Shawna Potter

SHOW NOTES:

In this very special episode, host Shawna Potter chats with her former bandmates from the late 90s/early 00s Nashville indie band, Fair Verona. An old, unlabeled mp3 of the FV song “The Downfall of a Well-Known Actress” found its way onto the Lostwave message boards and with some great detective work, this online community found where the song came from and were pleasantly surprised to find out we’re all still playing music. This conversation dives deep into the origins of the band with Beth Cameron and Leah Bergman, and Lostwave member, Tom Stratton, asks questions and gives context. Listen to find out what Lostwave is, how often do these mp3 mysteries get solved, the weird times of 90s indie cred vs selling out, the lack of fellow girls that played guitar (even in Nashville), harassing Mary Timony, and what the hell is “The Downfall of a Well-Known Actress” about anyway?

SHOW LINKS:

Fair Verona: https://fairverona.bandcamp.com/album/the-last-recordings

Turned Out A Punk w/Shawna Potter - https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/episode-184-shawna-potter-war-on-women-avec-fair-verona/id940288964?i=1000419596110

Lucy’s Record Shop (the podcast) - https://www.lucysrecordshop.com/

Self - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Subliminal_Plastic_Motives

Helium - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helium_(band)

Shipping News - https://shippingnews.bandcamp.com/track/claws

AVEC (Shawna’s band after FV, before War On Women) - https://www.discogs.com/release/2771380-Avec-If-I-Breathe-I-Fall-Asleep

Forget Cassettes (Beth) - http://www.forgetcassettes.com/

Black Bra (Beth) - https://blackbramusic.com/

Leah’s Pixies cover band - Is She Weird, Is She White

Baltimore Afrobeat Society (Fela Kuti cover band Shawna was in) - https://www.facebook.com/baltimoreafrobeatsociety

Find my Mind - discord server - https://www.reddit.com/r/Lostwave/comments/ol3f2c/fond_my_mind_discord_server/

SHAWNA’S LINKS:

shawnapotter.com

Making Spaces Safer: https://www.akpress.org/making-spaces-safer-book.html

https://www.youtube.com/@shawnapotter

https://www.cameo.com/shawnapotterwow

linktr.ee/waronwomen

You can support this podcast by liking my youtube channel, and sharing, subscribing, and reviewing But Her Lyrics... wherever you get your podcasts - it’s free and it helps. To find episode transcripts, or to find out more about what I do, my book, my trainings, my patreon, request me on Cameo, etc, head to shawnapotter.com To learn about all things WOW, head to linktr.ee/waronwomen

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SHOW TRANSCRIPT [automatically generated via Youtube, please excuse any errors]

hi everyone this is Shauna Potter host of but her lyrics and what a treat I have for everyone today I am here with a

couple of my former bandmates from my Nashville days in the late 90s because our band fair Verona well one of our

0:27

songs recently became a solved mystery in the Lost Wave Music Community a

0:33

corner of the internet that I did not know existed until recently so I'm very excited to learn more about that from

0:39

our guest Tom and to take advantage of this wonderful excuse to walk down

0:44

memory lane with Beth and Leah so thank you all so much for taking the time to

0:49

join me on but her lyrics Beth and Leah please introduce yourself to everyone and tell us what you did in the

0:57

band Leah you already

1:02

embarrassed um uh my name is Leah Bergman I played bass co-wrote

1:08

songs and sang in the band

1:15

fairon I'm Beth Cameron I played guitar and wrote and play wait also

1:26

sang and I did that stuff too sing play guitar write songs um all right Tom this is our first

1:33

time ever speaking we've messaged a few times to get ready for this chat today but um we don't know each other at all

1:41

uh please introduce yourself and tell us why you are here and what is lost

1:48

wve sure uh so I'm Tom obviously I'm uh

1:54

musician and a game designer and a bunch of other stuff um and I kind of got ROP

2:02

this whole lost wave thing actually fairly recently but uh it's kind of like a

2:08

people who are just like obsessed with finding songs that are like lost whether

2:14

that be you know they don't have an arch to them or a lot of them are songs that were

2:19

uploaded 10 15 20 years ago onto some file sharing website with the wrong

2:25

artist attached to them and so the whole Community is about trying to find these people and credit them properly for all

2:32

the stuff they did I wasn't really super into it until recently and I you know

2:38

here I am now as kind of a spokesperson I guess but uh

2:44

sorry it's okay how big is this community like like should I feel dumb

2:50

for not knowing about it until until now no uh I wouldn't say so I mean there's there is a sizable online presence but

2:57

it's not something super in the main stream uh there is I think the most

3:02

popular one is probably the most mysterious song on the internet that's got like 20 million views on YouTube or something that's like that that one's

3:10

huge but nobody ever solved that one it's still kind of up in the air oh interesting

3:16

it and that's why we're here today good luck um all right okay so Tom uh can you

3:23

sum up for listeners what brings the four of us here today like what is the fair Verona con ction what's the story

3:31

how did this play out weirdly enough I I was in a Discord server for a different

3:38

song ended up becoming a moderator in that server after we had solved our initial song um we kind of moved on to

3:45

trying to figure out other things to to look for and uh your song was really big

3:51

for that server um everybody was super into it a lot of the people there are like you know like 20 and younger really

4:00

into like the kind of they were they really dug that sound a lot and so uh we

4:06

had a poll to figure out what we do next and uh downfall as we had called it at the time was kind of the overwhelming

4:12

winner in that case so that became our next search and then uh you know obviously we

4:20

we found it um which is not easy not eess like

4:26

what how did you find us let me P let me pull up uh here here I've got some notes

4:31

from Setta Setta who was you know uh also very involved in this community one of the other mods from the Discord um

4:38

she's actually the one if I'm not mistaken the one who found the song uh I

4:45

can give you a couple things that we found where um digging through the file names

4:52

uh digging through metadata ended up helping us a lot I think I think the metadata gave away that it was like that

4:58

the song had a longer title and we had tried to figure out what it was hi so future Tom um I just wanted to

5:06

make a quick correction on this part of the video uh it was not the metadata that gave away the title of the song

5:13

Aaron had used an API search for Last FM to generate 8,000 results for the term

5:19

downfall speta then went through and researched a ton of it and then isolated certain

5:25

results and landed on the downfall of well-known actress by Fair Verona the

5:30

song itself uh was unfindable at the time but she had found different songs

5:36

by fair Verona on their band camp and obviously the singer was very similar because it was Beth and the song still

5:43

wasn't available anywhere technically but she was able to find an archived

5:49

version from the year 2000 on their website so just wanted to make that

5:54

quick update and make that a little more clear uh because our Discord server was

5:59

actually archived right before this interview happened so I didn't have access to all the information and now I

6:05

do that's all back to the video your song by the way the the the way somebody

6:11

had found this I believe was like on an MP3 site completely cleaned of all of

6:17

its metadata with no artist or name attached to it and we picked the name downfall just because actually no that

6:23

was the name of the MP3 that's what it was must have been cuz I don't think that lyric is in like I don't think we

6:28

say downfall in and it's such an interesting time for music the the the you know late '90s

6:34

early 2000s where things are being digitized and but no one was like

6:40

sorting it or like taking care of anything no one gave us [ __ ] because we still have physical media you

6:45

know right yeah um so that's kind of my angle is that I you know it's the music

6:51

preservation angle is really important to me um so and and to other people but

6:57

you know that's kind of why I'm there um but uh yeah so um I think actually you

7:04

featured in a song with a band he's Collective yeah the hers Collective yep

7:09

yep yes and uh Philadelphia band uh Philadelphia boy so that was a weird

7:15

connection but somebody had found out that you were in the song and the only

7:22

thing at the time that we had found you in was that song and your current band

7:28

and we could not for the life of us link you back to fair Verona and ended up somebody ended up finding a band camp

7:34

page with your name attached to it with fair Verona and uh the song wasn't on

7:40

the band camp either I know um and I think through some third party

7:47

website through through some other other tangential website somebody had found out that the song was either cut the

7:54

album was cut something along those lines that was uh that was it we found

7:59

we somebody had found like the MP3 with the full name eventually and uh that was kind of it that's that's it was an

8:06

extremely long process of scouring through MP3 sites and file names trying

8:12

to trying to and Myspace archives Myspace music archives were

8:17

were huge because tons of people posted MP3s without properly tagging anything right

8:24

but we were definitely broken up by the time Myspace came around you know and

8:30

that's something yeah we found found that out after the fact obviously but uh

8:35

um we had looked through like some thousand songs tagged downfall on MySpace archives it was crazy wow how

8:43

does that story you know that like it sounds super investigative right um really uh tedious how does that story

8:50

compare like on average with the songs that you're searching for like what's the success rate does it normally take

8:56

that long do most go unsolved I would say a good portion of them go unsolved

9:02

for sure a lot of them also don't really get the traction that yours

9:08

or um like uh one of the bigger ones is Fond to my mind which I which was just

9:14

solved fairly recently too not all of them get all of that traction and a lot of them do end up going on

9:21

solv we we really liked your song and you know after finding out who did it and everything then you you know you get

9:28

into the band and everything thing and you guys did release a lot of really good music and I want to say that up front too it's a shame that these songs

9:35

end up going on so long without anybody being attached to it lately we've had kind of a Renaissance of song solves uh

9:42

our server right before you guys we had solved a song that was labeled dance for hours a day which turned up to be song

9:49

called funky by an indie band from the UK after that we moved on to you guys

9:54

and solved it within like weeks of the first one after that solved another one called there's a man and it kind of

10:00

snowballed yours is kind of uh an odd case it's I'd say it's in the minority

10:07

especially because you guys are still active which is very rare in this scene

10:12

ah yeah right well okay so that I feel like we should start talking about the song itself um uh regular listeners have

10:20

but her lyrics know to keep listening to the end of the episode you will hear the song in full which version I of MP3 I

10:28

have lying around I don't know we'll figure it out uh but so now I'm going to turn it over to Tom so you can ask us

10:35

questions collected from the Lost wve community so go ahead I'll take off my

10:41

host hat I can't put a hat on I have headphones uh so the first one I've got

10:47

for you is just the general band history I know a little bit of this because I have watched turned out a punk just you

10:54

know General rundown yeah who wants to take that I can shaa and I'm met in high

11:01

school uh I was a junior you were a freshman

11:06

right a brand new school that was just built in our town uh Shauna just moved

11:12

to Nashville I grew up there we I don't know how we even met I think someone was

11:17

like this girl plays guitar and this girl plays guitar and this is a time in which no females played rock music we

11:25

wereare when you heard of that we were just like I I know this person um so

11:31

Sean and I started writing together we had a third girl in the band who

11:37

eventually like went off to college and didn't want to play music anymore um I you know hung around this

11:46

all ages Punk Club a lot and the owner introduced me to Leah at a karate

11:52

show um because again he was like I know a girl that plays music you guys should

11:58

meet Leah graciously joined our band uh so we went through a myriad of

12:06

drummers and we got signed to an indie label for a development deal which were

12:12

big in the '90s where an indie label would sign you develop you sign you off

12:17

to a major label they would get a big payday you would get nothing um which we

12:23

eventually found out through our lawyer that we were we had signed over everything you know we toured all we

12:28

were t all the time you know meeting with managers you know doing the whole

12:34

thing we we were going for it we were trying to do something and hoping it will work out and we were limited by my

12:41

school schedule because by the time Betha graduated I was the only person left in school so yeah we were like on a

12:49

music industry track that just kind of fizzled when I think we were like what

12:55

are we doing this for if we don't have any rights kind of I don't I wouldn't even it fizzled I would say like it it

13:01

it Atomic bombed and that we had no choice but to break up because or I

13:07

think at the time we thought we had no choice but to break up um you know we were young we you

13:13

know frustrations you know all that so we broke up because we had signed this

13:19

terrible deal and yeah Leah is there would I miss I think the the small place that we

13:27

met was called Lucy's Record Shop which in Nashville was a pretty legendary uh Place It's featured in some

13:34

documentaries even one in particular that came out of Louisville the Name Escapes me which makes me very sad

13:40

because I'd love to get that person we'll put it in the show notes don't worry amazing um so and the owner I

13:46

guess Mary uh what was Mary's last name manini Mancini oh so she was really

13:53

instrumental in building the Nashville scene I had been a classic trained

13:59

musician from the age of four when I met these beautiful talented ladies and um

14:07

just as a rebellion after getting a full scholarship to Belmont for music

14:12

composition um you know I was like well I'm gonna be in a punk

14:20

band like I'm not gonna practice ever again and I mean I would still come home

14:26

after band practice and like play these G cheros on the piano and be like oh God

14:31

I missed you so much um that's so funny cuz Fair everyone have practiced more than any band I've ever been in since we

14:39

practiced all the time I don't know why I don't know if it helped we were constantly like writing and changing

14:46

maybe more more Beth than anyone but just like constantly tweaking songs songs that you think you thought were

14:52

done cool I learned that one no I'm changing the chorus there's no reason

14:57

why I'm just doing it okay fine um it was like boot camp reason why they they

15:04

evolved beautifully and of course far as I knew all bands practiced that much

15:09

because going to do when young into it and at the time that they met me I had

15:15

been submitting Jingles for other things I think I wrote the intro for like an MTV trailer that never did anything and

15:23

I was doing some studio work as like a um like I was in the musicians un to do

15:29

backup vocals and voice commercials so like I sort of looked at music as a job

15:35

which was not popularly received when I first got into the band but then they're like well you know we have to have this

15:42

Indie credibility I was like you can but like it's cool to make money too if you want to I still haven't learned that

15:48

lesson Leah yeah so that's um where I was and

15:53

it was just such a breath of fresh air to be able to play with people and if you got tired of the drum no problem new

16:00

one soon so next question I've been signed

16:08

once before as well I was on sponge bath records which the band that is in the

16:13

background of self was on that record label that was my first deal and then

16:19

Ivy records was the second one none since

16:24

then well you're far ahead of the game of every band I've ever been in practice

16:29

wise that's for damn sure so you know props to you cuz it it seems like

16:35

everybody in every band doesn't want to make money I wasn't in it for the money I

16:41

just was like if somebody wants you to do a BD Wier koser don't be like oh it's

16:46

yeah we would be like no our morals I want to buy one of these things

16:51

back here you know like it was a weird time because that was when uh Indie

16:58

bands it we starting to get picked up by major labels so now it's no big deal but then

17:05

in The credibility was a huge I mean selling out was a death selling out was

17:11

like vernacular I mean you know and so like two weeks later after that like

17:18

Modest Mouse came and stayed at my apartment and they were like yeah we're going to be doing this this and this and I was like well these no names are doing

17:25

it like you know it was their first tour they had no place to stay there seen a

17:31

one-bedroom apartment and I'm like these guys have enough money to buy like fresh fruit while they're on

17:37

tour the dream and now you hear float on everywhere so good for them yeah yeah

17:44

absolutely all right so ever knew that death CF cutie would like be a stadium band but you know whatever yeah real

17:51

yeah um yeah no I you know I get that I grew up in punk bands and everything obviously like the whole selling out

17:57

thing is is still a you know huge deal for the local Punk scene but uh you got

18:03

to make paycheck somehow what are you guys' favorite bands and what kind of bands inspired fair Verona in specific I

18:10

want to talk about this because I just went back and I also helium was a

18:16

huge influence on this band gigantic timy helium and I have not listened to

18:23

helium in a long time and in preparation for this interview I went back and I was just like holy sh [ __ ] we were just

18:30

straight up ripping off I mean not ripping off but we were just so influenced by guitar playing and helium

18:37

um so that I think that was a huge probably the biggest influence of fair Verona I would say yes yes I mean that

18:45

was my answer 100% do you guys do you guys remember when we got Mary timy's number and we called her and left her a

18:51

message back several messages when we were playing in Boston and harassed her

18:57

straight up harassed her answering machine yeah oh my God sorry Mary and you know I don't know if Leah

19:04

and Beth know this but like I have since met her she's come to jrin studio to

19:11

record and I've just been like hey I am super cool around you everything is fine and normal and nice to meet you and

19:19

she's like oh okay yeah nice to meet you um but inside I'm like oh my God so uh I tried not to

19:28

embarrass myself but it is so weird living in proximity to DC uh after after

19:34

all our musical influences I'll just say that I knew about helium obviously being

19:40

a huge influence um watching you know turned out a punk that's I didn't know

19:46

about the uh calling her personal phone number thing that's that's new information for sure it wasn't illegal

19:52

cuz we left a message we weren't we weren't stalking her like that's right we just we just want to see if she was in town and come to the show no big deal

20:01

yeah fair enough yeah I mean like Bikini Kill huge influence on us I mean just

20:07

early '90s right girl I mean that's the reason I picked up an instrument so you know and I think later

20:14

like we were getting into like bands like slint and karate and you know yeah

20:20

and I don't you know like my my bands were like whole and babes and Toyland and Sonic Youth but like I don't know

20:28

how or if they seeped in because I agree Beth like I just I hear a lot of helium

20:34

with the way that we let our guitars intertwine and play off each other and

20:41

stuff that just sounds more like helium to me than anything else but I'm sure it all it all made its way in there and then of course whoever was drumming had

20:48

some influence of course on how uh the final you know how it's finally

20:53

interpreted it or whatever I think my baselines I was just constantly trying

20:59

to rip off karate and simultaneously and make my voice sound

21:05

like every Kim of any band and that's why it worked because

21:11

like if you were also super influenced by helium like then we would just sound like helium but we needed like other

21:17

things to come into play as well to create something new and worth listening to and so much

21:24

appreciated is the song or is the story behind the song inspired by anyone in

21:29

particular this was a bit this was a Hot Topic by the way in our server did people have theories or something like

21:35

conspirac people yeah uhhuh yeah people had so many theories uh I I wish that I could remember the name of the actress

21:41

in particular that one person thought it was about but I G to wait for you to answer it because I want to know if it

21:47

was right don't you have a story about how we wrote the song oh it is not about an actress

21:53

yeah if it's about me this is a shitty way to tell me okay guys you could have told me before I hit record what the

22:01

[ __ ] I think if I've ever not told you anything it's that I didn't tell you how much she meant to me as often as I

22:08

probably should have and how much you still mean to me so I don't have anything

22:14

like to say there um I was uh I fell

22:20

very much in love with um a man named Jason Noble from Louisville who was

22:26

pretty active in the Louisville scene um in the late 90s early 2000s I think he

22:31

was even like a part producer of something called crazy Fest which only ran for a few years um at various venues um he was in

22:42

a band called Rodan he was in several bands I think he was in the shipping news as well oh Shipping News I know

22:48

them another connection with Jason Noble I mean several if you look him up sadly

22:53

he has passed away um but that was I but I fell deeply in love

23:01

with this man um and it was an unrequited love and it never got weird because I'm not like that but um I

23:09

definitely kept myself like as adjacent to him as I could um just like if if I

23:17

had the opportunity to be with him in a social situation I certainly would um

23:23

and I got invited so like I think I got close but I was talking to on the phone

23:29

and I was laying on the flooor like oh my God love so much and like there's a

23:34

song Somewhere in me there's a song but there's like 163 miles between here and

23:40

Louisville and these in my journal when I was talking

23:47

to Leah oh my gosh that's the original Journal oh oh I love you so much

23:56

153 uh-huh yep yeah there was a song Somewhere

24:02

inside of me Dam 153 miles north of here and then which you know morphed into a

24:08

line that rhymed thank goodness my my heartbreak was not rhyming but um yeah I was

24:16

driving to Louisville a lot my dude well that's a that's a very

24:21

interesting thing that you just said uh because my next question was basically answered which was what is the meaning

24:28

of damn them all 153 which obviously is about the mileage but we in the server it was pointed out

24:36

that 153 is also the am like roughly the amount of days between June and December and so that

24:45

was the theory was that it was a spread of time that you were talking about damn the all 153 days uh June arrived with a

24:54

bitterness so cold Etc oh my God I love it I love it so not on purpose

25:02

Beth is it what no so that's not on purpose okay coincidence okay

25:10

wild see the theories that we've been cooking up love it I love it the

25:15

internet [Music]

25:29

that is that like there will be a Revival of some of the great work that Jason did for that Community through

25:37

this interviewer or through the song um because even though he has passed away I

25:42

think his legacy has lived and has become a foundation uh an influence for

25:49

many bands that we know and love today Beth wrote the other you know 50% of the song I Wasing

25:57

on the floor crying about a guy you know that's that's half the work most of the

26:03

time that's half the work so you inspired me so damn we did like for the

26:09

record so we we we all traded off duties of songwriting like we all wrote songs

26:15

we all wrote Parts um sometimes we would come in with like fully formed songs

26:22

sometimes we would work together to finish things together um and so for

26:28

anyone wondering or that can't see this like yeah that's uh that's what's

26:33

happening I what was my part my part was uh uh sing this sing this low part flat

26:39

and I was like you got it um and then and then find a way to play guitar over

26:45

an already awesome riff and I was like [ __ ] [ __ ] [ __ ] [ __ ] helium [ __ ] [ __ ] and then so that's my contrib to the

26:52

song hey well it worked out for it worked out at the very least a couple

26:57

hundred people so hopefully 153 eventually we'll hear the song that is

27:03

my goal now Tom I do remember that you mentioned like a weird just like a

27:10

unexpected question about this song uh I'll tell you this in chronological

27:15

order so we Setta had um messaged me about doing this call a you know trying

27:22

to figure out a date and everything maybe like two or three days

27:27

later I got a message on Discord a private message on Discord from a guy

27:34

asking if I could ask you what your views on Christianity were because he is

27:43

convinced that damn them all 153 is a Biblical reference and he he

27:49

also messaged feda privately and then he tried to call both of us individually so

27:55

he's he's burning for answers for this question I yes I well I guess we answer that definitely is not about Christy

28:03

Kennedy yeah I I mean I think there's a l there's I'm trying to think of all the

28:09

lyrics but I know that I mean that song was written kind of when we had realized

28:16

the situation that we were in so I'm thinking of the line of uh this is a

28:21

beautiful movie we play in and I'm going to change it when I get in like that was a reference to being in this band I

28:29

think the title downfall of a well-known actress is just a reference to our band

28:34

um okay and yeah I mean because I think at that time I was writing a lot about

28:40

being very angry at how [ __ ] up the music industry was fair very fair I had heard that the

28:49

reason the song was so hard to find uh well part of the reason uh was that the

28:55

song got cut from an album or an album enti got cut how true is that and how did it get

29:02

cut is this an Eddie Kramer song you guys that's what I'm wondering yeah did

29:08

I think so I don't I don't know if it was ever actually released no it we never I mean

29:15

the only thing that was ever officially released was that first EP and then we

29:21

just kept getting put in front of different producers to record things one of which was Eddie Kramer of Le Zeppelin

29:28

and Jimmy Hendrick Fame and we recorded a bunch of songs with him and I think the version that is on the internet on

29:36

YouTube that I think you guys were referencing and read it I think that was an Eddie Kramer session cuz it's slick

29:43

it's produced you know for sure so this it felt like like yeah we were setting

29:48

it was being set up that this would be like some sort of single um to what album at the time I don't know but um

29:57

maybe it was like like make it as radi friendly as possible and then maybe

30:02

that's what would get us the major label you know just show them what we could do with these songs um but yeah and I think

30:08

we recorded another song also uh like it was two songs that

30:14

we that had that treatment basically but I don't remember which was the other one I think it was Art of

30:20

lies that sounds right yeah art the art of Lies search

30:26

for that lost wave say don't give them any more fuel because they'll do it they they give

30:33

them enough time and these these teenagers on Terminal online teenagers will find

30:38

[Music] it but you know what's beautiful is like I feel like fair Verona you know the F

30:46

the 90s are back and like every every teenager is discovering music for the first time like it never existed before

30:52

which no judgment I did that too you know like Mom have you heard of lead Zeppelin yeah I [ __ ] heard lead Zeppelin

30:58

um and I just feel like our band the music is so perfect for like a

31:07

Resurgence and like fem centered '90s stuff you know that isn't straight up

31:14

punk rock but it's also not pop and it's also not you know boring I don't know

31:20

like it's good [ __ ] but it's of a time and it and and like so of course of

31:26

course any like younger person that wasn't there in the 90s when they were happening like we were um like I

31:33

think it totally fits in with what else might be um on their playlist you know wait real real quick I want to go back

31:40

to Tom's question about who influenced us because when you just said that shaa about uh you know we weren't like to

31:47

totally punk I'm thinking of all of our three-part harmonies that we were constantly doing and uh what why we did

31:55

like what was our influence for three-part Harmon we CU we could child Leah Leah you were

32:02

our you were our influence for that I have since I was born I was born singing

32:09

harmonies and so and we would do it in the car and even now I'm if I'm around

32:16

someone who's able to sing harmony I just it happens but I think you guys

32:22

were really receptive when I was like hey uh what if we throw a Harmony in here you

32:28

sure yeah you know and but I think it was um I mean for me I wanted to add it

32:34

because i' had been in children's choirs for years and composed so many things for a long time and I was like man you

32:41

know what's better than one lead singer three three lead singers lead singers

32:48

and they're all different because shaa she's a force she's a force she just gets up there and it's force and

32:55

you're gonna get it and here it is and Beth is a very like she waits and until

33:03

you come to her but her voice comes to the microphone and I see it every time

33:08

she plays when I'm in the audience now people stop what they're doing and it's

33:13

like it's slow like shanus comes out hello I'm here hello and be's voice is something that

33:20

you almost you have to walk up to and you're like oh my gosh that's I have to smell this and really you can almost see

33:25

it come through the speaker and it really envelops you and then I mean for me as a lead singer

33:31

I'm just I'm thinking so I'm almost like a conductor when I'm up there um so you

33:37

have these three very different lead singers but also

33:43

who who uh approach the stage presence so differently and I think that's why it

33:48

looked more like a a beautiful dance between three people instead of like a fist

33:54

fight and Leah you definitely always knew like what was missing or and and

34:01

whatever it was you could do it you're extremely versatile um and so like

34:07

whatever you know I was I was younger uneducated like had no formal training

34:13

uh so it was all heart and no actual notes you know and so whatever I was doing you know um like Le would be like

34:20

okay well I'm gonna do this and that will make this sound good that will that will really round this out and you could

34:26

do it and it was great well that's I mean that's what a lot of our practices were we just sat around and practice

34:32

singing harmonies yeah that's fair over and over and over and over again so yeah

34:38

yeah but but the question remains why why why and it's fine because it was fun

34:45

well I mean you know I grew up on like [ __ ] Jan Jackson and and like pop music like the greatest era of pop music

34:52

in the 80s so like I liked singing and our version of punk you know my version

34:59

of punk was Bikini Kill which was a rebellion against hair metal right and

35:06

so like it it is interesting though like why didn't we stay that

35:12

Scrappy um or even like quote unquote not super great at our instruments like

35:18

I I I was never like this is good enough like it was a it was cool to work on our

35:25

[ __ ] and like sound better sound otherand you know I don't know I think we were ambitious and we were just

35:31

naturally had a pop like thread through us all three of us yeah fascinating to

35:39

think about that in hindsight you know it works out really well I mean

35:44

like you were saying before how like uh you know the 90s have kind of come back in style especially for younger people

35:50

um I think that's true uh and I think I actually I I swore for a while that you

35:56

must have been a band from like the two like mid 2000s onward because it sounded so much like a sound that eventually

36:03

happened but wasn't quite like all the way there yet um because you do have you

36:08

know obviously you have the three-part harmonies throughout your song and everything but you also have like a little bit more Edge than a lot of the

36:13

bands at the time did with like that you know now there was that a lot of that Dynamic going going on very cool I like

36:20

that sound a lot yeah that's very insightful Tom thank you thanks Tom so

36:25

we this stuff out then is that what we're doing what let's go back in the studio lady oh

36:32

my God later let's I I think you're giving Thomas

36:38

segue you're gonna give the Discord kids too much hope with that one can we just release the stuff we already have it's

36:44

not like the guys from Ivy records are going to be like oh let's go find it I mean no they they won't care but you

36:51

know what I've actually touched base with one of those guys I don't want to say too much publicly just in case you know I don't want to you know uh but one

36:58

of those guys works at Pandora actually and we've chatted and it's perfectly Pleasant like he's doing cool [ __ ] like

37:06

has a nice life you know so like no they're not going to be like wait a second to this like uh 25-year-old music

37:15

or whatever um so yeah we should probably consider just [ __ ] putting it all uh online if we haven't already

37:21

if someone hasn't done that already uh I've got a quick Side Story uh regarding

37:27

loss wave uh for this uh there's only one band one group I can think of off

37:33

the top of my head and I think it may just be the only band outright that has been found via L wave and actually got

37:39

back together after the fact there's a band called The defended from the UK a b a song that we found in our server

37:46

called there's a man um it was posted as man up on a hill or whatever uh for a while it's a really good song they're a

37:52

really good band but um they're recording new music together for the first time since they like released that

37:58

song like 2007 or something amazing it's been it's been like over 15 years um so

38:05

with the next question being was there ever a chance of fona getting back together you know yes yes yes yes yes

38:13

there's been like three times in my life where I was like I better I better relearn those songs I feel like this might happen like and then I didn't and

38:22

it didn't you know but like I was like this you know [ __ ] it like [ __ ] it I'll just [ __ ] go back to asille and we'll

38:28

like play show like you know and it just life life gets away from you and the

38:34

band you're in in your own town that's already hard to get to that rehearsal just sucks up your time you

38:41

know um but I love the idea I would just want to make enough money to like buy a

38:46

hotel instead of like sleep on top of a van at night you know oh yeah we don't do that anymore hotel that doesn't sound

38:54

very Punk of you no no does sound very I'm in my 40s though which I think I me

39:01

you know you're welcome to stay here I I actually think shaa has slept on an air

39:07

mattress directly behind me in this room yes I she's Steward with me well that

39:14

was back when I still had the pool sorry it's I know it's that pool Tak too long

39:20

to take care of that [ __ ] I ate that thing that's fair I will treasure my memories of being [ __ ] drunk in

39:26

that pool during the day I wasn't gonna say anything but that was a lot of fun

39:31

it was great it was great easy you know I think it'd be really easy to play a show it's Nashville um it's a lot of

39:38

live music opportunities um it's always easy to like just when you know people for a

39:45

very long time and we've all kind of grown up together you can always jump on a festival you can always um get on a

39:52

bill with some other bands who are you know getting together for now

39:58

we're saying things like breast cancer and colon cancer like like let's get the band together and like make some money

40:04

for surgery you know it would be fun to do it not for

40:11

you know that reason and I think it would be pretty easy and straightforward to do like four to eight shows in the

40:18

Southeast just you know um wild we do that with cover bands plug for my newest

40:25

cover band which we're going to play the album spiderland from start to finish it's a by a band called slint

40:33

because okay they will in they won't tour and I want to hear

40:38

that that album live and if you want to hear it and no one's touring you're like well I'm gonna play it myself

40:47

then so everyone cross your fingers who knows but now it's gonna be like oh yeah you know lost wve band fair Verona

40:55

confirms reunion hey if lost wave wants to sponsor a tour

41:00

we'll put you at the top of the flyer uh sure why not um any anything else uh Tom

41:07

before I uh put my host hat back on you said your your band is playing spiderland and full is that right I just

41:15

want to reconfirm that real quick so I don't have a band I have friends who I

41:22

call and say are you free this weekend do you how well do you know spiderland

41:27

and we go to the a venue and just play spiderland we play Beth and I play in a

41:34

pixie cover band um together cool we do all kinds of shows and have fun we've

41:41

been in a pixie cover band together for 20 years um and right 20 or something

41:47

maybe no we're not that old maybe five but uh it's it's me and my

41:55

plumber and uh yeah and a guy that was

42:01

in my band when when I was on spongebath records and it's a sort of a it's sort

42:06

of a TBD on who's the fourth member right now but we final do

42:15

it is it the drummer you're missing are you missing a drummer I wouldn't say I'm missing him but uh we are no it's always

42:22

the drummer no it's it's it's harder to find the a drummer to play those Dr Parts because they are oddly specific if

42:30

you listen to that record it is almost orchestral in how specific those drum

42:35

parts are the drummer was kind of the the band lead for slint too right that was like the same thing with like C and

42:41

Jazz at the time and bands like that but um thr out captain and Jazz Tom is that

42:46

I love cap Jazz I love Captain Jazz oh boy all right yes you've got be's attention you

42:54

have my attention sir if you're not going to age us I'm going to age all of us all at once so okay

43:01

let's talk about pie Balls next so what I get is you guys are

43:07

getting back together and playing entire albums in full that's correct right yeah that's confirmed right here you heard

43:15

it um well so I just want to see like after having this conversation so far I

43:20

just want to know from Leah and Beth like is are there any like stories or memories from fair Verona that are just

43:28

coming up for you that like that you can't get rid of that are just occupying

43:33

your brain right now after all this talk I mean I'll like going through all

43:41

of my journals from that time and then all of the cassette tapes

43:47

I have of everything we record we would record every rehearsal every time we just sat down and played guitar I have

43:54

cassette tapes and cassette tapes and I think just like the memory of my work ethic back then how did we do it all I

44:02

did was play guitar and be in a band that's all I did and then I came across these amazing scrapbooks that my mother

44:09

made of fair Verona so maybe we need to like scan

44:16

some I wouldn't really say I don't know like specific stories came up but I

44:21

think it was just uh just the overall like how it was all consuming and it's

44:28

weird to think back on it and how hard we worked

44:35

and how I don't know it just like it then it didn't

44:40

happen yeah yeah right we were we were shooting for a goal and and uh shooting

44:47

for the moon and and fell a little short and but also there's this amazing thing

44:52

with youth where you think okay well this band broke up I'll just just like do it again in another band and get big

45:00

and then that doesn't really work and you're like oh like like you can't just

45:06

decide to get huge like that's not enough it doesn't and it doesn't matter

45:12

like there's too much luck involved for like a good work ethic to even to be a

45:17

determining Factor you know like it doesn't hurt but uh it's interesting and so I I see you know with the benefit of

45:24

time I see younger bands that kind of blow up you know real real

45:30

quick real they burn real bright in the scene and then they're like ah this isn't fun let's break up you know or you

45:37

know valid whatever valid reason that being one of them um and then you kind

45:42

of see them maybe try it again or think that they can just capture lightning in a bottle again and it doesn't really

45:47

work that way um and so learning that lesson at that age has made me really um

45:55

like grateful for anything that happens around playing music um including our

46:02

time in fair Verona and just being like wow what an amazing band to cut my teeth on you know like all the [ __ ] we got to

46:10

do uh in Nashville in a very fairy male

46:16

dominated time where like it really was hard harder than it is now and

46:24

like I don't know it was just cool to do that with y'all yeah and and to be that

46:30

young and how we like really stood by our values I mean I actually do remember

46:36

now I have a story of uh we got asked to open up for Nashville [ __ ] I didn't

46:43

want to do it and um and instead of not doing the show I

46:48

made like some sort of guitar embroidered guitar strap and what did it

46:54

say something is not empowerment exhibition is not empowerment or something like that you know I don't

47:00

remember that oh wow yeah and I think I mean now I would be like oh that was

47:05

dumb I think it was like cuz she would give faux [ __ ] on stage to the band

47:10

members or something I don't know I mean and now I'm like whatever um like do you

47:16

girl um but I think just being that young and standing up for what we

47:22

believed in and not getting steamrolled and making a hard decision of like of

47:28

breaking up for in the hope that things would be better we could go on to do

47:34

other things and not just saying you know what I'll do whatever you want me to do you want me to play this character

47:39

I'll play this character you know that's the punk right like that's the r girl that's the punk in us for sure yes I

47:47

think I have a specific uh memory so so many actually one I'm for sure won't

47:53

share um maybe aftering but um I remember being old enough to be in

48:00

a club but the rest of the band was not quite old enough but there is a a memory

48:07

I have of of me and Beth wrapped together in a sleeping bag like a little

48:12

burrito watching this band from outside the window because even though it was one of my favorite bands at the time I

48:20

wanted to be really [ __ ] cold outside with my girl Beth and this burrito sleep

48:27

bag rather than like being there in a nice warm Club hearing the music um so

48:33

that was a really special memory that I had and the other thing I wanted to say

48:39

just in that same vein of us working so hard is that nobody really partied that

48:46

much like nobody really we kind of just we played and

48:52

then we saw hotel room I think we would I mean we played cards we would um we would

49:00

have really long talks we would wash our clothes like in a sink and like hang

49:06

them up like we were kind of just very well behaved young ladies wow which it's so odd to me um

49:17

that they're like are you cheating on your gas are you getting drunk like no I didn't even think about [ __ ] you

49:24

know to L now you're so right though you're so right

49:31

I've party more now because I'm like I'm fine everyone's fine this band is fine

49:37

you know like I I trust every band member to like not lose their gear or throw up on someone you know so it's

49:44

like okay I can let loose and have fun but you're so right we were we were very

49:50

good we also basically had a chaperon with us on the road so right right right

49:56

friend he's our friend let's old man trapped in a 20y old body

50:03

you're absolutely right Beth good for you Beth but he's our buddy our tour manager

50:09

for zero money so I'll you know mad respect to evil

50:16

J he's a National Treasure he's an absolute National Treasure and I'm so glad that you mentioned him yeah

50:24

absolutely um all right so uh maybe everybody just tell us uh

50:30

briefly what you've been up to since fair Verona what kinds of projects of viers people can find online or if you

50:37

want people to find you on socials like that sort of information what what have I been doing um I have super super

50:43

private accounts on social media um they're pretty much locked down I have

50:49

three children they're not children oh hello I have a 24 year-old and

50:56

18-year-old and a 14-year-old and uh I have I practiced

51:04

anesthesiology so I went went back to school went back to a lot of school and now I'm a nurse

51:12

anesthetist and I teach at a nurse anesthesia school as well so and

51:19

apparently I'm just picking up this cover band thing so you've been busy you've been

51:26

busy and I ran marathons that was oh my God impressive after fer and I started a

51:32

band called forget cassettes um and I now have a band called black

51:37

bra um and I also uh eventually went

51:42

back to school uh got my Master's in accounting so I have my own accounting practice and that is what I do okay so

51:50

going ask me sha what do you do now oh my God thank you so much for asking um

51:55

after fona let's I moved to Baltimore to join a band and that band was called a

52:02

and we did some stuff I'm really proud of but no one cared nobody cared about

52:07

it I love I think it's pretty good I think it's pretty good stuff so good and then um that band uh

52:17

had Brooks Harland who is uh he he and I that band that band fizzled talk about

52:22

bands that fizz we just kind of stopped doing stuff and but Brooks and I were like we want to keep playing music we

52:28

want we're not done yet um we want to play stuff that's like tougher heavier or like angrier um and so we started

52:36

waren women together and so that's what I've been doing ever since and I've done like little things on the side and like

52:41

guest vocals and uh faila coie cover band for a couple years as a backup

52:47

singer like really random [ __ ] um and I also have a podcast called but her lyrics I have a book called making

52:54

spaces safer and I'm now an intimacy coordinator for film and theater so hire me oh yeah um Tom what about you how can

53:02

people get involved in the L wave community and find you and you know what else do you want to shout out so our

53:08

Discord server particularly is closed now but uh fond my mind is probably the biggest uh Discord server for lost wave

53:15

community at the moment they've got like some insane member count I don't know um I believe it's rfind my mind on Reddit

53:22

um if you look up find my mind or find the subreddit you'll find the Discord all kinds of scatter other discords for

53:28

for L wave uh like different songs and everything they all cultivate their communities through Discord and uh

53:34

Reddit but you know they've all got subreddits me particularly uh I'm in the fond my mind

53:41

Discord I'm also in the defended lost wave Discord um my name in there is party Tom if you ever need to reach me

53:48

where you can find me I know it's a great name Tom I guess just want to

53:54

shout out uh speta who was kind of like the sawart soldier of our Discord server

54:00

for a very long time uh kind of like the soul moderator for a little bit there um

54:05

she unfortunately couldn't be here due to some other matters uh the F my mind Discord people for just doing what

54:11

they've been doing for such a long time uh everyone that used to be in the dance for hours day Discord who are going to

54:17

be very thrilled when I say that because they were so so into this song and

54:23

they're the ones responsible for finding it Satan God for being Christian and bringing that guy to my attention on

54:30

Discord and obviously you guys uh you know war on women black bra I ended up

54:36

getting really into both of them over the time that I was waiting for this uh they're both really fantastic projects I

54:41

also heard a little bit of uh forget cassettes uh via you posted about them on Twitter I believe and I kind of got

54:48

into that too but uh yeah well thank you for giving us a platform to talk about

54:54

this band that we haven't talked about in so many years and how fun just how

55:00

fun yeah just super super grateful to everyone that took an interest in you

55:05

know this this little band this little song that it just it just really speaks

55:11

to like the power of music and like How how Wild that's it can take a

55:17

snapshot of of a period of time of a moment of an emotion of of crying on the

55:24

floor one night and it can travel into the future and be discovered and

55:30

appreciated by people that weren't even born yet probably right um most of them

55:37

yeah yeah like that's [ __ ] amazing and probably has something to do with

55:43

why I still play music and I I can't bring myself to stop because it's just

55:49

so wonderful and magical and powerful and so this is very very cool uh thank

55:54

you to everyone in the Los Community um for taking an interest and uh giving us

56:01

an excuse to catch up bye thank you thank you bye bye

THE DOWNFALL OF A WELL-KNOWN ACTRESS

[Verse 1]

June arrived with a bitterness so cold

I looked around, expecting December

In the distance, the sound of the highway

The last thing I can remember

[Pre-Chorus 1]

So you think you wanna go, well, let me go

Then you think you wanna stay, well I know

I’ll step outside, once again I'll be leaving

Be leaving

Believe me

[Chorus]

There is a song somewhere inside of me

Damn them all, one hundred fifty-three

I can't protect them from myself

And who is gonna save me?

[Verse 2]

You took away all the comfortable silence

And left behind a beautiful future

The faces never ceased to amaze me

The amazement doesn't even begin to phase me

[Pre-Chorus 2]

So my life is just beginning to hit me

I'm already six feet under

Your timing just kills me

It just killed me (killed me)

[Chorus]

There is a song somewhere inside of me

Damn them all one hundred fifty-three

I can't protect them from myself

And who is gonna save me?

Who is gonna save me now?

[Outro]

This is a beautiful movie

We play in

And I'm gonna change it when I

Get in

This is a beautiful movie

We play in

And I'm gonna change it when I

Get in