Billboard August 16, 1997
Reprise Looks To Donelly's Past In Touting Solo Debut
LOS ANGELES - Tanya Donelly, a former member of three of the last decade's most respected alternative bands, goes it alone on "Lovesongs For Underdogs," due from Reprise Records Sept. 9.
Reprise senior VP of artist development/creative marketing (U.S.) Craig Kostich says, "The initial thrust of our advertising and marketing plans are going to be directed at [fans] that are more alternative skewed and have probably purchased records by Throwing Muses, the Breeders, and Belly. We're not riding on [that recognition], but that's a pretty good résumé to alert people, and we're using that in our advertising, as well as stickering the album. In the first month of exposure, people will know that this is this woman who has given you great music from these other groups. So I think it's really important to saturate and draw attention to that foundation that she's built throughout the years."
Donelly, who says the usual "musical differences" contributed to the demise of Belly, came to the conclusion that being a band member may not be the life for her.
"I sort of realized in the past couple of years that I'm not such a good team player on a long-term basis," she says. "And I really want to open up my music to other poeple - have a variety of people play on things and shape the way my songs end up being. Plus, I'm staring to wonder what the hell the band concept means, anyway, because it's something that's been invented in the past 30 years. It's not really a concept that music calls for. It's just something that people assume is the way to do it.
"When bands work out, it's beautiful - R.E.M., God love'em. But that kind of chemistry is so rare, and to try to force yourself to have it with poeple you don't have it with is just lying."
Donelly says that as she was writing the material for her solo debut, "I knew at the time that I wanted to a whole bunch of different noises on those songs, which meant a bunch of different people."
For the sessions at Boston's Fort Apache Sutdio, she recruited the cream of the city's alternative players: multi-instrumentalist Rich Gilbert (formerly of Human Sexual Response and the Zulus); drummers David Narcizo (who played with Donelly in Throwing Muses), David Lovering (ex-Pixies), and Stacey Jones (formerly with Letters To Cleo and now with Veruca Salt); and her husband, bassist Dean Fisher, who previously played with Juliana Hatfield.
"I've know most of the people who played on the record for 10 years or more," Donelly says. "I definitely picked the musicians for each song according to what I heard in my head."
The finished album ended up being built in an unusual process by Donelly and co-producer Wally Gagel..
"Initially, he and I went into the sudio to do what were going to be demos," Donelly says. "First we programmed the drum machines so that I could play over that for the demos, and I just ended up putting so many layers over it that we decided that this was going to be the record, and we brought the drummers in last. It was ass-backwards, but it ended up working out really well, because we could keep the drum machines in when we wanted them in. It gave us some flexibility, soundwise.
"[It was] very bizzare. It could actually have been disastrous. The day that the first drummer came in, I was a wreck, praying."
Despite her conceptual suspicions about rock bands, Donelly nonetheless augmented these tracks with a quartet of songs produced by her manager, Gary Smith, who is also one of the owners of Fort Apache. The collaboration was a natural one: Smith had produced two of Throwing Muses' early records.
"I started to miss a band sound, and so four of the songs on the record we did in more of a live-band situation," Donelly says.
"Lovesongs For Underdogs" offers a sampling of Donelly's familiar pop-savvy style but also branches out in unexpected new directions.
"The songs that I chose and the sequence that I put them in was definitely premeditated," she says, adding with a laugh, "I did want it to sort of progress. I wanted to start off the record with stuff that sounded like something I'd done before and then move into what I'm thinking is going to be my new... schtick."
Reprise will start "Lovesongs For Underdogs" at radio with one of the set's most accessible cuts, "Pretty Deep" (which, like the rest of Donelly's material, is published by Slow Dog Music/PolyGram Music). In late July, the label shipped the track to alternative, college, and triple-A outlets.
Kostich says, "Since this is her solo debut, we want to develop strong recognition for her as a solo artist at the formats that she's been the most successful at and has the relationships with."
Donelly will be making several promotional appearances at modern rock stations in advance of the album's release, including Wednesday (13) on WPLY Philadelphia's "Sonic Sessions"; Thursday (14) on WNNX (99X) Atlanta's "Live X"; Aug. 20 on WHFS Washington, D.C.'s "Just Passing Through"; and Aug. 31 on WEQX Manchester, Vt. She will appear at a college radio showcase Sept. 6 at Irving Plaza in New York.
Donelly's strong ties to the Boston area will be exploited at a midnight sale on the release date at the city's Tower Records store.
"That market loves Tanya Donelly, and, at the rate that our promotion person there is going, he's going to have every station there on this record before it comes out," Kostich says.
One Boston-area retailer expects to make special efforts on behalf of its favorite daughter.
"Tanya has a special place in our hearts at Newbury Comics - she's a former employee," say Natalie Waleik, VP of purchasing for the 18-store chain based in Allston, Mass. "She worked in what used to be our warehouse... We're huge supporters of Tanya, and she's always done well for us."
Waleik was in the audience at a July 18 showcase Donelly perfomred at Fort Apache. "They played five or six new songs, and they sounded great," she says.
Donelly's past performance at Newbury Comics harbingers well for her solo album, Waleik adds: "We sold thousands of Belly albums, and we hope to sell many more thousands of this one."
Reprise has produced a colorful video for "Pretty Deep" that was visually inspired by Ray Bradbury's story "The Illustrated Man" and directed by Paul Andresen, who has helmed clips by Meredith Brooks ("Bitch"), Veruca Salt, Girls Against Boys, and Poe. Kostich says the video will be serviced to MTV and other outlets after the project has been properly set up.
Press efforts for the album will be extensive. Publications committed to coverage so far include Elle, Raygun, CMJ, Request, GQ, Interview, The Boston Phoenix, and online magazine Addicted to Noise.
The international market for "Lovesongs For Underdogs," which will be simultaneously released in other territories by 4AD, is not being ignored. In late July, Donelly spent a week in Europe for press and promotional appearances, and she will tour the Continent from mid-September to mid-October.
Kostich says, "Through her albums as Belly, she's developed a global fan base in all these different territories, and she's maintaining that... [Reprise and 4AD are] trying to work out both our schedules so that it's going to benefit the album in both our territories."
Donelly, who is booked by Frank Riley at Monterey Peninsula Artists, will begin a tour of U.S. clubs Oct. 16. Her touring band will include Gilbert, Narcizo, and keyboradist Elizabeth Steen of the Boston band Count Zero.
( Article extracted from pages 11 and 89. )
Singer/songwirter Donelly was a founding member of Throwing Muses (1984-91), the Breeders (1992), and her own group Belly (1992-96); with the latter act, she scored a No. 1 hit on the Modern Rock Tracks chart with "Feed The Tree," which also hit Billboard's Hot 100 Singles chart in 1993. Reprise plans to use this formidable track record as an entree for Donelly's new solo career.
BY CHRIS MORRIS
