It takes us long for a reason, but the end result is: we all completely believe in, not just every verse, every chorus, every bar is scrutinized, and that’s the result of what you’ll hear on this record.
I’m Dominique Crenn. I’m a chef, entrepreneur, artist, poet, human being. I have three restaurants in San Francisco: Atelier Crenn, Bar Crenn and Petit Crenn.
Nowadays I get complaints about long drum solos, but in those days they wanted me to keep on going so they could go over to the bar and have a drink.
Black music has become a commercial commodity. Live performances are not so accessible as they were previously. It use to be possible to go to the bar on the corner and hear music. It was available for a fifteen cent beer.
There’s a sort of magic and music to comedy. Some words, some numbers even, are funnier than others. A Caramac bar, for instance, is funnier than a Milky Way.
‘Animal House’ was my first movie, so I didn’t have anything to compare it to. I was a sight gag more than anything else. So I can’t say it was one of those things where your life changes. When the movie came out, I had to ask for the night off at the bar.
When I sing along with Britney Spears I will sing in an American accent. But eventually I found my own voice. My songs are so brutally honest, it would be alien to sing in any accent other than my own. Don’t get me wrong – I can imitate singers. I can do bar mitzvahs and weddings.
The success of Chandni Bar’ at the box office was a huge boost at that time of my career.
Our mother always raised the bar and believed in us. I am glad she made the sacrifices she did, and we honoured her sacrifices.
My family were wheeler-dealer class. They were their own bosses and very glamorous. We lived in a beautiful, big townhouse in Arklow, in Ireland, that we couldn’t afford to heat. My father had a business fitting bar furniture, and my mother is an antiques dealer.
The song ‘Almost Lover’ is very important to me, because when I wrote it, I threw everything away. That kind of set the bar as a writer, as a singer, as a person.
