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how to move your ankle or your knee. But
all these little repetitive exercises help retrain the muscles how to work."
Instinctively, Penny has always been a
very private person. Someone who doesn't air her troubles in public. When she
arrived in New York, Welchez (with
whom she tracked a recent single as
Haunted Hearts, "Something That Feels
Bad is Something That Feels Good") was
still out on tour with Crocodiles, so he
didn't immediately grasp the gravity of
his wife's situation upon his return. "He
just knew that I was having problems and
that I'd stated seeing a vocal coach," she
says. "I don't think he expected to come
back from L.A. saying 'I just cant sing. I'm
gonna have to take time off, and I don't
know when – or if – I'm gonna be able to
finish the record.' It was really, really traumatic, and I definitely was very private
about the seriousness that I felt about the
situation. But it ended up coming at a
good time, because he had a lot of time
off, as well, so it wasn't as depressing as it
might have been if I was just at home
alone, dealing with it while he was on
tour. So we had a good six months of reacquainting ourselves with New York.
Otherwise, it probably would have gotten
a lot darker."
And now? All that diligence and down
time paid off. "My voice is actually not
back 100%, but it's certainly at a percent
that I'm comfortable with," admits Penny,
who – like Justin Young before her – sings
softer, more cocktail-lounge smooth on
"Too True." And it's a style that befits, and
complements, her mature new outlook
and songwriting approach. It opens with
the dreamy, whisper-trilled "Cult of
Love," with Duane Eddy-booming guitar
lines wriggling in and out, then upshifts
into a chugging "Evil Blooms," a belltolling,
decadent-poet-referencing
"Rimbaud Eyes," and a gentle acoustic jangle called "Are You Okay," that sounds
like a conversation between Penny and
her significant other. The reverb-drenched
"Trouble is my Name" processional closes
the disc, with the diva in classic torchsong mode: "I had a vision/ I wanted to be
24 illinoisentertainer.com march 2014
dead…I had a vision/ Destruction ruled."
The cover photo features the typically
black-garbed bombshell in vintage pinupgirl mode, coyly and confidently looking
over her shoulder as if nothing bad has
ever befallen her.
Penny concedes that "Trouble" is a crucial cut. "There's a big underlying theme
on this record that I didn't plan out beforehand, but when I go back and objectively
analyze the songs and piece together the
subconscious things I can see it at work
behind closed doors," she notes. "And I
think this record for me marks the first
time in a long time that I've moved on the
very traumatic events in my life that
informed "Only in Dreams" and "End of
Daze." It marks the first time that I felt like
I was past that. And how I got past that
was through a lot of personal revelation
and finally understanding how – through
a traumatic event – my life kind of went
off the rails. So the good and bad things I
finally understand, understand how they
were sort of necessary for me to move forward, and ("Trouble") specifically is an
acknowledgement of that. An acceptance
of that. Trying to be okay with what's happened? That's the only way you can move
forward."
Musically, Penny wanted to make
advances on "Too True." And in Wagner,
she had the perfect lever to her fulcrum.
When Penny first conceived her Dum
Dum Girls project back in 2008, and began
issuing EPs until SubPop picked her up
for her Richard Gottehrer-co-produced
2010 debut "I Will Be," she was more
band-oriented. Over the years, with
Wagner's help, she's become increasingly
DIY. "How I work is, I demo things on my
computer pretty thoroughly, using drum
samples or drum loops. And then I record
bass, rhythm guitar, lead guitar, vocals,
whatever. And then I take these pretty-finished demos into the studio, and Sune's
really great at drum programming, so
that's something he's done for the last couple of records. And he'll sometimes play
certain parts.
"Like, I'm not a strong bass player, so
even if I've written a great bass part, he
can play it a lot better. Same goes for certain guitar leads where, melodically, the
idea is good, but my execution is obviously lacking. But the biggest thing Sune did
on this record was that I wanted there to
be a third guitar component to most of the
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