When our first album, Duophonic, came out in 1992, Charles [Pettigrew] and I felt like we’d made a beautiful record that really represented us. But the single “Would I Lie to You?” overshadowed the whole album.¹ It was such a huge hit that it seemed impossible to follow it up. 

It seems funny now, but our next release, Chocolate Milk, was seen as a disappointment because it only sold half a million records. We were perceived as being one-hit wonders for many years. It was sad, and I felt a bit blackballed from the industry to be seen in such a narrow way; something that started out as absolutely euphoric became very discouraging and painful.

I left the music industry and worked as a fashion photographer, then a fashion director for Autre magazine. I was finding different creative outlets—at one point I got into historical renovations of early 1900s homes. I never stopped writing songs, melodies and words, but I never thought I would get to make music again. 

What I like to call “career 2.0” started through a chance encounter with Ethan Silverman, who owned Terrible Records. He was interested in one of my best friends, who I was managing at the time, and I thought, Well, if I’m not going to be doing music, I’d like to at least pay it forward and help other artists.