Though you’ve been hearing Linda Perry’s massive hits for years, it’s been quite a while since you’ve heard her voice.
She may have written “Get the Party Started” by Pink and “Beautiful” by Christina Aguilera (the latter a Grammy-winner in 2004), but the woman who loudly asked, “What’s going on?” in the ’90s with her band 4 Non Blondes hasn’t released any of her own music until this month.
She and drummer Tony Tornay are Deep Dark Robot, and they just dropped “8 Songs About a Girl,” an eclectic concept album that charts a relationship from start to end. The last song is called “F— You, Stupid B—.” “I was telling the story about being broken by a woman,” says Perry.
She frequently dots her conversation with swears, but rather than being crass it comes across as passionate. If the woman who is the subject of the album broke her, then Deep Dark Robot seems to have rebuilt her. After the breakup came the songs, which she felt she had to sing herself, and after that came the band.
Perry says she couldn’t be more proud of the album, but she’s not looking to reach the same highs she hit as a performer the first time around.
“The intention is to make music, put it out and entertain people,” she says. “The intention is not to get a perfume line or make me famous. I don’t need fame and I don’t need money.”
Follow Pat Healy on Twitter at @metrousmusic.
