EXCLUSIVES

Words by Ron Mwangaguhunga
Image Provided by Legere

Phoebe Legere is a complex tangle of anachronisms. On the one hand, Phoebe is a Mayflower descendant, and on the other, she has a Native American grandmother ("That is me. That is my music. That is who my ancestors are and you can hear it in my music"). Phoebe is also a classically-trained musician with a four-octave range as well as a blues scholar with influences as far-ranging as the Japanese bamboo flute and Cajun music. Phoebe is a former Playboy model and a polymath who has strong opinions on the way the media depicts women and politicians influence people.

Perhaps you know Phoebe Legere through her campy roles with independent film maker David Troma in Toxic Avenger II and III? Or maybe you've seen Phoebe's breakthrough performance in 'The King of New York.' If neither of those are the case, maybe you caught one of Phoebe's memorable live performances around the country. Endlessly experimenting, Phoebe Legere was Thinking Differently long before it was fashionable.

Phoebe has been described in various media reports as: a singer, composer, performer, keyboardist, accordionist, cellist, guitarist, and an all-around avant-garde artist and conceptualist. That's not all, she reminds us: "I make films and I have my own TV show called Roulette TV (in New York City). Check out www.roulette.org."

"I am Native," Phoebe tells MacDirectory. "I bleach my hair so it isn't that obvious, but my grandmother was a Penobscot Indian. She taught me how to take care of people, how to be generous, how to heal with music and how to be fearless. My grandmother was very powerful. I have two new CD's coming out soon, one is Native American with 2002 Grammy nominee Ken Littlehawk http://www.mp3.com/godblessamerica and the other is with Morgan Powell."

"I am (also) in a band with Zeena Parkins (Bjork), Ikue Morie (DNA, Cobra) Jim Staley (John Zorn, Tone Road Ramblers). The new recording of this band will have a two week installation at Engine 27 on Walker St. in Soho in September. My narration is a poem I wrote while in the Amazon, researching critically endangered species."

Phoebe's exotic travels extend far beyond the Amazon river basin. Legere was asked to accompany a National Geographic Expedition to Tibet. "I recently traveled to Tibet as a multimedia ethnomusicologist," Phoebe explains. "I made the first of a series of films I am doing about the Biological Hotspots of the World. See the film 'Tibet' at my website Phoebelegere.com. In three weeks I am going to the Galapagos."

Always in motion, Phoebe's love of the world and multimedia experimentation is infectious. One wonders, though, what is Phoebe Legere's legacy? What does the aim of Phoebe's work? "I am trying to aestheticize electronics. For instance, I am deeply involved in a new project called the V Link Keyboard... I spend all my time thinking about Digital Multimedia Performance. I teach it, my friends are all into it, that's what my smart artist friends do. If people aren't into technology -- science and art -- I get bored with them very quickly."

Of course, a woman with eclectic tastes like Phoebe Legere would have to be a Mac enthusiast.

"I do everything on a G4 Powerbook," Legere confided to MacDirectory. "I have a recording studio and a movie studio on my laptop. I get lovers and friends through the internet. I make records, I experiment, I make digital art and multimedia. I've been totally into computers since the mid 90's. I was into MP3's before anyone else in NY. My songs have been downloaded a million times. I sometimes have to work on PC or NT, but it always feels clumsy, and stupid and weird. Macs are like family. All musicians use Macs."

Phoebe's passion for Macs are only matched by her love of children. "I am working on the music for a movie about children with unbelievable congenital and acquired disabilities. Little darlings!! The movie is sponsored by the Rusk Institute of Rehabilitation medicine. I performed the title track from the movie tonight at a fund-raising charity dinner for Rusk and they loved it, man."

As the temperature tops 90 degrees at her apartment on the Lower East Side of Manhattan, Phoebe remained upbeat. "I have spent the entire day mixing these tracks on my laptop using it as a hard disk recorder (with the Protools free download for Mac). I have a Korg triton. The tracks sizzle."

"It is a miracle because in the old days -- like ten years ago precomputers -- I would have had to kiss some Recording studio owner's ass to get this done.

"Now, I just record it myself and it like totally rocks. I sat down at a perfectly tuned Steinway at the Water Club and played along with the tracks, and because its digital it all matched. I sang right on top of the vocal, which is track upon track I recorded of disabled kids singing the hook "I Can Do It."

"And, like, everybody was in tears. I did it for the kids." www.phoebelegere.com