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An interview with Deep Dark Robot’s Linda Perry and Tony Tornay

In case you haven’t heard of out musician and producer Linda Perry, she is the voice behind the infectious 4 Non Blondes‘ song “What’s Up,” and the mastermind behind hits like Christina Aguilera‘s “Beautiful” and Pink‘s “Get the Party Started,” among others. For the last 15 years, Perry has spent most of her time in the studio producing and writing songs for other musicians, so I was thrilled to hear about her new band, Deep Dark Robot, with Fatso Jetson drummer Tony Tornay. I was even more intrigued when I heard Perry describe their first album, 8 Songs About A Girl, as a concept album that tells the story of her relationship with a woman who broke her heart. I’m happy to say that both Perry and Tornay deliver. Much like the musicians themselves, the tracks on 8 Songs About A Girl are a unique and textured mix of grit, brains and heart.

We caught up with Perry and Tornay to talk about Deep Dark Robot, their expectations for the tour, and why this “dude rock” album will impress the “chicks.” AfterEllen.com: The new song “Won’t You Be My Girl” is hot. Linda Perry: Cool.

AE: Why did you pick that as the first release?

LP: I thought it was a cool song. I don’t mean this in a negative way, but I call it the “dumbest song on the album.” It’s like dude rock. It’s such a great, fun, dumb song, but then there’s something sexy and dirty about it. It seemed like the perfect song to introduce Deep Dark Robot. Tony Tornay: It was a great way to come out swinging. A nice way to say hello.

AE: What’s been the reaction to the release? LP: I could be wrong, but I feel like we haven’t gotten anything negative. There’s been a couple of people who’ve said, “It’s a little hard for my taste, but great song.” That’s the most negative feedback that we’ve gotten. In general, people seem to dig it because the song is very different, the sound is very different. The vibe of this whole record is easygoing and real and honest and fun. There’s a lot of great energy in it so I really do expect a lot of great energy to come back to us.

TT: I think people aren’t sure what to expect. There’s an element of surprise. But everything’s been really complimentary, which is always flattering and good to read.

AE: Linda, you’ve said that the album was “inspired by a girl who put my heart on a roller coaster and didn’t let me off.” Can you tell us more about that? LP: I didn’t realize that a record was going to be made. Tony and I met a while back and I had contemplated starting a band. I said, “Do you want to be in my band? It’s called Deep Dark Robot.” He was like, “Yeah, cool.” And I was like, “Yeah, cool.” Then nine months later, I called him up and said, “Hey, do you want to come jam?” We jammed out a couple of songs I wrote about this [girl]. It was so easy to hang out with him and we jammed well. I think by the third song I realized, “Oh god, I’m f–king writing an album about a f–king chick.”

AE: Did you think of it as a concept album or an album that tells the story of a relationship?

LP: I didn’t know there was a concept brewing. Tony brought it to my attention. I was clueless because sometimes I’m not paying attention. I’ll write things and not know what its meaning is for years. He introduced me to the whole concept and I said, “Oh you’re right.” It was also Tony’s idea to do all of these videos to tell the story of it. Basically, it’s all good. [The story] is about this beautiful person, but she’s straight. There was heat and a lot of energy and a lot of love. Many gay women can relate to falling for the straight girl who shows all of this interest and wants to keep you around because, damn, us lesbians, we give good attention. [Laughs]

Women are more attentive and sensitive and romantic. It’s a sexier situation. I’m sorry, but it is. It was one of those things [where] I was getting the attention from this chick. It was hot, but she just didn’t know how to let me out of it. So I wrote all of these songs about it. They’re not all loving songs. They’re basically all about me and how obsessive I got and how hurt I got so quickly. In the end, we’re friendly. [Even] the song “F–k You Stupid Bitch” is actually not harsh. It’s kind of a funny song in a sense because it’s a groovy little number, but it’s more like, “Oh, f–k this, what am I doing?” If it wasn’t for her I wouldn’t have made the album. If it wasn’t for her, I wouldn’t have decided to play some shows. She ended up being a pretty f–king awesome muse.

AE: Does the woman know that she was your muse?

LP: I don’t know. [Laughs]. It’s no longer about the girl. It is 8 Songs About A Girl, but if there were a Side Two it would be all about what I learned and what I gained. Again, I’m not mad or angry. I wrote a bunch of songs and my job’s done now. I’ve let go. I’ve moved on.

AE: Tony, did you help with the arrangement of the songs and with putting them together into a narrative?

TT: The record tells a very direct story. It wasn’t so much about arranging things. We wrote a lot of other songs as well. It was an interesting process. We knew the songs that were meant for the record. It wasn’t so much guiding things as much as things dropping into our laps.

AE: Can you tell us about the videos? I know the first one was supposed to be released on Valentine’s Day, but that didn’t happen.

LP: We started one and wanted to release it on February 14th but personally I didn’t like it. It turned out to be [just] a video. We agreed that we’re going to make really beautiful, visual little stories. We’re going to be very kamikaze. We don’t want to spend thousands of dollars doing videos. We’re doing everything so low budget it’s unbelievable. It’s f–king fun and it’s easy and it’s the way things should be. We got rid of that video because it wasn’t up to standard. We put a whole new team together and it’s a collaborative effort.

We went out to the desert and shot this video for “Won’t You Be My Girl” and it’s awesome. It’s a dream sequence. [In the video] we’re in the studio recording “It F–king Hurts,” a song about the girl ending up with this guy. She comes to visit to talk to me about it, but then she hears the song “It F–king Hurts”. I have no idea she’s there because we’re recording and she’s listening to the song. It just kills her because she can’t believe she hurt me this much that I would write a song like that and because I wrote a song like that that basically says I hope he f–ks you up as much as you did me. Next we’re in the desert and me and Tony are driving and we break down and the girl shows up to rescue us from the road. I abandon him and jump in the car to be with her and we end up making out. Then I’m woken up by Tony slamming the hood down, and I realize that it’s all just a dream. I think everyone can relate to that. We fantasize about the person we want that we can’t have. The only place I can have her is in my dreams. AE: Is the plan still to put the videos together into a short movie? LP: They’ll be videos on their own, but then when we put them all together they’ll flow into each other. We’re shooting them like that – but, honestly, who f–king knows what’s going to happen. We’re going to shoot the videos and hopefully they’ll match up. I don’t even want us to have that much of a structure. All the stories are in my head so I think they’re going to line up, but who f–king knows.

AE: It sounds like you’re approaching the videos the way you approached the album. Just allowing things to be.

LP: Exactly. It’s organic.

AE: As a lesbian are you excited to put out an album that openly explores the relationship between two women? That’s a unique part of this project.

LP: Tony, tell your story. I’m the clueless one. I’m writing these songs and having no idea how they’re all lining up and then after we finished recording “It F–king Hurts,” Tony came back the next day and told me this story. Go ahead, Tony.

TT: The name of the record is 8 Songs About A Girl, and, yes, it’s a woman singing about another woman, and, yes, it’s very obvious that it’s a lesbian relationship, but it dawned on me that it’s interesting that, as a guy, there’s a woman singing my emotions about my ex-girlfriend. I mean, I’m happily married now, but it was interesting because I was like, wow, that’s really weird to hear a woman singing when everything is in the context of being about a girl. Listening to it as a straight guy, I instantly think about my ex-girlfriend or whatever. I can listen to it and totally relate to the record. I came in and said, “Hey Linda, this is funny because I know that [the record] is about this, but I hear it almost as this,” which added a new element to it.

LP: I didn’t really realize that. If Melissa Etheridge sings a song, I know she’s singing about a girl. Melissa’s gay, so, yeah, when she’s talking about “Come to my window,” she’s talking about a chick. Same thing with k.d. lang and all the other lesbian or out [musicians]. But then I realized, oh, what they’re not doing is putting “her” in there. It’s all just “you.” I didn’t mean to do that. It’s just that’s how I felt and that’s just who I am and who I’m talking about. I do like chicks and that’s how I roll and that’s the kind of record it is.

I would never say just “you,” because I just wouldn’t. If I’m going to talk about somebody, I’m telling you it’s “her.” “Please God won’t you make her mine.” How else am I going to f–king say that? That never was even a question, but now I think it’s kind of cool-and that it comes off in this style of music, too. The album is not a fluffy lesbian album. It’s a f–king cool record. It’s very artistic. It’s indie. It’s cool. It jumps around a lot. It’s kind of a dude record. I would call this more of a dude record than a chick record, but the chicks are going to love it because it’s me singing about a girl.

AE: I also think when you’re gay, you’re used to making the pronoun and perspective conversions that Tony’s talking about. When Bob Dylan sings about a woman and says, “I’d go hungry, I’d go black and blue, I’d go crawling down the avenue,” as a lesbian you relate even though it’s a man singing. I don’t imagine straight people have to make that kind of conversion often. But it’s interesting that it was Tony, a straight guy, who pointed out the uniqueness to you.

LP: [Laughing] Well, I’m gay. I’m not going to notice being gay. I just am.

AE: The album has been described as “Dirty French garage pop.” Did you two have a sense of the sound you wanted to create from the beginning or was that something that emerged as you began writing together?

TT: It emerged, pretty much. When we started doing this, I didn’t know what to expect, but what we ended up doing was just really easy. Linda and I have an awesome way of just being [together]. It’s very easy for us to hang out and record. Every time we tried to introduce outside people it’s seemed to get horribly complicated very quickly. We sat down and thought we were doing demos for something that would become a record later, but then we realized that the demos were just so f–king good that it was like, “This is the record.” It took on a life and a sound of its own. Everything just fell into place and though every song sounds completely different and it’s insane how different Linda’s voice sounds on each song, everything fits. It wasn’t set out by design, but it just happened perfectly.

AE: The tour starts in March. Any expectations? LP: [Laughing]

AE: Why are you laughing?

LP: I expect to be extremely nervous all the time. I expect Tony’s going to be patting me on the head telling me, “It’s going to be OK, it’s going to be OK.” There’s going to be a lot of that. You should expect that. A lot of me being like, “I’m f–king nervous about this f–king bullshit,” I’ll tell you that right now.

AE: What about you Tony? Are you ready for all the head patting?

TT: I’m the opposite. I’m excited. I love touring. I’m just warming up my hand for all the patting on the head that I’ll have to be doing.

AE: Linda, what are you nervous about?

LP: I had a hard time in the band that I was in previously because I’m very sensitive. I’m a f–king sensitive person. Criticism kills me. I’ve grown up a lot. I’ve been in the studio for fifteen years. I’ve not been out. I haven’t made an album since ’96. It’s been a long time for me. I’ve been happy where I’ve been, behind the scenes, doing what I do. I’m really excited about going out – don’t get me wrong – and I love this album and I’m looking forward to playing music. It’s going to be great to be with people that I want to be with and play these cool little venues.

But I’m also the kind of person that would rather put a bag over my head and stand in the corner and not be noticed. I’ve grown accustomed to being not in the limelight. Tony, he’s always out there with his band Fatso Jetson. Me, I’m not. I hide myself away in the studio. I make music for a living. I don’t do interviews. I don’t take pictures. I don’t make videos. I don’t do any of that stuff. I don’t answer to people. I don’t have to. I don’t need fame. I don’t need money. You know what I mean? But I want to play music. I want this album to be heard. I want everybody to f–king love it. So I’m nervous about me. AE: This summer I interviewed Chely Wright about working with you in the studio. She said that one of the things that impressed her most about you was not only your talent and work ethic, which are both immense, but your courage as a songwriter and artist. What do you think she meant by that?

LP: I think it’s because I’m all over the place. My opinion about artists nowadays is that they play it too safe. Their intentions are not appropriate for what they’re doing, their career choice. To be an artist, you don’t play it safe. What you should be doing is bouncing off the walls, throwing things left, throwing things right, falling down. Your emotions should be all over the place. Maybe that’s what she’s talking about.

Chely was awesome because she was willing to do anything. I will throw you through the ringer. I will take you all over the place. I will not stay in a safe place. I’m open to everything. To be open to everything, you have to be courageous. You have to have the courage to fail just as much as the courage to succeed. I’m willing to fail in my attempt to create.

AE: You mentioned that if there were a Side Two for this album, it would be all about what you learned and gained through your relationship with this woman. Do you and Tony plan on making another album together or am I jumping too far ahead?

LP: [Laughing] You’re way ahead of us. We’re going to get through this one and see what happens. That’s how we chose to do this. We do have a cover album that we already recorded that we’re going to put out as an EP for fun. And we have half of another EP of just originals. We want to saturate people with music. We have it planned for this year and then we’ll figure out what we’re going to do next year. This year’s dialed in and covered. We have plenty of f–king shit to do.

Deep Dark Robot will release their debut album 8 Songs About A Girl on March 22. Their US tour kicks off March 13 and runs through April 22.

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