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Swallowed
by Cathy Lloyd
from Schmoozin', July 1998

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I caught their show along with Mirrored Image at Gallery Billiards the other night, and was able to talk with them. Of course the first question I had was where they came up with the name Swallowed. They mentioned that they liked Swallow, but another band already has it. Russ said that some friends of his like to e-mail porn back and forth to each other and while they were checking it out his friend went to the next page and saw . . . Swallowed. Russ said "The picture worked for me so why not the name?" I told them that I thought it had a sexual connotation to it, but Bill said "no, it doesn't really, it's more like swallowed by life, like Jonah and the Whale."

Although Sarasota based, all members are from different places with the exception of Dana Victoria who was born and raised in Sarasota. Bill comes from Boston Mass, and while watching him on stage I noticed that his playing style was very different from most. When I asked about it he told me that his background was hardcore punk. He worked with GG Allin, a big name punk rocker from up north who is no longer with us. Looking at Bill you would never think he was ever in a punk band. In fact while he was in a band called Psycho, each of the band members had nicknames. There was Johnny X, Denny Disorder, Charlie Infection and Bill's name was Bill Normal.

Dale is actually from Maidstone England, a navy brat, he traveled all over the US with his family.  Russ, from Norwalk Connecticut, worked with Dana in New Sense. When New Sense took a hiatus, Dana joined a band named Squash! to keep herself entertained. That's where she met Bill and Dale and when they hit it off, they realized they were in need of a drummer. That's when Russ came back into the picture. Together they create what they like to call emotionally explosive music.

When asked to describe their music Bill said, "We have a hard time with this one because we are not alternative or hard rock."

"I think we're more like a show, like you'd have to really sit down and pay attention to our music and listen to it and it's real theatrical and dramatic yet it's not too Meatloaf-ish, you know. It's dramatic and intense and passionate but it still rocks and it's definitely in the lines of mainstream where it could be put on the radio." Dana added.

They plan on starting work on a self-produced CD next week at "Jelly Jar Productions" (Dale's home studio). They have a total of 13 original songs, one that stands out in particular for me is "Don't Go," written by Bill.

I asked Dana what vocalists inspire her. "Tori Amos, Tina Turner and when I was a little girl I loved Olivia Newton John," she laughed,  "Madonna is my idol, I adore Madonna, I wanna crawl up in her butt and live there, but it's not necessarily for her vocals, it's more for her whole strength and building herself up. She and I are going to be best friends one day."

I asked what direction they wanted to take. Dana answered, "We'd like to be in the top ten percent in the music industry, so I think our direction now is to play as many shows as we can so that we can have more experience on stage and more exposure to the people because just playing a show we can learn so much."

"And the CD," Dale added.

". . .and the action figures," Russ said as everyone laughed.

"How about a Dana Doll?"  I asked.

"Yeah," Dana laughed ". . . she swallows!"