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Once Upon a Midnight Dreary…

The Nestling [Late '70s – Early '80s]

Corvo’s classical training and symphonic-operatic influences began in the late ’70s, when NiNi and G9 began their careers as musicians on strikingly similar childhood paths. With NiNi performing vocals on-stage as one of the smallest professional singers in her opera company, and G9 bowing the cello furiously in his youth symphony’s orchestra pit, the two were poised to form a serendipitous musical union long before they met.

The Hatchling [Early to Mid '80s – '90s]

Hundreds of miles apart, NiNi and G9’s lives continued to parallel each other in their pre-teen/teen Catholic school upbringings. Apparently, all of that black clothing and in NiNi’s case, messy black hair and red lipstick [i.e. Robert Smith idolatry ] didn’t go over so well with their conventionally clique-y classmates. As bona fide outcasts, it was a natural musical progression for each to find refuge in the sounds of ’80s punk, post-punk, new wave and metal. Without bands like Bauhaus, The Cure, The Ramones, The Sex Pistols, David Bowie, Iron Maiden, Judas Priest and Metallica [to name a few], the founding members of Corvo may not have survived those turbulent years… without prison sentences.

NiNi and G9 continued to perform in classical music, but each also began dabbling in garage bands, and performing in theater, which expanded their classical training into jazz and rock. This was also the era when the piano and synthesizer joined forces with the cello in G9’s repertoire, and experimental music started to shape the future composer.

As life-after-high-school progressed, industrial, progressive and alternative rock contributed to the duo’s life soundtracks, and simultaneously to the future sounds of Corvo. G9 was more into industrial, and NiNi into metal. The two would eventually trade mix CDs and discover that industrial struck all the right chords in NiNi, and that headbanging suited G9 perfectly. This was also when the guitar joined forces with cello and keyboards in multi-instrumentalist G9’s ever-growing stock of musical weaponry.

The Murder [Late '90s – Present]

Dark Wings Take Flight…

Parallel paths in media careers finally brought NiNi and G9 together in the same city, and all it took was one informal jam session for the two to realize they were musical soul mates. At first, with the intention of playing local gigs as a cover act, they’d learned songs by various female-fronted bands like Garbage, Portishead, Curve and Hooverphonic. However, they soon found that covers didn’t delve deeply enough into the dark places they’d wanted to explore, and the music itself wasn’t hard enough. Ditching the notion of being a cover band and never looking back, NiNi and G9 officially formed the band in a Samhain ritual, Hallowe’en 2004. The duo’s collaborative identity took on the shape of the crow, their name became Corvo [Portuguese/Italian/Spanish for crow], and their creative journey of dark original music took flight.

MySpace, YouSpace, WeAllSpace

A year before it literally exploded into the phenomenon it is today, MySpace helped Corvo gain a global audience. The band’s first demo track, “Poppet” was posted in May 2005, and received great feedback from musicians and fans of dark music. A few months apart from each other, the band posted more demo tracks, including “The Devils,” “Fairytale,” and “Zann,” each receiving growing praise as Corvo fearlessly shared their fledgling sound online. In late 2005, G9 created a Halloween song “just for fun,” and “Fantomatique,” one of Corvo’s most popular songs to date, was born. A year later, Halloween 2006, “Fantomatique” became Corvo’s first music video, and to date, it has received over forty thousand hits and scores of positive comments on YouTube.

TERROREYES: THE DEMOS – An EP is Born

Even though Corvo had posted their first demo tracks as free downloads, messages continued to appear in their band inbox, “Can I buy a copy of your demos on CD?” With a demand for physical CDs constantly greeting them, the band pressed a limited amount of their first EP, Terroreyes: The Demos, releasing it independently and for a cheap price on CD Baby. The popularity of “Fantomatique” called for its presence as an exclusive track on the EP, so the band dropped one of the lyrical demos, “Poppet,” to make room for the Halloween hit.

To date, Terroreyes: The Demos has made a profit margin of 83%, and thanks to CD Baby’s digital distribution options, that number continues to grow. Currently, the CDs are permanently out of print, have sold out on CD Baby, and only a few autographed copies remain at Sonic Cathedral: Female Vocal Music Superstore. From 2005 to date, songs from Terroreyes: The Demos have been played on radio stations like Rue Morgue Radio, Radio Free Satan, Pagan Radio Network and Church of Girl Radio, to name a few. This unexpected reception to the demos created urgency in the band to begin work on a full-length, widely released CD, and in 2007, production on Telltale began. “Poppet” will be reborn on the debut album, along with total re-recordings and remixes of “The Devils,” “Fairytale” and “Zann.” Many new tracks will join the former demos, including a cover that shall remain nameless for now.

The Dark Score

As Corvo’s lyrical songs have gained momentum, “Fantomatique” created a simultaneous interest in G9’s instrumentals, especially among dark-music DJs and horror film fans. Queries from independent filmmakers and film placement companies for “more songs like Fantomatique” fueled G9’s own brainchild, Instrumental Cuts, which was released in early 2008. The CD contains twelve original tracks, spanning a range of grandiose “Hammer Horror style” epics, to sensual Gothic Belly Dance grooves, to quirky, harpsichord-laced dark cabaret, to downright demonically dark and dirty. Although the CD will not be commercially available, the digital tracks are now available on corvo-music.com for free download under Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial licensing. NiNi performs operatic vocals on new fan favorite, “Like Hell,” and also plays the Sherman [known by gear-heads as "Lucifer in a Box"] on devilishly naughty track, “Moonlight.”

Currently, Corvo’s dark, cinematic sound has found a home with Circle of Seven Productions’ supernatural romance, fantasy and horror book trailers, which are videos that promote books in the same style as movie trailers – “Seen any good books lately?” To date, original Corvo music scoring can be heard in the promotional trailers for New York Times Best-Selling Author Maggie Shayne’s Demon’s Kiss, as well as NYT Best-Selling Author Susan Squires’ One With the Shadows.

In mid-June 2008, the band released a single called “Turbulent Sea,” the official theme song created for Christine Feehan’s Drake Sisters novel, Turbulent Sea [release date 07.29.08], and the accompanying “music video” book trailer for the novel’s protagonist, “Joley.” For more about the music behind the novel and the novel behind the music, [ click here ].

Taking Music a Step Higher

The band is also currently collaborating with Circle of Seven Productions in pioneering a new breed of media that will use creative audio to help authors promote their books. The band is excited about this ongoing project because it ultimately promotes literacy, especially among younger audiences. Additionally, Corvo recently contributed original music – a stripped down, instrumental version of Telltale track, “Titan” – to Antley Drive Productions for Hope Among Us, a short film documentary about the homeless in Los Angeles. Look for news, track releases and audio/video postings of these works in the summer/fall of 2008, right here at corvo-music.com.

Multi-Media Artists

To exorcise her own creative demons, NiNi has been editing horror-inspired music videos to various tracks from Instrumental Cuts, and intends to continue these creations as time permits. Her video for “Like Hell,” cut to scenes from Ken Russell’s Gothic, recently received praise from the cult-classic’s screenwriter, Stephen Volk.

“Cool! I really loved watching this! You have done a terrific job - it has a tremendous power and atmosphere and catches the delirium of my story.” Stephen Volk - writer of the screenplay GOTHIC.

NiNi also created a video to Instrumental Cuts’ “Moonlight,” using devilishly whimsical, slightly naughty scenes from the classic [very ahead of its time] film, Häxan : Witchcraft Through the Ages. All of her videos can be seen on the band’s YouTube page, along with fan-favorite “Fantomatique,” and the book trailers/short films in which Corvo’s score music can be heard.

TELLTALE and Beyond…

Along with new horizons in score compositions, pioneering audio projects and video creations, Corvo has completed thirteen demo tracks for their debut full-length album, Telltale, currently in production.

The band also continues to invest in their live show, which they intend to take on the road as soon as time and money permit. Although they are self-sufficient and able to play fully realized music as a duo, they do plan to find the rest of their band “family” when the time is right.

Record label? Nope. The band isn’t averse to signing with the right label, but also isn’t in any hurry to sign with anyone. The time is right for DIY musicians, and Corvo enjoys being a part of that wave… if a label home exists in the future, the band will embrace it, and if not, the show will go on…