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Sound of hedonism
By Eric R. Danton
Hartford Courant
Chantal Claret is delighted to learn that someone has described her band, Morningwood, as “decadent.” But she’s not sure she agrees.
“It’s a little too classy,” she says by phone from the back of a van on its way to Buffalo, N.Y., where Morningwood starts a tour. “I’d say more hedonistic. I think we’re a really hedonistic band.”
Indeed, Morningwood is drawn to the naughty side of sexy on trashy, fun songs like “Take Off Your Clothes.” Even when the titles are subtler, the lyrics aren’t : “Can I crawl in bed with you?” Claret sings on “Babysitter.” “I’ll let you stay up real late/And do what you wanna do.” She’s probably not talking about watching late-night TV, either, especially after she declares, “Your momma ... shouldn’t let me baby-sit.”
“Honestly, I don’t purposely write dirty songs,” Claret, 23, says. “To me none of them are dirty; they’re all really sweet. They’re love songs. They’re lust songs.”
Claret has been writing songs since she was a teen, but she hadn’t performed any of them until she was at a birthday party in 2001 where the guests were all asked to sing a song. Pedro Yanowitz was also at the party, and the drummer-turned-bassist was so impressed with Claret’s voice that he suggested they write songs together.
“It’s not necessarily premeditated, but it’s honest,” she says. “Work goes into it. Some stuff happens off the cuff; some stuff you have to plan out. It’s a show like any other show, on Broadway or whatever.”
She attributes her onstage showmanship to her mother, an art dealer with a knack for entertaining. Mom has been supportive of Morningwood, which released its full-length debut last month. Claret and Yanowitz co-wrote most of the songs, with her adding lyrics to musical ideas he would present. Although her lyrics tend to revisit certain themes, Claret says it just sort of happened that way.
“We’re not trying to be provocative for the sake of being provocative,” she says. “I’m just trying to be honest; I’ve always had a one-track mind of sorts.”
She also has a healthy sense of humor about it all, which shows in the songs.
“It’s the best kind of sexuality, the humorous kind. To me, humor is sexy,” Claret says. “I never want to take myself too seriously, ever. I take what I do seriously, and I take music seriously, but it’s fun.”
