Bonnie McKee

Bonnie McKee

Bonnie Leigh McKee is an American singer-songwriter, formerly signed to Reprise Records.

Biography

Early life

McKee was born in Vacaville, California, and spent her formative years in the Seattle area. Taking an early interest in the exposure to music and the theater offered by her father, Bonnie began singing at age five with the Salano Children's Choir. She also began writing poetry in elementary school, and won several youth poetry awards. She credits her early interest in poetry to her transition into songwriting. Upon moving to Seattle, she joined the Seattle Girls Choir. She toured Europe in 2000 as a member of its top Prime Voci choir, including a concert in Rome at the request of Pope John Paul II. She recorded two albums with the choir, including "Jackson Berkey Meets The Seattle Girls' Choir" and "Cantate 2000".

Bonnie's youth was somewhat unconventional. She earned the moniker "Trouble" with her participation in the rave scene and difficulties working in traditional schools. She attended the private high school, BUSH, but amid failing most of her classes, and at the requests of parents concerned with the influence McKee would have on her classmates, she was kicked out before she could finish her freshman year. However, the week after her expulsion, BUSH did allow her to participate in a program in which she spent a week in a recording studio with her classmates. This demo contained several songs that ended up on "Trouble", including "Trouble", and "When it All Comes Down", the latter being inspired by her rejection from the school. Eventually she found her way into Seattle's Nova Alternative High School, but finally opted for a GED certificate when Reprise took an interest in her work.

Trouble 2004–2005

McKee had progressed to writing her own music by the time she was twelve. By fifteen she was performing on her own and had produced her own six-track EP. . This material, re-recorded, formed the core of her first major label album, Trouble released September 28, 2004. She gave the EP to a friend, who happened to babysit for a family with connections to the music industry in Los Angeles. Her EP sparked interest around town, and her song, "Somebody" fell into the hands of Nic Harcourt, who played it on "Morning Becomes Eclectic", igniting a bidding war among the major labels.

The final bids came down between Jimmy Iovine of Interscope, and Tom Whalley, who had just stepped in as CEO at Warner Brothers. Ultimately, she ended up signing with Tom, as being his first signing as the CEO at Warner Brothers would generate buzz in the industry. She signed one of the last "big" record deals before the industry began to suffer, and ended up with a staggering $1.85 million dollar record deal.

At sixteen, Bonnie moved to Los Angeles on her own, and began recording more of her material to gather songs for the record. She wrote all of the music and lyrics on her debut. At seventeen, she moved to New York and recorded the record with Bob Power, but then later re-recorded the majority of the album (Short of "I Hold Her," and "January") with Rob Cavallo and Antonina Armato in Los Angeles.

There was much debate over the direction to take "Trouble", because of the contrast between Bonnie's "look" and "sound", and ultimately the record was delayed due to indecision on album artwork and marketing disagreements within the label.

McKee's first major brush with national exposure came in the March 7, 2004 "Shoot the Moon" episode of the American Dreams TV series, in which she portrayed Janis Joplin. Her song "Somebody" was featured in the 2004 film Win a Date with Tad Hamilton!, garnering enough notice to cause her album to be released ahead of its (previously delayed) schedule.

There was lots of press, including interviews and shoots with "Blender", "Nylon","Interview" "Paper", "The Los Angeles Times" and "Teen People". She played on "Jimmy Kimmel Live" and was also featured on MTV's "Buzzworthy", VH1's "You Outta Know", and MTV's "Pre-RL"

She toured with Ryan Cabrera in 2005. In 2006, her management company, McGhee Entertainment, reported that a new album is in the process of being written and recorded.

In the non-fiction book "The Long Tail" by Chris Anderson, McKee is used as an example of how the internet, specifically Yahoo's Launchcast service, forced Reprise to change how they marketed McKee. According to the book, Reprise was going to target the adult contemporary audience (women in their 30s and 40s), but when an early track release on Launchcast revealed a strong preteen, teen and 20-something female audience, Reprise gave McKee more "edge" and targeted them instead. Not understanding the nature of a younger audience in the digital age, their re-positioning backfired in terms of album sales and "Trouble" sold fewer than 17,000 copies and got very little airplay.

Bonnie's song "Somebody" was also mentioned in a New York Times Best Seller "The Woods" by Harlan Coben.

Independent 2007–present

Bonnie wrote on her official Myspace blog that she was finally let go from her label, "August came, and I finally got the phone call that Warner was letting me go" feeling happy about her departure she soon started recording new music and eventually got a role in the film August Rush co-starring Keri Russell.

In February 2008 she was a guest on the radio show TSM Radio where she sang a new song called "To Find You" and stated that she's writing new material.

She made an appearance on CSI: NY in the episode "Help" alongside Alex Band. McKee played a dead subway singer and performed her own songs including "Trouble" and "To Find You". Coincidentally, a song she co-wrote and sang called "If That's Love" (co-written with Jesse Owen Astin and Baron von Luxxury), was featured on another CSI:Miami episode "Show Stopper" in January 2009.

She provided background vocals to the song "Never" on Flo Rida's second album R.O.O.T.S. in 2009.

McKee released six new songs on her MySpace in April 2009 including: "Worst in Me", "Head On", "Thunder", "Love Spell", "Deja Vu", and "Stars in Your Heart".

On her twitter she recently stated that she was writing songs for Leighton Meester's debut album which is due for a 2010 release. She has also confirmed via twitter that she has been working with Dr. Luke and Katy Perry for Perry's sophomore album. She helped write both of Perry's smash singles, "California Gurls" and "Teenage Dream". McKee also is one of the writers on Fefe Dobson's 2010 album Joy. She also wrote Taio Cruz's hit single, "Dynamite" found on his recent release, Rockstarr.

She provided vocals for the song "Cougars" on Dirt Nasty's 2010 album: Nasty as I Wanna Be.

Voice

McKee's voice is classified as mezzo-soprano. Deep-throated vocals with a wide range.

Discography

Albums

Album information
Title: Trouble Released: September 28, 2004 Chart Positions: N/A U.S. certification: N/A U.S. Sales: 17,000 Worldwide sales: 17,000

Singles

Year	Single	Adult Top 40	Album
2004	Somebody	39	Trouble

External links

• The Official MySpace of Bonnie McKee
• Bonnie McKee Fansite

Official information

• Reprise Records: 2003 EPK; Retrieved December 6, 2004
• Reprise Records: Artist Spotlight: Bonnie McKee; Retrieved December 6, 2004
• NBC: American Dreams Episode Guide, Season 2 Episode 215, Shoot The Moon 8/7pm 3/07/04; Retrieved December 6, 2004

Interviews and Articles

• Jones, Oliver: Coming Attraction: Bonnie McKee Blender, October 2003; Retrieved December 6, 2004
• Mooallem, Steven: [Bonnie McKee: the ingenue who turned her messed-up life into music - Music Prediction - Interview] Interview, November 2003; Retrieved December 6, 2004
• Elliot, Russell W.: Bonnie McKee; Trouble; interview and album review Musical Discoveries, July 24, 2004; Retrieved December 6, 2004
• Monger, James Christopher: Bonnie McKee Biography AMG, 2004; Retrieved December 6, 2004
• Tate, Natalie: [Bursting through stereotypes; Singer-songwriter brings maturity, depth to ‘bubblegum’ pop star image] UCLA Daily Bruin, December 2, 2004; Retrieved December 6, 2004
• Lieberman, Sara: [It Girl: Bonnie McKee] Alloy, September 29, 2004; Retrieved December 6, 2004