12.00 - Interview and writings by stephen dohnberg for the december, 2000 wavelength zine issue.

Anyone who knows me knows when I hear a band I really like, I pester and pester them 'til people say "...ok, ok, Stephen, shut-up already, I'm booking them", or "...ok, ok, they can play on the bill with your crappy band if you really want", or, " geez, for chrissakes, yes!. I have the CDR you gave me right here... i'll listen to it, alright? and, NO! i won't buy you alcohol."

All that besides, I am usually forgiven because I'm right. Which is why you should buy me alcohol. Which is why on Sunday, Dec. 17th, when you trudge out to see this great new band if, I'm not pissed-drunk from all the gratis-booze, it's either because you are in rapt agreement, or spent all of your money on Jesus H Christmas presents. Now the good part...the vennison...

1. I know that Lesa shot a man in Reno just to watch him die, and Julie shot the Sheriff and claims no responsibility on the part of the Deputy (we suspect it was Scotty) ... are there any other crimes this quartet has committed?

Lesa: The only crimes I've committed to my knowledge are fashion ones.

Julie: I don't want to comment on this too much...um, uhhh i may have shot the sheriff.... but i didn't shoot the deputy, and even if i did, he was asking for it all night with his heckling! i think Lesa was definitely suffering from the 'fulsom prison blues', at the time of the reno incident, so I think that should any charges befall her, she has a rock solid defence, we could even get Johnny Cash to be her defence lawyer. The lesson here is this, we may look like scared little girls on stage, but we clearly pull no punches, we have to hold our own in a largely male dominated world of rock. As for further crimes, we are obviously very quiet about our potential criminal activity, we do look so innocent, which certainly works well to deflect all the rumours of our insidious inner crime circle.... Stay tuned for further exploits from the gun toting indie rock kids otherwise known as Raising the Fawn...

John: Uh, speeding?

2. What other noted projects have RTF members been affiliated with, past bands, etc.?

John: Like most, I've been in lots of bands, but ThanatoPop is probably the only one worth mentioning.

Lesa: I was in a poor, poor mess called Speeding Motorcycle named after a Pastels song because like them, we didn't know how to play our instruments. Lasting only a summer, we covered Henry's Dress (who actually were the inspiration behind my interest in learning to play). Our other songs were such full-blown ripoffs, that we didn't bother hiding it by naming them Pavement and Moose and less obvious, Spin Cycle (after the Spinanes).

Scott: I'm a very busy boy these days. I'm in four bands-- (A) Raising the Fawn (B) Thanatopop (C) The Water Haulers. Great poppy songsters who know how to have some fun! (D) Mudfoot. This is just me. I've been recording all the parts really crudely (for now), but I plan to make a good go at this pretty soon!

Julie: Although I have had my guitar for years, this is the first proper band that i have played in.

3. Raising The Fawn is an excellent metaphor for the growth of the band; is this life imitating art, or is there some other appropriate axiom that applies that I am completely unanware of?

Scott: Well, knowing John as well as I do... I would have to say it's some biblical reference.

Lesa: It's all about Audrey Hepburn. The film was Green Mansions and Hepburn was instructed to raise a fawn as if it were her own.

John: This picture of Hepburn raising a young deer was shown to me by Lesa right as I was first hatching the concept of a quiet side project from ThanatoPop (back in 1997). It was just the perfect image-- graceful, yet awkward.

Julie: The name, 'Raising the Fawn' with all the other metaphors aside really boils down to a nice little way of establishing our band hierarchy. Amongst our little animal kingdom, John is 'papa deer', and Scott, Lesa and I are the 'baby fawns'... this is startlingly true, and it could have been worse: 'daddy buck?' (Ed: or maybe you mean Uncle Buck?)

4. What's the most unlikely cover song the band would consider doing?

Lesa: The theme song to Law & Order or the Ewoks song from Return of the Jedi.

Scott: I've always been pushing "Hot For Teacher" on the other fawns, but no one seems to take me seriously on this issue.

John: I'd do it!

5. What's the title of the new record going to be and when the hell do the masses get to hear it?

John: The record is going to be called "Good Things Come to Those Who Wait." Actually, the title is a couple of Chinese characters that are Lesa's Chinese name. The name means "Moon Goddess." The record is really a ten-song love letter from me to her. As far as the release, I have given up on dates... Spring 2001? Shit, I don't know. I need money, man.

Scott: The sooner the better! Send all donations to "Raising the Funds" P.O. Box 4002, Flint, Michigan.

6. Raising the Fawn should get an actual fawn and feed it from it's infancy and bring it on tour with them as a fifth member. You could put the wind chimes on it for songs like 'Autumn' and so forth, as well as the lights. And when the drums get real loud it'll freak the poor animal out and it will go on a mad spree though the audience. This is a good idea, isn't it? come on, admit it, it'd be pretty cool right? And then you could give a free CD to whomever had the most hoof-bruises? I am so smart. This IS a question by the way.

Lesa: Hahaha, that would be wicked.

Scott: I'm all for raising a baby deer! I would feed it Cap'n Crunch and stuffing. Also vegetables. I would teach it to respect others wishes, and to knock before entering. I would make it special "mittens" for it's hard, but oh-so-sensitive hooves. That way when he gets all worked up, and rips through the crowd in a dancing frenzy he won't do THAT much damage.

John: Sounds intriguing, but I don't know about cleaning up all that poop.

7. The reality is that Raising the Fawn didn't just pop out of nowhere, it had been a project for a little while beforehand. Can you take us through some of the beginnings?

John: Raisng the Fawn today is the end result of me wanting to play mellow, personal songs back in the summer of 1997. I recorded some demos then and actually played a couple of shows with Scott on bass and Dave Dunham from Chore on drums. It was satisfying, but soon ThanatoPop called and I laid it to rest.

The record that I am hoping to release is ten songs that were recorded over the past year when my solo itch returned. I played most of the instruments and just kinda worked at it whenever I had the time. When it was nearly finished, I started thinking about getting a band together and this present band fell together by accident. I was initially thinking of having Dave back, but Chore was really busy. I asked Lesa if she was up for drum duties, and then Julie asked if she could play too. It was all quite casual.

Although half of the band is learning their instruments as we go along, I think it suits the songs well. This band isn't about blowing people away-- we're not At The goddamn Drive-in. I mean, I don't consider us "background music" or anything, but when people say they just closed their eyes during our set, I take it as a compliment.

There you have it. As factual an account as I could have presented with editorial chopping and cutting. And no bone saws. Stephen Dohnberg is drunk as you read this.