What’s in a band name? Well, sometimes it’s just as simple as pulling a name out of a hat, while at other times it has a deep, rooted meaning to it. In the play ‘Antigone’, the main character of the same name refuses to accept an obedient, subordinate, subservient follower role in Theban society. She speaks her mind, as well as follows her conscience and her heart. Her defense of tradition against tradition busting change earns her the death sentence, yet other versions of her story indicate that she escapes capital punishment and starts a new life elsewhere with THE newborn son of the husband that she can’t save. Well, if that doesn’t sound like a very strong and powerful female, then I don’t know what does. Â
Antigone Rising is a band comprised of Kristen Henderson on bass, her sister Cathy Henderson on lead guitar, Dena Tauriello on drums and Nini Camps on rhythm guitar and lead vocals. The band founded in 1993 and has seen some personnel changes along their 20 year journey, but they stay focused on making their dream a reality. They are currently working on a new EP that will see the light of day very soon. I had the privilege of talking to guitarist Cathy Henderson as I caught her on her way to the recording studio.
Hey Cathy, good morning to you.
Hey Johnny, how are you?
I’m doing great and I hope you are too. It’s a beautiful day here in Virginia. How’s Mother Nature treating you there in New York?
It’s actually one of the nicer days here. I think we’re going to get into the 70s here today, but I’m actually heading over to the studio to do some recording today for our EP.
It’s funny that you mention the EP because that was what I wanted to ask you about first. How’s that progressing and when might we be able to get our hands on it?
I’m going to say late spring/early summer because we’re still in a window where we don’t yet have an exact date. It could be summer because we want to have adequate time to promote it as well, but I can safely say soon.
“That Was the Whiskey” is a great single and a great little toe-tapper. That’s quite an infectious little tune that you put together there. Is that an indication of what’s in store for the rest of the EP?
Well, I hope that’s what you’re going to get with the rest of the EP. That one was co-written by Lori McKenna who does a lot of writing for a lot of the big country artists. We’ve got a couple of tracks that we’ve co-written with Lori, so hopefully they will all be toe tappers, because I think they are. We love playing them and we’re definitely in there with a keen ear to make everything upbeat, fun, catchy, poppy and still have that country/rock flair.
Now, with your last album 23 Red your formed your own label Rising Shine Records. Do you have any other artists on your label yet or will you be adding some in the near future?
No, we don’t have anyone just yet and we probably won’t for a while. It’s something that we’ve talked about, but right now our main focus has to be building back Antigone Rising. That’s really where our eye sight is right now. We’ll look at branching out, but that’s more of a long term goal.
As far as building the band back, other than finishing and releasing the EP, what else is on the horizon for the band?
Yes, the EP is first and then we have a lot of festival shows: a lot of summer shows mostly in the northeast, although we have one out west. We’ll probably do a long term tour in the fall. We’re also doing a lot of strategic planning right now as far as promoting goes. There are a lot of business aspects active and happening right now. We’ve got a lot of pots on the stove right now cooking. It’s really exciting and fun right now and we’re loving every minute of it!
The more pots you have on the stove the better, even if some of those pots may burn.
            There’s nothing wrong with them burning.
 
Those are just lessons learned, I guess. You’ll know what not to do the next time you put that pot on the stove.
(laughs) Exactly, right! We’ve been doing this for a while now, so we have a pretty good knack for knowing when it’s going to burn.
Speaking of doing this for a while, the band started in 1993, so this year is your 20th anniversary. Is there anything special planned for the anniversary?
No, I think it’s more of an internal pat on the back. You know, the band has been through so many incarnations and there have been so many chapters that it almost feels like it hasn’t been 20 years; it’s always changing and evolving. No, we don’t really have anything brewing taking that angle. We’ve been in more of a re-launch mode since bringing in Nini as the lead singer four or five years ago. It’s taken us in more into a country/rock direction, where in the past we were more classic rock or arena rock. It almost feels as if it’s a brand new band, in a way.
I think if you mentioned “sisters in rock and roll” that a lot of people would automatically think of Ann and Nancy Wilson of Heart. What’s it like being in a band with your sister Kristen?
Kristen and I have always been banging on pots and pans since we were kids and making musical instruments out of just about anything that we could get our hands on. We were always connected in that manner and had a musical passion that could not be contained. We would always grab the neighborhood kids and start a band that way. You play the spoons and you play the pots and I’ll bang on the piano. We would even make songs and tape them on a little tape recorder. As we got into high school and college, at the point we had obviously turned in our spoons and pans for real instruments. We’ve always played together and we’ve always had a band; it was just something that we knew we were going to do. We were destined, in a way, to do this, it was never questioned. In that matter, it’s a really supportive feeling knowing that it’s always been the two us and knowing the other one is there. As long as we are aligned, it’s a smooth ride and we usually are aligned. We’ve opened for The Bangles and have gotten to know them really well and it’s the same thing with them. Vicki and Debbi Peterson, they’re the back bone of that band and we see the same thing in them. I honestly can’t say a bad thing about it. It definitely helps because this is a really tough business and it’s not easy. You’re dealing with a lot of different types of people, sometimes irrational and egotistical, and you have to stay grounded.
One of the things that I respect and admire about the band is that all of you seem to be doing this out of the true love of doing it. By most traditional standards, the band has not had any huge commercial success, but here you are 20 years later and still making great music. 
I thank you and I really appreciate that and I know the girls would too. It is for the love of it and that’s the bottom line and if you don’t have a love for it, then you’re not going to last because it’s really tough. Would we welcome a Top 40 hit? Absolutely and we did enjoy a moderate amount of success in the mid-2000s with the song “Don’t Look Back” which we co-wrote with Rob Thomas of Matchbox 20 while we were actually signed to Lava Records. We did start to experience a taste of that success that everybody kind of defines it by, but the reality is that things have changed so much. The musical landscape, the media landscape, how people consume media and music, all of it has changed. The great thing is that as a band and an artist, we can take that control back and market ourselves how we want to. In this day and age, you can really have a very successful underground career without having that defined commercial success. There are a lot of artists out there who are fantastic and making a great living at it without that commercial success. You can take that middle man out, the record label, and your revenue stream is coming straight to you, the artist.
Was it a conscious choice to go with an EP instead of a whole album? I see a lot of bands choosing the route of EP for different reasons.
It’s economically easier on the fan as well as the band. Again, people are consuming music differently now. They’re not really buying full length CDs anymore. They’re clicking and choosing whichever songs they like on-line, whether it’s iTunes, Spotify or Pandora, they’re picking what they want to hear. We actually are handling this more like it’s a digital release, although we will have tangible CDs for distribution. It’s also quicker for us to do. Our last album 23 Red was actually intended on being an EP, but we had so much material that we thought was really good that we ended up making it a full length CD. That’s not to say that we don’t have the material for this, but I think this is more of a timing issue. We want to get something out before we hit the road this summer for all the festivals.
I did want to touch on a topic briefly concerning all of the media attention that the band has been receiving recently with Time Magazine cover. For those who may not know, the March 28, 2013 issue features your sister Kristen on the cover kissing her wife Sarah and the issue is entitled Gay Marriage Already Won. Is this an instance of where the issue is outweighing the music or do you just embrace the attention for what it’s worth? I mean, to some people, all press is good press even if there is some type of negativity to it.
It’s been amazing! At the end of the day, with any issue that you have, you are going to have those who are for it and those who are against it. While the band is a musical band, we’re people too and there’s a lot more to us other than just the music. To me, this is an aspect of the band and who we are and I think it’s been extraordinarily positive. I think this is really phenomenal because it’s the civil rights issue of today. To be kind of in the middle of that and to be able to take a stand for it is really rewarding. Without getting into all the back-story behind it, that’s a hard journey for people to take and for Kristen to have the courage to put her face on the cover of Time Magazine, I don’t think you can get any better than Time. It’s an iconic magazine with a massive distribution and that was a very courageous thing that she did and it only helps the band.
It just seems to be everywhere that I turn, whether it’s in the supermarket lane at the register or on TV with talk show s commenting on it.Â
Bill Maher was really hysterical about it.
What do you think has been the toughest obstacle or hurdle that you have faced along this 20 year journey that you all have been on?
There are so many: there’s internal hard stuff and external hard stuff. I think the hardest has been the relationship that we had with our old singer when we felt like we were going in different directions creatively. We had a nice momentum and had been going up that ladder of success quite nicely. Once that started to deteriorate with the label, because at that point in the mid 2000s, the internet started to take over as far as how people were buying music. It really hip checked how the labels were used to doing their business and their business model became outdated. As a result, they really couldn’t support their bands well anymore. Once that happened, it became obvious that we were going in different directions creatively and we knew we were going to have to separate, and that was emotionally the hardest hurdle to accept. We had gone through so much and had built so much and we were moving forward. We really didn’t know what we were going to do after that point because it’s sort of like a divorce. You’re with these people and working with them 24/7 and it’s hard to move on, but we did. What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger and I feel like this lineup is the strongest that we’ve ever had. We’re having a blast and we laugh hard, not that we didn’t before, but this comes with a maturity as you go through life.
It’s very obvious by watching clips of you ladies performing on YouTube. That type of fun is infectious and it’s something that you just can’t fake. I know you have to go hit that studio hard, so I will let you take off. Give my best to all the girls and we can’t wait to hear the EP.
Thank you so much Johnny and thanks for the support, it truly means a lot. We’ll keep you and the fans posted on how things are coming.
