Life after the purple revolution

Press, 4 May 1988, Page 24

Life after the purple revolution

The Prince protegees, Wendy Melvoin and Lisa Coleman, are finding their own feet

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JIM MALONEY

Prince and the Revolution in September, 1986: Lisa Coleman stands behind a curved white keyboard that is sculpted like a checkout counter in ancient Rome; Wendy Melvoin stands by the microphone in a black jacket and sky-high black heels. Her long legs are cross-crossed with wide strips of black ribbon for a giant fishnet effect, and she cradles a gleaming white hollowbodied guitar. There is not a speck of purple in sight ...

The Revolution was the first professional group for both women, but somehow they were ready. As it turned out, Coleman spent almost seven years in Prince’s band, Melvoin just about five. Together they played on, produced, arranged, and wrote for just about every Princely project after the “1999” tour and album in 1983. Their visibility became enormous in the wake of the international fame that swept over the Minneapolis-based aggregation. Through it all, Melvoin and Coleman slowly progressed from the realm of talented team players to the point of firmly establishing their own musical identities. When the two women made the cover of “Rolling Stone” with the violet vampire in April, 1986, it was clear that their role in the most influential rock ’n’ soul sound of the 1980 s amounted to considerably more than that of back-up babes.

Music is in the blood of both Melvoin and Coleman — literally. Their fathers, Mike Melvoin and Gary Coleman, were topdrawer Los Angeles session aces and close friends, so the girls probably shared a playpen long before they dreamed of sharing a stage. When they left the Revolution, they scrapped a pile of already finished tunes in favour of coming up with new material that would take a fresh turn from the Prince sound. They entered Ocean Way Studios in Santa Monica, California, with the former Revolution drummer, Bobby Z, assisting in the writing and production, and emerged with enough material, for the debut album in a matter of weeks. The resulting “Wendy and Lisa” demonstrates that Melvoin and Coleman are no sideshow.

QUESTION. From the sound of the new album, you two have certainly “broken away” in every sense — and opened a few eyes and ears to what you can accomplish outside the Prince camp. Have the two of you always collaborated? WENDY MELVOIN: Well, we’ve known each other since we were

really little and we’ve always played together in our families — you know, the kids would all play music together. But it wasn’t until we were both working with Prince that we took the collaboration seriously. We had been writing lots of songs for Prince and the Revolution. When the band disbanded (in late 1986), we just decided to work together on an album. That period of time — right after the break-up — was very emotional, so it’s a very emotional record. It was really an experiment of sorts, to see just what kind of things we could do.,We’re pretty happy with it for a first record. Q: So how did two young Los Angeles musicians wind up in Minneapolis auditioning for Prince?

LISA COLEMAN: Well, I came

first. He was looking for a keyboard player, and so I just made a tape and sent it to his manager. He loved it, played it for Prince, and he loved it. He sent for me, we met, and I joined the band. It wasn’t until a few years later that Wendy joined. She met Prince through me in about ... (to Wendy), When was the first time? Q: The “Purple Rain” tour? WENDY: I was actually out on the “1999” tour (in 1983), but not formally. It was kind of like my “prep work,” as Prince put it. I did a little bit of vocal work on the “1999” record, but it wasn’t until right after that he found out I played the guitar. It was during a sound-check. His other guitarist wasn’t around, and when he heard I played, he asked me if I’d stand there and play some

guitar with the band while he checked the sound of the arena — and he asked me to join the band.

Q:You both initially began arranging things for the Revolution, then later graduated to writing material that Prince wanted to use. How gradual a process was that? WENDY: Well, during "Purple Rain,” a lot of it started out when he wanted to use the band on the record. Most of the album was recorded live, so it was a matter of getting everybody’s artistic individuality into that record. When we wrote “Purple Rain,” that was the very beginning of the collaboration. The next record, "Around the World in a Day,” was a lot of the three of us sitting down and saying, “let’s write this.”

Q: Was it as tough for you to get your things heard as it was for your characters to get recognised by their bandleader in the “Purple Rain” movie? LISA: (Laughs) Oh, no.

WENDY: No, not at all. He knew exactly what we consisted of — he just called upon those talents. LISA: He asked for it a lot more than we offered it, I think. WENDY: Oh, sure — we talk about it all the time. It’s important to us that people know that we all still talk and everything. Q: Has he offered his opinion on your album? WENDY: Oh, he liked it a lot — especially for a first record. Q: Was there any "Hey, I didn’t know you guys could do that” kind of reaction?

WENDY: Oh no — he knew exactly whhat we were capable of. He expected it to sound pretty much like it turned out sounding. Q: I’d be interested in hearing what musicians influenced you when you were growing up. Lisa, let’s start with you. You’ve said that a lot of your keyboard influences were classical composers — as well as jazz pianists like Keith Jarrett and Bill Evans. What keyboard players really knocked you out? LISA: Well, you definitely said two of them right there. Bill Evans, especially. He is like number one on my list. And Keith Jarrett did a lot for my attitude towards playing. People used to tell me that I sounded like Keith Jarrett before I had even heard Keith Jarrett, so I figured I’d probably like the guy. I just love his method of improvisation — the way he can take you on a trip around the world. His theatrics can be a little overbearing at times. Other than those two, there are quite a few classical pianists I really like. Glenn Gould, of course — I think he plays Bach better that anyone in the world. Arthur Rubinstein. Chopin. I don’t know, I never know what to say about this stuff. I was influenced a lot by Wendy’s father, Mike Melvoin, who I actually had personal hands-on experience with. He has a unique way of fingering chords — doing things like playing two notes with one finger. I’ve been credited with that, but I actually stole it from her father. It seems like he has about seven fingers on each hand!

Q: What about you and the guitar, Wendy? WENDY: Well I grew up being influenced not only by guitarists, but by singers and drummers and brass players, I was influ- x enced by (the alto saxophone innovator) Charlie Parker. As far

as guitarists, thought, I just loved John McLaughlin in the 1970 s with Mahavishnu Orchestra. I loved Wes Montgomery — I thought he was the silkiest guitarist of them all, you know? I loved Jimi Hendrix because the way he bent notes is the coolest, I just loved ’7os soul — I loved the Ohio Players, the Isley Brothers. And of course, they were great for heavy rock ’n’ roll. Led Zeppelin was fabulous, Aerosmith was the coolest rock band in the ’7os, period. Q:Did you deliberately decide to avoid recording for Prince’s Paisley Park label, or did things just happen that way? WENDY: I think that we’re all so much alike in the message we try to get across that it’s cooler if we’re spread out. If we’re influencing people on the CBS label, and not just Paisley Park, it is a bigger thing, you know what I mean? It says more. I think it is a more powerful way to hopefully get people to believe that what we are trying to do is a positive thing. And not just in Minneapolis, but everywhere else, too. Q:Who contributes what elements to what is now the “Wendy and Lisa sound”? LISA: Wendy did write most of the melodies on the record. And I — WENDY: She takes the easel and just throws those keyboard colours’ on it. She is really good at pads — choral pads. You can give her “The Ocean” by Led Zeppelin and have her put some of those colours underneath it, and it will be a totally different thing — a totally different monster.

Q: Are there any immediate plans to put together your own road band on tour? LISA: There were, but things change every day in the music business. So what we plan to do now is put the second album out and then tour behind both albums. Q:The second album’s going to come out that quickly? LISA: Yeah, we are anxious to get it out. It is already been a year since the first one was actually done. We’ve just been doing all the promotion and stuff for it — and enough is enough! (Laughs) We want to get back to work. WENDY: We’re gonna dance a bit more on this next record. I mean, people know that we play and that we’re serious musicians and all of that. I just think it’s important that we have a little more fun this time out. Copyright 1988, Music Connection. Distributed by Los Angeles Times Syndicate.