Musician/performer/activist Anomie Fatale (anomiefatale.com) transformed her two years in a North Philly high-rise public housing project into a haunting and pungent new CD.
"I was living there because I didn't have any options. We had fires every month and I got carried down six flights of stairs by a total stranger," says Fatale, 27, who grew up Kelianne Murray in Mercer County, NJ and recently moved to South Philly. (Here's the Inquirer column I wrote about her in 2012, when she was living in Bellmawr, Camden County).
"It was a music-as-therapy thing," Fatale says, describing how her first solo CD arose from her time in the Fairhill Apartments. "Every single song, I wrote in that building. I got a guitar at a pawn shop and started putting these songs out online. And then a producer from Harrisburg got in touch with me."
Jason Rubal (jasonrubal.com) augmented Fatale's self-taught guitar playing and software-generated beats with live musicians at his Seventh Wave Studio. The result is a strong 12-song CD titled "I Am Great Neck," a reference to Fatale's former band as well as to Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome's impact on her life.
The rare genetic disorder cut short Fatale's academic career at what is now Stockton University, limited her mobility, and left her fragile – but fierce. As songs such as "Prison of Care" attest.
"I still can't lift my legs," Fatale says. "But I have attendant care now and I've been pretty stable."
Her experience navigating the convoluted system of assistance for disabled adults has left her determined to use music as "my form of protest," the artist says. "I'm hoping this record will be a bridge to bigger things."
An "I am Great Neck" CD release party is set for 3 p.m. to 6 p.m. April 10 at Connie's Ric Rac (conniesricrac.com), 1132 S. 9th St., Philadelphia.