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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.
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