Tragic Chemistry

‘Tragic Chemistry’ almost never happened.

Singer/songwriter/guitarist Aric Jorgenson had given up music after his previous band ‘Starless’ had broken up several years earlier and had his plate full with “day job” obligations. Were it not for the fact that Katie Figg, a work colleague of Jorgenson’s, was married to Greg Figg, who played drums and was interested in starting a band, Jorgenson states he would not have endeavored to put another band together. But music is something not easily purged from its practitioners, and before long Jorgenson and Figg were playing together regularly, fleshing out songs that Jorgenson had penned after the demise of ‘Starless’. A posting on Craigslist brought Leia Manuel into the fold; though she was looking for musicians to help support her own solo efforts, she found Jorgenson’s offer to join the band as a “side project” interesting, given the significant overlap in their musical influences. A flyer in the music department of the University of Virginia attracted bassist Eric Montgomery, known by the band as “The Fetus” because of the more than a decade separating the ages of oldest member Jorgenson and Montgomery.