Mariah Carey Discusses Her Secret Nineties Alt-Rock Album on ‘Colbert’
Mariah Carey discussed the alt-rock album she made in secret during the mid-Nineties during an interview with Stephen Colbert on The Late Show Monday, September 28th.
In a tweet over the weekend, Carey teased an excerpt from her new memoir, The Meaning of Mariah Carey, in which she explained that, while working on her own 1995 smash, Daydream, she was simultaneously writing, producing and recording songs for an album called Someone’s Ugly Daughter by a band called Chick. On top of all that, Carey noted to Colbert, she also designed the record’s very Nineties album artwork.
Carey said she made the Chick record “for laughs,” adding, “Because [alt-rock] was such a popular genre at the time, I was like, ‘Well, I have a full band here, let’s just do something and I’ll just make up some nonsense and sing it.’”
Fun fact: I did an alternative album while I was making Daydream ? Just for laughs, but it got me through some dark days. Here's a little of what I wrote about it in #TheMeaningOfMariahCarey ? S/O to my friend Clarissa who performs the lead w/ me as a hidden layer #Chick #TMOMC pic.twitter.com/Re23t5whcd
— Mariah Carey (@MariahCarey) September 27, 2020
The record, unsurprisingly, flummoxed Carey’s label. She was able to complete it with the help of a friend, Clarissa Dane, who recorded vocals over Carey’s and contributed a new song. But Carey’s desire to make a Chick music video, dressed in full costume to see if anyone noticed it was her, didn’t go as planned.
“That got stifled by certain people at the label, so I kind of had to abandon the project,” Carey admitted. “But I’m kind of happy that, at this moment, the fans are actually hearing it. Because it’s me doing an accent, doing an imitation of someone that I created that doesn’t actually exist.”
