Here’s my (mostly speculative) theory of how Prince Rama came into being:
- Two sisters (Taraka and Nimai Larson) escape under cover of night from a Hari Krishna clan and find sanctuary in the home of an aging new romantic.
- they both go to art school in Boston.
- they fall in love with glam rock after chancing upon a roommate’s extensive David Bowie collection.
- the universe provides the Taraka and Nimai with gifts of a drum kit and synthesiser.
- they teach themselves the rudiments of these instruments and begin copying tracks by Soft Cell, Siouxsie & The Banshees and Human League.
- they soon become frustrated that all the best music seems to be old and made by stuffy Brits.
- at a low point in their lives they briefly fall under the spell of Lady Gaga.
- they are saved by hippy chick dropout from a nearby commune who introduces them to the all American Freak scene peopled by the likes of Pocahaunted, Zola Jesus, and Peaking Lights.
- back in their bedroom and newly inspired, they produce a cacophonic stew where tone deaf singing and rudimentary drumming can be hidden under the mask of this being in tune with other DIY psychedelic -pop wannabees.
- they name their band after a Hindu deity (the original name was Prince Rama of Ayodhya),
- an impressionable friend of an impressionable friend gets drunk at a party and signs them to his label and they make a record which they describe as “mapping utopic space via the mandalic architecture of controversial visionary artist Paul Laffoley“.
