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Archive for Vampire

The Ecstasy of Melancholy: Jill Tracy talks with Gothic Beauty Magazine

By jilltracy
Thursday, September 4th, 2014

 

 A woman of many, many talents. Jill Tracy has spent nearly all her life channeling the melancholic and macabre to weave a sonic web as delicate as it is strong. We caught up with the enchanting artist to chat about all the delicious projects she has happening, and some of the stories behind her singular vision. — by Jessika Hulse

Jill Tracy/Lace Shadows 2

Archived from Gothic Beauty Magazine Issue 41.  (Photo of Jill Tracy by Audrey Penven)

 

At what point in your life did you begin to manifest your artistic visions?

JT: My mother tells the story of me at 3 years old, unplugging the long retractable cord of the tank vacuum cleaner to use as a microphone. I knew at a young age I didn’t want the conventional life of marriage and family. And like most artistic souls, I always felt out-of-step with the ”normal” world, a misfit, looking for directions from elsewhere.

I would lecture to my stuffed animals about time travel and the solar system (as much as a seven year old could fathom such things.) All I wanted to do was to discover or manifest hidden worlds. I transformed my bedroom closet into a make-shift Time Machine, adorned with my favorite zebra lamp and a tiny wooden chair. I sat in the darkness and felt strangely relieved and inspired.

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

What experiences have been most emboldening and/or encouraging to you along the way?

JT: At first, it was anything but encouraging. The industry constantly told me (and still tells me to this day) that my work is “too unique, dark, and sophisticated” to ever have an audience.
But the best thing I ever did was not to listen to any of them. They were wrong.

But, I realized I couldn’t go in the front door, not even the back door–so I built TRAP doors—I went directly to my audience. My great fans have been the most encouraging thing in my life.
 
 

For the uninitiated, how would you describe your elegant netherworld of work?

JT: Well, that’s the phrase I have coined over the years—”elegant netherworld.” It paints a perfect picture.  My work is about honoring the mystery, finding allure and seduction with the dark side, the ecstasy of melancholy— La Douleur Exquise “the exquisite pain.”
My music is indeed dark, but devastatingly beautiful. It was recently described as “musical morphine.” I rather like that. I am the mistress of aural opiates.

Dexter_New_Poster_5_3_13

Your song, Evil Night Together, was selected by Showtime Networks to promote the final season of hit show Dexter. What do you think made it such a good fit, and is this the first time your music has been featured on television?

JT: It’s been a tremendous honor and a thrill to be Dexter’s “Demonic Requiem.” Showtime used my music in a trailer called “The Final Symphony,” highlighting the darkest, alluring, and bloodiest moments from the last seven seasons. It’s brilliant. It fits like a severed hand in glove!

My songs and instrumentals have been in several independent and feature films, TV: NBC, PBS,— the CBS show Navy NCIS featured my songs as themes for sultry goth forensic scientist Abby Sciuto (Pauley Perrette.)
 
 

With such a dramatic and cinematic quality, would you like to see your music in more film and television? How has film influenced your work?

JT: Absolutely.  My work is all essentially a score— of the Mind’s Eye. I strive to be a gatekeeper to emotions. 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.

One of my greatest pleasures right now is immersing myself in unusual locations laden with mysterious history, and manifesting music from my reaction to the environment. The intensity and immediacy is fascinating. 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 graveyards..

As a child, when I discovered the classic horror/film noir composers— Bernard Herrmann’s scores to Alfred Hitchcock films, “The Day the Earth Stood Still,” Franz Waxman, Hans J. Salter, among others —it was a watershed moment. I realized that the MUSIC completely dictated the emotion of whatever 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, mysterious, sensual look to those films. I just wanted to live in those worlds. I still do.
 

 
 

You’ve also got some new music and film projects?

JT: My song “Pulling Your Insides Out” was used as the end title in director Jeremy Carr’s award-winning surreal thriller Ice Cream Ants. (I also star in the film as the evil seductress Mona!) To accompany the film’s new director’s cut, we have just released a new music video for the song.

I also recorded a new song “The Colour of the Flame,” commissioned by Swedish publishing company Malört, to accompany their upcoming book, an homage to 19th century Polish writer/occultist Stanislaw Przybyszewski’s gorgeously terrifying tales.

The song will be released on a limited edition collectible 7″ vinyl to accompany the book, alongside a new track by Blixa Bargeld (Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds/ Einstürzende Neubauten) and Stephen O’Malley (Sunn O)))).

David J (Bauhaus/ Love and Rockets) asked me to create a dark classical piano version of his iconic song “Bela Lugosi’s Dead.” We’ve been in the studio currently resurrecting this glorious vampire. Stay tuned! (Since this interview was published, the David J/Jill Tracy dark classical piano version of Bela Lugosi’s Dead has been released!) You can listen and download it HERE.

Jill-Tracy-promo-video-image-530x250

You’ve recently made history as the first musician to be given a grant by Philadelphia’s legendary Mutter Museum— for a project we’re dying to hear all about – what can we expect to see and hear, and how did this lovely venture come about?

JT: Yes, I’m 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. I needed to immerse myself in their world and make them a real part of the creation. This is my gift to them.

I spent nights amidst the Mütter’s spellbinding collection of curiosities, which includes the death cast and conjoined liver of original Siamese twins Chang and Eng, the skeleton of Harry Eastlack— the Ossified Man, Einstein’s brain, the Mermaid Baby. and the Hyrtl Skull Collection. The project will include not only a music album based on the Mütter collection, but also an art book, film, and memoir of my chilling experiences inside the museum after dark.

 

***This interview archived from Gothic Beauty Magazine Issue 41.  Order a back issue HERE.

Categories : History, Interviews, Memoir, New Music, Projects, TV, Uncategorized, Video
Tags : alfred hitchcock, audrey penven, bauhaus, bela lugosi, bernard herrmann, blixa bargeld, Chang and Eng, david j, Dexter, film, film noir, Final Symphony, Harry Eastlack, horror movies, Ice Cream Ants, Jeremy Carr, Jill Tracy, medical oddities, melancholy, Mutter Museum, nick cave, Showtime, spontaneous musical combustion, Vampire

“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
Tags : albums, alfred hitchcock, bauhaus, bela lugosi, bernard herrmann, bram stoker, channeling music, david j, F.W. Murnau, film noir, filmscore, german expressionism, Jill Tracy, Max Schreck, monsters, Mutter Museum, nosferatu, shadows, Silent Film, taboo, undead, Vampire

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
Tags : bill domonkos, Carol Theodor Dreyer, Silent Film, Siouxsie and the Banshees, spontaneous musical combustion, Steven Severin, Vampire, Vampyr

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From the Press:

  • “There’s just something about the inimitable Jill Tracy that makes us swoon like a passel of naive gothic horror heroines in too-tight corsets… Part tough-as-nails film fatale, part funeral parlor pianist, Tracy manages to adopt many facades yet remain ever and only herself—a precarious and delicious balancing act.” -SAN FRANCISCO BAY GUARDIAN, Best of the Bay awards

Recent Posts

  • “A Glimpse Beyond The Veil:” Jill Tracy Interview in Haute Macabre
  • “Musical Séance and the Sublime Art of Darkness:” Jill Tracy Interviewed in Diabolique Magazine
  • Help Jill Tracy Conjure Musical Spirits and a New Album in Mysterious Lily Dale, New York…
  • Terror Trax: Jill Tracy Interview in HorrorAddicts
  • Where Shadows Fall: Jill Tracy talks to Noir City Magazine

Popular Posts

  • 1. Behind the scenes VIDEO: How Jill Tracy transformed into a Mannequin for the surreal thriller “Ice Cream Ants.”
  • 2. News
  • 3. Jill Tracy and The Mütter Museum: An Excavation of Musical Spirits
  • 4. Jill Tracy’s “Parlour of Spirits:” Secrets hidden within San Francisco’s magnificent 1909 Masonic Lodge
  • 5. A Dark and Stormy Night in New York: Behind-the-Scenes Shooting “Pulling Your Insides Out”

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