For March we have another fan from Florida...a fertile land for Red Elvises fans! It must be the warm sunshine, the coolness of Skipper's Smokehouse and the fact that the band plays in that state every year and sometimes twice a year. But about our Fan of the Month: Helen is quite young but very smart and creative as well as possessing great taste in music, proving that you're never too old or too young to be a Red Elvises fan! Join me in welcoming her as our March 2007 Fan of the Month! |
Fan of the Month! |
For the record, what is your name? Helen Anne D'Avanza Where were you born, and where did you grow up? I was born and raised in Tampa, Florida, and I'm pretty content here. It's not like I can move or anything seeing as how I'm not "emancipated" yet! |
Hm, I'm not "grown up" yet, so I guess this'll just be the what I like right now section. Acting is a pretty big part of my life at the moment and I'm currently enrolled in an off-Broadway theater, curtain call performing arts theater. I'm also in drama troupe 0165 at Chamberlain High School. Other things I dig are the beach, snow skiing (this year marks 10 years!), music, especially singing, journalism, and of course, being a ditzy teenage girl, boys. Hahaha! Not as much as my friends though, thank God.
As for obsessions, I'm obsessed with daydreaming, asking questions that are usually pointless, and learning useless things (crossing your right thumb over your left is recessive? Wow!). Oh, and hockey. I live for the Tampa Bay Lightning.
Tell us about your musical endeavors and any musical instruments you play…
In second grade, just for kicks, I tried out for the Forest Hills Elementary School chorus, and got in! I said to myself after that, "Hey now, my voice isn't bad!" So I auditioned again, and again, and again, and every year up to 5th grade I made it into the chorus. During those years, I made it into the All-State choir once and the All-County choir twice, which was a big boost to my singing ego. When I went on to middle school, Ferrell Middle Magnet, I had no idea what to make of anything, being a naive little 6th grader, so I took a brief hiatus from singing. During the summer between 6th and 7th, my friends who were involved said that Chorus was pretty fun, but the teacher was a jerk, and I reluctantly joined the "Tiger Choir." But to our surprise when we came to the school, we had a new, sweet teacher who helped my voice mature a lot more than anyone in the past taught me. Her name was Ms. Regal. I had a blast with her! She showed me so much that I made all-state AGAIN. I joined up again in 8th grade, but then halfway through the year, Chorus got cut. I was really pissed off at that, but then I found something new, which brings us to the second part of the question...
That January my friend told the band director, Mr. Mara, that I knew something about music so he invited me to join the band. I was like, "Woah, dude, really? But I can't read music at all, I haven't played anything but piano, blah blah..." But I learned how to read, eventually, and the instrument I mainly played was so awesome: the XYLOPHONE! Yep. Obscure instrument for an obscure girl. I was also the girl he gave random instruments to if he thought it would sound cool in the piece, so I ended up playing timpani, tambourine, and this nifty thing called a brake wheel. I have ambitions to play either the quads or snare drum on the drum line, but I think those are visions of grandeur.
What accomplishments are you most proud of at this point in your life?
Besides the trivial teaching myself the alphabet backwards thing, I think it was winning the 3rd grade spelling bee...when I was in 2nd grade. Since I was in advanced reading, they put me in it a grade early, and everyone else, myself included, didn't expect me to win. It’s not an epic achievement, but it made me realize that even against unfavorable odds, I can still succeed.
What are your favorite movies?
Blazing Saddles, The Green Mile, Star Wars 1-6, Airplane!, Lord of the Rings trilogy, The Last Detail, O Brother Where Art Thou, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, The Godfather, Pulp Fiction, Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory (the Gene Wilder one), Fantasia, The Gods Must be Crazy, Forrest Gump, Ferris Bueller's Day Off, War Games, and much more. I adore cheesy eighties movies the most.
Do you have any favorite books?
Dante's Famous Commedia (I'm on Purgatorio right now!), A Confederacy of Dunces, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, the Harry Potter series (haha), To Kill a Mockingbird, Kiss Me Like a Stranger, The Green Mile, The Shining, Mark Twain's Book for Bad Boys and Girls, Eragon, Eldest, Party Monster, and once again, many more!
What music are you into, in addition to Red Elvises?
Seriously, there are so, SO many people I love to listen to, but the genre I listen to the most, by far, is rock in all of its glorious forms.
Since I was little, I have been exposed to British invasion and southern rock. My old hippie dad mainly influenced my musical taste. He loved The Allman Brothers, The Rolling Stones, The Animals, Marshall Tucker Band, and the like, and I did too as a result. I vividly remember dancing to the song Happily Married Man when I was like...four years old, and I loved it, along with my other dancing song, Dimples by The Animals. The Beatles, The Who, The Kinks, Elvin Bishop, The Band, David Bowie, Roy Orbison, Lynyrd Skynyrd, and Pink Floyd have also stuck with me since childhood. This caused me to not necessarily hold the bubblegum pop that other girls of my kindergarten through 3rd grade listened to in disdain, but just be indifferent about it.
My best friend first exposed to me to alternative and newer rock a few years into our friendship, but an infatuation with a certain guy really got me into it again. We listened to his Ipod together on occasion and sometimes he'd ask me if I liked a certain artist that I hadn't heard of. I'd say no. He'd then put them on, and I'd fall in love with them immediately. Bands that have been shown to me this way are Slowdance, Murder by Death, and my current favorite band, Say Anything.
I found people on my own of course, I'm not completely dependent on my friends! Ska is one of the genres I found by myself. I first heard The Mighty Mighty Bosstones at a hockey game, then I heard The Specials on an extremely goofy movie (no kidding!), then the korean ska band Witches on a flash cartoon, you see the pattern. It also helps that in Tampa, we have a fairly rich local ska scene.
When, where, how, etc. did you first hear and experience Red Elvises?
It all started at Skipper's Smokehouse. If you've been there before, you know there's this red balalaika painted on the wall with the band name painted above it, and their next show date. it's been there since...forever! I saw it a lot when I was little, and thought to myself, "who ARE these people?" Then one day in 2005 I was on myspace, and I remembered, "The Red Elvises! I have the internet at my fingertips now, so I can look them up and see what they're like." I found their really old myspace, and the only two songs on there were live radio station versions of Red Lips, Red Eyes, Red Stockings and Sunshine with Zhenya fronting, I think. It was a while ago. Anyway, I was amazed! I loved everything about them, especially their lyrics. I went on their site and looked up the next Tampa date, and it was December 23, 2005, three days before my birthday. I begged my parents to let me go, and they said maybe. They had me call Skippers to see when the opener was done, and to my dismay, it wasn't until late that Red Elvises would be on. major, major bummer.
They had their tour around the rest of the country, then to Europe and Russia. it was like, August of last year when all of that was over. I checked their site again to see if Tampa was on their list of stops, and it was! It was a saturday night, october 28, and I had nothing planned at the moment. Being older, it didn't really matter if I was out later. So once again, I cleared my calendar. As I said above, I'm an actress in an off-Broadway theater, and instead of doing our premier in January like normal, the director decided to move it to before Halloween so it wouldn't be so "anti-climactic" (it's called A Haunting Tale, you draw your own conclusions as to why). I was hoping it would be the 21st, but the closer, the better, so he moved it to the same night as the Red Elvises show, AND at the same time. Once again, I'd have to wait even longer to see them.
Now I was 0 for 2, and that made me mad. I wanted to see the freakin' Red Elvises before I died! In November, after all the show hubub was over, I checked the dates again, to see if maybe they would come back again in the same tour. To my great happiness, there was another show, and it couldn't have been at a more perfect time: it was December 16, a Saturday, with no school or acting until January. I said to my mom, "We are going to this show, and you are going to think this is the most fantastic band you have ever heard, and if you don't, humor me." We went super early, and when they finally came on, I was exhilarated! It was a fantastic show, one of the best I had been to in a long time, and my mom didn't even have to humor me when it came to liking them.
About how many times have you seen them?
The above show was my first one. I plan to see them many more times.
What is it about Red Elvises that draws you to them, that you like the most?
They're just so...unique. Before that fateful 2005 day, I had never heard anyone like them, EVER. Then, when I saw them live for the first time ever, I saw they had a great stage presence. All of them, and everyone around them, seemed to exude a very happy energy, just like I usually do.
What's the farthest you've traveled to see them? And do you have a good story around that?
Like I said, saw 'em only once. It sucks to be 15 and shackled to your parents...
Any other standout, all time great memories of shows you’ve seen so far?
Doing that conga line during Sad Cowboy Song and dancing onstage was pretty memorable. and meeting Red Elvises fans, haha, that was fun.
What are your favorite Red Elvises songs?
I love every one that I hear, but El Nino, Red Lips, Red Eyes, Red Stockings and Sunshine are high up just because they were my first. And Love Rocket, just because my friend Drew loves to sing it to me.
What would you like to see them do in the future? Any ideas? Anything you’d like to say to the band?
I'd like to just SEE them! I would be very content with that. Please come to Tampa more?
Okay, last question… Do you have anything you’d especially like to say to all the fans?
Together, we can convert the world! And I'd like to meet you at the shows here. Red Elvises fans are super nice, and very interesting :].