Steady As She Goes

Having missed out on major label success the first time around – she released two albums, one each on Elecktra and MCA – Los Angeles based singer songwriter Jonatha Brooke looks like finally getting the recognition she deserves. Her independently released third studio album Steady Pull has won acclaim from all quarters for its sophisticated, well-crafted songs and gutsy performance.

Joined by a bevy of heavyweights including ex Crowded House mainman Neil Finn, ace producer Mitchell Froom, former Attraction Pete Thomas and Weather Report keyboardist Joe Sample the album was co-produced by Brooke and legendary studio head Bob Clearmountain

“It’s the first album I’ve made where I’ve had complete artistic control,” she says. “MCA were really behind my first album Plumb and I toured Europe with a full band which was great. But like all big record companies their attention span isn’t that long and something else comes along and you eventually get ignored.”

Falling some somewhere between the melodramatic approach of Alanis Morrisette and the more restrained style of Shawn Colvin, Brooke blends up-tempo full band numbers like ‘Linger’ with quieter, more contemplative songs such as ‘Lullaby’.

“I’ve always covered a range of material,” she says. “I write a lot of acoustic based songs but I like to pump it up a little with the band. It probably reflects my own listening when I was growing up. It was mainly down to whatever my older brothers brought home. It could have been Neil Young and Joni Mitchell one minute but it also could’ve been The Who and Stevie Wonder. All that stuff was competing with my mum who had the Mamas and the Papas on all the time. Later on I got into Rickie Lee Jones and Chaka Khan.”

Brooke originally emerged from the remnants of The Story, a duo she co-founded in 1991 with Jennifer Kimball while both were students at Boston’s Amherst College. After two albums, 1991’s Grace in Gravity and 1993’s Angel in the House, the group dissolved in 1994; Brooke completed their third album, Plumb, as a solo artist, issuing the LP in 1995 under the name Jonatha Brooke and The Story. Her proper solo debut, 10¢ Wings, followed in 1997, and two years later she returned with Live.

As we speak Brooke is preparing for an appearance on The David Letterman Show. Following a recent cover story on Billboard magazine it represents another milestone in her career and she can barely conceal her excitement at the prospect. “I’ve never done it before so this is a very big deal for me,” she explains. “It’s big in terms of the exposure in that it involves coast to coast and all around the world. Now that I’m an independent artist I can’t depend on the record company to set up things like this for me. That’s the beauty of Letterman he’ll actually listen to stuff he likes. He takes it home and makes up his own mind, which is what happened with Steady Pull.”

So is she prepared for the possible superstardom that may well follow?

“I think I can handle anything that’s thrown at me,” she laughs. “It’s been a steady trajectory for me all along. I wasn’t forced into the limelight by anyone. Ironically enough Aimee Mann and I have a very similar thing in terms of our careers. We were both in bands, then went solo, first with a major then independently. Then she got the Grammy nomination for Magnolia which gave her a whole new lease of life. I wrote a song and recorded it for a Disney movie, which is coming out soon. They’re hugely behind it and I’m hoping it’ll break through in the same way.”

Steady Pull is out now on Bad Dog Records