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Lee Wiggins sits at the back of the stage, lightly
tapping the cymbal on his drum set. Denver Bon
stands on the left side a little bit in front of the drum
riser. As he slowly plucks mystical low notes on his
bass, his body is slightly turned toward the right.
Across and slightly in front of Denver, the transient
sounds of Jeremy Wilkins' keyboards form the outer
expanse of a circle the music has made. Just be
hind Jeremy, rounding out the upper right quad
rant of the circle, Daniel Rosen sits at the stage's
platform, gently strumming the guitar on his lap;
its acoustic melody giving the music's technology
a skillful foe. Forming the front of the circle and
manipulating all the music's forces is Melissa Rae
Mileski's passiona'e voice. The song is called “If
Evil is a Hollow Man," a haunting, melancholy tale
in search of any sort of light.
“There's a lot of contact going on between the
four of us, rather than a lot of eye contact [with the
audience] and that sort of thing, because the mu
sic is there to speak to the audience “ Wilkins says
to me on a cold cloudy afternoon we are spending
in his little apartment in downtown Atlanta. He sits
on a couch, his eyes focused on the letter R, which
he is trying to position perfectly on a flyer he is
making for the band's next show. “We're there to
communicate to each other to create the music.’
This creation consists of single notes that Wilkins
and Rosen have spent a half hour trying to find. It
incorporates endless hours Wiggins has spent try
ing to figure out how to remain perfectly on time with
these meticulous notes. And it also involves melo
dies Mileski has recently learned her voice could
reach. But these components are only the first layer
of a complex production.
Rosewater Elizabeth’s songs have been gradu
ally building all night long. As they enter into
“Witchname," a more active, willful tune, Wilkins' eyes
seem to be drifting off into a blank space in the
Masquerade's music venue. He will tell me later that
he is actually focusing in on the pictures and colors
the new song has created in his head.
"Each song makes me feel like I'm back at a v. jr-
tain point in my life,’ Wilkins says. “Or maybe it’s just
a certain emotional state."
As Wilkins’ plays his keyboards, his experimen
tation with technology, and the band's pursuit of in
novation become clearly apparent. But he says, there
is another side of Rosewater and himseir on a quest
to keep an organic element alive.
“I think of the future as a kind of cyborg. There’s
like this marrying between man, and plant and ma
chine. I don't think that any one of them is going to
end 1 'p winning. And if one of them tries to, it will just
destroy all of us.“
Wilkins sits back laughing and clarifies that the
band has made a conscious decision not to focus on
the world’s problems. “I think what we try to do more
is focus on the emotions of the people that are around
us,“ he says.
This focus leads many songs into a religious
realm. Rosen was born Jewish and became a Bud
dhist; Wlkins reads existentialist philosophy. Some
how, Wilkins concludes, the events of the world,
the band member's religious views and their emo
tions all tie together and finally conglomerate in their
songs.
But as Rosewater's intensity hits its climax on
"Swallow II," (off the band’s Swallow Me Whole single)
it becomes evident in Mileski’s eyes, which she has
seemed to forget are closed, that the layers of the
creation run even deeper.
Mileski sits in the chair next to me. Her newborn
baby, Devon, rests in her arms
“The music is part of our everyday lives we don't
get to do,’ she says. “I'm more of a bottled person. I
wish I could be more aggressive, but I’ve never been
able to be. It’s the only time I get to.
“I mean, it’s nice to get that out; it really is. I al
ways thought what’s going to happen if I go up there
and don't feel that way. But it’s not just anger The music
also comes from being happy. It’s just emotion, pe
riod. I'd be very unhealthy if I didn’t have it."
Still, even in Rosewater’s more uplifting songs, a
sadness seeps through. There is confusion that comes
from the miscommunication in relationships. Feelings
still hover from the time when Wilkins and Mileski
dated; a time, the two say, that should have been per
fect, but never seemed to work. There is uncertainty
in their lives now.
“This is the time you always worked to get to when
you were younger," says Mileski. “Now you’re at it: a
point where there are no more next steps that are sup
posed to be exciting, and there's real things to take
care of, like children."
The baby slowly picks her head up from Mileski’s
lap and starts to cry. “Devon speaks," Jeremy says.
A moment later, after the baby has put her head
back down, Jeremy says, “The happiest things in our
lives have downfalls to them. TTte good things have a
bad side.”
“But the bad things have a good side," both
reply.
The show ends with a song called “Slave."
Mileski's embracing refrain provokes the instrument
around her into a tender peace:
“No more life giving drones; my blood is the only
living drone. Allowed to continue by the sun, my hell
is nothing to the one. So I breeeathe...’
Keith Hufwitz
Rosewater Elizabeth and Drop Sonic play the 40
Watt Friday, Dec. 20.
Revolution Xmas Part
Doors at ? : 00 / Banos a£ 10 -Ofl
Ho bey
The Tender IdoLs
The Possibilities
Gene Pool
Subvoodoo
iMcUtdea:
Squier Strat Guitar
15 Watt Amp
Gig Bag
Guitar Strap
Extra Set of Strings
Guitar Picks
Guitar Cord
296 W. Broad St.
549-6199
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