Kip Satchel

Guitar, Synthesizers, Bass, Drums, Vocals, Programming

Prince Kibria Shahtahtinkskaya was born in 1961 in Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan SSR, the sole heir to a family of royalty and exceptional means. When diplomatic complications arose during the 1972 Armenian Dasnak insurrection, Kibria's family was forced into exile. Traveling the Silk Road for two years, they settled in Ulan Bator, Mongolia, where at the age of 13, Kibria learned to play the Shudraga. This rudimentary three string guitar would be his gateway to discovering classic rock, hypnotized by bands like the Beatles and Led Zeppelin who had been incorporating far-Eastern instrumentation into their music.

Kibria soon after learned the sacred art of Tuvan throat singing and joined forces with three former Buddhist monks to form Iron Mongol, a Black Sabbath tribute band. Iron Mongol's clever cover of War Pigs gave them minor notoriety throughout Mongolia and portions of Siberia, and they toured for just a few years, which was as long as Kibria's waning wealth could afford.

When Kibria's parents were killed during the Mongolian opium riot of the mid 70s, he fled the country and moved to Los Angeles, California, hoping to replenish his riches as a rock musician. Frustrated with the constant mispronunciations, Kibria took on the stage name of Kip Satchel. In 1978, Kip met Mary Ann Sims, a local rock vocalist in the growing deathrock scene who turned Kip's focus to the darker side of spirituality. Together they formed the short-lived irreverent post-punk rock duo Dr. Skullpunch. Over the next year, Kip rode that disaster to its merciful fate in 1979 when Mary walked off stage and disappeared in the middle of a particularly contentious show. A short time later, she was fronting the bands Castration Squad (as Mary Bat-Thing) and 45 Grave (as Dinah Cancer).

Divorcing himself from the deathrock scene that now served only to remind him of Mary, Kip took an extended holiday in the UK. There, he befriended Siouxsie Sioux of Siouxsie and the Banshees and Robert Smith of The Cure, and wound up serving as a roadie and guitar tech for their combined bands' tour in late 1979. Having discovered the perfect blend of goth, pop, and rock to suit his creative palate, he returned to California shortly after to apply his inspiration to some new music.

The sounds of the early 1980s served as a fertile creative bed for Kip, who dove deep into ethereal wave, dreampop, and shoegaze, eventually leading to the formation of his Dreampop Goth Metal band Prismatic Filth. In 1982, their song Luxury of Death became a fan favorite and was picked up by local and underground radio. One copy of this demo tape eventually made its way into the hands of musician Jasper Ice. After a few phone calls, Jasper left his home in Brookyln, NY and moved to California where he teamed up with Kip to form Liquid 56 — the ultimate sonic emulsion of all their musical influences.

Jasper Ice

Vocals, Bass, Synthesizers, Drums, Guitar, Programming

Jasper Farnham Icenogle was born on March 13, 1961 in working-class village of Aintree, UK as an only child to Mildred Icenogle a single, unwed mother.

Trying to escape her contentious past, Mildred emigrated to the USA and settled in Lodi, NJ. She followed the emerging local music scene, teaching Jasper to sing as he attended elementary school. With what money she could scrape together from her jobs as a cook at Lodi Pizza and a dancer at Club Flamingo in South Hackensack, Jasper was gifted Mildred's old mandolin and treated to lessons to accompany his bourgeoning love of singing. Sessions busking outside the Gimbels at Garden State Plaza helped earn extra money for the family, and on one occasion a young Bruce Springsteen, on his way to trade in a second-hand guitar, instead gave it to Jasper saying, "That mandolin might help you save a few bucks, but I think this here might help save your soul." With that hand-me-down, Jasper taught himself guitar and eventually bass guitar, as odd jobs on weekends afforded more and more access to musical instruments.

In his last year of middle school, Jasper formed the three-piece hard-rock outfit The Mondo Chumps with his mates Giacomo Vanzetti (drums) and Victoria O'Riordan (guitar). After playing the school's Battle of the Bands, all three were subsequently put on suspension for a particularly rowdy rendition of their self-proclaimed hit song Uppercut Kiss which led to a brawl amongst the parents, a small fire in the school auditorium, and the Pete Townsend-style destruction of his first guitar.

By the mid-1970s in high school, Jasper befriended a dour young musician named Gerald Caiafa Jr., who introduced him to the underground punk musical scene. A year later, Jasper broke the pinkie on his left hand in a scuffle with Gerald outside the Tenplex movie theater in Paramus, NJ. It healed poorly, which attributed to his always running behind Caifa Jr's skillset.

Shortly after, their friendship went cold and both decided to form rival bands and change their names for the stage, Jerry Only joining The Misfits and Jasper Ice forming The Detention Dogs. While Jerry went on to find almost instant success, Jasper still struggled to find his Muse, despite the production of a generally well-received single called Trashcan Dinner.

A year after graduating high school in 1979, Jasper's mother died in a tragic pizza-dough making accident, and a settlement was made which left him flush with money for the first time in his life. Jasper promptly moved to a Brownstone apartment in Brooklyn, NY in search of a place in the growing punk rock and metal scene of New York City. He spent the next eight years working at the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation alongside an as-of-yet unknown Peter Steele and performing with half a dozen bands of varying style and questionable success. An upcoming goth-rock band that would eventually become Type O Negative auditioned them both, but Peter's looks, voice, aesthetic, commitment, strength, intelligence, dexterity, charisma, talent, and finely honed sullen attitude eclipsed Jasper's in almost every way.

On the verge of giving up on the music scene altogether, Jasper then discovered a tape from a California band called Prismatic Filth, containing the Dreampop Goth Metal single Luxury of Death in the record store's Dollar-a-Demo bin. Struck by the raw energy and soul crushing vibe of that single, Jasper immediately mailed off a copy of his latest song, Resigned to Failure (performed with his symphonic black metal outfit Bard's Bow) in hopes of finally making a West-Coast connection. A few weeks later, Jasper left New York and moved to California to form Liquid 56 with Kip Satchel.