After several false starts, Bif Naked's album, I Bificus, which has sold 40,000 copies in Canada on her own label, Her Royal Majesty's/Aquarius, is finally getting a shot in the United States. The raven-haired, tattooed rocker signed with Lava/Atlantic and recently released a new version of the album. The video for the first single, "Moment Of Weakness", was added to MTV's 120 Minutes and MTV-2 and was the Buzz Clip as of August 10th.
"I wasn't anticipating doing anything south of the border because I was busy," says the Vancouver-based singer. "I wanted to write and I was looking to the future. I wasn't really concerned with anything in the U.S."
That changed when she met Jason Flom of Lava Records at one of her shows in New York and they decided to work together. Flom asked her what changes, if any, she would like to make to I Bificus, and Naked rattled off a list.
"I said, 'I want to recut every bass track (with ex Taste of Joy Coco Culbertson). I want to re-do the guitars on three songs (with her manager Peter Karroll). I wanted it all remixed and I wanted to take the song 'If I' off my record," she says, explaining that she liked the song, but wanted to make room for two new ones.
"I had started to write last year in Europe and when we had written 'I Died' I really wanted to start performing it in the repertoire, and the same with 'Twitch' because it was so much fun. Luckily, I got them on I Bificus, and I wanted the whole thing re-mastered."
Naked also made changes to a couple of existing songs. "'Lucky' was recut and produced (by Oliver Lieber)," she says, "and the third verse in 'Lucky' is out and the third verse in the song 'Anything' is out. I just felt like (those verses) were too much. It got boring for me. And I was allowed to do what I wanted."
It's been a long time coming for Naked. I Bificus was originally recorded in its entirely for Naked's own label, Her Royal Majesty's, with producer Mike Plotnikoff in 1997, but after she signed with Sony 550 (Social Distortion, Celine Dion) in the U.S., the album was scrapped and rerecorded with producer Glen Rosenstein (Ziggy Marley, October Project, Stella). Then, Sony 550 never ended up releasing the album, although it did cone out in Europe.
"I knew before I released my record in Canada that it wasn't coming out in the States," Naked says.
I Bificus came out in Canada in 1998 on Aquarius, the EMI Music Canada-distributed independent label, which picked up Naked's 1994 self-titled debut after her first record company, Plum, folded. She also released a spoken-word album in Canada on Aquarius called Okenspay Ordway. With all this history, she also felt a need to alter the artwork to I Bificus.
"The thing about the kids in the U.S. is they don't have the first Bif Naked record; they don't have Okenspay Ordway. They don't have a clue about what I'm up to, what my sense of humour's like, anything, so I felt it was necessary to include a bio -- in a little cartoon Bif. It's really off the top. 'Bif is a girl who likes sushi and skateboarding.' It was one of those," she says.
"I also changed some of the thank-yous to include my new friends at Lava and my new friends at Atlantic and I was allowed to change any photos I wanted and I added a photo on the back that I liked by a Toronto photographer named David Leyes."
The new version of I Bificus will be released in Canada on Aquarius in the near future. Meanwhile, Naked continues bouncing back and forth between performances at Lilith Fair and opening for the Cult. This week, she will shoot an episode of Buffy The Vampire Slayer, in which she and her band perform "Lucky". The song will also appear on the soundtrack. In the fall, Naked will play Canadian colleges and universities. She will likely concentrate on the States the rest of year.
