Krista Ravengael

By Lee Juillerat
H&N Regional Editor
October 2, 2009
Krista Ravengael isn't a secret agent, but she does live a double life.
By day, the 37-year-old Ravengael is a special education teacher at Klamath Union High School. But away from work she's a singer-song-writer, writing, rehearsing or performing her brand of high-energy music.
"I try to keep it secret. I want to make that distinction between school and what I do away from," she says of her music, which is intentionally laced with humor and reflective of her inner-bombastic personality.
Her secret is being revealed.
After years of planning, Ravengael is releasing her first CD, "Thanks, but No," through Aquarisaur Productions. To celebrate, a CD release party is set from 6 to 9 p.m. today at La Hacienda Mexican Restaurant, 1111 Main St.
"It's taken me a lot longer than I thought, but that's OK. I'm not sure it would be what I want it to be," she says of the 12 years of waiting. "Instead of the music, I think I totally would have been concerned on the look at the time ... just about the image."
Ravengael describes "Thanks, but No" as an attempt to showcase her "unabashed, energetic and highly infectious brand of indie rock" that she's demonstrated to Southern Oregon audiences since moving to Klamath Falls five years ago. She wrote all 11 songs on the CD, which was produced by Vic Sabula of Portland, who performs with the band Bullets and Bubblegum.
She credits Sabula for injecting elements into the musical soundscape, including a tribal sound. Most of all, however, "I wanted the songs and my performance of them to push the envelope while still being relevant, authentic, and, above all, fun. I went for the whole bombastic thing. I think," she laments, "it's cool to not have any more"
Ravengael has been having fun with music most of her life. Originally from Pittsburgh, Penn., she graduated from Pittsburgh High School for the Creative and Performing Arts and grew up idolizing such pop culture icons as Kiss, John Schneider, Robert Wagner, Hutch "as opposed to Starsky" and Shaun Cassidy. Musically, however, she prefers comparisons to Liz Phair, P.J. Harvey, They Might Be Giants and The Flaming Lips.
It's Ravengael's hope that people will know about her music, even her students and co-workers, through the buzz she hopes the CD will create.
"I think they know," she says of awareness of her music. "I don't think they realize how seriously I take this ... That I'm in it to win it." - The Herald and News