A Dirty Dozen with TINA FIREFLY of BEAUTIFUL SKELETONS – April 2024

According to a recent press release: “Alt metal band Beautiful Skeletons unveiled their powerful new single “Letter to a Narcissist” today along with the official music video. The streaming audio will be released on May 10th to all streaming platforms. This track sets the stage for their EP, Temperance, scheduled to drop later this year under the esteemed banner of Wormhole Death Records. Conceptualized in the Pacific Northwest, four piece alt metal band Beautiful Skeletons came together as a casual jam project between founding members Einar Einarsson and Tina Firefly in 2018. Both Einar and Tina brought years of seasoned musicianship and creativity to the table, birthing a unique style of catchy, dynamic metal. As the project gained steam in 2021, the duo shuffled through various members and setbacks due to the COVID pandemic – forcing them to write and sit on a set of songs until the live music scene slowly thronged back to life.” We get Tina to discuss new music, influences, and more.

1. Tell us a little about your latest release. What might a fan or listener not grab the first or second time they listen through? Are there any hidden nuggets the band put in the material or that only diehard fans might find?

No hidden nuggets but… “Letter to a Narcissist,” our latest release, is really a no-holds-barred, in-your-face, ode to every listener who’s ever had to understand and describe the impossible and painful struggle of dealing with a Narcissist. We often tend to “deal with” or “forgive” the Narcissists in our lives because they are expert-level manipulators. The hope is that “Letter to a Narcissist” succinctly resonates with every person’s struggle when having to confront , or cut out acquaintances, friends and or family, for your own emotional health and self protection.

2. What got you into music, and can you tell us about the moment you realized you wanted to be a musician?

I was three years old when I started taking piano lessons- there was absolutely no turning back from there. I knew in that moment, I was destined to make music. Much to my parents chagrin.

3. Building on that, is there a specific song, album, performer, or live show that guided your musical taste?

Jagged Little Pill – Alanis Morissette, Dysfunctional – Staind, the Hello Dolly soundtrack by Barbara Streisand (don’t laugh !), and the very first albums of Evanescence, Godsmack, Kittie, and Korn.

4. Who would be your main five musical influences?

Alice in Chains, Alanis Morissette, Sevendust, Jack off Jill (Jessicka Fodera), and Aretha Franklin.

5. If you could call in any one collaborator to do a song with, who would it be, and why?

Man that is a hard one! I would have to say any collaboration with Kittie or Spiritbox – but if you asked the guys, they would probably say Sevendust (which of course would be amazing too).

6. How would you describe your music to someone who’d never listened to you before? What is the one comparison a reviewer or fan has made that made you cringe or you disagreed with?

We would say, if your looking for cookie monster vocals with death metal hooks or feel-good, Nickleback – style rock, you won’t find it at Beautiful Skeletons. If you haven’t heard us before, expect ungodly amount of earworm-worthy riffs, hooks and lyrics. Any one of our songs can go from growls, screams and chunky riffs to soul belting, blues type vocals in the same verse. The dynamics in our sound is typically what separates us from the unending, competitive sea of wonderful local DIY musicians. As far as being compared to something “cringeworthy” by a fan … jeez that’s a hard one but, at least from me as the vocalist, it would be when I get compared to frontwoman Lacey of Flyleaf – we sing in different ranges and I don’t subscribe to a lot of her religious views on sexuality.

7. What’s the best thing about being a musician?

Never being unfulfilled,  never feeling like your life is an insignificant blip on the radar of the cosmos. In a long time from now, (hopefully), when my body disintegrates and melts into the earth and the world spins without me – the music we create is the closest thing to immortality that we will ever achieve.

8. When the band are all hanging out together, who cooks; who gets the drinks in; and who is first to crack out the acoustic guitars for a singalong?

Who cooks: that would be me, Tina. As a mom of three teens, I’m generally used to cooking for an army. It also helps that my cooking style is islander/Asian influenced given where I was born and raised. The rest of the band is always trying to schedule the monthly band logistics meetings at my place so I make a big dinner feast. Drinks: Actually we are a dry band! Seems crazy right? But it’s 100 percent true. Drinks for us means – “…who’s bringing the coffee?” Acoustics: Pretty much any time we have a dinner meeting at my place, we break out the acoustics afterwards and have fun doing unplugged versions of all our songs.

9. When was the last time you were star struck and who was it?

To be fair, I have really only ever met two celebrities in my life. Jennifer Arroyo (former bassist for Kittie) and Yngwie Malmsteen who we toured with a couple years back. I didn’t get to interact too much with Yngwie while we touted however, meeting Jennifer Arroyo was unforgettable. Kittie has always been a huge influence for me and Jennifer was the sweetest person, even though my guitarist at the time had to quite literally drag me from the green room to the bar where he introduced us. Turns out she was an incredibly wonderful person and very down to earth.

10. If you weren’t a musician, what would be your dream job?

What an interesting question! I would say my dream job would be creating custom origami art store-front displays for big retailers!

11. Looking back over your career, is there a single moment or situation you feel was a misstep or you would like to have a “do over”, even if it didn’t change your current situation?

I personally don’t believe in do-overs, only because every step or misstep up to this point has put us exactly where we are now – and though nothing is perfect – I wouldn’t want to be anywhere else in my life other than where I am today. Wither your religious or just spiritual, there’s no denying that everything happens for a reason – those things quite often includes situations that are difficult and hard to see the value of when your in the midst of it. However, over time, I often find that those events make sense in hindsight, putting me where I am today.

12. If you could magically go back in time and be a part of the recording sessions for any one record in history, which would you choose – and what does that record mean to you?

The Open Door by Evanescence – always impressed me. I often use this album to warm up vocally ! Everything about that music makes me think about the hours and hours I spent listening memorizing and imitating every piece of her vocal style and promising myself that I would one day have a similar range but hybrid with some of the best female screamers like Tati from Jinjer.

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Category: Interviews