TRACY BONHAM Hits The Road In Celebration of The 30th Anniversary of Breakthrough Debut

0:04 Hi, you live on to censure Wow, cra Young. This is pipe Man here on the Adventures pipe Man W four c Y Radio. And I'm very excited about our next guest and I'm really excited about what she's doing with her music right now. So let's welcome to the show. Tracy Bonham. How are you good? How you doing? I'm doing great. So I really love the idea of refreshing your debut album. It's it's so funny too, because I was just doing coverage at a festival over in Europe and I was talking to a band about this, not yours specifically, but in general of like when you become a more evolved or it is, and later on that maybe the stuff you wrote when you were younger doesn't apply the same way. So it's kind of cool that you're taking something and bringing it to the here and now.

1:17 This is exactly what I needed to hear, because you know, there are some days when I think, why am I Why would I want to go back? You know, it's sometimes I worry I'm not you know, I don't put out original music right now, but it's I agree with you. It's pretty cool, and the freshing up is really fun and it's full circle. So I'm really enjoying it. Yeah, so tell me a little bit about first. Let's start with when did you come up with the idea to do this and what was your purpose? Okay, lately I've been working with strings a lot, arranging for string quartet. My last album that came out in twenty twenty five had strings all over the place, and you know, it was just a discussion I had with someone that it would be really cool to make string arrangements of the burdens of being upright songs, and so it started like that. I thought, yeah, I'll just do that, and then of course as I'm in the studio, it morphed into more than just string arrangements. Now there's a full band, but at least it has strings as a vital element.

2:29 That's very cool. And so like, how does it feel like recording it now compared to back then? What's the differences for you? I am much much older and my joints hurt, but other than that, I just feel like, you know it. The songs are about grappling with you know, who am I in this world? And who am I to other people? Relationships? It's really the same conundrum, but being thirty years older, there's such a wonderful wisdom that comes with it, where I am actually just more connected with myself and not worrying about the external world. Yeah, you know, like when we're younger, it's you know, I don't know about you, but I was constantly worried about what other people thought of me, and you know, getting into the minds of other people, it's just a waste of time. So it's really wonderful just to make art because it feels good and I feel more like I'm myself than ever and I'm evolved, which is a wonderful thing to be despite my body being and pain.

3:52 Well, you know, listen to your point. I have this philosophy on what people like to call mid life crisis. I don't know why everything has to be a crisis, but I think it's actually not a crisis at all. The exact opposites the end of the crisis, because you know, like when you're a teenager, you are anti society, anti authority, anti your parents, and then your friends are your biggest influence, and then when you become a young adult, it kind of switches then because now you have to prove that you're no longer a kid and now you are more trying to fit in with society. But both times they're partially you, but they're never full of you. Right, So when you get older, to what they call midlife crisis, you know, you finally figure out who you are, how to commingle that teenage you and adult you, and to not give a crap what anybody else thinks except yourself.

4:58 That's awesome, So right, I think the word crisis is so it's really from a younger person's judgmental perspective. It's so right, and it's so good to yet to let go of that, you know, like that young Tracy would judge her teachers, or you know, would judge O their bands and compete and that's just a lot of you know, that's a little crap anyway, And now when you love yourself more, you don't have to compare, you don't have to look at it like that. It's so great, and especially in music because you're so right with what you're saying. So many artists, you know, when they're making music when they're younger, they have this judgment from everybody, including the fans. Like if you're like one of their original fans. You get judge when they get bigger because they sell out and their posers and all that stuff and the gatekeeping in the music industry, which is thankfully getting better, I think, you know. Yeah, yeah, so that like an artist can just be themselves. Like there's so many artists that want like play different things, evolve, you know, experiment, try different things, and it's like, no, you can't do that, but but you should be able to do that because you're the artist. Okay, it should be just fun and creativity. It shouldn't be oh, I

6:29 have to make this song for these people. Yes, I mean it's really the ironic thing is it's all about expression, right, But it's true you feel so you know, guarded and worried about write what the record label thinks are your past fans. It's just it's so inhibiting until boom, the lid comes off. And That's where I'm at right now. It's so great, it's so fun. It makes the industry a lot more fun nowadays, right correct, You could just be you, you know, and you could just have fun and like, so to me, it must have been totally more fun to record this now than back then.

7:13 Yeah, it definitely also helps that these songs are tried and true and that people like them, so I don't have to wonder, you know, if I'm the first listen, if anyone responds to it or not. So there's a little bit of you know, I can relax in that. But it's really fun to give it new perspective, new sound, new life. Some sound really different, and there's there's a couple of songs that I think are the best they've ever ever been see. And I love that last part there because there's also artists that like they will redo a song because they thought that their voice was terrible back then because they were just beginning, and so now that they have a better voice. You know, it's funny because I use this a lot. James, Thatpfield of Metallica, you know, there's one of their songs plays at the hockey at the hockey Games for the Sharks, and then he's like, I don't know why they play my original version. I know how to sing now, I didn't know how.

8:21 To sing the hilarious right. So I think it's something like you're not getting rid of the old version, you're just enhancing them, making better, just like you would update your computer. Right, I mean, but there is a certain nostalgia, Like you know, you never want to diss anyone for loving the original because I know it's a time and a place. I have albums like that too, where I can remember exactly where I was or the car I was driving when I had it blasting. So there's something to be said that's like your own experience, and that is a beautiful, beautiful. Thing totally, And that's why I say, also, you like you keep the original, you're just enhancing it. It's not like you're making something different out of it. So you still have the nostalgia, but then you have more to add to it.

9:12 Yeah. Yeah, And I think, really, when I ask myself, which is daily, now, why am I doing this again? Pardon? The big reason is this conversation or these conversations that I'm having about it. It's, you know, for you know, everybody is wondering, you know, how many albums will I sell? I don't know, you know, like how many streams will I get? I don't know, no one knows anymore. So in a way that's like secondary. But it's the conversations we're having, and then also the live performance of it and then really those fans that come to the shows and want to buy a vinyl like, I feel like those are the main reasons why I'm doing this. And I think for me, it's healing, it's completely you know, coming around and a dressing some things that I've been grappling with thirty years, ever since you know, the scream of Mother Mother that was heard around the world. I've been grappling with that forever. So the conversation about it now is really like the most interesting part for me.

10:15 I love that, And yeah, you are hanging the road, So how does that feel? Hanging the roads? I will bring thirty the thirtieth anniversary that it kind of blows my mind how quick life goes. Yeah, truly, I know you look back and you think, oh my god, that was just yesterday. But I love I love performing, and I'm very excited to be out on the road and I've got you know, I'm really lucky to know these amazing players in many of the towns I've gone to in many of the regions, So I like play with local players, local string players, things like that, and it just makes everything so interesting.

10:58 That is pretty cool, right, So and then you give that like local flavor wherever you're playing. Yeah, yeah, it's true. So is there anything else that you want to tell the listeners about in regards to this or anything else going on for you? Well? Sure. So I'm actually in the mastering studio right now as we speak, and so the album's being mastered today. It's coming out on American Laundromat Records, which is a great indie label, and that's going to be released in November, so it's within the thirtieth year, which I'm very happy about. And then yeah, just from then it's just shows and more shows into the new year, and all the shows can be maybe you know, some of them are different, Like in Seattle, I'll be playing with just a string quartet, but then in Eugene I'll be playing with rock band and string quartet. In Boston rock band, you know. So I think it feels a little schizophrenic at times, but it's still got the same fire and consistency, and the songs really stand up and see.

12:05 I like that anyway, because it's it's kind of like, you know, if you go to a lot of shows in the year and it's the same one over and over, it gets boring. But when you do it the way you're doing it's kind of like it's kind of like the Grateful Dead. That's why people followed them around because you never knew what you were going to get. Right, show is so unique. So yeah, maybe I'll start to have like bonom Heads fun would be cool. See that. That's the reason. Another reason for doing. This right there, exactly exactly. Well, thank you for first of all refreshing this and bringing it back, but not only the nostalgia, but make it even more you now today. And thanks for being on the Adventures of Pipe Man.

12:54 Of course, thank you for having me. Hey, this is Tracy Bonham and you're listening to the Pipe Main on w four C video. Thank you for listening to the Adventures of Tatement on w f C u I Radio.