Ballerine at Skylark Lounge
Photo credited to Grace Maruska
Ballerine, a Denver-based female-fronted, grunge rock band, was formed through Katarina’s longing for a band. She posted flyers around Denver. Olivia found one on Denver University’s campus and reached out. They had been chatting for about six months about the band. Olivia met Connor at the bar he worked at and, while discussing the band, found out they needed a drummer. At first, Connor rejected the idea, but through rehearsing with the band, decided it might be a good idea to stick with it.
One night when Katarina was out with friends, she was talking to Angel and expressed that the band needed a bass player. Once Angel was with the band, Connor was convinced. Olivia had always dreamed of being in a girl band, and when she saw Katarina’s poster, her dream came true. Angel said early on he had played with some other bands but never found a band he wanted to stay with.
Katarina found a love for singing doing solo gigs and, in doing so, she realized she had stage fright.
“How can I solve this problem? And then I watched the Queen movie and realized ‘he’s got three other people on stage and they’re all looking at them’, so I found three other people.” -Katarina Rose
Photo credited to Maddie McCafferty
@digitalmadss on Instagram
Connor Caserta (Drums), Olivia Jo (Guitar), Katarina Rose (Vocals), and Angel Serrano (bass)
The band’s name, Ballerine, was Katarina’s brain child. The band’s original name was Plunge, which was inspired by Katarina’s love for Stephen King novels. But Olivia wasn’t really set on that name, it reminded her too much of the word plunger. During the brainstorming session, Katarina was researching old English names. The word that popped out most was Bellerine, which means beautiful. The sound resembled ballerina, which is a feminine word, having the A at the end. When combined, Ballerine, with the E at the end, makes the word a dominant feminine ending, which symbolizes the essence of the band being female-fronted.
“ And I feel like adding a dominant E ending to that is kind of like ballerine. What a woman should be.” - Katarina Rose
Photo credited to Maddie McCafferty
Olivia said that a lot of the musical genius lives in Katarina’s brain.
“She's a poet, a lyricist, an artist. A friend, a sister. She's wonderful. A dog owner. She does not have the talent of playing instruments, not a singular one.” -Olivia Jo
Olivia said she will write something and show up to band practice with a clear view of how she wants the song to sound. She will sing out the guitar, bass and drum parts and allow the creativity of the band to bring it together. She gives the foundation and from there the band builds the house. At times, she will come up with ideas for specific sounds.
“She’s like ‘Make your guitar sound oceanic.’ I’m like, ‘What are you talking about? We need to go get a pedal for that.’ And then we all went pedal shopping together and found one.”
Photo credited to Maddie McCafferty
So far the band has played five live shows at venues like Seventh Circle, Larimer Lounge, and Skylark Lounge. The band loves to play live shows, Connor said it’s a passion of his. Katarina said they are working on getting recorded music on streaming, but the release date isn’t available yet. She said it’s “written in the stars, you will feel when the day comes.” They are working hard to create a recorded sound that is similar to a ‘90s punk rock feel.
A favorite song, unreleased, is “Lazy Dog”. A favorite lyric from the song is:
“ Now you see me like the others do. Wanna burn a flower that you bloomed. If I'm only clean without you, then why do you bruise?”
Another song the band loves to play is “Ugly Girl” which, the band said, will be the first song they put out. Angel said “Make You Tall” is one of his favorites:
“ You might be big, but you're still small, trapped in a body that makes you tall. You might be wise, but I taught you that.”
Photo credited to Grace Maruska
The band looked back on many of the memories they’ve made along the way. Connor expressed that he loves playing shows and being on stage. The band remembers being on stage at their first show, being blinded by bright lights, and having some nervous feelings. They looked back on having the point of view of seeing the crowd in a different way; being able to look at all the faces of people who were there to see them. The band enjoys taking covers and making them their own, as well as, rehearsing and spending time with each other outside of shows. One of their favorite covers to play is “Love Game” by Lady Gaga.
In the next year, the band plans to have at least five songs released. The band hopes to play Porchfest and Blucifer fest next year. They also hope to play a show at Globe Hall. Eventually, they would like to expand to open for a touring band, but they expressed that it takes time and patience.
“ It's just the hoops you have to jump in, in this day and age in music. It costs a lot of money. It takes a lot of time.”
Ballerine rehearsing at Rocketspace
Photo credited to Grace Maruska
The band has many inspirations. Angel mentioned The Garden, Leftover Crack, and Motörhead, specifically for the bass parts. With Olivia being from Minnesota, she mentioned Prince as a huge inspiration. Katarina mentioned Stevie Nicks, Die Spitz, and Courtney Love. Other names that were said were Slayyyter, Mazzy Star, and Joni Mitchell. For Connor, Kool and the Gang were played a lot growing up, but he says he loves anything with a funky beat. Sweet Pill and Jon Bonham are large inspirations for him, in terms of drumming.
Ballerine is looking forward to making more music and playing more live shows. For anyone that is considering going to a Ballerine show, the band says you’ll just have to go to know how epic it is.
“Bruise the man in charge, support women, believe women ... everything they do.”
Keep an eye out for future shows and for music on streaming! You can support Ballerine at their show on November 14th at D3 Arts Westwood.
You can find Ballerine on Instagram @ballerineband !
