Members: Rebecca Pidgeon
Rebecca Pidgeon
Bad Poetry
Itâs not an about-face from last yearâs acclaimed Blue Dress On, but Rebecca Pidgeonâs new album Bad Poetry veers decidedly into a harder, edgier soundâthough not at all without the atmospheric beauty that has marked all her recordings.
               âI wanted it to be more of a hardcore record,â says the British singer-songwriter. âI wanted to let my hair down and be more rockâmore nasty in the sound instead of gentle. But I still wanted it to be beautiful.â
               To this end, Pidgeon turned over full production duties to her veteran guitarist Tim Young, with whom she co-produced Blue Dress On and co-wrote Bad Poetryâs arresting track âBelow Zero.â
               âHeâs a brilliant musician, and had good ideas,â she says, noting that Young also understood the many references that would eventually make up Bad Poetryâbeginning with the title.
               âI was influenced on this record by William S. Burroughs,â she says. âI started reading Junkie, and was struck by the beauty of itâthe way he writes like a beautiful, immoral criminal. And I was fascinated by that worldâwhich was completely unknown to me, obviously! Then I read The Yage Letters and Naked Lunchâwhich is kind of rough, poetry-inspired. I worked with David Batteau, with whom Iâve worked for years, and we were both fascinated by the underworld of Burroughs.â
               Both the Bad Poetry album title and title track derive from a reference to a famous Life Magazine article about the Beats.
               âI think the title track describes the record, as it is about the dark places that people get into,â she notes. The song âBad Poetry,â she adds, reflects Burroughsâ âovertones of life being out of control and swallowed up by lust and immorality.â Likewise, âFreaks and Hustlers,â which she co-wrote with Batteau, was inspired by The Yage Letters, âwhich is more like a diary than the âcut-upâ writing style that he did later.â
               But Pidgeon drew inspiration from other sources as well. A fan of dance, she cites Wim Wendersâ 2011 documentary Pina, about choreographer Pina Bausch, and especially the soundtrack by composer Jun Miyake, whose music influenced âBad Poetry.â A documentary about Marianne Faithfull led to âDo No More,â and âLove is Cocaineâ was fueled by film director Fritz Langâs German expressionist classic Dr. Mabuse in its depiction of âa desperate kind of addiction to this evil guy and what he does.â
               Other musical influences came from the recordings of artists that Pidgeon and her band listened to on the road, namely P.J. Harvey, Neil Young, and the Grateful Dead among others. Tindersticks was influential in relation to her Bad Poetry track âYou Blind Meâ in particular.
               âTheir song âMy Sisterâ has a sublime, beautiful backing track, but the story it tells is so macabre, about his sister and all of the dreadful things that happen to herâbut with this sublime music going on in the background,â explains Pidgeon. âI guess I was influenced by that, and I wanted to have a lovely, happy, pop, up kind of feelâsomething fun and with a hysterical lyric.â
               On âCity of Mysteries,â which stemmed from Pidgeonâs dream about her hometown Los Angeles, Young nodded to Dark Side of the Moon in employing surreal sequencer and slide guitar. âBut basically, we went with live performances in the studio as a rock band,â she says.
               As for her writing, âI approached things a little differently: Sometimes Iâd start with a drum loop, but mostly I wrote on an electric guitar to change the tenor of the record, since I usually write on acoustic guitar.â
               And she recorded Bad Poetry more quickly than normal, as well.
               âI did it on purpose,â she explains. âI wanted to keep the ball rolling, which is difficult to do in this climate in terms of getting music out. So I had to make it happen, and saw that I had a collection of songs after doing a lot of touring and writing on the road and working together with Tim, David Batteau and the band. We used Husky Hoskulds as engineer at his GroundLift Studios, and we were all very productive and able to work together fast.â
               With her core band of Young, bassist Jon Ossman and drummer Danny Frankelâand vocal and instrumental contributions from BatteauâPidgeon often stayed with the demo vocal tracks.
               âThereâs an immediacy about performing something just once, live, that has lovely emotion to it, and I wanted this record to be more emotional,â she says.
               With Bad Poetry, Rebecca Pidgeon continues the recent focus on the music side of her career, which began in the late 1980s/early â90sâ with English indie folk rock/pop band Ruby Blue. She left that group in 1990, to further a solo career and pursue an acting career in the United States.
               Her solo recording career commenced in 1994 with the release of her solo debut album The Raven. But in 2012, with her sixth solo effort Slingshot, she realized a creative breakthrough. âI reached a point where I felt I had to take my singing more seriously and really make a 100% commitment to it, instead of saying this is something I do thatâs not acting,â Pidgeon, said at the time. âI finally said to myself, âI am a singer.ââ
               Blue Dress On, which followed, took a different tack. âIt sounds a bit more live, like a band,â she said, âmore electric and rough around the edges.â But she also noted that she is always creating and thinking about the next record, hence, the rapid return to the studio for Bad Poetry.
               âI really had so much fun making this record,â she says. âI felt I had the freedom to work on songs that explored a kind of darkness that I hadnât wrestled with before. Also, I got to rock out on it, and got some great musicians to come and play. Kaveh Rastegar came in and played bass on âFreaks and Hustlersâ, and Louis Cole from the band âKnowerâ played drums on the same track. Eric Heywood, played pedal steel on âYou Havenât Lived,â Larry Goldings, who Iâd worked with before on my record âTough On Crimeâ, played Hammond B-3 on âDo No More,â and Dave Palmer played the synths on âCity of Mysteries. All the musicians on this record I hugely admire, and I felt very lucky to be working with them.â         Â
Media Contact: TMA/ Tracey Miller/609-383-2323/ tracey@tmapublicity.com
superb songs May 13
loving your music Nov 12
amazing Apr 25
great voice rebeca Apr 18
amazing voice! I love your music! :) Dec 13
Lovely voice :D Apr 06
not what i typically listen to but you're a really good singer(= Apr 06
you have a beautiful voice and i love the story behind these songs... i hope you keep singing and writing.. Nov 10
Really Good voice... altough it's not my type of music (i'm a Metalhead type of music) but you're great!! kep it up... Oct 26
great music, keep up the good work Jul 17
not exactly my style, but you're obviously very talented and good at what you do. keep it up! May 18
its beautiful!!!!!!!!! Dec 01
i love you.., Oct 06
its different from what i ususally listen to, but your voice is gorgeous. Sep 13
Thanks for the message. You have an amazing voice. I love the sound :] Jul 23
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