The folk delight that is Lavender Diamond originally came to life in Bird Songs of the Bauharoque, a punk operetta inspired by the work of American painter/architect Paul Laffoley. Vocalist Becky Stark wrote and created the piece with a friend while living in Providence, RI, and starred as Lavender herself, a winsome part bird/part human who wants peace on earth. The indie stage show was such a hit at home that Stark and company went on to tour 56 cities across North America in 2003. Her debut solo effort, the self-produced Artefacts of the Winged album, was made available during this tour, and as Stark continued writing songs, she felt they deserved to be taken more seriously. A move to Los Angeles in 2004 provided Stark with the creative arena she had been searching for; befriending guitarist Jeff Rosenberg (Pink & Brown, Tarentel, the Young People) and forming a country-pop act with him, things started to take shape for Stark. When she wasn't keeping busy with Rosenberg, she was playing classical arias and Tin Pan Alley originals with classical pianist Steve Gregoropoulos (W.A.C.O.), and making psychedelic doo wop material with drummer Ron Rege, Jr., formerly of the Swirlies.
At the end of the day, Stark opted to collect such sounds as one, and gathered her contemporaries for Lavender Diamond in 2004. Matching the airy lightness of Linda Ronstadt and Carole King with Bacharach-like arrangements, Lavender Diamond issued The Cavalry of Light EP in 2005; a second release, a split 7" with Queens of Sheeba for Cold Sweat, also appeared that year. A buzz around the blogosphere and indie mag elite began to take shape by early 2006, and performances at ArthurFest, South by Southwest, and the CMJ New Music Seminar only added fuel to the record label frenzy. In November 2006, while touring with the Decemberists, Lavender Diamond signed to Rough Trade in Europe and Matador in the U.S. The Cavalry of Light was slated for reissue in late January 2007.
Lavender Diamond
Official Biography
www.lavenderdiamond.com | www.myspace.com/lavenderdiamond
Growing up in a rickety house in rural Maryland between an abandoned cement factory and a power plant, Lavender Diamond’s Becky Stark first experienced music at church. Indeed, her mother was devout enough to have even studied to be a minister but, according to Becky “she got kicked out of ministerial school for being too wild and being into rock and roll and wearing miniskirts”.
For the Starks, music was its own religion. “My mum had a lot of old ‘45s and on Sunday mornings instead of going to church we would all sit round and she’d make us learn all the lyrics to the songs. Our Sunday morning ritual was all about music.”
But, despite singing as part of a state department-sponsored children’s choir – who once supported Motley Crue on the bill at the 1989 Moscow Music Peace Festival - it wasn’t until she discovered the nearby Washington DC punk community as a teenager that Becky realised that she could make music for herself.
“I was friends with Gabe Andruzzi, who’s now in The Rapture” she remembers “and he was really into punk rock. He took me to see Fugazi and it was really mindblowing - discovering that this music existed and feeling the energy of it and the political meaning and realising how music could serve a community.”
The only problem was that Becky was living a kind of double life. In the evenings she’d go and see local DIY punk bands play in community centres and church halls. But in the daytime she performed in musical theatre and appeared on TV in order to help her mother pay the rent. “I was on this really geeky kid’s TV show and I was really getting into theatre which wasn’t considered cool.”
Feeling inspired by the DC punk scene but also distanced from it because of her other interests, Becky moved to Rhode Island to study semiotics and Russian literature at Brown University. There she started hanging out at Fort Thunder, a communal space that hosted shows from the city’s burgeoning noise scene, including the legendary Lightning Bolt.
“There was just such a utopian anarchic feeling at Fort Thunder” says Becky. “There was no sense that anybody could not make their own sound. No such thing as good or bad – everybody was just making crazy noises. And that’s when I started writing music. I used to write these crazy musicals, do collaborations with artists, do these wild art projects. It was total energy.”
After a brief period of study at New York’s Merce Cunningham Dance conservatory, Becky returned to Rhode Island to set up her own theatre company, the Bird Family Baby Bird.
“I started making plays and writing operettas” she laughs. “We had plays and crazy costumes and I would sing opera and we would have marionettes and elaborate painted sets. That’s when I invented the character of Lavender Diamond.”
According to Becky, Lavender Diamond was a bird who was an emissary from the bird world - half bird, half human. The character would explain to the audience that she was there to help them understand the natural world, bringing joy and peace at the same time.
“After that there evolved a mythology of who Lavender Diamond actually was” she explains. “Lavender Diamond became an embodiment of the sound of love, the sound of joy and healing.”
Galvanised by Fort Thunder’s spirit of self-enablement and inspired by her mum’s Linda Ronstadt records, Becky enrolled on a songwriting course, moved to LA and produced a solo album called ‘Artifacts Of The Winged’. It was in LA that she hooked up with Jeff Rosenberg, a friend from Rhode Island. Enlisting Ron Rege, noted illustrator and author of the classic graphic novel ‘Skibber Bee-Bye’ and classical composer Steve Gregoropoulos, Becky decided to use Lavender Diamond as the name of a new band. By now you’ll already have a copy of their first release, ‘The Cavalry Of Light’ EP, which is also one of the year’s best – four pristine pocket symphonies that combine the best of
the early ‘70s Brit-folk boom with gorgeous arrangements and a sense of heartbroken wonder.
If that’s not enough, the band are currently finishing their debut full-length at Stag Street studio in Los Angeles, although, typically it doesn’t sound like they’re sticking to accepted modes of record-making. “When we’re in the studio I do magic spells” laughs Becky. “They’re spells to bring our love of our music into the world and in turn bring happiness and joy into the world. We like to imagine the sound of the music covering the world with love. Lavender Diamond is about believing in the practical power of love.”
Forgive
Lavender Diamond Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
To live and love
Forgive, you must forgive all
To live and love
What you say is what you make
So create all, don’t break
Liberate the man you are
Forgive, you must forgive all
Lift the weight from your heart
Before it’s not too hard
And not too soon
Forgive, you must forgive all
To live and love
So say you will forget
The world of all, the world is small
Liberate the man you are
The world is small
Forgive, you must forgive all
Lift the weight from your heart
Before.
Forgive, you must forgive all
To live and love
The lyrics to Lavender Diamond's song "Forgive" are a call to forgive those who have wronged us in order to truly live and love. The repetition of "forgive, you must forgive all" reinforces the importance of letting go of grudges and resentment. The lines "what you say is what you make, so create all, don't break" suggest that by choosing to forgive, we have the power to create a positive future for ourselves and others.
The lyrics also speak to the difficulty of forgiving, acknowledging that it may not be easy but it is necessary. The line "it's not too hard, it's not too far" could be interpreted as a reassuring message that forgiveness is within reach, despite how it may feel in the moment. The urgency in the lines "lift the weight from your heart, before it's not too hard and not too soon" suggest that forgiveness should not be put off, as holding onto grudges can become increasingly difficult over time.
Overall, "Forgive" is a gentle reminder of the power of forgiveness and the positive impact it can have on our lives and relationships.
Line by Line Meaning
Forgive, you must forgive all
It is necessary to forgive everyone in order to live and love fully.
To live and love
These are the things that we need to do in order to make our lives meaningful.
What you say is what you make
Your words have the power to create your reality.
So create all, don’t break
You should focus on building positive things instead of destroying what already exists.
Liberate the man you are
Free yourself from the things that hold you back and be the best version of yourself.
It’s not too hard, it’s not too far
Becoming the best version of yourself is not impossible, it's actually within your reach.
Lift the weight from your heart
Let go of the burdens that keep you from living freely and happily.
Before it’s not too hard
Forgiving others becomes more difficult over time, so it's important to do it sooner rather than later.
And not too soon
On the other hand, it's also important to take your time and not rush the process of forgiveness.
So say you will forget
Make a commitment to not hold onto the pain and negative feelings that come with holding grudges.
The world of all, the world is small
In the grand scheme of things, the conflicts and issues we hold onto are actually quite insignificant.
Writer(s): Steve John Gregoropoulos Copyright: Temple Bells Music
Contributed by Charlie A. Suggest a correction in the comments below.
@xxturbodonk555xx
When she sings, I believe her.
@susanassuncao7288
Lindíssima ♡
@jonathanakling4391
Kinda crazy that this is 8 years old and only has 4,892 views. Not like they are massive group, but KEXP gets a lot of traffic. Would have thought it would be higher.
@clilaux
love it
@lodger9
I love when she looks at the camera as she sing "The world is small"
@jjames17407
very nice!
@ChunkySalsa_BSU
I wasn't expecting this. Lol. Nice!
@larslion9801
I can’t believe how many ppl sleeping on this
@misswootie
Don't you have an equalizer with one bar marked "keyboards" that you can just turn down. I do that all the time. :)
@kennethsblasing8691
Yikes ya'll.