(*20*)In the Nineties, Kay Hanley discovered fame because the bandleader of Boston alt-rock outfit Letters to Cleo. The band’s (*20*)1993 single “Here & Now”(*20*) helped them domesticate a nationwide fanbase that led them to a collection of placements in motion pictures and TV all through the last decade. But it was an look within the film — and on the soundtrack — for (*20*)10 Things I Hate About You(*20*) that helped the band go mainstream. Just two years later, Hanley would turn into the voice of Josie McCoy within the now-cult-classic movie (*20*)Josie and the Pussycats(*20*), serving to solidify songs like “Spin Around” and “3 Small Words” as popular culture phenomena.
(*20*)But throughout her tenure in Letters to Cleo, Hanley additionally launched a solo report — (*20*)Cherry Marmalade (*20*)— again in 2002. The catchy pop album by no means fairly hit the mainstream however discovered a following over time. It additionally allowed Hanley to discover peace and stray from the darkness shrouded within the sunny-tinged Cleo songs. For the album’s twentieth anniversary, Hanley had a chance to revisit the report and launch a brand new version. “At that time, I never really liked the sound of my voice, so I’d never listened to the record until I went to remaster it for vinyl [for the anniversary edition],” she explains over the cellphone from Los Angeles.
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(*20*)In an interview with AP, Hanley revisits the making of (*20*)Cherry Marmalade(*20*), the (*20*)Josie and the Pussycats(*20*) vault songs that exist and what’s subsequent for Cleo.
Tell me the origin story of Cherry Marmalade.
(*20*)It’s from a e book that I used to learn to [my daughter] Zoe Mabel when she was a child by this demented illustrator turned kids’s e book author, Calef Brown. There’s a line from one of many poems within the e book known as “Introducing Ed,” and “Cherry Marmalade” is without doubt one of the strains from the poem on this e book. It was at all times simply so resonant to me. I hadn’t actually deliberate on writing a solo report. Michael Eisenstein, my husband on the time, and now ex-husband, had simply completed the tour for Letters to Cleo, and issues had felt just a little darkish on the finish of that final tour, for quite a lot of causes. He was leaving for a few months, and I used to be partying my ass off, and I used to be like, “Oh, my God, my husband’s going to be gone. I’m just going to go crazy.” And actually 48 hours after he left, I discovered I used to be pregnant. Everything simply shifted. I stop doing all of the consuming and the medicine, and I went to meet him in Maui 4 weeks later. He’d been browsing and taking actually excellent care of himself, and I had been taking actually excellent care of myself, and strolling and consuming, consuming juices and consuming greens. We met as new folks with out ever anticipating to.
What was the primary track you wrote for the album?
(*20*)At that time, I began writing “Galapagos,” which was a fairly darkish track in regards to the final Letters to Cleo tour, which felt like the top of Cleo for that time frame. I wrote “Galapagos” and a few different songs and introduced them to Mike Denneen from Q Division Studios, who had made all of the Cleo information. And he was like, “All right, we’re going to make a record.” I simply saved writing, and we made a report collectively at Q Division. One of the issues that have been most exceptional in regards to the expertise of creating that report was that I felt such a deep sense of peace and hopefulness that I had by no means actually felt in my life earlier than. I used to be pregnant with Zoe, and there was simply this complete new sense of, “Whoa, the future.” I felt fearless in a manner that I hadn’t, and I used to be ready to write. Usually, the formulation with Cleo is that I’d be actually in a darkish place, and I’d write all these very happy-sounding songs as a result of that was how I coped — very happy-sounding songs with darkish lyrics — and with (*20*)Cherry Marmalade(*20*), I used to be ready to actually face plenty of that darkness and never be afraid of it.
[Kay Hanley with Letters to Cleo]
Did you care about how the report could be obtained at the moment?
(*20*)I did not often because I’d by no means made a solo report. And even in Cleo, I by no means had a way of how to market myself. I made a report and put it out. By the time I went on tour, I used to be pregnant with [my son] Henry, so I used to be touring pregnant, once more. By then, I used to be similar to, “Fuck all, y’all. I don’t need you and your praise and your approval.” I did not want it the way in which I craved it once I was youthful. So I did not even look. But folks appear to prefer it now. It was one of many final information that Q Division to be recorded on the 2-inch tape that also was edited in Pro Tools.
Looking again, do you’ve gotten any regrets about the way you approached the making of this report?
(*20*)When I went into this course of, I keep in mind simply considering, “Oh, the vocals are too loud. It sounds this, it sounds like that.” But I had by no means actually listened to the report. So once I listened this time round, I do not suppose I’d’ve performed something in another way aside from loving it extra, then giving it extra love and a focus myself. I believe perhaps the factor I remorse essentially the most is the way it was obtained by me, which is why it is so fantastic to have the ability to come again all these years later and do it this fashion.
At this level in your life, which track from the report do you maintain closest to your coronary heart?
(*20*)”Trans-Neptunian Object #1,” the nearer, I really like that. Especially as a result of I wrote it about toddler Zoe, and I’ve by no means actually performed that a lot stay. It by no means made it into the stay set, so I’m actually wanting ahead to enjoying that one. “Galapagos,” at all times. I by no means get by that one with out crying. I’d say these are my two favorites right this moment.
You have been the voice of Josie from the Josie and the Pussycats soundtrack. Are there any unreleased songs from the film that you just’d ever convey out of the woodwork?
(*20*)I imply, I’ve no management over it, however Dave Gibbs from the Gigolo Aunts, who introduced me into the venture, wrote a bunch of songs. There was a track known as “Merry Go Around” that I recorded, and there have been most likely a few others from the early classes. But they weren’t my songs, so they only did not make it to the report.
Oh, my God. We may get a Josie and the Pussycats EP?
(*20*)Yeah, completely.
Incredible. The 10 Things I Hate About You soundtrack generally is so iconic, as is your half in that. How has that impacted your total profession?
(*20*)Oh, my God. I do not know. All I can inform you is that on the time, folks preferred the film, and the identical factor with (*20*)Josie(*20*). I undoubtedly felt the eye from these initiatives, however I didn’t really feel love and adoration till the final 5 or 10 years. So, I’ve by no means perceived it as folks being influenced by me as a lot as they’re influenced by what these initiatives had to say about women and girls. They have been manner, manner forward of their time. I’m not in the slightest degree stunned that folks lastly got here round and embrace these messages about women and girls and the house that we occupy on this world. So fucking proud to be part of that.
Who do you dream of collaborating with at this level in your profession?
(*20*)Well, that will imply that I’ve to think about getting again into life as an artist. Right now, my life as an artist is so part-time. I’ve been collaborating my complete life. My music life could be very collaborative. That’s all I do, [so] there’s this unbelievable freedom in retreating into solitude to write, which I’ve by no means performed in my life till now. So my favourite collaborator proper now, essentially the most difficult collaborator I’ve proper now, is myself.
You’ve spent plenty of your profession writing music for TV and movie. Are there any exhibits you are concerned about making a soundtrack for?
(*20*)Oh, my goodness. If I may write the theme track for Connor Roy’s presidential marketing campaign within the subsequent season of(*20*) Succession(*20*), that will be wonderful. I’d love to do all these actually goofy rap songs for (*20*)Succession(*20*). Kendall’s at all times doing these dumb-ass raps. I’d love to write the lyrics for these the place he is making up his personal lyrics to Snoop Dogg songs.
Which artists have been you most impressed by if you have been making Cherry Marmalade?
(*20*)I used to be simply retreating into my report assortment. I used to be listening to plenty of Big Star and the Muffs. Definitely Wilco. One of the songs was instantly impressed by a movie known as(*20*) Little Voice(*20*). I went to the theater and noticed it on my own. I cried by the entire thing, simply fascinated with making the connection between going to this film and this stunning character discovering herself and what was occurring to me in my life. [So] I wrote a track known as “Happy to Be Here.”
What’s next for you?
Well, I created a show with my writing partners called Kindergarten: The Musical, which bought greenlit, however we bought it to Disney Junior, bought greenlit within the spring, so we’re in full-on manufacturing on that. I’ve by no means been an EP on a tv present earlier than, so this can be a new factor for me. We have began writing a Cleo report, and I’ve began writing a brand new solo report. I’d love for that to be subsequent yr, so let’s simply say subsequent yr.
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