Tuesday, June 2, 2009

Thursday, April 2, 2009

Jade...a tribute.

Today we are playing at Poxx Bar with a single aim. To raise money for charity during Jade's tribute festival. A total of eight bands will be playing in remembrance of a dear friend who has joined the angels at a far too early age.

Due to the 25minute limit, we will be playing a reduced set...but we will still try to make the most of it, as we mix old favourites with new rocking tunes. Expect 'Rites of Passage' to make a comeback on stage.

This is by far our favourite track of all that we have written, and we hope to do it justice. We will also be testing the waters with new tracks that still have to make their mark.

But most of all, we want to remember our friend, sorely missed.

Monday, December 1, 2008

Here we are.

Okay, so here we are! After much deliberation, and of course, arguing, we have decided to lay the ghost of Stillborn to rest. A tough decision by any means but even more so because of all that we are leaving behind us. A full-blown album, a large number of appearances on stage during the years, and of course our fan-base...who I am not so sure will understand or agree with our decision.

As main media spokesman for the band I want to make clear MY opinion. I do not like the word Stillborn. At all. The number of mails I have received from bereaved families is simply too much to ignore, and in this politically-correct world of ours, it is only fair to listen to those who have suffered pain and anguish from this happening.

That is just one reason though. The name no longer applies to the band as it started up. Actually none of the original members remain. The longest serving member today is Mario, who was not even one of the original founder of Stillborn.

We have gone through thick and thin together, sometimes moving in one direction, sometimes in another, but all pulling together to achieve our aim. And on this track, even our music has changed. We no longer play mind-breakingly difficult progressive tracks, each lasting over seven minutes. Rather we are delivering what you, the fans, want...ear-friendly melodic metal, with emphasis on the melodies. Invariably the tracks are shorter, which means they make better radio material.

And the passing away lately of a band-mate has made us even more determined to move away from the past and launch ourselves into another reality. The name Thorn is not meant to hold any mystic meaning, or hidden secrets... we just like the way it sounds and the possibilities it has given us in the design...kind of gothic but modern too. And hey! Doesn't it look grand?

Having said that however, we cannot simply ignore all that we have gone through these past eight years and pretend it never happened. The name may have changed, but we remain very much the same five music mad rockers. Sadly we refuse to grow up, so we accept graciously your invitation to continue playing our music on stage and on our releases! Hehe...we just love performing, and if we are performing for charity, we will do it with even more gusto. To this end, all our previous material will still be available on the web, but we will gradually be pushing away the name Stillborn further away, until it becomes a dim memory in the recollections of our grand-children. If we ever get that far down the road.

Cheers! (chris)

Saturday, November 29, 2008

Members of the band!

Left to right. Raphael , Chris , Diane , Brendan , Mario

Mario is the longest serving member of the old band. He was recruited into Stillborn during a drinking night out at Paceville, in which he was approached to play with the former members who were looking for a guitarist. Obviously no-one can really turn down an invitation to play in a rock-band can he? Mario takes playing with the band dead seriously, with pride and joy, and 'will do anything to further the cause of the band'. He is usually seen fronting the stage with his trusty red ESP Limited edition. Mario's hobbies includes a passion for photography and reading.

Diane comes second after Mario in the longevity game. I'm not saying this because she is the vocalist for our band, but Diane has quite simply one of the most beautifully strong voices I have ever heard. This feisty girl came into the band quite by accident. It was in the early days of the Internet some time back when Mirc was still quite popular.Somebody posted a note saying that 'Stillborn' were looking for a singer. She replied angrily (to the guy who posted the note) that he knew she was a singer. But being a woman does have limitations! The guy was another person altogether, Clive (founder and ex-drummer) who offered her the job on the spot. Diane can usually be heard around town singing or sometimes dabbling her fingers in painting, which alas, she has no more time for.

Raphael. Hmm...can anyone spell Raphael for me? P-r-o-g-r-e-s-s-i-v-e. Quite correct of course. This guy is the never-say-die progressive stronghold of the band, both former and present. The clockwork inside Raphael never winds down, and it is rare to see this guy sitting still or not having his mind thinking at the speed of light... something not all of us can do at leisure, and is usually some time before what this guy is telling us makes absolute sense. Great riffing and precise solos from his dark-green 7-string ESP LTD are this man's obsession. Raphael's hobbies are obscure rarities, such as eating as much spare ribs as he can, with large quantities of the yellow-mellowing liquid known as beer.

Chris is the oldest member of the band by far. But we won't hold that against him. He was recruited by Raphael in 2006 when the same Raphael joined the company that Chris worked in. Chris was wearing one of his customary RUSH t-shirts, when Raphael approached him with the question 'You like progressive?' Silly coot! Of course Chris was immediately asked to go for an audition, a firm friendship sprung up, and a new member added! His guitar is a black BC Rich Eagle, lovingly labeled 'bitch' and taken to bed with him at night! Favourite pastimes include reading and writing, plus of course, the obligatory meal every now and then...ahem!

Brendan. Ah! Here we come to the newest wildman of us all! Brendan is the latest recruit to the band, and it is with pride that I say that he has brought in a new drive and energy with him. We don't exactly know how Brendan started with Stillborn, except that he was there one fine afternoon, and we did not have the balls to send him away. Lucky for us, that! This guy has arms of steel, and the only thing we can complain about is that his drums don't have a volume control. Brendan is L O U D ! Got that? Right. Brendan's hobby is err... I guess it's pissing in Yucca trees. Or something like that.

Recent band-members

Jade : pianist. This bubbly girl joined Stillborn invited by Chris himself, a couple of weeks after HE started playing in the band. Jade brought a much-needed new sound to Stillborn, the beautiful strains of the piano with a modern, metal approach. Showing an incredible talent at such an early age, Jade sadly passed away of natural causes on the 12th of November 2008. A date we will never, ever forget. Thank you for making your time with us so happy. Suffice to say another pianist has not been invited to play with us. And probably never will. Please click here for our tribute to Jade.

Clive : drummer. Clive was the founding-father of Stillborn back in 1999. This guy brought something into the band which we still miss. His inventiveness and song-writing from a different perspective will always be treasured. Clive left Stillborn in late 2007, to our regret, for personal reasons.

Roderick : drummer. Roderick came in on drums just in time for us to perform and win the RockBAZE 2007 Battle of the bands with our 'Angel'. This guy was just like a metronome. Actually we didn't need a metronome. Who would, with Roderick? Unfortunately beset by a huge workload, Roderick decided to call it quits in early 2008.

Tuesday, November 11, 2008

A History

Formed initially by the band’s backbone of resilience Clive Bonavia (drummer) and Julian Cardona (vocals and bassist) in 2000 together with its acquired guitarist, Manuel Spiteri, the trash metal and was known as Legion, influenced mainly by Slayer, Sepultura and Metallica.

Late in 2001, the three member band decided to change their musical orientation and set forth to enhance their line-up with another guitarist. After several auditions, Mario Cassar joined in, adding a definite depth to song composition and guitar solos.

The band changed its name to Beyond Prophecy and in 2002 recruited keyboardist Gilbert Camilleri who with his classically trained background supplied the band with ample melody. Now the band was complete, or so they thought.

In 2003, the band decided it needed a female vocalist to complete the set. After numerous and endless auditions, no one seemed could fit the position. But when the guys were going to give up they were bestowed with Diane Castillo, whose natural and fine trained gift endowed the band with passion and enthusiasm.

But the devil giveth and the devil taketh as they say. Julian departed and Diane took his position as main vocalist. Elton (a.k.a. Il-Bisont) took Julian’s place as a bassist but lasted only two months. While on the search for a new bassist the band played live at BJ’s Music Marathon on the 26th of April 2003. Sometime later a friend and supporter of the band, Joseph Marmara, filled the vacant position.

Now the band needed a new name to reflect its music and emotions. The name identified was Stillborn. This new line-up made it on Signal’s stage on the 20th December 2003 and won the All-round Battle of the Bands. This gave Stillborn a fine disposition and with their minds set they worked on new material and performed another gig on the 31st January 2004 with Weeping Silence.

The rest of the year 2004 was a tough year for Stillborn. The line-up changed drastically when Manuel (guitarist) and Gilbert (keyboardist) left the band. However they were replaced by the talented Raphael Grech (former guitarist of Weeping Silence) and Robert Camilleri (keyboardist). With this new set, Stillborn recorded its first track at Wave Studios, Floriana, and soon after Jean Paul Galea was recruited instead of Joseph on the bass.

Now the band is working with full force again on new material and preparing to perform another gig in the near future. In fact, on the 5th. of March, Stillborn performed live at Signals for Forsaken's re-mastered album.

2005 and 2006 were transitional years for the band as they continued to gain popularity on the islands. A number of shows were performed with great success. The debut album was also recorded and mixed.

2006 brought another change in the line-up as Robert and Jean-Paul departed (good luck Guys!) and Jade and Chris came in to fill the vacant keyboards and bass places. Incessant rehearsals continued during late 2006 and early 2007 to regain the tightness required by the band.

Now in 2007, Stillborn have unleashed Thy Feeble Soul on the Maltese public to critical acclaim. With this album we have not only satisfied our numerous hard-core fans, but also impressed new listeners to our music. We have been amazed by the large amount of albums sold at the 3rd Marsaxlokk Rock Festival right after our performance. The band was also besieged with a very large number of fans wanting us to sign the CD Sleeve.

Further new songs continued to be developed and aired live. End of 2007 saw Stillborn triumph in the RockBAZE competition held at One Productions, with the original song 'Angel'. This song continued to be extremely popular with crowds everywhere we played it, and became our flagship song. To this date, more than 800 downloads for Angel have been registered.

In late 2008, Jade retired from the band for a brief period of time to further continue her studies on church-organs, but sadly never returned, since she passed away of natural causes on the 12th of November. The band took this parting badly since Jade was a well-liked person in and out of the music circles, and her presence still hangs heavy at our garage. The band has decided to continue without a synth, and although badly missed, it gives our music a harsher, harder edge.

End of December saw a momentous change. The band, finally, under a number of diverse pressures, changed its name to Thorn. Various reasons brought us to this point, but most importantly, a sense of respect to all those that our name offended.

Our journey into the great heart of music continues with further gigs in the very near future, as well as new songs for a second album!

Thursday, January 10, 2008

Media on YouTube.

Some of our performances, straight from YouTube.