About a week ago Nicholas Tremulis expanded the family business. He was working on three new songs at Rax Trax Recording, a Lakeview studio owned by his longtime bandmate Rick Barnes, and he decided to have his nine-year-old daughter, Electra, sing backup on one of them, an R & B-meets-mariachi reworking of Edgar Eden’s gospel tune “Satan’s Jewel Crown.” “It’s her first microphone appearance,” says Tremulis. “There’s something cute and weird about hearing her little voice sing, ‘Satan’s jewel crown / I’ve worn it so long.’”
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Shortly after 52 Reasons debuted, Tremulis helped start The Eclectic Company, a two-hour program on WXRT he hosts every other Monday, alternating with Jon Langford. Tremulis had talked with the station about doing a “free-form music thing” since the late 90s, and the show gives him an opportunity to spin Gypsy jazz, punk, and blues all in one sitting. He’s also invited guests like David Johansen, Robbie Fulks, and (full disclosure) myself to play their own favorites.
Tremulis’s vocal style at the time was heavily influenced by R & B, a trait that confounded some of the labels that approached him. “I lost two record deals when they found out I was white,” he says. “Tommy Boy asked me if I could darken my pictures a little–I thought that was funny.” Tremulis eventually signed with Island Records, which released his 1985 self-titled debut and 1989’s More Than the Truth, but both albums were crippled by the effects-heavy, inorganic aesthetic of their time. Sales were weak, and Tremulis disowns the records now. “If I could buy every copy and start a big fire, I would,” he says. “They’ve haunted me ever since.”
To keep afloat in the years between releases, Tremulis does session and commercial work; he’s recorded with Corgan and Keith Richards and played on jingles for Bud Light and Nintendo. But his work on 52 Reasons, a winning assortment of tunes mixing bossa nova, reggae, Delta blues, and more, has him feeling optimistic and ambitious. Tremulis hopes to have enough material for four CDs by February: two discs of originals, one of covers, and one of spoken-word pieces. (“Satan’s Jewel Crown” kicks off a subset of 52 Reasons featuring reimagined 20s gospel tunes.) And though his cynicism about the record industry was a key inspiration for the project, he believes it might eventually attract a label. “People are willing to take a chance and check out a song,” he says. “It’s already exposed me to people that never would’ve had a chance to hear my music.”
