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Archive for mystery

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

Jill Tracy’s “Parlour of Spirits:” Secrets hidden within San Francisco’s magnificent 1909 Masonic Lodge

By jilltracy
Tuesday, January 14th, 2014

JillTracy_haunted

For over a decade, it has been my great honor and adventure to be your “Belle of the Ball.” The glam Gorey weekend has become San Francisco’s beloved and elaborate January tradition. For Edwardian Ball 2014, I make a triumphant return to one of my favorite locales of all time—you may know it without realizing— It’s the grand red room immortalized in my music video “Haunted By the Thought of You.” But best of all— for the VERY FIRST TIME, I’m inviting the audience to the THIRD FLOOR…transforming the historical Masonic Lodge into The Parlour of Spirits! The Freemasons held their secret ceremonies and rituals in this very room, now it’s our turn to conjure some magic together.

Join me Saturday night Jan 18 at 9:30pm with special guest Spirits: Drummer Randy Odell, Bassist Kenny Annis, vionlinist/theremin player Meredith Yayanos (The Parlour Trick) plus exclusive spectres and spectacles by Shadow Circus Productions!

I wanted to let you in on a few secrets I learned about this strange and enchanting Masonic Lodge...

When I chose a location for “Haunted by the Thought of You,”  I wanted a space that had a haunted past, replete with a secret history, symbology and magnificent architecture, so I could really make the song come to life. This was before the Edwardian Ball regularly used the Lodge Level, so I had only been in the room a couple of times…always alone…always quiet, it seemed to beckon me with its vastness… its hidden tales.

first_meeting

My first meeting in the Lodge with music video director Terran Schackor.
 

From it’s inception, California was a haven for Freemasons. Many of the states pioneers— Fremont, Stevenson, O’Farrell and Montgomery were Masons. The Regency Center (at the corner of Van Ness and Sutter) was built in 1906 by and for the Scottish Rite Masons. It had nothing to do with the Regency Hotel. The building is historic, grand, full of strange crawlspaces and mysterious tiny rooms. Transported by a century-old gilded elevator, the third floor Lodge is its gem —with velvet red walls, dark mahogany woodwork, 30 foot-high vaulted ceilings dripping with art nouveau chandeliers., and a grand stage shrouded by an spectacularly tasseled curtain. A giant pipe organ lurks at one end, a stage with 32 vintage backdrops corresponding to the Masonic levels at the other. Secret passageways and trap doors hide amongst the woodwork.

Everywhere I looked was a perfect shot. Perfect colors. Intoxicating. I got chills.

4_doors

Four mysterious doors lurk backstage. Choose your Destiny? (We used them in the video)

Back in a secret room by the 1909 Austin pipe organ, is the fabled trapdoor, in which inductees were blindfolded & then lowered down to perform their induction rites.  There are secret passageways to the organ loft, where “trust rituals” took place. Legend has it a rope went around a would-be mason’s neck and he jumped through the trapdoor trusting that his cloaked brothers would catch him in time. But did they all make it?

High above the ornate theatre stage is a catwalk that provides access to old rope pulleys that raise and lower 32 lavish hand-painted backdrops. Painted in the 1920s, the backdrops are huge, priceless objects of art that depict scenes that dramatized the Mason’s secret rituals. Backstage I could see old penciled notations, now barely legible, posted on the walls.

3D_panels copy

Inside the 3D Hades backdrop in bright light. You can see the delicate gridwork that holds them together.  These were painted in the 1920s.

The 32 settings depict everything from ancient Rome, Egypt, to Medieval Europe, pastoral scenes, forests, and decorative columns. Naturally for the “Haunted by the Thought of You” video, I chose the Hades backdrop with its strange crimson imps, devils, fantastical winged creatures and sinister caverns. Ahhh, the torment of obsession and longing is hellish indeed.

creating the set

Setting the Hades backdrop and lighting the scene.

lighting

At last. Hades in proper lighting. The stage is set! Note the gorgeous red velvet curtains and chandeliers.

The Freemasons use of this theatre and elaborate backdrops were to perform one-act teaching plays called Degrees of the Scottish Rite. They were often staged with costume, special effects, and the full rigging of any professional production. Their purpose was to examine different philosophies, ancient religions, and systems of ethics— honoring theatre as one of the principal means of instruction throughout history.
 

In_Hades

Me immersed in perfectly lit Hades. Magnificent.

camera

Cinematographer Mike Duffy captures me amidst the great mahogany walls and 30-foot vaulted ceiling.

There is Masonic symbolism all through the building—and all through the city of San Francisco. There are controversial theories that Market, Van Ness, Columbus and Montgomery were actually designed as a unique talisman— an alignment creating a Masonic Pyramid incorporated into the city’s grid at the earliest days of its history and appears to have been marked periodically with the construction of additional symbolic and related buildings in relationship to Masonic numerology.

Freemasons revere the numbers 3, 11, 13, 33 among others. You will find countless examples of it not only in the Lodge, but in the city of San Francisco.  In honor of this numerical magic, (and my OWN obsession with the number 3) the clock in the “Haunted by the Thought of You” music video spins and stops on 3:33. (Thanks to the brilliant special FX of Dave from Shadow Circus Productions.)  You’ll find other hidden numerical references within the video as well.

Not surprisingly, the Masonic Center stands at 1111 California Street. The rampant symbolism is fascinating and merits a complete blog in itself— I recommend reading Stephen Vincent O’Rourke’s “San Francisco Pyramid Saga.” You’ll never look at San Francisco the same way again.

hiddenstair

 Of course the Masonic Lodge would be on the magical 3rd floor.  But during location scouting, I discovered a secret: There is an unused and little-known 4th floor in the building!! What’s up there? My imagination soars.

shooting_closeups

Inches away from the camera, shooting close-ups for Haunted by the Thought of You

I’d like to note that the heyday of this 1909 Masonic Lodge coincides the with peak era in the spiritualism movement. It was certainly a time of believing in magic, mystery, ghosts, and otherworldly communication. A time of wonderment and marvel— that is sadly lacking today. One of the best things about The Edwardian Ball is the ability to reclaim that spirit—The Ball remains a brave testament to authenticity––being anything you wish to be,  honoring your passions brazenly and unapologetically.

During the “Haunted by the Thought of You” music video shoot, I spent many hours in this enchanted place. I know I forever left a little piece of myself in that room, eternally pirouetting on red carpets in a tattered white gown among the imps and spirits. I can’t wait to return to its quiet realm of secrets. But this time I’ll be waiting for YOU…

Jill Tracy  xox

 

all photos by bleedingvisuals

“Haunted by the Thought of You is on the Jill Tracy album The Bittersweet Constrain.

Visit Jill Tracy’s official website HERE.

Get your tickets for The Edwardian Ball!

Categories : Concerts, History, Memoir, Photography, Uncategorized
Tags : Edward Gorey, Edwardian Ball, Freemasons, haunted, history, Jill Tracy, magic, Masonic Lodge, music video, mystery, numerology, photos, san francisco, Seance, spiritualism

JILL TRACY Interview in Nocturne Magazine: “On Mystery, Music, and the Mütter Museum”

By jilltracy
Saturday, March 16th, 2013

 

NOTE: This interview was originally printed as a beautiful 6-page spread in New Zealand’s Nocturne Magazine, Issue #5. We are proud to present it online for you here!


JILL TRACY: On Mystery, Music, and the Mütter Museum

by Fiona McKechnie (for Nocturne Magazine, New Zealand)
photo by Audrey Penven

 

Jill Tracy is a conjuror of the enigmatic; a purveyor of the extraordinary and raconteur of dark delights. She weaves her web with delicate soundscapes, seducing us into her parlour with eerie tales, which are sinister, yet captivatingly sweet. A singer, songwriter, composer, performer and all-around creative wonder, Jill has her delicate fingers in many delicious pies!

We found Jill tangled amongst a fury of live performances, recordings and music channeling: freeing herself for a moment to talk with us about some of the many projects she is currently immersed in.

 

Your music conjures such strong impressions of the past, each taking the listener back to a different by-gone era. What do you think it is about the past that is so seductive?

Jill Tracy: My music doesn’t evoke the Past so much as it does a sense of pure Timelessness. Transcendent of Time. That’s what makes it seductive; creating that place––familiar yet oddly intriguing. It resonates on a soulful level, but still maintains an air of the mysterious. 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.

I’m honored to be this gatekeeper of emotions. Throughout my life, I’ve simply followed my own muses. I’ve always just composed the score I hear inside my head. Music from the mind’s eye… To listen to my music is to know me.

I have always been drawn to fantastical, otherworldly imagery. Worlds sans-time. As a child, I was obsessed with Alfred Hitchcock, Bernard Herrmann, Ray Bradbury, Rod Serling, Jean Cocteau. I just wanted to live in those worlds. I still do.
So I did the next best thing: I devoted my life to creating my own musical netherworld.


photo by bleedingvisuals

You’ve performed a number of ‘Musical Séances,’ with violinist Paul Mercer, over the years. At these events attendees bring along objects, trinkets, belongings that remind them of loved ones and you ‘channel’ live music using these possessions. What is it like to speak with the dead through music?

JT: Paul and I never approach it that way. It would be outrageous and in bad taste to claim we are “speaking to the dead through music.” If anything, it’s about honoring the dead, not mocking them, or selling hokum like sideshow hucksters.

The “Musical Séance” is a collective summoning inspired by beloved objects. Quite frankly, it’s more about the present than the past, music channeled from that fragile moment captured among the living. From sentiment to sadness, frivolity and fear. It’s musical psychometry.

Audience members are asked to bring tokens of special significance, such as a photo, talisman, jewelry, toy. This is a very crucial part of manifesting the music. Every object holds its story, its spirit. Energy, resonance, impressions from anyone who has ever held the object, to the experiences and emotions passed through it.

Often, these curiosities themselves are just as compelling as the music they inspire. We’ve encountered everything from cremated cats, dentures, haunted paintings, 16th century swords, antlers, and x-rays.

But one thing I’ve learned is––everyone in the world has a story to tell that will break your heart.

Objects brought to A Musical Seance (photo by Neil Girling theblight.net)

How did this process of channeling music evolve?

JT: My music and live performances have always been so emotionally driven to begin with– I would see people sometimes crying in the front row, or they’d come up to me after a set relating how a particular song got them through a rough time, or helped them find their true path, etc. I’ve realized I’ve become a beacon for so many kindred souls. And that’s very important to me. That genuine direct connection with an audience is such a rarity these days—in a world where entertainment has become vacuous and superficial. We are about as real as it gets.

I wanted the audience to become even more a part of my process, and actually compose pieces in front of them, culled from their energy. It’s a perfect circle. The audience gives to me, and I channel it musically and give it right back, creating a piece that will exist solely for us in those few minutes. It’s the most powerful thing I’ve ever experienced. A musical umbilical cord.

That led me to immersing myself in unusual locations laden with mysterious history, and manifesting music from my reaction to the environment. The intense purity and immediacy is so exciting. You are hearing my raw response at the piano. I call it “spontaneous musical combustion” (as homage to “spontaneous human combustion,” and my affinity for peculiar history and science tales.)
I’ve found myself conjuring the hidden score inside haunted castles, abandoned asylums, decrepit mansions, gardens, and theaters. It’s definitely one of my greatest pleasures right now.

The lovely and difficult thing about this work is that I can’t prepare for it, as I never know what to expect. I must allow myself to be completely vulnerable; simply feel, and react. It’s not about me anymore; it’s about the music, the story. It becomes so much bigger than any of us. That’s the beauty of it.


photo by Audrey Penven

It seems appropriate that you hold these musical séances when your music is so often described as being ‘haunting’ and ‘otherworldly’. Perhaps you are a bit of an apparition yourself?

JT: (laughs) Jello Biafra is quoted as saying “Drop dead original and dark as a drowning pool…I sometimes wonder if Jill Tracy is actually a ghost.”

I’ve been described as a musical sorceress, evocateur, intrigante, woman of mystery, ‘dark Queen of Melancholia,’ ‘femme fatale for the thinking man.’ All of these descriptives I adore. I guess when you feel out-of-sorts with the world, you must create your own.

From spiritualism to alchemy – what fine potions have you been working on by which to enchant us through another of the senses?

JT: I engage such a full-sensory arc in my work. I’ve always wanted to create fragrances to correspond to the music, similar to the way we concoct visuals with each album. Why not engage the olfactory? The sense of smell is directly linked to the limbic system, the part of the brain where emotion and memory are centered!

I’m collaborating with master perfumist Emerson Hart of Nocturne Alchemy. We’ve released two scents: Silver Smoke and Star of Night. I’m addicted to them already and have been wearing them constantly. More to come!

It’s been so exciting and fulfilling to smell these fragrances on different skins, everyone brings their signature to the scent and it changes person-to-person.
Night fragrance for Night music…


photo by Jeremy Carr

You’re currently in the middle of a new project with the Mütter Museum, where you have been invited to create compositions inspired by their collection of medical oddities. How did this come about?

JT: Yes, I’m honored to make history as the first musician to be awarded a grant, which is enabling me to compose music inside the Mütter Museum, a series of compositions directly inspired by pieces in the collection. It was vital for me to be in the presence of these long-lost souls, as I composed and recorded. I needed to immerse myself in their world. There is so much lurking here. This glorious synergy– the collection of souls together from various time periods and walks of life, most who endured extreme and rare medical conditions. I needed to be with them as I composed and make them a real part of the creation. This is my gift to them.

What inspired you to want to compose with the museum as a backdrop?

JT: The Mütter Museum has always been on of my favorite places on earth. When I first visited, I remember vividly standing on the red-carpeted steps leading down to the lower level and hearing the buzz. It was overwhelming. All these people, all these stories, together—yet apart, remembered—yet forgotten. I was swept in a whirlwind of feelings: admiration, pity, fright, shock, respect, repulsion, sadness. I just wanted to sit and listen, to hear their tales, to know them.

As you explore the Hyrtl Skull Collection, for example: Each has a brief story written in meticulous cursive on the side of the skull: Suicide by gunshot wound of the heart because of “weariness of life.” Lovesick teenager, a soldier, a shoemaker, well-known murderer, a tightrope walker who died of a broken neck, a hanged man, and a famous Viennese prostitute. All this life and death shared together in one glass case. It’s phenomenal.

There is such a brave beauty in these souls who had to endure these afflictions. I want to bring them to life through my music—peel away the clinical guise, dwell deeper, find the voices hiding within these walls.

All of my work will be factual. I’m in the throes of extensive research at the museum, even utilizing excerpts from letters and doctors’ records. My goal is to evoke the spirit, set a mood that transports you inside just by listening.


(Hyrtl Skulls, photo courtesy of Concierge.com Philadelphia)

What experiences have you had so far while working within the Mütter Museum?
What is it like to create music in a setting that is normally very sterile and diagnostic?

JT: Well, for many, the study of science and disease is viewed as quite dry and clinical. There exists a strong disconnect with the examination of the disease itself and the dear souls who had to endure these afflictions. The personal saga of these brave patients is not often well documented, nor discussed. I remember as a child being obsessed with old medical textbooks and tomes, and upset that I could never find out more about the people in these books, but merely the disease.

But the Mütter is a different experience. It is indeed a medical teaching museum. But, Dr. Mütter’s entire point for starting the museum was to teach empathy and compassion. There lies in that a tremendous sense of marvel for me.

I want to honor the emotional side, the human experience from the Mutter’s collection. You may read about Harry Eastlack, the ossified man, whose rare disease (FOP) caused his entire body to slowly transform into bone. Young, handsome, vibrant– painstakingly trapped beneath a second skeletal cage. In the end, he could only move his lips. What was he like? How did he cope? What was his day-to-day experience? It’s unfathomable to me. I was thrilled to be able to read through Harry’s private files in the Mütter collection, letters, photos, extensive doctors’ records.

I composed and recorded the work “Bone by Bone” as I sat next to Harry’s famed skeleton. I needed him with me, to truly be part of the song, and not just the subject matter.


(Harry Eastlack’s skeleton, courtesy College of Physicians, Philadelphia)

One of the most moving pieces I’m creating is entitled “My First and Last Time Alone,” about conjoined brothers Chang and Eng Bunker. Most of us know them as the original Siamese Twins, gloriously renowned performers who toured the world (even appeared before presidents and Queen Victoria)—married sisters, fathered 21 children, and employed the use of a “privacy sheet.” But after doing extensive research, I was completely devastated when I read how they died. The song is about that heartbreaking 3-hour period on a cold January night.

I was with Chang and Eng’s actual death cast, and their conjoined liver as I composed the piece. This was one of the most compelling experiences I’ve ever had. Abiding by the twins’ wishes, the liver was never separated, even after death.

How does the musical ‘channelling’ differ from the process you go through when composing (for example, the score for F.W. Murnau’s Nosferatu) and/or writing the songs for your previous albums?

JT: It’s completely the opposite. In the case of film scoring, visuals dictate the music. I’m hanging on the visual, emotional cues–serving them. Channeling music is like jumping off a cliff. I’m not even conscious of it. It’s a visceral reaction to an energy, a sensation.
When I was scoring Nosferatu, I spent so much time in Murnau’s eerie world that the imagery would seep into the present. I remember vividly crossing a busy San Francisco street, looking down and suddenly seeing rats scurrying everywhere in a grainy, chiaroscuro haze.
When writing songs for my own albums, I get to take the reins. That process is much more personal.


(Jill Tracy performing her score to Nosferatu. photo by Jon Bradford)

Is there a famous figure from history you would like to try to connect with through one of their belongings? Anyone you would like to bring forth in a musical séance for your own pleasure?

JT: Wow, what a fantastic question! I can think of so many great ones: Count St. Germain’s velvet cloaks, Nikola Tesla and his beloved white pigeon, Rod Serling- via his Night Gallery paintings. I’d give anything to sit behind John Bonham’s drum kit, or play Richard Wright’s (Pink Floyd) piano.

Have you always been interested in history and its secrets?

JT: For me it was more about the unknown rather than just history stories. I loved asking certain questions and realizing no adult knew the answer. I learned there was a much deeper level that no one seemed to be able or brave enough to tap into.
I was given the book The Mysterious World when I was a child and when I first opened it, there was a picture of spontaneous human combustion. I had never heard of such a thing in my life. There’s that wonderful old photograph of Dr. John Irving Bentley who suddenly burst into flame. There’s a bit of his leg, with his foot still in a slipper, his walker, and cinders everywhere. And I’d read about toads and frogs and blood raining from the sky. Or Count Saint Germain, who was recorded to have lived for hundreds of years. He said his secret to immortality was to eat oatmeal and wear velvet encrusted with gemstones. To this day, no one knows exactly who he was, where he came from and if indeed he was immortal.
Monsters, marvels, lore, and legend—these are the things that make us feel most alive. The most wonderful questions of all are the ones for which there are no answers.


photo by Audrey Penven

At Nocturne Magazine, we ask our readers to suspend disbelief and become curious again. Is this also your hope for the future, that people allow themselves to be seduced by the mystery of life?

JT: Yes, I live to honor the mystery. I need to be a beacon for people, and allow them into the swampy place in their souls where the sinister and sensual meet. Peel away the layers of comfort and convention we hide behind. I find it fascinating to delve into those places and take an audience with me. Allow people to slip into the cracks, pry up the floorboards and search deeply. Believe. Imagine. It’s so important to hold on to that childlike sense of marvel.
Sometimes I feel that magic and the suspension of disbelief is the only thing that matters.

Categories : History, Interviews, Memoir, New Music, Photography, Projects, Uncategorized
Tags : audrey penven, Chang and Eng, clairaudient, claireaudience, film score, Harry Eastlack, Jill Tracy, medical oddities, musical psychometry, musical seance, Mutter Museum, mystery, nocturne alchemy, nosferatu, paul mercer, perfume, photos, Seance, Silent Film, spontaneous musical combustion

In Lace Shadows

By jilltracy
Monday, October 3rd, 2011


The Late Night Tale of my Wondrous Photoshoot with Audrey Penven

Over afternoon tea, photographer Audrey Penven and I confessed we were obsessed with staircases. Claustrophobic and caged, these transitional spaces are disconnected from the spaces they connect. Designed for the shape of human movement, they contain many small levels, each leading to the next moment. Vital in the journey, but most often disregarded.

I always felt like doorways and staircases held the most secrets. The immediacy of emotion carried from one place to another. It’s never the destination: No one stays too long.

As a child, I remember a tiny doorway guarding a large black void under stairs descending to the basement. My father referred to it as the “crawlspace.” There was nothing in there, no one ever went in there. I was terrified of it, almost to a point of reverence.

Audrey and I began searching for the perfect location. But that was just it, we wanted to shoot in darkness–so that meant we had to find an empty staircase, inside, elegant, with no foot traffic–that was ornate with ironwork, but no patterns on the walls or steps. No small task.

We wanted to play with shadow. I mentioned to Audrey that 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. She wasn’t sure exactly how this would be done– so I’m honored to say that Audrey and Mike Estee actually invented a projection device for this very photo shoot. You can read about its last minute creation in detail on Mike’s blog, and Audrey discusses the challenges of the process on her site. I love the fact that a new invention exists because of this project!

We got a lead on a staircase that sounded ideal–in a well known downtown San Francisco office building. We’d have to sneak in late at night though, black out the ugly florescent lights in the stairwell, and make sure no one sees us… This entire series of portraits with intricate projection experiments was created stealth, with next to no prep time, and in only a couple of hours.

That’s why I am even more thrilled with these portraits and want to share the backstory. These are some of the most captivating shots I can recall, and there was no crew, professional sets, or elaborate lighting fixtures. All were created by Audrey alone, adjusting one tiny light source again and again, in the wee hours, hiding in a third floor office stairwell, hoping no one would walk through!
Maybe that’s why they evoke such suspense…

Due to the fragility of the lace “slides” and the heat of the bulb, the lace could not be constantly projected on the walls behind me, so neither of us knew where the lace fell until we looked at the shots. It’s not Photoshop, this is what happened live. Trial and error. That’s why it made it all the more special to see these beautiful results. We literally had no idea.

As you have seen, one of the shots has even become the landing page for the new website. It’s the perfect portal. Behind the bars– am I keeping you out? Am I the one trapped within? Do you dare enter my world? There is such mysterious tension and allure with this photo. It beckons, yet…

Many thanks to Eli Rosseter and Aaron Muszalski for being our assistants and guardian angels.

There are many more lovely shots. View the entire collection of In Lace Shadows HERE.

JT

Categories : Photography, Projects, Web Site
Tags : audrey penven, mystery, photos, projection, shadows, staircases

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