Melora Creager
| Melora Creager | |
|---|---|
 Melora's band Rasputina with Melora in the middle. |
|
| Background information | |
| Born | March 25, 1966 Kansas City, Missouri, USA |
| Genres | Cello Rock |
| Occupations | Singer-songwriter, cellist |
| Instruments | vocals, cello, dulcimer, piano, banjo |
| Years active | 1989–present |
| Labels | Filthy Bonnet Recording Co., Instinct Records |
| Associated acts | Rasputina Traveling Ladies' Cello Society Ultra Vivid Scene Nirvana Marilyn Manson |
Melora Creager, formerly Melora Mather, (born March 25, 1966) is an American cellist and singer-songwriter best known for her role as lead singer and chief composer of the cello rock trio Rasputina.[1]
Born in Kansas City, Missouri, she grew up in Emporia, Kansas, with an older brother and a younger sister; all children were adopted. Her mother was a graphic designer and her father was an administrator and physicist at a university; both were very supportive of music and the arts, and encouraged their children to take up musical instruments. Creager began playing the piano at age five, and the cello at age nine. She gave up the cello in the eighth grade (not wanting to be involved in the orchestra scene), only to pick it up again several years later in college. In the mid-1980s she moved to New York City to study photography at Parsons School of Design, where her friends encouraged her to resume playing the cello. In 1989 Creager formed a duo with Julia Kent called the Traveling Ladies' Cello Society. Kent remained in the band for ten years, finally leaving in 1999 amid much drama and disagreement; she and Creager's relationship has been described by Creager as a "decade-long dysfunctional marriage." In 1991 Creager founded the Brooklyn-based alternative band Rasputina, which originally consisted of six other cellists (whom she found by placing classified ads in the newspaper). The group was influenced by both rock and classical cello music. By 1996 the band was trimmed down to two other cellists and a drummer, and Rasputina's first full-length album was released, Thanks for the Ether. Creager also played cello for Nirvana on the European leg of the In Utero world tour (including the band's final show in Munich).[2]
Creager displays a unique fashion sense, including an obvious interest in corsets and Victorian bloomers, which she wears during her live performances.[citation needed][3] She is also fascinated with historical events and people of the past, including the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire of 1911, Howard Hughes, Rose Kennedy, victims of Josef Mengele, and others. She weaves these stories into the lyrics of her songs, as well as creating fictional stories of her own, sung in her wispy, tremulous vocals. The song "Mr. E. Leon Rauis" on the album Thanks for the Ether was inspired by a black-and-white photograph she found in an attic of a man, and expresses the wonder she felt about him and what his life could have been like. It is now known that his name was actually E. Leon Rains,[citation needed] and he was a fairly well known opera singer from around the turn of the 19th century till the middle of the 20th century. Creager's lyrics employ a sly, dark irony and quirky humour. Her songs can be enigmatic and vaguely ominous.
In 2003, Creager starred in the 13-minute film On My Knees, based on The Diaries of Hannah Cullwick.
Creager resides in Hudson, New York with her boyfriend and two daughters, Hollis Willa Lane, who wrote and sang the lyrics of the song "Nov. 17dee" on the album Frustration Plantation, and Ivy, born November 20, 2009.
She is left-handed, unable to whistle and incapable of swimming.[4]
Recently she provided the cellos for Voltaire's album Riding a Black Unicorn Down the Side of an Erupting Volcano While Drinking from a Chalice Filled with the Laughter of Small Children!.
[edit] Discography
- Transylvanian Concubine/The Vaulted Eel, Lesson #6 - Oculus Records, 1993
- Three (3) (promo) - 1994
- Thanks for the Ether - Columbia Records, 1996
- Three Lil' Nothin's (promo) - 1996
- Transylvanian Regurgitations (EP) - Columbia Records, 1997
- How We Quit the Forest - Columbia Records, 1998
- The Olde HeadBoard (EP) - Columbia Records, 1998
- The Lost & Found (self-released limited edition EP) - 2001
- Cabin Fever! - Instinct Records, 2002
- My Fever Broke (EP) - Instinct Records, 2002
- The Lost & Found (second edition EP) - Instinct Records, 2003
- Frustration Plantation - Instinct Records, 2004
- A Radical Recital (live) - Filthy Bonnet Recording Co., 2005
- Perplexions (solo recording) - Filthy Bonnet Recording Co., 2006
- Oh Perilous World! (Vinyl LP, CD & Limited edition CD) - Filthy Bonnet Recording Co., June 26, 2007
- Repo! The Genetic Opera (As part of orchestra), 2008
- Melora a la Basilica (Limited Edition Live EP), 2008
- The Willow Tree Triptych (Limited Edition EP), 2009
- Ancient Cross-Dressing Songs - A Special Recording For Brooklyn (Limited Edition EP), 2009
- Sister Kinderhook - Filthy Bonnet Recording Co., 2010
- Great American Gingerbread - Filthy Bonnet Recording Co., 2011
[edit] References
- ^ creager, melora. "rasputina history". rasputina. http://www.rasputina.com/history.html.
- ^ [1] Nirvana Fanpage. Accessed 19-07-2008.
- ^ Melora profiled in "Something Previous Onstage." http://media.www.mcgilltribune.com/media/storage/paper234/news/2004/11/02/AE/Something.Previous.Onstage-789242.shtml
- ^ Spoken words from "A Message From Melora", first track on the Ancient Cross-Dressing Songs EP, 2009
[edit] External links
- Official Rasputina Website
- Melora Creager at the Internet Movie Database
- Melora Creager at Allmusic
- Melora Creager discography at Discogs
- Melora Creager discography at MusicBrainz
- Interview with Melora Creager on Sepiachord.com
- An Extensive Audio Interview with Melora Creager on The Jekyll and Hyde Show, 106FM Jerusalem. October 2010
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