As a part of the North Coast Post’s plan to find and share more local businesses, I interviewed Taliesan at Ravens Skull Gothware in Deloraine. Taliesan has been helping out Anya, the store owner since opening late last year.
Taliesan: This store is called Raven’s Skull Gothwear. It’s been open for about, well, I don’t know in total, but in this building it’s been about six months or so. I’ve worked here for a few months now.
Matt: Can you tell us what “goth” means?
Taliesan: What goth mean? Well, it’s not what what everyone thinks really. It’s not like you have to be goth in order to buy goth or wear goth or black or whatnot.
It’s pretty much like an expressional means to escape reality sometimes. In my opinion, goth is more relaxed than anything, but goth could mean a lot of things to many people.
Matt: And can you tell us a little bit about how the store came about?
Taliesan: Well, Anya’s about 23 and I don’t know how she’s done it. This place used to be a photo store, and it wasn’t really doing well, I feel like it was really run down and stuff, like the cabinets in here was just old.
This was the front desk for it. The owner actually owned this part of the building. He wasn’t leasing it from anyone, so Anya had seen him while trying to find places to lease. And she did really amazing. She was pretty much out of business for a couple of months maybe? Before finding this place, making a deal. And finally taking the opportunity to open up the store.
It took about three, four weeks to paint the place. Move all the furnishing and all that.
Matt: Can you tell us about some of the customers?
Taliesan: Yeah, so there’s three different types. I’ll start with you get your tourists Which you know, they’re just like anyone. They come in, have a look around – there’s plenty of stuff in the in the store to check out. Like clothes decorations, necklaces, jewelry, even the kids stuff. It’s not like we’re worshipping Satan or anything.
Whereas the second type would be the truly devoted Christians. The people who follow God. It’s damnation, I guess. It’d be damnation to not follow him. Cause I had a woman come up to me and speak to me about I was pretty much outside the store and this woman came up to me and goes there’s a ghost following me and this ghost kills people and blah blah blah and I was so confused . And she said, you shouldn’t do this. And I’m like, what’s this? And she’s like, this evil stuff. And I’m like, okay, I don’t do any evil stuff. I just, run a store a bit here and there for Anya.
And anyway, she goes on about Jesus and all that. And you get those people that pretty much hate you for no reason. You know, it’s a little confusing because they’re people of God. They’re supposed to love and, you know… But that’s the second kind of person. And we get a lot of those types around here.
Cause this town’s pretty much filled with the different religions. Cause you get the Mennonites, Christians, Mormons, Brethren I think there’s Freemasons. And then you get the I would say Satanists. Like, I swear, there are definitely (some). There’s a lot of things hidden in this town. You wouldn’t think so.
Like, you come in this town on a beautiful day. Beautiful.
But our third type of people, goths. You get the people that love to just come in, they absolutely love the store, they actually spend their own hard work money and all, and just live their life. Sometimes you get the very overdramatic goths, which have like the whole makeup, the depressing state and stuff, that’s their kind of version of gothic. And but then there’s mummy beside them to pay for them. But other than that, that’s pretty much how it goes around here most often than not. We always get that second group, unfortunately. But yeah, it’s pretty fun.
Matt: One final question. Do you think there’s any other business in town that deserves a bit more recognition than they get?
Taliesan: Maybe the Deloraine Deli? I would say the deli, just across the road over here. Big time. Grant is a lovely gentleman. He actually came in today, seeing if Anya was okay and whatnot.
And then offered a little assistance if I needed anything, and was kind. That’s very nice. Not many people actually do that. I respect that.
You can find Raven’s Skull Gothware at 86 Emu Bay Road, Deloraine (just near the roundabout at the top of the town). Call Anya on 0448 496 880 or email ravensskullgothware@gmail.com.
