New article with live performance video!
April 28, 2010
In a cramped bedroom converted into a recording studio inside a Rancho El Dorado home, three musicians gathered night and day for three weeks to produce an eight-song album titled Archaic Manifestations of the Unconscious.
“We looked at trying to create a different sound on several of the songs on the album; we didn’t want to limit ourselves,” said Anthony LaRocca, 30, one of the group’s guitarists.
LaRocca and the group’s lead singer, Kimberly Capria, 24, met nearly three years ago and instantly developed strong ambitions to form a band of their own. “We played here and there, but we could never really find another guitarist who met our expectations,” LaRocca said.
However, that all changed last September.
The duo was jamming with another group of musicians in Maricopa with hopes of starting a band when they met 32-year-old Brett Dooley. “We have worked through several guitarists, but, when we found Brett, we knew we had our guy,” Capria said.
The trio quickly split from the larger group, named their band Alizarin, and within several months began to lay the groundwork for their first album.
“The first night we started writing, the notes and words flowed out like a turbulent river whose banks could not withstand the sudden surge of current,” Dooley said. “It was obvious the music we wrote would be shared with the world.”
Several months after that first meeting, the band released their first CD, featuring eight tracks of acoustic alternative rock designed to give the public a taste of their capabilities.
“We wanted to put on this first album a wide variety of music,” LaRocca said. From this collection of work, he added, the group has identified the styling behind the song Domination to be their future direction.
“We want to go heavier and more electric on our next album,” he said.
The group draws upon a wide array of musical influences ranging from Stevie Ray Vaughn to Megadeth. However, it is not just their musical tastes that are diverse.
Capria was born on the East Coast and moved to Arizona at age 10 with her family. The 24-year-old said she always had a love for singing, but just needed to find a way to come out of her shell. “I used to be very shy.”
That moment came in the 7th grade when she would witness a group of friends standing in a circle spinning freestyle rhymes, “I don’t know where I got the confidence from, but I decided to join in.” From that moment forward she has been sharing her voice with the world.
LaRocca has a different story. The Chicago native grew up in the music scène and was part of several bands before finally getting his big break several years ago.
“I was in a band, and our agent lived in Surprise; he asked us to move to Arizona so we could work on our music more and get a recording contact,” he said. However, shortly after moving, LaRocca said the members of the band realized they hated one another and broke apart.
“Most of the guys in the group had never lived on their own, and once we started living together things just fell apart,” he said. LaRocca remained in Arizona while the former members returned to Chicago.
Dooley grew up on the piano and served in the Armed Forces for several years before meeting his future band mates.
“I would look for groups here and there to jam with, but when I meet Kimberly and Anthony I knew we had something special,” he said.
Currently, the group is looking to get more involved in the local band scene, booking gigs at bars and clubs across the Valley. They have already recorded three songs for their follow-up album and are hoping to have the album wrapped up soon.
“We are looking to do some of the work on this CD in a Valley recording studio,” Dooley said. “We want the world to hear our music.”
For more information on the band or to download their album, visit www.alizarinmusic.com.
Check out an exclusive video of Alizarin playing live for InMaricopa.