A Brokeheart Pro

15 years is a long time. It's a life-time for some people. 15 years ago when I first started reviewing records, I came across a cassette of Pink Mischief, the debut record of someone called Jeannette Katt. Right from the very first note I was hooked. Every single pop-rock song on this record was excellent and each one stood out from the other. Most of all it was Jeanette's kitten-ish voice that provided the allure. It was one part innocence and a bigger part wink and a nod. This was a girl that knew things. The girly voice belied the racy lyrics that suddenly caught your attention as each song went by. Example, from "Girl Noise": "I'm alone. And no one's home. I'm faithful to you. I rock alone. No boys. No toys. Just making girl noise." !!!!!!! Then you move onto "Wicked Little Wonder", "Can I Call You Daddy" and "Bound for Love" (with an emphasis on the bound if you get my drift). Needless to say, I couldn't turn off this record. One of the other impressive things about this record was the fact that surrounding every song were snippets of messages from Jeannette's answering machine, giving the whole project an intimate feel. I still play this awesome record every couple of months. 

Fast forward to late last year. I had been trying to find something on Jeannette on the Internet since 1992 to no avail. Finally a break. An eBay seller listed something about a Jeannette Kantzalis. One Google search later led me to the website of someone called A Brokeheart Pro. I went to the website with trepidation. No news in 15 years is not a good sign. She must have been a one-hit wonder. What if this new stuff was no good?

My fears were allayed within a second of hitting the MySpace page. A twangy guitar slide hit my speakers and I held my breath. The whirlwind force of "You Don't Know" hit me like a Mike Tyson shot between the eyes and I stood in silent rapture as the song grabbed me with all its entrancing power. My eyes scanned the site and I caught up with Jeannette Kantzalis. Following her debut record, she became The Chubbies for a decade or so. When that came to an end, she went solo again and took the name A Brokeheart Pro. This was truly a solo project with Jeannette writing the songs; playing all instruments; recording and assembling (as well as financing) the project. Several more songs from her recently released record The Kitten Next Door were on her MySpace page and each one was a mini masterpiece. I had to keep going back to "You Don't Know", however. I listened to the opening lyrics: "You don't know how f**king you has made me feel." 15 years later and my Jeannette has not changed!! 

The weird thing is that a few weeks before this, I received an add request on MySpace from this band called The Chubbies. I looked at them and thought who the heck is this? I've never heard of them. I didn't recognize Jeannette from the pictures and didn't give the songs a chance as I was busy that day. In a weird twist of fate, Jeannette was unknowingly reaching out to one of her earliest fans and giving me a chance to talk to her. I sent a message to Jeannette and we made plans for an interview. Here it is:

antiMUSIC: You go by A Brokeheart Pro. Why did you take this name?

A Brokeheart Pro: I just liked the way it sounded. I heard the word brokeheart professional…the first brokeheart professional, they were talking about it on a western, and they were saying the hookers were the brokeheart professionals; good at giving them, good at getting them. And I just thought, that's a really cool thing, (whisper) not that I'm a hooker or anything Morley, you know. (laughs)

antiMUSIC: We'll talk more about them in a minute but you were known as The Chubbies for a long time. What made you stop that project and move onto A Brokeheart Pro?

A Brokeheart Pro: You know what? We just came to the end. When you know it's the end you just kinda know. We're still best friends. Luckily we had a good ending. We'd been on the road for about seven years and the one thing we really wanted to do was tour Europe and after we did that, we were kinda like: "okay," you know, because we were going to schedule you know, writing, record a single, you know, release it, or EP, then album then tour, and it was just never ending. You kinda get caught up in a cycle. Especially with Sympathy For the Record Industry and my work ethic, it just really went together well. It was weird, we were living in Illinois because it's easier to tour from the Midwest, and we decided to commit to California and when we did, we were just kinda empty, I think. And just decided to do it ourselves. I wanted to find a sound and a thing that I had been looking at for a really long time. And didn't think it was going to take so long. I didn't know it was going to be so much work. And I wanted to do it on my own, like the way I started. I came out on my own and I wanted to try it again on my own, and so that was hard to tell her, you know, after being part of a duo for so long, saying I wanted to go own my own again. But she actually was really cool about it.

antiMUSIC: So it was just good timing all the way around then?

A Brokeheart Pro: I guess so. I don't know if there's ever a good time or bad time, but it was just one of those things, it had to happen.

antiMUSIC: Do you consider yourself The Kitten Next Door?

A Brokeheart Pro: Yes I do. (laughs) You know everything's autobiographical. Because, I don't know, maybe I'm just not clever enough to think up stuff. But this album is based on the beginning of a break up. I had been with someone for 12 years --- not married, and we have a six year old son. It was one of those breakups that was just BAAAD. And it went on for two years. It was just bad, bad, bad. And, you know, I did bad stuff. He did bad stuff. I had an affair. I think he did. It was just bad. I had been all over the world and I come back home to the working class suburbs of southern California and it's not the nicest area but you know, it's my home and I'm living in a neighborhood that's so similar to the one I grew up with, and I'm wondering: how the hell did I get here? And you start to realize as you look up from the ground, other people are saying: how the hell did she get here? (laughs) You don't really feel unusual but you kinda look around, and then you kinda open yourself up to the other women and everything that lives around me, and they're just like you. You know, we all kinda have the same stories. Yeah. So I'm working on the second album actually, because it wasn't finished. I had about 20 songs for it and I thought about it and I started on another, and I'm not using any of that…and it's still, I'm still finishing up this horrible, idiot, hilarious break-up record.

antiMUSIC: When you were writing all these songs, how did you decide which to keep for this one? Were the others finished songs or did you just have ideas for some, and say I'll put them away for later...

A Brokeheart Pro: I got in the good habit of always finishing a song. I always finish it, good or bad. I have to see where it's gonna go. And the way I hear it in my head, it's always, it's almost complete. It's really, really rough but it's always pretty complete. I hear the bass line and the drums and everything kind of all at once, and it's nothing magical or anything. I think it must be MY method and it has been since I was a kid. It's kind of a like a weird tick I think.

antiMUSIC: Nice tick.

A Brokeheart Pro: Yeah. (laughs)

antiMUSIC: Your first record was a mix of pop-rock. The Chubbies were, I don't know how I'd describe it, but kinda punkish garage pop sort of…

A Brokeheart Pro: Yeah, that's perfect.

antiMUSIC: So where does that desert highway feel on "Dark Red and Loud" and "You Don't Know" come from?

A Brokeheart Pro: You know, I think it's part of growing up, just growing up. Where I was born and raised, it was mostly metal, and I didn't have anywhere to go because I wasn't into metal (laughs). But you absorb it, because it's around you. And I ended up appreciating a lot of it, I didn't realize how much. But I also went the opposite direction for the first album, Pink Mischief. I was very into obviously into Prince, the Beatles and the Beach Boys (laughs). I mean it's apparent all over the record. I used AC30 amps and things like that, and a mellotron, because I was so into the Beatles. And trying to emulate---you know EVERY artist has at least tried to make one Beatles album---and that was MY attempt. And then I was dropped from A&M, and then I had nothing and I came back home again. I was visiting with my parents and got back into the scene, which is still very punk and metal. And I started getting better as a songwriter. I was manipulating genres that were kinda of inside of me. And I started going back to core music, just stripping it down completely and I did that, and it was kind of like teaching myself to write songs over again because I had no self-esteem. I felt like I needed to break it down again. Cuz I just had lost everything. Everything gone, I was humiliated, and I thought well I'll just break this down and just start all over. It took a lot years, I was lucky because, even me breaking things down, was attractive to people. I was still reaching people, and that's my goal. And I thought, well that's good. And a good song is a good song. You know how it goes, if it's even just sung in the shower, if it's a good song it's going to show. And that's still my challenge. Because I always think I could do better. After I've written one song, I'll go, "Yeah, I can do better than that."

antiMUSIC: For me, "You Don't Know" is just one of THOSE songs. I mean, I love everything on the record but this one just absolutely kills. Did you know you had something special when you began writing it?

A Brokeheart Pro: Oh god, that song. For a while was the bane of my existence. I was in a band and I had written this song and when you're in a band, you know, you want to bring it to the band and hope that they can make it better. And they didn't. And so I had another band, and this is all within just months too, because I was looking for that thing, and still nothing. And I thought, "Ah man, I've got to start all over again". So I sat down at the keyboard, which I hadn't sat down at in a long time, and I thought, let me just take this A minor, E minor, you know. It just kind of goes back and forth, and let me just see what was the original thought of it, because I know exactly what the feeling was but I wanted it to...it just wasn't hitting. And all of a sudden something happened. It was just instant. Like, you know, one of those moments where you go: "Oh, that's what it is." And I recorded it that night and as soon as I did, I knew it. I was like: "That's it. That's the song." And no one ever gave it a chance. You know, both bands told me, no it's not good enough. Let's take it out of the set. And I was like: "You're WRONG. There's something about this song. This is THE song." And they were like, "No it's whatever" and these were two completely different bands saying the same thing. You know, sometimes you just know, you just got to buck up and say, uh huh, you're wrong. That's hard for a girl to do.

antiMUSIC: Yeah, I can imagine. And you're best off to have dumped those people and…

A Brokeheart Pro: (laughs) Which is something I never do because I'm so loyal to the point where it hurts me. But I said you know what, "F you. I'm done with you". I just want back into my little 8 track studio where I always go back to and recorded that whole album. You know, in my little mess, I'm looking at right now. I'm sitting here right now. And I said, I'm going to do this. I think it's such a part of who I am. I've been doing it for so long, I don't know…that little action of just coming back in here and writing the songs, always brings me back to why I'm doing it in the first place. I go, oh yeah, ok.

antiMUSIC: What comes first for you, the music or the lyrics?

A Brokeheart Pro: Usually, it's the feeling. And the emotion. And then the decisions I make a lot of times, aren't so intellectual. I will say I'm more of a feel artist. You know, sometimes I want to go with the dichotomy of the really happy melody and the melancholy lyric, you know, just to throw them off (laughs.) But you know that's my personality so I think it's not so intentional. You know it doesn't always work, either. Sometimes it all comes in my head and I think it's great and I can't wait to put it down that night, you know. I'll think about it all day, and go yeah, I'm going to do this here and put it down. And the next morning I'll listen to it and go "Oh, that's crap." (laughs) That wasn't good. Let's still keep it but don't let anyone hear it. I just go "Ewe, that's bad." (laughs)

antiMUSIC: Maybe it was just that time of day, or the feeling you were in...

A Brokeheart Pro: Yeah. (laughs) and maybe you really were cocky that day. Ah, come on this is GOOD. And then you listen to it and go "What the hell was I thinking?"

antiMUSIC: The two covers on the record are excellent, particularly the Ryan Adams song. What made you want to record these two songs?

A Brokeheart Pro: Oh thanks. That was, oh god, that was turmoil. I tend to go for a certain kind of guy and I had found someone who wasn't one of those guys. He was, he's the guy in my life now, and he's one of the kindest, strongest men I've ever met, the strength in his kindness and all that. And I usually pick the ones that are the craziest and the hardest, you know, probably so I have an excuse not to commit to them (laughs). There's a guy I broke up with, I didn't get it, you know, I didn't trust the fact that he was so nice to me, and he was so patient with me. He was a man, he wasn't a boy. And I had this song, I had just started listening to that Ryan Adams album and that song came on, and I thought, "Oh my god". You know how sometimes you hear a song and you think "Oh I wish I wrote that." And I just recorded it for myself, that night. and I had broke up with this guy for a month and recorded it, and then did the little video thing in my backyard. That's how pathetic my life is (laughs) and I couldn't figure out how to express any of it. But Ryan Adams did. So I just take it from him and I just thought, man this is a great song. "This ain't the easy way down" is just one of the best lines I've ever heard. You know, it's just kinda the way I always did it. The big turnaround, so this is kinda me growing up. But you know what's weird is that I've always conducted my life as a very responsible woman. Even when I was a kid, I always the responsible woman as far as certain things went. But there's that self-destructive, wild thing that, it just had to stop. And having a kid too. You have to go, okay, knock it off. It's not cute or funny anymore.

antiMUSIC: Are you a Gemini?

A Brokeheart Pro: No, I'm not. (laughs) I'm a Leo.

Click here for Part II

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