Operators Are Standing By
Jill Sobule goes DIY for her next CDBy Al Kaufman
For her seventh album, Jill Sobule is looking to Jerry Lewis for inspiration.
No, she is not going to don thick glasses and babble on around pretty girls. Instead, the singer of the 1995 hit and bisexual anthem, “I Kissed a Girl,” is holding an online telethon to raise money for her new CD.
Sobule’s last two labels, Beyond and Artemis, both went belly-up shortly after releasing her CDs, 2000’s PINK PEARL, and 2004’s UNDERDOG VICTORIOUS, respectively. Instead of begging for money from another label, Sobule decided to go straight to her fans. She set up the Website JillsNextRecord.com, in which her mom asks people to give money to support Jill’s next album.
" Jill Souble, Ready to try something new
“I didn’t even try to get a label. It didn’t interest me,” said Sobule. “What are they going to do anyway these days?”
Like the Labor Day Telethon, the Website has a running tote board. There are also giving levels ranging from the $25 Polished Rock Level (in which donors will receive an advance copy of the CD) all the way up to the $10,000 Weapons-Grade Plutonium Level (in which donors will have a chance to sing on the album). Other giving levels include having your name mentioned in a song on the CD ($500) and having Sobule play a house concert ($5,000). [Complete Giving Levels]
“Originally I had an idea where if people invested in the CD they’d get stocks, but my lawyer told me that would be a complete nightmare,” said Sobule. “But this is my other idea—give goods and services in exchange for money.”
Her goal is to raise $75,000, which was the budget for her first CD. “It doesn’t cost that much to make a record anymore, but the idea is to see how much I can do myself.” That includes marketing, distribution and publicity, as well as acquiring the talents of folks like Cyndi Lauper and producer Don Was. In her first week alone, she raised over $25,000.
In the almost four years since releasing UNDERDOG VICTORIOUS, Sobule has kept herself busy writing and composing music for the Nickelodeon show UNFABULOUS, composing music for the off-Broadway show PROZAC AND THE PLATYPUS, and acting in the Eric Schaeffer film MIND THE GAP. But she also went through an entire year of doubting herself and her abilities.
“I went into that period where I didn’t like my songs and I didn’t like what I was doing but I couldn’t stop,” Sobule says. “I think I just needed to kick my ass and realize it was a kind of a fear factor going on. Can I do a record that I like as much as I liked the other two that were on labels that both went bankrupt? That was kind of disappointing, and I think that had a toll on me. But this, having the Website, is so much fun. Part of the reason for doing this Website is that I could sit and say, ‘Oh, I’m not ready yet.’ But now that people are giving me money, I better freaking do the record.”
"Manhattan in January" - A happy song about Global Warming
Sobule has plenty of material from which to choose. Two standouts include “Manhattan in January,” a hilarious take on the effects of global warming, and “San Francisco,” a song that at first sounds like a retelling of some rough lesbian sex, but turns into something completely different. Both songs display Sobule’s skills of taking major issues and making them both personal and humorous. The songs are clever without trying to be and funny without dipping into parody. Like most of the songs on her previous six albums, they are perfect pop songs. It’s just that nobody knows about them. Sobule plans to change all that with this one.
“We’re going to get people listening to it on the radio, we’re going to get people who don’t know who I am. I’m going big.”
JillsNextRecord.com Giving Levels:
