A NAME like Suddenly, Tammy! is bound to draw attention and, not surprisingly, one of the first questions the alternative rock band gets asked is: 'How on earth did you come up with such a name?' And, the answer, believe it or not, is Tammy Bakker, wife of fallen United States evangelist, Jimmy. The three-person band - siblings Beth (piano, lead vocals) and Jay Sorrentino (drums), and Ken Heitmuller (bass) - were trying to think up a name when Mrs Bakker flashed across their television screen. 'She was crying and her make-up was streaming down her face and a friend teased Beth, who does not wear much make-up, that she should try using thick make-up like Tammy,' said Heitmuller, from New York. 'And, Beth laughed and said that if she did, she would be 'suddenly, Tammy'. We were looking for a name and thought that sounded quite good. We added the punctuation marks later.' The Pennsylvanian band has just released their second album We Get There When We Do, their first on a major label, and are still a little overwhelmed by their latest career development. 'Cool, it's not often that we get to speak to someone who is so far away in the world,' Heitmuller added, when told the call was from Hong Kong. 'That's the great part of being with a big label . . . to know that our albums are being sold in places like Japan, which to us is the most exotic place at the farthest corner of the world.' The members of Suddenly, Tammy! began their musical journey in Lancaster, which Heitmuller describes as a 'small country town'. Beth, 27, and Jay, 28, started playing to Ray Charles and Carole King at the age of five. But it was not until 1989 that the trio got together to make the music they wanted to. 'We had always known each other because my brother used to go to school with them,' said 24-year-old Heitmuller. 'We'd get together sometimes but Jay was on the road with cover bands, Beth was away at college in Boston, and I was still in school.' But the need to find 'a completely original sound' brought the musicians together again after Beth returned to Lancaster after finishing college in 1989. 'It was purely for pleasure,' said Beth. 'We really had no idea where it was all heading. We all had day jobs; the music was something we did for its own sake.' But Jay and Heitmuller got together to set up a four-track studio in the latter's basement, where they finally recorded a four song EP, Spokesmodel. They hand-coloured the cassette covers and took them to the record stores themselves - and were surprised with the enthusiastic response. This led to a one-off self-titled release with New York indie label SpinArt. The album took almost 18 months, Jay explained, because they were doing everything themselves and 'doing local shows at the same time [they] were recording'. So when the offer from large recording label Warner Music came, 'suddenly, we were able to do so many things because they had so much at their disposal', Heitmuller said. 'And we were recording at Bearsville, which is a top studio with a long waiting list.' They had the freedom to choose a producer for We Get There When We Do and they were thrilled when Wearne Livesey, who had produced for The The and Julian Cope, agreed to the project. 'It felt a little strange after doing it all on our own for so long, to suddenly hand part of it over to someone else,' Heitmuller added. 'But we got to trust Wearne and his instincts very quickly and it helped free us up to just be the artists.' And, the result was that the album was recorded in five weeks.. Being 'free to be artists' helped, of course, but Heitmuller said: 'We were also rushed by the fact that the studio was fully booked and we were only allowed those three weeks to track. 'Wearne originally wanted to record the album in London because he wanted to be with his family but we preferred to do it in the US. In the end, we compromised. We recorded it in New York and then went over to London for two weeks to do the remixing.' The chance to travel to London was another perk of signing with a big label, said Heitmuller, who described himself as a 'small town country boy'. Besides that the cash advance from the contract has also helped him and Jay update their studio, The CatBox, to a 16-track one. 'But we have just bought a 140-year-old church parish and we'll be refurbishing it to turn it into a full 24-track studio,' he added. The songs of Suddenly, Tammy! mainly feature Beth's angular vocals with the lads acting as back-up. As such, most of the songs and lyrics come from her. 'It's only natural that she puts the words to the music since they come out of her mouth,' Heitmuller said. 'She does the original compositions and then we re-work them until we are satisfied.' Rock aficionados have made much ado about the lack of a guitar in the band, which has been described as having 'the feel of Throwing Muses, The Hothouse Flowers and Everything But The Girl while not really sounding like any of them'. 'It is not on purpose that there is no guitar,' Heitmuller said. 'It just so happened that Beth plays the piano, Jay plays the drums and I play bass. But Jay and I often do our composing using a guitar. I mean we're not great guitar players but the instrument does figure in our music.' Beth added: 'People want a big dramatic sound but I prefer simple music that explores one instrument or one vocal at a time. 'People used to say, 'you sound really good' but now you need some guitars.' But Suddenly, Tammy! doubt that they will be looking for a new guitarist just to please their critics. 'A good song is a good song with any instrument,' Beth said. Entertainment pages are edited by Winnie Chung, tel: 2565-2216 fax: 2562-2485
