music: interview

> TRACY BONHAM SPEAKS HER MIND: PART I
Record label problems are behind this good woman as she pushes forward with a recent marriage, a new album and a tour with Live.

By Allison M. Counasse
Music Editor

Tracy Bonham and I sat on the steps of the Grand Staircase of the Warner Theatre in Erie, PA where she was to perform with Local H and Live. She is the opener. Her set will be approximately thirty minutes long. Her equipment is situated at the front of the stage. The other two band's equipment are also on stage behind hers. We talk about what she says are "the big issues that [she] likes to talk about": her work, the current state of music and women in rock.

DOWN HERE

Tracy's new album Down Here has been delayed repeatedly due to shakeups at Universal Records. Tracy is on Island Records, and like other artists on Universal's subsidiary labels, she has experienced a lot of frustration in getting her new material out to the public. She reflects upon this time with remarkable candor.

EE: How long has this album actually been completed?
TB: Oh, God. Two years.

EE: What have you been doing?
TB: I got married about a year and half ago. We thought we were going to get married and go right on tour - no time for a honeymoon, just go. The week of my wedding, the President of the label called and said "we just need to push it back; we're not ready; we don't hear a single yet" - you know all these fucking things.

EE: Corporate?
TB: Yeah, corporate things. I was so depressed that even though marriage was a highlight and a beautiful, wonderful thing, it was really the hardest two years of my life.

Tracy Bonham (Photo by Allison Counasse)

discography:

Down Here (2000)
The Burdens of Being Upright (1996)
Liverpool Sessions EP (1995)

related links:

Tracy Bonham - official page

EE: The past two years waiting?
TB: Yeah, waiting. The corporate monster got uglier and uglier and it seemed to be controlling my life and just holding me down. That's why I called the record Down Here because I couldn't do anything. I couldn't go out on tour. I couldn't write for a soundtrack or anything. I couldn't move my life ahead and it was hard for me to even go in record stores because I'd see everyone else's record out. Maybe I'd toured with them years ago and we were at the same level in life or something and now they've had two records out since then and here I am just sitting here like my life had stopped. That was really hard to hard to swallow.

I really tried to look for other things to keep me busy but it was always on my mind. My label would always tell me just a few more months so I always thought it was just within reach. We're gonna get going and we're gonna tour in about a few more months. So my husband would stay with me. He wouldn't go looking for a job because he's my drummer. We would just sit there waiting and then two months would go by and nobody would call. Then we'd call them and they'd say like "oh, we're not ready, something happened or this and that; we don't hear another single". They'd string me along. Ask me to write more. "We don't hear hit songs. We don't get the artistic numbers." And then the new batch of people would come in and say the same thing because they'd want their hands in it. So it was just like watching this awful, awful Groundhog Day kind of [thing] but it got uglier and uglier. I mean this - it was a nightmare two years.

EE: It sounds like you learned a lot about the industry.
TB: Oh, yeah. Exactly. And now I wish I could go back to the days where I was naive. I really do but I can't go back.

EE: So you're older and wiser?
TB: I'm older and wiser. I'm just going to look forward to the future now that the wheels are turning around. I can move on.

EE: That's cool.
TB: Yeah. That's good. That's the good part.

EE: Your album Down Here is finally out.
TB: Finally.

EE: How does it feel to have it finally set free?
TB: Thank god. I'm just so relieved that it's out and people can hear it. It is frustrating though because it took so long and the longer you wait, the more people forget. So we really had to start at square one again and even though there are die-hard fans - thank god for them - it's still hard to get over the success of "Mother Mother" because that's all people remember. And it's just like this little piece of dust in people's memories. It's four years ago which isn't long but for the public but for the music industry, it's a long time.

EE: There seems to be more of an electronic feel to this record than the other one. Are you more influenced by electronic sounds?
TB: Yeah, I opened my mind to that this time. I was very closed-minded for the first record I think. I mean I really just wanted it to sound raw guitar-driven. You know I didn't even put my violin on it because I thought "oh, that won't fit". I was really just focused on a real Boston kind of guitar girl rock sound and once I opened my mind and actually let my guard down, there were so many influences that just came rushing in and one was somewhat-electronicy kinds of sounds - not really the rhythm aspect of that because I don't like robotic rhythms. And then I also opened myself up to my classical background and decided that I could play the violin on this record and it would be okay and now I love it.

EE: Like on "Oasis Hotel"? What inspired that and where is the actual hotel located?
TB: Do you know who Lisa Germano is? She really inspires me and she plays the violin. I think that was one thing that kind of opened my mind to it. And some of those songs that she did and also "Oasis Hotel" can kind of like span over any time period. It's in Palm Springs, California. Totally old movie star kind of vibe. It was actually the bathroom shower curtain that inspired that. I had my new violin and my new four-track recorder and the acoustics in the bathroom are just wonderful. So this shower curtain had all the 40s' movie stars on it in black and white. That's what inspired that theme. I just felt like I was back in an old movie.

THE VIDEO FOR "BEHIND EVERY GOOD WOMAN"

EE: I just watched the video for "Behind Every Good Woman" and I really liked it. I thought that it was witty and I wondered if you helped come up with the concept for that?
TB: Yeah, actually, I had the concept. The original idea was stolen from a Marianne Faithful movie back in the sixties called Girl on a Motorcycle. And it's a bizarre movie but it has her riding the bike with the all-leather outfit and the fakey - really fakey - background. And that's what I wanted immediately so finding the right director that would actually collaborate with me was kind of hard. A lot of people would write their own stories and completely just not even pay attention to my request. It was Liz Friedlander who took my idea and then made a story out of it. So I knew that she was the one I had to work with. And she said she'd collaborate with me as much as I wanted. That was really, really nice. She hardly had an ego at all about it.

EE: Would you change anything about it?
TB: I think maybe if I could change one thing, I would want it to look even more fakey because I think that's what's so funny about it. It's that I'm not riding the motorcycle. We've got these scenes going behind me and actually I wanted some non-sequiters at times, too - like all of a sudden just driving it through a field and then all of a sudden being in the city and then maybe going through a cowherd but we had to make it a little more cohesive.

BEYOND "MOTHER MOTHER"

EE: Do you find it hard for people to look past the style of "Mother Mother" to your other material because it sounds more angry than a lot of the more melodic sounds of your recent album.
TB: Right. Right. Exactly. At first I was nervous about that because I thought people would have a hard time with the change but for the most part I'm hearing from people that they even like this one better. So it makes me feel good because I like it better, too. But I know that for just the people that knew me from "Mother Mother", say the radio listeners, I think they still just want to hear "Mother Mother". It's so frustrating. Like we'll play in a crowd that's not really our crowd because we're opening for people and a lot of people will yell "Play 'Mother Mother'" and I want them to hear the new stuff. So that's where it's frustrating but those people just haven't heard the new stuff yet. And hopefully they'll get a chance to hear it.

(In Part II of our massive in-depth interview with Tracy Bonham, Tracy discusses the current state of music including bubblegum pop music and the Napster controversy. Continue >>> )