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Neighborhood report

Rock without the glitter

There's no big money or scores of adoring fans, but that's okay with the band Isobella, which continues to rock on.

By MICHAEL CANNING
Published October 7, 2005

For Old Seminole Heights residents Brad Richardson and Laura Poinsette, it goes something like this.

Form a band. Make esoteric music with it. Spend thousands of dollars on musical equipment. Play concerts in small bars where 20 people might pay attention. Spend thousands more to produce a CD. Earn a fraction of that back by selling a few hundred copies. Scrape together more money and go on tour in a rented van.

Come home and reckon the band a success. Life is good.

Richardson, 32, and Poinsette, 25, stay occupied - and gratified - making dream pop music under the moniker Isobella.

When they aren't creating music, Richardson spins alternative music on WMNF-FM 88.5. She pursues her true artistic love - painting.

Neither yearns for a big city.

"I'm okay that (Tampa) is not a New York City," Poinsette said.

Said Richardson: "You got to support your community. I don't plan on leaving it."

During a recent performance at New World Brewery in Ybor City, their dense, lofty waves of melodies and textures surged out of speakers, seemingly a product of several players.

Poinsette bobbed almost imperceptibly, her eyes fixed on her keyboard, her singing all but drowned out by the instruments. Richardson also assumed the classic shoe-gazing stance, swaying to and fro with his Fender Jaguar. Occasionally, he glanced at his computer, which provided the rest of Isobella's sound.

The crowd, many of them friends of Richardson and Poinsette, mingled throughout New World's courtyard. About a dozen paid attention and offered a smattering of applause. It was a familiar and satisfying scene for Richardson and Poinsette.

"We don't have any delusions of grandeur," Poinsette said.

"We enjoy doing it," Richardson added. "We put our hearts and souls into it. But we're not expecting to become rock stars."

Their latest CD, Surrogate Emotions of the Silver Screen, has sold a few hundred copies since its Aug. 2 release. Isobella's other CDs, 2000's Akasha and 2001's 24 Syllable Haiku, have collectively sold about 1,000 copies.

Richardson and Poinsette hail from the Brandon area. Richardson entered the local music scene by joining the indie pop outfit Pohgoh in 1994.

A year later, while playing bass on the side for hard-core band Tomorrow, Richardson switched to guitar, took a musical left turn to ambient, dreamy rock and formed Akasha. He enlisted Poinsette, a fan of the local music scene since age 13, for her Roland Juno-6 synthesizer and evocative singing voice. Drummer/vocalist Heath Dupras and guitarist Shane McLaughlin rounded out the lineup.

The name soon changed to Isobella, a reference to Poinsette's nickname from her days working in the pastry kitchen at Bern's Steak House. Dupras exited in 1999 and the band resorted to computer programmed drum tracks. McLaughlin quit in 2004, so now even more music comes from Richardson's laptop.

Despite losing half the band, "We're as committed to it as we've ever been," Poinsette said.

"There's more focus now," Richardson said.

Or as much focus as their day jobs and other hobbies will allow.

Richardson is an inventory manager for his father's company, Trelles Pharmacy Management Inc., in Sabal Park and an avid traveler and motorcyclist. His current motor pool consists of a BMW R1150R, a Honda CB550, plus a Lambretta Li 150 scooter. On Wednesdays from 11 p.m. to 1 a.m., he hosts a segment of WMNF's Eleventh Hour.

Poinsette is a sales clerk for the White Buffalo jewelry kiosk at Westfield Brandon mall. She bowls every Thursday night with friends and fills her small apartment with her figurative paintings. Recently she joined a fledgling group of about 10 artists that is trying to establish a work and exhibit space in Ybor City.

Richardson and Poinsette are planning a two-week tour in November, which will take them through the Carolinas, West Virginia, Tennessee, Illinois, Ohio and the Northeast. It will just be the two of them in a van with a friend to haul the equipment. They won't come close to breaking even.

So why do it?

"Just to explore, really," Richardson said. "Meet new people."

"We've met so many nice people on tour," Poinsette said. "It feels good. God, it feels good to do it."

Isobella's next local performance is at 8 p.m. Sunday at the Orpheum, 1902 Avenida Republica de Cuba, in Ybor City. Tickets cost $10.

[Last modified October 6, 2005, 08:25:09]