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Artists reviews Pale Beneath the Blue Electric Angst

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By Ben Ohmart, Don't let the opening break-poetry of 'Little Secrets' throw you. She might sound like Alanis Morissette's younger sister, but Rhonda Everitt (AKA Pale Beneath the Blue) flits more toward the light than the dark, carving a quaking aura of fantasy out of a reality-based life that never shows up on TV. Her most open strip of bare shoulder and soul comes from the quirky electro-acoustic "I Believed" which builds from cold and soon heats into passionate self-realization.

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"Ice is forming on the window pane Winter's wrath has arrived You're always here in fall and spring In summer's heat you find me There you bleed me dry"

Her "haunting, self-confessional" style is likened to Kate Bush and Laura Nyro, though when the muse takes her into remix country, as it does with "in 2 u," she can get as busy as Annie Lennox late for a shower. A special 3-track remix single of this one has been released separately from the EP, crossing techno wires with the positive control of "There's a heaven underneath the blue sky wrapped around a hologram of you Deserted mountains plague my every waking breath but when I see your face I am renewed."

The focus of her writing comes from the simple statement that life is indeed short. Says Rhonda, "If I feel the need to say something, then why not say it? There's not much chance of the world becoming a better place just because you wish it to be. I am driven to make a difference."

"My mother is a music teacher so I was singing in church at age two. Growing up, I took dance lessons, piano lessons, learned violin and trumpet. I grew up in a small town in Ohio (who didn't?) but there wasn't much to do, so I was in nearly every music class that existed. I had so many music credits that I was able to graduate a year early.

"Her musical influences might not be easy to spot in Rhonda's music, but they're there. "I still remember - I was riding in the back of a car on the way to Dana Point in California (I was on a business trip with my dad) when I heard the news that Karen Carpenter had died, I would have to say that she was probably one of my first influences. The next phase was the Go-Go's.

I grew to love all the weird bands of the '80s like Level 42, Cutting Crew, The Hooters, Til Tuesday. I loved the fact that most of my friends would never in a million years purchase these records--that made it cool. It also made it so the bands couldn't make additional records--that sucked. But I pulled out Til Tuesday recently and realized how different the melodies were. I think that had a profound impact on me."

When life gets in the way - in Rhonda's case, a motorcycle accident in 2002 - your outlook and compositional style can change. "I think the biggest difference is that I used to have patience to write more intricately structured pieces. Now, I rarely sit down to write. Many times, I will hear someone else singing the song in my head and I just write the lyrics and remember the melody until I can work the bulk of it out on an instrument. Alot of things change in the studio anyway so I've learned to work out the details during recording."

"I could never decide on a title for 'Untitled.' At one point it was #2 in a series of songs all with titles pulled from the Push Stars song,'Waiting, Watching, Wishing. Long story short, it never 'took'--I didn't feel comfortable calling it "Watching", so it remains untitled.

"'Little Secrets' actually was written after staying up late watching the TV 'news' program, Extra. I woke up the next morning and heard my good friend (and amazing songwriter), Tod Weidner, singing it to me (in my head) while I was in the shower. I immediately got out of the shower and started writing. (FYI--not one guitar or guitar sample was used in the recording of Little Secrets.)

More on Pale Beneath the Blue
* Genre: Electro-acoustic
* Hometown: Cincinnati
* Website
* Order Hologram
* Label: Reach for the Sky Records
* Contact Pale Beneath the Blue
Take a Listen to Tracks from Hologram
(streaming mp3)
One I Open
Little Secrets
Untitled

"'One I Open' is a story of love confused. Girl finds boy, girl tells him to go get a life so she won't be distracted and can have a career in music. Boy goes and finds younger girl. Original girl falls in love with him all over again and asks him to come back but boy is afraid that he will get hurt so he just tries to date them both. So, you know that feeling of getting punched in the stomach when someone hurts you? I was trying to capture that in the chorus (here it comes again, waiting with one i open, there's no way to soften the blow, when it hits help me not to crumble.)"

It isn't all music for Rhonda. "I love snow skiing but don't know that I will be able to ski again--I recently broke the plate and one of the screws in my leg so I'll be sitting out again this season. Summer (when home from touring) is spent at Paramount's Kings Island--I ride the Flow Ride which is a standing wave that you body board. Currently I'm trying to get SCUBA certified (Patrice already has hers). Other than that, I enjoy a feisty game of Scrabble and star gazing."

Right now the band is writing more tunes for the next record; they already have enough music for a full-length record, but the pieces are still scattered. "We've got a lot of different song styles and can't decide which direction to go next. A few months ago I was endorsed by Daisy Rock guitars and am in the process of writing on my new Rock Candy electric."

"For the future, Patrice and I intend to continue touring, going to new cities across the country and maybe--maybe abroad. This winter, I hope to finish up a screenplay that I began while I was down with the leg last year and I know that I have at least 2 other stories to write as well. Beyond that, who knows?"

Provided by the MusicDish Network. Copyright © Tag It 2005 - Republished with Permission

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