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It's
a bright sunny morning in Glendale, CA, just twenty minutes from Hollywood. A sharp contrast to a dark winter's evening here in Britain who are
several hours ahead. Share is on good form, her voice light and breezy.
"Hi! It's Share from Bubble," she announces gleefully.
After exchanging the normal pleasantries, Share explains how Bubble were
formed.
"It was born out of necessity," she replies with a hint of
humour in her voice. "We had had another band and I'd been bass
player. We had an English guitarist and Bam was the drummer. When the
guitarist moved back to England because he missed his girlfriend we
were guitarless... We found someone else, but it just got too serious. So we broke
up the band. We'd lost the plot. After a sitting around and moaning about it, Bam went ahead and
booked a studio and said to me "Right, we are going to rehearse
- just you and me. You're gonna play guitar and we'll write these songs
we've been fiddling with... Play then loud and have a laugh!"
Share speaks very fondly of Bam. Clearly there is a great deal of respect
and a strong bond between the two.
"I met him around 1990 with my boyfriend of that time...who was
friends with him... Bam was with his girlfriend. It was at Cherokee,
he walked into the middle of a Vixen record. It wasn't love at first sight. We became good friends, he used
to joke that I'd ruined his reputation," laughs Share wryly.
Getting back to Bubble Share reveals who is in the current line-up.
"We've got Eric Stacey on bass and Brent Muscat on guitar. Both
ex-Faster Pussycat members," replies Share.
Have you been signed yet?
"No. We put out a seven song CD about a year ago. That sold really
well much to our surprise."
Share pauses for a moment. "It wasn't quite to our liking or representative
of what we thought Bubble ought to sound like. So we finally got our
own recording equipment. Now we are going to make a real Bubble record,"
says Share with conviction. "We're testing the waters." she
continues. "There's some big label interest here in LA. We've been
through it all before so we are a little..."
Regarding the songwriting, she says, "One or both of us will come up with a idea and say "Hey I've
got this riff. Now with Brent and Eric in the band for a month, we're
just working out how its going to work writing wise. We definitely want
to incorporate their ideas 'cause they have really got what Bubble's
about. It's so cool have them in the band" enthuses Share.
"It's like finally having the right ingredients for a recipe you've
been trying so hard to make."
Enough for an album?
"Yeah, we've got enough for about two or three... So we are going
to hopefully recording all of them and picking out the very best to
put on the first album."
Do you think you will release anything in Britain?
"We have been talking to a company in Britain, who've pretty much
got a distribution offer on the table..." replies Share.
Being
the only female in Bubble we ask the obvious question - Do you enjoy being the only female in the band?
Share cracks up with laughter. "You mean after Vixen? Y'know, I
don't really think about it that much. But there are times when it's
kind of funny... You can't turn round to everyone and go "Bloody
hell, I've got my f**kin period!"" laughs Share.
Getting
back on track Share explains where the band name came from.
"Bam and I thought of it one night after just one rehearsal that
we did. We'd booked a show and two days later we didn't even have a
band name, so we quickly wrote all these songs and had to come up with
a band name fast!" remembers Share as she continues to explain. "At that time the only band name we had was Subcool. We didn't
want to use that because it totally didn't work. We were watching Ab
Fab and suddenly it came. 'Bubble' she explains excitedly.
"I've always got the British sense of humour - since I was very
young," continues Share. "I have a fascination with the Brits
you could say. Although I don't know if I'd like to live there,"
says Share as an after thought. "I really like rollerblading and walking in the sunshine. I grew
up in Minnesota, which is snow-bound for most of the year. So I just
decided I deserved to live in Southern California.
Family
roots remain important to Share.
"I've got brothers; I had two older brothers both real close. One
died four years ago," she explains softly. After a moment of reflection Share proceeds to explain. "They were the reason I probably got into rock 'n' roll. If it
had not have been for them, I would've been listening to The Monkees
or something."
So you hail from a musical background?
"Actually my mom was a musician. Everybody in her family played instruments
as well," says Share proudly. "I was just given that I would
play an instrument, sing and everything. If you didn't then you were
an outcast... So of course I did."
What kind of music was involved?
"A bit more Country… Country meets Standards. Y'know 'Blue
Moon' and the like... old songs."
At
this point Bam strolls in with a cup of coffee. We discuss the
possibility of a 'Dogs tour in Britain.
"We are trying to set up a quick date at the moment with the agency,
for the LA2 or somewhere. We don't really want to do a full tour till
the album comes out," he adds.
With the confirmation of an imminent Dogs D'Amour gig. we ask if
they had considered taking Bubble on tour with them so they could switch
line-ups in the interval, as Bam and Share are an integral part of the
Dogs D'Amour too.
"What do you think the fans would think of that?" muses Bam.
"We are definitely thinking of doing that. But we're not sure how
some people would take it... The die-hards are so hard to please sometimes,"
adds Bam philosophically.
It is very refreshing to speak to an established musician who still
cares what the average fan thinks and tries to cater to please. Bam
is optimistic about the return to Britain with the Dogs.
"We're really looking forward to it. It's kind of cool because
in the past Tyla has always been the main writer. So it was hard for
the rest of us to have an outlet. But now we've had the chance to develop
our own writing skills; everybody's on more of a par.
"Tyla nearly fell on his arse when we walked into the studio because
the spark was still there. I'd pick up a guitar and say "Listen
to this!" Tyla would be like "Woah, f**kin' hell!"."
Bam is already renowned as an excellent experienced rock drummer. But
as Bam points out "I write material on guitar. You can't write
on drums! So I had to pull my finger out and learn guitar. I don't
think I could stand there play live and put on a show playing guitar.
I write song structures... something you can work out a melody with."
And Share's musical contribution?
"She's an amazing bass player," he replies. "But lately
she's become quite a guitar player... She's just got a award for being
the best female guitarist," states Bam proudly. "She's really
musical, y'know; playing piano as well. She makes me sick!" says
Bam satirically.
Bam comes over as happy and contented at this stage in his life, particularly
where Bubble are concerned. "We are really excited with Brent and
Eric in the band. For the first time we have a real band. Everyone's
so into it."
"It's so amazing for someone to finally come along and say "We
love your f**kin' songs and want to be in your band. Share and I were
in shock for like a week. It's like "Woah, they can sing and
play. F**kin' hell!""
Bam
and Share's home is a former converted automechanics garage.
"I can do all that building s**t, so I gutted the place. I've just
built a control room," he says proudly. "We're going to do
the album there. It was a sixteen track set-up this morning till Share
said "Go on the net and find another DA38". It's an eight
track digital machine," explains Bam. "I eventually got hold of this guy in New York who was selling
on Ten minutes later I was sending him a cheque," he continues.
Bam
and Share are taking the production side of the industry seriously.
"We are producing other people. There's this Swedish girl called
Monica and this little girl from Minnesota who's just fifteen. She is
amazing - like Judy Garland or something...
"I've always been into the production side. When Tyla and I first
met I had a recording studio in Hampton Court London."
Do you miss Britain?
"Yeah, definitely just for the social life... because there isn't
one here. You can't just walk down the street and find a pub on every
corner. If I want to see Jo (Dog - Dogs D'Amour guitarist, who also
has a band called Sonic Boom) it's a concerted effort. I have to get
in the van and drive across Hollywood. It's not like you can just pop
round the corner for a cup of tea," complains Bam.
How is Jo?
"He's good. The little spick's about to learn to drive. He never
bothered because he always had me and other people to drive him round,"
laughs Bam remembering fondly.
It's like one big happy family as far as Bam's concerned; keeping in
regular contact with the other members other members of Dogs.
"I spoke to Tyla yesterday. We will probably be getting together
in the middle of January."
What is on the agenda for the New Year?
"We have been offered a few shows, but have not accepted any of
them. We're just gonna kick back and do our own thing."
New Year's a load of hype, we suggest.
"It's a load of bollocks!" agrees Bam.
Too true, a load of Dogs' Bollocks and we can't wait!
Visit www.planetbubble.com for more
info.
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