According to a recent press release: "Australian rock artist Crystal Ignite has released her debut single, "Everything You Break," featuring Ben Moody (Evanescence) off of her upcoming, as yet unnamed EP. Originally premiered on Tattoo.com, "Everything You Break" was written by Crystal Ignite, Andrew Bojanic, and Liz Hooper and produced by Crystal Ignite and WizardzOfOz." We get Crystal to answer our 10 Quick Ones about the upcoming release and more...

Well, the amazing Mr Ben Moody (ex-Evanescence) is on the track playing guitar, if you listen knowing that, you will hear a touch of the original Evanesence sound, even though this track doesn't sound like Evanesence overall as it is a completely different genre. The backing vocals are something you may not notice until a few listens through, personally speaking, the backing vocals are a highlight for me, most of those were my co-writer Liz Love's ideas and I absolutely love her suggestions for the backings, it has definitely influenced me in writing the backing vocals for my future songs.

2. What got you into music, and can you tell us about the moment you realized you wanted to be a musician?

It wasn’t a realization, I had to be a musician, I needed creative expression as a kid to help get me out of the life I was living, music was all I had at one stage and it saved my life... There was a time where I had no one, I am an abuse survivor, I cant put into words the kind of pain I have experienced, you only know if you have gone through it yourself... I've been physically, sexually and emotionally abused and survived years of extremely damaging experiences... I literally used music to express and heal everything I had gone through, it took years, but there comes a point where you sing about the things that used to make you cry, and you realise you don't feel anything anymore... only gratitude for the strength you now have and the abilities it gave you to express yourself like no one else. Singing was the only thing that made me feel happiness at one point of my life and it was all I had to live for at that time... then when I started creating music, that added a whole other dimension and passion to the process... I realized through performance that I was able to use the emotions I had about what had happened to me on stage and I started to incorporate that madness into a stage persona... the response I received changed my life... what was once my greatest burden had become my greatest gift.

3. Who would be your main five musical influences?

Hard to limit to just 5 but Kurt Cobain, Michael Jackson, Zac De La Rocha, Skin (Skunk Anansie), Annie Lennox.  I love Kurt for his pain and passion, he was a true artist and amazing writer. There will never be another writer or performer like MJ, there is a passion and anger in his voice that he translated into pop, and arguably some of the best pop the world has ever witnessed. Zac Da La Rocha Influences me in his screams and aggression and his passion behind his beliefs "Your anger is a gift" is definitely one of his most influential quotes for me. Skin again the passion and anger in her voice, the tone sh has is something you dont hear a lot of in female vocalists, you hear from her lyrcis she is also an abuse survivor and I can relate to her although her stuff is a lot darker than a lot of my stuff.... And Annie Lennox, well I absoltely love the 80s and draw influence on 80s meldoies for my vocals all of the time... I love deep powerful female voices and hers is definitely up there for me.

4. If you could call in any one collaborator to do a song with, who would it be?

Kurt Cobain….. but alive, I really want to collaborate more with Ben Moody, he is a musical genius. Who knows what the future holds!!

5. How would you describe your music to someone who’d never listened to you before?

In a simplified format to the general populace id say the heavy stuff is like Evanesence meets Rage Against the machine without the gothic vibe. And softer stuff I would say a heavier Florence and The Machine Meets, Adele and Michael Jackson. My music has a tribal drum influenced theme throughout every track and I'm blending alt pop with rock, hard rock and metal.

6. What’s the best thing about being a musician?

Performing for and helping others, the creative expression and the amazing people you meet especially whilst touring. After shows I often have abuse survivors come up to me and tell me the words I said or the songs I have written have helped them or influenced them and there is nothing more amazing than having the honour of that kind of impact on another person... There is not much greater than the feeling of helping someone else heal themselves.

7. When the band are all hanging out together, who cooks; who gets the drinks in; and who is first to crack out the acoustic guitars for a singalong?

Ha, well tough question because my new US band I wont meet in person until I head to the states in a few months. But Id say I would cook for sure, that's a passion of mine, id be up for a sing a long, id Id be passing on the drinks and saying pass me the 420 instead haha! We havn't announced our US players yet, so I have to keep that on the down low as it is a surprise :)

8. If you weren’t a musician, what would be your dream job?

I would love to get into the acting world, Acting for me is just as much of a rush as playing and writing music. I would also love to be a youth worker and help teenage abuse victims... I hope to make a lot of money playing music so that I can start a foundation for homeless teenagers and victims of abuse.

9. Looking back over your career, is there a single moment or situation you feel was a misstep or you would like to have a “do over”?

Every mistake I made had a valuable lesson, I regret nothing, everything helped me to evolve and become who I am today. Spiritually speaking, sometimes we are meant to make mistakes, they come with the greatest lessons, so you could go so far as to say there are no such thing as a mistake, only lessons, this planet is a playground of lessons and evolution.

10. If you could magically go back in time and be a part of the recording sessions for any one record in history, which would you choose – and what does that record mean to you?

Nevermind, I am so blown away by Kurt's song writing, he is a genius, and obviously Dave and Krst were awesome too. Listening to Kurt’s songs taught me how to write - he wrote with passion and wrote the best hooks in the biz in my opinion!

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