Louise Post thought long and hard about dumping the name Veruca Salt and resuming her career with a new band. "I got good advice from my former lawyer and another manager, and they said you've got to be crazy not to use the name," she says. "I wanted a discography, multitude of records. I felt like I had to honor this name and the life of this band. I'd feel like it was aborted mid-flight if we were to end it."
Post is the only person left from the Veruca Salt that yielded alterna-hit "Seether" and its sequel of sorts, "Volcano Girls." The last original member, singer-guitarist Nina Gordon, left the band in March '98 to pursue a solo career.
The new band will soon sign a new record deal with Beyond Records that will make Post not only a client, but an executive with the opportunity to create her own label. "I feel like basically I've been given a whole new and wonderful life," Post says.
The new album, which Post says is not a big departure from previous Veruca Salt material, still has no title -- although The Bitch Is Back is rumored to be a strong contender. The band (guitarist Stephen Fitzpatrick, bassist Suzanne Sokel and drummer Jimmy Madla) will finish up the record next month in a Chicago recording studio, head out on the road in November for four to six weeks, release a first single in December and come back with the album early next year. Boyfriend and former Filter member Brian Liesegang is co-producing the effort with Post.
Post says the hardest adjustment with respect to the group's new alignment was learning to do all the songwriting. "It was awkward in that I was so used to referring to three others' strong opinions," she says.
Today, Post says she maintains a cordial relationship with former members of Veruca Salt and recently bumped into Gordon on the street. "I think about her and the development of the band every day," Post says, "and in certain ways I want to stay true to the vision of what she had, but there were reasons why we split up and I have to respect that too."
BLAIR R. FISCHER
(September 8, 1999)