It isn’t November but there are ribbons floating in the air, lyres and lutes on the lakeshores of Hammond, the smell rose petals and petchuloui and fine leather goods paired with fresh beer and Scotch eggs. It’s April, the time usually reserved for citywide festivals but the Louisiana Renaissance Faire grounds have seized the day and made merry of the season, coming up with the Pirates of the Pontchartrain event, a medieval meets nautical event that comes decked out with musical entertainment. Amongst the pirate-anical performances include the Renaissance circuit breakers, Sirena, an Evanescence meets Blue Man Group-type experience with enchanting songs that echo the sounds of lovelorn sirens of the sea.
Sam Nolte, Tegan Elliott, and Asia Lupo came together as friends to form Sirena in the Fall of 2011 and have been touring ever since. According to the band that uses dance and percussion to accompany their medieval mystical harmonies, Nolte and Elliot are “both founding members who write the material for the show, and Asia just recently joined the group” recently. In aquamarine face make up, twisted mermaid locks, and moving along to ancient beats on drums that recollect Narnia or ancient times, Sirena is a sight and sound experience to be reckoned with.
The ladies (lasses?) tell OffBeat that the inspiration behind their group is developed from the lore around sirens from Greek mythology. “We expanded on the concept of mythical women who lure sailors to their death by deciding that sirens were once humans who went through extreme loss. They made a deal with Poseidon to give up their souls in exchange for freedom from grief, but it came at the cost of forever needing to devour others’ souls to fill the gap. This gave us a ton of inspiration surrounding love, loss, the sea, and immortality—so much so that we have filled three albums with all original material about it, soon to be four!”
The sea maidens insist that none of them are classically trained percussionists but rather tap dancers, Asia being the solo member trained in musical theater. “We have all formally trained in dance, and Sam and Tegan learned to drum specifically for the show while they were writing the material back in 2011,” the group states.
Sirena is no stranger to the Renaissance Faire music circuit. While bands like Kælan Mikla of Iceland may have honed a similar sound, Sirena pride themselves on their place in the realm of those seeking days of old experiences.
“It would be almost impossible to try to describe the whole music scene in just a few sentences since Renfest musicians come from all sorts of various backgrounds. Some have been on the festival circuit full time for the majority of their lives while others simply fly out to perform on the weekends before returning to their ‘regular’ day jobs,” explains Nolte AKA Raidne. “The styles range anywhere from traditional Renaissance tunes to Irish punk rock, from bagpipes and fiddles to vocals and percussion like us. You can listen to a five piece vocal pirate band singing about rum, then just a few stages later see a drum and bagpipe band rallying a whole audience to get on their feet and dance, or march to war (it’s hard to tell which sometimes). Suffice it to say, there’s a ton of variety, and one of our personal favorite things about performing here is how much artistic freedom it provides. There aren’t many industries where you could make a living singing about luring sailors in and stealing their souls, but the Renfaire world loves it!”
To see Raidne perform with Leucosia (Asia Lupo) and Legaia (Tegan Elliot), buy tickets to this weekend’s Pirates of the Pontchartrain event. (Note: The event will be held rain or shine.) To keep tabs on their upcoming tour dates, visit their website here.
