Bubbles & Cheesecake

Bubbles & Cheesecake is an U.S. Internet-based, multi-media collaboration between multi-disciplinary artist Allee Willis and singer-songwriter Holly Palmer. Allee Willis is a GRAMMY-winning, Emmy and Tony-nominated composer whose work includesEarth, Wind & Fire's "September" and "Boogie Wonderland," Pet Shop Boys with Dusty Springfield’s "What Have I Done To Deserve This?", the Pointer Sisters' "Neutron Dance," "I'll Be There For You" (the theme to Friends) and the Broadway musical The Color Purple. Holly Palmer is a solo recording artist and formerly a vocalist with the Gnarls Barkley live band. She has also worked with David Bowie, Dr. Dre, Billy Preston and Michael Bublé, among others.

The name Bubbles & Cheesecake refers to Willis' and Palmer's respective alter-egos. In their overall mythology for the Bubbles & Cheesecake universe, Willis and Palmer say that they act as "managers" for their alter-egos. They have also said that Bubbles and Cheesecake represent the side of themselves that is fearless, knows how to have fun and embraces individuality and free self-expression.

The idea of creative collaboration with an alter-ego began when Allee Willis started painting and making ceramics as Bubbles the artist in 1999. At the time, Willis told people that she had stumbled across Bubbles online and that she had decided to manage her career. The initial spin was that Bubbles was a "bad" artist and Willis' most significant discovery since the musical Del Rubio Triplets, but in reality, Bubbles ultimately sold close to 1,000 paintings and ceramic pieces to collectors including Lily Tomlin and Tracey Ullman. In May, 1999, the New York Times reported that "Bubbles the artist is Ms. Willis herself." Although most people who collected Bubbles were in on the joke, Willis continued to deny her dual identity.

In 2006, Willis renewed her songwriting partnership with Palmer, who had been Willis' protégé since they began co-writing in 2000. It came up that Palmer had recently gotten the moniker "MC Cheesecake," a name given to her by her husband while she was rhyming about food in the car one day. Palmer came up with the idea that Cheesecake should become Bubbles' protégé, paralleling her relationship as Allee's, and Bubbles & Cheesecake were born.

The Willis and Palmer/Bubbles & Cheesecake collaboration encompasses hand-made music, videos, art work, animation merchandise, online characters, stories, games, all embedded into a social network.

History

Bubbles & Cheesecake grew out of the songwriting partnership of Allee Willis and Holly Palmer, who were originally introduced in 2001 by music publisher Marla McNally. At first they came together to compose songs for Palmer's third solo album, I Confess. Their collaboration was interrupted when Willis left to co-write the music and lyrics for the Broadway production of The Color Purple. She was involved in the project for close to five years. The music & lyrics went on to be Tony-nominated, and the soundtrack album was GRAMMY nominated.

During that time, Palmer formed her own independent record label, Bombshell Records, and released "I Confess" in 2004. She also went on the road singing with the Gnarls Barkley live band.

In 2006, Willis and Palmer renewed composing together at the multi-media studio at Willis' Los Angeles-area home, an art decolandmark known as "Willis Wonderland." They originally intended to write songs for what would be Palmer's fourth solo album, Songs For Tuesday. Released in 2007, Songs For Tuesday features the Willis-Palmer co-write "Girl In Lust," which, like "I Confess" from Holly's previous album, also was later recorded and performed by Bubbles & Cheesecake.

Instead of continuing to work on Palmer's solo album, however, Willis and Palmer were inspired to write, perform, and record together in full collaboration under the name Bubbles & Cheesecake. Their first official single and video as Bubbles & Cheesecake is "It's A Woman Thang," which was introduced with the launch of their website in October 2007.

It is part of what will be an ongoing series of songs under the banner of The Soul Of Bubbles And Cheesecake. Each Bubbles & Cheesecake song will be treated as an individual experience and sensory universe, with matching music, art, video and web components. There is no "album" collecting them – Willis and Palmer instead see the songs as singular modules that will snap together to continually expand The Soul Of Bubbles And Cheesecake, which they describe as driven by a spirit of "soul, kitsch and self-expression." The videos, songs and art can be experienced online at http://bubblesandcheesecake.com.

The site's hyper-interactive functionality is an outgrowth of Allee Willis' background as an Internet pioneer. Throughout the '90s, she developed willisville, an evolving prototype for the first sonic/visual/interactive social network in cyberspace. Its then-revolutionary merging of narrative frameworks and multiple technologies and platforms into a cohesive thematic environment was written up by Fortune, the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times and other publications. It now serves as the archetype for Bubbles & Cheesecake. The website's visuals all feature artwork by Bubbles the artist, Willis' alter-ego.

Discography

EPs
* "The Soul of Bubbles & Cheesecake EP" (2007, Bubbles & Cheesecake Unlimited)

Songs
* "It's A Woman Thang" (Willis/Palmer)
* "I Confess" (Willis/Palmer/Blockland)
* "Girl In Lust" (Willis/Palmer)
* "Cryin, Lovin, Leavin" (Willis/Palmer/Dozier)

Music Videos
* "It's A Woman Thang"

ee also

*Allee Willis
*Holly Palmer

External links

* [http://www.bubblesandcheesecake.com/ Official Bubbles & Cheesecake Site]
* [http://www.alleewillis.com/ Official Allee Willis Site]
* [http://www.bubblestheartist.com/ Official Bubbles the Artist Site]
* [http://www.hollypalmer.com/ Official Holly Palmer Site]
*myspace|hollypalmer|Holly Palmer
*myspace|bubblesandcheesecake|Bubbles & Cheesecake