Photo Courtesy of Mercury Records
Alisha's Attic - 2000
L to R: Sisters Karen & Shellie Poole
Alisha's Attic
Like a Roman in Your Heart
Photo Courtesy of Mercury Records
Alisha's Attic - 2000
L to R: Sisters Karen & Shellie Poole
First of all, I like Alisha's Attic. They create interesting and literate pop music. Their first CD came out in November of 1996, but failed to attract much attention here in America (probably related to the frightening over-marketing of the Spice Girls that same year). That debut, entitled ALISHA RULES THE WORLD, passed quickly into out-of-print status here and two subsequent albums weren't released in the US at all. But this sister act isn't just something else from the spice rack.
These days the musical universe is populated with so many pretty, marketable faces singing pretty, marketable pop songs - girl groups and boy groups that are obvious window dressing for mega-slick production teams and professional studio musicians. The music produced by such bands is often just corporate radio fodder - artistically void and pretentious ear candy with a flavorless version of soul. Ah, but you rightly suspect that I would never waste precious Arial computer font writing about Alisha's Attic if they were such an act...
Alisha's Attic is truly a refreshing musical experience, one which I recommend without reservation. Karen and Shellie Poole, the two sisters who comprise Alisha's Attic, not only write their own songs, they actually play musical instruments, too. There is a polished commercial production here to be sure, but Alisha's Attic is much more than some twisted British revenge in response to our precocious American boy bands. This music is quirky and unpredictable fun that is a little difficult to categorize, but I will say that it will remind you of why you love folk-tinged Brit-pop girl-group influenced music in the first place.
Sisters Karen and Shellie Poole hail from the East London Borough of Barking and Dagenham. This makes them Essex girls, a source of pride for them despite all of the silly and demeaning jokes, equivalent to blonde jokes in the US. Their mother was once a ballerina. Their father is Brian Poole, who enjoyed a measure of fame with the popular British band The Tremolos back in the '60s. The band was extremely successful in their native England, and to a lesser degree, here in the US as well. Brian left the band in 1965 to pursue a solo career, but wound up working a job as a butcher in order to support his family. His girls Karen and Shellie made their singing debuts as little girls in the local church choir, where they sang into their teens.
In the late '80s, their parents moved to the English countryside. Bored with the thought of a pastoral life, Karen and Shellie returned to live in East London. Karen was 17 and Shellie 16 (Karen is the oldest by 14 months), and in order to pay the rent began singing and playing songs in pubs and clubs on weekends. They kept "normal" jobs during the week, including working in a toy shop and a nursery school. They continued to gain professional experience this way for the next nine years, in the process learning to write songs on their own.
They wrote songs in the attic of their long-time friend Terry Martin's house, sitting around a second-hand desk with second-hand recording equipment. Shellie describes the atmosphere, "That's our attic, our magical little place. We still write in there. It's still the best place." As a trio, they cut numerous demo tapes in the attic. The first nineteen or so would be rejected, but the Poole women kept trying, along the way developing the unique, fun style that can be heard on their albums.
They picked up a manager after a while who persuaded the sisters to write original country-tinged pop music, as a way of distinguishing themselves from the pack, but the results were evidently unimpressive. Karen explained in a magazine interview, "We sacked our manager, and decided to do it our way - and we do it for fun. Because if we're not going to make it, we're going to have big fun trying. But when it started to be honest and natural, it worked. We don't follow the rules [of music structure], we've got no major chord patterns that we follow. So if a song comes out in a weird way and it's completely pop then that's fine. We never analyze what we're writing, it just comes out."
The sisters Poole adapt a similarly pragmatic approach in their everyday lives as well. Younger sister Shellie was long ago diagnosed as having Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD), a disorder which causes an individual to have intrusive thoughts of a frightening or disturbing nature. In addition, it often leads the person to do things repeatedly. In Shellie's case, she performs certain rituals to guard against danger, again and again. As she told one reviewer, "I was born with strange ways. My OCD isn't quite as bad as it used to be, but I'm still very controlled by it. I feel as though I have to do certain things, or it'll be unlucky and something really bad will happen. Before I leave the flat I have to knock on the front door in the shape of a cross. If I can't I totally freak out and start crying. Sometimes I think I can be really brave and walk away without doing it, but I always run back. The fear takes over."
The music of Alisha's Attic, as might be supposed, is anything but ordinary. One of the later demo tapes developed by the Poole sisters with Terry Martin in his attic managed to find its way to the desk of Mercury Records' AOR man Howard Berman in early 1996, who at the time was hunting for a production project for Dave Stewart (formally one-half of the Eurythmics). Stewart ended up producing Alisha's Attic's first CD and video. Stewart did right by the sisters, delivering a vibrant soundscape to showcase the band's dreamy and sensual harmonies and lyrical imagery. The total package is enchanting, with lyrics speaking of wolves and need, lust and anger. If I had to think of an act whom Alisha's Attic reminds me of, I would have to go to early Kate Bush or perhaps the Murmurs. The sisters' personalities shine through, however, making the debut a distinctively original work.
Regarding the origin of the name Alisha's Attic, Shellie explains, "Alisha's a fictional character, but she's a bit of both of us". "We got the attic bit from the fact that we had a studio in the attic," adds Karen, "and we wanted to use a girl's name to create this character that had lots of elements of both our personalities. We've definitely got a mental picture of her."
Alisha's Attic Fan Club Site"Breaking America is my biggest ambition" Shellie smiles. "Really?" says Karen. "I want to swim with dolphins. And sell out Wembley."
Alisha's Attic CD Discography
Out of print in the US, for now.
Japanese & European Import Only
Alisha Rules the World
Mercury Records PHCR-1493 - Released November, 1996
Tracks: Irresistible UR; Intense; I Am I Feel; Alisha Rules the World; White Room; Stone In My Shoe; Personality Lines; Indestructible; I Won't Miss You; Golden Rule; Just the Way You Like It; Air We Breathe; Adore You.
Produced by Dave Stewart
illumina
Mercury Records PHCR-1660 - Released October, 1998
Tracks: The Incidentals; Going Down; Shameless; Resistor; Air & Angels; Wish I Were You; Me & The Dolphins; Barbarella; Are You Jealous?; Lazy Head; Do I Lie?; Karmically Close; Dive In; Lay Low; Outta These Clouds.illumina
Japanese Version
Note: Japanese version includes the above tracks plus two extra tracks not on the UK version:
Scared Like Me; It's Not Your Fault.
Produced by Dave Stewart
Japanese Dream
Mercury Records PHCR-2121 - Released 1998
Mini album released in Japan only.
Tracks: Japanese Dream; He's A Rebel; Army Of Fools; Sweet Escape; Drunken & Tearful; Bitter Lemon; Angel Eyes (live Version); White Room (live Version).
Produced by Dave Stewart
The House We Built
Mercury Records 5428542 - Released July, 2001
TRACKS: Sex It on Everyone Tongue; Can't Say Sorry; Push It All Aside; Pilot; The House That We Built; Pretender Got My Heart; That Other Girl; Perfectly Happy; She Ain't Missing You; If You Want Me Back; Devil You Call Love; Dreaming.
Produced by Bill Bottrell.
