Photography by: Sabin Aell, Johannes Beck, Anthony Camera, Kristen Hatgi, Anita Lane, Jan Lankwitz.
Influences
Led Zeppelin ~
Johnny Cash ~
Loretta Lynn ~
The Staple Singers ~
Hank Williams ~
Beethoven ~
Hans Christian Andersen ~
Frank Sinatra ~
Claudine Longet ~
Iggy Pop ~
Mickey & Sylvia ~
Paul Revere & the Raiders ~
David Bowie ~
Sister Rosetta Tharpe ~
Billie Holiday ~
William Orbit ~
The Who ~
Lieutenant Uhura ~
Sonic Youth ~
Joy Division ~
CS Lewis ~
JS Bach ~
Vivaldi ~
Dostoyevsky ~
The Clash ~
Albert Camus ~
Bartok ~
Einstuerzende Neubauten ~
Le Mystere des Voix Bulgares ~
Brian Eno ~
Albert King ~
The Yardbirds ~
Can ~
U2 ~
ABBA ~
Fatboy Slim ~
The O'Jays ~
The Kingston Trio ~
Blind Willie Johnson ~
Burt Bacharach ~
Echo & the Bunnymen ~
Marvin Gaye ~
Etta James ~
The Sex Pistols ~
Fawlty Towers ~
The Beatles ~
Harry Belafonte ~
Prokofiev ~
The Kinks ~
Nick Drake ~
Aretha Franklin ~
Elvis ~
Aesop's Fables ~
The Sound of Music ~
Elizabeth Cotton ~
Charles Dickens ~
George Orwell ~
Clint Eastwood ~
Bill Monroe ~
Emma Peel ~
Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds ~
The Holy Bible ~
Bambi Lee Savage began her musical expedition in Denver, where she played guitar with the short-lived Pagan Cowboys, a country punk band heavily influenced by The Birthday Party and Johnny Cash. She moved to London and released one EP with the Velvet Underground-influenced HorseLand, but knew it was time for a change, both geographically and musically. An Einstuerzende Neubauten concert at the Kilburn National Ballroom provided her with the direction she was looking for, and Berlin was her next stop. “I was so inspired by Neubauten, I had to see what else was going on in Berlin. I had studied audio engineering a bit and done some studio work in London so I brazenly sent a letter of interest to the world-renowned Hansa Studios in Berlin. Much to my amazement and delight, they hired me as an assistant engineer. That was the beginning of an extremely exciting and productive time.” At Hansa she worked with artists as varied as Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, U2 and the Berlin Philharmonic.
The Hansa days ended with the fall of the Berlin Wall, when the famous Studio 2 was closed. She did freelance audio work and focused on songwriting and playing clubs. It was at this time that the first recordings for what would become her debut CD Matter of Time took place, with Bad Seed Mick Harvey at the helm.
Soon her songwriting began to develop in an unexpected direction. “I had always had a sort of punk/rock style, but being so far from America had the effect of really bringing out the country in me; my songwriting definitely began to acquire a new dimension.” In 1995 she was featured in the German documentary Lost In Music: Out Of Country. Accompanied by Alex Hacke (Einstuerzende Neubauten, Jever Mountain Boys) on guitar and Moritz Wolpert (Jever Mountain Boys) on snare, she performed two original songs, I Can’t Count On My Man and Demon Alcohol.
That same year she returned to America to pursue her music career in Austin, Texas. “I was in Denver on my way to Austin when I saw Daniel Lanois again—I hadn’t seen him since his European tour, when I was backline roadie—he let me use his studio while he was away on tour to record more demos. I had a lot of songs and wasn’t sure which ones to record, especially given the limitation of not having a band, but I knew that Darlin’ had to be one of them.” Lanois came back to the studio to work on the soundtrack to an independent film with director Billy Bob Thornton. Upon hearing Darlin', they contacted her about using it in the soundtrack. The film, Sling Blade, won an Academy Award in 1997.
The following years saw her moving back to Berlin to play gigs and work on songs, then back again to the States where she recorded two more songs at Daniel Lanois’ Los Angeles studio. With ten tracks in hand, she finally released her first CD, Matter of Time, in 2003.
In 2005 she toured Australia, playing the International Blues & Roots Music Festival in Byron Bay with James Cruickshank (The Cruel Sea), the Northern Star in Newcastle, and the Retreat Hotel, the Wesley Anne and the Ding Dong Lounge in Melbourne with Mick Harvey. Later that year, Mick Harvey released his solo CD One Man’s Treasure, featuring a cover of her song Demon Alcohol.
In 2006, having acquired an electronic keyboard, she began working in earnest on a song that had been on her mind since 1992. “The working title had been Weapons are a Girl’s Best Friend; funny enough, it wasn’t until I took up shooting sporting clays that I was able to finish it.” That song became I’ve Got a Gun. Thus the new CD began, and her interest in the themes of guns and violence was again piqued when she happened to hear a radio interview with actor Terrence Howard about his research for the part of a pimp in the film Hustle and Flow. “He said he’d met some pimps, gotten to know them, and they told him how hard a life it was, how hard it is to send your sister on the street and whatnot. I was appalled. To me, it was the depths of political correctness rubbish – that pimps should somehow be deserving of our sympathy. I was learning more and more about prostitution and human trafficking – the nightmare lives that so many women and children are forced into, being exploited and suffering in the most horrible ways. I just started getting really ticked off.” And the seed for PimpKiller was planted. “Once I started this project, I found myself writing and singing through an alter-ego. I had my own unfortunate experiences with exploitation and abuse, and GJ became a vehicle for being able to address these themes.”
The pseudonym also helped her to distance herself from the baggage of the semi-success of her contribution to the Sling Blade soundtrack, Darlin’. “That song was such a sweet little one-off, and most of the people I hear from really only know my work based on that one song. Where I was going was totally removed from that, and I needed the alter-ego to help me get there, and to let people know this was going to be something very different.” Having said that, listeners familiar with Matter of Time may notice a pattern similar to that CD’s songs of alienation, anger and rejection followed by stirring songs of faith and love.
“While there may appear to be an inconsistency in releasing songs about my (christian) faith and the grace and mercy that it teaches alongside songs reflecting my troubled emotions and opinions about the world around me, the fact is that’s a conflict I live with on a daily basis. I’m not interested in either whitewashing my religion or leaving it out entirely. It’s a dilemma and I’m just being honest about it. But you’ll notice I always start with the bad stuff and finish with the good.”
The new tracks were recorded to a great extent at her home studio, and she took them to engineer/producer Adam Samuels in Los Angeles to complete the project. Adam brought in drummer Steve Nistor and guitarist Josh Klinghoffer to supplement the tracks, and the result is an energetic and captivating CD, pop one minute, rock the next – every song somehow different yet belonging to the whole. The consistency comes from Bambi Lee Savage herself, and the passionate, artful delivery of her vision.
Matter of Time is available on iTunes, Amazon.com and CDBaby via
bambleesavage.com.
Hi Bambi; I love your new songs. Heavenly Days is beautiful. Just when you think all the great songs have been written, along comes Bambi Lee Savage. I've only bought one cd from CD Baby. Yours, now I'm gittin' me another! Yours. Love Amory
Bambi Lee, have a Christmas full of the magic that makes you write such magic songs. I picked up your CD from CD Baby and I love it. It's on autoplay in my car. I like CD Baby to. They had a parade in Portland all the way to the post office when they sent it to me. All my best in the new year.
Hi Bambie, I just received your Matter of Time CD in the mail. This one means alot to me, because for years I was searching for something from you, and when we became friends, there it was. Great songs from a great song writer. I'm still telling anyone who'll listen that you complemented my song, "Shadowland" That meant alot to me. Thank you and keep writing and singing to make the world that much better.
