29/06/16
Boston indie rockers Belly’s debut album sold 2 million copies worldwide upon release back in 1993 off the back of huge singles Gepetto and Feed The Tree, but when their third album didn’t reach the same dizzying heights they disappeared and haven’t been heard of since. Until now. Belly are back, perhaps not forever, but with some fresh new songs and a tour which includes a date at the Waterfront. I spoke to Tanya Donnelly who started the band herself after being in Throwing Muses and plying with Breeders, about being a doula, dancing with her daughters and why she doesn’t listen to her own music.
You formed Belly 1991 in Boston after you’d been playing with The Breeders. What were your aims and hopes for the band at this point?
At the start I don’t think we had very many hopes and aims. I think the labels on both sides of the ocean were excited about the project because at that point everyone had already heard the song because it was supposed to be the next Breeders record. That was very confusing! Kim Deal and I were both signed to 4AD but she was also signed to Electra (I think!) and I was on Warners Bros so we had this plan that the first Breeders album would come out under her jurisdiction, and the second one I would write and it would come out under mine, and we hoped to not get to the point where we had to involve what I’m going to imagine would have been very reluctant labels in any of that. She decided to stay in the Pixies longer than she had planned and so I just started my own songs that were originally supposed to be Breeders songs.
Everyone else in the band came from hardcore bands, and when Gail joined she came from a metal background. How come you didn’t end up making heavier music?
It’s primarily because at that point Chris and Tom were interested in doing something different themselves; Fred was the connective tissue between myself and Chris and Tom initially because he had played in hardcore bands with them, and then he was in Throwing Muses with me. He came with me for the first Belly album - at that point he was very familiar with what I was doing - then Chris and Tom came in as well.
Belly’s biggest songs were probably your first single Gepetto and Feed The Tree – I’ve lost count of the times I’ve danced to those songs at discos! When you wrote those tracks did you have a sense that they were winners?
First of let me say you have very different discos to what we have here, ha ha! There were a handful of songs that we had decided that Gil Norton would work on with us. He didn’t have time to do a full album with us then, but we picked a few of our more straightforward songs and did Feed the Tree, Gepetto and Slow Do with him. I’m glad we did it that way cos he has a real gift with structure. He’s great cos he doesn’t suck the ‘weird’ out of anything, he has great respect for quirks, but knows how to get it right.
What is Feed The Tree about?
It’s basically about respect and commitment. It’s a relationship song but it’s broader than that as well.
Belly always trod a fine line between commercial success and cult underground following. Do you agree?
I think we were always in this funny little space of not being weird enough for weird and not straight enough for straight. So we were never particularly cool, or even mainstream either. I actually feel like that benefitted us in the long run though because the people who loved it still really love it, and still to this day they’re still connected to it. That means more to me than our music being cool or successful.
Why is now the right time for Belly to reform, and is this a one off?
We’re really just going summer-to-summer. What we’ve tentatively decided is to treat it like a one off but should things come up next summer we would be open to them as well. We’re going to be finishing off some music we’ve started recording so who knows what that will bring.
How’s it going on the making new music front?
It’s been going great, really well. We’ve become more sophisticated as writers, all of us, in terms of our basic songwriting. I think I’m a better lyricist now and we all, as musicians, have more under our belts. You know, a lot of music has come our way over the last 20 years purely as listeners, and we’ve played with a lot of different people in the interim, so we’re bringing all of that to the new songs. They definitely sound like Belly songs.
How has it been rehearsing and hanging with Gail, Chris and Tom before the upcoming tour?
It’s been really fun. These are some of the people who make me laugh hardest in the world, so it’s been great, and nice to have the sort of peace that comes from approaching being 50 rather than fooling around in your 20’s! Being unselfconscious is precious – we just don’t have any of that “is this too much like this?”. We just do what we want to do and it just feels good.
Have you been surprised by the level of excitement that has hailed your return after such a long hiatus?
It was a surprise. I mean we expected a certain amount of excitement mainly because it wasn’t too long ago that Throwing Muses toured for the first time in years and people were excited about that. There was a point there when the New York and Boston shows sold out and I was a bit concerned that people thought we were the rapper called Belly!
Oh yeah, there’s a rapper called Belly now! Has there been any confusion?
There’s been a lot of confusion in the States but less so elsewhere I think. He is touring at the same time as we are so we had to get in touch with him – we’ve both been really proactive about making sure the right artist photo is on the right ticket site! I think there’s going to be very little confusion when it comes time for the concerts – I doubt that anyone’s going to walk into our show thinking they’re coming to see a rap artist!
You should each cover one of the other Belly’s tracks at the end of your shows!
Yeah! That would be really funny!
What are your memories of playing the UK the first time around, 20 years ago?
That was one of the halcyon times of my life! We were just in love with each other. We ended up with these great crews and bands that we were touring with and it was so much fun. I have to say, with all my bands, I’ve been very lucky – just another wonderful group of people!
You’ve had a successful solo career since Belly and also I know you’ve trained and been working as a doula since 2006. What does music continue to give you that nothing else does?
Solace. I’m a very pragmatic person in my daily life, and music is where I go to till the emotional soil and make sure that it’s all healthy! I go there for sadness too, grief practice, a friend of mine said. My stepsister Kristen (Hersh) said “Sadness doesn’t upset me – beautifully crafted sad music is beautiful.” So I get a lot of that out of it, but also I’m a big dancer and so are my daughters so we dance around the kitchen. There’s always music playing.
Throwing Muses was your first band, with your stepsister Kristen Hersh, and you guys recorded some new music and toured a little a couple years ago. Is that a project you might return to?
If they ask me to do something I will most likely do it, primarily because I love playing guitar with my sister. I sporadically play lead in my other projects but mostly I’m the strummer and the singer so I love to do that in the Muses. And I love playing her music and working with her. Plus they’re my best friends from childhood so that’s lovely too! I actually had to have it pointed out to me recently that I’m naturally drawn to bands with siblings in, like the Deal sisters (Pixies) and the Gorman brothers (Belly) and my stepsister’s Throwing Muses (Kristen Hersh). I was brought up in that familial musical environment so I am naturally drawn to that.
In the 90’s there were loads of brilliant female-fronted bands – Juliana Hatfield, No Doubt, Hole, Babes in Toyland, Belly, Throwing Muses, Sonic Youth, Pixies – it felt like there was a real equality which has disappeared again until pretty recently. Did it feel equal to you at the time or did you struggle to be recognised as both a woman and a serious musician?
Early on, when we were teenagers there was more of an issue with that, it was a real novelty, a girl playing guitar! But the tricky thing about the 90’s were the sub textual conversations that people were having that nobody really knew about. Like when we did a radio show they would actually say to our manager “We have too many women on the air right now”. They made us take turns. They were actual sentences coming out of people’s mouths at the time. I’m not part of that world any more but I would hope that’s not still happening now. It was exciting that the playing field had widened and felt more powerful but meanwhile those conversations happening behind the scenes were still quite sexist.
You’ve released your Swansong EP’s, supposedly as your exit from the music industry but here you are back in Belly and touring! What are you most looking forward to about the tour?
That is what I said at the time and I’m not going to deny it; I was in a headspace then where I felt like I haven’t done anything in so long I wondered if I’d retired by mistake! So I kind of decided to throw myself a retirement party and invite all my friends to play – that was the genesis of Swansong. But then I got back into it, and kept writing…I would say that’s probably the last release in my name. From now on I’d like to do anonymous projects because I have to say, out of everything I’ve done, the Swansong series was such a collaboration that it feels weird that my name is the only one on there! I’m a person who enjoys working and writing with other people..I’m not the artist in the garret tower, so I feel like project names would be better in the future.
You have a family and a ‘day job’ as well as being Tanya the Famous Musician. Do you protect your privacy? I know you don’t do too many interviews.
I am a private person in terms of my personal life – that’s a very separate things for me. I keep my wagons circled round them, it’s my space and I’m protective of it. But in terms of music I’m happy to talk about that.
I understand you don’t listen to your own music – how come?
I don’t know. I feel uncomfortable hearing my voice. Not because it sounds bad but it’s too close, or something. I don’t enjoy it, and I also feel like we worked so hard and long on this and now it’s finished so let’s move on to something new. I don’t really revisit things ever. If I’m going to listen to something I’m going to listen to someone else!
What music have you been enjoying recently?
It’s all people you’ll already gonna know! Lisa Hannigan, I love her, and I’ve been listening to The Avett Brothers. Plus a lot of Prince, which has actually been quite joyful.
Belly play the Waterfront on 18th July. Tickets available from ueaticketbookings.co.uk