Veil & Subdue Blog

Veil & Subdue
By Kara Pound

“Two local musicians conceptualize goth-rock opera”

Local theatre co-founder and musician, Paul Ramey, can’t pinpoint his inspiration. “All of my life I’ve been influenced by concept albums,” he said referring to the similarity of Pink Floyd’s “The Wall” to his new goth-rock opera CD, “Veil & Subdue,” in which he wrote and performed most of the songs. “It’s a whole album telling a story.” Along with concept albums, Ramey’s work is also inspired by Greek mythology, Neil Gaiman’s dark comic book series, “Sandman,” and, most interestingly, a close friend’s nightly brush with a phenomenon called, “night terrors.”

Anna K. Meade, Ramey’s good friend for nearly a decade and fellow Theatre Saint Augustine co-founder, has experienced these medical and psychological episodes for most of her life. “This is not a very well understood phenomenon,” Ramey said. “There isn’t much help out there and it’s very debilitating.” Night terrors are explained as when a person is abruptly awoken from sleep to extreme terror and the temporary inability to regain full consciousness. Gasping, moaning and/or screaming can also accompany them.

“Instead of a medical explanation, I wanted to look at a possible mythic, god-like cause for night terrors,” Ramey said of the storyline for the opera in which he co-wrote with Meade. The two were curious about the mythological undertones of the episodes back two or three thousand years ago when there weren’t necessarily medical explanations for such things. They also always knew that they wanted to collaborate on a creative project together.

The result is a two-disc, 22-song rock-goth opera that chronicles the ill-fated love between the god of dreams (Morpheus) and a mortal woman. The self-funded, three-year-long project, classified by Ramey as darkwave or “a wide range of musical sounds with a gothic edge,” was recently released on his own label, Masque Records – ensuring total creative control.

Meade and Ramey have always had grand aspirations for their project – wishing that one day, it will grace a stage or screen. “The hope from the beginning,” Ramey said, “is to create a complete work and do as much as we can to make it real . . . so that someone theatrically trained can put [the production] on.” With recent success of their Theatre Saint Augustine productions like “Private Lives,” the two may not have to wait too long to see their dream become a reality.

Veil & Subdue is for sale locally at Needful Thingz, 215 W King St., and Music Matters, 196 SR 312, and online at www.veilandsubdue.com.

© The St. Augustine Record

See the review: http://staugustine.com/stories/100409/community_2027756.shtml