(http://i78.photobucket.com/albums/j106/renthas/nina3.jpg) (http://i78.photobucket.com/albums/j106/renthas/ninagordon.jpg)<br/><br/>Rena Norcutt<br/><br/>Bass Guitar (and sometimes backing vocals as well)<br/><br/>Height: 5'5"<br/>Weight: On the thin side<br/>Hair: Blonde (natural)<br/>Eyes: Blue<br/>Age: 22<br/><br/><br/>Rena Norcutt was born to an old-money New England family as the oldest of three sisters. Her childhood was fairly typical, though being privledged to have been raised by monied parents she recieved a private education away from home in which her musical talents were discovered and encouraged. She had a natural feel for music and picked up piano and guitar quickly. When she was fourteen and playing guitar in her school's jazz band. She switched to electric bass after the bassist broke her playing wrist, and Rena quickly became accomplished at the instrument. When the bassist graduated, Rena switched instruments permanently and found she preferred bass to guitar. At sixteen she entered a statewide competetition for female guitarists and took first in the female bass category, winning a Rickenbacker 4001S signed by Roger Waters which she still uses to this day, though she more often uses a Fender P-Bass nowadays.<br/><br/>After private schooling Rena left for the San Francisco Conservatory of Music in California, where she planned a major in music - Stringed Instruments (much to the chagrin of her parents, who wanted her to study something useful). While in her freshman year she really began to make a name for herself locally as a player, and quickly found herself in a punk style band named Somatic Picnic playing Bass and doing some of the singing. The group lasted only a year and a half before breaking up following in-fighting between the five members over stolen boyfriends and other nonsense. The group had managed to build up something of a local following and Rena recieved a number of offers to join other bands. Instead she spent a few months staying out of the scene, instead listening to a lot of older music, especially the blues, and picking up harmonica to add to her list of instruments. While in college she tried a class in violin, but quickly grew bored with that until her roommate introduced her to a fiddle player from Quebec named Shelly. Rena eagerly took some lessons and became competent, though not an expert, in playing the fiddle rather quickly. In return for the lessons, Rena sat in with Shelly's band for some recording sessions, and played a variety of instruments on their first album, the self-titled Greenwich Meantime.<br/><br/>Bored of not playing in a band, Rena began to spend a lot of time hanging out at live shows and scoping out various bands. She was too shy generally to talk to any of the band members, and she didn't have the guts to try and form her own. Finally, at a show featuring an up and coming band named Dionysian Tendencies, Rena managed to drink just a few too many Long Islands and approached the frontman for the band during a break. She had been really quite impressed by their sound and talked with him for quite a long time. To this day, she doesn't actually remember the conversation, but Murmur called her not long after and offered her a place as bassist in the band after the original bass player had called it quits. Rena jumped at the chance, and with the band playing relatively local for a while, she was able to finish up her college degree (BA Stringed Instruments) while performing. While still new to the group, Rena picked up a recorder at a local music store on a whim and began to mess around with it when she wasn't working on something else. Within a few months she had found another instrument she could play decently, bringing her number to six, though her confidence in anything other than Bass was minimal.<br/><br/>Rena now, is still painfully shy at times, and somewhat quiet. She dresses only in the glam outfits when performing, otherwise preferring more normal clothing. At times, people don't even recognize her off-stage without all the make up and hair spray. She writes a lot of music, most of it not really appropriate for Dionysian Tendencies. She writes many heavy, moody bass lines, though she also has a fair bit of gentle melodic tunes, as well as a few funk and blues influenced pieces she's written. She prefers not to write lyrics, finding it more difficult to express herself lyrically than through music. When she does write lyrics they are often dark and expressive, full of her own inner emotions. Shy as she is to begin with, Rena doesn't really like to open up about her feelings and so tends to not share her lyrics, good or bad, with anyone.<br/><br/>Her parents are disgusted and horrified by their daughter's choice of career, hoping she would have settled down to marry some fine doctor from an appropriate family by now. Since they disapprove, Rena rarely visits home or sees her sisters (now 16 and 12). Her parents are fine with her not being home too often as they are afraid of the influence Rena might have on her sisters, both of whom show musical talent as well. They are especially afraid of the lifestyle they imagine Rena is leading, a life of Sex, Drugs, and Alcohol, rubbing off on her sisters (Rena does the first and last, she avoids drugs). Rena occasionally manages to meet up with her siblings at one of her parents properties in Washington or Florida when her parents are not around.