It's true. We did it. I am very happy to tell you that Jessica and I are now... married:-)
The details: We wed in Charleston, South Carolina, in the Historic District. The ceremony was held in the Cathedral of St. John the Baptist. It was a beautiful mass in one of the oldest and most engaging cathedrals in the United States. The church was filled with red poinsettias. It was really gorgeous. The music was a mixture of pieces from Bach, Schubert, Mendelssohn, Pachelbel, Clarke, & others, all arranged for, and performed by, pipe-organ, strings, and voice. We were married on December 29th, which is technically the Fifth Day of Christmas. Traditionally speaking, Christmas lasts 12 days, from the 25th to the 6th of January... like the song;-) Previously, over the course of our relationship, I have given jessica 4 gold rings... So the fifth one was her wedding band, and it came on an appropriate day:-)
We left the church in a Cinderella-style horse drawn carriage, and arrived at the original Citadel from the Civil War era, now converted from a fortress into a hotel. There we had a two part reception . First, hors d'oeuvres were served in the indoor Atrium, a glass inclosed area in the heart of the structure. The guests were gathered by the central fountain where we had a string quartet playing. Jessica and I posed for a few photos while guests got to know each other. We then proceeded to dinner, served in the Main Ballroom. As it was Christmas, the decorations were elegantly inspired by The Nightmare Before Christmas.
The flowers were predominantly Calais Lilies, and the arrangements were stunning. There were ostrich feathers, origami, and even those candied almonds. On every table white pumpkins with Jack Skellington's face glowed with candlelit eyes and smiles, as the room slowly and subtly shifted through a spectrum of color in a seemingly magical feat of lighting (designed by CXS' very own lightman Zak Wilson). The cake was an incredible "hatters" style creation, decorated in fondant, wrapped in a cascade of sugar calais lilies spiraling around each tier, topped by a hand blown glass Jack and Sally. Each part was flavored differently: hummingbird, carrot cake, or strawberry. (hummingbird is a traditional southern flavor- honey & pineapple). And a huge ice sculpture of spiral hill was prominently placed near the entryway. During dinner our string quartet played a selection which included arrangements from The Nightmare Before Christmas, Harry Potter, and even The Addams Family!, Afterwards our favorite Disc Jockey- DJ Ian Fford of NYC- got people dancing.
There is so much more... so many wonderful, magical details that I couldn't even begin to tell... so i put up a gallery and you can see some of it for yourself. You can find it here. (www.cruxshadows.com/Wedding/index.html) The page is large and takes a while to load, so be patient. Its worth the wait;-) In looking at photos you might also notice that Steve & Donna of Ego likeness, DJ Ian Fford, Athan Maroulis of Spahn Ranch, and our former dancer Beth, are all among the members of the wedding party.
And while we are on the subject of weddings... Former violinist Rachel McDonnell also tied the knot. She was married two weeks ago in South Florida. On behalf of myself, the band, and the fans, I wish to congratulate her and wish her the upmost happiness. Happy Wedding thoughts to Rachel & Harry:-)
OK- Now that the wedding is over and Jessica and I are back from our Honeymoon, I have some other important announcements to make.
First, George Bikos has decided to retire from the Cruxshadows. It actually happened after our tour in 2007, but we agreed we should keep things quiet for the time being... at least until we could find a suitable replacement, particularly with the wedding occupying so much of our time. George started playing with us a few years ago after Stacey Campbell left the band. George's personality clicked with us early on, and he became an integral part of CXS, particularly on tour. His stage presence, his friendly yet unassuming nature, and his unmistakable personal style made him a favorite among our fans, and we appreciate all of his hard work and contributions over the years.
Even though we will miss him, we are very happy to add that he and dancer Sarah Poulos became engaged to be married recently. They moved back home to St. Petersburg in order to be closer to their parents. Although Sarah Poulis has voiced some interest in reappearing with CXS at some point in the future, she has chosen to become inactive with the band in order to spend her time with her mother and her new fiance.
George made the following statement by email addressing the fans:
"To all the fans... I know some of you may be a little upset that I have decided to leave the cruxshadows, but know that I did it for a reason. Many of you already know that me and Sarah are planning on getting married and that, coupled with my father's failing health and, honestly, a little bit of old fashioned home sickness was just a little too much. I decided it would be better to get back in school and educate myself to support all the babies Sarah wants:) You can't exactly take twelve babies on a nine month tour!!! Anyways I just wanted to wish everyone well... This is goodbye, but not farewell... Horhey out like a light in the night..."
Sarah sent the following statement:
"While this pains me to no end, I must inform you all that I will no longer be permanately touring with the Cruxshadows. I love what I do. I love the music, I love the fans, and I love the scene. Unfortunately, my family comes first. My mother was diagnosed with a pretty awful disease, and I felt it necessary to move back home to be closer to her. This obviously does not work well with the band's pretty hefty practice and touring schedule. When you add that to my upcoming wedding and house purchase, it makes for a pretty difficult life decision. So after long talks, (and a few shedding of the tears) it was decided that it would be better if I was no longer a permanent fixture of the band. We all hope that I can someday dance and sing with the band again...maybe on some short tours or even DragonCon, who knows? Nothing is ever final. I love you all and I feel blessed to have have had you in my life. The past 4 years have been some of the best and most amazing, and I owe most of that to you. Without you this opportunity would have never entered my life in the first place. So thank you. Live, love, be, believe...(in fairies :)"
We wish Sarah and George much success and happiness in their life together.
Which leads us to...this.
We are very pleased to announce that our new guitar player will be Valerie Gentile. Val is from New York City and has been playing guitar for most of her life. She has a bachelors degree in music business and audio recording technology. She's a skilled player, a longtime fan of CXS, and a really cool person (actually she rocks:-). Val worked as a studio engineer, a studio guitarist, and has played bass & guitar on stage for a handful of bands in the NYC area. Additionally, she is a talented vocalist who can also play bass, keyboards, and drums. We believe she will be a very positive addition to Cruxshadows and we hope that all of our fans will make her feel welcome in her new role. Here's some pics in case you were curious...
Other quick notes:
We have begun booking shows in Europe starting in July. We will be on tour in Europe through the Summer and will start booking for Fall in North America, so keep an eye on that in the coming months.
Some of you might have noticed Cruxshadows on CSI. Yes, it's true. A fictional fan of the band was thrown out of a window to her death, and her dorm room filled with Cruxshadows posters became the crime scene. We were sad that the CXS fan ended up dead... but Hey- it's prime-time TV! The episode is called Goodbye & Good Luck and if you missed it you can buy it for $1.99 in the iTunes store- If you have itunes, just click here to check it out.
We are actively auditioning violin players and dancers. We will be making a selection soon, but there is still time to be considered. If you or someone you know is interested, please email us. A performance sample, recent photo, and brief bio are encouraged. But please act quickly, with a European tour only months away, there is no time to delay.
That's all for now- But there will be more news soon...
A few days after Christmas,I am happy to say, Jessica and I will be getting married. I wanted to do something really special, so I wrote and performed a new song as a kind of gift to Jessica. We thought you all might enjoy having a copy of it, so for a limited time(?) we are giving this song away as a Christmas present to all of our fans. Its a way for us to say thank you for all the support you have given us, and in a minor way, include everyone in our event. We wish we could have invited you all to celebrate with us, but its just not possible...
The song is called- A Promise Made (Wedding Day). It is available in AAC format and will work on most computers and iPods. I hope you all enjoy it.
You can get the song here, or as a part of our official podcast in the iTunes store:-) Just download from this link- WeddingDay.m4a
I will see about putting up some pictures of the wedding afterwords- hopefully we will get some good ones. And I have lots of other important news to deliver in the next few weeks, so stay tuned. I will be updating again very soon.
Thats it for me on Christmas Eve. Much love to you all.
Be safe & have a Happy Christmas- Live Love Be Believe- Rogue
Just a quick post. And a bit of a Favor to ask...
Current mood: thankful
Hello all-
First- I want to let everyone know that if our website has been acting funny as of late- its because we moved our domain to a new host. We tried to make the move as unnoticeable as possible. But we have made the move now- and I want to point out the new photo galleries, the new menu controls, the new lyrics page, the new press page, the new music page, and the fact that the guestbook is working again (thanks Zak). So please come and check out the Website, there are a lot of little improvements. I hope you all like what we have done...
Anyway- to that favor...
Although Birthday has fallen back on the Billboard Dance Chart from 1 to 9, there is something very exciting going on. With the success the song has had so far, Dancing Ferret (our label) has decided to take a serious leap and attempt to push it to commercial radio. First of all, let me explain how crazy an idea this is. Commercial radio does not play independent music. It just doesn't. It hasn't and it probably won't. But Indie goth bands don't chart on Billboard either. But we have... So we have decided to tackle an even bigger giant... RADIO... and see what happens. What we need to make this work is some serious support from our fanbase. We need everyone of you, and everyone you can recruit, to call in and bug the radio stations to play Birthday! We need to do it in markets throughout the United States, So it will be really difficult.
I will try to get a list and post it here online. We need all our fans to call and tell your local radio station that you want to hear Birthday by the Cruxshadows, and not only that- you want them to be the station to play it. And don't just take NO for an answer. We need people to call, and call often. Have your friends call often. We will be servicing a large number of radio stations, and if we get a few of them playing our stuff- well... you never know.
I will get that list of stations up soon. The target date for Radio to begin playing Birthday is Sept. 24th. It might happen. But only with your help...
Live Love Be Believe
I guess right now, I should emphasize "believe":-)
My best to you all- Rogue
Currently
listening
:
Birthday
By
Crüxshadows
Release date: 04 September, 2007
I received a call from our record label early this morning. And it's true... lightning has struck twice! According to Billboard.com, the official website for Billbooard magazine, Birthday has reached the number 1 spot on the Hot Dance Singles Sales Chart and the number 2 spot on the Hot Singles Sales Chart! We got a very nice push from Hot Topic. Sales from Amazon.com and Best Buy helped us a lot too. There were pre-orders from isotank.com, there were people that got it through iTunes, and there were a lot of indie record shops that have been supporting us for years... But the difference maker was of course DragonCon. The CD sales generated from DragonCon put us over the top and helped us to land our second Billboard 1. It seems unbelievable just writing that... But even more bizarre, Sophia re-entered the charts and climbed back to the number three spot on the Dance Charts, and the 23 spot on the single sales charts!!! CXS has two songs on the Billboard Charts at the same time... this week!
So the first and most important thing I need to say is Thank You. You, our fans, are part of this. You are why there is a CXS at all. Without you we are nothing really...
Since DragonCon had such an impact on things, there are a people that i would really like to Acknowledge. The Staff of DragonCon is an important one; for taking care of us each year... but particularly this year. And for having us back each year... The CrüxShadows Fairies deserve a a very big thank you too... because the difference they make is so huge and we could not have pulled this off without our winged street team. And lets not forget the people that worked our sales booth... particularly Laura. Laura was our merchandise person for the entire DreamCypher Tour. She did an amazing job. Salesperson of the year perhaps?
The performance at DragonCon was the perfect end to our DreamCypher tour. As many of you know it was Rachel's last show and I know that she will not soon forget the affection the crowd had for her. I thought the entire band had a great show. I was really proud of them all. I know that there are big changes coming in the future, but they each played tightly and with an amazing enthusiasm. The Ballroom was filled to capacity- One of the members of the Security team told us it was the best attended event at DragonCon... ever. True or not, it was nice to hear and the room was filled to capacity. And I should definitely add that Zach's lighting was the best I have ever seen at DragonCon. I think it was a good show:-)
I wrote the song Birthday on my actual birthday in 2006 and it was the last song I wrote for DreamCypher. Birthdays have always been intensely introspective for me, and I decided to write down some of what I felt and turn it into a song. It completed the album for me, and all the pieces seemed to fall into place. One year later, again on my birthday, I found myself putting together the Birthday single. I did not expect people to love this song as much as they do... In fact I was honestly afraid that people would dislike it. But the response to it has been nothing short of astounding. So many people have written to tell me about the impact that it has had on their lives. Our record label made the decision to release it as a single with very little time remaining before the deadlines. Anyone who knows me knows that I am all about facing impossible challenges, but this hill seemed to steep to climb. I was looking at having to do the writing, audio recording, editing, engineering, photography, artwork, graphic design, liner notes, layout, mastering, and proofing- all in the two weeks prior to the last leg of our tour in Europe. At times I felt overwhelmed and everything seemed hopeless. But nothing is impossible... Jessica and Jen both went above and beyond spending many sleepless nights to help in the creation this disc, and so I thought it was fitting that the results from Billboard would be published within a few hours of Jen's birthday! Happy Birthday Jen:-)
Much of what I would like to say, I said the last time we made it into the charts. But I will try not to be too redundant:-) I want everyone to realize just how significant the role of the fans is, and how much we love them. Crüxshadows is very special to me. It is something spiritual and something true... When I started this project in 1992 it was with a desire to make music that conveyed something meaningful and positive. I had a vision; a dream. I wanted to make a difference in people's lives through art, poetry, music, and performance. Despite the many changes and challenges the band has edured, we have stayed true to that vision. Still, over the last 15 years many people have tried to lessen what CXS has accomplished and have tried to dilute its significance. People will always attack what is different, what they do not understand, or what they feel threatened by. It has weighed heavy on me... the negativity that is often aimed in my direction. Pair this with the unending barrage of work necessary to keep us moving forward; the constant traveling, the tight schedules, the stress and responsibility, the expectations of so many people....
Its hard. But through it all, the fans and supporters of this band have been my light... my lifeline. And this is where I want to be... Who I want to be.
I have seen CXS profoundly touch the hearts and minds of so many people. God knows I have been very fortunate in that respect. That is the greatest reward for any artist. I have over the years realized what Crüxshadows really means, not only to me, but to our fans. Some people don't get it, and thats ok. When I watch the video for Birthday which we shot on stage in front of a huge crowd in China, it strikes me... I stood on stage in a communist country and sang "look at your life, who do you want to be before you die, look at your life, you haven't got forever". Music does make a difference. There is a satisfaction in knowing that this song- Birthday - is on top and in the record books, even if its only for a week.
Thank you for believing. We love you all...
Live Love Be Believe
Rogue
Currently
listening
:
Birthday
By
Crüxshadows
Release date: 04 September, 2007
Just a quick post regarding DragonCon and The Birthday single.
Dragoncon is this coming Labor-day weekend, and we are deep in preparations. The time and location has been announced and we will be playing Sunday night in the Centennial Ball Room around Midnight. As I mentioned before, it will be the last show with Rachel, as well as being the last show on our Dreamcypher Tour. I expect that many things will change in the future, so this really is an important show for CXS and for our fans. If you can make it please do.
We will of course be releasing Birthday as a single, and launching that release from DragonCon as we did with Sophia last year. Dancing Ferret Discs feels that it is possible to make the Billboard charts again. But this isn't the kind of thing that will happen by itself... we really need our fans to support this disc... especially in its first week. There are a lot of things that are against us, but by concentrating our sales at or near the CDs release, we feel that once again we will be able to compete with major labels and their marketing machines. Doing well on the charts opens up many doors to the band, so I am asking everyone to really get behind this Birthday CD. Its a great song. I know many of you have Birthday already... because you own a copy of Dreamcypher, but please consider buying the single version. It contains two new B-Side tracks; The 8th Square and a remake of Jefferson Airplane's White Rabbit. It also contains three versions of Birthday, and even the album version has some minor changes added to it. Pre-orders at Amazon and Isotank.com should count towards Billboard, and CDs bought in any store like Best Buy & Hot Topic should count as well. CDs sold at DragonCon will be entered into the official tally and we will be pushing it really hard there.
We chose Birthday because of its content; it is one of those songs that really seems to hit the mark. It is the kind of song that not only means a lot to us, but many fans have felt a real connection to it as well. I got the CDs in hand yesterday and I have to say they look and sound great. We are really excited. So in honor of the single's release, and as a way of saying thanks to our fans, we have released a full resolution version of the Birthday video through our podcast for free. Yep, You can fetch the file from the podcast section of our website (found on our downloads page) or through the iTunes store. Either way its free. We shot the video in Beijing and we hope you all enjoy it. We also have a number of Birthday themed wallpapers. Both the wallpapers and the podcast link can be found on our download page. Enjoy-
Wish us luck:-) Live Love Be Believe
PS- Keep in mind our table at DragonCon will be one floor down from its normal spot, near the area where registration takes place. Hope to see you soon:-)
Currently
listening
:
Birthday
By
Crüxshadows
Release date: 04 September, 2007
China, European mini-tour, DragonCon, "Birthday" single, violinist...
I realize these post have not been as often as I would like... I apologize. It seems that time is a scarce commodity sometimes. But here are a few of the things that have been going on behind the scenes...
The last few months have been difficult, but rewarding at the same time. As most of our fans know we are constantly traveling, and when we are not, we (or I) tend to be in the studio working on new material. Following our North American tour, we have been spending a lot of time in Europe, and of course we made our first trip to Asia where we played a couple of shows, including China's largest music Festival- MidiFest. Midi is the name of a prominent school in Beijing that sponsors the event. It was a great deal of work to get into China, lots of red tape (no pun intended), and the plane ride was about 18 hours from Frankfurt. But that festival was just amazing. I can't really describe the feeling that I had playing it... it was something extra special. There were thousands of frenzied music fans and although I am not sure if they knew who we were, they sure acted like they did. Here's something we found on youtube... I guess despite the lo-fi thing going on and the odd perspective its kind of cool in that it shows you a little bit of what went on...
But wasn't all business. Fortunately we were able to do some sightseeing while we were there... We saw the forbidden City and the great wall. As far as we are aware, we might possibly be the first "goth" or "darkwave" band to play in The People's Republic, and we are almost certainly the first "scene" band from the USA to do a concert there. I am pretty positive that we will be back:-)
Its kind of exciting... We have broken through so many barriers and crossed so many boundaries that I never could have foreseen. Reflecting on things I think we really have been fortunate over the years...
Anyway, we returned to the USA only after finishing another 2 months in Europe. We were the headliner at the Whitby Festival in the UK and then following a club tour, we headlined the Wave Gothik Treffen (Germany) on the main-stage Sunday night. In order to get to the show in time we had to do a 20+ hour 'death drive' that began with us headlining a small festival in the South of Spain on Saturday night. immediately following we set off for our show at the WGT in the eastern part of Germany... It was crazy; Literally- we traveled from one stage to the other directly... 2500 kilometers away. But we did it... and i thought the shows went great. I was really proud of CXS... but it was not easy.
We returned to Florida and began work on the Birthday single. Yes, I said the Birthday single. No rest yet... sigh.
With Dragoncon looming on the horizon, we have decided to take another stab at cracking the billboard singles charts. The truth is that the success of the Sophia managed to open up a world of possibilities for the band: radioplay, better venues, tv exposure, and plenty of print media coverage. A second "hit" could do even more. I think Birthday is a great song. It means a lot to me, and I actually wrote it on my birthday in 2006. Interestingly enough, we started working on putting together the single on my birthday in 2007- go figure:-) Jen, Jessica, and I collaborated on the artwork and we tied it all together with a subtle Alice in Wonderland theme. We created three variations on the title track: a full length, an edit, and an extended dance version. We also added a new B-side called The 8th Square, as well as finally recording our own version of Jefferson Airplanes's White Rabbit. I feel like this disc has a lot of potential. And I really believe that success comes to those who believe in what they are doing... to those who are prepared to take chances... So here goes. We are trying to keep the cost of the CD low, as we did with Sophia. Hopefully the fans will rally around Birthday as well. The single will be available at Dragoncon and in stores the first week in September. It is also possible to pre-order the CD now at isotank.com. Just click here for details.
One quick note those of you going to Dragoncon. Our table has unfortunately been relocated. So we will be in an entirely new place and it might be harder to reach new and potential fans for us this year. Please help us by spreading the word about the band at the Con, it really does help:-).
With Rachel leaving we are of course looking for a new violin player. We have found some promising talent, but we are still open to hearing from anyone who believes they might have what it takes. But we are hoping to make a decision regarding who will next play for Cruxshadows soon, so if you are holding out- please contact us snow. You can send us an email at cruxshadows@cruxshadows.com.
Rachels last performance in Europe is scheduled to be the Mera' Luna Festival, sometime around 3 pm on the mainstage... and her last last performance in the USA will be at Dragoncon around midnight on Sunday evening. Please make your plans early to attend and give her the send off she deserves.
We played in Frankfurt, Germany tonight. We performed at a very famous venue called Batschkapp. I have to say that despite me feeling the rust caused by the few weeks we spent putting together the Birthday single, the audience was really very enthusiastic and supportive. The club had a nice staff too. Tomorrow we play in Dresden before proceeding to Belgium, then the UK, and finally finishing up with a few more club shows in Germany, a festival show in the Netherlands, and two more German festivals. It should be fun, I hope we will see many of you over the next 2 weeks. Here are the remaining shows as of tonight:
UPCOMING SHOWS
Europe- 02.08.2007 D-Frankfurt, Batschkapp (+ Behind The Scenes) 03.08.2007 D-Dresden, Strasse E (+ Behind The Scenes) 04.08.2007 B-St. Niklaas, JOC Kompas 05.08.2007 UK-London, Electric Ballroom 06.08.2007 UK-Nottingham, Rock City 07.08.2007 UK-York, The Junction 09.08.2007 D-Krefeld, Kulturfabrik (+ Behind The Scenes) 10.08.2007 D-Balve, Rock am SchloÃ-- 2007 11.08.2007 NL-Utrecht, Summer Darkness 2007 12.08.2007 D-Hildesheim, M'era Luna 2007
USA-
August 31- Sept. 3rd- DragonCon in Atlanta GA
ok. I am exhausted and we have a long drive tomorrow morning. So I will end there. Hope there has not been too many typos or odd phrasings;-) To all of you- Live Love Be Believe.
Rogue
Currently
listening
:
Birthday
By
Crüxshadows
Release date: 04 September, 2007
The latest single, "Birthday", from our current album DreamCypher, is set to be released on September 4, 2007. It includes a few different versions of this already extremely popular song, as well as a couple of all-new tracks! We are very proud of and excited about this release, and hope that you all will love it as much as we do! If you want to be one of the first of your friends to get it, go to www.isotank.com, where it can be pre-ordered, and will ship to you as soon as it is available (they may even ship before the release date)!
Click on the image below for more info:
We hope you enjoy! :-)
Live, Love, Be, Believe- CXS
Currently
listening
:
Dreamcypher
By
Crüxshadows
Release date: 16 July, 2007
We'll be uploading a new song to the MySpace player in the next few days. It will be a track from our latest album, "DreamCypher". But first, we would like to know which song you would like to hear the most, which song you would want to have on your player next. (If you have not yet heard the album, clips of the songs can be found in the iTunes Store, as well as on www.amazon.com. So, what's your vote? :-)
OK. So I have not yet had the opportunity to make the post that I really want to make... I am sick, on tour, and without any sleep tonight, so that News will unfortunately have to wait... But I really need to get the word out that it is true and we are confirmed to play the Midnight Sunday night slot at the WGT (Wave- Gothik- Treffen). We will go on after The 69 Eyes and will be driving (yes driving!) 21 hours directly from the Existence Festival in Spain in our little tour bus (sigh). There were no flights available that fit our requirements, so...
if you were on the fence about whether or not to go to the WGT this year, perhaps you will now come see us in the Agra Hall on Sunday night. Tickets are still available! Oh, and spread the word:-p
A quick note of thanks to Jordi & Julia, Benny & Silke, & Carsten for the special help on the tour thus far... and we look forward to seeing many of you at our upcoming Gorlitz, Berlin, Paris, Existence Festival, anf WGT shows. Live Love Be Believe- Rogue
thankful
ecstatic
optimistic
