For Jeannie Tanner, June is all about honoring Pride Month!
On Saturday, June 15, the quartet featuring the talented singer/songwriter/multi-instrumentalist will take to the cabaret bar Davenport’s, 1383 N. Milwaukee Ave., for “CELEBRATIONS: An Encore Evening of Original Music,” which will feature musical genres such as R&B, soul and jazz. Also, Tanner will be part of a Women’s Music Legend concert featuring Teresa Trull and Barbara Higbie that’s taking place Wed., June 19, at Whiskey Girl Tavern, 6318 N. Clark St and she’s touring the festival circuit this summer with her pop/R&B band, 3 Martini Jeannie. (As if that’s not enough, she’s even producing the podcast Just Ask Abby.)
In a recent wide-ranging conversation with Windy City Times, Tanner talked about her nonstop musical endeavors, AI and queerness, among other topics.
NOTE: This conversation was edited for clarity and length.
Windy City Times: Your music has been used in television and film projects, including NFL Kickoff and the daytime soap The Young and the Restless. How did that happen?
Jeannie Tanner: Through another composer friend, I had known about this [opportunity] for The Young and the Restless for quite some time, but I was busy and it feels like—you know when you’re here and somebody else is [at a different point]? So about three months ago, my other friend said, “Just send him an email,” and I did. He remembered me, and I started sending him music; one of the tunes I sent was a vocal rendition and he wanted an instrumental, so I re-recorded it. I think they used it for three episodes in April; it’s in the background of that one lounge the characters go to.
The other thing is a song that I wrote for the TV series Single Ladies, produced by Queen Latifah. That was probably 12 years ago and I’m still getting royalties from it. It was sort of a cold call; some publishing company literally reached out to me and said, “We need R&B music.” There are about 500 kinds of R&B music! I asked what kind they wanted, and they said nothing—so I wrote the song, submitted it and got a check six months later. This business is crazy.
Lately, I’ve been doing a lot more collaborating and I just wrote the score for a short black-and-white film titled “The Hike”—and it’s a silent film. The music is almost like a third character. I’ve been wanting to get more into film scores and I scored the music for a web TV show that’s on Prime Video now called Bong Zombies.
I’ve just been doing a ton of different projects. I released “I Wanna Be the Change”—based on some of the speeches by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.—during the pandemic. And, last year, I was elected to the Chicago board of the Recording Academy. Plus, we went down [to Springfield] to lobby for the bill HB4875/SB3325 [which grants additional enforcement rights and remedies to recording artists]; they passed the House and Senate, and we’re just waiting on Gov. Pritzker to sign it. But doing it all is like being a freelance journalist; you have your “hustle” hat on.
WCT: That’s true. Tell me more about that bill.
JT: The bill is about protecting our likenesses, our voices and our music. If someone uses AI to create music based on someone else’s catalog, they’ll flag it. The problem is that the developers of these AI platforms where people can just go and make music are not flagging [violations]. They flagged me on YouTube with my own music; it’s copywritten.
We’re not anti-AI; we’re anti-assholes. [Laughs] AI can be a good thing if it’s used properly, like the situation with the new [Beatles] song. But you have AI-created artists who are monetizing tracks not created by human beings. And I recalled Scarlett Johansson’s situation with [OpenAI]—that’s a no-no. It’s taking work away from actors, and I think it’s already happening. The flip side is that if they’re going to create more jobs and train people to operate robots, or if they’re using AI to come up with faster bioresults. But the moment you step into the arena of creating art as a non-human, then no.
WCT: But is AI expanding the idea of what art is?
JT: I think that’s a question that is being asked. Let’s say you want to be a painter but you can’t really paint; however, you’d like to have something that looks like a Monet hanging in your house. You could go online, get one of these programs and tell it, “I’d like a scenic [item] painted in the style of Monet.” That’s not art.
When it comes to music, for example, I mentioned that we went down to Springfield. Politicians may not agree on a lot of things, but they can agree on jobs. That’s a hot topic: “AI is taking my job.” We’re left to hustle for live gigs because if they get to create film scores and [other things], it would be a bad thing. I was at a licensing workshop and we were talking about samples and loops; a lot of companies don’t even want you to send those now.
But is AI expanding the idea of art? I think it doesn’t and that it shouldn’t be allowed to. There are people who aren’t poets who “create” poetry through something like ChatGPT—that’s like someone who’s not a journalist who just feeds something through ChatGPT and says they’re now a journalist. No!
WCT: However, in some ways it underscores what I recently told someone: We’re a nation of lazy people.
JT: We are! [Both laugh.] You gotta have slip-off shoes now. Come on! Spotify has hired people to create music in order to get revenues. That’s really bad.
WCT: So let’s talk about your June 15 show, “CELEBRATIONS.”
JT: I’m very excited. It’s all original music and a lot of my music has very universal themes. I actually performed a special song, “Try to Be Me,” at church last year; the response was so overwhelming that they had me come back and do it for another service. I’m going to record it and perform it on June 15. I’m also writing two new songs.
I’m so not about labels, Andrew, because I think they put everyone into a box. But I think it’s important to acknowledge who we are and be okay with that. “CELEBRATIONS” will just be a night of fun, upbeat music with universal themes. With me being a part of the community, it’s nice to do shows like this during Pride Month. Bring it on, baby! [Laughs] It’s going to be super-eclectic and there’ll be a couple of special guests, [including one] who actually came in second on the Latin version of The Voice.
WCT: Even though you’ve talked about labels, I do want to ask what it’s like for you to be part of the LGBTQ+ community in today’s America?
JT: I think it’s a mixed bag. We live in Chicago, where people are really welcoming. Susan [Tanner’s wife] and I got married, and everyone has been super-supportive. But I must tell you that when I travel to other parts of the country, I’m always a little more reserved because I just don’t know. There’s such a divide in our country, and something that we thought was settled 15 years ago has now gotten so much backlash, like with the trans and drag communities.
It’s so disheartening and there are so many other issues to focus on, like world hunger, world peace, jobs, infrastructure. But here we are because one of our political parties doesn’t have a platform so it’s lashing out. It’s like that kicker [Harrison Butker] who’s suddenly a truth-teller to the right. Suddenly, white is right.
I’m so blessed that I live in Chicago but I think twice when I go to other areas of our country. There were weirdos back in the ‘80s, when we were traveling down south on family trips. Because we had Illinois plates, my father would not take certain highways or stop in certain towns. On the flip side, there are so many people who have evolved and who are welcoming to our communities. It’s a mixed bag—of nuts! [Laughs] I love my rainbow peeps but I’m very nervous about what might happen in the upcoming [presidential] election.
The Jeannie Tanner Quartet will perform “CELEBRATIONS: An Encore Evening of Original Music” on Saturday, June 15, at Davenport’s, 1383 N. Milwaukee Ave., at 8 p.m., with special guests Brooklyn Britches, Ray Mindas and Daryl Nitz. RSVP at this link. For more about Tanner, visit this link.
The post MUSIC Jeannie Tanner: Do-it-all musician celebrates Pride Month appeared first on Windy City Times.