Tracy Bonham is best known, of course, for her breakthrough song “Mother Mother” and the debut album it’s off of - The Burdens of Being Upright. The 1996 smash led to a pair of Grammy nominations and an MTV Video Music Award nod. Perhaps what we don’t know about Bonham is just how much of a bad ass she was and still is. Let me jump into the present day to back that up first. How cool is she? She recently released a cover album of her own songs! OK, let’s jump back now.
After Burdens, Bonham had to deal with music industry garbage. Her follow-up album was delayed, and by the time it came out in 2000, the music business was forked (nod to A Good Place there.) Down Here was released to much praise but didn’t sell big. By 2003, she became the featured vocalist/violinist for Blue Man Group, and a few years later, dropped her third album Blink The Brightest. Her fourth album Masts of Manhatta got props as did her fifth entitled Wax & Gold, which was made possible via Pledge Music.
So why the history lesson, Jon? Well, Bonham is playing Garcia’s in Port Chester, NY (within the almighty Capitol Theatre) next Tuesday, Dec. 5, and you should catch some of this awesomeness, which by the way, will include tracks off her aforementioned covers record. Modern Burdens, which was again helped via a partnership with Pledge, features a reinterpretation of her classic debut. I recently chatted with the delightful Bonham, and asked her about the record, the industry, and the upcoming A-Sides show.
How long has the Modern Burdens concept been in your head?
I had been hearing about people re-recording their 20-year-old hit albums for a long time. Usually the reason is because the artist doesn't own the master recordings and the label owns them in perpetuity. Originally, the idea was to re-record the songs note-for-note so I could use those recordings if I ever got a license request for the original recordings. It's a bit sneaky, but it is a way for artists to make money.
Once John (Wlaysewski of the NYC band Late Cambrian) and I started talking about doing this album together, we realized this was a "been there, done that" kind of situation and we wanted to create something new. Even though these songs are more than 20 years old, we thought they needed dusting off. Plus, we welcomed the challenge to bend people's ears and make them listen up.
How proud are you that you were part of the ‘90s alt era, and that you have been able to keep continuing to make music?
I am very proud to continue this journey despite it's ups and downs. It was very tempting to throw in the towel several years ago, after so many disappointments. But what I have found in persevering is a newfound confidence in being a veteran of sorts, with some really great records under my belt. I realized that once I became a songwriter later in my 20, I became a songwriter for life.
So, like it or not, this is my life work. I am a terrible waitress. I can't keep books for shit. I have never worked at a desk. This is it. For better or for worse.I am very proud that I have continued to hone and shape my craft and find new ways of expressing myself. I am very proud that I am still making good music.
What’s your favorite lyric yours or someone else’s from that time?
Well, “the earth died screaming while I lay dreaming” by Tom Waits. How relevant, even today.
Truth. You’ve been beating to your own drum for quite some time - do you feel what you accomplished with The Bee EP was ahead of its time?
The Bee EP was a way for me to keep myself out there between label releases. It was around 2002 and I had no record label at the time. I was very used to having a record label. I had always been taken care of in that way - tour support, street team promotion, big time promotion, radio, the whole nine yards. But in 2003, Blue Man Group took me out on the road, and we were playing massive venues, coliseums in fact. I was able to sell my EP independently on that tour. I sold somewhere around 15,000 EPs just at the shows with no promotion, no radio, no support at all. Just connecting with the audiences. I was a traveling salesman going from town to town. I have Blue Man Group to thank for allowing me to do so. They are good people. It definitely did not feel like something ahead of it's time, at the time. It felt like going back to the quarry, and getting my hands rough and dirty.
It was a very confusing time but it made me stronger. I was forced to use methods that had become outdated - like connecting with actual people, instead of being on the "other side" where my song was being played all over the radio, all over the world, with a video being played all over the world, while I was separate from all the people listening and connecting to the airwaves. I was able to look into people's eyes, shake their hands, saying "thank you" to their smiling faces. That is either ahead of it's time or behind it's time.
For me, the 1990s alt rock was a golden age for rock music period. What do you make of the current musical landscape - terrestrial, streaming, satellite?
90s Alt Rock was pretty great. Before Clear Channel bought up all the independent and cool radio stations and merged them into the same radio station 90s Alt Rock enjoyed it's hey day. Then they formatted everything and it became predictable and boring. It was homogenized, and no longer "alternative". We would always ask "alternative to what?". So, I remember those days, before Clear Channel and the big corporate merges, with fondness. It was a day when you could hear The Pixies on the radio, next to Siouxsie and the Banshees, next to PJ Harvey, next to The Beatles’ Abbey Road. I can't speak for radio stations now, except I am happy WFUV still exists in NYC.
Streaming is a tricky one. I am conflicted. I am happy that it is easy for me to find a song, in a nano second, and play it from any of my devices. But at the same time, I am starving and hungry and losing my mind because I am not getting paid for my art. Yes, I just quoted my own lyrics from 1996.
What brings you the most joy playing the violin?
I still really love playing classical music. But I am super rusty. So it doesn't really bring me joy anymore. It brings me pain and frustration. But the memory of playing beautiful classical music (Ravel, Stravinsky, Debussy, Dvorák brings me joy. I can't believe I actually played that music, and I played it well!
You’re playing a show for me Dec 5 at Garcias in Port Chester. Even though the venue is dedicated to Jerry, it welcomes all walks of life. That said, we’re The Dead an influence at all?
All I can say is I am from Eugene, Oregon. Isn't that enough?
Can you offer some words of wisdom to my two kids (Five and three)?
Listen to your parents! Get off the screens!!!
For tickets to see Bonham at Garcia’s, click here.