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Archive for albums

Where Shadows Fall: Jill Tracy talks to Noir City Magazine

By jilltracy
Monday, September 28th, 2015

Jill Tracy talks with Film Noir Foundation’s Eddie Muller about the allure of the dark side, the arsenic craze, spending the night with skeletons, and the horrors of the entertainment industry

Excepts from an interview in NOIR CITY MAGAZINE:

Eddie_JT
(Eddie Muller and Jill Tracy photographed by noir photography master Jim Ferreira)

 

Jill Tracy’s album Diabolical Streak was suggested to me because of my predilection for all things noir. It became an essential part of the musical backdrop to my writing Dark City Dames: The Wicked Women of Film Noir. Jill Tracy finds a compelling sensuality in everything, from the promise of one wicked night to the fiery end of the world. Her breathy vocals entice the listener into a sonic dreamscape—a dark and magical realm, simultaneously cerebral, sexy and sinister. It’s not safe here, but you won’t be in any hurry to leave. Beneath the force and filigree of Tracy’s original piano lines lurks cold steel—the woman has guts to spare, creating something so distinctive amidst the corporate musical mediocrity that’s poisoning the culture.
San Francisco Chronicle hails Jill Tracy “a femme fatale for the thinking man.”
LA Weekly has christened her “the cult darling of the Underworld.”

One of the cuts from Diabolical Streak, “Evil Night Together” was chosen by Showtime Networks as the “final symphony” to promote the highly anticipated last season of Dexter. Her music has been featured on NPR, CBS-TV Navy NCIS, and numerous independent films.

During the first two years of Noir City at San Francisco’s Castro Theatre, I asked Jill Tracy to provide musical interludes and introduce films at several screenings. She has also performed twice at LA Noir at the Egyptian Theater. Both of us were seeking fresh ways to expand our work—a constant challenge for independent artists in any medium. Recently I caught up with Jill Tracy again, and we discussed the obstacles, and inspirations, that writers and musicians share—as well as the beauty that forever lurks in the shadows.  —Eddie Muller

 

Eddie Muller: Would you still make music if you couldn’t reach an audience?

Jill Tracy: Music has always been my catharsis. So yes, absolutely I would. I create my best music where there’s no audience.

EM: Don’t you need an audience to validate what you do? I ask myself: Would I still write if I knew I wasn’t reaching many readers?

JT: It depends on one’s intentions. I would always create music, regardless. But having people respond to what you do does elevate it to a different level. It’s odd, but when I perform a song for the first time in front of an audience, a little death happens. It’s not mine anymore. It’s sad, in a way.

EM: Do you get over that? You must.

JT: Yeah, because you’ve got to perform it again the next night! [Laughs] But your personal attachment is gone. Songs arise from emotions, experiences, moods and dreams. Playing it alone for myself, I can revisit that place—it’s an actual souvenir of Time. Playing in front of an audience takes that away.

EM: Isn’t the point to turn it loose?

JT: Depends. Some songs I’ll never perform live because I don’t want to turn them loose. They’re a tonic for me. I go back and spend time in that song, and I don’t want to share that experience with anyone.

EM: There are songs you’ve written that nobody’s heard?

JT: Oh, yeah.

EM: I couldn’t imagine writing a story—

JT: Isn’t it like keeping journal entries?

EM: I don’t keep a journal. No. To me, someone reading the story completes the creative process. But I’ve talked with painters, for example, who only show their work grudgingly. “I didn’t paint this to be seen, I painted it because I had to.”

JT_stairs(Jill Tracy photographed by noir photography master Jim Ferreira)

 

JT: You’re vulnerable when someone hears your song for the first time. You’re disrobing for the crowd. But you’re right, it does eventually make that lovely transition into something else. I give it to THEM. And the beautiful thing is—often they need the song more than I do. I’m constantly moved and shocked by the amount of mail I receive where someone tells me my music was the only thing helping them through a rough time, or it was because of a certain song of mine that saved them from committing suicide. Often fans will come up to me at shows with tears in their eyes, just wanting me to hug them. It’s such a poignant and rare connection, I wouldn’t trade that for anything.

EM: Music affects people so immediately. No one reacts to a book the way they react to music. As a writer, that makes me envious. [Laughs]. It takes so much time to produce a novel, and to read it. Music plugs in directly.

JT: Yes, music is a living thing, captured immediacy—and the strange, intoxicating intimacy with a crowd. But I envy artists who can hang their work on a wall and step away from it. They can see others react to it. I can’t watch myself perform, or watch others watching me perform. I’m in it. It’s intangible. The moment the song is out in the atmosphere, it vanishes.

EM: That’s why you make records! Isn’t it gratifying to know you can get into somebody’s head like that? When someone tells me, “I read your book straight through,” that’s so satisfying. You must feel the same thrill when you know people play your album over and over again, that it has that impact on them.

JT: That’s my goal, to create music that transports them into another world, and allows them to linger there. I am a gatekeeper of emotions…There’s nothing more powerful than that. That’s the magic music allows—like a trap door or portal, it accompanies us—to a place we never knew existed, but wish to go. Similar to when I read your novel. I was ill with the flu. I was in bed. It was fantastic, because I was able to get out of my miserable head and live in your world for a while.

EM: Diabolical Streak was more like stepping into a novel or a film than it was like listening to a collection of songs. It’s like, “Oooh, this is a place she’s created.”

JT: The kingdom of the mind’s eye.

JillTracy_video#3
(Stormy late nights in New York City: shooting the music video “Pulling Your Insides Out)

 

EM: How influenced were you by cinema?

JT: I have always been drawn to the mysterious— fantastical, otherworldly imagery. Worlds sans-time. I was obsessed with Alfred Hitchcock, Bernard Herrmann, Ray Bradbury, Rod Serling, Jean Cocteau. As a child, I tried to build a time machine in my bedroom closet with a tiny chair and my favorite zebra lamp. I thought one could travel through the shadows. I just wanted to live in those worlds. I still do.

EM: I understand that “Where Shadows Fall” from your album The Bittersweet Constrain was directly inspired by your love of film noir.

JT: When I wrote “Where Shadows Fall,” I wanted to capture that sultry, intoxicating feeling watching film noir. Being under the sway of chiaroscuro—the shadows— that rapturous, dangerous and melancholy place we can really only fully attain in our minds. “Night has fallen, and so have we/ But seduction deceives us eventually…”
(Great moody horns and even bass flute on that tune by the legendary Ralph Carney, and gorgeous percussion by Randy Odell.)

EM: What inspires you of late?

JT: I’ve been immersing myself in unusual locations to compose music. It’s exhilarating and challenging as the environment not only drives the work but becomes part of it. I had a piano love affair with the antique Steinways in the (supposedly haunted) 1890 Craigdarroch Castle in Victoria, BC; channeled music in an abandoned 1800s San Francisco medical asylum, and the eccentric Los Angeles mansion of a 19th century murderer. I created an ongoing after-dark series at the wondrous San Francisco Conservatory of Flowers where I hosted night tours of the gardens and then performed music and curated each evening on a different intriguing theme— like the strange history of perfumes, poisonous plants and the arsenic craze, spirits that supposedly lived in various woods of violins.

EM: Your music videos have been shot in some provocative locations.

JT: My music video for “Haunted by the Thought of You” was shot in the magnificent 1909 Masonic Lodge in San Francisco, full of secret crawlspaces, strange tiny doors, and painted backdrops of Hades.This is where the Freemasons held their mysterious rituals. There are some great secret symbols and codes hidden in the video.

“Pulling Your Insides Out” is elegant noir, shot during an actual lightning storm in desolate alleys of Red Hook Brooklyn, walking the same streets favored by H.P. Lovecraft.

In_Hades
(Shooting “Haunted by the Thought of You” in the devastatingly ornate 1909 Masonic Lodge)

 

EM: Dare I say, your work is very literate. Are you concerned that it might be too literate, so it’s bound to be marginalized?

JT: Industry executives have consistently told me over the years, “Your music is amazing, but it’s too elegant, too sophisticated, too dark, too poetic, too smart, too cinematic,…you need to dumb it down and sound like everyone else.” One A&R guy actually said to me: “Your music and aesthetic is the best, most original thing I’ve come across in years, it’s just that I’d lose my job if I signed you. But could you send about 10 more copies of your CD? Everyone in the office wants one. It’s all we’ve been listening to!” (I told him he was welcome to BUY them from my site.)

Another TV executive told me I could not use the words “books” or “history” in a series pitch. Another told me I could not use the term “noir” or “femme fatale” as no one knew what that meant! (“Use spooky and sexy.”) The entertainment industry doesn’t give audiences the credit they deserve. I’ve walked out of several meetings with famous companies.

EM: That took bravery, but sounds like you dodged a bullet.

JT: As a child I absolutely loved it when a song made me pull out the dictionary to look up a word. God, how many kids first heard about Nabokov by hearing the Police song “Don’t Stand So Close to Me?” People are hungry to be inspired, to heighten their awareness. I know it’s the same in the book world. You have crap selling millions, and there are wonderful, artistic novels that nobody hears about.

EM: Fifty Shades of Dung. For every literary talent that gets recognized, like Michael Chabon or Jonathan Franzen, there are thousands who never get published, let alone recognized. In that regard, the parallels between the music, art, and publishing businesses are identical. We’re all in the same boat. And frankly, I’ll bet Chabon and Franzen bitch about their sales, too.

JT: The only goal for the business is making money and moving units. It’s never had anything to do with how wonderful a piece of art is, or how unique.

EM: True, but it has gotten worse. Lots of the popular entertainment that’s come out of this culture was the best America had to offer. Music, movies, books that were wildly popular. Hemingway was a significant writer and a best-selling author. He wasn’t force-fed to the public. There used to be an overlap where what was valuable artistically also sold. Now that huge corporations dominate the culture, all they care about is making the numbers work for them. And the broadest common denominator is where they’re going to invest. Otherwise, good luck selling your book or song for 99¢ on the internet.

JT: It’s never been at a lower point in history. It’s mortifying.

EM: It’s intended to keep people in the dark, and uninformed. They make better consumers that way.

JT: Death by complacency. I don’t let it frustrate me like I used to. Now that the traditional industry is crumbling, I’m reimagining my path. There’s never been a more vital time for artists and fans to band together. We don’t have to play the old game anymore.

SONY DSC(Portrait of Jill Tracy by Audrey Penven)

 

EM: You’ve always celebrated the outlier approach. When you first started out, didn’t you mastermind your own show?

JT: Right. Jill Tracy’s Mysteria was an ongoing live series of not only my music and stories, but an entire dark carnival, with sword swallowers, contortionists, puppeteers and snake charmers—a complete sensory experience. This was around 1996-97. A dark variety show was practically unheard of at that time. I created Mysteria out of necessity because no club would book me. So I sold them the entire spectacle. Mysteria went on to packed houses, and an ardent following and press. I was nominated for 2 California Music Awards, SF Weekly Awards, Best of the Bay, 3 magazine covers.

So while the record companies were busy sending me rejection letters saying “there could not possibly be a market for my work,” I was busy making a living selling music on my website, charting on CD Baby’s Top-Sellers in piano pop, singer/songwriter, gothic, film score, neoclassical, acoustic, all simultaneously! (Laughs) The industry had no idea! I realized the system was broken way back then. I knew I couldn’t go in the front door, and not really the back door either … so I became intent on inventing TRAP doors.

EM: That’s great. I empathize with what you’re saying about stretching your boundaries, while staying true to yourself. You have to scout out those pockets of like-minded souls. That’s what we do with the NOIR CITY film festivals. The ones outside San Francisco aren’t jackpots, but we’re able to reach the exact audience that wants film noir on a big screen. But it’s no “mass market.” More and more these days, artists who want mainstream commercial success have to whore themselves for the corporation.

JT: Can there really a goal of “mainstream” success today for serious artists? If you’re trying to fit in with the crowd, pretty soon you will just become lost in it. You must not be afraid to own your niche. Embrace your strange. Major label album sales are at an all-time low. It can’t be just about vacuous pop culture and marketing to kids.

EM: When I was fifteen, I never wanted to listen to musicians who were my age.

JT: That’s so true. I’d hear Pink Floyd, Jimi Hendrix or Led Zeppelin, and it was this seductive, subversive thing. Everyone was older than you and you’re like, Wow, I can’t wait to experience the kind of life they’re singing about! That was the allure of that music. It represented what we aspired to, what we dreamed of. It was dangerous. That was the whole point. Today it’s all safe, homogenized and soulless. Created by corporations.

That’s why, sadly, art has less meaning in young people’s lives. When I was growing up, that’s how you bonded with someone. (Certainly if you were an outlier.) What bands do you listen to? What books are you reading? What are your favorite films?
Now, it’s what phone do you have? What apps? How many Facebook friends do you have?
Tech has become the barometer. It’s tragic.

Jill Tracy/Lace Shadows 2
(Portrait of Jill Tracy by Audrey Penven)

 

EM: Yet artists can’t accomplish anything without the internet, right?

JT: Everything has changed. It’s our lifeline. We’re able to bypass the old school commercial system and operate directly to fans. We did not have that choice before.
The hardest, but in the end, most liberating thing for me was to accept the fact that the childhood dream I once had—and struggled years to attain—simply doesn’t exist anymore. That is still a difficult revelation. But once I decided not to be held hostage by the old dream, the floodgates seemed to open.

EM: Do you resent how much effort it takes now to handle the business side, when what you want to be doing is creating art?

JT: Of course, but that’s the way it’s evolved. I’m running a business. I am the brand. I would much rather be focused on the creative. But there is a newfound freedom living this way, too. You learn to prioritize, delegate, and say no to things.

EM: With this ability to be connected all the time, is there a downside to the internet?

JT: I read an interesting study the other day talking about how if social media had been around in the last century, how many classic novels would actually have been written? Would many of the greats have merely sat around in cafes reading their Twitter feed?

EM: Imagine if all those great barroom writers were on Facebook instead of scrawling stuff into composition books.

JT: The Internet is a blessing and a curse. The ease and ability to obtain information and connect with anyone in the world is glorious. But at the same time it’s destroying our individuality. Everyone is getting their news/views from the same sources, not looking outside, or challenging themselves to think further. We’re trapped in a giant echo chamber.

There has never been a greater need to venture outside the cage, to seize our true passions and authenticity. To be an individual now takes a great deal of effort.
Sometimes I will post on Twitter—“No tweets today. Honoring the Mystery.”

EM: Your short film “The Fine Art of Poisoning” has become practically a cult classic, winning all sorts of awards and getting attention from the likes of Clive Barker and Guy Maddin. Any more film projects for you?

JT: I’m delighted and shocked when I hear from film school students who say “The Fine Art of Poisoning” was part of their curriculum! Animator Bill Domonkos is a genius. We went on to collaborate on NERVOUS96.
I’ve worked with the brilliant Jeremy Carr on 4 films now, including our new short “Portraits of a Nightmare” and well as his debut feature Other Madnesses, which has already won several awards. I’m eager to work on more films.

enumen_jilltracy_ph3 copy(Jill Tracy composing music at night inside the Mütter Museum. Photo by Evi Numen)

 

EM: What’s this I heard about you getting a grant to compose inside the Mütter Museum?

JT: This is a dream come true! I’m the first musician to ever be awarded a grant from Philadelphia’s famed Mütter Museum, to create a series of work based on its collection of medical oddities and specimens. I spent nights alone in the Mütter at a piano amidst the death cast and conjoined liver of original Siamese twins Chang and Eng, the skeleton of the Ossified Man, Einstein’s brain, and the Mermaid Baby. The project will include not only a music album based on the Mütter collection, but also an art book and memoir of my experiences inside the museum after dark.

enumen_jilltracy_72
(Jill Tracy among the Hyrtl Skull Collection in the Mütter Museum, as featured in Penthouse. Photo by Evi Numen.)

 

EM: But my favorite part of all this is that you ended up in Penthouse…

JT: Ha! Yes, I can now say I have a spread in Penthouse. It was part of an interview about my work at the Mütter and my getting inspiration from the dark side of history. I was not nude, but way better—at a piano, in a black backless gown surrounded by 139 human skulls from Viennese anatomist Joseph Hyrtl’s 1874 collection. Who else could say that? My father even went to a newsstand to buy Penthouse that month —while my stepmother waited uncomfortably in the car. (Laughs)

EM: In the true spirit of the femme fatale. Smart is sexy after all.

 

(Download this special NOIR CITY Musicians Issue (Vol. 10 no. 1) HERE– also featuring Tom Waits, Charlie Haden, Chris Issak, Johnny Cash, and more.)
Please support the Film Noir Foundation.

______________________________

 

Categories : Albums, Concerts, Films, History, Interviews, Memoir, Photography, Projects, TV, Uncategorized, Video
Tags : albums, artists, bernard herrmann, bill domonkos, Castro Theater, Conservatory of Flowers, craigdarroch castle, Dexter, Diabolical Streak, Eddie Muller, Egyptian Theater, film, film noir, Film Noir Foundation, Freemasons, ghosts, history, interview, Jeremy Carr, Jill Tracy, Los Angeles, medical oddities, music industry, music video, Mutter Museum, mystery, New York City, Noir City, perfume, photos, piano, Ray Bradbury, Rod Serling, san francisco, shadows, Showtime, social media, spontaneous musical combustion, Twilight Zone, victoria bc, violins

“Finding the Phantom”: Jill Tracy talks music and the allure of monsters with French Vampire Blog

By jilltracy
Monday, April 8th, 2013

JT_Nosferatu_2Jill Tracy with Max Schreck as Nosferatu. (photo by Jon Bradford)

 

This interview was conducted by writer Adrien Party for the French Vampire webzine Vampirisme.

 

Hello. Please introduce yourself to Vampirisme.

JT: My name is Jill Tracy. I am a composer/pianist/singer/storyteller based in San Francisco, CA. With albums ranging from songs to film scores to post-classical instrumentals, I am fascinated with the beauty found in darkness––and my work honors the mystery, the forgotten, the stories lost in time.

Music allows me to create the emotional undercurrent, the portal to transport the listener into that magical place with me. I like to call it my “elegant netherworld.”

nosferatu_stairs

Into the Land of Phantoms is presented as a score for F.W. Murnau’s 1922 Nosferatu. Can you tell us about the genesis of this work?

JT: I adore the way F.W. Murnau uses light, imagery, and tempo in his films. It’s a musical seduction of shadows. Plus odd shots of nature are used to beautiful intrigue. But I always disliked the music that accompanied this film, usually a jaunty, meandering piano (or some mediocre, desperate to be cool, doom metal) that did nothing to compliment or serve what we were seeing onscreen. This is the case I find with most silent film scores. Most often, I watch them with the sound turned off because it ruins the experience for me. It becomes a complete disconnect when it should be the way “in.”

I wanted to honor the integrity of Nosferatu, dispose of any camp element and seamlessly enhance the emotion of Murnau’s stunning visuals. I don’t see Count Orlok as inciting horror or trepidation, as much as an unsettling allure. It’s a beautiful, sensual work; the listener should surrender to the spell of the music as intensely as to the spell of the vampire.”

nosferatu_shadow

Some of the characters have their own theme, which is used on many parts of the score. What was the point behind each theme? (particularly Van Helsing, which reminds me of the Grenada Sherlock Holmes tune, and Jonathan Harker).

JT: Those recurring themes set the tone and personality of the character so when you hear them again, it resonates, and you react subconsciously. You are instantly back in his/her head again! Van Helsing conveys an erudite trusting sense, whereas Renfield’s character was not only diabolical, but a bit fumbling, there were touches of hollow marimba tones that brought across the comic, peculiar side of his personality. The marimba melodies are both foreboding yet playful, which was the brilliant idea of my long-time percussionist Randy Odell.

I do want to mention the other wonderful musicians on that score: Alexander Kort (cello), Daniel Baer (violin.) I play piano.

nosferatu_renfield
The agent Renfield in F.W. Murnau’s Nosferatu

 

Are there some moments of the score that are not on the CD, and why?

JT: Most of the score is represented on Into the Land of Phantoms. The CD will NOT sync up with the film, however, as the actual score had several long silent passages, or moments with just sound effects, which did not translate well for an audio CD. I am very proud that Into the Land of Phantoms stands exquisitely on its own as album of dark classical music.

 

Your musical production seems to be very influenced by silent movies. Do you think that nowadays cinema is less interesting than 1900-1950 cinema (in particular in the way it used music?)

JT; Well, the dates you mention certainly span the landmark years, from the silent cinema to talkies…through the great Film Noir period.

It was a watershed when I discovered the classic horror/film noir composers as a child. Bernard Herrmann’s scores to Alfred Hitchcock films, “The Day the Earth Stood Still,” Franz Waxman, Hans J. Salter, among others. It was pure magic to me, realizing that the MUSIC completely dictated the emotion of whatever it was that you were watching. It was utterly subliminal, primal.

I wanted to figure out how to conjure dark and enchanting imaginary worlds of my own. Not to mention the dreamlike, sensual look to those films. I just wanted to live in those worlds. They seemed perfect to me. They still do.

Today, most Hollywood movies and scores are not about creating fine art, but about making money, so sadly “scores” are often poorly placed pop songs pasted into a film to promote “bands du jour” owned by that company’s record label, etc. This has destroyed that elegant sense of timelessness in cinema…which is something I always strive for in my music, the fact that it will be relevant and distinctive on it own terms, never sucumbing to trends or the mass media of the time, which only cheapens the craft, and makes it insincere.

That’s why there is such a resurgence and newfound interest in classic cinema right now. These treasures have become a lost art.

JT_stairsJill Tracy shot by Film Noir lighting master Jim Ferreira

 

What are your first and last encounters with a vampire (literature and / or cinema and /or music?)

JT: As a girl, I remember watching Bela Lugosi films and eating Count Chocula cereal. Those were probably my first encounters with vampires. I would stir those little brown marshmallows around in the cereal bowl imagining that it created graveyard dirt!

I guess I’ve come full circle because now I am working with David J, bassist from the legendary band Bauhaus, who wrote the gothic anthem “Bela Lugosi’s Dead.” I actually created a dark classical piano prelude for a new reworking of the tune by David J himself. He sings this version, as Peter Murphy sang David’s lyrics on the Bauhaus 1979 original. You can’t get more vampire than that!

(And interesting to note: the original cover art for Bela Lugosi’s Dead was a still from F. W. Murnau’s silent film The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari.)

David-J-74 + Jill_levels
Jill Tracy onstage with David J (Bauhaus) in Hollywood. photo by tourbuslive.

 

In your opinion, how can we analyze the vampire myth?

JT: The closer to death, always more alluring the taboo…

The vampire is one of the oldest, most resilient archetypes, existing in a variety of forms in nearly every culture worldwide. Each culture’s conception of the vampire has been somewhat unique––one type of Indian vampire feeds on the livers of its victims, while a form of Japanese vampire subsists by consuming infants.

The vampire was confounding or horrifying because it had the ability to achieve the forbidden, as well as lure others under its spell. For Victorian audiences, this spectre of wild sexuality, and the break with proper social behaviours, was unheard of, and terrifying. When Murnau’s Nosferatu debuted in theaters in 1922 (the first film based on the 1897 Bram Stoker novel,) people fainted in the aisles and had to be carried out of the theater!

For me, the universal appeal of the vampire is that of control/abandon, unbridled desire, the mysterious, the forbidden, eternal beauty, immortality. A lover seemingly out of our reach, a lover who can reveal to us dangerous new worlds and take us to heights we can only imagine is rapturous…and frightening. How much of ourselves are we willing to lose in the process?

Now, the role of bloodplay/drinking blood creates an even more severe sense of taboo in society with the reality of HIV, AIDS. This further entices a sense of forbidden fetish, unacceptable to the norm––a seductive mingling with death.

nosferatu-locket

Do you have any other projects on this very same subject? What are your future projects?

JT: I’m not working on any vampire project now, but have recorded a song called “The Colour of the Flame,” which is based on the writings of 19th Century Polish occultist Stanislaw Przybyszewski. It will be released on a collector’s 7” vinyl along with a tune from Blixa Bargeld (Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds/ Einsturzende Neubauten.)

I am also thrilled to be the first musician in history to be awarded a grant from the famed Mütter Museum in Philadelphia, the nation’s foremost collection of medical oddities. I spent part of last year composing music inside the museum at night in the company of these wondrous specimens and lost souls. I will spend 2013 completing this project for an entire album inspired by the Mütter collection.

 

***Listen and purchase  Into the Land of Phantoms, Jill Tracy’s score to F.W. Murnau’s Nosferatu HERE.

 

Categories : Albums, Concerts, Films, History, Interviews, Memoir, Projects, Uncategorized
Tags : albums, alfred hitchcock, bauhaus, bela lugosi, bernard herrmann, bram stoker, channeling music, david j, F.W. Murnau, film noir, filmscore, german expressionism, Jill Tracy, Max Schreck, monsters, Mutter Museum, nosferatu, shadows, Silent Film, taboo, undead, Vampire

Bound in White Lights Like Barbed Wire

By jilltracy
Wednesday, December 12th, 2012

The Silver Smoke, Star of Night Photo Shoot

When photographer Audrey Penven and I first assembled the photo shoot for Silver Smoke, Star of Night–it was like everything else with this album, an accident.

The one thing I did know I wanted was to utilize some of my collection of old religious statuary. I have been a bit partial to archaic figurines of the Infant of Prague over the years- their broken, gilded bits lurk all about my San Francisco apartment. How perfect to incorporate them in the photos—it’s a Christmas album after all.

We talked about creating a shot hidden in smoke, borrowed a portable fog machine from The Hypnodrome theater…but the thing was malfunctioning, so at the last minute that idea was out.

I think it’s so important to share these behind-the-scenes tales because as independent artists we do NOT have a lavish photo studio, lighting crew, team of art directors and tons of expensive gear, wizardry, and budget at our disposal. We also have very little free time. That’s the magic. We figure out ways to do it ourselves, achieve our vision, but through our own meager ingenuity. And most often that makes it even more spectacular.

These shots were taken lying on my office floor as I assembled a calculated pile of fabric and pillows. And 11 Infant of Prague statues. We weren’t sure yet how we were going to arrange everything, but exploring some options.

Audrey decided to wrap me in strings of white Christmas lights, like barbed wire, which provided an otherworldly element and texture. This was the ONLY lighting used in the black and white shots, which gives it a very elegant, dramatic, film noir glow. My eyes reflected in the string lights seem to ignite a sense of reverence.

Artist Trista Musco wanted to create a fantastical element, which was actually part of the original shot, and not computer generated, so she came up with the idea of building star puppets, marionette-type white stars which dangled on strings. She operated them above my head out of sight of each shot. I love the surreal whimsy of them, how you can see the strings.

This photo above is the raw image for what became the Silver Smoke, Star of Night album cover. We loved the rich colors and contour of my body and hand. This image lent itself well to being cropped into a square, and seemed like it was almost screaming for text to be put on it.

Interesting fact with this close-up of some of the statues: I am actually lying on my back clutching them to my chest– so the color and texture you see behind them is really my flesh, collarbone, necklaces, and black lace bra. Ahhh, so all of a sudden that shot gets a lot more intriguing…

I’m thrilled to announce that both photographer Audrey Penven and artist Trista Musco will be displaying their work at the CD Release Party for Silver Smoke, Star of Night at DNA Lounge in San Francisco Dec 19. In fact, many of the talented souls behind the making of the album will be making an appearance, and so should you!  Here’s a link for tickets.

Listen and purchase Silver Smoke, Star of Night HERE.

Categories : Albums, New Music, Photography, Projects, Uncategorized
Tags : albums, audrey penven, carols, Christmas, holiday, Infant of Prague, lighting, photos, puppets, silver smoke, star of night, trista musco

Silver Smoke, Star of Night: Tales of the Accidental Album

By jilltracy
Friday, September 14th, 2012

The accidental album, as I have been referring to it these past weeks, was just that. Totally unplanned, never even thought of doing such a thing before, but sometimes the accidentals are by far the most poignant and magical in life. You can’t ignore them. They wish themselves into being. You must always be at the ready.

I found myself late at night out by the ocean, recording antique bells, chimes, old toy parts, mallets, metals, playing the piano with tears in my eyes as the moonlight glistened across the keys.

The accidental album, my dear Malcontents, is called  “Silver Smoke, Star of Night.“ It is a Christmas album.

Inspired for the most part by your enthusiastic pleas on Twitter, after I spoke of singing carols by candlelight last Christmas Eve at San Francisco’s historic Swedenborgian Church. A dear friend was going through rehab, so we were trying to find a distraction from the parties and alcohol— a sign posted a midnight carol sing-along at the church. We had always wanted to peek inside this magnificent structure anyway, might as well take the opportunity tonight.

I had not heard many of these carols in years, was so moved that I couldn’t get some of them out of my head. I began researching more, posted on Twitter of my intrigue. An onslaught of Tweets followed begging me to release an album of these songs.  When chatting with Sam Rosenthal of Projekt Records, I mused “I’m thinking of an album of my interpretation of dark classical Christmas carols.” He said  “Are you kidding? That would be amazing. I’ll release that in a second!”
So the seed was planted. Contracts were signed.

I had just come back from the Mütter Museum in Philadelphia where I began research for my musical excavation project there. I put that on hold (as well as composing songs for my next album) and began working on Christmas music.  I spent evenings through the summer holed up at the piano with bottles of wine, burning frankincense, playing Christmas carols. Truly bizarre and wonderful! This is the holiday album I always wished existed. But I guess it was up to me to make it so.

At the same time, I wanted to create lavishly dark, beautiful music you could listen to at ANY time of year. I’m proud of this collection as it’s in no way limited by the calendar. Happy accidents.

Read more about the making of Silver Smoke, Star of Night in the press release below.

You can pre-order Silver Smoke, Star of Night HERE!

 

The official PRESS RELEASE:
The Making of Silver Smoke, Star of Night


Silver Smoke, Star of Night beckons away from the cheap holiday tinsel and phony cheer to reveal a more evocative, sophisticated undercurrent. This is the season’s Night Music–– Jill Tracy’s glorious realm that lurks within the shadow of Christmas, and will cast you under its spell.

Silver Smoke, Star of Night is Jill Tracy’s lavish, shadowy interpretation of some of the more haunting classic carols.  Emotional, delicate, and textural,  the music was recorded in completely organic, but grand fashion-––from hand-held antique chimes, bells, toys, mallets, bamboo, metals, and drums by master percussionist Randy Odell;  to the mysterious heartfelt strings of cult violinist Paul Mercer.

The space, the breath, the huge dynamics of the recording add to its intensity and filmic aspect. This ambiance was a crucial factor for Jill Tracy who even sampled environments, including an abandoned stairwell at night, to create the reverb sound for her piano.

“I wanted listeners to lose themselves hypnotically within this music, but also honor and embrace the imagery, ” Tracy explains. “We 3 Kings” begins with a veritable score of the Magi traveling far, in the black of night, laden with strange, exotic gifts.  In fact, the lyrics for “We 3 Kings” was a major part of the reason I wanted to do this album. The little-known verses are dark and gorgeous: Myrrh is mine, its bitter perfume / breathes of life of gathering gloom / sorrowing, sighing, bleeding, dying / sealed in the stone-cold tomb. — These are not songs merely to be sung, but tales to be told.”

The inspiration for Silver Smoke, Star of Night came at the urging of fans on Twitter. Jill Tracy tweeted about an adventure that found her inside San Francisco’s historic Swedenborgian Church at midnight last Christmas Eve singing by candlelight.

“I’ve never really been into Christmas,” she reveals. “But I was completely moved, had not heard some of these songs for years. The lyrics are poignant and bleak, yet hopeful. I began researching some of the more older obscure carols, some of these date back to the Middle Ages. I wanted to interpret them in my style, create an emotional, mystical journey befitting to the spirit and subject matter. But at the same time, music that you could listen to at any time of year.”

Silver Smoke, Star of Night includes the 16th century “Coventry Carol“, (a mothers lament over King Herod’s Massacre of the Innocents;)  a nine-minute swoon-worthy “O Come O Come Emanuel” with sweeping violins, angular piano, and an almost noir jazz contrabass,  a devastatingly beautiful piano vocal version of “What Child is This,” and “Room 19,” Jill Tracy’s original ballad about a spirit haunting a run-down hotel room after his 1947 Christmas Eve suicide.

“This album has become one of my most empowering projects yet,” Jill Tracy reveals.  “And one I never imagined doing. That’s what makes it utterly compelling.”

Pre-order Silver Smoke, Star of Night HERE!

 

 

 

 

ALBUM CREDITS:

Piano, vocals- Jill Tracy
Drums, percussion, metals, antique bells, chimes, toys– Randy Odell
Violin- Paul Mercer
Contrabass- Kenny Annis
Ebow-John Anaya

engineered, mixed by John Anaya, Humpback Recording (San Francisco)
additional engineering, mixing by Drew Zajicek, GetReel Productions, Bruce Bennett.
mastered by Gary Hobish, A. Hammer Mastering
produced by Jill Tracy with John Anaya

Photography by Audrey Penven
Artwork, star puppetry by Trista Musco

Categories : Albums, History, New Music, Photography, Projects
Tags : albums, audrey penven, carols, Christmas, holiday, Mutter Museum, paul mercer

Swan Song 2011: The Year in Review

By jilltracy
Monday, January 16th, 2012

“Jill Tracy is the Queen of taking her listeners into another universe”
SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE

“Jill Tracy is the first musician I found who sells the passion, the emotional turmoil and tremendous, tragic beauty which lies there, waiting to be uncovered, in the darkest corners of experience.”
ZA RECORDS


I guess it’s a good sign when 2012 begins with such a flurry of dream projects, that I have had no time to devote to a year-end review until now. Stay tuned for news about my upcoming 2012 collaboration with Philadelphia’s legendary Mutter Museum and new recording for Swedish publishers Malört alongside Einstürzende Neubauten. Visit the NEWS page to get the latest updates.

2011 was such a tough, challenging, but charmed year–this new website did not go live until September—so I wanted to make sure to feature the highlights for you here.

Of course, January means the famed Edwardian Ball, clearly the most lavish and fantastical event of the year–a costumed spectacle in honor of the late great raccoon-coated scribe Edward Gorey. For the last decade, I have had the honor to be hailed “Belle of the Ball” and perform in concert each year. The above photo is my favorite 2011 Edwardian Ball shot by Samuel Coniglio. Custom adorned top hat by the marvelous House of Nines Design.

At the Los Angeles Ball, I welcomed special guests: renowned theremin player Armen Ra ( fresh from the Grinderman tour) and Coilhouse mastermind/ Parlour Trick violinist Meredith Yayanos.

I released “Under the Fate of the Blue Moon,” a waltz to make wishes come true–a dreamily enchanting piece I composed on the rare Blue Moon New Year and recorded the night of the total Lunar Eclipse Solstice Dec 20, 2010. I released the work as a free download. It’s my online wishing well. Make a wish, leave an offering.

BENEATH: The Bittersweet Constrain was a glorious accidental release. After several Hollywood music supervisors asked me for an instrumental version of “Haunted by the Thought of You,” I met with producer Alex Nahas in New York City to remix the tune. We both became more and more intrigued, as the absence of vocals invited many of the previously unused or little-heard tracks: strings, woodwinds, Chapman Stick, sarod, harmonium and others. I’m thrilled when people tell me they write or work to my music, and this is certainly a perfect soundscape, a dark, gorgeous portal. Brilliant cover shot by Michael Garlington.

In February, I joined host Chloe Veltman live on KALW, San Francisco public radio/NPR affiliate 91.7 FM as guest of the hour-long “Voice Box” program. The theme of the show was “singers who accompany themselves on the piano,” and it gave me a wonderful chance to discuss the variations, challenges– and funny stories that come with the territory.  Listen to an archive of the show online HERE.

San Francisco mobbed famed City Lights Books for my murderous musical set with none other than the infamous Lemony Snicket himself (aka Daniel Handler) on accordion. This photo was taken by Audrey Penven post-show.

With a mutual fondness for gin and creepy things, we were quite the effortless diabolical duo– reworking the rarely-heard 1933 Robert Desnos/Kurt Weill song “La Complainte de Fantômas!” Complete with its original 26 gruesome verses! This was the grand kick-off to San Francisco’s Fantômas 100th anniversary festival celebrating the dashing French literary arch-criminal. I’m delighted to say our duet was named one of the “Best Live Shows of 2011.”

You best know Oakland filmmaker Bill Domonkos by our beloved award-winning short “The Fine Art of Poisoning,” and his collection of acclaimed videos for legendary masked band The Residents. I had the great opportunity to again collaborate on his latest– the surreal, sci-fi suspense NERVOUS96. Bill painstakingly crafted excerpts from my Musical Seance sessions with Atlanta violinist Paul Mercer, and our channeled music becomes the emotional dialogue for the entire film. It’s stunning. The NERVOUS96 musical score is available for download on Bandcamp!

New York Times best-selling author Melissa Marr named  “Sell My Soul“ as the official song for her novel Graveminder. Marr says she listened to the tune on endless repeat for inspiration, especially while creating scenes in the Land of the Dead. I will be forever immortalized as the sultry singer in Mr. D’s Tip Top Tavern, alluring nightspot of the unliving. Marr also listed “Haunted by the Thought of You” in the playlist for her “Wicked Lovely” series.

My music is also on the official playlist for Cat Winter’s In the Shadow of Blackbirds, a YA novel centering around Victorian spiritualism.

I was a celebrity speller for Small Press Distribution‘s annual Bee In, hosted by West Coast Live’s Sedge Thompson. I went down on the word “abscess” befittingly enough. It’s always the tricky little words that get you.

After touring with the iconic David J (Bauhaus/Love and Rockets), he became so enamored of my dark post-classical piano interpretation of Bauhaus’ classic “Bela Lugosi’s Dead” that he took us into the studio to record it. You’ll hear more about the project later in 2012. Featuring my drummer Randy Odell and bassist Kenny Annis, plus strings player Ysanne Spevack (Smashing Pumpkins.) Talk about a goth girl’s fantasy come true. Oh, and I also spent my 2011 birthday with Peter Murphy!)

A wondrous shot of me with David J, shooting green screen on the set of the music video of the David J. +Shok collaboration “Tidal Wave of Blood.” I sing back-up vocals.

My favorite photoshoot of the year by far was one done with next to no prep, stealth, late at night, sneaking into the dark, ornate stairwell of a downtown office building. Photographer Audrey Penven and I wanted to play with shadow. I loved the idea of incorporating lace textures, perhaps shoot through lace. She had the incredible idea to project actual lace onto the entire shot.

The way these photos were achieved is innovative and fascinating. Please read the tale of the making of “In Lace Shadows.“ There are many more shots there too, plus a link to the full gallery.

One of Audrey’s Lace Shadows portraits became the landing page for my new website which I was ecstatic to finally launch in 2011!!
The site backgrounds were created by visual FX artist and friend Robert Rossello. (You remember his gorgeous artwork for Diabolical Streak!) We collected and created imagery–all from my personal collection– Even the textures like feathers, fur, old medical perscriptions, antique charts of constellations, opium poppies, apothecary bottles, my talismans– were all individually crafted.

Thank you so much to Rob and Sue Trowbridge for their hard work, ingenuity, and support. Read the backstory on the inspiration behind the new website. And plans are underway for several features, including Cabinet 45, my artists collaborative shoppe.

2011 was my first year officially working with the San Francisco Silent Film Festival. I did a myriad of things–from scoring several film shorts and performing live for their press conference, to moderating the panel “Variations on a Theme,” discussing the craft of scoring silent films with some of the best in the business. The photo above by San Francisco’s Examiner’s Omar Moore shows me introducing F. W. Murnau’s epic Sunrise.

The most thrilling part of the SF Silent Film Festival was finally getting to collaborate with the wonderful UK pianist Stephen Horne. I got a late night email from him days before the festival saying he envisioned my voice as part of his score to the sultry 1915 femme fatale shocker Il Fuoco. We literally put the score together in a matter of 2 days. I was so proud and inspired by the work. Absolutely riveting. The press agreed:

“The score by Stephen Horne and Jill Tracy…is like an Ennio Morricone score for a giallo: erotic, threatening, haunting, the siren call of a sexual predator who devours and abandons her prey. A perfect evocation of the drama playing out onscreen.” SLANT Magazine

“Dark sexuality…The musical accompaniment fit the film quite well; Stephen Horne was at it again, doing what he does best. With him, though, was Jill Tracy, adding a vocal splash of eroticism as Menichelli’s theme, which was utterly poignant and fit perfectly, especially when her throaty voice continued to echo in the main character’s mind in the end.” FILMBALAYA

Ahhh, the sheer delight on my face as I reveal seductive tales about the deadly mandrake root! Within a garden of poisonous plants no less! (Photo by Julie Michelle)

The dark side of the Garden came to deadly bloom in October at the historical San Francisco Conservatory of Flowers as I teamed up with Wicked Plants author Amy Stewart and produced a perilous event within the exhibit. We called it appropriately enough “The Fine Art of Poisoning: Perils, Pleasures and Protocols.” The beautiful white glass Victorian dome is a sight to behold in the dark, so I wanted to give the public a chance to explore it at night, under my guise.

After hours in the Conservatory of Flowers with Wicked Plants author Amy Stewart and a giant tarantula. This event was such a success that the Conservatory and I are in meetings to create an ongoing night series together!

When producer/writer/filmmaker Jordan Stratford invited me to perform at Victoria British Columbia’s Craigdarroch Castle as part of his great Victoria Steam Expo, it fulfilled a wish I made when I first visited. This was an ideal location for my “spontaneous musical combustion”– composing works on the spot in front of the audience, manifesting the musical spirit within the location itself. Every place has a story, every object holds music. My job is to be the gatekeeper, and open the portal.

Nothing on Craigdarroch Castle’s official website will tell you it’s haunted. The 1890 treasure is simply hailed “Victoria, British Columbia’s legendary landmark.” It’s when you begin talking to the locals– and even people who work within its lavish walls– that you begin to hear secret tales of its 39 rooms, 87 steps, 4 floors, 18 fireplaces, tower, and tormented past. I wanted to immerse myself within its surrounding and bring it to life.

I encountered a wonderfully strange bond with this antique Steinway in the front parlour. The staff at the castle said this piano never gets played. I spent most of my time at it, it seemed to have the most to say.  Please indulge in the Blog post “Antique Steinway, Haunted Castle and a Long-Lost Love” to hear my account of this Victorian conjuring. (Photo by Maggie Binnie O’Scalleigh)

There were many memorable shows in 2011, including a double bill and collaboration onstage with Tuvan throat singer Soriah. In this photo by John Adams, I’m speaking to the crowd at a moving benefit for friend and fellow performer kSea Flux.

Sacramento Horror Film Festival presented an evening called “The Elegant Dark with Jill Tracy,” where I not only performed a concert, but shared my stories, short films, and Q&A with the audience. I was really inspired by the opportunity to present my various passions and mediums all together, and plan to do more full sensory shows like this.

My provocative “In Between Shades” was featured on Projekt’s compilation  A Dark Cabaret 2. The top-selling first in the series also includes my song “Evil Night Together.”

I was honored to pen the forward for Maria Alexander’s decadent and deadly collection of absinthe-inspired verse At Louche Ends (Burning Effigy Press) recalling my days performing in the then-illegal emerald underworld. NYC artist Katelan Foisy’s gorgeous painting adorns the cover. An intoxicating dose of words and visuals from three powerful women.

NPR’s beloved long-running radio show Hearts of Space devoted an entire program to my music to celebrate the October season. Haunted– a Jill Tracy Conjuration aired on over 200 NPR stations, celebrating my instrumentals, film score work, and haunting, ambient songs. I was astonished and delighted as they rarely devote an entire show to one artist. Thank you Stephen Hill and everyone at HOS! They tell me the show got a tremendous response. Click on the link to hear the archive. It’s Program 961.

“We consider Jill Tracy a Bay Area treasure…like Grafeo coffee, Scharffen Berger chocolates, and fine Napa Cabernets.

As a lyricist and songwriter, Jill Tracy plies the literary currents popularized by Edgar Allen Poe, Bram Stoker, Edward Gorey and other 19th and 20th century storytellers of the netherworld: spinners of tales of the mysterious, the strange, and the macabre.

Her sound begins with an unadorned dark cabaret trio of contrabass, drums and parlor piano; it expands on recordings into the Malcontent Orchestra violin, viola, cello, and low woodwinds, plus guitar, Chapman stick, electric bass, harmonium and the odd sarod. She calls it “post-Classical Noir” and glams, goths and Dark Romantics of all ages love her with a crimson passion.”
NPR’s Hearts of Space

 

Here’s to a magical 2012. I’m glad you’re along for the ride.

 

Jill Tracy

Categories : Uncategorized
Tags : albums, audrey penven, bauhaus, bill domonkos, Conservatory of Flowers, craigdarroch castle, david j, Hearts of Space, lemony snicket, musical seance, NPR, paul mercer, photos, poisoning, san francisco, shadows, Silent Film, spontaneous musical combustion, victoria bc

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