"Metal is my Guilty Pleasure"
Stabitha’s Adara Blake
Crave: So why don’t you tell me a little bit about how Stabitha came together?
Stabitha: (Christian) Mike and I had known each other forever, and we moved up here a few years apart and we formed a band and went through a series of musicians. We put an ad in the paper and we found Chelle, and she was just amazing. The band just kept changing its style and then we got Adara a little over a year ago, and that’s when we realized that the music we were doing wasn’t suiting what our tastes really were, so we started getting a heavier edge. Then when we got another guitar player it really started to settle in. (Chelle) For a little while, we were all over the place but finally Christian showed me some Euro metal and I was like YES I can do that. Bands like Lacuna Coil especially, with the heavier edge but melodic vocals. At first, I was co lead vocals but really, Chelle just didn’t need me. The harmonies were nice, but the feel wasn’t right, and so we thought maybe we needed another guitar player and so I (Adara) went from co lead to rhythm guitar and supporting vocals. Then Holly came into the band and it was an immediate fit. Then we finally found Merrill about a month ago and we are so excited because we finally had the final line up that Stabitha had been looking for for so long. (Merrill) I had tried out for a few other bands but this band really interested me because they had everything together, their sound, their image, and the members were all terrific.
Crave: Is there a story behind the name Stabitha?
Stabitha: (Christian) It’s really simple; it’s just kind of how my mind works. I had this job and right before I left there was this girl there named Tabitha. And the way I am I just kind of like to play on words and mess with people’s names and I was like Tabitha-Stabitha and so I had the name in my head for awhile. We were called Ginger Snap back then and Mike and I both hated that name, the music was changing, so we just didn’t think the name fit anymore. We were all here at this very table last year and we said “how about we change the name?” And everyone in the whole band in unison was like “YES!!” No one felt that Ginger Snap fit the band anymore. So that’s how it came to be.
It was just some name I made up making fun of a girls name.
Crave: How would you describe your sound?
Stabitha: Female fronted melodic dark metal, that's the best way to describe it.
Crave: Who would you say your major influences are?
Stabitha: (Merrill) when I first started listening to music the first serious band I really got into was Judas Priest, Iron Maiden, and Dio, very theatrical type metal bands.
I kind of tap all those influences into my playing style. (Christian) As far as guitar, David Gilmore, Jimmy Page, Eric Clapton. As far as the bands and songs, Alice Cooper, Misfits, and I really love European metal, Lacuna Coil, Moonspell, My dying Bride, we're not as extremely heavy as a lot of those bands but the influence is definitely there.
Crave: What was the first album you ever owned.
Stabitha: (Holly) AC/DC Highway to Hell (Merrill) AC/DC For Those About to Rock (Mike) Prince, Purple Rain, (Adara) Concrete Blonde and Rush 2112
(Shelle) Get Nervous by Pat Benatar. (Christian) the first album I ever bought with my own money was Slayer Hell Awaits, but the first album I ever owned was the "Chipmunks sing the Beatles Hits".
Crave: What do you do to prepare for a show, do you have any rituals?
Stabitha: Not really. We do have drinking rules, about not drinking before a show. Mike doesn’t follow them! We just kind of all get together, be a team. Sometimes we jam a couple of songs. I tried to get Christian to jump with me, but it didn’t really work. One time the whole band went on stage and Chelle was in the bathroom talking to some girls, we try to avoid that!
Crave: So what’s the writing process like does the music come first or the lyrics?
Stabitha: (Christian) Right now Mike’s got more of the writing, as far as our songs go. For me, I just write the music, I give it to Chelle, and she does the lyrics and the melodies and everything. (Mike) I come up with the music, I have an idea in my head about what I want to write about, and then I try to make the music sound like the idea so that the lyrics follow it easily. It’s definitely a group process. Someone will bring their stuff in and then everyone else will kind of arrange their parts around it.
Crave: If you could share the stage with any bands, past or present, who would they be?
Stabitha: Alice Cooper, Black Sabbath, The Misfits, Rush, Lacuna Coil; it’s so hard to pick only a few!
Crave: What are your goals for the future?
Stabitha: We have established a presence in the Portland scene, we took a little break so we could begin working with Merrill, and we just want to pick up and go back to having fun with it. Play out; record a full length CD for sure. That’s what we put all our energy into. We want to play Seattle. (Adara) I don’t know about you guys, but I just want to be a ROCK STAR!
Crave: So if a label wanted to sign you and wanted you to go on tour would you be able to go?
Stabitha: It's more of a question of whether we would want to go. It would have to be the perfect deal, worth giving up our jobs; we have family to think of. Music is our ultimate love, but we are realistic that there is a lot of life going on. I would much rather play for people who really enjoy the music then ever make it on a big level. It's not about fame, it's about reaching out creatively, reaching someone emotionally, putting a smile on their face. It's the best drug in the world. Music is what got me through the hardest parts of my life. The best satisfaction in the world is to be up on stage playing something that you wrote and people are just going crazy over it!
Crave: Is there anything else you want people to know about Stabitha?
Stabitha: We love other local bands and we love to support them. We have made a lot of friends out here. We always try to stay to the end of the show. We’re not into competing with anyone. We all have our different influences, there’s lots of musicians. out there who rock!
“The metal community in Portland is rising up.”…..Stabitha’s Christian
