Kat Bjelland,
singer/
guitarist of
Babes in
Toyland, is in
the midst of
putting
together an
album inspired
by the comic
book
Witchblade for
DreamWorks, which will feature her
collaborating with such artists as
Girls Against Boys, Kim Fox, the
Melvins, Lydia Lunch, Arto Lindsay,
Jim Thirlwell of Foetus, Chris
Vrenna, Ogre of Skinny Puppy, Cibo
Matto, Mimi Goese, and Subcircus, in
addition to a Babes In Toyland track
or two.
The album, which is due in April,
isn't a soundtrack per se -- there
are no plans at the moment for a
movie to be made based on the comic
book, which is created by Top Cow and
distributed by Image, Todd
McFarlane's company. (McFarlane is
the creator of the comic book Spawn,
which was recently made into a movie
with a soundtrack.)
"Witchblade is the story of a
sexy, smart New York cop [named
Sarah], who's a super heroine," says
Vrenna, who co-wrote and produced
approximately six songs on the
compilation with Bjelland, and who's
an admitted comic book addict. ("I
have 8 zillion Spawn toys," he says.)
"She falls into this magical gauntlet
type weapon thing called a witchblade
and it becomes part of her. It's
cool. It's dark, but not as dark as
Spawn."
As for the album, Bjelland is
pretty much writing the bulk of the
material and collaborating either by
singing or playing guitar on most of
the tracks on the album with the
other bands. "It's weird, and cool,"
says Vrenna of the music on the
album. "My stuff is electronic, but
in a dark, lo-fi way. The Melvins are
doing their thing, Kim's song is
really beautiful -- it's like an
acoustic ballad -- the Arto Lindsay
song is very world- beat- sounding,
which works well because anyone who
follows the [Witchblade] story knows
that Sarah spent time in Brazil."
The idea for the project came from
Tim Carr, an A&R executive at
DreamWorks, who also signed and
worked with Babes in Toyland at
Reprise. "Last year, I went to a
comic book convention in Las Vegas on
my way to Minneapolis," says Carr. "I
was trying to find a way to do
something with comic books just
because I like them, and I approached
some of the more indie- minded
companies with the idea of doing a
soundtrack with no movie. At the
convention I bought the first eight
[Witchblades] and got to Minneapolis,
and it was Kat's birthday. I had to
go to this party and didn't have a
gift, so I gave it to her. When I
asked her
later if she
liked it, she
said it was
really cool,
so I mentioned
it to Top Cow,
and they liked
the idea. I didn't realize at the
time that the author of the book
name- checked Babes in Toyland in one
of them."
The original idea was to do an
album of duets, but what it's turning
out to be is an album of Bjelland
collaborating with most of the
artists. One track features Bjelland
and Fox dueting on "The Muderess,"
which Carr describes as "a blood-
curdling tale sung in little girl
voices." The Girls Against Boys track
features the band with a variety of
voices (20 in all), including
Bjelland, Hope Nichols of Sugarsmack,
Lydia Lunch, and Lori Barbero of
Babes In Toyland on a cover of the
Eagles' "Witchy Woman," done at a
Black Sabbath pace, says Carr. Then
there's a Subcircus track titled
"Kill This Distraction/ Kill Your
Reaction," which Carr calls a "weird
Russian folk dance with a Beatles'
'Walrus' sound."
The plan is for the album to be
released in three versions with
different artwork, possibly as an
enhanced CD, and with a 16-page comic
book attached that explains away a
secret ruins mystery that readers of
Witchblade will know about.