Blanche - Tracee Mae Miller Interview

BLANCHES’ TRAVELING MEDICINE SHOW

by Tina Whelski

Blanche’s spooky, old country, American roots sounds on their latest CD, If We Can’t Trust The Doctors (V2) seem to wind around the mountains and settle at the bottom of your psyche. You may draw some Carter Family parallels for the band’s penchant in finding release and happiness in typically melancholy-seeming songs, but the brew is their own. Blanche’s scarred, darkly humorous lyrics demonstrated a twisted and compelling approach to storytelling at their Emos show at South By Southwest in Texas with pedal steel guitar, banjo, and Autoharp haunting the room. The vocal interplay between husband and wife Dan and Tracee Mae Miller was as mesmerizing live as was the band’s depression-era wardrobe and theatrics. What makes this band most peculiar, besides the fact that you feel you’re watching a traveling medicine show, is that all members play their secondary instruments. This is most fascinating when you realize several Blanche players are highly accomplished musicians on their primaries. Most recently good friend Jack White called on players Feeny, Little Jack Lawrence and Dan for contributions to Loretta Lynn’s Van Lear Rose album. (In fact Tracee and Dan actually shared a band with White called Two-Star Tabernacle from 1997-1999).

Tracie Mae Miller talks to WomanRock about the band’s musical remedies for the forlorn and grief-stricken.

WOMANROCK: Finally seeing Blanche live was really exciting for me. You were much more theatrical than I expected. I know you’re a visual artist as well as a musician. Is the band’s look your doing?

MILLER: Well that’s the funny thing because everyone as you can tell from Feeny’s suit, to my dress, it’s all along the same lines, but everyone’s own interpretation. So I guess it’s one of those weird things where we all came together with similar tastes, but distinctly different too. I kind of came up with my look and I don’t know if that gave everyone else the freedom or the go ahead to do what they want to do, but I have a lot of fun with it.

WOMANROCK: I talked to you before about the interplay between you and your husband Dan as you answer each others’ vocals. Do you plan any of that drama before you hit the stage or just go with the music?

MILLER: It’s just go with it. Each night we play it’s completely different and I think for that night, well, it’s always a little high-pressure at SXSW cause you don’t get a sound check and you kind of get thrown up there, but that night was really interesting because I was really nervous, but there was such a good feeling on stage.

WOMANROCK: You’ve talked in the past about a sense for “nostalgia” and that Blanche has found a way to be true to your time, but keep your “attic intact.”

MILLER: I think the nostalgia part of the band comes from within. It’s not necessarily thought out. For Dan and I it’s a part of life. I’ve always been that way. It’s one of those things where the first record I put on my record player was Hank Williams and I started collecting antiques when I was a teenager. I think it’s so important to keep a hold of the past and keep that spirit alive. For me I guess it really is a way of life. It’s not like we think, “Okay, we’ll just get a bunch of old crap and put it on.” Even the house we live in, it’s almost like a museum, but then of course we have to have the coffee pot and the cell phones and the computer, so it’s not a complete gimmick of having to live completely in the past.

WOMANROCK: You’re all obviously big fans of old mountain and country music and I’m curious because I know you and Dan have been together a long time, did you both come into your relationship appreciating that music or did you influence one another? What do you listen to now?

MILLER: It’s funny because when we first met we thought, “God, that’s really strange that we have the same interest in that old country music.” …I get stuck in the past though as far as music goes. I have a hard time seeking out newer stuff, which is easier now being in a band because you get exposed. But the similarities were there. As far as what we listen to now, I’m pretty bad. I mean I can listen to a Ralph Stanley CD every day all day long and kind of wear it out and Dan buys more of a variety of music.

WOMANROCK: I’m trying to imagine those first conversations between you too. What were some of the bands you had in common where you were like, “No way, you listen to them too?”

MILLER: Well, it was Hank Willliams of course and Carter Family, but also Nick Cave. I love Nick Cave. The first time I saw Dan was the early 90’s. I went to see a Nick Cave concert in downtown Detroit, the first time I had taken my parents’ car and drove downtown. I forced a friend to go with me. We got there early and went in the front and Dan’s band Goober & The Peas was opening for Nick Cave. That was the first time I actually saw Dan and then I didn’t really meet him until maybe a year later. But it was pretty funny that he was opening up for one of my favorite performers.

WOMANROCK: A lot of If We Can’t Trust The Doctors is about trust and uncertainty. Can you talk about the life influences that helped shape the CD?

MILLER: A lot of that CD does revolve around superstition and trust because Dan and I both had somewhat of the same upbringing and experiences when it came to sicknesses in the family and hospitals and we both spent a lot of time as young adults in hospitals and both experienced death at young ages. Dan being the songwriter, I think he was really able to get some of that stuff out. It’s really difficult when you grow up with that to have an outlet. In the two previous bands he had, being Goober and the Peas and Two-Star Tabernacle, I don’t think he really got to dig into those subjects. This album really gave him a chance to exercise those thoughts and demons and get them into the open. It’s funny because a lot of those issues he had, I had the same ones.

WOMANROCK: Very much a cathartic experience.

MILLER: Yeah exactly. I guess it’s been eye-opening as well because you can harbor all those feelings and I think we were talking about superstition last time, where you actually become superstitious of your superstition. So if you don’t start having a sense of humor about it or acknowledging it, it can just grow and grow and grow and you can become cynical. It can just change your life in a really bad way. I think that the album gets it all out there. You realize that life goes on and you have to find hope and beautiful things that go along with the bad things in life. I think that’s really what the album’s about.

WOMANROCK: I know you just came into bass playing not that long ago, but I didn’t expect to see you hike up your dress and jump behind the drums at Emos. When did you learn to play?

MILLER: I don’t know how to play drums! I just really love that jungle beat and it’s so much fun. The first time I got behind drums to play that, because Lisa usually played that part, but when we first started playing it she was more timid, and I’m kind of the more aggressive one so they put me behind the drums for that and just let me go. I don’t think I could be a drummer. I don’t know how I could do a whole set because I like to hit hard.

WOMANROCK: I know. I hit really hard when I play too and when you come out with a little too much enthusiasm, the energy can wane very quickly!

MILLER: I love hitting hard, but it’s hard work, so I don’t know about my career as a drummer, but for that one song it feels really good, especially if I’ve had a really difficult show. I can really hit the drums and get rid of that frustrated feeling of, “Oh, fuck” and get that out and end the show on a better feeling.

WOMANROCK: Blanche was essentially born in your living room. Everybody, as we just talked about in your case, just sort of jumped in on whatever instrument made sense that day. Can you talk about everyone opting to pick secondary or even brand new instruments?

MILLER: We have some great musicians in the band like Dave Feeny. He’s been in tons of bands, but he had never played pedal steel and Dan thought, for this band we really need a pedal steel player. Well Feeny’s hanging around. Let’s put him there. And Lisa’s played guitar, but had never drummed and he’s like, “Here you hit the drums, see what you can do.” Our first banjo player, Patch, never played any instruments. It was one of those things like truly, buy a banjo and don’t even learn. Maybe take a few lessons, but learn mostly on your on…We got Little Jack who’s an incredible musician as well but had never played banjo.

WOMANROCK: It’s a good think Dan really played guitar or you could have had a train wreck.

MILLER: Well the interesting thing is that Dan didn’t have that much experience playing guitar cause in Goober & The Peas he was the singer. So he had that struggle of being an entertainer, singing and playing guitar. For me, I had the struggle of somewhat knowing how to play bass, but I never took lessons and I guess I’m self taught which is probably pretty obvious. Then the singing, I honestly had never sung before. I didn’t even know how to sing Happy Birthday to tell you the truth.

WOMANROCK: Those sessions were either so much fun or, well you tell me?

MILLER: Sometimes after a bad show I used to have these fits. I’d be in tears as I’m walking off the stage cause the singing was so stressful and I was talking to someone from the label we have in England and he’s like, “Oh you really have gotten much better” and this and that and he’s seen the tears before. I told him, “The funny thing is I used to cry at practice.” I used to really be in tears in the basement practicing because it was so difficult for me to do. I really am so shy and singing is so personal and it’s got to be the scariest thing I’ve ever done in my life.

WOMANROCK: I’m with you on that, but we couldn’t tell. While you were in Texas did you get to see some other bands?

MILLER: For me whenever I’m at a giant music festival I don’t see any bands. For our showcase I saw The Kills and The Raveonettes, and The Lashes. So we had a good night at Emos. The only other band I saw was Buck 65, which I really enjoyed. It was really inspiring. But everyone else in the band had their little schedules and they took off and stumbled back in at 3 a.m. For me, one of the last nights we were there I just ended up in a normal bar having drinks. It’s like a little vacation.

Origially posted on WomanRock.com April '05.

Blanche "Do You Trust Me" Video.

Rachael Yamagata - Interview

Turning Turmoil
Into Tunes

by Tina Whelski

Rachael Yamagata’s first solo show ever was in New York City at the Living Room on an out-of-tune piano and her second was a sold-out show at Madison Square Garden opening for David Gray. If that sounds like a head-spinning experience for the husky-voiced performer, it’s nothing compared to the raw accounts of love won and ultimately lost that she documents on her debut full-length album Happenstance (RCA) produced by John Alagia (John Mayer, Dave Matthews, etc.).

Yamagata actually came into music because she kept falling in and out of relationships and needed a creative outlet for the emotions. And her brutally honest accounts burn, but don’t take my word for it. The fact that a fan mailed her song “Reason Why” to a lover to explain why their relationship failed is proof of their potency.


Rachael Yamagata Talks about turning turmoil into an album.

WOMANROCK: You’ve been out supporting Happenstance a while now. Have the stories evolved for you as you’ve grown and spent time with them? Do songs take on new meaning?

RACHAEL YAMAGATA: Sometimes they do. Sometimes you just grow to hate them (laughs). In other songs there are just emotions that can be applied to different relationships that are universal emotions. Sometimes I’ll be in a relationship that has nothing to do with the one that was the source of the song, but it still carries the same weight. Then of course you talk to people who are watching for the first time and tons of people come up to me and tell me their stories and they interpret the songs differently.

Every now and then you’re on stage and your mind wanders and you can think of it from their eyes or you find a different meaning, like “Reason Why.” I wrote it kind of about this group dynamic, a business relationship really. Everyone thinks it’s a love song, so every now and then I’ll play it and dedicate it to somebody. In another situation I heard from this guy who was dating this woman in Chicago. She moved to Ibiza, Spain and told him their relationship never went anywhere. She said he never asked her to come to Chicago and he was writing me this email because she ended up getting my EP, which has “The Reason Why” on it. She sent it to him in Chicago and said, “Listen to this song. It explains the reason why I left.” So you hear these stories. It’s just so odd how people interpret them. So in that respect it does change.

WOMANROCK: That’s got to feel good when people find personal meaning in your songs?

YAMAGATA: It does. It’s so surreal and kind of trippy (laughs).

WOMANROCK: You’ve talked about how Happenstance deals with the battle between chance circumstances and the belief that everything happens for a reason. What kinds of things have been thrown in your path this last year that have influenced you as an artist?

YAMAGATA: Well different things. On the business side, I’ve been through like five different record mergers and it’s insane. Literally South By Southwest was one big collection of people who tried to sign me in one way or another. So in that respect I’ve been through this whirlwind journey of even getting a record out there. Things that I thought were sure things or were the exact right places for me to be ended up falling through and probably were the only things that kept me alive through these changes of hands. I’m pretty comfortable with turmoil being shoved at me. I always feel like it’s the best thing for that moment and you end up using it as a source of material. It makes you feel lonely and confused and you go through this process, which ends up just giving you more fodder for songs.

In my personal life, I think I learn a lot of my lessons through my romantic relationships with people and things that are just so painful and just the worst circumstances where you just have to say, “I can’t believe this is my life and this is happening to me.” The weirdest things happen where someone just happens to be right there or whatever. It seems to show up in my writing so it’s a catch 22. I never seem to fail to have something to write about. I go through this hell in order to get there.

WOMANROCK: …And everyone wants to be an artist. Sucks doesn’t it? (laughs)

YAMAGATA: I know! I sit there and I’m like, “You only get one or the other.”

WOMANROCK: Many artists try to create journeys with their music, but the process of recording Happenstance was literally a trek from place to place. Was this a choice or a matter of course?

YAMAGATA: That was kind of a product of having an adventurous producer. I had made records with other bands, but never on my own and he [John Alagia ] was very willing to let me follow my nose towards things. A lot of the time we’d move because it just felt like it was time to go. We started in The Bahamas and that was amazing. It was like every five minutes, “Let’s go get a Margarita.” We’d come back and lay down some parts and then, “Let’s go get a Margarita.” We did the basic tracks down there and then we happened to follow musicians. We wanted certain people and they could only be in New York at a certain time or I had a cellist who fell through at the last minute and so I met Ollie [Oliver Kraus], Tom McRae’s cellist months before and he happened to be in the country in California doing a residency or tour so we picked up and went out there. Then we trailed it back to New York to get some other people and eventually down to Maryland where John has a studio that’s right on the Chesapeake Bay—a great place to mix.

WOMANROCK: That’s hysterical. Usually musicians have to come to the project, not the other way around.

YAMAGATA: I know. Well we did have them, but we were like, “We’ll meet ya there.” Things would come up where we’re like, “This could really use French Horn.” Someone would be like, “My uncle plays French Horn, but he’s got to be in New York for the New York City Ballet, so let’s go to New York.” So it was really one of those crazy things. I think it was great for this record. I think for the second record there’s a ranch somewhere in Maine where there’s a horse farm and the studios are in different barns and you stay there and ride horses and have your own private chef or something. Everyone has to come there and no one’s allowed to leave until it’s done (laughs).

WOMANROCK: Are you working on new material?

YAMAGATA: I’m actually doing a lot with new stuff. My problem is I must have ADD, because I’ll play a whole set and people are like, “What?” I’ll be like, “Oh. Okay, I’ll play one song from the album.

WOMANROCK: Sort of like, “Who was that?”

YAMAGATA: Yeah (laughs). They don’t recognize anything, so I have to settle down. I’ve started playing the new ones on the road though cause I’m constantly writing. I keep telling the label I’ll submit them and then I find another tour. I think by late summer I should start recording the next one.

WOMANROCK: Songs?

YAMAGATA: My favorite is probably “Quiet” and then there’s a hidden track about three minutes and twenty seconds called “Ode To…” That’s probably my favorite just because it’s really stripped down. It’s just guitars and just me. It’s one take, like 3:00 in the morning, literally just before mixing. We were in the producer’s place, just him and me because everyone else had pretty much finished the record. I had just written it because I was going through this other thing that seemed to, of course, turn out badly.

WOMANROCK: Oh no, quick—song.

YAMAGATA: Yeah. Wrote it that morning and literally had the lyrics on the floor and sat there crouched over with the guitar. I was just starting to learn guitar and it’s a really long song so I just kind of sat there. He was in the room and just pressed record and played through this thing. It’s just really raw and really honest and really vulnerable. It’s got no production on it at all and it’s just kind of fresh because it was so personally present at the time. I had a lot of fun with this album experimenting with strings and horns and clarinets and crazy production and I think I’m gravitating for the next one probably more towards spur-of-the-moment spontaneous things. That one’s my favorite just because it’s almost like a release of the fight for this particular love. It’s like a giving in and just doesn’t shy away from the fact that there was another person involved and you weren’t chosen and it’s this really heartfelt kind of thing. It sucks but it’s a reflection on the fact that it sucks. It’s not that you’re angry. It’s just so sad. So that one I really love and “Quiet” is like a lullaby.

It’s a really simplistic chord progression for the piano and the same kind of vulnerable realization that after a huge relationship you question whether you may not have made a difference in somebody’s life at all. It’s that point where you’re just reflecting on the fact that you spent all this time and all this investment and think, “Did it actually change anything?” Of course it did, but there’s that moment where you second-guess everything.

Originally posted on WomanRock.com April '05.

Rachael Yamagata performing "Be Be Your Love."

Anna Nalick - Interview

ANNA NALICK JUMPS IN
WITH BOTH FEET

by Tina Whelski

Her grandmother’s nostalgic stories about dancing with Fred Astaire perked her interest in showbiz and years later a cassette demo recorded on a Rainbow Brite toy landed her a Sony Records deal. It’s a fairy tale beginning to a career, particularly with the release this month of her debut CD, Wreck of the Day.

Anna Nalick previewed tracks from Wreck of the Day in a showcase at the Driskoll Hotel during South By Southwest last month proving her live show to be just as intimate and endearing as her album confessionals. When Nalick sang “Just Breathe,” for example, from the track “Breathe,” she seemed to be reminding herself as much as the audience. Putting her insecurities to melody she continued on in the song: “I feel like I’m naked in front of the crowd/Cause these words are my diary screaming out loud.” Nalick’s wordplay stood out on tracks, such as “Citadel,” “Satellite,” “Wreck of the Day” and “Paper Bag,” where she sang, “Can you talk a little louder/I don’t think my heart is broken enough.” At times cocky, but more often vulnerable, Nalick’s music felt both wise and naïve. No doubt her being a young girl raised on depression era entertainment was an influence and it’s part of the artist’s ageless appeal.

21-year-old Anna Nalick tells WomanRock how she eventually found the courage to jump into music with both feet.

WOMANROCK: Your grandmother and grandfather were in the Broadway versions of The Marx Brothers’ Coconuts and Animal Crackers and your grandmother danced with Fred Astaire, among many other accomplishments. Did their involvement with Broadway spark your interest in performing?

ANNA NALICK: Absolutely. That’s what got me interested in music and what made me want to go on tour and be part of the entertainment industry. They were performers during the Great Depression and they were the sole source of happiness for a lot of people. The entertainment that they provided gave people a chance to escape whatever was happening in their lives and laugh and cry or experience something different for a couple of hours…My grandmother was in Desert Song when it was on Broadway and all that kind of music made me so interested in the writing. We sang those songs together. I know her favorite song in particular was “I’ll Be Seeing You,” and I love that music because it tells a story. It’s beautiful and something everybody can relate to, but there’s a focus on the lyrics and the melody and that inspired me to write. In fact it’s still my favorite music. Right now I’m listening to some records that I got, actually on Columbia, The Essential Bing Crosby and The Essential George Gershwin. These melodies are striking and the things that they sing about are so timeless because even as my grandmother related to love songs and sad stories here, sixty years later I listen to them and I can relate 100%.

WOMANROCK: So you sang duets with your grandmother?

NALICK: I would sing with my grandmother all the time. I would sing all the old songs. My grandfather died right before I was born, but my grandmother lived with me for five years before she died when I was fourteen. I spent every summer for almost five years, just everyday, in her room in the back house listening to her stories about life on tour and listening to music that she liked and wanting to live that life, wanting to travel by train, going places and getting to do all those things for the purpose of entertaining people and giving them a chance to pay attention to something besides what they’re worried about.

WOMANROCK: Did your grandmother give you any tips on the business?

NALICK: I don’t think I knew that I wanted to be in show business. I wanted that lifestyle, but I didn’t know everything that it entailed. So I think more than listening to her advice, I just inherited a lot of the qualities that she had.

WOMANROCK: You started writing songs during fifth grade math class, which to me is a perfectly logical place to let your mind wander. You began re-writing lyrics to your favorite songs. Did you begin composing some originals there?

NALICK: Oh yeah, absolutely. I got my start with writing, in the lyrical form, before I even knew that I could write my own melodies. I felt lonely in math class. I’m afraid I’m one of those kids whose brains just didn’t catch on. My teacher used to describe that I would get this look over my face like I had no clue what he was talking about and he was right…So I just found something else to occupy my mind and I would write down whatever I was feeling. Of course with fifth and sixth grade it’s the pre-teen years so there’s a lot of funny emotions and stuff going on. I channeled all of that and wrote it into music.

WOMANROCK: What songs were you re-writing?

NALICK: …I started re-writing Matchbox 20 lyrics and it was funny because at one of the shows that I played at The Living Room (NYC), Rob Thomas showed up and he watched my sound check. Afterwards I was so excited to meet him and tell him I used to re-write his lyrics and at first he was like, “So you didn’t think they were very good, huh?” I was like, “No. That’s not it at all.”

WOMANROCK: You almost quit singing altogether after your first public performance?

NALICK: I was thirteen-years-old and I sang in a Fourth of July parade—“The Star Spangled Banner.” I did it for my friend as a favor and he was the only one who knew I could sing besides my parents. I was so nervous that my voice cracked. I finished the whole song, but after that I was so embarrassed that I wouldn’t sing for another two years. It wasn’t until my sophomore year of high school that a drummer friend of mine convinced me that we should start a band together and after I sang in front of him, (actually I had a crush on him at the time) I didn’t have any problems singing anymore.

WOMANROCK: How did music become your career focus?

NALICK: I planned on going to college, just this community college that I went to for a year and half. I wanted to go for two years and then put myself out on my own tour, but instead I met a manager and things just took off from there, so I just ended up quitting after a year and a half.

WOMANROCK: How did you meet your manager?

NALICK: I was in an amazing situation because it really happened for me like the movies where the girl gets discovered in the ice cream shop…I was working at a boutique on the main street of Glendora at the time, and a photographer approached me asking if I would model for her portfolio. During the photo shoot I picked up a prop guitar and played out a few of my songs and she liked them, so she offered to pass my demo along to a student in her photography class who's mother, Kathy Anaya, manages producers. Kathy took me on as a client and introduced me to three of her producers, Eric Rosse (Tori Amos), Brad Smith and Christopher Thorn (bass player and guitarist from Blind Melon). The four of us cut a record of three of my songs and sent it to record labels and within a few weeks I had label interest. They flew me out to New York and I played conference room showcases until I met the people at Columbia Records.

WOMANROCK: Tell me about the Rainbow Brite demo you gave your manager?

NALICK: I don’t think I knew any better that you’re supposed to do a CD, so it was a cassette tape. I made it on a Rainbow Brite tape recorder because that’s all I had. I had this little tape recorder since I was probably about six. I still have it somewhere.

WOMANROCK: Will you talk about your approach to the writing on the album?

NALICK: I fall asleep with a notebook next to my bed and write throughout the night because that’s when I feel like I’m free thinking. There are no other distractions. So I’ll wake up in the middle of the night after falling asleep thinking about the song and the lyrics will just be there. I’ll know exactly what I want to say once I let my subconscious take over.

WOMANROCK: There’s a nice honest mix of uncertainty and strength on the CD, which I find endearing. What kinds of things were you writing about?

NALICK: Your description of the uncertainty, that’s very true. That’s a lot of what I wrote about. In fact there’s a song on Wreck of the Day called “Citadel,” and it’s all about being afraid to jump in with both feet, looking at all the things I wanted to do and being so scared. It’s interesting because I know that even though I know exactly what I wrote about at the time, that song has changed meaning since I wrote it over and over again. The chorus sings, “What if I fall?/What if I don’t?/What if I never make it home?” and now it pertains to a relationship, to myself as a business person, to flying all over the place, to falling in love, just everything. It’s that want to do something, but being scared to take that step because, “What if I don’t make it?” and “What if it doesn’t work out?”

WOMANROCK: Questioning is very prevalent on the album, but there’s ultimately resolution.

NALICK: I find that in the end that with most things that I write about or most things that I feel that even if I might be a little bit afraid or even though I might meet with a lot of trepidation, that it always ends up I’d rather do it and totally screw it up then never do it all and look back and wish. That’s actually why I called the album, Wreck of the Day. It’s because I find that a lot of the songs sing about having something go wrong or having something that I’m worried about or having something that I’m not feeling entirely OK about, but finding a way to “Just Breathe” or just go ahead and jump in with both feet. Wreck of the Day means to me that every day there’s something and sometimes it’s minor and sometimes it’s a big deal. Every day there’s something to overcome, but I know that I’m going to make it through whatever today’s issue is and it will make me that much smarter so that tomorrow it will be a little easier.

WOMANROCK: Let’s talk about more songs.

NALICK: I’m guessing people might ask about “Breathe,” so I really did write it at 2 A.M. I woke up to a phone call to a friend of mine who was having a problem and I talked to her…I thought about all of the people in my life, including myself, and all of the things we were faced with and how in the end there was no turning back. We really were where we were. There was no way to turn around. The point is that we all need to stop and take a breath and deal with whatever. That’s why there’s a line in “Breathe” that says, “Life is like an hourglass glued to the table,” and I find that as a metaphor so incredibly true because time doesn’t go backwards. Once it falls through, there’s no taking it back, but we make the best of it.

I think the second single is a song called “In The Rough.” The chorus says “Someday love will find me in the rough/Someday love will finally be enough,” and I guess it’s pretty easy to figure out what that one’s about. I think at some point in everyone’s life we run into that one person who just doesn’t give us enough credit and as much as we love them, we’re just not getting it back.

I wrote “Satellite” actually while we were making the record. I came in with so many songs, but over the year that it took to finish the contract and get into the studio, I’d written so much more. I didn’t want to just stick to stuff that I’d written years ago or a year ago, so I wrote “Satellite” in my apartment in Burbank. I was by myself thinking about having finally made it out of the relationship that I described in “In The Rough.” I found myself in a place that I’m sure a lot of people find themselves in when they get out of where they are and then all of a sudden you find yourself in the middle of nowhere and not sure what to do with your newfound freedom. The reason I call it “Satellite” is because there are so many times when you look up and you wish on a star and then you find out it’s an airplane. It’s just so metaphorical for that feeling of running and running and running and you think you know where you’re going and all of a sudden you’re there and you look around and you’re like, “Oh gosh, now what do I do?”

WOMANROCK: Anything you want people to know about your debut album?

NALICK: I want people to know that I do all the writing. If somebody feels that they relate, they can. I totally promise there is a girl who feels a little bit ridiculous sometimes. That would be me.

Orginally posted on WomanRock.com March '05.

Anna Nalick video, "Breathe (2AM)."

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).

Trans-Siberian Orchestra -Concert Review

Beacon Theatre
NYC
Dec 9, 2003

Demonstrating what music might sound like if electric guitars and modern keyboards were around in Beethoven or Mozart’s time, the Trans-Siberian Orchestra warmed the Beacon Theatre with holiday spirit on its 5th annual tour of Christmas Eve & Other Stories.

Featuring a long-haired, tuxedoed cast of rock musicians, string players, vocalists and a narrator, Producer Paul O’Neill’s symphonic rock show fused elements of hard rock, Broadway, R&B and classical music to tell a story about the true meaning of Christmas.

Positioned against a backdrop of stars and more lights than a church organ has pipes, Trans-Siberian Orchestra performed fragments of holiday standards woven around original compositions, all tied to this season of giving. In this optimistic Christmas world where anything could come true, the music was magnificently unpredictable.

Snippets of Silent Night rang out underneath Roland V-Drums and guitars on "An Angel Came Down," a song sung by vocalist Rob Evan about an angel seeking out good deeds done on earth. The ensemble riffed through an instrumental rendition of "O Come All Ye Faithful/O Holy Night," with soaring guitars enhancing the drama on the highest notes. A Mad Russian’s Christmas, a deliciously psychotic instrumental composition opened delicately with Co-Producer Robert Kinkel’s keys, and then unleashed its dancing string sounds and swirls of energy.

Long Island violinist Mark Wood and guitarist Chris Caffery faced off against bassist Dave Zablidowsky and guitarist Tristan Avakian for a battle of the strings during Nutrocker, Trans-Siberian Orchestra’s rendition of Emerson, Lake and Palmer’s rendition of Tchaikovsky’s "Nutcracker Suite." Another powerful tune included, "Carmina Burana," inspired by the centuries-old writings of a Benedictine monk.

New Jersey soloist Joe Cerisano’s raspy delivery on the tune "Ornament," a melodic rock ballad about being lost, was more than moving. And "Old City Bar," a simple acoustic singer/songwriter number sung by Rob Evan again, also struck a chord throughout the theatre. Anyone who had ever spent a lonely night on a bar stool cheered when Evan sang, “For the rest of the night, no one paid for a drink.”

With a Dr. Seuss-like rhyming pattern, show narrator Bryan Hicks furthered the evening’s storyline in between songs: “It’s in every kindness that we give,” said Hicks about Christmas, “Each simple little act. It’s every gift we give and expect nothing back.”

The obvious highlight for the crowd was the blistering, heavy, instrumental, "Christmas Eve/Sarajevo 12/24," the song that inspired this show’s beginning.

“This song was inspired by the true story of a cellist who refused to be intimidated by the gunfire in his native city of Sarajevo,” said O’Neill. “His playing outdoors amidst the shelling all around him represented the defiance of the violence that tore the city to pieces only a few years after it hosted the Olympics.”

Trans-Siberian Orchestra was created in 1996 by O’Neill and writing partners, Kinkel and Jon Oliva.

“The marriage of rock and classical always seemed like a natural to me,” said O’Neill. “In my mind, the first hard rock/heavy metal star was Beethoven. The opening notes of his Fifth Symphony, ‘Da da da dum,’ if they had been written 20 years ago by Ozzy Osbourne for Black Sabbath, they would have fit right in.”

Originally published in The Aquarian Weekly Jan '04.

Video for "Christmas Eve/Sarajevo 12/24."

David Lee Roth - Review

The Beacon Theatre
New York City

David Lee Roth’s sixth solo tour hit the Beacon Theatre in New York City, and as much as I loved Dave with Van Halen, I have to confess, this night they were not missed. This was Diamond Dave’s party. As he put it, “Welcome to Club Dave.” Fans were treated to a night packed with hits from his solo work and the Van Halen years, as well as Dave’s signature quips and raunchy mischief.

Dave hit the stage with "Hot For Teacher" Backed by a great band, the tune demonstrated everyone’s musical chops and signaled where the night was going. With songs like Runnin’ With The Devil, The Cradle Will Rock, Just A Gigolo/I Ain’t Got Nobody, Yankee Rose, California Girls, and You Really Got Me, Dave really had us.

Wearing a black outfit that was a mix between cowboy and road warrior, Dave looked so great to a girl in the front row that she splashed her drink on his pant leg to get his attention. Dave quietly disappeared backstage and reappeared with a full bottle of Jack Daniels. After a quick nip, he held the bottle firmly between his legs and shook it, pouring it all over her. Once she was bathed in whiskey, the flirting started.

“Hey hot stuff,” said Dave. “Can I make a booty call this early in the show? You’re hot enough to make Michael Jackson quit the Boy Scouts.” To another woman he said, “You’ve done more for brunettes than Snow White.”

“Is everybody having a reasonable time so far?” asked Dave several times. Apparently so, because a slightly overweight, intoxicated fan leaped on stage to hug him. With slapstick delivery Dave announced, “Ladies and Gentlemen, a big hand for Sammy Hagar,” which brought roars from the crowd.

One of the best moments all night was right after curtain call when Dave came back with "Jump." Master Dave took a long stick and twirled it around his body just like you've seen a million times on Kung Fu Theatre. His serious and measured discipline was almost as impressive as his exciting vocal performance.

Originally published in The Aquarian Weekly.

Van Halen "Hot For Teacher" video.