VLAD

By Pamela Hazelton
Take the ’80s style music of Prince, mix it with today’s Goth, a little of yesterdays pop and rock, a dash of centuries-ago classical, then add your own vibe to the world that surrounds you, and you have a very original score of music. That’s what Scott Vladimir Licina did. And he succeeded.
Known as Vlad, Licina carries the aura of a person who has to like everything he does. It shows on his music compilations, scores to comic books and book soundtracks.
“Every disc had a different connotation,” Licina says about his releases. One of his latest, in a style he describes as Industrial Egyptian Metal (meaning everything and nothing), is a score to Chaos! Comics’ comic book miniseries Purgatori.
For Gothic and horror fans, Licina, 33, recently released Live Girls, a soundtrack to the book of the same name, by author Ray Garton.
The inability to compare Licina’s music to any other is an understatement. In each segment you’ll find a bit of everything you’ve known and heard, and a lot of nothing you’ve experienced.
“I don’t sound like anyone. It’s me,” he explains about the vast Dorian modes and other styles he uses.
His voice drips like honey. Crisp, clear overtones in the forefront vox (vocals), and the deep, mesmerizing tones in the backgrounds.
Licina admits his three major influences are Prince, Jimi Hendrix and Franz Liszt. But one might only find a hint of the Prince medium in a few tracks off a recent CD.
The Live Girls soundtrack is a mix of post modem classical Goth that lies with the book itself “It’s built classically, but it’s got that gothic overtone,” Licina says, while Purgatori “floats all over the place.”
Licina originated the concept of comic book scores in 1988, when he would find himself wanting to feel music with everything he read. “I like to immerse myself in the mood,” he reveals.
Licina began his journey into music in 1969. Then, the five-year-old began to take to brass instruments. By age six, he performed with a junior symphony. He continued playing baritone, French horn, trombone and other brass until about age 12, when he realized that he’d have to do more to make an impression.
While in a music store to buy valve oil, Licina really saw his first guitar. “That’s what set me off” he said about the correlation that guitar players tend to get more girlfriends.
“If you can sing and you can write a song like “Gypsy Girls,” (one of his originals), it will go.”
In 1983, Licina started a concept called The Dark Theater. It was to be his own collaboration of... mostly himself. It became a reality in 1988 when Licina decided to stop being just a “hired gun” and move on to what he knew best - what he wanted to do.
While Licina sometimes hires musicians to perform on stage with him, 99-percent of his studio work is solo. Guitar, keyboards, drums - he does them all.
Since the launch of TDT, both the concept and Licina have been featured around the world on major radio and television stations, as well as newspapers and magazines. To name a few, Licina and TDT have been the focus in stories featured in The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, Illinois Entertainer, Shivers Magazine and The Atlanta Constitution. He has appeared on Montel Williams, Joan Rivers, Talk Soup, Entertainment Tonight, and CNN’s Talk Back Live.
While his two videos (1990) were deemed “too violent” to air on MTV, they have aired on major networks, and in Russia, Licina says.
Licina has toured throughout the US, Canada and England, and next year’s plans include Germany, France, The Netherlands and other foreign lands.
But Licina admits there’s not a lot of money in the pocket in regard to touring. “Tours are really just to promote the sales of the records,” he says. Next year he’ll be on the road again, after the debut of the third TDT album, slated to ship in June (single release in March 1998).
Some would call it admirable, others would call it poor business sense, but nothing changes the fact that Licina will always own all of his music. He’s vowed not to give up his rights to anything he’s written. Though having been carried by several record companies, including Bader, he’s now at the home of Studio V, a subdivision of Brainstorm Comics, where he decides who steps behind the scenes of his latest works.
But you can bet it won’t be many. He’s content at recording, mixing, producing, designing and packaging all his own sounds, no matter how hard the work.
When asked where he gets all his inspiration - his music - Licina confidently states, “The world - that’s what The Dark Theater means. The world is a movie theater. We live in a 360-degree movie. Unlike the Brady Bunch, “It’s not a sunshine day all the time.”
“You keep your eyes open and you see what’s happening. You absorb it and you spit it out.”
With all the experience, Licina is not afraid to admit he has no college degree. He had a scholarship to the conservatory, but “blew it off to go on the road.” He’s a firm believer that “you can learn what you want to learn.” With his own passion and a library card, he learned and lived.
With years of business and music sense under his belt, Licina now has his own recording studio, Primal Screem Recordings, which he has built into his home.
“I got tired of paying $100 an hour to go record somewhere,” he says, and now spends anywhere from a mere few to 14 hours per day in the studio which cost in the range of $30,000 to $50,000 to construct. It’s here that he has a 24-track digital Adat XT - 40 channel board, tons of effects, and, ironically, a Roland S-50 sampler, 61-key keyboard.
His newest instrument, which will appear on the new record, is a 10-stringed instrument that’s base is an armadillo. That, along with 20 or so other instruments, including sampled sounds, will mesh into his next correlation.
Licina admits that many sounds on some of his albums are in fact sampled sounds. Unlike using sounds already built into a keyboard, the musician will sample a sound of what he wants, then program it to be used with the keyboard.
“I’m not a sound geek,” though, “I like to use whatever’s useful.”
Another project will emerge in January - Debbie Rochon, Tammy Parks, Christine Cavalier and Stephanie Pitt will perform on The Spice Girls parody, entitled “The Slice Girls,” masterminded by John Russo (Night of the Living Dead).
Licina will also be working on the Nightmare on Wheels score (movie featuring Doug Bradley - Pinhead), and he’ll be starring in Russo’s 1-900-VAMPIRE (no release date set).
As if it all weren’t enough, fans of varied music, and those who carry a horror interest, can visit Licina at
http://www.screemjams.com or http://www.brainstormcomics.com
Average CD’s retail at $12.95, and can be ordered by calling (910) 323-9686.