Letters to Cleo’s Kay Hanley on Cherry Marmalade turning 20

Within the Nineteen 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 grow 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 through the years. It additionally allowed Hanley to search 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 might by no means listened to the file till I went to remaster it for vinyl [for the anniversary edition],” she explains over the telephone 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 guide that I used to learn to [my daughter] Zoe Mabel when she was a child by this demented illustrator turned kids’s guide author, Calef Brown. There is a line from one of many poems within the guide referred to as “Introducing Ed,” and “Cherry Marmalade” is without doubt one of the strains from the poem on this guide. 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 darkish on the finish of that final tour, for a wide range 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. Every thing simply shifted. I stop doing all of the consuming and the medication, 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 folks with out ever anticipating to.

What was the primary tune you wrote for the album?

At that time, I began writing “Galapagos,” which was a reasonably darkish tune 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 will make a file.” I simply stored writing, and we made a file collectively at Q Division. One of many issues that have 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 complete new sense of, “Whoa, the longer term.” I felt fearless in a method that I hadn’t, and I used to be in a position to write. Normally, the method with Cleo is that I might be actually in a darkish place, and I might 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 lots 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 might by no means made a solo file. And even in Cleo, I by no means had a way of how you can 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 similar to, “Fuck all, y’all. I do not want you and your reward and your approval.” I did not want it the best way I craved it after I was youthful. So I did not even look. However folks 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’ve gotten any regrets about the way you approached the making of this file?

After I went into this course of, I keep in mind simply pondering, “Oh, the vocals are too loud. It sounds this, it appears like that.” However I had by no means actually listened to the file. So after I listened this time round, I do not suppose I’d’ve achieved something otherwise aside from loving it extra, then giving it extra love and a spotlight 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 fantastic to have the ability to come again all these years later and do it this fashion.

At this level in your life, which tune from the file do you maintain closest to your coronary heart?

“Trans-Neptunian Object #1,” the nearer, I really like that. Particularly as a result of I wrote it about toddler Zoe, and I’ve by no means actually performed that a lot reside. It by no means made it into the reside set, so I am actually trying ahead to taking part in that one. “Galapagos,” at all times. I by no means get by that one with out crying. I’d say these are my two favorites at the moment.

You have 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 deliver out of the woodwork?

I imply, I’ve no management over it, however Dave Gibbs from the Gigolo Aunts, who introduced me into the mission, wrote a bunch of songs. There was a tune referred to as “Merry Go Round” that I recorded, and there have been most likely a few others from the early classes. 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.

Unimaginable. The 10 Issues I Hate About You soundtrack typically 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 inform you is that on the time, folks 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 folks being influenced by me as a lot as they’re influenced by what these initiatives needed to say about women and girls. They have been method, method forward of their time. I am not in the slightest degree shocked 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 might 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 complete life. My music life may be very collaborative. That is all I do, [so] there’s this unimaginable freedom in retreating into solitude to jot down, which I’ve by no means achieved in my life till now. So my favourite collaborator proper now, probably the most difficult collaborator I’ve proper now, is myself.

You’ve got spent lots of your profession writing music for TV and movie. Are there any reveals you are fascinated by making a soundtrack for?

Oh, my goodness. If I may write the theme tune for Connor Roy’s presidential marketing campaign within the subsequent season of Succession, that might be wonderful. I’d like to do all these actually goofy rap songs for Succession. Kendall’s at all times doing these dumb-ass raps. I’d love to jot down the lyrics for these the place he is making up his personal lyrics to Snoop Dogg songs.

Which artists have been you most impressed by while you have been making Cherry Marmalade?

I used to be simply retreating into my file assortment. I used to be listening to lots of Large Star and the Muffs. Positively Wilco. One of many songs was straight impressed by a movie referred to as Little Voice. I went to the theater and noticed it on my own. I cried by the entire thing, simply enthusiastic about making the connection between going to this film and this stunning character discovering herself and what was occurring to me in my life. [So] I wrote a tune referred to as “Blissful 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 received greenlit, however we offered it to Disney Junior, received 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. Now we have began writing a Cleo file, and I’ve began writing a brand new solo file. I might love for that to be subsequent yr, so let’s simply say subsequent yr.