Eva O
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Eva O | ||
|---|---|---|
| Background information | ||
| Birth name | Eva Ortiz | |
| Born | 1961 | |
| Origin | United States | |
| Genre(s) | Deathrock, Punk rock, Gothic rock |
|
| Years active | 1980–present | |
| Label(s) | Massacre Records | |
| Website | EvaO.com | |
Eva Ortiz (born 1961) better known as Eva O is a gothic music artist most notable for her previous works in Christian Death and a band she formed with her then husband Rozz Williams called Shadow Project. She now releases solo albums with her band Mz O and Her Guns, as well as having recently rebanded Christian Death (now known as Christian Death 1334) with all of its original members, save the band's late founder Rozz Williams, with Eva O fronting.
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[edit] Biography
Eva born 1961 moved to Los Angeles, California in 1979 in hopes to start a rock band and be a rock star. She started a local, all-girl punk band in Long Beach known as the Speed Queens, and played with them from 1980-1982. Speed Queens broke up before they could release any songs, and she and bassist Sandra Ross started the Super Heroines. About the same time, she met Rozz Williams, who was starting the band Christian Death.
The Super Heroines released several albums, and Eva recounts that the band members (including herself) all used drugs while in the band; they often would smoke marijuana before playing concerts. When Rikk Agnew left Christian Death, Rozz asked Eva to fill in on guitar. She was in Christian Death for a short time before they added two more members, one of whom later played some shows with the Super Heroines. The Super Heroines made their last album, Love and Pain, in 1983; but it was not released for another 8 years.
In the mid-1980s, Eva became involved with personal demons and a strong distaste for the world. She spent a lot of time with Richard Ramirez, with whom she was in a relationship and felt she had someone that could relate with her feelings and beliefs. Ramirez committed several murders in San Francisco and stood trial there. Eventually, Eva got back together with Rozz, married him, and moved to San Francisco with him. While there, she became interested in the writings of Anton LaVey and Boyd Rice and started to suffer from depression. Out of boredom, she and Rozz started another band known as the Shadow Project; they released two albums in the 1990s with that band. It was after their second album, Dreams for the Dying, that Eva and Rozz started to write even more darker, depressed and rage filled subject matters which was a reflection of the internal struggle they were having in their personal lives.
Christian Death reunited and released two more albums, but the lineup that the band used on those albums was essentially just everyone from Shadow Project. Shadow Project went on one final tour after recording a live album, In Tuned Out.
Tired of Rozz's getting most of the credit for the Shadow Project work (most of which she wrote), Eva O went solo and released Past Time in 1993. In 1994, she began working on her second solo album, which she was originally going to call Angels Fall for a Demon's Kiss, but after studying more about the classic heirarchy of angels on both sides of the good-vs-evil spectrum, she ended up rewriting the entire record and renaming it Demons Fall for an Angel's Kiss.
Rozz Williams killed himself on April 1, 1998; the last Shadow Project recording was released on May 12 of the same year.
After numerous reworkings and remixings, Eva finally completed her Damnation/Salvation album and released it on the German death-metal label Massacre Records in 2005. Among the performers on it are Josh Pyle (keyboards/programming), River Tunnell (bass), and Kristian Rosentrater (drums), all members of the industrial band Audio Paradox. Damnation/Salvation is a detailed chronicle of her involvement with the occult and Satanism, and has been repeatedly turned down for distribution in the United States due to its subject matter. She emphasizes that people need to listen to the entire album in order to understand its full meaning, rather than judging it by its cover, track listing, and the lyrics of the first several songs.
[edit] Discography
[edit] Solo work as Eva O
- Past Time (1993)
- Satan's Little Helpers (1994)
- Demons Fall for an Angel's Kiss (1994, originally called Angels Fall for a Demon's Kiss but rewritten/renamed before its release)
- Eva O Halo Experience (video)
- Damnation (Ride the Madness) (1999, Massacre Records)
- Damnation/Salvation (2005, Massacre Records)
[edit] As a member of Christian Death
- Only Theatre of Pain (1982, Frontier)
- Iron Mask (1991, Cleopatra)
- Path of Sorrows (1993, Cleopatra)
- Rage of Angels (1994, Cleopatra)
[edit] As a member of Super Heroines
- Cry for Help (1982, Bemis Brain/Enigma)
- Souls that Save (1983, Bemis Brain/Enigma)
- Love and Pain (1993, Cleopatra)
[edit] As a member of Shadow Project
- Shadow Project (1990, Triple X)
- Dreams for the Dying (1993, Triple X)
- In Tuned Out (1994, Triple X, live album)
- From the Heart (1998, Triple X)
