Early life

Dena hails from New Jersey, like lead singer Cassidy and bassist Jen Zielenbach, who are also from New Jersey. After seeing Karen Carpenter play the drums during a live performance, she was able to meet with her. This meeting inspired her to begin playing drums. She took drum lessons as a child, and continued taking private lessons for 8 years.

Dena was not the original drummer for the band. Kristen originally played drums in the band before taking up guitar. Dena auditioned for the band in 1998, having less than 24 hours to prepare for the audition. She joined the band a short time after her audition. Prior to joining the band, Dena worked in retail. Before Antigone Rising Dena played drums in the all female cover band "Good Girl's Don't. GGD was a major attraction on the East Coast's cover band circuit drawing major crowds wherever they performed. The also opened for many signed artists like Korn and Fuel.

She eventually taught herself how to play guitar, though she does not play guitar on any of the band's recordings.

She lists The Carpenters, The Beatles and The Pretenders as some of her musical influences.

Antigone Rising

The band released four independent albums before they signed with a major label. Lava Records offered them a record deal in 2003, after Jasom Flom, the founder of Lava, saw one of their shows. Their major label debut From the Ground Up was released exclusively through Starbucks coffeeshops, in conjunction with Starbucks' Hear Music series.

The band was recently released from its contract with Atlantic Records. They are now signed to Starbucks record label.They are currently recording their upcoming album tentatively scheduled for release in the summer of 2007.

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