Allee Willis
Interviewed for Riffin' by Webjockey Heidi Patalano
Free Track Download: "Bubbles & Cheesecake-Its A Woman Thang"
Check out Allee Willis' Rifflist: Top Ten
You may not have heard of Allee Willis, but chances are, whether you've watched syndicated television (she was nominated for an Emmy for writing the theme song for the sitcom "Friends"), heard the music of the 2006 hit musical "The Color Purple" (she was Tony nominated for co-composing the music) or just turned on the radio (she's written over 500 hundred pop songs, including hits like Earth, Wind and Fire's "September" and the Pointer Sister's "Neutron Dance" in addition to collaborating with Bob Dylan, Herbie Hancock and James Brown) a piece of Ms. Willis' art has touched your life.
As an artist, set designer, songwriter and Internet pioneer — Allee Willis is, as she herself wryly states, "the world's best kept secret." Riffin' chats with the underground icon about, well, as much as we can fit in 45 minutes. From the art of crafting a pop song to her unabashed adoration of junk food and kitsch art, Willis spills the beans.
Photo Credit: Maryanne Bilham
Riffin': Your new single "It's A Woman Thang" from your latest project, Bubbles and Cheesecake, a collaboration between you and singer Holly Palmer, is obviously about the empowerment of women. What lead you to want to get that message out?
Allee Willis: It's definitely about empowerment in women but the overall message that I've been obsessed with for my entire career is empowerment of everyone. The one I use as an example is a song called, "Neutron Dance" by the Pointer Sisters. I actually was named one of the most dangerous of persons living in the United States by the Russian government. I was singled out with Prince as being the two most dangerous people in rock and roll. The Russians completely mistranslated it as neutron bomb, as if I preached the inevitability of nuclear war. That song was really about, if your life is completely falling apart, it's up to you to do something about it. It's just a matter of making a different decision than you may have and taking your life into your own hands, because someone could push the button tomorrow and the world could explode, so you owe it to yourself to have the best life possible.
Photo Credit: Maryanne Bilham
Riffin': What was the song-writing process like in writing music for "The Color Purple" as opposed to writing pop songs?
Allee Willis: It's completely different. It's absolutely and thoroughly, completely different. A lot of times when musicals fail when they're written by pop songwriters, it's because they don't respect that difference. I can see how someone could say that because I was not a fan of musicals before. I thought, other than the real classic ones, they were exceptionally corny. But I also felt, you can't just come in there with your own ideas and not take into account why people love a particular medium. With Broadway, what I learned almost immediately was that seasoned theater audiences had expectations. They look for things in those songs in the same way that in a pop song - you can learn all the rules and then you can throw 90% of the rules out to write a distinctive song - there's a couple that you can't throw out, like if you don't have a chorus built into a song, you are not going to have a hit and if you wait three minutes to get to that chorus, you're not going to have a radio hit. There were conventions like that in theater songs that you really had to learn to respect. In the second song, you have to reveal who the lead character is and what it is they are searching for.
Riffin': Since "The Color Purple" has been such a huge success, are you interested in writing another musical?
Allee Willis: I have mixed feelings about it. On the one hand, it's my favorite thing I've ever done. I was extraordinarily lucky to work on something as completely incredible as "The Color Purple." The bar is set so high. These things take years to write. This one took us five years to write. All I'm ever told is that that is a short time. You're collaborating with hundreds of people. In the beginning it's just you but at the end, the guy that does the wigs has as much say as the composer does. You have to stick another song in because there's not enough time to change the wig.
Photo Credit: Maryanne Bilham
Riffin': So you're from Detroit, home of the second most famous Coney Island hot dog.
Allee Willis: I am the strongest proponent of junk-food you will ever meet in your life. I am unabashedly proud of my proclivities.
Riffin': What's a favorite of yours?
Allee Willis: Well my absolute favorite is a tuna fish sandwich but instead of bread, potato chips. I do love hot dogs, I have to say, but not the sauerkraut. Candies, Baby Ruth, Butterfingers, southern fried chicken. I have recipes where I'll coat them in sugar frosted flakes and cover the frosted flakes in blue food coloring. It's the bionic chicken. I would rather eat in a diner than Spago.
Riffin': You mention on your web site, your aesthetic of kitsch and when I looked at some of your set designs, the first thing I thought of was Pee-Wee's Playhouse
Allee Willis: We were best friends for a long time. I met [my partner] Prudence through Paul [Reubens]. Paul and I were inseparable for years and had identical taste. A lot of kitsch stuff is homemade and are kitschy because they veer off towards someone's self-expression but it may not be mass pop self-expression. There's something that doesn't work about it on that level. To me the kitsch stuff shows very strong individual taste and that it was off and someone went ahead and made it whether it was going to be popular or not. Kitsch stuff has a great sense of humor to it and it is very much a part of pop culture because it's trying to capitalize on a trend but doing it wrong and in a very individual way.
Photo Credit: Maryanne Bilham
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