Lydia Arachne; Semaphora
Sometimes an artist’s project lands on the music scene with a loud thud, engaging all to look up and see what it’s all about. Semaphora, the brainchild of New Haven’s Lydia Arachne, a band concept similar to Alan Parsons Project, hit the Connecticut music scene about three years ago. Multi-instrumentalist Arachne had a plan and a vision to create gripping music for people looking for something different.
“My main goal when I started Semaphora was to get better at communicating through music,” Arachne said.. “After playing dozens of sets in front of completely indifferent audiences, I started thinking more about what I wanted to say and who I wanted to say it to, and how to reach people who were interested in the same things and ideas as me by writing songs about them.”
Arachne does not want to play music that appeals to a general audience. She is making the kind of music that she would want to listen to while looking for music fans who have an interest in what she is releasing on CD and performing at her live shows.
“That’s one of the reasons the project is called Semaphora,” Arachne said. “Semaphore is a code based on flags, so Semaphora is like planting a flag somewhere to announce what I’m doing and seeing who responds to that signal.”
Lydia Arachne drummiing
Preferring to write about society rather than pen another love song, Arachne’s concept for her recent debut release Sister Administrator came about when she wanted to explore human beings and their relationship to technology. A nun on her album cover is a Sister Administrator in the sense she can tend to one’s soul or tend to a page as an admin. The album cover’s nun tends to a hurt dog with code printed on her arms, indicating her dual symbolism. Arachne produced the album herself at Long Island Sound Studios in Stratford, Connecticut and Forest Lodge 1926 in Oxford, Connecticut.
“I tend to write songs about things that not everyone else writes songs about,” she said. “I wrote some songs already that fit the themes of power and relationship with technology as far as how it’s changed our society. We have different technologies. Then, it came time to make this album that was sort of the theme. I wrote a few other songs to fit that theme. Some of the songs on that album are pretty old, actually. I wrote them in maybe 2012, 2013.”
“In my own life I’ve seen so many rapid changes in technology that I’ve been moved in ways I wouldn’t have necessarily chosen,” she said.. It’s no fun being dragged along by it. I’m not the biggest fan of technology. If you go through the words on the album that’s pretty clear.”
Arachne’s previous Semaphora album Zoonotic was about human beings’ relationship with animals. Its song “Keep Your Head Low, Washoe” is about the first chimpanzee, the storied Washoe, to learn American sign language The fourth track “Modern Dinosaur” is about chickens because birds, including chickens, are the living desendents of dinosaurs.
Arachne, about a decade ago, relocated to Connecticut from Buffalo, New York to study political science at the University of Bridgeport. She came to enter the Connecticut music scene the old fashioned way.
Lydia Arachne; keyboards
“When I moved to Connecticut, I started going to open mics and live shows to meet other musicians,” she said. “I met Liz Ashkins, one of the singers for Semaphora, at an open mic in my first week after moving here. Eventually, I got some opportunities to play in bands, sometimes playing covers and sometimes playing other people’s original music, and I did that for a few years before doing anything with my own songs, playing with groups like Rudeyna and the Travis Tribble Band.”
Being able to play over 15 instruments competently was the initial reason why Arachne has made quite a splash in the Connecticut music scene. Music has always been in her genes. Her father plays bass. Her mother plays piano. “I picked up those two from them. From there, I just get bored easily.”
Necessity often directs Arachne to learn new instruments. “When I needed a drummer for a recording, I taught myself. I’ve had a lot of musician friends I learned from. For the latest album, I knew I wanted some saxophone and horn parts. I don’t really know that many saxophone players locally. I decided that was something I wanted to learn, so I learned it.”
A task master, Arachne does not have a regular day job. Music is the main thing she does with her life, which includes teaching private music lessons. “That’s what I have put my energy toward,” Arachne said. Because she is so immersed in the Connecticut music scene, she did not and does not have to look far to find the well rated singers for her Semaphora albums. Elizabeth Ashkins, Gina Rizzo, Alyssa Morrin, Monica Rizzo, and David Reeves
Lydia Arachne far left; Semaphora at New Haven Pride 2019
“They’re all my friends and my relatives,” she said. “They are all excellent singers. But, they’re all people that I knew in real life already. They wanted to be a part of the project, or I wanted them to be a part of the project. There really was no audition process at all.”
For the Semaphora lives shows, Arachne must use other players to fill out her sound while she plays bass guitar or keyboards. Filling those positions is easier than one might think because of where Arachne is located.
“The music scene in Connecticut is full of great musicians. My band is just made up of people I’ve met through the local scene by playing with different groups and meeting people at shows,” Arachne said.
For the time being, Arachne has at least two more albums of Semaphora music in the works. She’s hoping that one of those will be ready around the end of this year. The composer plans to release a series of videos after having released one last year for the Sister Administrator track “Bajir.”.
“I also eventually want to expand what we do with the live show, maybe add a horn section, maybe add a visual presentation that ties in with the themes of the songs,” Arachne said. “I’ve also never done a real tour before. That may be something that happens with Semaphora in the near future.”
