unique, so I’m not sure if I can like it or not.” How sad we now need PERMISSION to think for ourselves. Be brave enough to form your own opinions! To create whatever you wish to create. If anything, that is my message, the entire point of my career: Embrace your strange, live your life brazenly and unapologetically. Honor your distinct vision amidst the struggle, the stupidity, the naysayers, and the corporate brainwashing. There has never been a more vital time to escape the cage.


Jill Tracy portrait by Audrey Penven

 

Diabolique: Tell us about some of the ways in which your music has made it into film and television.

Tracy: My first major placement was an NBC-TV newsmagazine segment about absinthe (late 1990s when it was still illegal and taboo.) They used my music, with Erik Satie, plus Nine Inch Nails and Marilyn Manson while you saw visuals of Oscar Wilde, Baudelaire, and Van Gogh cutting off his ear in an absinthe stupor! (laughs.) I felt like I had arrived in grand company.

My songs and instrumentals have been in several independent and feature films. I did the end title song for Jeremy Carr’s brilliant new thriller Other Madnesses, which has won several awards. Plus— PBS, the CBS hit show Navy NCIS featured my songs as themes for sultry goth forensic scientist Abby Sciuto (Pauley Perrette.) And Showtime used my track “Evil Night Together” as the Final Symphony—the ad campaign to promote the wildly-anticipated final season of Dexter.

I would love to do more scores and songs for film/TV.

 

Diabolique: Where do you find inspiration?

Tracy: It’s never any one thing specifically; that’s the beauty of it, the sheer randomness. There’s that great Leonard Cohen quote—”If I knew where the good songs came from, I’d go there more often.”

For me, it’s more of a sensory response to the immediate; a word or phrase, an image, a story, a mood, a fragrance, textures, colors, the allure of the unknown, the forbidden, anything that enables me to ‘slip into the cracks” and get out of this world for a while. It’s the grand escape hatch.

And even though I’m holding the reins, I never know where it will take me. I simply trust that I can hold on with all my might, and see it through to the other side. That’s the place where all songs live.

 

Diabolique: So far what would you consider your biggest achievement?

Tracy: One of my greatest pleasures of late has been immersing myself alone in unusual locations, or a place with a strange story, and composing music as a reaction to that environment. The intense purity and immediacy is so exciting. You are hearing my raw emotional response at the piano.

I’ve found myself conjuring the hidden score in decrepit gardens and cemeteries, on the antique Steinways of the (supposedly haunted) Victoria B.C. 1890 Craigdarroch Castle, an 1800s San Francisco medical asylum, abandoned buildings inside the famed 1776 Presidio military base, and the Los Angeles mansion of a 19th century murderer.

The lovely and difficult thing about this work is that I can’t prepare for it, as I never know what to expect. I must allow myself to be completely vulnerable; simply feel, and react. It’s not about me anymore; it’s about the music, the story. It becomes so much bigger than any of us.

My huge dream-come-true is that I am first musician in history to ever be awarded a grant from Philadelphia’s famed Mütter Museum, to create a series of work inspired by its spellbinding collection of medical oddities. I spent nights alone at a piano amidst the Mütter’s grotesque cabinet of curiosities, which includes the death cast and conjoined liver of original Siamese twins Chang and Eng, the skeleton of the Harry Eastlack “the Ossified Man,” Einstein’s brain, The American Giant, books bound in human skin, and the Mermaid Baby. It was vital for me to be in the presence of these long-lost souls, as I composed and recorded. They become an actual part of the work and not just the subject matter. I began this project in 2012, with subsequent visits, and have become totally caught up in the research! What began as a single music album, has transformed into the idea of a full-blown book/memoir project with music and visuals. Excited to finally get back to it.

 

Diabolique: If you could work with anyone past and present, who would it be?

Tracy: I’d love to have jammed with Led Zeppelin’s drummer John Bonham. Actually Jimmy Page (guitar) and John Paul Jones (bass) are all such phenomenal musicians, I would adore the opportunity to play with them. As well as the members of Pink Floyd. What a dream to be in the studio with David Gilmour! I would love to have Thom Yorke and Nigel Godrich (Radiohead) produce an album with me, and create that huge, heartbreaking soar of gloom and elegance.

I wish I could have sung a duet with David Bowie. I have not recovered from my sadness and depression over his death.

 

Diabolique: Where can we follow you on social media?

Tracy: Here are the links! Follow me for ongoing adventures in the netherworld…

Twitter: https://twitter.com/jilltracymusic

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/jilltracymusic

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jilltracymusic/

YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/jilltracymusic

Bandcamp: https://jilltracy.bandcamp.com/

 

Categories : History, Interviews, Memoir, Projects, Uncategorized, Video
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“Finding the Phantom”: Jill Tracy talks music and the allure of monsters with French Vampire Blog

By jilltracy
Monday, April 8th, 2013

JT_Nosferatu_2Jill Tracy with Max Schreck as Nosferatu. (photo by Jon Bradford)

 

This interview was conducted by writer Adrien Party for the French Vampire webzine Vampirisme.

 

Hello. Please introduce yourself to Vampirisme.

JT: My name is Jill Tracy. I am a composer/pianist/singer/storyteller based in San Francisco, CA. With albums ranging from songs to film scores to post-classical instrumentals, I am fascinated with the beauty found in darkness––and my work honors the mystery, the forgotten, the stories lost in time.

Music allows me to create the emotional undercurrent, the portal to transport the listener into that magical place with me. I like to call it my “elegant netherworld.”

nosferatu_stairs

Into the Land of Phantoms is presented as a score for F.W. Murnau’s 1922 Nosferatu. Can you tell us about the genesis of this work?

JT: I adore the way F.W. Murnau uses light, imagery, and tempo in his films. It’s a musical seduction of shadows. Plus odd shots of nature are used to beautiful intrigue. But I always disliked the music that accompanied this film, usually a jaunty, meandering piano (or some mediocre, desperate to be cool, doom metal) that did nothing to compliment or serve what we were seeing onscreen. This is the case I find with most silent film scores. Most often, I watch them with the sound turned off because it ruins the experience for me. It becomes a complete disconnect when it should be the way “in.”

I wanted to honor the integrity of Nosferatu, dispose of any camp element and seamlessly enhance the emotion of Murnau’s stunning visuals. I don’t see Count Orlok as inciting horror or trepidation, as much as an unsettling allure. It’s a beautiful, sensual work; the listener should surrender to the spell of the music as intensely as to the spell of the vampire.”

nosferatu_shadow

Some of the characters have their own theme, which is used on many parts of the score. What was the point behind each theme? (particularly Van Helsing, which reminds me of the Grenada Sherlock Holmes tune, and Jonathan Harker).

JT: Those recurring themes set the tone and personality of the character so when you hear them again, it resonates, and you react subconsciously. You are instantly back in his/her head again! Van Helsing conveys an erudite trusting sense, whereas Renfield’s character was not only diabolical, but a bit fumbling, there were touches of hollow marimba tones that brought across the comic, peculiar side of his personality. The marimba melodies are both foreboding yet playful, which was the brilliant idea of my long-time percussionist Randy Odell.

I do want to mention the other wonderful musicians on that score: Alexander Kort (cello), Daniel Baer (violin.) I play piano.

nosferatu_renfield
The agent Renfield in F.W. Murnau’s Nosferatu

 

Are there some moments of the score that are not on the CD, and why?

JT: Most of the score is represented on Into the Land of Phantoms. The CD will NOT sync up with the film, however, as the actual score had several long silent passages, or moments with just sound effects, which did not translate well for an audio CD. I am very proud that Into the Land of Phantoms stands exquisitely on its own as album of dark classical music.

 

Your musical production seems to be very influenced by silent movies. Do you think that nowadays cinema is less interesting than 1900-1950 cinema (in particular in the way it used music?)

JT; Well, the dates you mention certainly span the landmark years, from the silent cinema to talkies…through the great Film Noir period.

It was a watershed when I discovered the classic horror/film noir composers as a child. Bernard Herrmann’s scores to Alfred Hitchcock films, “The Day the Earth Stood Still,” Franz Waxman, Hans J. Salter, among others. It was pure magic to me, realizing that the MUSIC completely dictated the emotion of whatever it was that you were watching. It was utterly subliminal, primal.

I wanted to figure out how to conjure dark and enchanting imaginary worlds of my own. Not to mention the dreamlike, sensual look to those films. I just wanted to live in those worlds. They seemed perfect to me. They still do.

Today, most Hollywood movies and scores are not about creating fine art, but about making money, so sadly “scores” are often poorly placed pop songs pasted into a film to promote “bands du jour” owned by that company’s record label, etc. This has destroyed that elegant sense of timelessness in cinema…which is something I always strive for in my music, the fact that it will be relevant and distinctive on it own terms, never sucumbing to trends or the mass media of the time, which only cheapens the craft, and makes it insincere.

That’s why there is such a resurgence and newfound interest in classic cinema right now. These treasures have become a lost art.

JT_stairsJill Tracy shot by Film Noir lighting master Jim Ferreira

 

What are your first and last encounters with a vampire (literature and / or cinema and /or music?)

JT: As a girl, I remember watching Bela Lugosi films and eating Count Chocula cereal. Those were probably my first encounters with vampires. I would stir those little brown marshmallows around in the cereal bowl imagining that it created graveyard dirt!

I guess I’ve come full circle because now I am working with David J, bassist from the legendary band Bauhaus, who wrote the gothic anthem “Bela Lugosi’s Dead.” I actually created a dark classical piano prelude for a new reworking of the tune by David J himself. He sings this version, as Peter Murphy sang David’s lyrics on the Bauhaus 1979 original. You can’t get more vampire than that!

(And interesting to note: the original cover art for Bela Lugosi’s Dead was a still from F. W. Murnau’s silent film The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari.)

David-J-74 + Jill_levels
Jill Tracy onstage with David J (Bauhaus) in Hollywood. photo by tourbuslive.

 

In your opinion, how can we analyze the vampire myth?

JT: The closer to death, always more alluring the taboo…

The vampire is one of the oldest, most resilient archetypes, existing in a variety of forms in nearly every culture worldwide. Each culture’s conception of the vampire has been somewhat unique––one type of Indian vampire feeds on the livers of its victims, while a form of Japanese vampire subsists by consuming infants.

The vampire was confounding or horrifying because it had the ability to achieve the forbidden, as well as lure others under its spell. For Victorian audiences, this spectre of wild sexuality, and the break with proper social behaviours, was unheard of, and terrifying. When Murnau’s Nosferatu debuted in theaters in 1922 (the first film based on the 1897 Bram Stoker novel,) people fainted in the aisles and had to be carried out of the theater!

For me, the universal appeal of the vampire is that of control/abandon, unbridled desire, the mysterious, the forbidden, eternal beauty, immortality. A lover seemingly out of our reach, a lover who can reveal to us dangerous new worlds and take us to heights we can only imagine is rapturous…and frightening. How much of ourselves are we willing to lose in the process?

Now, the role of bloodplay/drinking blood creates an even more severe sense of taboo in society with the reality of HIV, AIDS. This further entices a sense of forbidden fetish, unacceptable to the norm––a seductive mingling with death.

nosferatu-locket

Do you have any other projects on this very same subject? What are your future projects?

JT: I’m not working on any vampire project now, but have recorded a song called “The Colour of the Flame,” which is based on the writings of 19th Century Polish occultist Stanislaw Przybyszewski. It will be released on a collector’s 7” vinyl along with a tune from Blixa Bargeld (Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds/ Einsturzende Neubauten.)

I am also thrilled to be the first musician in history to be awarded a grant from the famed Mütter Museum in Philadelphia, the nation’s foremost collection of medical oddities. I spent part of last year composing music inside the museum at night in the company of these wondrous specimens and lost souls. I will spend 2013 completing this project for an entire album inspired by the Mütter collection.

 

***Listen and purchase  Into the Land of Phantoms, Jill Tracy’s score to F.W. Murnau’s Nosferatu HERE.

 

Categories : Albums, Concerts, Films, History, Interviews, Memoir, Projects, Uncategorized
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JILL TRACY Interview in Nocturne Magazine: “On Mystery, Music, and the Mütter Museum”

By jilltracy
Saturday, March 16th, 2013

 

NOTE: This interview was originally printed as a beautiful 6-page spread in New Zealand’s Nocturne Magazine, Issue #5. We are proud to present it online for you here!


JILL TRACY: On Mystery, Music, and the Mütter Museum

by Fiona McKechnie (for Nocturne Magazine, New Zealand)
photo by Audrey Penven

 

Jill Tracy is a conjuror of the enigmatic; a purveyor of the extraordinary and raconteur of dark delights. She weaves her web with delicate soundscapes, seducing us into her parlour with eerie tales, which are sinister, yet captivatingly sweet. A singer, songwriter, composer, performer and all-around creative wonder, Jill has her delicate fingers in many delicious pies!

We found Jill tangled amongst a fury of live performances, recordings and music channeling: freeing herself for a moment to talk with us about some of the many projects she is currently immersed in.

 

Your music conjures such strong impressions of the past, each taking the listener back to a different by-gone era. What do you think it is about the past that is so seductive?

Jill Tracy: My music doesn’t evoke the Past so much as it does a sense of pure Timelessness. Transcendent of Time. That’s what makes it seductive; creating that place––familiar yet oddly intriguing. It resonates on a soulful level, but still maintains an air of the mysterious. That’s the magic music allows —like a trap door or portal, it accompanies us—to a place we never knew existed, but wish to go.

I’m honored to be this gatekeeper of emotions. Throughout my life, I’ve simply followed my own muses. I’ve always just composed the score I hear inside my head. Music from the mind’s eye… To listen to my music is to know me.

I have always been drawn to fantastical, otherworldly imagery. Worlds sans-time. As a child, I was obsessed with Alfred Hitchcock, Bernard Herrmann, Ray Bradbury, Rod Serling, Jean Cocteau. I just wanted to live in those worlds. I still do.
So I did the next best thing: I devoted my life to creating my own musical netherworld.


photo by bleedingvisuals

You’ve performed a number of ‘Musical Séances,’ with violinist Paul Mercer, over the years. At these events attendees bring along objects, trinkets, belongings that remind them of loved ones and you ‘channel’ live music using these possessions. What is it like to speak with the dead through music?

JT: Paul and I never approach it that way. It would be outrageous and in bad taste to claim we are “speaking to the dead through music.” If anything, it’s about honoring the dead, not mocking them, or selling hokum like sideshow hucksters.

The “Musical Séance” is a collective summoning inspired by beloved objects. Quite frankly, it’s more about the present than the past, music channeled from that fragile moment captured among the living. From sentiment to sadness, frivolity and fear. It’s musical psychometry.

Audience members are asked to bring tokens of special significance, such as a photo, talisman, jewelry, toy. This is a very crucial part of manifesting the music. Every object holds its story, its spirit. Energy, resonance, impressions from anyone who has ever held the object, to the experiences and emotions passed through it.

Often, these curiosities themselves are just as compelling as the music they inspire. We’ve encountered everything from cremated cats, dentures, haunted paintings, 16th century swords, antlers, and x-rays.

But one thing I’ve learned is––everyone in the world has a story to tell that will break your heart.

Objects brought to A Musical Seance (photo by Neil Girling theblight.net)

How did this process of channeling music evolve?

JT: My music and live performances have always been so emotionally driven to begin with– I would see people sometimes crying in the front row, or they’d come up to me after a set relating how a particular song got them through a rough time, or helped them find their true path, etc. I’ve realized I’ve become a beacon for so many kindred souls. And that’s very important to me. That genuine direct connection with an audience is such a rarity these days—in a world where entertainment has become vacuous and superficial. We are about as real as it gets.

I wanted the audience to become even more a part of my process, and actually compose pieces in front of them, culled from their energy. It’s a perfect circle. The audience gives to me, and I channel it musically and give it right back, creating a piece that will exist solely for us in those few minutes. It’s the most powerful thing I’ve ever experienced. A musical umbilical cord.

That led me to immersing myself in unusual locations laden with mysterious history, and manifesting music from my reaction to the environment. The intense purity and immediacy is so exciting. You are hearing my raw response at the piano. I call it “spontaneous musical combustion” (as homage to “spontaneous human combustion,” and my affinity for peculiar history and science tales.)
I’ve found myself conjuring the hidden score inside haunted castles, abandoned asylums, decrepit mansions, gardens, and theaters. It’s definitely one of my greatest pleasures right now.

The lovely and difficult thing about this work is that I can’t prepare for it, as I never know what to expect. I must allow myself to be completely vulnerable; simply feel, and react. It’s not about me anymore; it’s about the music, the story. It becomes so much bigger than any of us. That’s the beauty of it.


photo by Audrey Penven

It seems appropriate that you hold these musical séances when your music is so often described as being ‘haunting’ and ‘otherworldly’. Perhaps you are a bit of an apparition yourself?

JT: (laughs) Jello Biafra is quoted as saying “Drop dead original and dark as a drowning pool…I sometimes wonder if Jill Tracy is actually a ghost.”

I’ve been described as a musical sorceress, evocateur, intrigante, woman of mystery, ‘dark Queen of Melancholia,’ ‘femme fatale for the thinking man.’ All of these descriptives I adore. I guess when you feel out-of-sorts with the world, you must create your own.

From spiritualism to alchemy – what fine potions have you been working on by which to enchant us through another of the senses?

JT: I engage such a full-sensory arc in my work. I’ve always wanted to create fragrances to correspond to the music, similar to the way we concoct visuals with each album. Why not engage the olfactory? The sense of smell is directly linked to the limbic system, the part of the brain where emotion and memory are centered!

I’m collaborating with master perfumist Emerson Hart of Nocturne Alchemy. We’ve released two scents: Silver Smoke and Star of Night. I’m addicted to them already and have been wearing them constantly. More to come!

It’s been so exciting and fulfilling to smell these fragrances on different skins, everyone brings their signature to the scent and it changes person-to-person.
Night fragrance for Night music…


photo by Jeremy Carr

You’re currently in the middle of a new project with the Mütter Museum, where you have been invited to create compositions inspired by their collection of medical oddities. How did this come about?

JT: Yes, I’m honored to make history as the first musician to be awarded a grant, which is enabling me to compose music inside the Mütter Museum, a series of compositions directly inspired by pieces in the collection. It was vital for me to be in the presence of these long-lost souls, as I composed and recorded. I needed to immerse myself in their world. There is so much lurking here. This glorious synergy– the collection of souls together from various time periods and walks of life, most who endured extreme and rare medical conditions. I needed to be with them as I composed and make them a real part of the creation. This is my gift to them.

What inspired you to want to compose with the museum as a backdrop?

JT: The Mütter Museum has always been on of my favorite places on earth. When I first visited, I remember vividly standing on the red-carpeted steps leading down to the lower level and hearing the buzz. It was overwhelming. All these people, all these stories, together—yet apart, remembered—yet forgotten. I was swept in a whirlwind of feelings: admiration, pity, fright, shock, respect, repulsion, sadness. I just wanted to sit and listen, to hear their tales, to know them.

As you explore the Hyrtl Skull Collection, for example: Each has a brief story written in meticulous cursive on the side of the skull: Suicide by gunshot wound of the heart because of “weariness of life.” Lovesick teenager, a soldier, a shoemaker, well-known murderer, a tightrope walker who died of a broken neck, a hanged man, and a famous Viennese prostitute. All this life and death shared together in one glass case. It’s phenomenal.

There is such a brave beauty in these souls who had to endure these afflictions. I want to bring them to life through my music—peel away the clinical guise, dwell deeper, find the voices hiding within these walls.

All of my work will be factual. I’m in the throes of extensive research at the museum, even utilizing excerpts from letters and doctors’ records. My goal is to evoke the spirit, set a mood that transports you inside just by listening.


(Hyrtl Skulls, photo courtesy of Concierge.com Philadelphia)

What experiences have you had so far while working within the Mütter Museum?
What is it like to create music in a setting that is normally very sterile and diagnostic?

JT: Well, for many, the study of science and disease is viewed as quite dry and clinical. There exists a strong disconnect with the examination of the disease itself and the dear souls who had to endure these afflictions. The personal saga of these brave patients is not often well documented, nor discussed. I remember as a child being obsessed with old medical textbooks and tomes, and upset that I could never find out more about the people in these books, but merely the disease.

But the Mütter is a different experience. It is indeed a medical teaching museum. But, Dr. Mütter’s entire point for starting the museum was to teach empathy and compassion. There lies in that a tremendous sense of marvel for me.

I want to honor the emotional side, the human experience from the Mutter’s collection. You may read about Harry Eastlack, the ossified man, whose rare disease (FOP) caused his entire body to slowly transform into bone. Young, handsome, vibrant– painstakingly trapped beneath a second skeletal cage. In the end, he could only move his lips. What was he like? How did he cope? What was his day-to-day experience? It’s unfathomable to me. I was thrilled to be able to read through Harry’s private files in the Mütter collection, letters, photos, extensive doctors’ records.

I composed and recorded the work “Bone by Bone” as I sat next to Harry’s famed skeleton. I needed him with me, to truly be part of the song, and not just the subject matter.


(Harry Eastlack’s skeleton, courtesy College of Physicians, Philadelphia)

One of the most moving pieces I’m creating is entitled “My First and Last Time Alone,” about conjoined brothers Chang and Eng Bunker. Most of us know them as the original Siamese Twins, gloriously renowned performers who toured the world (even appeared before presidents and Queen Victoria)—married sisters, fathered 21 children, and employed the use of a “privacy sheet.” But after doing extensive research, I was completely devastated when I read how they died. The song is about that heartbreaking 3-hour period on a cold January night.

I was with Chang and Eng’s actual death cast, and their conjoined liver as I composed the piece. This was one of the most compelling experiences I’ve ever had. Abiding by the twins’ wishes, the liver was never separated, even after death.

How does the musical ‘channelling’ differ from the process you go through when composing (for example, the score for F.W. Murnau’s Nosferatu) and/or writing the songs for your previous albums?

JT: It’s completely the opposite. In the case of film scoring, visuals dictate the music. I’m hanging on the visual, emotional cues–serving them. Channeling music is like jumping off a cliff. I’m not even conscious of it. It’s a visceral reaction to an energy, a sensation.
When I was scoring Nosferatu, I spent so much time in Murnau’s eerie world that the imagery would seep into the present. I remember vividly crossing a busy San Francisco street, looking down and suddenly seeing rats scurrying everywhere in a grainy, chiaroscuro haze.
When writing songs for my own albums, I get to take the reins. That process is much more personal.


(Jill Tracy performing her score to Nosferatu. photo by Jon Bradford)

Is there a famous figure from history you would like to try to connect with through one of their belongings? Anyone you would like to bring forth in a musical séance for your own pleasure?

JT: Wow, what a fantastic question! I can think of so many great ones: Count St. Germain’s velvet cloaks, Nikola Tesla and his beloved white pigeon, Rod Serling- via his Night Gallery paintings. I’d give anything to sit behind John Bonham’s drum kit, or play Richard Wright’s (Pink Floyd) piano.

Have you always been interested in history and its secrets?

JT: For me it was more about the unknown rather than just history stories. I loved asking certain questions and realizing no adult knew the answer. I learned there was a much deeper level that no one seemed to be able or brave enough to tap into.
I was given the book The Mysterious World when I was a child and when I first opened it, there was a picture of spontaneous human combustion. I had never heard of such a thing in my life. There’s that wonderful old photograph of Dr. John Irving Bentley who suddenly burst into flame. There’s a bit of his leg, with his foot still in a slipper, his walker, and cinders everywhere. And I’d read about toads and frogs and blood raining from the sky. Or Count Saint Germain, who was recorded to have lived for hundreds of years. He said his secret to immortality was to eat oatmeal and wear velvet encrusted with gemstones. To this day, no one knows exactly who he was, where he came from and if indeed he was immortal.
Monsters, marvels, lore, and legend—these are the things that make us feel most alive. The most wonderful questions of all are the ones for which there are no answers.


photo by Audrey Penven

At Nocturne Magazine, we ask our readers to suspend disbelief and become curious again. Is this also your hope for the future, that people allow themselves to be seduced by the mystery of life?

JT: Yes, I live to honor the mystery. I need to be a beacon for people, and allow them into the swampy place in their souls where the sinister and sensual meet. Peel away the layers of comfort and convention we hide behind. I find it fascinating to delve into those places and take an audience with me. Allow people to slip into the cracks, pry up the floorboards and search deeply. Believe. Imagine. It’s so important to hold on to that childlike sense of marvel.
Sometimes I feel that magic and the suspension of disbelief is the only thing that matters.

Categories : History, Interviews, Memoir, New Music, Photography, Projects, Uncategorized
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Conjuring a Vampyr: with Steven Severin

By jilltracy
Monday, October 29th, 2012

I remember feeling completely captivated and changed somehow when I first saw Carl Theodor Dreyer‘s 1928 film The Passion of Joan of Arc.
It was at that time I procured a little antique Joan of Arc figurine, put her by my bedside, proclaimed her as one of my guardian angels.
Oddly enough, a portrait of Joan of Arc appeared suddenly in the window of a neighboring stranger’s house facing OUTWARD to my street, seemingly on purpose, so I felt her protection like destiny, inside and out.

I had never even heard of Vampyr until I met filmmaker Bill Domonkos and we were in the throes of creating The Fine Art of Poisoning. Bill wanted to show me one of his favorite films of all time.
We sat on velvet cushions in his strange ornate living room surrounded by taxidermied peacocks and mounted antlers– and I was again captivated and changed somehow by Dreyer’s fragile, floating, yet terrifying, dreamlike imagery.

I’d never seen Vampyr on the big screen. I was thrilled when legendary co-founder of Siouxsie and the Banshees, Steven Severin invited me to perform a dark piano set to conjure the otherworldly mood, and introduce his new live film score.

Jill Tracy and Steven Severin post-Vampyr at the Roxie Theater (photo: Nora Vitaliani)

I’d met Steven a couple of years ago at one of his film score performances here in San Francisco, and was pleasantly shocked that he not only recognized me in the crowd, but was a fan of my work! We’ve kept in touch and have discussed ways to collaborate.
It’s such a gratifying feeling when artists who’ve inspired me growing up respect and appreciate my work. Siouxsie and the Banshees helped mold me into who I am today. (Steven also was the other half of The Glove with Robert Smith!) What a joy to share the stage and many stories with him!

In a now dreary industry where true art is no longer valued, it means the world to me to build bridges with kindred spirits and keep our visions alive. it’s necessary now more than ever.
I talk more about this in a great interview with FEARnet’s Gregory Burkart HERE.

Steven Severin onstage performing Vampyr  (photo: Roxie Theater)

I was also thrilled at the idea of simply performing solo at the piano, 30-40 minutes of nonstop improvisation. Channeling the energy of the crowd, the room and a mood befit to the allure and mystique of Vampyr. No preparation, no songs, just pure emotion, intuited, a singular archive of time. It was enchanting. Many in the audience later said they could have listened to me play like that for hours.

Vampyr (1932) was shot on location, as Dreyer believed it would be beneficial by lending the dream-like ghost world of the film and not have to mimic it on set. This washed out look was an effect Dreyer desired, and he had cinematogapher Rudolph Maté shoot the film through a piece of gauze held three feet (.9 m) away from the camera.
I told Steven I thought his score allowed a perfect soundscape juxtaposed to the ethereal weightlessness of the film. He retained a very atmosphereic drone, but acknowlged the intensity and emotional cues, just enough to lead you there, without overtaking them. He seamlessly stayed out of the way of the film, and enabled the visuals even more of a stunning impact.

After the screenings, a pleasure to find some fellow artists in the audience: filmmaker Bill Domonkos, David J (Bauhaus/Love and Rockets), photographer Jeremy Brooks and others. The notorious local movie writer Jason was in the front row. you can read his review of the night HERE.

Categories : Concerts, Films
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Swan Song 2011: The Year in Review

By jilltracy
Monday, January 16th, 2012

“Jill Tracy is the Queen of taking her listeners into another universe”
SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE

“Jill Tracy is the first musician I found who sells the passion, the emotional turmoil and tremendous, tragic beauty which lies there, waiting to be uncovered, in the darkest corners of experience.”
ZA RECORDS


I guess it’s a good sign when 2012 begins with such a flurry of dream projects, that I have had no time to devote to a year-end review until now. Stay tuned for news about my upcoming 2012 collaboration with Philadelphia’s legendary Mutter Museum and new recording for Swedish publishers Malört alongside Einstürzende Neubauten. Visit the NEWS page to get the latest updates.

2011 was such a tough, challenging, but charmed year–this new website did not go live until September—so I wanted to make sure to feature the highlights for you here.

Of course, January means the famed Edwardian Ball, clearly the most lavish and fantastical event of the year–a costumed spectacle in honor of the late great raccoon-coated scribe Edward Gorey. For the last decade, I have had the honor to be hailed “Belle of the Ball” and perform in concert each year. The above photo is my favorite 2011 Edwardian Ball shot by Samuel Coniglio. Custom adorned top hat by the marvelous House of Nines Design.

At the Los Angeles Ball, I welcomed special guests: renowned theremin player Armen Ra ( fresh from the Grinderman tour) and Coilhouse mastermind/ Parlour Trick violinist Meredith Yayanos.

I released “Under the Fate of the Blue Moon,” a waltz to make wishes come true–a dreamily enchanting piece I composed on the rare Blue Moon New Year and recorded the night of the total Lunar Eclipse Solstice Dec 20, 2010. I released the work as a free download. It’s my online wishing well. Make a wish, leave an offering.

BENEATH: The Bittersweet Constrain was a glorious accidental release. After several Hollywood music supervisors asked me for an instrumental version of “Haunted by the Thought of You,” I met with producer Alex Nahas in New York City to remix the tune. We both became more and more intrigued, as the absence of vocals invited many of the previously unused or little-heard tracks: strings, woodwinds, Chapman Stick, sarod, harmonium and others. I’m thrilled when people tell me they write or work to my music, and this is certainly a perfect soundscape, a dark, gorgeous portal. Brilliant cover shot by Michael Garlington.

In February, I joined host Chloe Veltman live on KALW, San Francisco public radio/NPR affiliate 91.7 FM as guest of the hour-long “Voice Box” program. The theme of the show was “singers who accompany themselves on the piano,” and it gave me a wonderful chance to discuss the variations, challenges– and funny stories that come with the territory.  Listen to an archive of the show online HERE.

San Francisco mobbed famed City Lights Books for my murderous musical set with none other than the infamous Lemony Snicket himself (aka Daniel Handler) on accordion. This photo was taken by Audrey Penven post-show.

With a mutual fondness for gin and creepy things, we were quite the effortless diabolical duo– reworking the rarely-heard 1933 Robert Desnos/Kurt Weill song “La Complainte de Fantômas!” Complete with its original 26 gruesome verses! This was the grand kick-off to San Francisco’s Fantômas 100th anniversary festival celebrating the dashing French literary arch-criminal. I’m delighted to say our duet was named one of the “Best Live Shows of 2011.”

You best know Oakland filmmaker Bill Domonkos by our beloved award-winning short “The Fine Art of Poisoning,” and his collection of acclaimed videos for legendary masked band The Residents. I had the great opportunity to again collaborate on his latest– the surreal, sci-fi suspense NERVOUS96. Bill painstakingly crafted excerpts from my Musical Seance sessions with Atlanta violinist Paul Mercer, and our channeled music becomes the emotional dialogue for the entire film. It’s stunning. The NERVOUS96 musical score is available for download on Bandcamp!

New York Times best-selling author Melissa Marr named  “Sell My Soul“ as the official song for her novel Graveminder. Marr says she listened to the tune on endless repeat for inspiration, especially while creating scenes in the Land of the Dead. I will be forever immortalized as the sultry singer in Mr. D’s Tip Top Tavern, alluring nightspot of the unliving. Marr also listed “Haunted by the Thought of You” in the playlist for her “Wicked Lovely” series.

My music is also on the official playlist for Cat Winter’s In the Shadow of Blackbirds, a YA novel centering around Victorian spiritualism.

I was a celebrity speller for Small Press Distribution‘s annual Bee In, hosted by West Coast Live’s Sedge Thompson. I went down on the word “abscess” befittingly enough. It’s always the tricky little words that get you.

After touring with the iconic David J (Bauhaus/Love and Rockets), he became so enamored of my dark post-classical piano interpretation of Bauhaus’ classic “Bela Lugosi’s Dead” that he took us into the studio to record it. You’ll hear more about the project later in 2012. Featuring my drummer Randy Odell and bassist Kenny Annis, plus strings player Ysanne Spevack (Smashing Pumpkins.) Talk about a goth girl’s fantasy come true. Oh, and I also spent my 2011 birthday with Peter Murphy!)

A wondrous shot of me with David J, shooting green screen on the set of the music video of the David J. +Shok collaboration “Tidal Wave of Blood.” I sing back-up vocals.

My favorite photoshoot of the year by far was one done with next to no prep, stealth, late at night, sneaking into the dark, ornate stairwell of a downtown office building. Photographer Audrey Penven and I wanted to play with shadow. I loved the idea of incorporating lace textures, perhaps shoot through lace. She had the incredible idea to project actual lace onto the entire shot.

The way these photos were achieved is innovative and fascinating. Please read the tale of the making of “In Lace Shadows.“ There are many more shots there too, plus a link to the full gallery.

One of Audrey’s Lace Shadows portraits became the landing page for my new website which I was ecstatic to finally launch in 2011!!
The site backgrounds were created by visual FX artist and friend Robert Rossello. (You remember his gorgeous artwork for Diabolical Streak!) We collected and created imagery–all from my personal collection– Even the textures like feathers, fur, old medical perscriptions, antique charts of constellations, opium poppies, apothecary bottles, my talismans– were all individually crafted.

Thank you so much to Rob and Sue Trowbridge for their hard work, ingenuity, and support. Read the backstory on the inspiration behind the new website. And plans are underway for several features, including Cabinet 45, my artists collaborative shoppe.

2011 was my first year officially working with the San Francisco Silent Film Festival. I did a myriad of things–from scoring several film shorts and performing live for their press conference, to moderating the panel “Variations on a Theme,” discussing the craft of scoring silent films with some of the best in the business. The photo above by San Francisco’s Examiner’s Omar Moore shows me introducing F. W. Murnau’s epic Sunrise.

The most thrilling part of the SF Silent Film Festival was finally getting to collaborate with the wonderful UK pianist Stephen Horne. I got a late night email from him days before the festival saying he envisioned my voice as part of his score to the sultry 1915 femme fatale shocker Il Fuoco. We literally put the score together in a matter of 2 days. I was so proud and inspired by the work. Absolutely riveting. The press agreed:

“The score by Stephen Horne and Jill Tracy…is like an Ennio Morricone score for a giallo: erotic, threatening, haunting, the siren call of a sexual predator who devours and abandons her prey. A perfect evocation of the drama playing out onscreen.” SLANT Magazine

“Dark sexuality…The musical accompaniment fit the film quite well; Stephen Horne was at it again, doing what he does best. With him, though, was Jill Tracy, adding a vocal splash of eroticism as Menichelli’s theme, which was utterly poignant and fit perfectly, especially when her throaty voice continued to echo in the main character’s mind in the end.” FILMBALAYA

Ahhh, the sheer delight on my face as I reveal seductive tales about the deadly mandrake root! Within a garden of poisonous plants no less! (Photo by Julie Michelle)

The dark side of the Garden came to deadly bloom in October at the historical San Francisco Conservatory of Flowers as I teamed up with Wicked Plants author Amy Stewart and produced a perilous event within the exhibit. We called it appropriately enough “The Fine Art of Poisoning: Perils, Pleasures and Protocols.” The beautiful white glass Victorian dome is a sight to behold in the dark, so I wanted to give the public a chance to explore it at night, under my guise.

After hours in the Conservatory of Flowers with Wicked Plants author Amy Stewart and a giant tarantula. This event was such a success that the Conservatory and I are in meetings to create an ongoing night series together!

When producer/writer/filmmaker Jordan Stratford invited me to perform at Victoria British Columbia’s Craigdarroch Castle as part of his great Victoria Steam Expo, it fulfilled a wish I made when I first visited. This was an ideal location for my “spontaneous musical combustion”– composing works on the spot in front of the audience, manifesting the musical spirit within the location itself. Every place has a story, every object holds music. My job is to be the gatekeeper, and open the portal.

Nothing on Craigdarroch Castle’s official website will tell you it’s haunted. The 1890 treasure is simply hailed “Victoria, British Columbia’s legendary landmark.” It’s when you begin talking to the locals– and even people who work within its lavish walls– that you begin to hear secret tales of its 39 rooms, 87 steps, 4 floors, 18 fireplaces, tower, and tormented past. I wanted to immerse myself within its surrounding and bring it to life.

I encountered a wonderfully strange bond with this antique Steinway in the front parlour. The staff at the castle said this piano never gets played. I spent most of my time at it, it seemed to have the most to say.  Please indulge in the Blog post “Antique Steinway, Haunted Castle and a Long-Lost Love” to hear my account of this Victorian conjuring. (Photo by Maggie Binnie O’Scalleigh)

There were many memorable shows in 2011, including a double bill and collaboration onstage with Tuvan throat singer Soriah. In this photo by John Adams, I’m speaking to the crowd at a moving benefit for friend and fellow performer kSea Flux.

Sacramento Horror Film Festival presented an evening called “The Elegant Dark with Jill Tracy,” where I not only performed a concert, but shared my stories, short films, and Q&A with the audience. I was really inspired by the opportunity to present my various passions and mediums all together, and plan to do more full sensory shows like this.

My provocative “In Between Shades” was featured on Projekt’s compilation  A Dark Cabaret 2. The top-selling first in the series also includes my song “Evil Night Together.”

I was honored to pen the forward for Maria Alexander’s decadent and deadly collection of absinthe-inspired verse At Louche Ends (Burning Effigy Press) recalling my days performing in the then-illegal emerald underworld. NYC artist Katelan Foisy’s gorgeous painting adorns the cover. An intoxicating dose of words and visuals from three powerful women.

NPR’s beloved long-running radio show Hearts of Space devoted an entire program to my music to celebrate the October season. Haunted– a Jill Tracy Conjuration aired on over 200 NPR stations, celebrating my instrumentals, film score work, and haunting, ambient songs. I was astonished and delighted as they rarely devote an entire show to one artist. Thank you Stephen Hill and everyone at HOS! They tell me the show got a tremendous response. Click on the link to hear the archive. It’s Program 961.

“We consider Jill Tracy a Bay Area treasure…like Grafeo coffee, Scharffen Berger chocolates, and fine Napa Cabernets.

As a lyricist and songwriter, Jill Tracy plies the literary currents popularized by Edgar Allen Poe, Bram Stoker, Edward Gorey and other 19th and 20th century storytellers of the netherworld: spinners of tales of the mysterious, the strange, and the macabre.

Her sound begins with an unadorned dark cabaret trio of contrabass, drums and parlor piano; it expands on recordings into the Malcontent Orchestra violin, viola, cello, and low woodwinds, plus guitar, Chapman stick, electric bass, harmonium and the odd sarod. She calls it “post-Classical Noir” and glams, goths and Dark Romantics of all ages love her with a crimson passion.”
NPR’s Hearts of Space

 

Here’s to a magical 2012. I’m glad you’re along for the ride.

 

Jill Tracy

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  • “That Jill Tracy. She’s singing about suicides—and I’m still turned on!” -TV TROPES
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