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Some
girls are good at blowing perfect round smoke rings; some girls
can knot a cherry stem with no help from their hands. When it
comes to such parlor tricks of the mouth, Bree Sharp has
her own special talent — singing with her tongue in her cheek.
She does it on the road on tours across the country, and she did
it on her last studio album, 2002's independent release More
B.S. Taking aim at the colossal adversaries of consumerism
and the media, bitter songs like "Lazy Afternoon" and
"America" pour so sweetly through Sharp's honey-soaked
voice.
Best
known for the "David Duchovny" single off her 1999 Trauma
Records debut A
Cheap and Evil Girl,
Sharp is more than just another witty X-Phile. She's also an animal
rights activist (who warns me that I might not have enough tape
to record all her thoughts on the subject) and a hardworking musician
who released a set of live acoustic tracks on a CD earlier this
year. Fresh off a trip to America's heartland, the 28-year-old
New Yorker talks to WOMANROCK about her latest projects and her
latest television crush.
WOMANROCK:
What have you been up to since the release of your last album?
Playing lots of shows, touring?
BREE
SHARP:
I've actually been doing mostly writing, and I've been doing some
writing and singing for cartoons. But let's see — we just
came back from a tour in the Midwest. That was really cool, and
we did a benefit for an animal shelter out in Madison. And we
did a couple radio shows in Chicago and Minneapolis, so it was
very exciting and cool.
WOMANROCK:
I had read that you were singing the theme for a FOX cartoon.
How did that happen?
SHARP:
Actually, one of the first guys that I ever met in the business
worked at a jingle house. And this was like six years ago, maybe
seven. And he just was one of the first people to say, "hey,
you should be singing!" and one of the guys that worked in
this jingle house with him ended up moving on and working for
the Pokemon people and just happened to call me all these years
later and say, "hey, I think your voice would sound really
great on this thing ... come in!" And I did, and we have
a really good thing going so far. And I'm really excited about
that.
WOMANROCK:
Are they songs that you wrote specifically for the show?
SHARP:
I've written some stuff for them, but this theme song is not one
that I wrote. The show is called Mew Mew and it's Japanime.
WOMANROCK:
Have you seen it?
SHARP:
Well, certain stuff, if I'm writing for it. What they do is we'll
come in and they'll show me the clip. So I haven't seen the whole
show, but I've seen the stuff that I sing for and the stuff that
goes along with my voice. So it's pretty cool.
WOMANROCK:
Are the characters rock stars or something?
SHARP:
No, not at all. Actually, it's kinda weird. It's like these four
or five girls and they're high school age and they have all the
regular problems that normal high school kids do, except that
they have superpowers. So they have to sort of figure out all
their normal life stuff in high school and then also kind of fight
the forces of evil.
WOMANROCK:
I notice you've done a lot of benefit shows, including the upcoming
WOMANROCK party for Amnesty International. Is that something you
seek out to do?
SHARP:
Absolutely. I wouldn't say that I actively pursue charities, but
any time there's any cause that I think is a cool, worthwhile
thing, I am almost always more than happy to do it. Because I
think that's something that I struggled with as I was growing
up and deciding what I wanted to do. I sometimes felt like acting
or doing music was a bit of a vain pursuit. Even though it's something
I love and have always had a passion for, it ultimately just involves
you furthering yourself in this life. I never felt like I necessarily
had the constitution that it would take to devote your life to
service, but I always thought that if I could help people or animals
or the environment or whatever, that would be such an amazing
blessing to be able to do what you love and help out the
planet somehow. So it's just my absolute pleasure. The fact that
I'm able to do that is just very cool to me.
WOMANROCK:
What made you decide to put out a live album?
SHARP:
I was touring a lot as an acoustic act, and my first two records
are fully produced with a band and everything. I felt like there
were a lot of people who were getting to know the songs as acoustic
songs, and I felt like it was just sort of a different way of
presenting the songs and that it would be nice for people to take
home something that more resembled the show they were seeing,
in addition to being able to hear it fully produced. So, it was
just the right time.
WOMANROCK:
I like your web site, with all the photos and mp3s and everything.
Do you think it's really important for artists to be on the Internet
and have that sort of presence?
SHARP:
Yeah, you just have to be, because it's the easiest way for people
to get an idea of who you are. If I meet someone on the street
and they're like "Oh, what kind of music do you do?"
Or, what's your story, what are you like? It's like, "Well,
go to my web site, check it out." Pretty much anything that
you want to know about me in terms of my career you can find on
the site, more or less. You know, it's got my bio, it's got pictures,
it's got music. So you know, it's a really quick, easy, accessible
way to be introduced to someone's music or someone as an artist.
Without a doubt, you have to have an Internet presence.
WOMANROCK:
One of the things I found on your site that I really liked was
the cover of "We're Going to Be Friends," the White
Stripes song.
SHARP:
Thanks! Sometimes Don [DiLego], my writing partner, he and I will
come across a song that we love, and we'll just be screwing around
in the studio or singing it or we'll play it at a show, and we'll
be like "God, that's really fun. Let's lay it down,"
just for fun. And it's not something that we're gonna release
or anything, but it's like our "pick of the week" or
"pick of the month" or something. And if we can, we'll
just throw it up on the site for people to have fun with us.
WOMANROCK:
What other current bands are you into?
SHARP:
I always love Patty Griffin; she's kind of a staple favorite.
And I like Outkast, and ... I'm trying to think. I don't really
listen to the radio that much. The radio in New York leaves a
lot to be desired. Especially for being such a cutting edge city
in almost every other way. When I travel across the country, it's
amazing how much variety there is in sometimes really tiny towns
or cities that are much smaller than New York. They'll have a
cool college station or something.
WOMANROCK:
What stage are you at in terms of your next studio album?
SHARP:
We are still in the writing stage, but getting really energized
and geared up to get in the studio and start laying stuff down.
Right now the studio is under construction, so as soon as it gets
finished we'll probably go up there and start kicking into high
gear.
WOMANROCK:
What are some of the new songs about?
SHARP:
Right now a handful of them are kind of melancholy. But I can
feel different kinds of energy sort of starting to kick up. So
I really don't know how it's going to take shape. It might end
up being a really energetic record; it might end up being a slit-your-wrists
record. I really can't say too much about it, to be honest, because
it's still in the larvae stage. I don't know what's going to hatch.
WOMANROCK:
Now that you have the experience of putting out an album on your
own label behind you, do you think it will be easier this time,
if that's what you're going to be doing?
SHARP:
Well, I would like to get back on a label. I have mixed feelings
about it, but ultimately I would like to be back. I don't mind
being independent, but I wouldn't mind having a big machine behind
me either. So that remains to be seen, and maybe if our record
is kick-ass enough, it won't be a major issue. But either way,
I'm all good. I'm happy either way, to be honest. And I do feel
like it will be easier now. And if I don't put it out myself,
and I do have a label, I'm really glad to have the independent
experience. And I do feel confident in terms of doing one again,
if that's the case. I've had really good distributors on my side,
so that's always helpful.
WOMANROCK:
What did you like better about being on a label, as opposed to
doing it all on your own?
SHARP:
You know, it's a tradeoff. In the one sense, you don't have as
much control. But in the other sense, you're not spending your
own money. But it's also nice to have a team of professionals
that are just like "Don't worry, honey, we'll take care of
it." Sometimes it's nice to have someone do a lot of the
grunt work for you. Because it's definitely not an easy business.
The more help you can get, the better chance you have of getting
your music heard by more people. And that's more or less the idea,
I think, behind being an artist.
WOMANROCK:
I wanted to ask you a little bit about your role in animal activism.
How did you come to the decision to become a vegetarian? I'm under
the impression you weren't raised as one.
SHARP:
I wasn't. I became a vegetarian when I was 15. And I put a little
blurb on the back of my live record about this -- I was totally
raised on meat and I had all my birthday parties at McDonald's
when I was a kid. After school I used to eat like two cheeseburgers,
and I just was a big meat-eater. But somewhere in my preadolescence,
I think I started to make a connection between the animals that
I loved in the zoo, or in books, or my cat or whatever, and the
animals that I was eating for food every day. I was like, "Wait
a minute huh? I love those guys; that's what I'm eating?"
But being raised in a meat-eating family and having it be so much
a part of my life, it was really hard to make the jump. And I
didn't have any vegetarian friends or anything, but it was something
I think that was really starting to come to the front of my brain.
So
when I was 15, I was away at camp and one weekend one of the counselors
was giving a little talk about being vegetarian. I had met some
veggie friends that summer and also they had a vegetarian meal
plan at the camp, so it was really the perfect time for me to
do it, because I was away from all of the meat distractions and
I had a support team. And the camp food wasn't that good to begin
with, so it was just really the perfect time. I gave up meat and
poultry "cold turkey," if you will, that summer. And
then I gave up fish about six months later, after killing a clam
in Israel kind of by accident. And then I just was like, I'm done.
I'm done with the death and me being responsible for it.
You
know, I have cats, and I think anyone who's got a pet that they're
close to, you look in their eyes and you can see that there's
a spirit there. I'm not a religious person at all, and I'm not
even that spiritual, but just in a sense that there's something
going on. You can see similarities between us as sentient beings,
and if you couldn't imagine, you know, injecting your animal with
hormones or locking it up in a warehouse and making it sit in
its own feces or all the other nasty, cruel stuff that they do
to animals that are raised for food, then you should try to take
yourself out of that equation. I couldn't do it. I love my cats
so much. They're like my kids.
WOMANROCK:
How many cats do you have?
SHARP:
Two. Ume and Jones. Ume is Japanese for plum. She looks like a
little plum; she's round and sweet. And Jonesy is a big, gigantic
orange cat. I adopted them both from a Japanese woman, and they
both came with Japanese names, but Jonesy's was too hard to say,
so I westernized him. I feel a little guilty about it, but I did
name him after the cat in my favorite movie of all time, which
is Alien.
WOMANROCK:
I know that you are an activist in the way that you do benefit
shows, and speak out about it, but what do you think about people
who do the sort of outrageous things like dumping paint on women
in furs? You don't do that, right?
SHARP:
No, I have never thrown paint on anybody. Although I feel mixed
about it, and I'll tell you honestly my opinion. On the one hand,
I do feel like it's radical and probably it leaves a sour taste
in a lot of people's mouths and maybe it's counterproductive to
what they're trying to do. On the other hand, I don't think maybe
a lot of people know, but animals that are killed for fur, in
order to make the best use of all of the fur, they are anally
and vaginally electrocuted, because that way there's no blood.
And it's so sick and twisted. When I see people wearing fur coats,
I just want to take them and shake them and be like, "Do
you know how many animals got probed up the ass with an electric
tube so that you could look what you think is cool?" So it
seems really radical, but what is being done to the animals is
also really radical and extreme. I think they think that extreme
cases like that sort of beget a certain extreme response. So no,
I've never done it. It's not my style. I prefer to lead by example
or speak out about it. But I understand the feeling that is behind
that action.
WOMANROCK:
Onto a lighter subject — I hate to bring it up — but
now that X-Files isn't on, what TV stars do you think are
cute?
SHARP:
It's so predictable and probably boring, but I totally have a
crush on Michael Vartan from Alias. Which is so, like,
the same kind of guy. You know — secret agent, fucking hot,
smart, stoic. Very obviously, there's a pattern going on there.
But I really think that I'm finished with writing songs about
celebs. For now, anyway. So I don't think you'll see any of that
on my next record.
Find
out more about Bree at www.breesharp.com.
Andrea
Benvenuto is a freelance writer based in New York. Her work has
appeared in WOMANROCK, Venus, Rockpile, girlpunk.net, and other
publications.
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1999-2004. WOMANROCK.com. All Rights Reserved.
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