I have been singing for as long as I can remember, and music held a strong presence in our home. My parents would pull the chairs out from the kitchen table and sing folk songs together in the bright mornings and evenings. My dad taught me a few chords on the guitar while I was in my teens, but I didn't take the instrument seriously, and I rarely played. It wasn't until I left home at 19, that music became my primary creative outlet.
My first songs were written in 2003 with the winds of change that had entangled my life. I moved from my small hometown, Nevada City, California, to attend college in the busy city of San Francisco. As soon as I left home, my parents divorced unexpectedly and sold our family home. I was left rootless and heart broken. During the storm, I taught myself to stumble around on the guitar, and wrote my first songs. A few short months later, I recorded the collection of songs as "Forest Parade," and passed the hand-made discs along to friends and family.
My next group of songs were written during the summer of 2004 while on a journey of solitude. I booked a flight to London, using a chunk of change given to me when our house sold. I took the train to Paris, and to the south of France with just a backpack and my guitar. I spent a month walking around unfamiliar cities, coming upon things I'd seen before. I found solice in Cathedrals, and wore holes in the soles of my shoes. During the trip, I wrote most of the songs on "The Pirate's Gospel."
Things became clear while I was away. As soon as I returned home to the US, I packed up my San Francisco life, quit school, and headed back to the hills of my hometown. In the late summer of 2004, "The Pirate's Gospel" was recorded with my dad in Nevada City.
From the autumn of 2004 until the same time the following year, I lived in a log cabin on the property of my lovely friend, Mariee Sioux's, family. I worked at a breakfast cafe in town and wore a different thrift store apron everyday. I finished my two year degree from the community college. I wrote more songs & got my cat, Bramble Rose. I handmade piles of "The Pirate's Gospel" stitching each cover with lace and paper bags.
October of 2005 brought me to Portland, Oregon, where I played as many shows as I could. I got domestic and made curtains. I wrote more songs. I handmade more copies of the album to give away and to sell. I filled water glasses and cleared tables, while in my mind, I knew I was much better at singing.
After 3 years of doing it all on my own, Portland's Holocene Music offered to help me out, and in October of 2006, "The Pirate's Gospel," was released in the US. Its release in England, Australia, and most of Europe was staggered throughout 2007.
Bramble Rose and I moved back to Nevada City last July, but she is the only one who lives there. For the past year, I have been traveling the endless roads of our lands. I sit in a motel in North Carolina as I recall these paths now. My things are mostly in boxes, silently waiting for me to return. A collection of Condor feathers and a dreamcatcher decorate my car, and make me feel at home where ever I am. These days, home is a place I visit from time to time. I am begining to get used to this life away from my usual stillness, and am glad for the chance to see some of our world.
When not on tour, I have been working on an as of yet untitled album. The project is 90% done and will be released on an as of yet undetermined date is 2008. You heard it from the horse's mouth.
Alela Diane, November 2007.