My Ruin

A PRAYER UNDER PRESSURE.OF VIOLENT ANGUISH

"CHANGE CHALLENGES WHO YOU ARE AND TESTS YOUR CONFIDENCE IN YOURSELF" someone once said. This album started with a simple prayer and ended with what I hold in my hands now. Making a record is always somewhat religious experience for me in one way or another. Anyone can be beautiful, boring and ordinary. I enjoy what I do because it's ugly, painful and brutal. It is also real for me. My inspiration usually comes from what is going on in my head at the time. It doesn't necessarily always come from what is taking place in my life but what has taken place.
I decided to call the album"A PRAYER UNDER PRESSUREOF VIOLENT ANGUISH" for many reasons. I think if you dig deep enough as a listener then you can find the many meanings behind the title and define it for yourself. . "MY RUIN" started as just a name to call my solo project after leaving my band "TURA SATANA". Last year I released "SPEAK & DESTROY" in Europe and put together a touring band which consisted of my former drummer MARCELO PALOMINO, LANCE WEBBER and TODDY along with MELANIE MAKAIWI and MEGHAN MATTOX, who were the first women I'd ever played with".
The past few months had been kind of strange. I did not have a label in the states until just recently. Coincidentally my label in the UK wanted me to record a new record. I came to realise that I still like the feeling of being part of a band and not a solo artist with whatever musician available to back me live and on record. For "MELANIE" and I a lot of things changed. I truly believe that you can never move forward by standing in the same place and besides it's always exciting to reinvent yourself. I think that working with "MELANIE" helped to open up my mind in many ways. She is a very unique and creative guitarist who brought a totally different element to the project besides what I was used to. I felt the same way about having worked with "BUSHAQ", but the truth was and has always been that I love heavier music. Although I liked recording songs like "TERROR" and "JUNE 10th", they were not really the songs I wanted to play live. As an artists you have the right to try something different once in a while, even if it's just to remind you to stick to what you do best.

"SPEAK & DESTROY" was a sort of combination of things. That was what I liked about it and also what I didn't like. Overall it was very experimental but the problem was I should have recorded it all in the same studio with one producer so it would have sounded like a more cohesive album. A few months ago I met "MICK MURPHY", former guitarist and lead singer for a band called "MOVEMENT". We clicked immediately. Mick reminded me of something I often forget which is ...""YOU DON''T HAVE TO BE A SINGER TO SING".
I've always referred to myself as a vocalist because I don't consider what I do as singing. I decided I wanted to work with Mick as a guitarist and writer for the simple reason that he rocks and in my opinion writes music that not only compliments my voice but also intensifies it. Mick not only played guitar but also created the music on the new album, which gave it the heaviness that sets it apart from my previous incarnations., His sound has a very southern feel to it (for obvious reasonshe's originally from TENNESSEE) and he completely understood my vocal style and ideas immediately. Soon Mick introduced me to his friend and former band member - "NICK RASKULINECZ" who had recently produced bands like GOATSNAKE & SUPERDRAG and who at that time was in the studio engineering the new "MARILYN MANSON" album. The funny things was, he had recorded the music for "BLASPHEMOUS GIRL & DIAVOLINA" which "ARES & CHRIS HAMILTON" of the band "DOWNSET" and written and played on for me off my last record. At that time he was engineering the soon to be released "DOWNSET" record but we had never actually met. Nick finally heard "SPEAK & DESTROY" and we discussed the idea of working together on the next record, which took place sooner than expected. We agreed that it needed to sound more like the heavier side of the last album and more like a band effort. We asked Meghan (who had played bass with me on tour) to be a part of writing and recording the new songs because unlike many other female musicians in the scene today Meghan is more than an image holding an instrument. She is a truly talented player who just happens to be "FEMALE"!
Along the way we ended up writing with a couple of guitar players/friends "OMAR DOOM and LISA LEVERIDGE" and soon Mick was 4 tracking and putting together all the material including programming the drum patterns. When it came time we then asked our friend "CHRIS HAMILTON" of "DOWNSET" to record them with us in the studio. We decided to track and mix the album at Grandmaster Recorders in Hollywood beacuase it had an interesting sound and an interesting old school '70's vibe. The truth is no one really wanted to make a digital pro-tooled record.
"A PRAYER UNDER PRESSUREOF VIOLENT ANGUISH" is 14 songs strong with two short spoken words segments, which appear at both the beginning and end of the album. "SELECTED PRAYERS" include "BEAUTY FIEND, STICK IT TO ME, LETTER TO THE EDITOR and POST NOISE REVELATION" which confront topics head on and "STRAIGHT UP"speaking of which, we have recorded our own tribute song called "ROCKSTAR" (dedicated to the late "LYN STRAIT" of the band "SNOT") there are tracks which deal with my own LOVE/HATE dichotomy of "RELIGION" and "RELATIONSHIPS" such as "HEARTSICK, SANCTUARY, HEMORRHAGE, LET IT RAIN and MASOCHRIST (which will be released on the single only)". It also boasts a long overdue duet featuring "JESSICKA" from "JACK OFF JILL" appropriately titled "MISS ANN THROPE" as well as covers of "DO YOU LOVE ME?" by "NICK CAVE" and the classic "BLACK FLAG" song "MY WAR" (which features Mick on duet vocals). We decide on these particular songs to cover because they were very inspirational to us while writing the album.
Although "CHRIS" recorded with us, he will not be touring the record "MICK, MEGHAN and MYSELF" would like "MY RUIN" to be looked upon as a band from their point forward and are currently rehearsing with a drummer to be announced at a later date.
"A PRAYER UNDER PRESSURE" is definitely the antithesis to what is being force-fed down the throats of the MTV/TRL record buying youth. Embracing and exorcising personal demons goes hand in hand with the always-present religious imagery. The major difference between this record and the last is the dynamically intense depth of the music and the vocals, better musicianship and top-notch production and this time nothing was compromised

This info was from:

http://www.snappermusic.com/myruin/webpages/biog.htm