Coming from some small and unknown town called San Francisco, Razz was contacted by Ara'Kus Productions co-founder Randy, whose bald head you might remember from the show, reflecting the stage lights like the moon reflecting the sun. At first she merely showed up for a few recording sessions, but after hearing her it didn't take long for us to ask her to become part of the show.
She's been playing the violin for a mind boggling seventeen years, and though many of those years were spent playing your standard acoustic violin, once she discovered the electric violin in high school, she never went back. Rock and heavy metal have always been her favorite to play, and she says that playing for Ara'Kus is the first chance to challenge herself she's had in a long time. The more she plays, she says, the better she gets, and as a result she's always up for anything. Apparently she once even played for a mariachi band!
Of course a mariachi band doesn't have multiple electric guitars or drums so loud they require their own special holding cell to contain the sound, so I asked how she can keep her place in the music while the audio equivalent of a nuclear bomb is going off next to her.
"Competing with guitars and drums is definitely difficult. Violinists rely on ear and muscle memory to tell if we are playing the right notes. I get to cheat a bit because my violin has frets like a guitar. I can feel and see where my notes are. I still would rather be able to hear myself but if I get lost, I can see exactly where my hands are."
Having never heard of a fret before, I went to Wikipedia which told me that frets "are metal strips [...] embedded along the fretboard and located at exact points that divide the scale length in accordance with a specific mathematical formula." I zoned out after the word math suddenly appeared, which always sends my mind reeling in fear. I may not understand how it works, but I can certainly respect, and be amazed at the fact Razz can tell exactly where she is in the music simply by looking at where her hands are on the violin. Then again, everything about Razz is amazing, so this probably shouldn't surprise me.
This is one Demon I hope will continue to fiddle for us for a long time to come! Make sure you don't miss her at the upcoming Ara'Kus Laser Show!