....Bourbon Princess is a band of four exceptional musicians lead by vocalist/bassist/songwriter Monique Ortiz . Their rich, cinematic, and often darkly psychedelic sound is a combination of the late-seventies New Romantic and post-punk, with touches of early jazz and sixties rock.
Monique crafts the sophisticated sound from the warm, flexible tones of her contralto voice and the deep sonorities of her versatile fretless bass playing, with the help of her talented co-conspirators: original Morphine drummer Jerome Deupree , Either/Orchestra saxophonist/leader Russ Gershon and guitarist/pianist Jim Moran .
Bourbon Princess began as a bass and drums duo, but over the course of two albums, 2000's debut Stopline and 2003's Black Feather Wings, and hundreds of live performances, the group's line-up and adventurous sound textures have grown into one of the most distinctive styles in modern rock, drawing comparisons to such giants as Roxy Music, Patti Smith, The Doors, and Nina Simone, to name a few.
Dark of Days is a creative breakthrough for Bourbon Princess. "The album is more pop yet darker than anything we've done," says Monique. "That might seem contradictory, but I think we've pulled it off."
"It's the first body of songs I've written that are really influenced by the times," she continues. "The first two albums were about things that were going on in my immediate environment. This one is less self-absorbed. 'Dark of Days' is really about the political times we're all living through now.
Dark of Days is also the first full-length collaboration between Monique and Paul Q. Kolderie (producer/engineer for Radiohead, Hole, Morphine, and many others), who manned the console. "It was a great partnership," she says. "He could hear what we were trying to do with our sound and made it more expansive and clear. Since Paul is a bass player, too, it was easier for me to convey the sound I wanted to capture, which is very bass driven, without compromising the other instruments."
Although Bourbon Princess is based in Boston, Monique hails originally from the Pennsylvania of open farmlands and Amish horse-and-buggy traffic. She moved to Massachusetts seeking an environment more receptive to her creativity. Within months she was performing her songs in clubs and coffeehouses, at art school parties and poetry slams, accompanying herself on fretless bass. Audiences immediately responded to her dry wit and riveting presence.
Early on Monique began perfecting a percussive and sliding instrumental style flavored by Arabic grooves, the perfect support for her cinematic lyrics, which while at times unsettling, are always strangely beautiful and affecting.
Besides the two previous Bourbon Princess albums, Monique's songs have appeared on the Respond II compilation alongside tunes by Ani DiFranco, Aimee Mann and Dolly Parton, and on MTV's Real World. She has also been nominated for a prestigious Boston Music Award and in the Boston Phoenix Best Music Poll in the best female vocalist category in 2004 and 2005. Monique is currently mixing her home-recorded solo LP, and is also collaboration on a new project with Morphine /Twinemen saxophonist Dana Colley and drummer Larry Dersch called A.K.A.C.O.D .
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