George Lynch Tour - Concert Review

George Lynch strapped on his guitar last month for a string of East Coast dates and need I say more? Ripping through classic Dokken and Lynch Mob tunes like, “Unchain The Night,” “Million Years,” “Wicked Sensation,” and “Tooth & Nail,” he showed no signs of fading when I saw him at Ding Batz in Clifton, NJ, the night after his 50th birthday. In fact, his laid back, classic riff guitar playing was as brilliant as ever, when I caught him again at the Downtown in Farmingdale, Long Island and then at the Pirates Den in Gloucester, NJ.

As a fan, I guess I “Just Got Lucky,” because when my friend, drummer John Macaluso, got the call from Lynch to join the tour I was kindly invited to tag along on three dates. Aside from Lynch’s masterful musicianship, Rob DeLuca was a rock, locking into songs with his full bass, while Macaluso grooved heavily on vocal songs, and complimented Lynch with intricate chops on instrumentals, particularly on “Mr. Scary.” Singer Andy Freeman mimicked Don Dokken so capably, I thought I’d get my behind-the-scenes Lynch trivia from the front man and find out how it felt playing with a man who’s music he was weaned on.

“It felt like that movie Rock Star, minus the arenas and the money,” says Freeman. “I think I actually smoked my first cigarette in 7th or 8th grade listening to "Breaking the Chains.” My friend had the cassette and a pack of Newports.”

Freeman realized a lot of people wanted to hear songs verbatim, so he obliged. While diagnosing the songs, the band found Dokken lyrics a source of constant amusement.

“We were all making fun of some of the Dokken lyrics, about how simplistic a lot of them were,” says Freeman. “George referred to them as ‘The finest 7th grade poetry.’ Everybody lost it.”

So how does Lynch spend his day on the road?

“All I've been hearing for the longest time about George is how he is this fitness and health nut,” says Freeman. “You know the guy’s 50 and he's in better shape then most 20-year olds. Well the whole tour its Jagermeister all day, Krispy Kreme's, Burger King and cigarettes. So fuck salad and the gym. Light up and hit the drive thru!”

Lynch’s lifestyle may seem to fit rock ‘n’ roll protocol, but his humble nature is far removed. He’s often more into talking to fans about gear than anything else. In fact, Macaluso tells me Lynch recently had to be reminded that he’s a rock star.

“I broke my bass drum head in the middle of a set in Maryland and George turned to me and Andy and says, ‘What are we going to do now?’” says Macaluso. “Andy says, ‘You’re a guitar hero. Play a fucking guitar solo.’ George goes, ‘Oh, yeah.’”

Actually, a lot of fans wondered why Lynch fixed himself in one place on stage during solos, rather than play out towards them (though he did move to share swigs from his Jagermeister bottle with the front row at Ding Batz). Lynch explained that he looks for his “sweet spot,” the place where all of the sounds mix just the way he likes and that’s where he stays. So discerning is Lynch’s ear that he bought a Marsh Amp on the spot from Montana Studios following his New York band rehearsal.

Throughout the dates Lynch also favored the sound of his tiger guitar, but some trivia you may not know is that Lynch’s famous skull and bones guitar featured in the “Breaking the Chains” video actually has human parts built into it. Lynch’s guitar builder lovingly crafted it with his own teeth and hair. We didn’t see the instrument, but we heard “Breaking The Chains.” After 20 years Lynch wanted a change, so the band played the song in a half time feel, a breath of fresh air that enlivened the set.

Lynch is touring China right now and plans to resume his U.S. tour soon.

Originally published in The Aquarian Weekly 11/17/04.

Lynch's "Wicked Sensation" video.

Arcade Fire - Win Butler Interview

by Tina Whelski

You might expect a record titled Funeral to be a bit macabre, but the debut CD from Arcade Fire on Merge Records is anything but, with beautifully lush rock compositions that are positively refreshing and organic.

Husband-and-wife team Win Butler and Régine Chassagne share songwriting credits on the sweeping tracks, fleshed out by band mates, Richard Parry, Tim Kingsbury, and Win’s little brother Will. The album title, like the songs, were initially influenced by the emotional twists coursing through the couples’ lives upon the passing of Butler’s grandfather, but the result is a musically diverse, uplifting tribute that measures individual interpersonal relations and the world relative to them in poetic terms.

“We just came back from my Grand Pop Alvino’s funeral just as we were finishing up the record and he was really a monumental figure for me and Régine, my whole family and everyone,” says Butler. “It was just the whole mixed emotion of celebrating someone and missing them and being around all these people—my family—who I almost never see except for at a funeral or a wedding and relating to people in a really short intense period. Something about the emotional quality of that is what I think was going on in the record and it just made sense.”

As opposed to focusing on the love of one person, the Canadian band widened the scope to include the group of people that surrounds you, such as family and friends and the “messed up inner-relationships at the core of our lives.”

“In general, we took the approach that you’re small, seemingly insignificant personal relationships all have some sort of greater importance in other peoples’ lives than your life in the world in general,” says Butler. “A lot of stuff does come down to small relationships.”

Lyrical views are infused by Arcade Fire’s eclectic exploration of various instruments and the musicians’ willingness to gravitate to whatever sound enhances a mood’s texture.

“We end up switching around instruments quite a bit and just coincidentally a lot of times we end up writing stuff not playing our first instruments,” says Butler. “Régine plays a lot of drums on the record and she’s only been playing for about eight months. Richard is a bass player and he plays guitar on the record. Tim is basically a guitar player and he plays mostly bass. For whatever reason, there’s a certain kind of energy that we’ve found playing something we’re not intimately familiar with that tends to translate to just a different kind of sound when we all come together and play.”

Pairing these whimsical colorings with imaginative ponderings is effective throughout the album. In “The Crown of Love,” you’ll find memorable lyrics, such as: “You pray for rain. I pray for brightness,” or “If you still want me/Please forgive me/The crown of love/Is falling from me.” In “Une Annee Sans Lumiere” lines such as “If you see a shadow, there’s something there” vibrantly translate perspective.

Butler explained that Arcade Fire’s songs take a few listens to appreciate—that initially he didn’t think people would like some of them, but after about five listens, it really grows on you. That’s just the type of band they are. Funeral took me only two listens and I assure you, once you’re attracted, you’ll play it over and over again. The early critical praise Arcade Fire has garnered recently is merited.

See them during the CMJ Music Marathon on Oct 13 at Mercury Lounge. If you miss that show, catch their Nov 11 date at Bowery Ballroom.

Originally published in The Aquarian Weekly 10/13/04.

Arcade Fire performing "Neighborhood #2(Laika)."

Cyndi Lauper - Concert Review

Cyndi Lauper 

@ PNC Bank Arts Center, NJ

by Tina Whelski

Finding the soul in the songs penned by other songwriters has always been a special talent of Cyndi Lauper. "True Colors," "I Drove All Night," and "Money Changes Everything" are just a few that she's endearingly interpreted over the years. At PNC Bank Arts Center on August 4 she performed these alongside offerings from her new album, At Last, proving she could uncover new stories--her stories--even in familiar pop standards.

Opening with the title track, "At Last," Lauper convinced skeptics that she was not going to simply repeat the classics she heard growing up as a young Italian girl in Queens, she was going to relive them, now as a grown woman with 51 years behind her. Taking on the song made memorable by Etta James was a brave choice, but Lauper managed to take the musical experience somewhere completely different than James had, making it unnecessary to compare and equally moving.

Lauper handpicked all of the tracks on At Last for their special meanings to her, but she took a few songs deeper. She created show-stoppers out of "Walk On By," popularized previously by Dionne Warwick and "Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood," hushed with piano accompaniment--a complete deviation from The Animals' version.

On "Stay" Lauper added congas and Latin rhythms and capped it off with a dance barefoot on top of the piano. As a little girl Lauper recalled her aunt blaring songs like "Stay" from the kitchen while Lauper's cousin cranked her Latin '45's from the bedroom. This mix was exactly how Lauper remembered it.

While she was stripping songs down to their cores she also reinterpreted some of her own. "She Bop" took on the air of a journey through the sidewalks of Paris with its French flair for instance.

Always a true original herself, Lauper's music can be considered almost as classic now as the music on At Last. Just as she needed to share the music from her childhood, Lauper knew the PNC crowd wanted the music from theirs. Lauper gave them a powerful selection in "Change of Heart," "All Through The Night," "Time After Time," and of course "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun."

Gone were the rainbow-colored thrift clothes, but that was even better because what was left were the songs themselves and Lauper's charming voice.

Originally published in The Aquarian Weekly 9/1/04.

Photo by Tina Whelski.

Cyndi Lauper performing "Walk On By."

Nellie McKay - Interview

by Tina Whelski

She's got Doris Day's hemlines, Eminem's venom and Liberace's spirit-and that's just what you get the first few minutes meeting Singer/Songwriter/Pianist Nellie McKay. As McKay takes the bench, demurely tucking her 1940's-style dress around her, she strikes the keys with conviction igniting a blast of influences from various musical eras that she arranges with careful forethought. On top of jazz, rap, and Tin Pan Alley-inspired sounds her raspy, rhyming, crooning, cooing, velvety voice soothes one moment and morphs into a vitriolic rant the next.

No topic is safe from McKay's lyrical eye as she delights in muckraking to raise consciousness for the issues she values. On her debut double CD Get Away From Me, McKay issues a feminist cry in "I Want To Get Married," tugs you through the drudgery of routine on "Work Song," contemplates the perfect soul-mate in "Clonie," and scratches at politics, animal rights, poverty, self-discovery and more. In a speaking voice reminiscent in timbre to Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz, 20-year-old McKay discusses her musical approach, the artistic compromises she's encountered working with a major label and feminism.

WOMANROCK: As a little girl you enjoyed imitating Rosalind Russell, Marlene Dietrich, Greta Garbo, Rita Hayworth and Doris Day. Now you dress like them as a grown up for your performances. Will you talk about your attraction to the clothes and manners from the time periods where these ladies reigned?

MCKAY: Well in private I dress just like everybody else, but in public I always try to be different. In high school if you're always different you say, I'm just going to be as different as possible and it's a pretty common reaction among 'weird kids.' So I just wished that stuff could be more like the movies…Stylistically when I look at the 60's I tend to go for the people I would not have been like. The suit-wearing, pearl-wearing Doris Day, Jackie Kennedy types…I am a hippie who really likes conservative tailoring.

WOMANROCK: Is there one time period you prefer stylistically over others?

MCKAY: I'd have to say style-wise that the forties would be up there. I think it was when women had much more pride than I think they do today even. All of a sudden they were wearing pants. They were working. The movies were dominated by women…There's something about the fifties that seems so backwards. I think their manner and decorum and stuff seems to be hiding something very secret and very disturbing. Whereas the forties it seems the panache and the style and wit of it was still from the thirties. It was still not censored and filled with McCarthyist propaganda.…Did you see The Stepford Wives? It was fluffy, but the whole thing is that I feel that feminism is always hanging by a thread. There's always a subconscious or conscious longing to go back to a time when women were women and men were men. I just think that the movies carry great weight. If you think about women who romanticize Eminem or other rap stars or chauvinist rock n' rollers, it's almost like masochism in an incredibly widespread way.

WOMANROCK: Tell me about your relationship with Sony during the making of the album. You've said, "The label hires you for being one thing and then they're mad at you when you are that thing."

MCKAY: That's exactly it. The main thing I got out of The Stepford Wives is I feel like a Stepford wife all the time. They like you and then they get you and then they want to completely change you-just keep your general bone structure…What the f*ck did they hire you for? Thanks for bringing up that quote. It's one of the few quotes I hear and don't cringe.

WOMANROCK: Legendary Beatles engineer Geoff Emerick signed on as your producer. How was it working with him?

MCKAY: We disagreed on quite a few things and the main thing though is that he supported the album when Sony wasn't and he was all right with not being paid $25,000 to complete the album. My manager, Geoff, and I were the only three people who believed in the album. We were standing up against a lot of people. We had as much fun making the record as we could. I also felt like I was going to die a lot though. I don't like working creatively under that kind of pressure. This is another thing that people at record companies can't fathom; is that money makes things worse. It just means you have a bigger studio to work in. You've got heavier doors. You've got a bigger console. It only complicates the process. It was such a high-pressure thing; we had a very limited amount of time to make the album...we were constantly being leaned on. There were constantly these nasty messages from my liaison at Sony. I can't say enough how much I like the people there as people, but when it comes to what I'm trying to do, I do feel that there's a lot of double dealing and head patting and just plain getting in the way. I just don't understand why anyone works for a creative institution if all they're going to do all day is try to stop creativity.

WOMANROCK: You seem to have won your fight for artistic integrity more often than not. Can you talk about some of the songs on the CD?

MCKAY: I like "Waiter"…when you're in a car and you look out the window, I like hearing that 'boo bah boo bah' beat. It feels like everything is flying by and you're going to do something. And the fact that it's an anti-war song gives it a good sense of purpose…I like the fact that "Inner Peace" practically growls. And then I would just have to say "Suitcase Song," because I feel it's just very representative of me. Not that it makes it a great song or anything, but I guess that means when I listen to it that I'm reminded of me.

WOMANROCK: Is your neighbor David aware that you wrote the track "David" about him?

MCKAY: While I'm glad I wrote it and it looks like it will be the first single to go to commercial radio, which we're working on now, I do feel that that song was a product of watching too many Elvis movies. He wants a girl, so he sings her a song. So I thought it must work the same for women, which it turns out it doesn't. But it's OK, because I've rather moved on and I have a very healthy social life apart from my neighbor.

WOMANROCK: But it served your art well?

MCKAY: Oh, it certainly did. I don't know if he knew I wrote that song about him. It's weird because who it's about changes. I mean the actual premise of the song is just about longing for someone or something to get you out of your mess. So I think of all kinds of different people when I sing it. I think you have to write about something you know. And that was something I knew.

WOMANROCK: Will you talk about Get Away From Me musically?

MCKAY: Everything that you listen to influences you. I am getting sick of being called a crooner or being placed just in the jazz category though. I can't imagine that these people have listened to the record when they say that…Certainly I feel jazz creeps in there, but it's not intentional. I'm always trying for different styles that I feel are more in sync with today…I think this first album was the first step towards that.

WOMANROCK: You once told me that you dressed up as Liberace for a presentation in your freshman year of college, but got an "F" on it. You said, "That was really a turning point for me because if you can't appreciate Liberace, how can you call yourself an artist?" What do you think of Liberace?

MCKAY: Well I've got a huge picture of him on my wall and he's grinning down at me as I speak to you. I think there's something fascinating about Liberace and something to be aspired to. It was kind of that triumph of the soul through showbiz kind of mentality.

WOMANROCK: You just played Bonnaroo, toured with Sting and now have another string of dates coming up. How's the frantic pace of the road treating you?

MCKAY: I want a private jet and I want my own tour bus. I don't need to own a private jet. I'm happy to rent a private jet, but at the moment I can't do either, so that's kind of out. Aside from the traveling, I love touring. I love playing for the different audiences and it's been great meeting these people, particularly Cyndi Lauper. I'd like to think we're kind of friends now. I opened for her back in December and we recently did an Interview Magazine piece together. We've traded emails and nothing much but I really feel like she understands me and we talked about a lot because she is a consummate artist. I think it really helps to be with like-minded people. They help you get through a lot of it. She just said, "Don't worry about it. Just keep your chin up girl," in that voice and it's just really heartening.

Originally posted to WomanRock.com Sept '04.

Nellie McKay performing "I Wanna Get Married" on The View.


Nellie McKay video for "David."

Polyphonic Spree - Mark Pirro Interview

by Tina Whelski

If a rainbow exploded, you'd have Polyphonic Spree, the 25-piece band led by former Tripping Daisy frontman Tim DeLaughter. The orchestral pop ensemble consisting of a choir and players on keys, guitars, strings, percussion, bass, trumpet, trombone, French horn, flute and theremin, recently traded their old white robes in for colorful ones and re-assembled for their sophmore album, Together We’re Heavy.

Like on the previous effort, The Beginning Stages of The Polyphonic Spree, the band is still “reaching for the sun,” but the updated palette on stage should warn you not to expect the same journey. In fact Polyphonic Spree have a much darker imagination on Together We’re Heavy.

“An album is like a snapshot of where a band is at a particular time,” says Polyphonic Spree bassist and founding member Mark Pirro. “…Anybody that’s heard the first record is going to be shocked by this record.

No matter how dramatic the jolt however, you’re still likely to catch that contagious smile that covers faces at Polyphonic Spree shows. For some reason the bands gotten a lot of slack in the press for being “happy” on stage. But the air of hopefulness has been a little misinterpreted. The grins you see are a triumph over pain, not an ignorance of it.

“There’s like this beautiful melancholy working underneath it all,” says Pirro. “It’s like that kind of feeling you get sometimes on a rainy Sunday afternoon. Nothing’s really bad, but it’s like you look at the clouds and somebody goes, ‘God what an ugly gray sky that is’ and you kind of think to yourself, ‘Oh what a pretty shade of gray.’ It’s more like that. Live it’s definitely energetic. Maybe when you combine those together people interpret that as happy.”

Polyphonic Spree is opening upcoming dates with “We Sound Amazed,” the first track on the new album. Re-creating studio sounds live was a bit tricky, but putting 25 heads together they figured out how to pull it off for a great effect.

“I don’t want to give too much away,” says Pirro, “But it seems like it’s (the music) going to go one direction and then it totally comes out of nowhere and hits you in the face with this overwhelming sound…We definitely enjoy opening the show that way. It’s very dramatic and suspenseful.”

The visual volume of 25 vibrantly outfitted players unleashing tone before you is also overpowering. If you question the reason for the robes though, it’s actually quite practical. Wearing robes prevents all the members’ different clothing styles from being a distraction. Though it definitely enhances an already surreal experience.

The Polyphonic Spree moves into Irving Plaza for two nights on August 24 and 25.

Originally published in The Aquarian Weekly 8/19/04.

Polyphonic Spree performing "Light And Day" on TV show Scrubs.


Polyphonic Spree "Light And Day" Video.

Senses Fail - Buddy Nielsen Interview

by Tina Whelski

Punk, hardcore and metal are not sounds you’d typically associate with poetry, religion and philosophy. But when you meet Senses Fail’s lead singer/lyricist Buddy Nielsen you begin to see how they can all coexist. The band’s brawny new album, Let It Enfold You is titled after a Charles Bukowski poem. A track called “The Irony Of Dying On Your Birthday” draws from the work of mythologist Joseph Campbell. And the band’s own name is derived from beliefs Neilsen discovered in Hinduism.

While Nielsen is the first to admit that at age 20 he knows “jack shit” about the whys of the world, he does understand what he feels about what he’s exposed to and that’s worth talking about in the band’s music.

With Senses Fail’s successful EP The Depths Of Dreams now a few years old, Let It Enfold You offers the Bergen County band an opportunity to remind fans and critics alike that they’re not teenagers anymore. That they’ve grown up musically and emotionally. Senses I met Nielsen at the Moonrock Diner in New York to talk about the band’s self-destructive music.

Aquarian Weekly: Can you talk about your mindset going into Let It Enfold You?

Buddy Neilsen: …It was kind of about myself, as most records are about the person writing the lyrics. It’s called Let It Enfold You, which is a poem by Charles Bukowski…I just like the way he was always so negative. I’m such a negative person and such a glass-is-half-empty-kind-of-guy because I feel like I’ve been so fortunate with everything in life. I make myself suffer because I need to feel like I’ve earned something.

AW: You’re waiting for something bad to happen then?

Neilsen: Exactly. Enfold means to totally consume. Instead of just seeing something you’re able to feel it. Looking at a beautiful sunset for example, you see it, but actually being able to have that move you? What I liked about Bukowski’s poem so much and the name and what it meant was that he was such a negative person. One of the only things I’ve read of his that was outright positive was this. I was like, “Wow, if this guy can be positive?”

AW: Some tenets of Daoism also enter your songwriting—the idea of letting things come and go—letting them flow around the rocks like a river and not getting overly upset. You admitted you’re not like that, but that’s something you idealize?

Neilsen: It would be a great way to live your life where you’re just like a pinball. Whatever happens happens and you can’t control it, but you find the good in it…Kids have said before, “Well Daoism is about being a pacifist and he’s writing these violent lyrics.” It’s more of me wishing I could be like that. That’s what the title track “Let It Unfold You” is about…I’m not what I want to be. I’m not where I want to be…It's me wanting to destroy myself, and I do that in a couple of the songs, and then I kind of tie it back into, “Well that’s not really what I want. What I really want is to be happy.”

AW: Can you talk about another track with a self-destructive streak?

Neilsen: There’s this one song called “Angela Baker and My Obsession With Fire.” I talk about how I wish that I never would have started thinking—reading about different philosophy and religion and things…I just became very angry at the way the world works and the way that people are and I talk about how I wish that I was ignorant.

AW: You think reading fed those feelings?

Neilsen: No. It’s just the truth. And the truth sucks. People don’t think. They have no idea what’s going on. They don’t understand the world. They don’t understand themselves. They make ridiculous mistakes all the time and that wouldn’t happen if they had thought more about it and more about themselves…I actually burn down my house in the song because it’s kind of the way that I show that I just want to be self-destructive and at the end of the song I’m like, “I thought this is what I wanted, but I guess I was just scared to really be alive and really experience things and feel things.” A lot of people don’t like my lyrics though.

AW: They’re your impressions though so does it really matter if people like them?

Neilsen: …I’m not a great writer. I just have something that I want to say…A lot of things I might not say the best way…but I’m only 20 years old. You know. I don’t know jack shit about anything. I’m not trying to say that I know about all these religions and I know about what people should be doing. I’m just trying to figure it out. The one thing about this criticism is that it hurts. Especially when people say something about my lyrics because I care about them…I think that I tried really hard to say something meaningful and if I didn’t say it in the best, most clever way, I’m sorry cause I think sometimes being more up front and straight-forward is the best way to do it. If you use metaphors too much people don’t understand you.

AW: A lot of people still measure the band by the EP you wrote when you were teenagers. The new CD should change that though.

Neilsen: The EP is a totally different thing. I wrote those lyrics when I was 17-years-old…It was my first time doing it. I tried to do stuff that meant something to me and it did, but I wasn’t obviously the smartest, most clever thing in the world…We’re a young band. It’s always stuck with us. People don’t think we’ve aged. We’re going to be forever 18. Our drummer’s going to be forever 15. That’s one thing that’s hard for us to get over.

AW: Your band name comes from the Hindu belief that being alive is hell—that the only way to reach Nirvana is to ultimately have no attachments to anything. What attracted you to the idea of people then going out to live in the middle of the woods, not eating or drinking and just meditating to a point where nothing exists and ultimately the senses fail?

Neilsen: I think the suffering…self-suffering to achieve a goal…to achieve a higher level…detachment from everything for their higher knowledge.

AW: Your band also has a fascination with pirates. We get a hint of that in the tune “Rum Is For Drinking, Not For Burning,” where the captain goes down with his ship. If people don’t get that from your music, your tattoos give you away.

Neilsen: We like rum. We’re pirates. We got skulls on our van. We don’t care about what anybody thinks about us, which sometimes is a bad thing because it gets us into trouble. We used to get in a lot of fights. We stopped that though cause it’s bad for our band.

AW: Being a musician is a little bit like being a pirate.

Neilsen: You’re on the concrete, which is like the sea. You have your van…I just think it’s a fun way to look at touring, going from place to place.

Originally published in The Aquarian Weekly 8/19/04. *Note: Band photo 2006.

Senses Fail performing "Rum Is For Drinking (Not Burning).

Butterfly Boucher - Interview

by Tina Whelski

Imagine being brought up in a rustic world where you could skip school to stay at home to learn music, graduating to session musician before you’re age 10. Think about how practical math class would seem from the seat of a Toyota Corolla wagon as your lessons call for you to calculate the distance your free-spirited family has traveled from town to town across Australia’s golden outback. What romantic notions would literature conjure up if it were taught by poets and painters in their habitat—a commune-style rural setting? Best yet, how great would gym class be if the lesson plan included tree climbing and then jamming out with your own band, calling on your six other sisters to fill the parts?

Welcome to the land of Butterfly Boucher. A product of 80’s pop music and a rich arts curriculum, courtesy of home-schooling and communal living, Butterfly Boucher gathers her unique experiences and accumulated talent and pours them into her debut solo CD, Flutterby, released on A&M Records.

While Boucher’s co-producers, Brad Jones and Robin Eaton served as trusted ears on “Flutterby,” the final stamp came from Boucher on each song, including the radio-friendly, “Another White Dash,” and “I Can’t Make Me.” Aside from Cello and a few drum tracks, Boucher also played every instrument on the record.

After a tour with The Barenaked Ladies and a round on in-store appearances, Boucher has lots of new things on the boil, including a highly anticipated tour with Sarah McLachlan starting this month. I was fortunate to see Boucher perform a New York City showcase at Mercury Lounge before she left.

Womanrock: You just finished opening for The Barenaked Ladies and you have dates lined up in July with Sarah McLachlan. How do you feel about the tours?

Butterfly Boucher: The Barenaked Ladies tour was fabulous. It was a real confidence builder because I didn’t have a band with me…I just had a guitar and songs…It’s nice to know that I can get away with that if I have to…I’m really excited about doing the tour with Sarah…I’m looking forward to seeing how her audience responds to my stuff.

Womanrock: It seems logical that you’d be most comfortable on the road. You led a nomadic lifestyle spending a good deal of your childhood traveling across Australia with your family after your dad’s music publishing deal fell through. In fact, you practically learned how to read by watching road signs. What were some of the first words you recognized?

Boucher: I’m trying to remember…Mom would occasionally just go, “What does that say?” and I’d have to try to figure it out. Then she’d get tricky ones, “What does that say?” and I’d be like, “Ahh, ‘rest stop.’” …Another thing is I’d have to figure out how far we were from the city we were going to. So I learned math as well. I love that stuff. And it was practical. You could see that you were learning it for a reason.

Womanrock: When your family did settle, you enjoyed a commune-style upbringing amongst dancers, like your mom, painters, and other musicians. How has that community left its imprint with you?

Boucher: I lived with a lot of people where what I’m attempting to do now isn’t anything new. My dad was signed to a major label and got so far, as well as other people that I grew up with. Being amongst it all I saw the failures and the things that worked. So in a way, I feel like I’m doing it for everybody that brought me up, which makes it not so much about me. It’s what I can give back to people. I just want to inspire people. In the community context you do grow up having that. When you’re living with adults and they respect you even though you’re a kid and vice versa, there’s just a maturity you get a little bit younger, as well as respect towards elders. I hope it all intertwines with what I do and how I speak and the values I have on life.

Womanrock: You started using a 4-track recorder when you were only 10 years old. You also play various instruments, which we hear all over Flutterby. Did you have training?

Boucher: No, I haven’t had a lesson in my life, but my childhood was really just like a great big lesson. I grew up, like I said, around other musicians and I would sit on the piano stool and watch one of my dads friends play piano for hours and hours and that’s how I learned. I would just watch and listen. So by the time I was about 10, I was in the studio with those guys being a session musician and learning the ropes. Even before I learned how to use the four-track I had been playing in different bands.

Womanrock: Including your sister Sunshine’s band?

Boucher: Yeah. Having so many kids, we were always trying to make kid bands. We were always making up a new lineup.

Womanrock: You wrote the song “Another White Dash” with your sister for her band Mercy Bell?

Boucher: I wrote it when I was in her band…I wrote it with the guitarist.

Womanrock: One of the lines I found interesting was, “There is something exciting about leaving everything behind.” I wondered if this was written at a time when you were in motion.

Boucher: It was very literal at the time. Actually I wrote it a couple of years ago, but I was actually thinking back like three years beforehand…In that band (Mercy Bell) we toured our butts off for about 3 or 4 years all over Australia. It’s kind of the story of my life. It’s just continually going to new places, which is exciting, and meeting new people…The sad bit is that you are also leaving places…I wanted to find a line that was perfect to explain that feeling.

Womanrock: How long has Flutterby been in the making?

Boucher: I finished it about a year and a half ago…Some of the songs on Flutterby were brand new and I wrote them in amongst recording which took about 10 months on and off. In studio time, we were in about three months, but we spread it out because I didn’t have money to pay for it at the time…The producers I worked with just believed in it. Every time there was a gap in their studio schedule I would go in for two or three days…I didn’t have pressure from the label. I wasn’t signed at that point. It was a really good time…“Another White Dash” was the only song that I really took from a past project.

Womanrock: Do you have a favorite song on Flutterby?

Boucher: I don’t know about a favorite, but I was very proud of the song “A Walk Outside.” I liked them all, but that was the first one where I went, “That’s my sound.” There was a good mix of dirty sounds and clean sounds and little hooks and melodies. I felt really comfortable in that.

Womanrock: Can you talk about your thinking going into the album?

Boucher: I really did go into it with the plan of just wanting to have an album that could be competitive on radio. I wanted it to get out. I didn’t want to make an album that would just sit on a few people’s shelves. I was sick of making music that did that…So I aimed to write a pop album and I wanted it to be really hooky and I wanted every song to be something you wanted to sing along to…I was being true to myself by doing that. I love music like that. I grew up on 80’s music, which has major hooks. I just wanted to write an album also that was honest and vulnerable and of the moment.

Womanrock: Are there particular subjects or experiences you tend to draw influence from in your writing?

Boucher: It’s all pretty personal. Some of it’s fictional and elaborated, but mostly it stems from personal experiences. If you read the lyrics, they are pretty raw in parts. They’re about past relationships and also about the whole struggle of being an artist and wanting to still keep it innocent and creative, but realizing at some point it is a job…There’s always the balance. You want to know how far you have to go and how much you have to compromise. It’s all a big kind of game.

Womanrock: How did you cross paths with A&M?

Boucher: I met a guy named Mike Dixon who basically just travels the world and has amazing contacts with producers and artists and labels. His talent is getting people together. Eventually I hooked up with Brad Jones and Robin Eaton and they co-produced this album with me…When it came to getting the recordings out, Mike Dixon once again stepped in. He introduced me to a bunch of labels…I eventually met with A&M, which is on Interscope. Strangely enough I had been signed to Interscope before with my sister’s band. So I’ve been signed and dropped and ended up on the same label.

Womanrock: Did the fact that your father’s previous publishing deal fell through set you up to mistrust the music industry or are you just wiser because of it?

Boucher: It’s actually a positive thing to realize you can’t trust that many people. It’s sad and when you realize that your little world does get a bit shattered. But it’s also part of growing up. Even with yourself, you can’t always know how you’re going to react. Essentially you’ve got to go with your gut feeling at the time and that’s why it’s important to take it a day at a time. You never know how things are going to change. It certainly wizened me up. It takes a lot of bruises and falls to get calluses to just deal with the industry. I was surprised that after everything that I’ve seen and been through that I still came back. I’m a sucker. But I really feel that this is important…I just need to give it my best shot. If it doesn’t work for my solo thing, it’s not the end of the world…Out of anything I’ve been involved in this is just amazing the way it has unfolded. I don’t know what I did differently this time. Sometimes things just click. I have great management and a great label. I still have the ups and downs, but somehow I can emotionally remove myself from things. I don’t get as excited until things are happening in front of me.

Womanrock: Your mom is a very spiritual woman and chose your name based on signs she felt were divinely inspired. Your dad packed up the family to move you all away when you were kids, again, based on faith. How does a higher power play into your life today now that you’re an adult?

Boucher: My faith plays a huge part in everything. It’s how I make decisions…You know how we were just talking about how you can’t really trust anybody, not even yourself. I truly do believe that you can trust God. Some people would think that I’m crazy, but it works for me. I trust that going with my gut feeling is ultimately listening to what’s in my heart as a human being.

Womanrock: Your family is obviously very artistic. Are they proud of what you’re doing?

Boucher: Oh, very much. They’ll drop me emails every now and then and my Dad looks me up on the Internet all the time. He Google’s my name and he’ll write me a note letting me know, “Oh that was a nice article,” which is really sweet. It’s nice to know they’re all the way across the world and they’re still following. My youngest sister is still involved a lot. She does all my clothes for most of the photo shoots I’ve done…My family is still very much a part of what I do and they support me a lot.

Originally posted to WomanRock.com July '04.

Butterfly Boucher performing "I Can't Make Me Love Me."

The Wise Guy Show - Report from Sirius Radio Broadcast

Missing The Sopranos already? Nobody gets whacked on The Wiseguy Show, but you'll find it’s still time well spent with “the family.”

At the head of the red-checkered table sits former Sopranos cast member Vincent Pastore (the late Sal “Big Pussy” Bonpensiero), hosting the three-hour SIRIUS Satellite Radio broadcast produced by another Sopranos figurehead, Steven Van Zandt (Silvio Dante).

Airing live on Wednesdays from 6 pm to 9 pm on channel 147, The Wiseguy Show features a crew of street-wise neighborhood Joes-in-the-know sharing their unique perspectives on current events, film, sex and meatballs.

Each week Vinny Vella, Joe Rigano, John “Cha Cha” Ciarcia, Steve Schirripa (Bobby Bacala Baccalieri on the Sopranos), and announcer “Brooklyn” Joe Causi join Pastore for sit-downs with prominent guests from the world of entertainment. In between interviews the Wiseguys dish out regular segments such as: “What the Hell Happened This Week,” “Last Week on the Sopranos,” “The Pussy Report” and “What’s Your Beef,” where listeners air their gripes. Here’s a sampling…

Vincent Pastore: “Whatsa’ matta? What’s your beef?”

(Call-in) Jimmy from California: I can’t lose weight.

Cha Cha (laughing): I can’t give you advice on that. I got the same problem.

Vinny Vella: Hey Jimmy, you’re asking 5 heavyweights over here.

Joe Rigano: A lot of sex. You lose a lot of weight.

Throughout the madness, you’ll hear music from Tony Bennett crooning about “The Good Life,” Dion describing “Donna The Prima Donna,” Frank Sinatra accepting “That’s Life,” and more.

Some original tunes introducing segments in the show are pretty catchy as well. “Last Week on the Sopranos” sticks out:

“Last week on The Sopranos/Oh my god I thought I missed a line/Last week on The Sopranos/Thank god it was repeated 7 times/Who’s with who and who’s a rat/And who’s been telling lies/Every look and every word, must be analyzed/Analyze this/Analyze that/All I wanna know is who got laid and who got whacked…etc.

(The Wiseguys bump each other off the mics, fighting for the last word like leftovers.)

You can almost smell the red sauce when Vella Rigano reports remotely from a 6th Avenue restaurant where the topic is “meatballs.”

“I haven’t seen this many guineys in one place since the John Gotti trial,” said Schirripa during Chianese’s interview.

During the May 26 broadcast, which I was fortunate to watch in-studio at SIRIUS, guests George Lopez from the “George Lopez Show,” singer/actor David Johansen from the New York Dolls, and another distinguished Sopranos member, Dominic Chianese (Uncle Junior) pulled up chairs.

Pastore described the new show best to Chianese saying, “Usually it’s like 5 guys in the back of a social club arguing about who has the highest card.”

Chianese answered questions about how life has changed since the show began, showing us that even a Soprano can be soft sometimes. When Vella asked what he first did when he started earning money, Chainese replied, “One of the first things I did do was buy a good guitar because I like to play.”

Subscribe to Sirius at: http://www.siriusradio.com/. But hold onto your canolli’s because there’s more action. Get out to Sophia’s restaurant (221 W. 46th St. –under the Hotel Edison) where Chianese plays a regular Monday night gig.

Originally published in The Aquarian Weekly (June '04).