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Sarine Voltage (born December 27, 1959) is an American musician, singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and producer. She is best known for her work with San Francisco now wave rock band The Power of 3, as well as industrial goth rockers universal black.
Her style of writing is laden with counter-melodies from the bass, keyboards, guitar and vocal lines. The lyrical content mirrors whatever’s happening at the time, and is riddled with sexual innuendos, sometimes challenging (listeners), sometimes commanding (from lovers to The Universe), and almost always promoting love, magick, thinking for yourself, and having fun.
Voltage began her musical quest at 3 with formal ballet, tap, and jazz dance training, moving on to add self-taught piano at age 5. In 1989, she headed west to start her own band in San Francisco: universal black. The first line-up (1992) included Joe Devlin (drums), Craig Merrilees (keys/programming and guitar) and Danny Schramm (lead vocal). Fraught with band members’ personal issues and struggles with addiction, this line-up was short-lived.
Voltage next hooked up with Santa Rosa goth-rockers "P. Vampire" (1993-1995), which led to recording (with indie label Venture Beyond Records) and international performances from Moscow to Siberia (1994). The P. Vampire '94 tour culminated with the Inter-Week festival, a huge event sponsored by Novosibirsk State University and supported by the British Council, bringing together cultural and scientific figures in the scientists' enclave of Akademgorodok. Voltage exited P. Vampire in 1995 to re-group and focus on universal black.
The next line-up (1995) featured Mark Smith of P. Vampire (guitar/vocals), Mike Rosen (bass/vocals), and Alex Whitaker (drums/vocals). In 1996 “left…right”, an 11-song CD, was released on Venture Beyond Records, and an international tour of Poland and Belarus followed, inspired by Holbrook Teter’s invitation to represent the U.S. in Mozyr in 1996 where universal black headlined "ECO-ROCK" the benefit relief concert held during the 10th Anniversary of the Chernobyl disaster conferences (“Chernobyl: 10 Years After”) to raise consciousness and cash for the Belarussian victims of the meltdown.
In 1997 a hard-edged line-up of universal black was brought into play, once again featuring Joe Devlin and Mike Rosen, and with the new addition of Sean Canale (guitar/vocals). They produced a 6-song CD in 1999 entitled “electrical tape” that included the songs “Tie Me Up”, “Playing Slave Girl”, “Truth”, “Ice Cream (I Scream)”, “F-BOM”, and “Sex Games” with solid reviews from industry rags like Outburn Magazine. “F-BOM” was also featured on the Resin Records compilation of bands out of Santa Rosa appropriately entitled “PSR-1” (Pure Santa Rosa-1).
After 10 years of dark goth causing appearances in “Hex Files: the goth bible” and such, Voltage wanted a new sound and finally laid universal black to rest in 2001.
After a short stint with bass player/vocalist Mike Rosen as Rosen Voltage, she went on to found the all-keyboard spontaneously-created and sensuous sounds of The New Post-Modern Tribal Order with keyboardists Emit Idy and Shane Cox, producing a 9-track CD "Wiccatronica" in 2002.
Another abrupt turn came for Voltage later in 2002 when she was introduced to Chrysalis recording artist Ron Yocom of SeaHags fame. Ron convinced her to get back to song-writing and the two hit Hollywood as The Power of 3, boasting a fresh rock sound and balancing male and female lead vocals that encouraged love, peace, and thinking for oneself. Voltage and Yocom were highly influenced by the melodic sounds of The Beatles and especially John Lennon (2003). They recorded a handful of their ever-growing repertoire and released a 6-song CD "6 x 2" in a pay-what-you-have-or-like" style that may have been a first for the industry, offering it up for free to those without cash. The legendary Malcolm Dome was the first to air The Power of 3’s hit "We Are Magick" after a live from London interview on TotalRockRadio (2004). Look for The Power of 3 in Mick Mercer's "Music To Die For" (pub. 2009).
References
edit(1) Outburn (magazine), Issues #2, #3, #6 & #11
(2) North Bay Bohemian, May 11-17, 2005, Critic's Choice by R. V. Scheide
(3) http://www.discogs.com/artist/Sarine+Voltage
(4) http://www.sonic.net/venture/music/ublack.html
(5) http://www.sleazeroxx.com/interviews/yocom.shtml
(6) http://www.revoltagerecordings.com
(7) http://www.albionmonitor.com/5-5-96/chernobylshadow.html
(8) Hex Files: the goth bible, by Mick Mercer