Blurbs in Various Magazines
Rocktropolis/AllStar September 12, 1997
TANYA DONELLY GOES HER OWN WAY ON LOVESONGS FOR UNDERDOGS
"I lied," Tanya Donelly says with a girlish "tee hee." The singer and guitarist had once said that her band Belly was just going to take a break, when the truth was that they had just broken up. "I had to lie because I'm from New England and we're emotionally reserved," she explains, apologizing. "That's the main reason that we didn't make a big announcement: we didn't want to have to deal with anyone face to face."
Donelly is comfortable talking about going solo, a move she's just made with Lovesongs for Underdogs. Having been a member of Throwing Muses and the Breeders, as well as Belly, Donelly has finally followed Fleetwood Mac's advice and gone her own way.
"As soon as it became apparent that Belly was going to break up," she says, "I knew that I couldn't start another band. I just didn't want to be married musically again.
"But being solo isn't the same thing as being alone," she points out. "I still have musicians in the studio that are contributing. However, if I have guitar ideas in my head, which I always do, or keyboard ideas in my head, which I always do, I can now do them without stepping on anybody's toes or having a band meeting.
"I'm starting to realize," she continues, "that one of my strengths -- and flaws -- is that I have a relatively short attention span, and I need to work with different people all the time. I want to have more people contributing. And now I'm not confined to three other people; I have a whole world full of musicians to choose from." Which is why, when asked, she mentions such musicians as Mary Margaret O'Hara, Leonard Cohen, and Marc Ribot as people she'd like to choose.
"And," she adds, "I'd like to work with -- don't get scared -- a horn section someday."
On the other hand, Donelly does not rule out the possibility of going backwards, using musicians she previously worked with. "I am using David Narcizo, who played with Throwing Muses," she says, "but I don't know, I can't really say. My frame of mind changes radically from year to year, and I mean radically, so I don't know."
ELLE October 1997
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( taken from page 104 )
People October 20, 1997 ( Thanks Jennie! )
This Boston singer-songwriter sure has been around. Already a veteran of three bands -- Throwing Muses, The Breeders, and, most recently, Belly -- Donelly has finally gotten around to releasing her solo debut. Perhaps some time alone is just what she needed. While Belly's last album was an unfocused, only vaguely melodic affair, these breezy tunes are tight and richly textured with unexpected shifts in mood and tempo. And Donelly has toughened up her vocal act to match her backup band's musical muscle. When she twists and turns through the lines "You penetrate / You emulate / Do you understand the deal?" on "LandspeedSong," she sounds unself-consciously flirty -- worlds away from the subtlety-lacking likes of Fiona Apple and Jewel. Some underdog. - Jeremy Helligar
Scene October 23-29, 1997 ( Thanks Amanda! )
CHASING HER OWN MUSE
TANYA DONELLY GOES IT ALONE
By Steve Batten
When you've been an integral part of not one but three of the most important and influential bands of your generation, finding a new group situation that measures up can be a difficult and oftentimes uncertain proposition. Not so for Tanya Donelly.
Having successfully carted a course from underground to mainstream through her work with groundbreaking acts such as Throwing Muses, the Breeders, and Belly, the prolific 31-year-old singer/songwriter from Newport, Rhode Island found herself at a crossroads when Belly parted ways after their second effort, 1995's majestic KING. For Donelly, though, the choice was an easy one. This time, she was going it alone, for better or for worse. The results speak for themselves. With gold records and Grammy nominations behind her, Donelly's confidence and charisma aren't surprising. And those elements come shining through on her solo debut, LOVESONGS FOR UNDERDOGS, a charming, intriguing 12-song collection that brings to the fore some different sides of Donelly's colorful persona.
Phoning from Athens, Georgia, on an otherwise drizzly and depressing October morning, Donelly's effusive personality cuts through the haze as she explains her motivation for going solo and hints at just what we may expect from this talented performer in the future. She's got a talented new band with some familiar faces backing her, and they'll be on hand when she plays Peabody's DownUnder this Monday, October 27. If Donelly's remarkable resume is any indicator, it promises to be another memorable performance.
SCENE: LOVESONGS is an interesting step for you. On the first half of the record, you seem to be picking up where you left off with Belly. But with the second half, it's almost as if you're saying, "C'mon, follow me," and running off in a new direction.
TD: Yeah. That's nice of you to say, because that's exactly what I was thinking. I sort of sequenced the record so that it starts out with ground that I've sort of covered before, and by the end of it, I'm into what i want to be doing in the future.
SCENE: You've always been sort of the quintessential band girl. Why a solo project as opposed to a new band?
TD: (Amidst giggles) That's funny. I thought it would be whorish for me to form another band. I've done that, many times. After Belly Broke up, I was feeling relatively defeated as a team player.
SCENE: It's hard these days to find the right combination of additude, talent and chemistry.
TD: It is.
SCENE: It's like they say-- bands are a four-way marriage...
TD: (Knowingly) I know. And you kind of start to figure out that everybody in the world is insane. Everyone is dysfunctional, and everbody is f**ked up. Eventually it becomes an ego thing no matter what.
SCENE: You titled the album LOVESONGS FOR UNDERDOGS. Do you see yourself as an underdog?
TD: (Emphatically) No.
SCENE: I didn't think so. There's a certain confidence about this record.
TD: Yeah. It's a tough question. I have gotten to the point where I am confident enough to a certain extent. I think everybody feels like an underdog--it's kind of universal. But with the title, I just wanted it to be bittersweet and kind of funny, more than anything.
SCENE: You wrote almost everything on LOVESONGS, and co-produced, as well. It seems that you had a pretty strong idea of what you wanted to accomplish.
TD: I did once it got underway. In the beginning, I was just sort of flying by the seat of my pants.
SCENE: Really?
TD: Yeah. But as the days and weeks went on, it started to take shape itself, and then I knew where to take it from there.
SCENE: You've always been really closely associated with the alternative scene, but more than anything, LOVESONGS just seems like a good '90s pop album.
TD: Right. Yeah, it is. I mean, for the most part, it is. But I think that eventually I'm going to start moving away from that, much to the chagrin of my manager and record company.
SCENE: More like the latter half of LOVESONGS, then?
TD: Yeah. One of the things that I did learn on this album is that my strengths, at least as far as I'm concerned, lie more in the slower, spookier songs. And I want to explore that more.
SCENE: You've certainly proven yourself with what you've already done. It'll be interesting to see what other ideas you've got up your sleeve.
TD: Yeah. I want to see, too. (laughs)
SCENE: We'll find out together, I guess.
TD: (More uncontrolled laughter). I want to get more into using instruments that aren't so immediately recognizable. Organic instruments, but ...
Like on this album, Rich Gilbert, who's playing guitar with me, played this saw and a bunch of other really interesting instruments that really add textures that I want to get more into in the future. It's a saw. A real, actual saw. Isn't that cool?
SCENE: You certainly don't hear that every day. Do you write with instruments like that in mind?
TD: Nah. But when I'm writng, I hear noises in my head, always. I'll hear all kinds of melody lines running through what I'm writing, but I don't have an instrument in mind. Sometimes it'll be a certain pitch, or a certian tone, in my head, and I'll know what will most closely approximate that sound. But, for the most part, they're just melody lines, and then I'll decide if it's going to be a violin or an E-bow.
SCENE: So, who have you got to play all of these crazy sounds with you onstage?
TD: Well, right now it's Rich Gilbert, who played guitar on some of the record, and all those other crazy instruments. David Narcizo, who played in Throwing Muses, is on drums. Dean Fisher [Donelly's husband], from Juliana Hatfield's band, is on bass. And a woman named Elizabeth Steen is playing keyboards and accordion, and she sings -- she's great.
SCENE: That'll be a nice touch for vocal harmonies.
TD: Yeah. That was really important. It's weird, because I don't want to be gender-specific when I'm looking for band members, but I really do need to have a female with a pretty voice in there.
SCENE: Will you be doing a lot from LOVESONGS live?
TD: Yeah, most of it. We do a couple of Belly songs, too. "Mysteries Of The Unexplained" goes over really well, and "The Bright Light" goes over really well. I like singing "Manna," and I like "Swoon," too. It's different for all of us.
SCENE: Will be a long tour?
TD: It's one full month here, and then we go back to Europe. And then Australia. And then Christmas. And after Christmas, I'm back on tour.
SCENE: You're probably used to those long, extended tours from your previous bands.
TD: Yeah, but I'm not into that this time so much.
SCENE: You need to give yourself a little bit of a breather before it's time for another record.
TD: I like writing songs and recording more than anything in the world. That's all I want to do. If I could get away with just putting out records, I would. I would love to just record constantly, like a day job. Nine to five, five days a week. I love it. It's my favorite thing. I love being in the studio.
SCENE: Lovely. You don't usually hear that coming from singers so much.
TD: No, I love singing in the studio. It still seems like such a miraculous process to me. It's the one thing I haven't become used to. When I record something and it comes out back at me from speakers, it still just seems like, I don't know, godhead.
SCENE: And you've got such a creative, collaborative, scene up north, in and around Boston. It's a great environment to make music in.
TD: Yeah, it is. It's really nice. There's a lot of really talented people, too. It's suprisingly friendly, too, not competitive and mean-spirited.
SCENE: And a strong club scene, as well.
TD: There's a really good, new club there now, called the Middle East. It's great. Acutally, I'm there embarrassingly often.
( taken from page 23 )
P l a y b a c k ( also in Scene )
Tanya Donelly
LOVESONGS FOR
UNDERDOGS
Reprise
Is breaking up hard to do, or do you just get tired of it? One lady that certainly might know is Boston's Tanya Donelly. Starting with her teenage stint in Throwing Muses (paired with step-sister Kristen Hersh), you knew that her innocent and warped pop tunes wouldn't last forever. So, Donnelly [sic] found herself opposite another female when she and Kim Deal collaborated in the Breeders. To many control issues at hand there, so eventually Donelly dissolved herself into the lone focus in Belly. After two albums, and tons of critical acclaim, Belly disbanded.
Finally, Donelly has turned to the only situation where no one can walk out over 'creative differences' or 'musical directions,' as she releases her first solo album, LOVESONGS FOR UNDERDOGS.
On Belly's last outing, KING, Donelly strung together a solid album of floating hooks and airy melodies. It was still crafted around a guitar-based punch, but while the songs were instantly easy to take in, they often left just as quick. Perhaps that's why bassist Gail Greenwood found herself jumping over the noisier progressions of L7 after her Belly input.
So, with UNDERDOGS, Donelly is staring to force herself to shy away from her own strengths, which is slightly off-kilter but always melodic songwriter, and to try and experiment and expand her repertoire.
Songs that may find their way to the radio are still present on this album, joining the current radio track "Pretty Deep." Initially, songs like "Pretty Deep" and "Landspeed Song" aren't too far removed from KING's foundation, and in return, stick out as the finest cuts.
Even if she managed a few straight pop gems in the mix, her course for UNDERDOGS is decisively more experimental. It's an up-and-down adventure, but that shouldn't discourage Donelly from pushing her limits, because as she has proven in the past, re-inventing yourself and discovering new outlets can be crucial. As much as Belly's KING was adored, most people probably wouldn't [want] her to repeat that formula.
On a couple of the strummed acoustic tunes, Donelly even finds that she can re-invent her own past with "Mysteries Of The Unexplained" or "Manna," reminiscing some of the quirky work that she and Hersh specialized in years ago. Her lilting and hickuppy vocals show up with much more exaggeration on UNDERDOGS than anything she has done since her Muses days.
Most of Donelly's lyrics are focused, as the title would imply -- a batch of obsessive and scorned relationship scars. On "Landspeed Song," she pleads, Organize me, start with anything you want. This time around, though, it's going to be up to her to organize her musical vision and find the new path she trying to find.
Brian Manke
Boston Magazine December 1997 ( Thanks Doug! )
Eons before Courtney baited and Fiona pouted, songwriter and guitarist Donelly was, everyone agrees, very nice. She left the University of Rhode Island to tour with her first band, the Throwing Muses; then she took off to help found the Breeders with ex-Pixie Kim Deal. Then she took off again to lead alternative crossover sensation Belly, whose debut album, Star, sold a million copies. After a lukewarm reception to its follow-up album, she took off yet again.
In September, Donelly, 31, released her first solo album, the radio-friendly Lovesongs for Underdogs, and now she may be hard-pressed to find something to leave. On tour and sounding hoarse from a Philadelphia hotel, she says she has beaten a lifelong case of insomnia with the help of husband and now fellow rocker Dean Fisher ( his presence in bed helps her sleep ). No wonder she had trouble getting Z's: Her lyrics evoke a claustrophobia of a Bunuel film mixed with the geek love deprecation of cartoonist Lynda Barry. Even by herself, Donelly rocks.
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