In her latest incarnation, she's a Deep Dark Robot.
Perry and Palm Desert native Tony Tornay recently formed Deep Dark Robot as Perry's first true band collaboration since the early 1990s alternative group, 4 Non Blondes. They'll launch their first tour Saturday at the Date Shed in Indio to support their debut CD, “8 Songs About A Girl,” due out March 22.
Their first single, “Won't You Be My Girl,” available online, combines both artists' punk and melodic sensibilities.
“The misconception everybody has of me is that I'm ‘Get the Party Started' and (‘Beautiful'),” Perry said in a recent phone interview with Tornay. “But I cater to the people I'm with. 4 Non Blondes was 4 Non Blondes because that was a band I was in with four other people. Linda Perry's ‘In Flight' record was me drunk and trying to figure out what the (bleep) just happened in my life. Linda Perry right now in Deep Dark Robot is me and Tony.”
Perry won't describe the romantic breakup that led her to write “8 Songs About A Girl” because she says the songs are self-explanatory. But it was inspired by Clementine Ford, actress Cybill Shepherd's daughter and Tornay's best friend.
“She actually was a muse,” Perry said, “a beautiful muse who broke my heart. ‘8 Songs About A Girl' is about one girl.”
Perry met Tornay while he and Ford were enjoying a Journey tribute band at a Los Angeles nightclub. Ford and Perry weren't dating yet and Tornay seemed to be trying to keep it that way.
“Tony was her ‘wing man' as a chaperone,” Perry said, “because Clementine thought I was going to kill her.
“I was totally being a jerk,” Tornay admitted, “but we ended up hanging out and the more we talked the more it was like, ‘Whoa! I really like you!' We were actually flying to Las Vegas for my wife's birthday and she said, ‘Hey, do you want to do this band thing?' I was like, ‘Sure!' Then we talked about it and it just sort of happened.”
