CREEM SHOWCASE
How did you get involved with the Violent Femmes? Part of if was they were from Milwaukee. I had been working on my last solo album—which should be out soon, it’s all done—in Milwaukee because I had to go back and take care of my mother who had cancer, so I got to know them just a little bit.
JERRY HARRISON MAKES HEADWAY
CREEM SHOWCASE
Billy Cioffi
by
How did you get involved with the Violent Femmes?
Part of if was they were from Milwaukee. I had been working on my last solo album—which should be out soon, it’s all done—in Milwaukee because I had to go back and take care of my mother who had cancer, so I got to know them just a little bit. Then through Warner Brothers and other people, we got connected and I got their demo tape: it really knocked me out. They came over and just started working. The thing I had wanted to do—I felt they were a really great band but that because of the rawness of their earlier albums they weren’t going to get airplay even though they were really good albums. So my goal was to not take away that rawness, that freshness they had, and still make it clearer. We had a lot of back-and-forth on it but I think everyone was very happy with it.
When I first heard them I thought that they were out there, probably in the same way as the Modern Lovers, right?