Melora Creager

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Melora Creager (born March 25, 1966) is an American cellist, singer-songwriter, performing artist and founder of the rock band Rasputina.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Early life, beginnings and Rasputina

Born in Kansas City, Missouri, and adopted<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> by a graphic designer and physicist,<ref name="Forgotten"/> Creager was raised in Emporia, Kansas.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> She started studying music at the age of 5, and at age 9 began playing the cello. As a child she was also a member of the Wichita Youth Symphony.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Though she briefly quit playing in her teen years, after Creager moved to the east coast to attend Philadelphia College of Art and Parsons School of Design, she was convinced by friends to take it up again.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref name="BigTakeover">Template:Cite web</ref> In the late 1980s she played with the New York indie rock band Ultra Vivid Scene.<ref name= "cinterview">Template:Cite news</ref> In 1991, Creager founded alternative cello ensemble Rasputina by writing a manifesto and placing a want-ad in the Village Voice stating "electric cellists wanted".<ref name="WashingtonTimesInterview">Template:Cite web</ref> Cellist/composer Julia Kent was the first respondent. Rasputina performed regularly at NYC venues such as CBGB's Gallery, Brownie's and Fez before being signed to Columbia Records in 1996, for whom they subsequently made two albums. Since 2005, Rasputina and Creager have released their music under her own label, Filthy Bonnet Recording Co.

Creager makes unique use of historical events and figures in her lyrics and themes. Inspirations include the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire of 1911, Howard Hughes, Rose Kennedy, victims of Josef Mengele, Emily Dickinson, Pitcairn Island, and Columbia County, New York. Combining history and humor in song-form and spoken-word pieces, Creager is also unique in exploring women's history through pop music.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Through more than eight albums and frequent touring, Creager through Rasputina, with varying members, has been an originator of and influence on such movements as freak folk<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref name="Wall Street Journal">Template:Cite news</ref> and steampunk.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Creager has created all of Rasputina's album covers, except for The Lost & Found which was designed by artist Ryan Obermeyer.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Other work and collaborations

Creager played cello with Nirvana on the European leg of their In Utero world tour in 1994, including the band's final show in Munich.<ref name="BigTakeover"/><ref>[1] Nirvana Fanpage. Accessed 19-07-2008.</ref><ref name="Forgotten">Template:Cite web</ref> According to Creager, Kurt Cobain personally called to offer her the job.<ref name=potts/> She has said that touring with the band, as well as Cobain's suicide, made her realize that she found the idea of large-scale fame unappealing, stating, "Fame is just so unnatural. Fame kills and it was valuable to learn that early on,"<ref name="BigTakeover"/> and "It was an amazing experience but I couldn't be happier being where I am now."<ref name=potts>Template:Cite web</ref> In 2014, in honor of the 20th anniversary of Cobain's death, Creager launched Dedication Compilation, what she referred to as "a collective free arts release". The Compilation, a webpage containing poems, songs and art in memory of "those we've lost to suicide or overdose", included contributions from Melissa Auf der Maur and John Cafiero.<ref name="BigTakeover"/><ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Creager's debut solo album Perplexions, was released in 2006.

Creager has been a frequent collaborator of Voltaire, playing cello on his albums Riding a Black Unicorn... (2011), Raised by Bats (2014) and Heart Shaped Wound (2017).<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Creager was a featured artist on the song "Into The Black" by English band Birdeatsbaby on their 2014 album The Bullet Within.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> She was also credited as "additional cello" on the soundtracks to Darren Lynn Bousman and Terrance Zdunich's films Repo! The Genetic Opera (2008) and The Devil's Carnival (2012).<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

From 1988 to 1996, Creager was employed as a jewelry designer for Erickson Beamon, creating costume jewelry for Anna Sui, Donna Karan, Barney's New York, and Vogue magazine.Template:Citation needed She continues her relationship with Anna Sui, occasionally designing fashion show invitations and T-shirts.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

Creager also has a short list of acting and film credits. In 1989 she briefly appeared as a member of the fictional Finger Lakes Trio in the film Longtime Companion.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> In 2003, Creager starred in the short film "On My Knees", by filmmaker Kim Wood, as Hannah Cullwick, whose diaries the film is based upon.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Creager also wrote the music for the film, which appears on the Rasputina compilation album Great American Gingerbread.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> In 2010, Creager and Rasputina were the subject of a documentary entitled Under the Corset, created by podcaster and then-future Rasputina drummer Dawn Miceli.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Creager also contributed additional voices to the 2018 pilot of the Adult Swim animated series Tigtone.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Personal life

Creager has two daughters.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> She lives in Hudson, New York.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

At some point in 2015, Creager became the victim of identity theft when her computer was hacked into and subsequently corrupted to the point of being unusable.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Processing this experience, and the "mental breakdown" it caused her, became much of the inspiration for the 2015 Rasputina album Unknown.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Discography

Solo albums
  • Perplexions - Filthy Bonnet Recording Co., 2006
  • Raw Silk (3 Covers) (EP) - Filthy Bonnet Recording Co., 2012
  • Fa La La - Filthy Bonnet Recording Co., 2015
with Ultra Vivid Scene
with Rasputina

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Guest contributions

References

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