When Siobhan Fahey quit the fluffy dance-pop trio Bananarama, she had something to prove. "You got absolutely no indication from Bananarama of where my real tastes lay," she says.
Departing Bananarama, Fahey began recording demos with Los Angeles songwriter Richard Feldman, who lives across the street from Fahey and her husband, producer and Eurythmics co-founder Dave Stewart. Feldman introduced Fahey to singer-guitarist Marcella Detroit, who also wrote Eric Clapton's "Lay Down Sally". With Feldman as producer, Fahey and Detroit formed Shakespear's Sister, taking their name from the title of a Smiths song, itself based on an essay by Virginia Woolf. On Sacred Heart, Shakespear's Sister's sinuous and funky debut, Fahey shows a gift for the saucy double-entendre, and Detroit's helium-high harmonies prove an apt foil for her low, sexy murmur. Both Sacred Heart and its first single, "You're History", were hits in the UK, but Shakespear's Sister has yet to conquer America. Fahey knows it's an uphill battle. "What I'm doing now probably wouldn't appeal to Bananarama fans," she says, "and the people it would appeal to probably wouldn't buy Bananarama records, so I've got lots of prejudice to overcome." Despite massive success, Fahey tired of Bananarama and left the group early last year. ("You're History" is her fare-thee- well.) Although Stewart's support gave Fahey the self-confidence to start a new project by herself, he had nothing to do with the album beyond occasional mixing hints. "I needed to do it on my own," Fahey says. "I needed to work in an environment that, for once, I was in control of." Michael Azerrad Reprinted w/o permission.
