VERA BEREN - writer, singer, sometimes piano player.
JON DIAZ - Guitarist
MARK BIRKEY - Trombone & Guitar
JAY CAVANNAUGH - Bass Guitar
PATRICK CONLON - Drums
Other musicians who have played or do play with us - Eddie Klinger-Drums, Brien Brannigan - bass, Harvey Stein, Jason Labes, David Pinkard & Abby Cahn - Pianists
Influences
Brecht/Weill, Jaques Brel, David Bowie, Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds, Bach, Nico, Joy Division, Bauhaus, Iggy Pop, Magazine, Killing Joke, Tom Waits, The Fall, Lisa Gerrard, NIN, European Movie Soundtracks from the 60s and 70s, Lydia Lunch, PIL, The Stranglers.
Sounds Like
"Charles Mingus falling down the stairs while being serenaded by Laura Nyro as Mona from Tropic of Capricorn" Lucky Jim
As a teenager in the 80s she fronted NY post punk art rock band Die Hausfrauen, releasing a single and EP on Cachalot Records. At that time playing monthly at The Mudd Club and gigging in Europe with The Slits, The Au Pairs, and Malaria. Then moving on to experimental trio Excuse Me Sir, gigging monthly at The Pyramid Club and recording tons of unreleased stuff. After the death of her clarinet player Bill Browning she gave up live performance at the ripe old age of 24, then focused her attention on composing and recording music for theatre, acting, directing, and sound design. She has sung and improvised on recordings by Tom Verlaine, John Medeski, and Adam Pascal, and sang the part of Clytemnestra in a never released experimental Opera of Agamemnon, which included musicians Fred Frith, Ned Sublette, Pauline Oliveros, Shelly Hirsch, Blue Gene Tierney, and Arto Lindsay.
Jon Diaz
(lead guitar) As a guitarist Jon has played in a variety of styles ranging from classical to abstract improvisations. Jon has played with the Del Vikings, and Robert Fripp and the League of Crafty Guitarists. As a composer he has written music for Vera's performance piece When They Ate Dirt performed at The Culture Project's Women Center Stage Festival, as well as director/actress Katie Takahashia's dance piece The Ninja Project. Jon along with Vera make up The Drone Twins, which have composed music for choreographer Caron Eule. Their composition Ritual was used in the 2003 Elan Awards honoring choreographer Rob Marshall, and it had its West Coast debut last November at the 7th annual Dance Under the Stars Choreography Festival in Palm Desert, CA. Jon is currently performing & co-producing a collection of songs by singer/songwriter Lindsey Wilson.
Mark Birkey
(trombone, rhythm guitar, engineer) Mark was co-founder and composer of the influential '90s no-core band Gutter Poets. He has performed a wide variety of styles, including free jazz with Skeptic Tank, neo-cabaret with Where's My Angel?, salsa with Orquesta Palenque, and in numerous big bands, pit bands, symphony orchestras, and chamber ensembles. His music appeared in Kathleen Harty's film God in the Machine. Despite all this, his mother is most proud of the fact that he was assistant engineer on Norah Jones's "Don't Know Why."
Jay Cavanaugh
(bass) In the 80’s did triple duty as bassist, writer and lead vocalist with the alternative band Gray Zone. At the same time played bass for bucks with the 50’s revival act, the famous Del Vikings of Come Go With Me fame. In 1986 spent time in West Virginia interacting with Robert Fripp (King Crimson) and the League of Crafty Guitarists. Jay finished out the 80s moonlighting with the original rock band Paladin. The 90’s saw him playing in a few copy bands and one original band, Sol Tree. From 1990 to 1998 Jay worked on dozens of productions as actor, writer and director, then formed a duo with Jon Diaz, called Where’s My Angel? and did session work with London-based singer songwriter Nadine Khouri. He's now happily involved in the band Agents of Karma (or AOK) with yet another ex-band mate, Conrad Sparnroft of the Grey Zone days. Jay studied Method Acting with Silkie O’Ishi and appeared in dozens of low/no budget indie films. You can find Jay's credits listed on www.imdb.com, a film website.
Patrick Conlon, aka Paddymike
(drums, backing vocals) Started playing drums when he started high school. Quickly realized how much he loved it and played in every high school band possibility: Marching band, concert band, jazz band and theater pit band. Went to college in Ohio to study commercial design and played in a popular cover band on the side doing everything from The Police to Steely Dan to Rush. In 1984 moved to Hoboken NJ. Joined original pop/ska/punk band The Objects. Played numerous shows in NYC and NJ. Played with blues bands and club date bands around Hoboken. 1986 Played with synthpop group Beatsworking. 1987 Joined rock/reggea band Work of Art. 1988 Joined metal rockers Jax. Recorded full length record in Frankfurt Germany. 1992 Formed punk/prog rock band Gluegun. Recorded debut CD Stuck You. 1996 Gluegun became NovakSeen. Recorded 2nd CD and toured Europe. Presently working with a reformed Work of Art, comic sex rock show The Stubbles, Latin tinged Where's My Angel and The Gothic Chamber Blues Ensemble.
FIREWATER - LIVE DEMONSTRATIONS! Last shows until October!
Jun 26 : Larz, GERMANY : Fusion Festival Jun 27 : Audincourt, FRANCE : Rencontres & Racines Jun 28 : Istanbul, TURKEY : Balkan Soundz Festival July 02 : Dornbirn, AUSTRIA : Speilboden July 03 : Bulle, SWITZERLAND : Gibloux Festival July 04 : Jena, GERMANY : JG Stadtmitte July 05 : Hradec Kralove, CZECH R.: Rock For People July 06 : Vienna, AUSTRIA : Szene Wein July 08 : Linz, AUSTRIA : Posthof July 10 : Steyr, AUSTRIA : Röda July 11 : Bologna, ITALY : Mondiali Antirazzisti July 12 : Milano, ITALY : Magnolia Festival July 13 : Colmar, FRANCE : Hiero July 15 : Paris, FRANCE : Batofar July 17 : Pozega, CROATIA : Dirty Old Empire Festival July 18 : Veszprem, HUNGARY : Utcazene Fesztivál July 24 : Riberac, FRANCE : Le Grand Souk Festival July 25 : Gdynia, POLAND : Globaltica Festival July 31 : Namur, BELGIUM : Esperanzha Festival Aug 01 : Habere-Poche, FRANCE : Rock'n'Poche Festival Aug 02 : Bladel, NETHERLANDS : Bladelse Zomerfeesten
> Bellydancers in costume get in free at all club shows!
> More shows are still being added, so check the Firewater MySpace page for updates.
> This message was sent by an evil robot. So if you are somewhere other than Europe and can't escape, we're sorry. We'll be back again someday soon.
A special DVD set of the February shows is now available to pre-order at the wire-sound shop
This strictly limited edition 2 disc, region free, PAL format DVD set will be shipped in June.
The ‘Real Life + Thereafter’ DVD contains the entire concert filmed at Manchester Academy …
PLUS … Extra features include ‘Feed The Enemy’ filmed at the rehearsals, an alternate take of ‘A Song From Under The Floorboards’ and exclusive images from the period …
PLUS … On the second CD disc, you get an audio recording straight from the desk of 11 songs from the show at The Forum, London …
PLUS … In the package, you get a free tour T-Shirt in any size you like ranging from Super Small to Mighty XL and all stops in between.
Hailz ~ VERA BEREN'S GOTHIC CHAMBER BLUES ENSEMBLE ~~~~~~
DARK Greetingz from the Land of the MOURNING calm ... I, Pain of "a doom" would like to send out my deepest gratitude and respects to VERA BEREN'S GOTHIC CHAMBER BLUES ENSEMBLE !!!!!!
Thank you very much for the EVIL nod ... It's truly an honor to be friendz with you ......
I wish you ALL the best and send you my double horns to your wonderful DARK music ......
Just say "a doom" : It means DARKNESS in Korean ... With that in mind ......
..
Online Now!
