How did you become a member of Berlin?
Toni Child was the original singer in the band, and wanted to leave for a solo career. They auditioned people, and answered my ad. I had no experience, but they answered it because I said I wanted something original. Berlin at that point was the most original thing in music. Synthesizer music hadn't happened yet in America and was just starting in England and Germany. John heard bands like Kraftwerk and Ultravox and wanted to do that kind of music. The sound was like nothing I had ever heard.
Talk about the music scene in Los Angeles in the late 1970s and early 1980s when Berlin was starting out.
We had a lot of places to play, but we also had a lot of people laughing at us because we weren't what was going on at all. At that point it was power pop, and the big success stories were The Knack, the Go-Gos, and the Motels. Punk was still going on with the Cramps, the Zippers, and even the Red Hot Chili Peppers were playing the circuit we were playing. We got a lot of strange reviews, but we really believed in it, and got better.
How did your first E.P. (1982's Pleasure Victim) come about?
We signed with a label just starting out called Enigma. They signed 2 bands their first year: Berlin and Motley Crue. Once the sales increased, Geffen came in and bought Enigma's contract. They were also just starting out, and were distributed by Warner Brothers. For us, that was huge, because they were small enough that we mattered. They gave us a lot of attention, because they didn't have that many bands, and that made a huge difference to us.
When the album was released, you were marketed as a sex symbol. Was that something the record label did, or was that the band's decision?
It was our decision. It caused tension right away. I had no idea the kind of reaction that what we were doing would get. I know that the song "Sex" would get a lot of reaction, because I knew that hadn't been said before, but didn't know I would get so much (crap) for it; because I said it I would be labeled as an idiot, a puppet for John Crawford, as a bimbo, an airhead, a slut. All of that stuff came down on me, and I didn't handle it very well. Instead of just letting it roll off my back and continuing with the music, I was, "well, I'm a serious artist". I wore sweaters everywhere after that, trying to counter the opinions coming from the people responding to "Sex", which was stupid. It really doesn't matter if the music continues to be good.
 |
 |
 |
