How's this for popular post-modern irony? One of the best music industry success stories of the past 12 months has been that of Vonda Shepard, the real but heretofore unknown singer/songwriter. Prior to her background bar-singer status as the subliminal voice of Channel 4's Ally McBeal, Vonda was so desperate for success that she occasionally phoned journalists, pleading with them to write reviews of her intimate (read poorly attended) gigs.
Television has been her commercial saviour, yet she doesn't watch it. "I haven't watched it in years," says Vonda, not surprisingly an altogether amiable musician who fails miserably to prevent an Aren't-I-Lucky? tone from creeping into the conversation. "I don't know what shows there are on now. I find myself at events with all these actors, and I don't have any idea who they are."
A self-confessed "unusual" child living in unusual circumstances (her bohemian parents were skilled at inviting over fellow artisans at all hours of the day and night on a regular basis), Vonda's first gig took place when she was 14 years old.
"I was very independent, an introspective loner who would express myself through music. When I was 16, I said to my father I didn't want to go to school any more. I had been practising for six to eight hours a day, playing clubs for a couple of years . . . He thought I was right, but with the benefit of hindsight I would never recommend that to anyone else - education is very important. From that point on, however, I went out and got an education in the world."
Despite her sudden jump from apparently nowhere into the mainstream, Vonda is no stranger to the mercurial qualities of the music industry. Touring with Rickie Lee Jones, Al Jarreau and Jackson Browne only heightened her awareness of the pitfalls of her chosen career, but she carried on regardless, the glimmer of possible success her sole guiding light. Signed by Reprise in 1987, she released two albums (1989's Vonda Shepard and 1992's The Radical Light) that sold pitifully small amounts. Subsequently dropped by the label, Vonda wandered back to playing her intimate gigs, with the glimmer of success slowly fading.
"I wouldn't say that I wanted to quit but I was having a very confusing time. Song-writing was what I had been geared up to do since I was 14, and here I was, dropped by the record company because my records just weren't selling. I was torn in pieces because I didn't know what else I could do. I just couldn't give up, so I used that time of intense pain and difficulty and went back within myself as a writer."
This period of reassessment resulted in Vonda's third album, It's Good, Eve, which was released in 1996 on the US independent label Vesper Alley. The album sales amounted to less than 10,000 copies, but in a neat show of serendipity it was heard by David E. Kelley, the Emmy-winning writer-producer of Ally McBeal who was looking around for an unknown singer for the show. Equally, it was fortuitous that Kelley happened to be the husband of one of Vonda's best friends, actress Michelle Pfeiffer.
"Michelle doesn't take any credit for me being on the show," says Vonda, who first met Pfeiffer just as her acting career was moving from the ridiculous (Charlie Chan And The Curse Of The Dragon Queen, I kid you not) to the sublime (Scarface). Vonda's general ignorance of television and movies acted as a bond of sorts.
"I didn't know who she was because I hadn't seen her previous movies. We just liked each other as people. I didn't know she was on her way up, and neither did she."
No longer driven by either fear of lack of success or a general feeling of hopelessness, and no longer hustling for gig reviews, Vonda now trusts her instincts. She sees her current role as a dual one - a real singer/songwriter eager to reach as many people as possible, and a televised raunchy bar band chanteuse reflecting the inner conscience of Ally McBeal.
"In the bad old early days I didn't trust that my success would just happen on its own. I had to do everything I could to make it happen. I'm sure there was some desperation because of my predicament, and that it was going to continue. If I think back to that time, it's almost like living in a dream. Now, I go all over the world and people know who I am. To think of all those painful phone calls of rejection - yes, I'm sure there was some desperation."
As for the Ally McBeal character itself (as played by one of the thinnest women on television, Clarissa Flockhart), does Vonda relate to its representation of the working woman of the 1990s? "If there's anything I feel in common with Ally, it's that I've no intention of giving up my career, but it would be nice to find a man that I could have some sort of a balanced life with."
And finally, yet another irony - Vonda has swapped intimate bar gigs for a bar gig watched by millions of people. A fair exchange? "It's a great swap, but it's obviously not the same. In many ways, it's not real. I like the intimacy of real gigs. The irony is that when I'm sitting there filming Ally McBeal, I'm looking out at 70 crew members, a bunch of cameras and a handful of extras who look bored. It's not the same as sitting in a funky club playing your music. That said, it's kinda the perfect gig!"
Vonda Shepard's new album, By 7.30, is released in April. Vonda Shepard plays Dublin's Olympia Theatre on May 26th and 27th
