4 Non Blondes Interview

She asked the world "What's going on?," made Christina Aguilera feel beautiful, got the party started with Pink and discovered James Blunt, who made us feel beautiful.

You know how there's that one record that you hear and it just knocks you on your ass but for some reason you're in the minority and nobody else gets it? That's the way it was for me with Linda Perry's "In Flight." It was one of my first assignments when I began reviewing CDs and from the first few notes I was hooked. The vibe of the record was a depressing, dark outlook that always rings well with me. And the voice….! Linda's voice is a rich, riveting low register that just commands your attention. From the first couple of words on the first cut, "In My Dreams", I was just staring at the speakers and couldn't move a muscle until the last few notes of the title cut drifted away. This was just one of THOSE records. The special kind with some kind of indiscernible magic that you just can't put your finger on, making it more than a typical great record. Was it cutting edge on a new musical genre? No. Was it musically superior from a technical standpoint, in the virtuoso category? No?

What it WAS, however, was a collection of fantastic songs that drew on an energy or feeling from a moment of time oozing out of every crevice of every note. From its agile lineup, the record contained a host of moods that went from the stoner musing of "In My Dreams" to the bleak, empty spiral of "Success", (you could see Alice in Chains covering this if Layne hadn't packed it in) to the playful wryness of "Fruitloop Daydream".

I talked this record up to everybody I knew and nobody got it. Everybody remembered Linda's voice from her success with 4 Non-Blondes but they just liked the record, whereas I was obsessive over it. I tried to get information on her but there wasn't much at that time. Years passed and then I heard Pink was recording her follow-up disc with Linda. Everybody knows what happened after that.

Today, she is one of the most sought after songwriters/producer. Take a look at her track record to what she's done. From Pink and Gwen Stefani to Jewel and Cheap Trick and many more, she has lent her considerable melodic sensibilities to each, all with critical and commercial acclaim…in a very short time, I might add. There was no greater measure of her abilities, however, than the song that launched Christina Aguilera into the stratosphere of super-stardom, "Beautiful". It was awesome to see Linda playing piano when Christina did the song on the Grammies that year. Looking ahead, greater glories are expected with the next records by Aguilera and Courtney Love.

With this column I get to speak to a lot of cool people. One of the biggest thrills in this gig so far was getting the opportunity to speak with Linda recently. I think I've said this before but as great as it is speaking to people you look up to, finding out that they're awesome people as well is the icing on the cake. Linda spoke to me for almost an hour, answering every question with care, and was thoughtful in taking the time to ask my daughter about her own music career (time that somebody like Linda clearly doesn't have to waste).

But enough of my slobbering. There was nobody else that would be as appropriate to end off this Rock N Women special, than one of my most special favorites….Linda freaking Perry!!!

antiMUSIC: Man, I almost don't know what to say to you. You have no idea what this means to me. "In Flight" is one of my Top 5 records of all time and I still play it at least once a week. I'm in love with your voice; I think yoursongwriting is exceptional and along with your production work …without a doubt, I think you're one of the most talented people out there. Thank youso much for doing this!

Linda: Thank you very much.

antiMUSIC: OK, enough sucking up. How have you managed, with only a couple or records worth of co-production on your own stuff, to become one of the most sought after producers in the world? What's your secret?

Linda: The secret is I don't know what I'm doing and I'm waiting to be kicked out of the club when people find out that I really DON'T know what I'm doing. That's my secret. I have no clue. (laughs)

antiMUSIC: I guess to start with, how did you come to hook up with Pink which was the first major artist you worked with?

Linda: Well, uh, I will refer to her as Alicia. I've never called her Pink. So when you hear me say Alicia, I'm not referring to Alicia Keys. She basically, you know, as the story goes, got my number from her make-up artist, which had it, for some reason. So she called me and left this long message about how she wanted to write a song, as simple as that. She just wanted to write a song with me, or have me sing on her new album which she was going to start working on. And she's singing "What's up", and screaming it, and "Dear Mr. President", and basically said if I didn't call her back that she'd found my phone number, and she could find my address and basically camp out in front of my house. I'm thinking Pink? Who? What? Who is a Pink? I had no idea who this person was. So I researched her obviously. Then I see of video of hers and I just see this pink-haired girl, white girl doing R&B, and I was, oh, no, no, no. This is…what is this girl calling me for? I don't do that style of music at all. So I give her a call back and said, are you sure you've got the right Linda Perry because you know I'm not hip, and I don't know anything about R&B music, I don't know about music in general at this point, what's going on and she's like "No, you're the right Linda Perry". So I end up going meeting her and we just end up. We just clicked. She's kinda like, she reminded me of me when I was younger. So the personalities definitely went well together. And mind you, all she wanted me to do was maybe write a song with her, or sing on a song. So I invited her to my house and I had a studio in my house at the time and I had the song, "Get the party started", that I had written already. And I just thought it was funny. Cause I wrote this kinda dance song, and that's definitely not my background of music. And I played it to her and she just fell in love with it. We put the vocal down that night. She gave it to her company. And they're like "OK, we've got our first single. OK, continue working with this girl". And it just turned into one song after the next. So that's how that started. And it was a really wonderful connection and it was effortless. It kinda just rolled along. There was no effort in making Missundaztood at all.

Except for the fact that I did get fired, which is a funny story. I always forget about this. I actually got fired because the management on the label thought I was going too far. So they fired me. I was very upset by this, and going what? You're going to need this kind of music, she needs these songs. No body wants to hear this white girl with R&B music. She's not an R&B girl. So I hired myself back and went and finished all the songs we had started cuz we already had all the vocals and everything. I hired myself back, took my own money, paid for it, to finish it up and then gave it to them. And they were like, "Oh my god, this is brilliant!" And I was just, "You assholes." That's the funny part. I was fired, and I hired myself back. They never hired me back, I just hired myself back.

antiMUSIC: That's amazing. Are those people still in their jobs?

Linda: Yeah….no, no, no. One of them is gone. But that was a funny story that nobody actually knows. You're the first one.

  

antiMUSIC: Do you think your superior songwriting skills and previous recording experience gives you a leg up on some of the other producers because you know both sides of the studio?

Linda: I in no way think I'm superior...at all. When I say I don't know what I'm doing, I honestly don't know what I'm doing, Morley. And that's the truth. All I'm doing is going on my gut feeling. I'm learning as I go along. My production has gotten better over the years because I experiment all the time. I'm my own engineer. I don't have, I didn't go to tech school. I have no idea what all those…you know, 3k and 15k and all that crap…800 hertz, you know, none of that. Have no idea. All I do is turn knobs until it sounds right to my ear. That's the best I can do. I know what compressors are. I know, you know, what pre amps are, I know all that stuff, but do I know what actually, what's the best way to use them? Absolutely not. Again, I just turn things till it sounds good to my ear. And I go on gut feelings. Like sometimes I'll grab a microphone, that I have no idea what it is, and I'll put it through a chain of events; a channel I normally don't use because I just like to go, ok, I call it mystery mic. I just grab a mic and plug it in and throw it through a compressor I've never used before. Put it in a position I never used before on drums, and go, ok, awesome! It either sounds incredible or horrible. To me I'm very open-minded. I don't have a rule. I think if anything….how do I say this…it's not making me better. I think I'm better to expand a little quicker than some people because I'm not set in stone on what it is that I'm actually doing. So my songwriting, I worked with Ziggy Marley. A reggae song with Ziggy Marley to a country song with the Dixie Chicks to a rock song with Cheap Trick. Because I'm so open minded about music, it's allowed me to jump genres of music, you know, I can go all over the place. Can I write a Carole King classic type of song? Absolutely. Because that's where I come from, that kinda era music. But can I write a silly little dance tune? Absolutely, because you know what? I think it's needed. That kinda style of music is needed. We need cheesy pop music. We do. All the music that's out there, we need. I don't judge music. I think that's maybe what gives me one up on people. I don't have a sound. I don't want to have a sound.

antiMUSIC: No evidently not, going from James Blunt to the Dixie Chicks.

Linda: Right. I'm an element of surprise. And as the years go by, you'll see how surprising and shocking I can be. Again, I'll never give you the same thing twice. You're not going to hear another "Beautiful". Are you going to hear a really great song that has that same quality? That's all I'm trying to do, quality, not quantity.