Album Notes

The formation
Opium Den came together in the early 90's in Boston, Christian Gilbert,
and Mike Demma were looking for a singer for a psychedelic band they wanted to form.
Annette was coming off touring with a Boston theater company.
She felt disillusioned with the theater scene. "I felt theater was a dinosaur.
I wanted to create something that was creatively stimulating and cutting edge."
I was auditioning guitar players. Christian and Mike saw my ad and we got together.
It was instant synergy. We had a blast making music together. We auditioned
John De Gregorio as a bass player and we liked his unique style and musical creativeness.
Our rehearsals were focused on the ritual and transformative nature of music.
This translated to our live shows and we eventually played to sold out clubs.
The genesis of the name
The name, Opium Den, as Annette Farrington then Annette Kramer explains,
"the name invokes a multi layered meaning the social context and the literal
meaning of an opium den. I wanted to invoke the state of where I thought the
social consciousness lay. "As a nation we are asleep in an Opium Den,
asleep to consciousness and clarity." The drug being, materialism, greed,
lack of connection to spirit. But we also wanted to invoke the transformative
nature of being in a state of altered consciousness. We grew up in a
apocalyptic society. There was so much fear, internal and outer. We felt
a need to express the emotional struggle of finding a way to
maintain a sense of purpose and hope in our lives."