My other role as “interesting writer” has suffered as of late due to more pressing matter of promoting my new album. So here are some interesting thoughts.
The Electric Grandmother started off as a solo project in December 1999. I created several cassettes worth of songs over the span of 4 years, and I gave these cassettes album titles. My then-girlfriend Mary Alice helped me package these cassettes in crudely made xerox’ed sleeves, and for that I thanked her in the liner notes. Between 2003 and 2004, I created three CD-R albums worth of songs, which were also packaged by Mary Alice, who became my wife in 2004.
In the summer of 2004, I was asked to perform live as The Electric Grandmother, something I had never intended to do. Mary Alice and I quickly brainstormed the possibilities of an EG performance, and concocted a scheme that included my music, my vocals, visual projection, disco lights, and a bubble machine. So it came to pass on a chilly June night in Cleveland, the Electric Grandmother live performance was born.
The visual projection started off as just a distraction to my on stage rantings and ravings. We purchased an old slide projector which Mary Alice operated by hand – literally. She manually turned the slide tray, as the buttons on the projector were broken. We didn’t have a lot of money, so we were only able to create 3 or 4 finished slides to project for every song performed. As this point in time, Mary Alice’s participation appeared minimal, despite her help in hauling equipment and traveling to shows. Bottom line, it was my music and my show, and that’s all that we were used to knowing.
Over the next couple of years, The Electric Grandmother began to gather an audience, and we began to be able to cover some expenses. We were able to purchase an LCD projector in the summer of 2006, which offered endless projection possibilities for the live shows, with no limit on “images per song.” Despite Mary Alice’s increased participation in this regard, she was rarely recognized projecting from the front of the stage. After performances, audience members would often compliment me on the live projection. I would tell them that it was all Mary Alice, but it would usually go ignored. After all, me and the images were all they would see. Knowing that my wife’s participation and devotion to the project was not being recognized made me sad, but neither of us knew what to do about it. It was all we knew for so many years – EG the solo project.
From 2007-2009, I put in a greater effort to make sure that Mary Alice was recognized for her efforts. I started referring to her on stage as a member of the band, despite her being off stage and occasionally unnoticed. Following the release of my first “pressed” album in 2007, her projection got more complex and not as easily emulated by the occasional friend/road gig “stand in.” (Mary Alice is the anti-road dog). It was clear that her role in The Electric Grandmother, the live band, was now of immeasurable and irreplaceable importance.
Fast forward to 2010. I have a new album, and we have a new set up (which some of you have already seen) where we’re both on stage. This set up was invented out of logistics, due to our now wanting to project behind the stage, as opposed to the side. We’re both loving the new set up, despite Mary Alice’s nervousness at being in front of people. I’ve made a concerted effort to promote The Electric Grandmother as a band, and no longer as a solo project. We’ve additionally come to an agreement about when to take the show on the road, which will assure that Mary Alice will always be a participant. I hope now to effectively display to the world what The Electric Grandmother has always been. A duo.
