From childhood, it seemed as though the artist who would become known professionally as Madame Mayhem was destined to be in front of an audience, unleashing her epic personality, copious talents and badass attitude.
From the second she could walk and talk, she was singing and performing for anyone and everyone – including repeatedly tormenting friends and family. But her precocious and seemingly natural gift for entertaining was supported and nurtured by her family (who are the ones who tagged her with the epithet ‘Madame Mayhem’ due to the way she seemed to approach life with recklessly joyful abandon), A native of Fort Lee, New Jersey, she pushed to study music, voice and theatre and performed regularly in youth productions both on and off Broadway.
But even though she was as adept at jazz, blues or opera, Madame Mayhem’s heart always beat faster for the intensity, passion and ferocity of hard rock and metal music. Fast forward to 2016 and, after years of honing her craft as a musician, songwriter and live performer, Madame Mayhem has unleashed a new album, a series of provocative and evocative music videos, and hit the road opening for legendary metal singer/songwriter Doro for a short stint, including dates in Florida, Atlanta, Charlotte and three in New York State, including March 4 at Revolution in Amityville, the next night at The Loft at The Chance in Poughkeepsie and wrapping up March 6 at Blackthorn 51 in New York City.
The album, Now You Know is a sweeping, melodic epic production that features the pulse-pounding singles Monster and Left For Dead. It was produced by Billy Sheehan, long considered to be one of the best hard rock bassists and composers in the business for his time with David Lee Roth, Mr. Big, Talas and currently as a member of the supergroup The Winery Dogs. Madam Mayhem co-wrote all the tracks with Sheehan as well as with Corey Lowery (bassist for Saint Ansonia and Stuck Mojo), creating a masterful musical adventure that, while technically isn’t her debut, is certainly a powerful statement that is sure to reverberate throughout the hard rock and metal communities.
“I have been doing a lot of things, even under the Madame Mayhem banner for a while. I released an album independently years ago and was really just trying to find my voice and my vibe as a hard rock and metal musician. I think with Now You Know, I have finally reached that point. It embodies what I want to portray through my music. I feel like I am where I belong. The music I am writing feels like me. I am writing from my own experiences and I really love the instrumentation and the music on this record,” she said, adding that the ‘voice’ that she has found is one that is both melodic by also still heavy, with a torrid pace and visceral emotional sensibility.
“I am really big on the voice and singing well, singing with strength and a dynamic range and making sure there are great harmonies and melodies. But I am also a huge fan of big guitar riffs, a lot of bass and a double-kick drum sound. Working with Billy and Corey, who are both bass players, the rhythm section is really heavy and that’s always what I’ve found myself gravitating to as a vocalist. It’s meant to have melody, but it’s also definitely hard-hitting music too.”
Madame Mayhem (she said he friends called her Mayhem or simply May) crossed paths with Sheehan a few years ago and has become a close friend.
“He has been an amazing mentor for me for many years. I would always run into him every time I was in Los Angeles. He and his wife are so great; they are like a big brother and big sister to me. A while back we were writing together and we just came to the conclusion that we had enough material to do an album. He said, ‘I love your voice and I want to be able to do this with you.’ And I was thrilled, because to hear someone like Billy Sheehan say he loved my voice and wants to make a record with me is the greatest thing,” she said.
“So we continued to write together. And he is a very busy person with a lot of irons in the fire, so at one point I had some time to myself to write and I heard about Corey and what an amazing writer he was. I reached out through a mutual friend and then flew down to Atlanta and wrote a few songs with him. I brought them back to Billy and he loved them. Then Billy and I tried to figure out who we could get to bring the songs to life in the studio. And we got some amazing players.”
Those players include both Sheehan and Lowery, while the pounding drums were provided courtesy of KoRn skin-basher Ray Luzier, with guitar wizardry added by former Guns N Roses guitarist Ron ‘Bumblefoot’ Thal, as well as Russ Parrish, aka Satchel from Steel Panther.
“There were a few fangirl moments for sure. Hearing Ray Luzier on drums was something else, and both Bumblefoot and Satchel laid down some amazing tracks and solos. It was just an incredible experience and I couldn’t be more thrilled with how this record turned out.”
The songs on the album are deeply personal, bordering on cathartic experiences that have been ably captured in the studio for Now You Know.
“For me, it was a lot of frustration and angst that I didn’t even know was hindering me. But then as soon as I wrote it out and we got it all out in the studio I realized how therapeutic it was. Every time I listen to those songs now I kind of relive those moments of pain and sadness and anger in my life and I feel like there are probably a lot of people who have experienced the same things that I was stressing about, and have the same reactions that I did. So I am really hoping that other people can relate to what I am saying in my music, because I know for me, music heals all.”
The icing on the proverbial cake is the chance to head out onto the road and introduce audiences to all this new, vibrant and powerfully compelling music as the opening act for one of the most prolific and well-respected women in the history of hard rock and metal music – Doro Pesch.
“You know, I haven’t met her, but I am really excited to. Everyone says amazing things about her and I am thrilled to be touring with her because, well it’s Doro! Who wouldn’t be excited. I think it’s going to be a great experience, especially since we’re going to be sharing a bus with them,” Mayhem said, adding that it’s not so much that she respects Doro for being a pioneer for women in metal, but because she is such an accomplished artist, with an impressive three-decade career.
While she still gets questions about ‘women in metal’, Mayhem brushes them off with no bitterness or acrimony.
“I always think it’s funny when people ask me if it’s weird being a girl in the metal industry. It’s like, shouldn’t it be based on my voice and what I am saying with my music? Okay, yes if someone thinks I’m cute along the way, great. But if not, it doesn’t matter. And I don’t throw myself out there to be objectified. My style is just the style that I like. I can either wear baggy t-shirts with skulls and spikes all over them, or I can wear something with lace and fishnets, because it’s just the style I like on that particular day. And I think it’s amazing that Doro has been able to be herself and do what she wants for so long and is taken as a serious artist today. I really respect her career and hope I can do something similar,” Mayhem said.
“I see so many female fronted or all-female hard rock and metal bands out there so I don’t really know why people still ask those questions. If you ask me who my greatest influences are, it’s not just girls. I didn’t go out of my way to seek out female artists, I just liked who I liked and didn’t think about the guys versus girls thing. To me it’s about what you’re singing, what you’re saying and what you sound like.”
Mayhem began taking various lessons from age four or five and lived in a home where music was played all the time. At some point, her mom tired of the kiddie music and just started throwing the radio on.
“She got sick of all the Sesame Street tapes so she put on the rock station and at the time grunge was the big thing, so soon Alice In Chains and Nirvana became my baby music. As I got older my tastes got heavier and heavier and heavier until it was serious metal. Even though I am trained in many styles of music and can write in many styles, the genre I am most passionate about as a fan as well as a musician is hard rock and metal. Even before I was a teenager I knew I wanted to do hard rock and metal and so I put all my training and practise into that. I have always known exactly what I wanted to do, and have never had a fallback plan of any kind,” she said, adding that bands like Live, KoRn and Disturbed were also early influences, before she then stepped back a couple of decades and immersed herself in the classic sounds of the likes of Alice Cooper, Ozzy and Judas Priest.
Besides her current abbreviated American tour with Doro, Mayhem said she would really like to come up to Canada to perform.
“We’re releasing the album up there too and, even though I have been all over the world, I have never been to Canada. And I need to go because I know so many people there and you guys have great taste in music and it’s my taste. I feel like it would only make sense for me to go there, so I am going to work on it,” she said.
In the interim, hard rock and metal fans can check out Madame Mayhem and her music at http://madamemayhem.com.
- Jim Barber is a veteran award-winning journalist and author based in Napanee, ON, who has been writing about music and musicians for a quarter of a century. Besides his journalistic endeavours, he now works as a communications and marketing specialist. Contact him at jimbarberwritingservices@gmail.com.
