Felicia Collins: The Best Gig In Town
Scream and Crunch
When it comes to voicing her guitar with just the right scream, wail, and crunch, Collins relies on Logic Pro. “Logic has so many killer guitar effects and amp choices,” says the musician. “I use the MOTU Traveler interface, so I can plug right in. And with the mic preamp built-in, there’s no kind of latency — it’s automatic. Now I get my sound from the PowerBook, instead of from a rack or pedal board.”
Adds Collins, “What’s good is that I can hear a real flat [pure] response coming through my ear piece. And Logic feeds right into the sound board, so we don’t have to deal with mics or amps. There’s no worry about the drums leaking in or the other guitar player’s amp blasting into my sound — I get a cleaner, more isolated sound.”
Plus, she goes wild for the plug-ins. “That’s one of the most beautiful things about Logic Pro,” Collins says. “I can affect my guitar sound in 35 different ways: chorus, distortions, reverb. I can pull up plug-ins to sound like I’m playing in a bathroom or a stairwell or a cathedral.” Her default favorite for David Letterman: grunge-rock.
A Downtown Apple
Though Collins grew up outside Albany, New York, her driving sound hardly lets slip her small-town roots. “I was this Catholic girl from upstate New York, but really I was always a downtown girl,” she says with a laugh. “I’m the apple that fell from the downtown tree.” She can’t remember exactly when she got her first (plastic) guitar, just that she always had one. When she turned eight, Collins received a real acoustic guitar and taught herself to play. “It came with a book,” she shrugs.
Felicia Collins (far right) at Live Aid. Next to her, from left to right, Alannah Curry (of the Thompson Twins), Nile Rodgers, and Madonna.
The change to a new middle school in a different neighborhood was, to say the least, a shocker. “It was all white folks!” she says. “I swear they had never seen a black kid. I said to myself, ‘I’ll give this a week before I’m screaming to get outta here.’ But then I found out that everybody and their mother played guitar there. Seeing all those guitars, I said, ‘This is the coolest place!’ So I stayed — and I even learned all the Catholic mass songs on guitar.”
Hot Guest Lineup
Now Collins is using Logic Pro to mix and record her first CD in years. “Logic just makes sense,” she says. “You can pull things up so quickly, and we even run recording sessions from my computer.”
Felicia Collins and Bitchslapp opening for King’s X at BB King’s in New York. Photo by RAMB.
The album, she confesses, came about only after some arm-twisting. “I do gigs with my band and all these people hear us,” she relates. “They email me asking where they can get a record of my songs. I was starting to feel like an idiot. I mean, how stupid is the person who has a willing-to-buy crowd begging them to cut a record, and they have nothing to offer?” She concludes with mock exasperation, “They’re forcing me to record this stuff.”
The CD of her own rock and funk compositions, called “Strings Attached,” will feature a hot guest lineup including Saturday Night Live and Sheryl Crowe drummer Shawn Pelton and Prince bass player Rhonda Smith — it even has a track with Willie Nelson. Collins was psyched when Nelson invited her to Texas so they could record a song together.
Digital Soulfulness
Rockin’ with her PowerBook onstage, Collins has made an impression on her Letterman bandmates. “They see what an easy time I’m having using Apple,” she comments. “I love technology that can match my imagination. Ever since I got my first Mac to use with sequencing software, I’ve always used my Mac with my music. The Mac takes soulfulness to the digital domain.”
Reflects Collins, “It’s a great feeling to know you were right about the career you picked. I was lucky enough that the people around me took my choice for granted, the way I did. Although,” she adds with a laugh, “I don’t know how much longer they would have held that attitude! Fortunately, I never had to test that, because Live Aid came along at just the right time. My friends were assuming that things were gonna happen for me. And it’s great when people are not doubting you.”
