THE BAND
MiMi FEROCIOUS, as the name implies, is pretty but loud, progressive but poppy, sensitive but with balls. Led by songstress Stephanie St. John, the New York-based rock troupe includes bassist David Wilson, guitarist Michael Preston and drummer David Ross.
The dramatic vocals of Freddie Mercury and the flair of PJ Harvey, the intricate song structures of Joni Mitchell and the pop sensibility of Elvis Costello, the progressive edge of Rush and the fun campiness of Blondie fuse into a cohesive, addictive and distinctive sound.
"Our songs don't aspire to fit into any particular genre-of-the-moment," says Preston. "We focus our energies on crafting and performing exquisite four-minute pop/rock marvels that can-and should-be listened to over and over again."
The MIMI FEROCIOUS story begins in 1998, when singer St. John, then an acoustic-guitar-wielding "folkie" in New York's anti-hoot scene, recruited Wilson to play bass on her three-song EP. Wilson infused the record with "The Brown Sound," a tasty bass groove you can feel in your innards.
"David saw more rock potential in my songs," St. John says. "We started jamming together and an entirely new sound came out, a sparse yet rhythmic sound that was all new."
The two took to the studio in 2001, recording a Stephanie St. John solo record, Cinderella's Dead. The debut drew praise from Indie Music Review, BeSonic.com, Collected Sounds and The Female Musician, which listed St. John among its Top Ten Female Musician's of 2002.
Chuck Eddy of The Village Voice raved: "Fuller post-Goth vibrato than the Lillith norm; more guitar, too, sometimes approximating an Arabian lilt. And better words, too…Stephanie insists she's not just another damn folkie. Between covering Rush live, helping out alt-rock bands and avant-garde composers, maybe she's right."
Meanwhile, Preston was playing guitar in the Brooklyn-based funk band SHAGG. The band had achieved critical acclaim, and in 2000 he won the John Lennon Songwriting Contest. He joined forces with St. John and Wilson the next year.
Says Preston, "My goal was to take Stephanie's sound in a more rock direction. MIMI FEROCIOUS combines all of our experience and rock know-how under a single, pulsating roof."
All they needed was a drummer. They found him in Bruce Springsteen's home town.
Manhattan native David Ross played the Lillith Fair tour with the band Jabber and was looking for a new band with similar pop sensibilities. He enlisted in 2003, and MIMI FEROCIOUS was born.
The band's debut album, 250 Times Sweeter Than Sugar, steps off from the eclecticism of Cinderella's Dead to a dare-we-say sweeter pop/rock expression.
"The new material is characterized by the same drama, the same theatrical elements that make Cinderella's Dead so compelling," explains drummer Ross.
"MIMI FEROCIOUS is very much a collaborative effort," says St. John. "I have no idea what will happen to my songs when I bring them to the band. I never fail to be completely floored and amazed at what the boys add."
Here's what critic Gail Worley has to say about demo tracks off the new record:
The band's transcendent version of Donna Summer's classic disco anthem "I Feel Love," the album's penultimate track, is featured in the indie film Veronika's Birthday, which premieres at the Brooklyn Academy of Music this fall. Says Worley, "Although covering this song might seem a daunting task to any singer less vocally gifted than Stephanie, she pulls it off beautifully-paying homage to Summer's immortal performance while truly making the song her own." Not to mention Wilson plays the bass part, a synthesizer in Summer's original, manually. 250 Times Sweeter Than Sugar is available now. Buy your copy today!As a preliminary taste of …Sugar, Stephanie's uncommonly pretty voice carries the shimmering pop ballad "Chariot" to new heights in her already impressive cache of accomplished songwriting. An established flare for whimsical lyrics shows up again on the breezy "Tupperwhere Sky," a reworking of the song "Soul River Tight" from Cinderella's Dead. "Tupperwhere Sky" features a distinctively New Wave influence permeating Michael's inventive guitar riffs, and Stephanie's finely integrated admiration for Blondie and Deborah Harry are in full evidence.
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