The Band
Touted “the band to see in Los Angeles” by the NoHo Arts District Music Column, Riddle the Sphinx is an innovative band, bringing to mind artists as diverse as Kate Bush, Loreena McKennitt and Danny Elfman, while at the same time, venturing into unchartered musical territory.
RTS has consistently received accolades from the press for its originality (“one of the most unique bands in Los Angeles,” says NoHo Arts District Music Column) and its charm (“enchanted my socks off,” says All Access Magazine). Their unique style even perplexed the LA Music Awards on what category to include them in for a nomination, before deciding on “Best Adult Alternative Artist of the Year” in 2005. Touching on elements of classical, celtic, rock, pop, world beat, jazz, and folk, RTS strives for one thing: to create great music.
Much of the band’s innovative style can be traced back to its front woman, Christiane Cargill. Lead singer, pianist, and songwriter for RTS, Christiane was recently featured in Glamour Magazine’s 2005 Woman of the Year issue, and honored with the Toyota Moving Forward Award for bringing music and art therapy to at-risk children, while driving her own inner passion for music. A fiery redhead classically trained in piano from age three, Christiane loves to try new things, such as scuba diving, indoor skydiving, hang-gliding, and firewalking, to name a few. So it’s no surprise that this passion for life comes out in her music.
RTS’s percussionist, Christo Pellani, has a mesmerizing quality on stage. Featured as one of ten “Unsung Drumming Heroes of Los Angeles” by BAM Magazine, he has toured the world playing concerts with the likes of Air Supply, Mary Wells, and The Shirrelles, and has studied music in Africa, Brazil, India, and Bali. The fusion of Christo’s world music percussion and Christiane’s classically-trained piano and vocals blend together seamlessly to create the band’s distinctive sound. Rounding out the group are bass guitarist, Burgundy Morgan and guitarist, Donovan Raitt, both accomplished musicians who add tasteful textures to compliment the band’s signature style.
Currently in the studio recording a Celtic album, RTS recently opened for the spirited Young Dubliners, and have been asked to contribute numerous songs to film soundtracks.
Christiane recalls, “Some of our teenage fans have told me stories about their RTS CDs mysteriously ending up in their parent’s car CD players, and I was so flattered that our music seems to have a broad appeal.” With a fan base from eight to eighty years old, RTS has indeed captured the attention of music lovers across a spectrum of generations.
The Songwriters
CHRISTIANE CARGILL (music composer)
Christiane was born and raised in Orange County, California. An accomplished and agile pianist with a gift for melodies and a fluid, soulful voice, she begged to take piano and organ lessons at the tender age of 3, while her legs were still too short to reach the pedals. Her first music teacher was a nun, Sister Eva Lirette, who had a special gift for teaching children.
Christiane studied classical works with great enthusiasm, but found herself drawn to musical composition and songwriting. She wrote her first song at age 8, and had several albums worth of material written by the time she graduated high school.
Christiane was the recipient of numerous music awards and scholarships throughout her childhood and teen years. At age 16 and 17, she studied classical piano and voice at Augustana College in Rock Island, Illinois and Sioux Falls, South Dakota, giving her the opportunity to perform in front of thousands of audience members. She was also a pianist and vocalist for several choirs and touring bands in high school, allowing her to perform a more "mainstream" style of music.
Christiane received a music scholarship to attend the University of California in Irvine, where she graduated with honors, receiving degrees in piano performance and psychology. During her studies, Christiane teamed up with fellow student, poet and lyricist Joy de Guzman in 1993, forming the writing team ELYN.
After her under grad, Christiane attended law school at Pepperdine University in Malibu, California. She entered the studio to record ELYN's first professional album, "The Fallen Ones," while studying for her bar examination; she passed the bar on the first attempt, after graduating magna cum laude. Since that time, she has performed her original songs throughout the United States and Europe, both as a solo artist, and with RTS.
You may have also heard Christiane's compositions in various short and feature films, another passion of hers.
In addition to her musical career, Christiane is President of a non-profit organization called "HeARTS Giving Hope", which she co-founded with her sister Karene, dedicated to improving the lives of abused and underprivileged children by providing them with positive outlets of self-expression through music and visual arts.
JOY DE GUZMAN (Lyricist)
You can touch it - the world she has crushed and re-woven into words. Can feel its longing, its lush passions, its raw pain clutching at empty silences.
From Hunger's pagan eroticism, to Fallen One's haunted yearnings, to Weaving a Tale's lucent vision, and Judgment Day's bitter imagery, the range is staggering. Sensitive but cutting, brilliant but introspective, sensual yet subtle, the artist herself is like a complex puzzle - an exotic, tiny doll with a vital presence. You do not expect the doll to speak so directly into your eyes:
"I had this vague idea that I wouldn't live very long, believing I would consume myself in too much emotion and thought. So I did the best that I could, as fast as I could, gobbling up music and myth and literature, mixing it with experience, spewing it out in poetry and song. I wrote as precisely as I could, trying to stay true to each story I saw in my head, felt in my body. I stretch out with rhythms and images, senses, that people can easily feel and imagine, because I know everyone has their own world they live in, and to step into my skin, there must be an understanding that the story is something worth sharing. There must be a sort of voluptuous delight in reading a poem, or why do it at all?"
Joy graduated with a triple major from University of California, Irvine, with degrees in literature, music, and psychology. It was while studying music her sophomore year that she met Christiane, and the two almost immediately teamed to write songs together.
"As for [Christiane's] music, I was excited the first time she played it for me. I had never thought of putting my poetry into lyric form. Ever. But she asked me, and I listened to her, and I knew it was right. Her music and my words belonged together."
Joy has published poetry in magazines and anthologies beginning from her teen years, won state competitions for piano performance, has a three-octave range from opera training, and has studied Mideastern, Filipino, Hawaiian, ballet and Latinostyle dances. An exotic beauty, she has modeled for internationally acclaimed bronze realist sculptor Richard Macdonald, as well as several local artists, while never forsaking music and language. She is fluent in French and Filipino, literate in Irish, Latin, and Ancient Greek, and is currently finishing her first novel.
" I may die tomorrow," she says matter-of-factly. "I would like to know I at least tried to experience and create something worth remembering."