The_Raven_Times_7_-_ENG

The Raven Times 07 - October 2009 - 1

Guess who’s back?editorial by Steve Sic and Jenny

After too many long months of absence, OMNIA’s “Raven Times” is back with a vengance! Thanx to the combined forces of this editions’ RavenTimes team Kaat, Femke,Célie, Maja (the artist formely known as Bienchen),and Marius, the Raven Times lives again and it’s better than ever! With over 9000 PaganC-lan members who are reading it now together with you! (three chears for the team!). After a very mov-ing and chaotic summer in the World of Omnia the season has finally started its inevitable passage into autumn, the time of harvest, the time to reap the fruits of what has been sown. And oh! What a harvest we have! OMNIA went over some very dangerous ground with many pitfalls and bandits along the road, on our musical and spiritual journey through life and I can’t say we came through without a scratch. But looking at where we stand now, we can honestly say with all our hearts that we are so proud of the end result! Because you were walking with us all the way! Even when we felt completely lost and alone ,(and we have had to shed many a bitter tear in total despair during the months before Castlefest) But apparently you guys were still out there, never giving up hope that we would come out allright and live to make more crazy music and art for yet another day!This colourful army of fairies and poets, this growing wave of nature lovers and freedom fighters of which we are a part, is the most wonderful thing we have ever experienced in the human jungle we inhabit. Your energy has kept us alive!When Steve wrote his “Incomprehensible Blog nr. 16” on our OMNIA newspage, we had no idea how many of you would be inspired by our decision and by our simple conviction to remain true to the dreams we share together. Your messages of joy on our guestbook, on our forum, and especially the countless

personal letters, mails and conversations, have filled our hearts with hope and strength and the absolute determina-tion to stay on this weird path we have chosen, no matter what happens. To us, OMNIA is literally “Everything”, well, obviously because OMNIA is what we wake up with in the morning and it’s what fills each of our days, all year round. It’s what our dreams, our philosophy and our personal re-ligion are built out of. Of course OMNIA is all important to US...But it’s only now that we’ve realised just how impor-tant OMNIA is to all of YOU.

So, don’t worry, as long as our hearts can still pump blood we’ll keep on making our music and spreading our mes-sage. And we’ll walk the road together with you, no mat-ter where it leads us.

Love, Respect and Thanx!

Steve Sic & Jenny

2 - The Raven Times 07 - October 2009

Breaking news and gossipsby Steve Sic

We have a new drummer! He’s called Tom!

And he’s very good indeed. The new OMNIA drum-dude is very young, very funny, and wow! He can drum! Sometimes it feels as if I’m in a metal bands nowadays, I keep seeing bits of broken drumsticks flying into the audience because Tommy wacks his instruments with such power and enthusiasm! See his introduction in this edition of the Raven Times...

Have you noticed? It’s getting colder! So....the hoodies are back in the merchandise shop.


Our golden oldie “Crone of War” CD is finally back in print and will be available again soon... Nostalgia!

“Live Religion” is now, sadly, officially a collector’s item because it’s out of print and will not return (you might still find some copies through-out Germany and possibly in some shops in Holland, but we don’t have them anymore).

Because we need some cash fast so we can get back into the studio soon, we’ve decided to make our DVD “Pagan Folk Lore” a lot cheaper to stimulate some more of you to buy it (instead of just watching it on the internet...really the book I wrote and Illustrated together with Uncle Alan and Miez is a work of art and worth having)...

The real “World of Omnia” CD in a groovy digipac will be released ‘prop-erly’ in November 2009 for shops and foreign distribution.

The “OMNIA Lottery” connected to the “World Of Omnia”-”Limited numbered edition” CD will be held as soon as all 3000 of this special edition have been sold. There are less than 500 left now so it shouldn’t take too long! The winning numbers will be publicised on our website and (ofcourse) in the RavenTimes!


The OMNIA website will be upgraded! We have found a fantastic Omnia-mind-ed web designer/programmer called Marius who will bring life back into our stagnated website (actually, he found us, he’s a member of the Pagan Clan!). To-gether with his lovely girlfriend Marijke he’ll upgrade www.worldofomnia.com into the 3rd millennium of multimedia. So watch out for the changes to come!

Our own personal paparazzi Marcel Bakker will be running our photo pages on the Omnia web-site from now on! So expect a better updated photo gallery (we get by with a little help from our friends)! If you make great pictures at any future Omnia gig, you can select the best and send a maximum of 12 shots directly to Mar-cel...([email protected]) and then possibly your pictures will appear on the World of Omnia website.


Sic is a twittering twit!I’m practising using this new nonsense bla bla medium now.

Check out my silly pointless posts on www.twitter.com/worldofomnia


Special intimate OMNIA-”Old School” Gig!

We would like to share some of the weird and moving stories and anecdotes of the past 13 years of OMNIA on tour with you!, so be prepared for some gripping tales of humour and horror by Jenny, Luka and Steve Sic punctuat-ed by the intimate music like we used to play on street corners and for ourselves and our friends....

We’ve decided to organise one special “Back to our Roots” gig to honour the past of OMNIA and the recent decisions we’ve made. “INTIMATE OMNIA” will be held in our favourite cosy Pim Jacobs Theatre in Maarssen (NL) on the 13th of December 2009. Jenny, Luka and myself will per-form just like we used to in the old days.

So that means NO big show, NO flashy lights and roaring crowd, just three pagans (possibly a few friends), a handfull of acoustic instruments and a small crowd (the theatre will even put down pillows as well as the usual chairs to sit on). Dresscode: Omnia shirt or “Old School” (what-ever that means to you). (an ecological dinner buffet is available in the theatre)Tickets wil be € 21,-. For reservations call 0346 - 57 49 12 or go to www.pimjacobstheater.nl ...


Fairy Ball III Xtra Sexy! On Valentine’s Day! ♥

Yo! All you nature-loving fairies, knights, nymphs and other denizens of the Green Lands of Fantasy! At last we will be having another Fairy Ball.(Yeah!!) It will be held in Bibelot, a music venue in a converted church in Dordrecht (NL)! There will be OMNIA, there will be Balfolk dancing, there will be lots of our friends performing as our honoured guests.So come on over to Bibelot on the 14th of February 2010 and we’ll make love in the church!

Dresscode this time will be sexy or lovable fairy/fantasy style or all in black/Omnia shirt (for the visitors as well as on stage!).

Tickets will be €21,- For reservations go to: www.bibelot.net


OMNIA NEEDS YOU!by Steve Sic

well, what can I say? The title says enough. We need you guys to help us, Omnia. You see, we have decided to keep on ‘being a free Omnia’ and doing things our own way, but our clan, our music and our message has become to big to do it all by ourselves, so we turn to you....Maybe you feel you’d like to step in a little deeper into our world?....“But what can I do?” you might ask.Well: How about this:


It would be great if Omnia fans and sympathisers in all the different countries form into several ‘Tribes”! Each ‘Tribe” would have it’s own name (and probably it’s own language) and on big international festivals the different tribes of the Pagan Clan could gather and meet more easily.They will communicate more easily together because they will be coordinated by tribal messengers, for each seperate area. this way, each group will be capable of organising and undertaking important but fun ‘quests’ for Omnia & the Pagan Clan.

Each language-area will be coordinated by a Tribe-mother who is connected to us,who will communicate with the tribe messengers who can then communicate with the individual PaganClan members that want to help us and who would like to be more active in the PaganClan to undertake “Quests”.

for the German language area the Tribe mother will be Bienchen (Maja)for the French language area the Tribe mother will be Julie (Ju)for the Dutch language area the Tribe mother will be Monique Bakkerfor the English language area it must still be decided. So Jenny will temporarily fill that role.

Quests could be something like:

1-Scouting for festivals and venues where we could play and giving them promotion material so they might book us (the tribe messengers will have all the exact details for what is needed for a gig and what kind of places you could look for)

2-Spreading Omnia flyers around in cool places like your local LARP group, the pub you go to, your lo-cal concert venue, your favourite esoteric “shoppe”, the “young conservatives’ tennis club”, your local primary school, and well, you get the idea...

3-Talking to people about Omnia (if you don’t already) and spread the music around. Get more people to register and join the PaganClan.

And like a tribe of fairies we could also do very freaky things! If we do them together at the same time like everybody planting as many trees as possible on one day in big cities all over Europe while singing ‘Bumblebees and Blossom only trees and me” it could be fun! You know, silly, yet useful stuff (and we’ll talk about the swords and axes later ;-) )

So first of all we are looking for people willing to become “Tribe-Messengers”.Are you good with people and do you like communicating with others? Are you a Nature loving Pagan in your heart? Are you already in contact with a group of PaganClan members? Do you want to spend some of your free time on helping out OMNIA and the PaganClan? Can you hold a group together around you and distribute information and flyers and stuff to “your tribe”? If you can answer yes to the above questions, then we want you to write to ([email protected]) write PAGANCLAN as subject ,tell us some details about yourself and why you want to do this ,send along a picture of yourself (and your group if you already have one). And we’ll see if we can make a dif-ference in this weird world together!

When we have all the Tribe messengers established then we’ll let you all know through a news letter who they are and where they live, and then everybody who wants to be active in the PaganClan can decide which one lives closest and then contact them directly to hear what the coming plans for Quests are and what they can do to be involved.


My 10 years with Omniaby Kaat

I was first introduced to OMNIA in September 2001, almost ten years ago now, when they performed a show for “Dummnoni Chronicles”, this was a Roleplaying weekend in the neo-Celtic setting. The band line-up of Omnia today is nothing like what they had back in those days, but I remember fondly how the former band-member Miez (who now works as a graphic designer for Omnia), sang the first version of

the ‘Crone of War’ together with Steve Sic and Luka and with the combination of fierce shouting and singing dragged our entire group of drunken, dancing Celts into a state of trance. One of the first things I noticed was how unique and authentic this group of people is. This was no act I was watching, this was real…

Over the course of the next two years I had more wonderful meetings with Om-nia.

In the summer of 2002, in a tipi on the ‘’Elf Fantasy Fair’ a wiccan from England was giving a lecture and was leading a ritual when I heard the sound of Omnia-drums coming through from outside. It immediately drew my attention away from the woman who was trying hard to be regarded as a very serious wiccan and I left the tent and hurried over to the place where Omnia was playing in order to not miss anything. Back in those days it was still a brilliantly funny theatrical show with lots and lots of music added. I became aware that the music produced by Omnia is a much more powerful ritual than any other I know. I could literally lose myself in the music and it felt like coming home.


Summer 2003: Jenny joined the band with the harp. Still a bit shy I bought their demo CD “OMNIA-3”with just 4 songs on it. I remember thinking: “What a beautiful harpist!”. I still can see the three of them (Luka, Steve Sic and Jenny) sitting also quite shyly behind their ‘CD table’.

Luka suggested that year to me to listen to a band that was ‘kind of like Omnia’ from Germany called FAUN. Oliver’s voice soon filled my rooms at home and the music I felt quickly at home with. My first conversation with Steve wasn’t even about their music, but it was about how much I seemed to have in common with a close German friend of theirs named Oliver Sa Tyr… how’s that for coincidence?


Somewhere along the way the contact with Omnia became a close friendship. I remember the beginning of 2004 when I invited Om-nia and the other crew-members of their “OMNIA et Kaos” fire-stunt act (a side act that OMNIA used to do), to come for dinner in“Herberg de Mol”, a medieval tavern in my hometown Delft.

I think that from that day onwards there was a feeling of mutual trust and enjoyment towards one another. Who knows, the amounts of mead that night might have had something to do with it, but at the end of that evening we all expressed the feeling of being soul mates.


From that moment on I joined my friends of Omnia often, as with the ‘Anti-Balkenende’ demonstration (the Ass that is trying to be the Dutch prime minister)

Or I partied with them in the privately rented prehistoric Iron-age houses in Eindhoven. I joined the ZAP-front as ‘Sister Kaat’, where we performed all sorts of ZAP McClannad Acts for the gathering crowd on ‘Danu Day ‘ There I met with their guest-musician Oliver again. His winks to me gave me butterflies still days after the concert.

This is the head Sic made for that demo!


In the summer of 2004 & 2005 I was helping Omnia as their constant merchandise-babe together with Joanna, Joe’s girlfriend, and I went on all sorts of adventures with Omnia in Holland and abroad.

My world now literally became bigger. I got introduced to Faun personally for the first time at Folkwoods 2004. We were camping the whole weekend together with the bands Omnia and Faun as one big family, with great weather & atmosphere.


Later we had a bizarre trip to Hungary and traveled to, a sometimes very rainy, Germany. Like at the Festival in Poing, where we travelled all the way to South Germany, without the opportunity to perform because of a terrible storm. Last year we also journeyed to Steve’s homeland of Cornwall and went there on a long walk, like the Fellowship, along the magical coastline of Tintagel.

We watched the stars during a summer night’s walk in Luxembourg. Hilarious were all the free hours we got to spend as a big group with Steve as our unofficial leader before and after gigs and of legendary beauty was the festival in Switzerland in 2007 where Omnia performed in a city in the middle of the swiss mountains that allowed a wonderful view of the entire valley.


During all these travels I met a lot of artists and free spirits and with some of them I became real good friends, especially considering we kept running into one another at various European festivals.Many people gave us the impression that they shared the same frequency or “spirit” and meet-ing them immediately felt comfortable and familiar. In this way we became for example really good friends with the people from Faun, Valravn and Irfan.They are all now part of our ‘Pagan family on the Road’. With stories about the funny or scary places we sometimes slept in and what kind of ridiculous “vegetarian” foods we were sometimes served for dinner I could fill another few pages. But packed with incense, massage oil, instruments or a good mp3 player any hotel was quickly trans-formed into a temporary home. I wouldn’t have missed it for the world. Traveling with Omnia taught me more how to be free and showed me how many like-minded people there actually are. My friend-ship with Omnia also created that I got to spend time together with Oliver from Faun more and more often. The result of that is our long term relationship. Ever since that time I have also started to travel with Faun and we keep running into Omnia at various festivals.


Inspired by all the musical talent around me I started in 2005 with Bodhran and singing lessons and in 2006 I began with the Nyckelharpa. I got my Nyckelharpa by an unexpected offer from a priest and was lucky enough to be taught to play it by the Swedish Nyckelharpa goddesses Ditte Anderson and Sonia Sahlstrom and at home Olivier helps me to learn to master the subtleties of this amazing instru-ment.So now nearly ten years after first meeting them, I sometimes join Omnia on stage as a guest-musician

My first show was at Fairy Ball II in December 2008. It was incredibly exciting and super fun! The ex-perience to be on a stage and become part of a professional production, and it being my first show as a musician – ever, was truly astonishing. Playing with Omnia at Castlefest and on Festival Medieaval with Valravn was yet another confirmation that this is what I want to do. I am looking forward to more experiences playing live on a stage with Omnia (likeon “FairyBall 3-Valentines day special” next year) and to grow in this and in my own music projects. *hugs to all*

Kaat

www.myspace.com/lavenderfolk


Behind the song: “Old Man Tree”by Steve Sic

Jenny, myself and our pretty instruments were staying in a little wooden chalet in the middle of beautiful forests and rocky hills in the Belgian Ardennes. We love going there to relax and to ‘clean our souls’ from all the stress of working (running Omnia can be pretty tough sometimes). There are absolutely no distractions there (no phone, no internet) and all we do is walk through the forest, look at the pretty birds and plants, sleep, eat, read, make love and simply enjoy being alive! Our minds can become quiet and a tranquil space forms within us. And it’s this mental space which gets filled with music if we let it! When all the thoughts stop, the art can flow freely and the new songs are born from that emptyness.


In this forest was a tree (well, obviously there were many trees, but this one was special): A huge gnarly oak, twisted and very old, stood in a clearing. Some years before a human-monkey had obviously tried to kill it by cutting all around the trunk with a chainsaw, to sever the sap flow through the bark (like cutting a human’s throat). But this tree had somehow survived. A lot of it was dead and mushrooms and other fungoid parasites were all over it. Birds fluttered through it and wasps had burrowed a nest inside it’s mighty trunk, but still this oak lived, sprouting leaves and life from it’s upper branches and standing tall under the sky. In the twisted shapes of it’s branches and knotholes we could clearly see the shape of a man, majestic and mysterious as an Inuit shaman. We hugged the tree (as one does), made some offer-ings and sat there to meditate (and smoke) a while before we continued our forest walk. The next morning as I was taking a shower, I recalled the impressive oak we had seen and ....BAM!Like lightning, a complete song sprang into my head (no kidding) I heard the tune, I heard the lyrics, it was all there...flowing from the mental image of that tree. I rushed from the shower (driping water all over the place) to my bouzouki and started finding the chords to play it....But the chords were in a Major key! (we always write in Minor keys because they sound prettier). But this song needed to be Major...and I knew it was right because the words started to flow (like the melody), so after 30 minutes of frantic scribbling I had an (almost) complete song with a kind of “Mainstream” feel but a very shamanic under-ground in text and meaning. Later that day, Jenny and me worked on it together to discover the rest of this song and to find out which of our instruments wanted to play it and so it ended up becoming the piano-vocal piece you know as “Old Man Tree”.

It was a gift. From nature to the tree, from the tree to us, from us to you... Now that’s living religion!


It is not very easy to introduce oneself in only few

words. We never really know where to begin. Well, the simplest thing is to begin with

the beginning.My name is Célie, I am 22 years old, and I live in the south of France where I study History and Anthropol-ogy.I consider myself as a dreamer, searching for all types of enchantments. This may probably be explained by the fact that my mother and my grand mother (who was Britton) often told me celtic tales and legends when I was a child. And since then, my taste for the marvellous has never stopped to grow. That’s certain-ly why I have a passion for Fairy Folklore, books, and all types of arts, and why becoming a writer would be one of my biggest dreams.As far as I am concerned, if the reader can feel beau-tiful emotions, if his soul is filled with wonder, and if he can travel beyond the imagination, just by reading my texts, then it would be the most beautiful reward for me.Moreover, I am also deeply attached to Nature. In or-der to explain you this, the simplest thing is to speak about one of my other passions: surfing, because it give me the possibility to communion with Nature.Surfing is not really a sport in my opinion, it is far more than that, like a way of life.Surfing is like being in total harmony with all the things that are around us, it is to listen to the way the world can quiver, understand its vibrations, and then taking off.When I surf, I forget everything which may have a link with my problems, I only think about the ocean, the rythm of the waves, freedom that I feel so intensely, the luck I have to be here, in harmony with everything.Because, you know, going through every wave, it is like overcoming the adversities of life, and surfing a wave is like finding the perfect balance in yourself, besides feeling deeply happy.This is the way I feel OMNIA: Harmony with Nature, freedom, emotions, wonder.I never felt something as strong as this with an other band.OMNIA, it is as if the hearts of every living beings in this world were beating as one, in order to join the soul of the Earth.OMNIA, it is a music which makes me feel so ‘Alive!’, which awakes so much life in my body, in my flesh, as well as in my soul, then I simply cannot live without OMNIA since I discovered this wonderful band in 2004.That’s why I really would like to thank Steve and Jenny with all my heart, for giving me the wonderful chance to take part in the adventure of OMNIA, and to be involved in the PaganClan. It really means a lot for me.And I wish that this fantastic adventure goes on for a long time ☺

Love, trees and fireflies,

Célie.

Introducing Célie, our new translator for the French RavenTimes Team.


New Songs in the THEATRE!by Steve Sic

In our upcoming “World of Omnia” Theater Tour we will be trying out loads of new songs that Jenny and me have written (and are writing) The styles will vary wherever the music takes us.Here are a few titles of songs you might hear us play, and a little background information so you come prepared:

The long-awaited “WolfSong” which is very dark and bloody drama based on the original story of “Little Red Riding Hood” and a Werewolf...

“Cornwall”, an autobiographical piece about me and the country I grew up in (although it should become the new Cornish National Anthem ;-) )

“Taranis” (remember?), well, think “Rammstein meets Omnia” and you have it

”Moon” a trance-meditation piece on hammered dulcimer.

and, well...you’ll just have to hear them to find out!We’re practising with the band now to get these and many more songs into our new “World of Omnia” Theater Tour as it progresses....Come and check it out!


Luka’s life in 10 easy picturesby Luka

My turn to show some of my history in old grainy pictures! I hope it is worth the long wait, since I had a hard time scraping some of the pics together (especially the old ones) as some of them laid scattered elsewhere in the world in dusty boxes on someone else’s attic. Now without further ado; enjoy!

The proof that I was once small; here’s a pic of me on my go-kart next to my mum. She stood less than 1,70m tall, so that gives a bit of a size indication of me at the age of 3..

What the hell was I looking at? I don’t remem-ber, but the ancient design wallpaper and the poster of Earth, Wind and Fire in the back-ground (this was the room of my older brothers, really) indicates that this photo must have been taken a looong time ago..


I quickly grew very tall, but I stayed skinny as hell! I’m about twelve on this pic, throwing a crummy self made (but work-ing!) boomerang. After messing around with a piece of old plywood, a saw and sanding paper I was able to do some Ab-original re-enactment on the heathland of North Brabant.. And what about the didgeridoo? Well, I knew what one sounded like, but I had never actually seen one at that time. But it sounded surprisingly simi-lar to the vacuum cleaner tube..

About eight years old and already too big for my “cross bike”. This was before BMX’s or mountain bikes were even invented. Trying to lvook as cool as possible on my muscle powered chopper.


Oh dear. What interests does a typical teenage boy from North-Brabant have? Go fasta lads! Not my ride though. Flight goggles on, I imagined I was fly-ing in a plane. No, I’m not insane, just crazy.

Nyaaargh! Me with short hair and no beard! This pic was taken when I was about 20 and aspired to become a pho-tographer and graphics designer and do something useful with my life. *Sigh* At least now I know what happens when you try to become an artist...


I always liked fooling around with weapons, although some-times things got a bit out of hand.. This is me getting corny with some fiends, an old bow and a camera.


This is from the very beginning of Omnia, our second show!Newspaper photo of me starring as Anguz the Celtic Gladiator beating the crap out of René the Retiarius. Luckily this picture was taken before my tartan pants slipped from my butt during this very fight, revealing my not-so-historically-correct yellow boxer shorts...


As you can see, since that time I enjoy every minute I perform with Omnia. This was our last off-stage (directly on the grass in the field, in front of our hysterically correct olive drab Celtic Army tent) performance in Schifflange, Luxemburg. Great candid shot by Uschi Jung, but there’s this totally weird looking guy standing next to me..

Nowadays I’m a responsible father. Here I’m teaching my daughter Branwyn how to behave in public.


Who will be the new bandmember of OMNIA?by Steve Sic

But who? We asked Yoast (Joost van Es) to join us on his fiddle and guitar during Castlefest and he has also helped us on some gigs where Joe couldn’t come.

But sadly he is a very busy session musician who also has his own Bluegrass band Four Wheel Drive ( www.myspace.com/4wdbluegrass) and he just can’t commit the amount of time and energy needed to be a weird Omnia musician. So sadly we’ve had to say goodbye to Yoast as the “ new bandmember”, although I’m sure you will see and hear him guest with us in the future.

As we mentioned on our website some months ago, we need an extra musician on stage be-cause Joe is starting to have problems with his busy time table due to his very important job for the EC. Don’t forget, Joe is our executive Pagan. He is the official spokesperson to the Vice Presi-dent of the European Commission in Brussels. Joe hobnobs with the high and mighty, dines with presidents and charms princesses and that’s mega cool. And although he will probably be at most gigs in the future, some are hard for him to do, and sadly he has very little time to work on new material. So we have decided to look for somebody to join us. Then we’ll play with a 6-piece band when Joe is there and as a 5-piece when he isn’t. This way we can keep on developing new composi-tions and we won’t have to cancel gigs.


So who is it gonna be?Well seeing as you guys know us the best, we thought it would be cool to ask you first! So:

- Are you a Musician (either woman/man/alien/fairycreature,animal or otherwise) ?- Can you play the guitar like Joe and/or Kyle Gass? (Tenacious D)

- Do you like, know and play Omnia music? - Do you play any more instruments and/or do you sing as well?- Do you get a kick out of performing on stage in front of very strange people?- Have you got time on your hands to do a lot of practise? And to sit in a cramped van for whole days driving to strange festivals and castles and theatres all over Europe? - Do you look like Johnny Depp or Salma Hayek? (just kidding).

- Could you use some money? (not a lot though because we quit the ‘big time’ remember?).- Do you live in or near Holland (especially Utrecht)? - Do you like working with lunatics?

If you’ve answered the above questions with a “yes” (or if you’re Johnny Depp or Salma Hayek) then it could be YOU we are waiting for. If so: Put some videomaterial of you playing the guitar (and other stuff if you have it) on Youtube and send a link and some info about yourself to: [email protected] (NEW BAND MEMBER) or ask for a postal address to send a CD or DVD...

And who knows? Maybe we’ll play in a band together sometimes soon....

Greenthingz!

Steve Sic, Jenny, Luka, Joe and Tom.


Signing Sessions can get dangerous!(a little explanation)

by Steve Sic and Jenny

Oh yeah, and the band pictures we always love doing,but AFTER the signing session (same reason as above).

NEXT!!:o) :o)

Do you ever wonder what it’s like to do a ‘signing session’ of more than an hour for hundreds of people who wait in line for you? Let me tell you

about it. I know a lot of you really appreciate it if you can just come and say hi! to the band and shake hands or get a CD or poster signed to take home as a

‘momento’ of a great gig (I’ve also done this a lot with bands I like!). For us as a band it’s great to see you guys ‘up close’ and the biggest compliment a band can get of course, even though we are of-ten very tired and a little spaced out after playing a show. But we normally perk up quickly just by your cool energy (especially if Jenny and me have to duo-sign some pretty boobs! That always wakes me up..hihihi...oops, ahem, I digress).Because of the sheer number of fans who would like a ‘bit of attention’ from us after gigs, it has become necessary to sometimes ‘rush’ people along, to avoid the other people waiting in the line getting crushed or frustrated. You see, if one of you wants a long conversation with one of us and stands still too long, the entire line gets blocked and people start squeezing and muttering and before long ‘ugly scenes’ can happen. And we don’t want that happening to our fans! (a small kiddie almost got crushed once, right in front of us!) That’s why we have a simple guideline that if it’s really busy we can’t answer more than one or two simple questions, as we sign your CD/DVD/Poster/Boobs/Bottom/Shoes/drinking Horn/Bag/Mo-bile Phone, etcetera etcetera, because every single one of you, standing in that line, is important to us, and we can’t give more time to one person, because that would mean less or NO time for the ones still waiting (you see, we are just human and after 1,5 hours we have to stop to avoid going crazy, or fainting from hunger while dinner is getting cold backstage, or still having to pack and drive home, so there is no unlimited time).If you have really long questions or statements for us, it’s always easier to send them by email and don’t try it in a signing session. Or you might find a way to speak to us personally at a different time (although this can be hard at festivals), or you could write it down, give it to us, and we’ll read it later in peace.


INTERVIEW with TOMby Femke

1 A fairly new face at OMNIA! Please introduce yourself to the PaganClan?

Hey everyone! My name is Tom Spaan. I was born twenty-three years ago in Nederwetten, a small town near Eindhoven in the south of Holland. After eighteen years of relative peace and quiet, and after sev-eral habitats in various Dutch cities I came back to Eindhoven where I have been living for three years now. Since I was eight I have been messing around with drums, started playing in a marching band. I took music lessons and through self-studies I went from student to teacher, I currently teach percussion groups give private lessons. En of course, I have become a performing artist at OMNIA! A wonderful honour and a true challenge. Besides music I have been educated in theatre techniques. I specialized in lights and lightboard operating. I have always been attracted to the creative side and feel right at home there. I came into contact with Omnia through Arvid, our light engineer. We work together allot in the world of theatrical light and for this project too he took me under his wing as his back-up. There will be very few people who know that during the “European Roots” tour last year it was me who worked the lights during two of the shows. When Mich decided to quit Omnia and they were desperately looking for a new drum-mer the decision to apply was easily made and every since that moment things happened rather quickly. Which brings us to today and here I am, introducing myself in this interview.

2. As a child, what did you wanted to do when you grew up?

Hah! What didn’t I want to do! I once said I wanted to be a fireman, professional musician, pro-soccer player, ski-instructor and pilot. Besides that I wanted to be as happy as my parents, get a couple of chil-dren and live in a big house. Drive nice cars, marry and move to a country where it didn’t rain as often.

3.Did any of those dreams came true?

Being a kid is over way too fast. All too soon you are thrust into the world of harsh facts and the bitter reality when you find out that as a fireman you need the body of a boxer and the energy of a pro-athlete. As a kid I was an active soccer player, well, sort of. I was a goalie and as such you run less miles than the rest of the team does. When I got busier with my musical career the week became shorter and shorter and I was forced to choose between sports and music. Without actually realizing it this became one of the most important decisions in my life. Once you’ve gotten used to doing fun stuff without getting tired you soon realize that becoming a fireman or cop isn’t so realistic anymore. Growing up in a small town the idea of becoming a professional soccer player only seems possible in the big cities far away. Also I came to realize that being a ski-instructor was only possible in the winter. Making music was the thing I was enjoying most of all, but I very consciously chose not to go to the conservatorium. All around me I saw how few people actually manage to be able to earn their money making music, especially in classical music. To make sure I was not going to be locked up inside a musicschool for the next thirty years I chose to keep at my self-studies of music and aim for the world of theatre and events. “If I ever going to make money making music then it will happen no-matter what I’ve studied”. And look at me now…


4. What dreams do you have of your future?

I hope I will always be able to do the things I like. I have managed to do that for a while now and I hope I can keep it up. I’m not the kinda guy to make a five-year-forecast. I live in the now and worrying about the future is a waste of energy. You’re not really in control anyways. At this moment in time I want to grow in my passion for making lights as well as making and teaching music. There’s so much left there to learn and experience. I now have the opportunity to really immerse myself. I think I am still young enough to have children at a later date, to marry and to move. That time will come. My most important goal in life I have already achieved; to be happy. With Omnia I hope to conquer the world and perhaps reach everyone who has not yet heard of us. What an audience that can become! And who knows where our message will reach. It’s time to change things here on this earth.

5. What’s the best things about being an artist.

You get the chance to show the world what you do and what you represent. The appreciation you get for it is priceless. What Omnia has built up in the last couple of years at for instance Castlefest is quite astonishing. People who stand in line for an hour to get an autograph, cheer for you when you introduce yourself with a drum-solo and want to have the drumsticks you just smashed. Wow, that’s quite some attention. Luckily I am a fairly laid-back guy and have a quite clear-headed look on life, so my head’s not yet in the clouds. I enjoy each and every minute I am on stage and hope I have something to add to new material.

6. Did you experience some wild adventure with Omnia already? If so, would you like to share it with us?

One of the first things people who don’t know me ask me is: “How did you end up becoming the drummer in Omnia”. Well, this is quite a story on its own. As I already mentioned I was back-up for light-guy Arvid during last year’s theatre tour. When you’re working the same location you do want to get to know the people you work with and soon they knew about me also being active as a drummer. I lent Omnia my drum kit for the recording sessions of “World of Omnia” so even though I am not playing on the album my drums are heard. During the troublesome adventure Omnia went through last year Mich decided to quit the band. This provided them with a chal-lenge. It’s Tuesday afternoon, coming Saturday you have a gig at the Archeon and you don’t have a drum-mer. I received a call with that message and the question if I wanted to fill the gap. I knew the show and was familiar with the drums. It just so happened, I had a meeting in Rotterdam on Wednesday, a course to teach on Thursday and a light-show to do in Norway on Friday, but oh well: “Send me the sheet-music and the mp3s and we’ll make it happen!” When I found out there was no sheet-music it became interest-ing. I spent every available minute of those few days writing down the notes so that I had the Friday to study the tracks and the drums. That’s one of the best things about being a drummer, you can practice on a desk, a bed or even your legs. When I arrived Saturday, after only two hours of sleep, in Mijdrecht, we only had time to play every song once. Then we loaded our equipment into the van and headed on to the Archeon. With the sheet music in front of me we managed to give the audience one hell of a show. Oh, a nice little detail I forgot to mention was that “Morrigan” is played at most gigs. I had never heard that song from the theatretours. I wrote down the rhythm and was instructed to play: “Hard and fast!”. Well, I did, about twice as fast as I was supposed to I drummed everyone else out of the song and Steve had to intervene! After he told the audience why and about the fact that I was only playing with them for say, an hour, a cheering rose from the audience that I will forever remember. Thanks for that! The following week we got together and here I got offered the chance to become a member of Omnia. An of-fer I couldn’t resist. And here I am and see you at our next show! Tomnia.


The fact that I am here now, being interviewed and becoming drummer for Omnia would have never been possible if it had not been for my parents, Rian and Mark. You guys have always supported me, no matter what I did. Thank you for that!


A big thank you to YOU! by Steve Sic

We would like to take a moment to thank you guys & girls for all the won-derful presents you give to us again and again at gigs and such. At times we are just so totally amazed and tears come to our eyes! Like when

Julie & Sebastien took off their beautiful silver & bronze torques and put them around Jenny and my necks in true Pagan Celtic style!

The very precious drums from Bramblerose and Kelvin Kalvus that have inspired new songs, the self-made Sackpipa by Norbert! Or when we get the wonderful intricate collage photo books made by, amongst others, Anita & Anita, Sandra and other little artworks and drawings by too many of you to mention by name! There’s veritable mountains of food from countless people like Roselise and our own Bienchen (especially chocolate and other cakes & biscuits because that was published in a Raven Times once, so maybe I should men-tion that for the coming season savoury stuff with cheese would be much appreciated, haha). The home-made ‘Alena dream-honey’...wow...and litres of home made booze, gallons and gallons of mead (no more mead please, we can’t drink it so fast!), bottles of single malt whiskey (yes our fans have such good taste!), more drawings and artworks (even a beautiful published art-book by Eyeris ( www.eyeris.eu ), handmade clothes by Senjo and Frantic, puppets and dolls (Edgar Allan Pooh!!!), charms, runes, bumperstickers and a leather boar-protection shield for our van......the list just doesn’t end!!

So guys, we love you, and we love your gifts (guess we’re a bit like the fairies...)Sometimes it’s almost embarras-ing because it’s so much, some-times it’s sweet, sometimes it’s moving, sometimes just fun. But always appreciated!Thank you, thank you, thank you! You are the best fans a band could possibly wish for!


The good news & the bad news by Steve Sic

I presume all of you have read the “Epiphany on the crossroads” article, published on our website and as a PaganClan member you even got in your email inbox. Well folks, that’s the good news! Yeah! Now we are free again!

But what does this info mean practically (apart from the fact that Jenny and myself have a lot of extra work right now to clean up the mess that was left behind)?Well, what it means is that to dissolve the contract and avoid heavy legal complications we have been requested by our ex-managers to pay them a very large sum of money to ‘repay them for the loss of their valuable time’. This money was basically all the profits of every single Euro that you guys have given to us during this last year. Don’t worry though, we’ll survive, we always do. But what about the planned new CD this winter? Well....I’m afraid it may have to wait a bit longer than expected, because our poor little PaganScum Company has been drained and cannot finance new produc-tions for a while due to lack of funds...So I must ask you now: Have a little patience, the new CD will come eventually. And in the meantime you can listen to our new compositions live at the Omnia theater and festival gigs!

ps: if you happen to be a millionare with €30.000,- to spare, our paypal account is still working ;-)


Tattoo You?

We are looking for pictures of people with “Omnia” or Omnia-inspired tattoos for an article in the next Raven Times. Do you have them?

Do you know somebody who has them (like the lady with Steve, Joe’s and Jenny’s signatures on various body parts including her bottom)? Please send a clear and tasty picture of the tattoo and of the tattooed fan to [email protected] (TATTOO) and we’ll make something cool out of it for the next issue!


MANGO-CARROT-SOUP recipeby Oliver s. Tyr (of FAUN) and Kaat

Just in case you’re motivated by some grim looking hangman to tell him important details concerning your “Last Meal”, it surely makes sense not to go for some heavy food, because you might already tend to gastrointestinal disorder under circumstances. We’d recommend something easily digestible, like the following fruity-vegetarian soup:

Mango-Carrot-Soup(4 servings)

500 g Carrots (preferably washed) and cut into bite-sized pieces 150g onions and 1-2 ripe mangoes peeled and cut into pieces. Heat some oil (e.g.sunflower-oil) in a middle sized pot and braise carrots, on-ions and mangoes lightly. Add salt and Sambal Oelek (at least 1/2 teaspoon). Add 666ml vegetable stock and 200ml coconut milk. Bring it all to boil and let it simmer for another 25 min. (Stir now and then) Add Soy-sauce, Sugar and Salt to taste. Mash it all with a masher or blender.

ENJOY (as much as possible)


OMNIA SHIRT WORLD TOUR

Yes folks we have some more OMNIA fans who’ve taken their favourite shirt on a trip to freaky places!

Here for instance is Jolanda (from Holland) who went to Paris (France) and is posing infront of a famous large metal pointy thing!

And this is Jens Flor (from Germany) who went all the way to yellowstone park , Montana (USA) to show the bears what a really cool shirt looks like!

thanx for sharing these pics with us guys!If any one else has pictures of yourself wearing an OMNIA shirt while doing something weird and/or standing somewhere exotic or bizarre, please don’t hesitate to send them to [email protected] (OMNIA-SHIRTPICTURE) and maybe we’ll use them for the next issue.


Performances in 2009

“World of Omnia” Theater Tour, Theater de Meenthe, Steenwijk, NL, start concert: 20:00. More info: www.demeenthe.nl

“Gothic & Fantasy Beurs”, ExpoRijswijk, Rijswijk, NL OMNIA plays from 13:00 - 14:30 hrs. More info: www.exporijswijk.nl/beurs/gothic_fantasy_beurs.html

Celtic Music Festival, Stadsgehoorzaal Vlaardingen (NL) (our friends from Scrum also play here).More info: www.celticmusicfestival.nl

“World of Omnia” Theater Tour, Chassé Theater, Breda, NL, start concert: 20:30. More info: www.chasse.nl

“World of Omnia” Theater Tour, CC Evertshuis, Bodegraven, NL, start concert: 20:30. More info: www.evertshuis.nl

“World of Omnia” theater Tour, Stadsschouwburg, Middelburg, NL, start concert: 20:00. More info:www.stadsschouwburgmiddelburg.nl

“World of Omnia” Theater Tour, Stadsschouwburg, Sittard-Geleen, NL, start concert: 20:00. More info: www.uitbalie.nl

“World of Omnia” Theater Tour, Theater ‘t Voorhuys, Em-meloord, NL, start concert: 20:15. More info: HYPERLINK “http://www.theater-voorhuys.nl” www.theater-voorhuys.nl

An afternoon gig at “Jerafest”, a new Gothic/Fantasy lifestyle-festival in the RijnHal in Arnhem ....More info will follow on our website.

Special “INTIMATE OMNIA” gig in “old school style” No big show, no Flashy lights, just Jenny, Luka and Sic (and one or two guests) playing selected songs from the old OMNIA repertoire as well as the stuff we used to play in the streets and telling shocking and funny stories about the last 13 years of OMNIA. Location: Pim Jacobs Theater, Maarssen, NL. Reservations (VERY LIMITED TICKETS!): www.pimjacobstheater.nl or tel +31(0) 346 571098.

9-10-2009

8-11-2009

14-11-2009

19-11-2009

20-11-2009

21-11-2009

22-11-2009

28-11-2009

6-12-2009

13-12-2009


Performances in 2010

“World of Omnia” Theater Tour, De Lievekamp, Oss, NL, start concert: 20:00. More info: www.lievekamp.nl

“World of Omnia’ Theater Tour, Tripodia, Katwijk, NL, start con-cert: 20:15. More info: www.tripodia.nl

Fairy Ball III Xtra Sexy Valentine’s Day Special! An amazing eve-ning with OMNIA & friends, in a very special location and ‘Xtra Sexy Fairy’ dresscode...Place: Bibelot, Dordrecht, NL. Reserva-tions: www.bibelot.net

OMNIA in Belgium! Location: “Le Botanique”, Koningsstraat 236A1210 Sint-Joost-ten-Node (Brussels) BE.Reservations: www.botanique.be

“World of Omnia” Theater Tour. This one is on Jenny’s 30th birthday and in a very special and intimate theater situated in an old Farmhouse: Theater de Winsinghof, Roden, NL, start con-cert: 20:15. More info: www.theaterdewinsinghhof.nl

“World of Omnia” Theater Tour, Schaffelaartheater, Barneveld, NL, start concert: 20:30. More info: www.schaffelaartheater.nl

“World of Omnia” Theater Tour, Nut Gaasterlan-Sleat, Balk, NL, start concert: 20:30. More info: www.nutgaasterlan-sleat.nl

“World of Omnia” Theater Tour, Stadsschouwburg, Nijmegen, NL, start concert: 20:00. More info: www.keizerkarelpodia.nl

“World of Omnia” Theater Tour, CC van Beresteyn, Veendam, NL, start concert: 20:15. More info: www.vanberesteyn.nl

“World of Omnia” Theater Tour, Theater de Bussel, Oosterhout, NL, start concert: 20:15. More info: www.theaterdebussel.nl

“Les Anthinoises”, the coolest Celtic & Folk Music festival in Belgium (TBC)

“World of Omnia” Theater Tour, Stadsschouwburg de Maagd, Bergen op Zoom, NL, start concert: 20:00.More info: www.demaagd.nl

Castlefest, location: Kasteel de Keukenhof, Lisse, NL. Info:www.castlefest.nl

7-1-2010

8-1-2010

14-2-2010

18-2-2010

20-2-2010

5-3-2010

27-3-2010

9-4-2010

10-4-2010

23-4-2010

24-4-2010

14-5-2010

6-7&8-08-2010


Note for theater reservations: If you have problems understanding the online-reservation-forms (because most of them are in Dutch) or if you have difficulties paying for your tickets, because some of the systems don’t work outside the Netherlands, please try to do your reservations by phone. If you don’t think you can do this all in English, please send a mail to our own German Tribe Mother Maja (formerly known as Bienchen) telling her:

a) For which concert would you like to reserve tickets?b) How much tickets would you like to get?c) Your exact address

She will then try to do the reservations for you by phone and will send you a mail with info concerning accounts where to transfer your money to....so that the tickets will either be sent to you in a letter or they will be deposited for you at the theatre office.Email: [email protected]

Editors: Steve Sic, Kaat, Femke and JennyGerman translations: Bienchen (Maja)French translations: CélieDutch translations: Femke, Kaat and JennyLay-out and computer stuff: Marius von WitzenbürgDrawings: Miez, Steve Sic and Alan Lee

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