Within the Nineties, Kay Hanley discovered fame because the bandleader of Boston alt-rock outfit Letters to Cleo. The band’s 1993 single “Right here & Now” helped them domesticate a nationwide fanbase that led them to a collection of placements in films and TV all through the last decade. But it surely was an look within the film — and on the soundtrack — for 10 Issues I Hate About You that helped the band go mainstream. Simply two years later, Hanley would turn out to be the voice of Josie McCoy within the now-cult-classic movie Josie and the Pussycats, serving to solidify songs like “Spin Round” and “3 Small Phrases” as popular culture phenomena.
However throughout her tenure in Letters to Cleo, Hanley additionally launched a solo file — Cherry Marmalade — 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 seek out 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 file and launch a brand new version. “At the moment, I by no means actually favored the sound of my voice, so I would by no means listened to the file till I went to remaster it for vinyl [for the anniversary edition],” she explains over the cellphone from Los Angeles.
Learn extra: This star-studded pro-choice album stays unreleased, however is extra related than ever
In an interview with AP, Hanley revisits the making of Cherry Marmalade, the Josie and the Pussycats vault songs that exist and what’s subsequent for Cleo.
Inform me the origin story of Cherry Marmalade.
It is from a ebook that I used to learn to [my daughter] Zoe Mabel when she was a child by this demented illustrator turned youngsters’s ebook author, Calef Brown. There is a line from one of many poems within the ebook referred to as “Introducing Ed,” and “Cherry Marmalade” is among the traces from the poem on this ebook. It was at all times simply so resonant to me. I hadn’t actually deliberate on writing a solo file. Michael Eisenstein, my husband on the time, and now ex-husband, had simply completed the tour for Letters to Cleo, and issues had felt a bit of 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 am simply going to go loopy.” And actually 48 hours after he left, I discovered I used to be pregnant. All the pieces simply shifted. I give up doing all of the consuming and the medicine, and I went to satisfy 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 individuals with out ever anticipating to.
What was the primary track you wrote for the album?
At that time, I began writing “Galapagos,” which was a fairly darkish track concerning 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 proper, we’ll make a file.” I simply saved writing, and we made a file collectively at Q Division. One of many issues that had been most exceptional concerning the expertise of constructing that file 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 entire new sense of, “Whoa, the longer term.” I felt fearless in a manner that I hadn’t, and I used to be in a position to write. Often, the formulation with Cleo is that I would be actually in a darkish place, and I would 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 Cherry Marmalade, I used to be in a position to actually face a variety of that darkness and never be afraid of it.
[Kay Hanley with Letters to Cleo]
Did you care about how the file could be acquired at the moment?
I did not often because I would by no means made a solo file. And even in Cleo, I by no means had a way of tips on how to market myself. I made a file and put it out. By the point 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 identical to, “Fuck all, y’all. I do not want you and your reward 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. However individuals appear to love 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 Professional Instruments.
Trying again, do you might have any regrets about the way you approached the making of this file?
Once I went into this course of, I keep in mind simply considering, “Oh, the vocals are too loud. It sounds this, it feels like that.” However I had by no means actually listened to the file. So once I listened this time round, I do not suppose I might’ve finished something otherwise apart from loving it extra, then giving it extra love and a focus myself. I believe possibly the factor I remorse probably the most is the way it was acquired by me, which is why it is so great 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 file do you maintain closest to your coronary heart?
“Trans-Neptunian Object #1,” the nearer, I like that. Particularly as a result of I wrote it about toddler Zoe, and I’ve by no means actually performed that a lot dwell. It by no means made it into the dwell set, so I am actually trying ahead to taking part in that one. “Galapagos,” at all times. I by no means get via that one with out crying. I might say these are my two favorites at the moment.
You had 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 carry out of the woodwork?
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 referred to as “Merry Go Round” that I recorded, and there have been in all probability a few others from the early periods. However they weren’t my songs, so they only did not make it to the file.
Oh, my God. We may get a Josie and the Pussycats EP?
Yeah, completely.
Unbelievable. The 10 Issues I Hate About You soundtrack usually is so iconic, as is your half in that. How has that impacted your general profession?
Oh, my God. I do not know. All I can let you know is that on the time, individuals favored the film, and the identical factor with Josie. I positively 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 individuals being influenced by me as a lot as they’re influenced by what these initiatives needed to say about women and girls. They had been manner, manner forward of their time. I am not in the slightest degree stunned that individuals 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?
Properly, that will imply that I’ve to think about getting again into life as an artist. Proper now, my life as an artist is so part-time. I have been collaborating my entire life. My music life could be very collaborative. That is all I do, [so] there’s this unbelievable freedom in retreating into solitude to put in writing, which I’ve by no means finished in my life till now. So my favourite collaborator proper now, probably the most difficult collaborator I’ve proper now, is myself.
You have spent a variety of your profession writing music for TV and movie. Are there any reveals you are excited by making a soundtrack for?
Oh, my goodness. If I may write the theme track for Connor Roy’s presidential marketing campaign within the subsequent season of Succession, that will be wonderful. I might like to do all these actually goofy rap songs for Succession. Kendall’s at all times doing these dumb-ass raps. I might love to put in writing the lyrics for these the place he is making up his personal lyrics to Snoop Dogg songs.
Which artists had been you most impressed by if you had been making Cherry Marmalade?
I used to be simply retreating into my file assortment. I used to be listening to a variety of Large Star and the Muffs. Undoubtedly Wilco. One of many songs was immediately impressed by a movie referred to as Little Voice. I went to the theater and noticed it on my own. I cried via the entire thing, simply excited about making the connection between going to this film and this stunning character discovering herself and what was taking place to me in my life. [So] I wrote a track referred to as “Completely happy to Be Right here.”
What’s subsequent for you?
Properly, I created a present with my writing companions referred to as Kindergarten: The Musical, which acquired greenlit, however we offered it to Disney Junior, acquired 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’ve began writing a Cleo file, and I’ve began writing a brand new solo file. I would love for that to be subsequent 12 months, so let’s simply say subsequent 12 months.
