(Thanks to Martijn for translate this text, and Jim S. for making possible).


Mom and Dad Forbid Fiona to Listen to the Radio.

"I was 15 already when I first came in contact with rock music," 
says Fiona whose debut album is without a doubt one of the most 
noted American hard-rock albums of the last few months. 
"My parents had always forbidden me to listen to the radio, 
maybe that explains why I use my voice with so much passion." 
That same passion is also evident in the story of Fiona's life.

Frank Sinatra
Even though Fiona Flanagan is a full-blooded American, 
she has European roots. "My parents are Irish," she says. 
"Just before I was born they moved to the States. I grew up in 
New Jersey. I didn't have a happy childhood; my parents were very 
strict. The radio was almost never on. The American music I knew 
was limited to Frank Sinatra and the like." Fiona was sent of to 
a Catholic school that was just as strict. "After a while I wound 
up in theatre groups," she remembers. "My father also allowed me 
to have clarinet lessons, which I took for more than eight years.
"As a 15-year-old girl, however, she undertook a summer tour with 
a theatre group. "One day I met a couple of guys who were playing 
rock and roll songs on a guitar, I didn't know what I was hearing." 
When I came home, my Mom and Dad were trying to discourage my 
enthusiasm, but my heart was already in music.
		
Fleeing to Ireland
Fleeing to Ireland after a lot of persuasion, Fiona finally got her 
guitar. "Initially, I was in the folk scene," she says, "but on 
Saturday night I secretly played in an actual rockband at the local 
bar. I quit my theatre study. At the age of 18 I left my old home 
and started to work as a rocksinger, but I was so inexperienced that 
everyone deceived me. I first moved to Pennsylvania and after that to 
New York. But even there it didn't really work at first. I just 
didn't seem to make it any further than the local clubs. Also my 
first recording was a fluke. Eventually I got so tired that I wanted 
to give up guitar and went to visit my grandmother in Ireland. 
"That appeared to be a good move, because on her return beautiful 
Fiona met producer-composer Peppi Marchello. "It immediately clicked 
between us," tells the singer. "You can clearly hear that on the album, 
things are going really well. Actually, I can't believe the audience 
finally loves my music. Did you know that today even my parents dance 
to my first album?"