4 non blondes seemed to come out of nowhere.
On top of that they didn’t necessarily fit in with any of the popular music scenes at
the time.
The media fixated on the fact that they were an all-girl group early on in their career.
Their sole 1992 record bigger, better, faster and more went platinum selling over a million
copies in America and producing what was both one of the biggest hit songs and one of the
most maligned songs of the 90’s ‘What’s Up.’
But years later it would come out that despite the band’s success.
From the early days of their success it became apparent this group wasn’t going to last.
Frontwomen Linda Perry would boast to the LA Times in 1993 “We thrive on being unpredictable.
We get a kick out of breaking every rule we can.”Today let’s explore whatever happened
to 4 non blondes.
Frontwomen and principal songwriter the half brazilian-half portuguese Linda Perry would
be born in Springfield, Mass., Perry would spend her formative years on the west coast
in San Diego.
Within the first two years of her life she had failing kidneys and was told by doctors
she may not make a full recovery, but she rebounded.
Despite her health problems, she still had a rough childhood telling the LA Times.
“I was a confused kid, going in 20 directions at once and going nowhere.”
Describing her childhood as unhappy.
Perry would soon find music thanks to brother John who was a well versed guitarist.
She wanted to learn guitar like him.
As a kid she used to lock herself in the bathroom with a guitar, a taper player and sing.
Her teenage years proved to be turbulent as she questioned her sexuality and felt different
from other girls and almost took her own life overdosing on her mother’s pills from the
bathroom.
It was after this close call she brushed aside any reservations she had about who she was
a
That’s not to say the road ahead in her musical journey was easy.
Her parents would soon divorce resulting in her living with her mother and being thrown
into poverty.
It was during this time Perry opted to live on the street where she got introduced to
drugs.
She would admit to doing everything but heroin, but it would be another close call that resulted
in her getting sober, when she fell off a building and broke her collar bone..
Perry’s first few bands didn’t go well after she was fired from her first two bands
because according to her bandmates they didn’t like her voice.
She would take a short break from music and move to San Franscisco and the age of 21 in
1986.
The move seemed to reignite her passion for music and give her more confidence telling
The LA Times.
“Suddenly this big voice came out of me--as if by magic.
I was saner then so I thought to myself, ‘Why not do something with this voice?’
At the time I felt like I had lived 40 years.
It was time to grow up and get a career.”
Bassist Christa Hillhouse and guitarist Shaunna Hall would be roomates in San Francisco and
met drummer Wanda Day when they joined a band she was playing in.
The three members eventually broke off and started their own three person band.
The three members came from different musical backgrounds and had already had some experience
playing around san francisco.
Day played in a reggae and ska punk band before landing a lucrative gig as a top 40 cover
band who played at a Holiday Inn.
Hillhouse meanwhile would play in at least 14 different bands by 1989.
It wasn’t too long after this Hall and Hillhouse came across Linda Perry at the club Nightbreak..
Hillhouse would describe the fateful night that changed her career revealing on her website
“One night Shaunna and I wandered into the Nightbreak and caught Linda playing a solo
set.
We were blown away by her raw power and emotion.
She was singing a song called “Down on Your Face” – an over the top anthem born of
rip-out-your-heart honesty, brutal and raw in it’s confession.
Linda held a force over the crowd that was obvious, and I could only imagine how powerful
it would be to blend strong instrumentation with such a stunning personality.”
After witnessing Perry’s performance the pair asked her to join the band she agreed.
This would be the beginning of 4 Non Blondes.The first incarnation of the band featured all
women, The band’s music would blend together the styles of acoustic folk, funk & old-fashioned
rock n’ roll.
According to the Morning call newspaper the band’s name came from an eent that happened
San Francisco's North Beach area, when Hillhouse was sitting on a park bench and a little blond
boy in a sailor costume walked by with his blond mom and dad . Hillhouse would reveal
to the paper that the boy saw a piece of pizza in a trash bin right next to where she was
sitting.
There’s another version of the story that all the band members were sitting on the park
bench and not just hillhouse.
The mother told him not to touch it because it was dirty from the pigeons and the people,
but she was staring right at Hillhouse.
the non-blonde.
Coincidentally enough the group’s first rehearsal was scheduled for October 17, 1989
the same day as a major earthquake in San Francisco.
The rehearsal was planned for 6 p.m.& the earthquake hit at 5:15 p.m. Obviously they
canceled their first rehearsal.
The band’s first gig would be a benefit show in early 1990.
While the band had a lot of chemistry Linda Perry was still used to doing her own thing
telling an interviewer “For the first couple of months I had a hard time getting to practice
because I was so used to being solo.
I could practice whenever I wanted, pick up my guitar and go do whatever I wanted.
I had to snap out of it and think Linda, this is a band now, this is not your own time at
your own convenience – you have to get it together.
I’m not used to people relying on me.
Yeah it was hard at the beginning.”
While Shauna Hall was the early driving force, that soon changed as frontwomen linda Perry
took a more prominent role in songwriting and the spotlight.
The band were soon were playing sold out gigs at local hotspot Nightbreak with one of the
first big breaks happening when the band opened for Bob Mould at the Warfield theater
Six months after forming the band developed a good following around san fransico and they
soon developed a base in the hate asbhury area of the city.
They would buy clothes from a local thrift store named the Wasteland and had friends
at the hate ashbury music shop who helped them out with instruments.
As their shows starting generating some revenues it helped pay for studio time and allowed
them to record a demo which they then began selling at shows.
But it wasn’t enough money to quit their day jobs.
By late 1990 and early 1991 the momentum kept building around the band & they were being
featured prominently in the local press including the san francisco chronicle.
The band had their sights set on nabbing a major recording contract for two reasons:
the distribution & it gave them the opportunity to quit their jobs but they were also conflicted.
The members were all gay, but some members were more comfortable being open about it
than others.
You have to remember this was the 90’s, so itw as a lot different than it is now.
Also, the band was worried that signing to a major label would turn some of their original
fans against them.
In fact Linda Perry would admit years later that some of their gay fanbase were angered
when the group started playing straight clubs and developing a straight following.
According to christa hillhouse, linda perry and Shauna Hall tried to dress more feminine
in an effort to get the attention of major record labels, thinking that once they got
a deal they could go back to being themselves.
It was this attitude that created tension with hillhouse.
By February of 1991 publications around the city hailed 4 non blondes as the best unsigned
act in the city.
Christa Hillhouse looked would tell songfacts the reality of being pursued by labels "We
did really well in San Francisco, we got a lot of press and we were selling out all our
shows.
With the labels, once one of them looks at you, they all jump in line.
A&R people are so brainless - if you're getting attention because people are coming to your
shows, they'll check you out, but once one of them approaches you, they all approach
you…Even by the end of the '80s, the record companies had really switched to where they
were looking for that band that had that one hit.
They wanted one hit, and then who knows after that - they didn't really develop acts anymore.
When we got signed, they knew 'What's Up' sounded like a hit."
By May of 1991 they finally found their home at interscope.
The foreshadowing of the band’s eventual demise happened pretty early on during negotiations
with Interscope with Hillhouse writing on her website “the A&R guy from Interscope
Records, and his assistant Leslie Gerard were at the show and we were to all have lunch
afterwards with our lawyer and our manager in tow.
As we prepared to leave the Haight for the restaurant Shaunna and I noticed Linda being
whisked away in a limo.
Linda being singled out in this way made us both take pause; the foreshadowing couldn’t
have been more obvious if we were making a B-movie.
When we met up at the restaurant I remember thinking “divide and conquer”.
I think they would have signed Linda to her own contract right then and there had she
been willing.
It wasn’t too long after signing with interscope that their drummer Wanda was fired.
The band concluded that her playing wasn’t suited to performing ballads so she was let
go and replaced with Dawn Richardson who came as a recommendation from a friend of the band.
The band’s label suggested the band work with Prince and Peter Gabriel producer David
Tickle Recording the group’s debut album exposed
more fractures in the group.
Guitarist Shaunna Hall’s playing wasn’t up to par according to her bandmates and she
would be fired a session player was brought in with their first male member Louis Metoyer.
Hall would give her recollection of events telling the San Fransico Chronicle in 1993
“I had a choice.
I was asked to let a session guy come in.
I probably could have stayed with the group.
But I couldn’t do that.
I was a very young musician with little studio experience.
Recording was a hardship for me.
But I don’t feel like I got any support from my friends.
It came down to a big money and ego trip.
Linda had a dream and she wasn’t going to let anything get in the way, even if that
meant writing off your guitar player.”
Mark Ryden would be chosen to do the cover art, he had worked with warrant.
He provided a few concepts including school children before landing on the final coer
art.
Louis would opt not to tour with the band and the band had to search for a guitarist
to hit the road with and they found someone who worked at their managers office a player
named ROger Rocha.
Their debut record Bigger, Better, Faster, More!
Would be released in October of 1992.
The band hit the road in the spring of 1992 and the first song the band released as a
single was Dear Mr. President, which one texas radio station refused to play because they
deemed it as an attack on then sitting president George Bush Sr, but the song had nothing to
do with that according to Christ Hillhouse who told songfacts George Sr. was president
at the time, and we were having a hard time getting airplay in certain places.
It’s kind of funny because it wasn’t about the president in office, it was about the
hierarchy of power and government.
It wasn’t specifically pointed at him.
I remember being really surprised when it happened.
It’s a song about looking around and seeing problems and feeling like there’s someone
in charge who is responsible.”
The band would hit it big in Europe first with the single What’s Up topping the songs
chart across the continent and peaking at number 14 on the hot 100 charts.
The song has amassed over a billion views on youtube.
The group’s label would tell the LA times that there plan was to build a base on college
radio and then release What’s Up as a single stateside but that plan fell by the wayside
as the band’s popularity grew quicker than the label expected.
What’s up would be a song that was written before 4 non blondes formed.
It was written by Perry when she was playing solo shows in San Francisco.
Another struggling musician at the time who knew perry was third eye blind’s stephan
jenkins.
Jenkins and Perry would play their songs for one another with Perry playing jenkins what’s
up and jenkins playing perry semi charmed life.
The band wasn’t happy with the version they had recorded with producer David Tickle with
new lyrics and Interscope head jimmy iovine agreed.
Perry was also upset that Tickle received a producing credit on the song with Perry
telling Tape Op magazine, "The producer (David Tickle) had no sense
of what the song was.
I went to the label and said 'This song sucks.
This is not the song I wrote.'
I grabbed the band during a break and we went to The Record Plant in Sausalito.
I started moving things around.
I was in the middle of vocals when David Tickle showed up.
I was annoyed...we were already done with the frigging song.
We comped the vocal and mixed it that night....
That is the version that blew up all over the world.
I've told the story enough that people know that David Tickle did not produce that song.
It was me."[7]
By he spring of 1993 the band made their first major television appearance performing on
the arsenio hall show and by the summer of that year that band opened for neil young
and pearl jam on their european tour followed by an opening slot for aerosmith across north
america and europe once again.
It would turn out steven tyler’s daughter liv had asked her dad to let 4 non blondes
open for them.
By early 1994 the band was still riding high off the success of their debut album, but
another lineup changed happened within the group.
It was during this period that we fired their guitarist Roger Rocha who according to Hillhouse
was overwhelmed at the responsibility of being in the band and whose live performances sometimes
were not up to par.
The same year the band contributed to th soundtrack for the adam sandler film airheads where they
would do a cover of the van halen song i’m the one.
They would enlist Jim Mankey to play on the track and tour with them through Europe once
again.
By the end of 1994 the band was exhausted but hillhouse would admit “We secured Dave
Jerden (Alice in Chains, Red Hot Chili Peppers) as producer.
I felt like taking some time off, I was somewhat exhausted and missed having a social life.
But our lives were on someone else’s schedule at that point, so I buckled down and prepared
myself for the next project.
I had no real clue that it was the beginning of the end.”
By late 1994 the band rented a mansion in Los angeles to begin work on their second
album.
Song ideas were flowing and the band was already working in the studio and even filmed some
of the footage of them iand partook in interviews.
but during the recording of their sophomore record Linda perry let it be known to her
bandmates that she was done with the group.
She wanted to become a solo artist and had reservations about the style of music the
band was playing.
She would tell the Advocate in 1995 after her departure “We had this what’s up song
which was very poppy and we felt we had to follow that style on our next album.
But I didn’t want to make that kind of record again.
I wanted to play weird atmospheric music.”
She would reveal in the same interview she burst in tears midway during the recording
of the group’s second album in front of Tom Wherman who signed the band for Interscope..
Much to her surprise interscope wanted to sign her as a solo artist . The band had some
commitments in early 1995 they fulfilled and called it quits.
Following the dissolution of the group Christ Hillhouse would play in several bands while
attending college.
Dawn Richardson would continue to play with other bands with Richardson also becoming
a music teacher and penning several books on percussion.
r working in interactive media.
She currently lives in Berkeley, California.
By the summer of 1995 as Linda Perry was working on her first solo album for Interscope telling
the LA Times why she left saying\: I just found myself really unmotivated.
Have you ever been in a situation where you’re doing something very safe and everything’s
going right and there’s really no reason to change it, but something inside you is
saying, “I don’t know, there’s something not right about this,” and it eats at you
and it eats at you?
That’s what was going on.
Something just didn’t feel right.
Musically, I didn’t want to scream.
I didn’t want to play the music we were playing.
In the same interview she revealed she that despite her lack of enthusiasm for her former
band she was shocked that 4 non blondes wasn’t more commercially successful saying A: I don’t
mean to sound like I’m gonna sound right now, but I kind of thought we would have done
better than we did.
I was hoping that we would actually walk away with some respect and some credibility in
the music industry, and what we got was the 5 million records.
To me credibility and respect is worth more than 5 million records.
By August of 1996 Linda Perry released her debut solo album In Flight and it was a huge
flop selling a paltry 11,000 copies four months after it’s release.
Linda Perry and Christ HIllhouse would reunite in 1999 in support of Perry supporting her
second album opening for Bryan Adams.
By the new millennium Perry turned her attention to producing and songwriting working with
a whose who of pop music including Pink, Christinia Agulera James, Enrique Igleaseas and miley
cyrus.
She would even be inducted into the songwriters hall of fame in 2015
One year earlier in May of 2014 4 Non Blondes reunited for a benefit show called “An Evening
For Women.
Celebrating Arts, Music and Equality.’ in Los Angeles.
It marked the first time the band had performed together in 20 years. ]