Deborah Bowen is a makeup artist and the lead singer for the group Bushoong, who have been performing together since 2000.
So I was under the impression that I was coming over to his apartment to meet the rest of his band and do some background vocals, and it wasn’t until I got there that I realized that I was auditioning for a lead part. I probably would have talked myself out of it had I known that before I came.
Some of the local bands I’ve loved playing with—I’ll say the biggest thing that comes to mind is Illaziam. They are, well, they were an all-Black rock band. And Calvin Chaos from the Haterz. We did a tribute concert for him in June of last year [at Second Unitarian Church]. We also played on bills with Small Change, Almost Rosario, the Moses Gun, Soma Sound, and Earth Program.
A lot of people are feeling down and feeling like a prisoner. When you’re a person that’s used to being able to go out and enjoy live concerts and stuff like that, it’s hard. For a lot of people that’s their outlet.
- Bushoong play “War Pigs” at Gallery Cabaret in January 2020.
We love to cover Black Sabbath’s “War Pigs” at live shows. There’s kind of no rhyme or reason for what started it. We were just rehearsing one day during our earlier years, and I was learning to project more then, because Bushoong plays with much more aggression than the band that I was singing with before. So we tried to practice some songs that we thought would be a good challenge. In my opinion my voice isn’t always the most feminine sounding at times, so I just wanted to find a song that I could sing and sort of play around with the sound. Sabbath is one of the bands that we all have a love for. v
