The Curtain Opens on Southern Drama

words by John Bradley
photos by Randy Cremean @ Austin's Big Top Candy Shop
 

   Cooling off on the sun-drenched patio of Spiderhouse Cafe, the three women of Austin's Southern Drama contemplate the proper way to describe their trademark sound. "We have been trying to figure that out for, like, five years," says violinist Naomi Cherie.Lead singer Clarissa Ysel adds, "We usually use words like 'creepy'--or you said 'sassy' the other day, right?"

    Their confusion is warranted. Southern Drama’s sound darts between off-kilter genres and centers on a set of wildly inventive tracks involving romance, death, and everything in between. "I think it's always good to not be pinned down," Ysel elaborates. "There are a lot of little movements that happen [in music], and then they're over--and because we don't fit into any of those, I feel like we're a little less at risk for having a little following and nobody be interested in it later." Southern Drama might defy simple definition, but that is their strength: there's no arguing the timeless nature of their carefully crafted indie-rock dreamscape. Describing the sound is only a fraction of the picture, though: the band’s theatrical sensibilities are a major part of the experience. "We're trying to make a mood, and it's not just about the sound--it's about the visuals, too,” Ysel elaborates, describing her band’s view on the interplay between aural and tangible elements. "…[The effect is] more atmospheric, a synthesis of our personalities." In fact, though the music is the centerpiece of their art, other aspects bolster its intended effect. As Southern Drama take the stage at their show at the Beauty Bar, they are decked out in Victorian garb with a Western flair. Their faces are painted with red, blue, and gold stage makeup. Ysel begins to strum her bright red acoustic guitar and launches into the set’s first song with her signature emotive howl, her cheeks marked with Raggedy-Ann circlets. The costumes and the deep shades of red and gold bring an intensity and romance to the three performers. With the atmospherics firmly in place, moody chamber-pop and high-energy gypsy rock fills the room and spins a web around its audience.

    If Southern Drama’s overall aesthetic is difficult to pinpoint, it’s at least partially because the things that influence them are so widely varied. "All the stuff we said we listen to doesn't really come across in our songs, except maybe subconsciously. Instead of influences, things we like--like carnivals--are more influential than some artists we listen to. We started using things and ideas in place of musical influences," says Cherie.

 "See, we like old country like Patsy Cline, but it was only [after we formed the band] that we started listening to her," says Ysel. She goes on to explain that Southern Drama doesn't rely on outside music for inspiration.

    "We just like to play songs," says Cherie. "But now that we have to try and be a real band, we have to come up with a range of influences after-the-fact. We have to fit into that real-band world." At this point in their career, however, the band has molded their own definition of what the reality of “the real-band world” means to them.

   Southern Drama’s equal attention to music and its presentation is evident in everything they do. The video for their song "Ghost Town Blues" could be more accurately described as a short art film with a bizarre, moody score, centering on the story of murder and lust unfolding in a Vaudevillian Western. Ysel, a film major in college, uses the medium to further her band’s aesthetic vision. (She directed “Ghost Town Blues”.) Even the band's Myspace page functions as an art piece, with swirly script printed over a colorful background surrounding stately pictures of the trio in various Victorian wear. On the site, the band has printed an elaborate history, spinning a tale of "ghostly vignettes", "soft lullabies of yesteryear", and "eerie Transylvanian nightmares", all building upon their impressive mythos. Perhaps it should be no surprise that Southern Drama is so visually oriented. "I'm actually not that much of an audio person," explains Ysel. "I don't play things by ear; I think of things visually. Even explaining songs, we have to draw it out." Given that the tangible and the audible are so intricately intertwined, it only makes sense that Southern Drama should be a multi-media spectacle rather than simply a band.

   The elements that make Southern Drama unique—from the stylized costumes to the videos’ barroom camp to their music’s soulful wail—all coalesce into a highly-detailed whole. When asked if they are consciously trying to create their own alternate world, the trio laugh and shake their heads. "More of an atmosphere, really," says Ysel.

   If there's one thing these women don't lack, it’s atmosphere: with plans for future shows incorporating a menagerie of different art forms--from music, to film, from face-painting, to carnival actors--Southern Drama can only expand their aesthetic universe outwards onto unsuspecting audiences.

    "Maybe a small world," adds Cherie with a smile.

    Southern Drama exists in a time and place outside of modern music, where art forms of all varieties combine into a singular, spectacular vision. If one is looking to define it, though, don't bother – ultimately, the experience is more important than the ability to describe it.