Gitane Demone

Join co-hosts Jessica Schwartz and Tequila Mockingbird as they talk with singer/songwriter Gitane Demone of the seminal deathrock band, Christian Death, to explore her wide-ranging repertoire and many issues, such as poverty, (international) touring, pregnancy, and motherhood in a deathrock band; jazz, minimalism, electronic music, experimental music, solo work, "inventing" Cabaret Noir with Rozz Williams, and collaborating with 'punk heroes' Rikk Agnew and Paul Roessler in the Gitane Demone Quartet. 

Artist Bio: Gitane began recording and performing in 1980, first emerging on the LA punk/new wave scene with band Pompeii 99 (80-83, lp Look At Yourself, 7”s Ignorance Is The Control, The Nothing Song), before moving into seminal deathrock band Christian Death as the keyboard player, backing vocalist (83-89) for which she is well-known by the goth and punk community, touring and recording a cache of lps and 12” singles. Living in London, UK, she also gave birth to a boy in 1984, and a girl in 1987. She left the band in 89, moved to Amsterdam, Holland, and began her solo work, collaborations with other artists, and delving into free jazz, writing, recording, and touring under her own name. She produced studio, live, and collaborative LPs and singles, until 96, returning to Los Angeles. There she continued her solo work, guesting as lyrical writer and vocalist on various recording projects, putting bands together for shows, and touring across the US and Europe.

Gitane began writing on guitar, producing the band Crystelles (Attach and Detach lp 2008). In 2013 she formed Gitane Demone Quartet with punk illuminated Rikk Agnew, Paul Roessler, and with Deb Venom (Past The Sun, Substrata Strip lps), a band with an art punk avant-garde approach. Taking a hiatus with the band due to Covid, she collaborated on recording projects: Despair- an untraditional opera, and a symphonic conceptual album The New Young Kings Of Midnight with Paul Roessler, which will both be released in 2023. She is a visual artist showing occasionally in galleries and has released two prose poetry books, The Blood and Vexata Quaestio.

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Song clips and audio samples 

‘Love Me For My Mind’ - Pompeii 99

‘Awake at the Wall’ - Christian Death

‘Flowers’ - Rozz Williams and Gitane Demone

‘Ring of Fire’ - Bad Habits

Gitane Demone's Websites and Social Media 

Bandcamp: https://gitanedemone.bandcamp.com/

Website: http://gitanedemone.net/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/gitanegdq/

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This episode was co-produced and co-hosted by Jessica Schwartz and Tequila Mockingbird. The audio and transcript were edited by Bella Gerard.  

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The audio-synced transcript of this episode is available on the Punkast website: https://www.thepunkast.com/episodes/s2-e12-gitane-demone

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