Name  Tracy Bonham

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Best known for  Screaming at my mother!

Current city  Brooklyn, NY.

Really want to be in  Paris, sitting at La Rotonde de la Muette, writing songs in my journal. Picasso and Modigliani are there sitting with me, schooling me on art and creativity. 

Excited about  My new album called LIFT (The 30th Anniversary Edition of The Burdens of Being Upright) and its upcoming release! Can’t wait for people to hear it!!  I am sharing how much I have grown in the past 30 years and how the songs are still relevant today. 

My current music collection has a lot of  Courtney Barnett, Ravel, Stevie Wonder, Wet Leg, Chopin.

And a little bit of  Crank wave.

Preferred format  I prefer vinyl because it means I am slowing down and staying put. 

5 Albums I Can’t Live Without:

1

Misa Criolla, Ariel Ramirez

My grandparents were in love with Latin American culture. Every year they would take a six-month long road trip through Mexico. I went with them one year and at the flea market they bought a double vinyl album called Misa Criolla. It had a beautiful red-orange cover with abstract religious and folk sketches on the cover. I was drawn to it. It had lyrics inside the booklet that were entirely in Spanish and my grandparents were able to translate it to me just a little, telling me it was about God. When we returned home to Oregon the album became a family favorite, something that reminded us of our time together in Mexico. We played it mostly during Christmastime and at family gatherings. It was a beautiful way of sharing our mutual love for music as a family. 

2

Songs in the Key of Life, Stevie Wonder 

This album was like my earth school from age 10 onward. Stevie showed me the underbelly of humanity with stories of racism and bigotry while, at the same time, expressing his love for all humanity. This was an education that I would never have gotten from my little town in Eugene, OR. One afternoon in 1986, during the summer between my first and second year of college at USC, I was walking through San Francisco’s Chinatown listening to the album on my new CD Walkman. “Pastime Paradise” came on and it was my first experience with headphones, on the go, creating a soundtrack to my own cinematic movie as I walked through the crowded, gritty, and sometimes exotic Chinese marketplace. The music between my ears held all the moving parts together. Since then, I have always loved walking through towns and cities with headphones on creating the soundtrack to what is happening around me. 

3

Parade, Prince

This album came out when I was a freshman at USC, studying violin, and occasionally doing ecstasy. A favorite moment while high: It was a Friday night at Tower Records on Sunset Boulevard and my boyfriend and I were dancing in the isles as they played “Kiss” on the speakers. The song was unlike anything I had ever heard. It was a perfect moment. This album showed that Prince didn’t give a fuck about making another blockbuster album. No ripping guitar solos. No massive fanfare. Just great writing and great grooves. 

4

The Specials, The Specials

I bought this album with my own money when I was 14 years old. That memory will never fade. It was like a rite of passage to go to a record store in downtown Eugene without your parents. I would make a day of it. On a Saturday, I would ride my Honda moped to the 7-11 and purchase one clove cigarette out of the plastic bin full of single cigarettes, then go to the cafe in the alleyway on 13th Street to hide out and write in my journal before going to House of Records. I would dig through the bins looking for something that would make me feel cool. The Specials was on heavy rotation in my bedroom and I couldn’t get enough of its infectious melodies and SKA mixed with rock n’ roll rhythms. I danced around my bedroom, skanking and singing along with Terry Hall’s voice, trying to match his inflections and his British accent. My friends and I wore The Specials black-and-white, two-tone buttons on our army jackets and pretended to be from the U.K. Oh, to be 14 again. 

5

Exile in Guyville, Liz Phair

In 1993, this album changed the way I looked at songwriting. It inspired me to take more chances. I really loved Liz Phair’s irreverence and when she sang way too low for her range it wasn’t trying to be beautiful. It was very honest. It was unpolished and raw and it opened a door to more creativity without the pressure to be polished and shiny. The lyrics were so damn smart. As a ritual, I would listen to it in the bathtub before going to soundcheck just to cop an attitude. 

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