Lowdown: INXS hopefuls' solo CD plans
By KAREN BLISS -- For JAM! Music
There will only be one winner of "Rock Star: INXS," the new reality TV series from Survivor/The Apprentice creator Mark Burnett, which began airing this week in Canada, so what will the four Canadian contestants -- Tara Slone, J.D. Fortune, Suzie McNeil, and Deanne Johnston -- do if they are eliminated?
On the opening show (Monday, July 11), McNeil was almost sent home for forgetting the lyrics to a song and Fortune for grabbing his crotch and other overly enthusiastic gestures. Slone and Johnston weren't red flagged, but each week one of the 15 competitors from around the world will be told to leave the beautiful mansion in the Hollywood Hills.
For the following 13 weeks (airing three nights, Monday to Wednesday), INXS (Andrew, Tim and Jon Farriss, Kirk Pengilly and Garry Beers) and co-host Dave Navarro (Jane's Addiction, Red Hot Chili Peppers) will assess each singer's voice, stage presence, character and fit in an effort to find a replacement for the late, great frontman Michael Hutchence, who died in 1997. Mark Burnett Productions held open and referral auditions in 22 cities over six continents earlier this year and also accepted video submissions.
The band members are already recording the new album for Epic/Sony BMG and will simply bring the new singer in to lay down his or her part. John Kalodner (Aerosmith, Jimmy Page) will serve as A&R consultant. The disc, INXS' first studio recording since Hutchence's death, is due later this year and will be backed by a world tour. Over the past six years, the band has worked with a series of guest vocalists, including Terence Trent D'Arby, Jon Stevens, and Baby Animals' Suze DeMarchi, but never put out a commercial release with any of them.
All four Canadians in the running have original solo projects they are hoping to get off the ground should they not win the INXS competition. Millions of people will be watching the show and it will hopefully open the door to numerous opportunities to the "rejects," although the contract the contestants signed reportedly gives Mark Burnett Productions the option to continue to work with them post-show.
But as all the Canadian contestants agree, this is the chance of a lifetime.
Slone, 31, is the best known of the four, having fronted the rock band Joydrop, which released two albums for Tommy Boy/BMG, 1998's "Metasexual" (containing the hit "Beautiful") and 2001's "Vibrate." The Montreal-born, Halifax-raised singer and actress (Foolproof, La Femme Nikita, John Woo's Once A Thief, The Newsroom) has a solo album in the can that was produced in 2004 with Blinker The Star's Jordan Zadorozny, who has also written with Hole.
She had parted ways with Toronto-based Venus Management (Esthero, Robin Black, Skye Sweetnam), which was also going to put out the album through its label, and lawyer Jordan Jacobs was re-shopping it to labels when the INXS show op came along.
"I was playing with my band and trying to figure out the best way to get that CD out," says Slone. "Then I got an email from a Joydrop fan ("Kris" in New York), whose absolute favorite band is INXS, and she said, 'You gotta do this.' I was away, and, of her own volition, she sent a package of Joydrop stuff to the management and they called me.
"It definitely gave me pause for thought," Slone adds. "The opportunity to be the lead singer of INXS is so weirdly unexpected. I had some hesitation about doing it in the form of a reality show and I had questions about stalling my album yet again, but the people involved are so committed and it just seemed like a really good opportunity and I'd love to win (laughs)."
If she doesn't, however, Slone acknowledges that this just might be the exposure she needs to get her solo album out. "Yeah, I'd like this to give the CD life. If I don't win, I certainly believe in the music that I've written that's on the CD, so I'd love for it to have as great an audience as possible."
Born and raised in Toronto, 28-year-old McNeil had been touring all over North America as part of an ABBA tribute act, in addition to fronting pop/rock band Fourstar after the drummer/songwriter won 2003's Mix 99.9 National Songwriting Competition and needed a singer to translate the songs live. McNeil also sang with her boyfriend's band, Jackrabbit, and has performed with everyone from Ronnie Hawkins and Garth Hudson to Alan Frew and The Tea Party's Jeff Martin.
McNeil had just left Fourstar when this LOWDOWN columnist (who originally got her the gig in Fourstar) recommended her for the INXS referral day of auditions. Needing to be out of town with ABBA Mania the next day, she skipped to the front of the line on the open-call day and did her bluesy-rock thing.
She too was working on a solo album at the time with her boyfriend, Sean Cotton. "I always wanted to do that, even while I was in Fourstar," says McNeil. "I was totally mentally ready to do it, just writing my own songs and co-writing. I feel like I've sung a lot of people's songs in my career and I was at the age to just be ready to spill my own guts, no matter what they were."
McNeil has demoed seven songs, to date, which she describes as "Sheryl Crow meets Pink Floyd," not bluesy at all. "It was ending up being a really mellow album which I liked," she says. "I'll do it eventually. I don't know if it will have any commercial value, but I was tired of trying to chase it and I just wanted to do something that I would really enjoy."
If she doesn't win, McNeil says, "My hope is to get more contacts. Obviously, my hope is to use that as a springboard to continue what I've already been doing, have more recognition, however, I don't know if that's going to happen because a lot of times big companies like this have plans (laughs), not even if we win. They have options to pursue careers with us any way they want to, if they see fit.
"I've never had my future be so uncertain as this," she adds. "It could be nothing. I could come back and lead the same life or it could be huge. A lot of it, obviously, depends on how long before I get eliminated, how long I can hang in there."
Windsor, Ont. born, Los Angeles-based Johnston never pursued an original music career in Canada, even though she released one indie recording almost a full decade ago. While the 36-year-old has been working on her own material, she has primarily eked out a living in top 40 cover bands. She started performed at age 22 in two acts, 1-900 and Segue, neither of which did originals.
She then toured Canada for two years with a Cleveland, OH-based "theatre show" band called Mask, in which she would dress up like the artists she covered (ie. Cher, Tina Turner). That band morphed into Lois Lane, which settled in Vancouver for the next six years, and was booked for corporate and top 40 work by Rob Pattee of S.L. Feldman & Associates. As Mary Magdalene, the same line-up recorded one self-titled original album in 1996, for which Johnson co-wrote all the "hard blues rock" songs with her guitar player.
"We didn't do anything right," she says. "We didn't really shop it correctly. I had never written a song before so we were all green, so it didn't really go anywhere. Our friends and family loved it (laughs). We sold about 2000 to 3000 copies off stage."
After a three-month stint with Lois Lane in Hawaii, Johnston met James Belushi though a cousin of hers and was invited onstage to sing with him and Glen Clark (Bonnie Raitt, Kris Kristofferson). That led her to L.A. in 1999 to work with Clark on a four-song demo, which heavily leaned in a Raitt direction. "Just going down there and recording there opened my eyes to wanting to leave Vancouver because the scene was drying up," she says. Johnston then packed up her Honda and relocated to the States permanently.
Since then she's been gigging with a nine-piece corporate cover band called The MVPs and also plays with an all-girl Ozzy Osbourne tribute called Little Dolls. She says it wasn't fear which prevented her from pursuing an original career. "No, I think I was smart," Johnson says. "The dream of making it is realistically very hard to do, but I love to sing and I didn't want to be emotionally squashed by the fact that I probably won't make it, so I'll stop signing and get a day job. So I decided that I could make a lot of money off singing other (people's) music, and that's why I did that."
Her bass player in The MVPs, Derek Frank, told her about the INXS auditions when he went out for the house band gig on the show (he didn't get it). Johnson, who plays keyboards and guitar just well enough to aid in her writing, has amassed between 30 to 50 original songs over the years, not all of them demoed. She says the material is all over the place, but just this year she has "finally figured out that I am a power rock/blues singer -- and that's what I'm going to do."
If Johnston doesn't land the INXS lead singer position, she says she always has The MVPs and Little Dolls. "I can definitely go back to that, but I'm definitely hoping for opportunities to present themselves as an original artist. Most of the reasons artists don't make it is they don't have money to properly record, so to get some backing and have an opportunity to record and ultimatley get signed is what I'n hoping for with this competition."
Fortune, 31, who went by Jason Fortune and Jason Dean in Toronto (there is another performer by the name of Jason Fortune in the U.S., hence the new "J.D" monicker), believes that this INXS job is his destiny. He is an avid INXS fan and once had a dream that he would replace Hutchence. He was in the middle of pursuing the next round of his solo career when he auditioned for the show.
"Had this not come along, I was rehearsing an eight-piece band to start a demo with (Toronto studio owner) Brian Moncarz," says Fortune, who has nine songs, none of which are demoed. "I would descirbe it as funky dance rock. It's got a groove, but it's not cheesy."
Fortune, who was born in Mississauga, Ont. and raised in Nova Scotia, returned to Toronto in 1989. The first demo he made was at age 14 with Ken Greer of Red Rider fame. Some years later, he went to producer Justin Gray's house and sang for him (Gray has since written for Joss Stone). That led to a management deal with Venus (Beau Randall and Zack Werner, the same team which later took on Slone). Fortune, who then went by Dean, by all accounts did come close to landing a recording contract, but it fell through. He next briefly fronted a rock act called Juice, which had a deal with BMG Music Publishing Canada. To pay the rent, Fortune also performed an Elvis Presley tribute.
More recently, Fortune was down on his luck and, not wanting to impose on friends or family, voluntarily opted to be homeless and live out of his car. He would park under a bridge near Cherry Street and Lakeshore Blvd. East, which is where he says he wrote his best material.
Fortune calls the INXS show "the superbowl of my career," and if he doesn't win says he has no expectations for what kind of offers might come his way as a result of being a constestant. "I have no expectations going into this. I do of myself, but not of my career afterwards. I hope that I'm able to make a living making music for the rest of my life."
"Rock Star: INXS" will air three times a week on CH Hamilton, CH Vancouver Island, CH Montreal and on Global in Halifax -- Mondays at 9:30 p.m. (EST) is the half-hour home-life episode; Tuesdays at 10p.m. is the one-hour performance episode, and Wednesdays at 9:30pm is the half-hour results show.
