Mariah Carey Had a Secret Alt-Rock Project in the ’90s
Pop legend Mariah Carey has been in the press of late with an autobiography scheduled to arrive this week, and with the requisite promotion of a tell-all book inevitably comes new revelations. To wit: the singer revealed in a tweet earlier this week that she recorded a secret alt-rock project in the ’90s!
Carey explained that she recorded an entire album’s worth of material on the side during the sessions for her 1995 release, Daydream, which contained the hits “Fantasy” and “Always Be My Baby.” She tweeted over the weekend:
“Fun fact: I did an alternative album while I was making Daydream. Just for laughs, but it got me through some dark days. Here’s a little of what I wrote about it in #TheMeaningOfMariahCarey. S/O to my friend Clarissa who performs the lead w/ me as a hidden layer #Chick#TMOMC“
Carey shared an excerpt from the book in an accompanying video clip:
“I’d bring my little alt-rock song to the band and hum a silly guitar riff. They would pick it up and we would record it immediately. It was irreverent, raw, and urgent, and the band got into it. I actually started to love some of the songs. I would fully commit to my character.
“I was playing with the style of the breezy-grunge, punk-light white female singers who were popular at the time. You know the ones who seemed to be so carefree with their feelings and their image. They could be angry, angsty, and messy, with old shoes, wrinkled slips, and unruly eyebrows, while every movie I made was so calculated and manicured. I wanted to break free, let loose, and express my misery — but I also wanted to laugh. totally looked forward to doing my alter-ego band sessions after ‘Daydream’ each night.”
The Clarissa that Carey mentions was the frontwoman of the band Chick. Chick released an album, Someone’s Ugly Daughter, in 1995 as well. and Carey claims to have co-authored some of those songs. While that work went uncredited, Rolling Stone points out that the liner notes for Someone’s Ugly Daughter, according to AllMusic, list Jay Healy, a frequent Carey collaborator, as an engineer.
Carey followed with another tweet vowing to unearth the original recordings, with her vocals, of what would end up becoming the Chick album:
“Fun fact 2: now that you’ve listened to Clarissa’s kick-ass lead vocals, I can tell you that I’m on a quest to unearth the version of this album with my lead vocals and will not stop until we find it! So happy that we get to experience this together lol!”
The Meaning of Mariah Carey comes out today, September 29; order it here!