Killer Bagels!,
sailboats,
Fish and Bird,
Old man Luedecke,
Glen Rabina,
Doc Boggs,
the Sparrow Quartet,
CHLY,
Mr. Bungle,
Steinbeck,
palmistry,
Alice in Chains,
Persimmon Blackbridge,
marionettes,
Bijork,
Prink Insurgency!,
100 knot N.W. winds,
Isaac Asimov,
Shane Koyzcan,
Ivan E. Coyote,
Clark Ashton Smith,
Odditory Presence!,
Edred Thorsson,
Tessa Mythos,
long winters...
Tempest is an artistic maelstrom whose expression is as multifaceted as her origins.
Currently arising from the dripping shore of the notorious yet veiled Hornby Island, she brews a vociferous fervor which has swept her from coast to coast. Whether endowed with reanimated creatures, distorted guitar and voltaic voice, banjo or instrumental fusions, as a nine-foot or one-wheeled winged skeleton or stripped bare to words, she is a captivating force to be caught in wherever the Tempest is blown ashore.
"I love spooky banjo music and Tempest gives me the creeps !!" -David Gogo
"I dig your disc. PJ Harvey moments on the vocals while thoroughly unique. I like the art-bluegrass vibe" -Wax Mannequin
Born on Mt. Shasta, California, Tempest has been composing and decomposing since 1984. Her career as a performer began traveling with her parents
in the band
Killer Bagels who, thanks to their battery/solar powered equipment, played in
many obscure
locations such as the beaches of Oregon and California, the canyons
and deserts
of Arizona and Nevada and afloat off the gulf islands of BC.
In 2003 she spawned punk band Prink Insurgency. Tempest has opened for the like of DOA, No Means No, Ember Swift and CR Avery.
For the last couple of years she toured the festival circuit in BC, and Alberta with Odditory Presence, and the NMA: activist bbbBeat-boxing poet folk.
She was sighted naked on stage at Poetry in the Raw, and ate transcendental chocolate torte on ViaRail enroute to Halifax for the Canadian Festival of Spoken Word with the Victoria Poetry Slam Team.
Her multi-media creatures of metal, bone and whatnot have been featured at many galleries around Vancouver Island, the Gulf Islands and Vancouver, and as far afield as Montreal.
Her life has been thick with circus- from the Vancouver Island Music Fest to the Winnipeg Fringe Festival and ArtsWells, Tempest and Anubis have been ushering unsuspecting souls through the veils of time and space on fire, stilts and unicycle.
When not hibernating on her sailboat playing banjo amidst her sculptured critters, Tempest has been heard tearing down the societal boundaries on public transit, on fracturing sidewalks and in nefarious cafes from hither to thither and yon again!
I'm curious as to what kind of banjo TemPeSt played? All I can see from pics are the skull and crossbones and I'm pretty sure that was an after market frill... Any clue?
i tattooed a seagull on my wrist for you; it's shitty and was suposto be a star like you but i think i seagull is just as fitting. wings spread glideing free over the ocean's waves scavangeing our waste and singing your song for all to hear even if they don't want to. i forget the words to your songs i wish you could sing them one last time.
Love you always Tempest. Child of the moon. Water dragon. Thank you for all your teachings. Thank you for inspiring us all. I think of you always. May the deer guide you on. May our heron keep you company until we meet again.
I never got to meet you on my adventures over to The Lasqueti Island Rockshow and was realy hoping to one of these days hearing this news is heartbreaking your music and unique personality will always hold a special place with me R.I.P TemPeSt Grace Gale may your spirit live on and be one with the stars the earth and the sea my My heart goes out to all the freinds and family.
Black Lilies, Beaver Bones, I will save them for you and put them on a small raft I will push them out to sea at dusk with candles burning miss you Hurricane Betty
Dear Little Strong Bird- Thank you for everything. I am very sad to see you go so soon. What a joy to have met you on this earth. Now go and rock the netherworlds, you did a beautiful job on this one. bye for this time. With Love BON merci mercy
TemPeSt. You knew how to fly, but I made you a flying skeleton fish to help guide you over. You held residence in my heart, but I built you a nest of softest feathers so you’d stay in my heart always. You were already a brilliant shining star, now a comet maybe, but I burned candles so you’d have light on your journey. I can’t bring you back, can’t change time space or place. My heart knows you’ll find your way, but knowing that won’t bring you here, now, where I thought I'd find you.. Letting go is just so damn hard.
I knew a girl, She was wild and free, No reason in the world Could keep her from herself Truer than any other in life She had no fear No social woes Independent and fierce she was Jealous I was How free she could be Carefree of others thoughts and bigotry I admired her life Wanted her life Talents became her Spilling from her Nothing she couldnt do Nothing she would not try She was above all else Herself
And now she is gone Ripped from this earthly realm Far and wide A hole is there Where she once was Touched so many Gone too soon She is and forever Tempest Grace We love you We will remember you.
~November 18, 2009~ Nicole Dockery
Grace taught me poetry and encouraged me to write and in the 5th grade she helped me to draw dragons. She gave me my first water snake for my birthday.
Pest, dearest Pest... Your passing was untimely and unjust. You are and will always be an inspiration to me.. You made an impression on me that will never go away.. May your journey continue in peace.
Shake me! Break me! Throw me to my knees Push me down below the waves, until I cease to breath. You can take my human body, but my spirit never leaves!
I have walked on shore and stone. Drunk salt water potions, sang jellyfish tones. Lived my life with seaweed curtains, in a house of whale's bones, that's for certain!
If you take me one night in the dark, still there'll always be my spark, warning sailors from the depths. So my loved ones. Do not fret.
I am of a seashell's song. Infinite story, my song is long. Hear my voice now.....hear that sound? as you lower my body into this old ground.
Forceful, clear, this storm has come. Wreaked it's havoc! But now look! The sun! Angels hark and hear me loud. My winds can break through any clouds! Sun that shines more bright than gold, from pirates ships in stories told.
I am Pestilence! I am Pest! I am Tempest! Now let me rest! Let me rest in salt weed coral. Let me rest in the starfish flora. Let me sleep on a bed of clams. Close my eyes to the smell of sand.
I go back now to where I came. Back to the beginning, when I had no name. To the time of the mermaid's whispered lesson, Seahorse laughter and sand dollar blessings.
I promise you will still hear my song. In the twilight moments, when the nights are long. Similar sounds from an orca's tail. When it cuts through the waters as a full force gale.
Our thoughts are with your family and friends right now. Someone taken too soon is the ultimate tragedy.no words can express this properly.tonight we drink and dance to you...R.I.P. friend.
Tempest, it feels like only yesterday we were getting drunk and stomping our feet around with you. Im ganna miss your bone songs, puppet dancing, powder blue suite, banjo pickin', guitar strumming, smilling face.... you will be seriously missed... Thank you for always supporting us im not sure you ever knew how much it ment to us.... Sweet dreams my friend. ..♥ ♥ ♥ ♥
how I feel blessed to have seen you so recently. These times remind us how life is sometimes too short. Your time was too soon. Your light shines on in how you have influenced so many lives....
Why does the unbelievable happen to the best people?
I kept waking up last night and realizing I wasn't dreaming, this was real...especially with the WIND howling through the STORM last night. I KNOW IT WAS YOU! You made my house move in the wind!
Tempest I love you and I WILL SEE YOU AGAIN! In the wind and the rocks and the ocean and all the space in between. Until we're all just dirt in the ground...In the meantime I'll be waiting for a killer fucking storm to wipe out everything, turn the water brown and slide the rich off the hills and into the ocean, just leave the east side and the islands and the good parts of Victoria...then I'll know you made it across, that you're safe and happy and singing to the world again.
Tempest you are the STORM. Now and forever...stay strong and one day we'll dance on the wreckage and sing Wanderlust and Otherlands together. Good bye for now - send more rain. Keep it coming down
I totally love & miss you too Pest. You came to ArtsWells and changed me & us forever. You were on the permanent list because of your sincerity, creative fire and many many talents. Thank you for sharing your uniqueness, depth, passion, torment, creativity, light and skills with everyone, with our festival. This year was a turning point for me to realize that even though I didn't know you so well, you had integrity, incredible depth, talent, love, warmth and yes sparkle, as someone mentioned here. The gleam in your eyes, the quiet then raging creative fire in your poetry and performances astounded me and all of us at ArtsWells. I will remember you always, and we'll ALL remember you hugely at ArtsWells. Thanks for all you are, did & will continue to do for & WITH us. TO YOU, dear friends & Pest's family, I'm sending you my love & prayers. I hope to share in a celebration of Pest's life & creativity, if not on Hornby, then please somehow, lets celebrate in Vancouver too. I'll bring my cello and want to connect with any of you. Cafe Deux Soleil as a meeting point? A stilt-walking workshop or creative celebration/ expression in honour of PEST is in order. I'm happy to help organize, coordinate, participate, so please keep in touch. Much love. Peace. My thoughts are with you TEMPEST.
What do you say at a time like this? Words just fail me You put the light in the hearts of this world and yours will never burn out
Wherever you are keep showing folks how to keep that gleam in their eye, that spring in their step and clawin' at that banjo. It was an honour to know you and hear you play
Thanks for the inspiration Pest, Love you and miss you Linda
Online Now!
