Bee and Flower

Bee and Flower featured on XMusic.FM—1400 plays and counting! Check it out here and grab some free music downloads.

Dana at Heinz Minki, Berlin (photo by Andrea Froehner)

Bee and Flower’s final post for ‘Blog Takeover Week’ at The Vinyl District: Dana writes, ‘The making of Suspension started with a handful of simple demos I’d made at home. I’d just moved back to NYC after 4 years of living in Berlin. I’d had it good there—the band, friends, free time, insanely cheap rent—but despite all this I was…’ (To read more, click here)

Bee and Flower’s second album, Last Sight of Land (Click image for more info)

Bee and Flower show preview from Time Out London:

When Dana Schechter was 12, she and her sister would go to heavy metal shows. Two small girls getting crushed down the front with the headbangers, they were, she emphasizes, ‘Music fans, never groupies.’ In 1982, they met the fledgling Metallica, and Schechter struck up a strong friendship with bassist Cliff Burton.

‘He encouraged me to take up the bass and told me he’d give me lessons…We watched them skyrocket, and then Cliff was killed in that tourbus accident. I was deeply affected by the loss. I decided I had to keep my promise to him.’

Now Schechter is not only a bassist but singer, songwriter and composer with her own band, Bee And Flower, who play their first UK date on Saturday and have just been confirmed to support American Music Club in 2008.

Asked whether her heavy metal schooling can still be glimpsed through the cinematic murk of her current outfit (bolstered on record by grand pianos, brass, choirs and a 25-piece string section), Schechter concedes that, ‘We’re definitely not a muscular band; we do not do power chords. But we do have moments of aggression and chaos, and we’re very dynamic live.’

On second album, ‘Last Sight Of Land’, which features Bad Seeds drummer Thomas Wydler and Swans guitarist Kristof Hahn, Schechter’s velvet voice maintains its languid composure as planets fall and demons dance. A remarkably European-sounding record, it was recorded in Berlin, where the band sought refuge after 9/11.

‘The title track is about waking up one morning and going down to the water, sailing out onto the ocean and never coming back,’ says Schechter. ‘There’s a great loss in our music, because as humans our lives are always changing. But that isn’t always a bad thing; I don’t want to stay the same forever. My greatest hope is in the unknown.’ - Bella Todd