Photograph by Christopher Gorman
B
oston indie rockers Belly’s debut album sold 2 million copies worldwide upon release back in 1993 off the back of huge singles Gepetto and Feed Te Tree, but when their third album didn’t reach the same dizzying
heights they disappeared and haven’t been heard of since. Until now. Belly are back, perhaps not forever, but with some fresh new songs and a tour which includes a date at the Waterfront. I spoke to Tanya Donnelly who started the band herself after being in Trowing Muses and plying with Breeders, about being a doula, dancing with her daughters and why she doesn’t listen to her own music.
12 / July 2016/
outlineonline.co.uk
You formed Belly 1991 in Boston after you’d been playing with Te Breeders. What were your aims and hopes for the band at this point? At the start I don’t think we had very many hopes and aims. I think the labels on both sides of the ocean were excited about the project because at that point everyone had already heard the song because it was supposed to be the next Breeders record. Tat was very confusing! Kim Deal and I were both signed to 4AD but she was also signed to Electra (I think!) and I was on Warners Bros so we had this plan that the first Breeders album would come out under her jurisdiction, and the second one I would write and it would come out under mine, and we hoped to not get to the point where we had to involve what I’m going to imagine would have been very reluctant labels in any of that. She decided to stay in the Pixies longer than she had planned and so I just started my own songs that were originally supposed to be Breeders songs. Everyone else in the band came from hardcore bands, and when Gail joined she came from a metal background. How come you didn’t end up making heavier music? It’s primarily because at that point Chris and Tom were interested in doing something different themselves; Fred was the connective tissue between myself and Chris and Tom initially because he had played in hardcore bands with them, and then he was in Trowing Muses with me. He came with me for the first Belly album - at that point he was very familiar with what I was doing - then Chris and Tom came in as well. Belly’s biggest songs were probably your first single Gepetto and Feed Te Tree –
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