Permission
"Gitane Demone"
Summer 1996
by: Ben Norris

Throughout her years in the now legendary Christian Death, Gitane DeMone always contributed that extra something necessary to make failed experiments fly. Despite a string of splotchy albums following the disbanding of the Rozz Williams fronted lineup (which produced the essential Catastrophe Ballet and Ashes albums), DeMone would always manage to salvage it all with a well-placed keyboard part, sensual serenade, or banshee-like wail from her talented throat. Upon her departure from the group, DeMone embarked on a solo career which as spanned the gamut from bondage paens (Demonix) and torch songs to a brief flirtation with house (A Heavenly Melancholy). Speaking via phone from her hometown of San Jose, DeMone took the opportunity to speak candidly on her accomplishments both past and present.

Ben: Your solo stuff seems to alternate between jazzy torch songs and ambient techno. I’d say that’s a pretty big jump from the Christian Death sound.

Gitane: I’ve been dropping out of the jazz thing pretty much entirely. Even with ballads…with the ballads now I’m not even putting a jazz inflection in that. I’m adding kind of an Eastern sound there lately. I did the years of Christian Death; I did the goth rock sound. I think that all people…thats’ what life is all about is change. And so it’s very natural for me to want to cover different areas of music. I explored the kind of the kind of dark, jazzy sound for awhile-now I’m out of that. I did the electronic thing with Demonix, and I’m still working with some sounds there. I’d like to do some real hardcore industrial stuff. In fact, it I could manage to make a good mixture with it. But for the most part, I base my live sound around drums, bass with effects, and keyboards, which is incorporated piano and some sequencing. Some different sounds. That’s my core. It’s a jump, (but) for me it’s not a big jump, because it’s just second nature. Making music is like living and breathing or anything. It’s all one to me. What comes out of me is a natural process. It’s very hard to be objective. I don’t really know if I’m successful in melding these different forms, but I’m striving all the time to get a strong focus. I’ll probably continue to go in and out of different styles, maintaining the dark edge which is my life. I just hope that people will understand.