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I began working on music in the fall of 1988. Shortly after graduating from Corona del Sol in Tempe Arizona. I began by constructing short pieces of music by working with samplers, synthesizers and drum machines. I have been trained on classical piano, classical guitar, soprano, alto, tenor and baritone saxophone, baritone clarinet and tuned percussion. I recorded hundreds of hours of music from Fall 1988 to Spring of 1993. The first band I began working with was a dark electronic project called The Hiroshima Lovers. Members were Thomas Dearing - synth, vocals, programming David Galas - synth, sampler, vocals, programming. Music consisted of very rythmical, heavy bass guitar and sampled audio with painfull distorted vocals. 1 tape was released from the works of HL, called "drug" in 1989. In the fall of 1989 I began working with another collaboration called "Cathous". This consisted of Jason Farrell - guitars, vocals and drums David Galas - Bass, synth, recording Dink - Bass Cathous was a post-gothic project that lasted from October 1989 - January 1991. We released one tape 16 songs, called Cathous. It ended up becoming a highly psycedelic release, all songs conecting to eachother, with many references to Alice In Wonderland. We played only a handfull fo shows and soomehow worked our way into the noise and techno/electronica scene that was developing in the downtown Tempe area. The music scene was filled with a great amount of talent during this time. But as with all things, there was always pressure and change. One of our last efforts was a tape that Jason and I had created, consisting of a handfull of local bands in the Tempe scene. The tape was called "Meliorate". This was my first introduction to Mike VanPortfleet. He had just finished "IONIA" and was still working with Will Welch. I had only a few words with Mike VanPortfleet, unknown at the time that our paths would cross again in time. Jason Farrell went on to work with Mike Plaster of Soul Whirling Somewhere and Dink (of Cathous) in a group called FIRECRACKER. FC created an incredible mixture of pure musical strength, aggression, rage and beauty with the wonderfull harmonic overtones of Mike Plasters vocal and guitar talent, Dink's bass technique that mixed chords and picking patterns, and Jason Farrells incredibly technical and powerfull drum performance. His drum performance would rival the best and the most famous of percussionists in many musical generes. He would at times break as many as 15 drum sticks due to his powerfull performance. Between each song wiping his hands clean from blood and wounds inflicted by his aggression. Between the years 1991 and Spring of 1993, I began working with many musicians and created an endless amount of music. From dark orchestrated soundtracks to jazz, Electronica/Acid to pure noise. Spending hours and hours inside my studio, through hundreds of sleepless nights, emersed in my own musical mecca. In Febuary 1993, Jason Farrell called me and informed me of a music festival that was going to take place in April, this was called Night Of Beautifull Noise, or Beautifull Noise for short. He had told me that Mike VanPortfleet was asked to perform, but didnt have anyone to help in his live performance. Jason Farrell essentially gave Mike VanPortfleet my name and Mike contacted me shortly after that. We wrote and recorded the 20 minute song "The Last Thoughts Before Sleep" in one day. We ended up loosing the recording and practiced what we rememberd for the festival. After performing the festival in April, and recieving a huge response, Mike asked if I would help him do a quick California tour durning the last week of Setptember 93. We worked together all summer long on the live set for September, the music which is contained on the LYCIA LIVE cd. After the California tour, we took a month off, I went to California for a brief and wonderfull vacation in San Fransisco. After I returned, Mike and I began collaborating on what would be known as the BLEAK release. We wrote and recorded VANE between January to Febuary 1994. After completing BLEAK, we quickly began demo-recording the BURNING CIRCLE release. Mike had about 10 songs written on the acoustic guitar which would end up being the A disc on the BURNING CIRCLE AND THEN DUST. The demo version of the song The Return Of Nothing can be found on the Projekt Compiliation Beneath The Icy Floe 1995. THE BURNING CIRCLE AND THEN DUST was initially planned as a single disc release. We had about 3 extra songs that wouldnt make the CD, we planned for those to be compilation tracks only. But after Sam Rosenthal of Projekt Records found out that we had extra music, he made the suggestion that we write more music and release it as a double album. Later we would come to regret this decision. We took a couple compilation tracks that had previoulsy been released and re-recorded them. Nine Hours Later, The Facade Fades were the 2 that had already been released on 2 different compiliations at the time. Nimble and Surrender was going to be part of what was going to be a side project called ESTRELLA this was the first recording that featured TARA VanFlower singing. The tracks were added to the disc B after we found out that it was going to be a 2 disc set. The New Day was recorded in the Summer of 94, August(part 1 and part 2), Resigned, These Memories Pass and The Burning Circle were all recorded in the last quarter of 1994. After finishing the mastering of the Burning Circle, Mike and Tara went on vacation to Streetsboro Ohio, Tara's home. They returned in April to begin rehearsing for another short California tour. Mike and I moved to Ohio in June of 1995, shortly after our move, Mike, Tara and I began rehearsing for an extended tour begining in the last week of June and continuing untill October 95. During the tour, for some reason I had become very withdrawn from the music and the people who attended our shows, I became very disinterested in playing live and very distant with Mike Vanportfleet and Tara. I announced that I didnt have any desire to continue a long tour and would rather work in the studio. At this time, Lycia had already made plans to tour with Type-O-Negative in October of 95. I needed to take a break from it all. From October through January I basically did nothing. I didnt need a job and lived in my room. Mike and Tara had already began writing songs for the COLD album during this time. Mike was already afraid that I was going to move back to Arizona, due to the fact of how much I changed during the tour. I stayed to record the Cold album from January and Febuary. The recording had a few problems, which can still be heard on the cd. The multi-track tape recorder we were using was slowly dying and caused many pitch problems when the speed was becoming inconsistant. We had to resort to recording everything in 4 track digital on a Macintosh computer. Unfortunately none of these tracks exist anymore. The recording sessions were few and far apart. I wanted to out produce the Burning Circle CD, but with the problems of the tape machine, I found that it was quite impossible. It was a bitter cold winter that year, and it had a definant effect on all of us. During this time Mike was suffering from the initial effects of Diabetes. Recording COLD became a very difficult thing. After we completed the Cold album, Mike and Tara began rehearsing for another tour supporting the Cold album. After spending most of my royalties, I began working again, and spending no time working on any music. Mike and Tara performed during the summer of 96 and I moved back to Arizona on August 6th 1996. During the next 3 years, I would do no music and sell all of my studio. Mike and Tara would continue touring supporting the COLD cd. Mike and Tara would record the next cd, Estrella in January 1998.