October 7, 2008

Interview with The Fire and Reason's Bella Saona!


Many a Saturday night ago at Poplife (every Saturday at White Room), I had the pleasure of meeting and hanging out with the gorgeous Bella and Steve of the New York electro-rock band, The Fire and Reason (TFaR).

If you're down with catchy rifts, pretty vocals and good clean dancing music (who isn't?), check them out! Give 'em some love on their MySpace! If you're in Chicago, the Kinetic Playground is located at 1113 W. Lawrence -- only steps away from the CTA Red Line 'Lawrence' stop!

Download their sampler here. (.zip format)

Miss Lix
:
So how did you first become interested in making music?

Bella Saona: I've been singing all my life. I went to performing arts school for voice. Music is my salvation!

Miss Lix: What performing arts school did you go to?

Bella Saona: Laguardia School of Performing Arts. The school the 80s show "FAME" was based on, hahaha.

Miss Lix: Did you meet the other members of TFaR at school?

Bella Saona: Nope... I went to a show with my sister and Steve was singing with his old band, Radiate. He was the lead singer and the guitarist mastermind. I walked up to him after the show and said "Hi, I'm Bella. I'm a singer too..." He gave me a CD and a T-shirt when I signed their mailing list, and we started e-mailing, working on music together -- So thats how I met steve. Lee, our other band member has known Steve since they were five. They had played in a bunch of bands together.

Miss Lix: That's cool, so you all have a background in music. So with all of you guys' previous musical talent, what do you think influenced TFaR's sound?

Bella Saona: Everything I think -- music, art, fashion, movies, life, love, sex. We wanted to meld a bunch of different genres like rock, dance, pop, and electro to make something thats fun, hot, and dancey!

Miss Lix: Yeah, I totally get that from the "Shut Up, Dance!" EP. I noticed that you have a couple songs on there that have Spanish lyrics, what's up with that?

Bella Saona: We also have a few baile funk songs in Portuguese. I am Brazilian/Italian, so I speak Spanish and Portuguese. I listen to a lot of singers like Shakira, Marc Anthony etc. so it was never a question of not singing in Spanish. My music is an extension of me so its natural for me to sing in those languages.

Miss Lix: Are Steve and Lee fluent in Spanish?

Bella Saona: Steve is, not Lee. He's Ecuadorian. We are both proud of our Latino roots, and have played a lot of Latin-based parties and stuff. The show we are doing in Chicago is a Latin/electro night.

Miss Lix: Oh, awesome. I'll totally be there! Now for a kind of fun random question... tell me about the craziest crowd you've had.

Bella Saona: Easy. We played an all ages show in the bronx with about 250 kids. It was in the auditorium of a church with no A/C. These kids were going nuts and stage diving the WHOLE SHOW! I even stage-dove twice, hahaha. We were all dripping sweat. It was insane. There were even little 12- and 13-year-old kids hitting on me! It was a trip.

Miss Lix: Haha, speaking of which, how old are all of you guys?

Bella Saona: I'm 19, and both Steve and Lee are 28.

Miss Lix: Talk about an age gap! Do you feel like they overshadow your experience at all?

Bella Saona: Haha, not really. I write the lyrics and melodies that make the songs hot!

Miss Lix: That's impressive. What's the process for lyric-writing for you? Like, are any of these songs about real-life experiences?

Bella Saona: Steve writes a beat, we listen to it in the car, I start coming up with lyrics and melodies, and then we demo it in our studio. Some of the songs are based on personal experience. Some are just fun party songs.

Miss Lix: Well I love the entire EP! Thanks for your time, Bella! Anything you wanna say to the readers of uppermiddleclassbitch?

Bella Saona: Yes, come to our show when we come to Chicago on December 6th at the Kinetic Playground! We wanna ROCK YOU! Thanks babe, you rock!

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