Jill Sobule hopes tour will polish sociopolitical themes of “˜Pink Pearl’
By Daily Bruin Staff
Oct. 24, 2000 9:00 p.m.
 Photos from Beyond Music Singer Jill
Sobule will stop at Luna Park in Los Angeles tonight as
part of her “˜Pink Pearl’ tour.
By Angela Salazar
Daily Bruin Senior Staff
Jill Sobule has come a long way since 1995, when she first
became famous for her hit song “I Kissed a Girl.” Now,
almost six years later, Sobule is on the road with a new album and
a new outlook on life.
“I think that my writing now, as opposed to the first
(album) is more me and is more genuine because it reflects how I
deal with things,” Sobule said in a recent phone
interview.
Promoting her latest album “Pink Pearl,” Sobule is
performing at Luna Park tonight, as well as Nov. 1 and 8, as part
of her national tour. The album is her fourth contribution and
offers an eclectic mix of music as well as some sociopolitical
commentary.
“I feel like this (album) is the best one,” Sobule
said. “I’m always a late bloomer and I feel like
I’m just getting more comfortable in the studio and
it’s a really good batch of songs and a good batch of stories
all together.”
The themes of Sobule’s songs are largely taken from her
own background and experiences.
“I think you can’t get away from (your past), even
the formative years of junior high school,” Sobule said,
drawing the connection with her song “Mexican Wrestler”
about having a first crush on someone as a pre-teen and the feeling
not being reciprocated. “That’s a real honest song
because it deals back with a real painful period that you’ll
never get over,” she said.
Her song “One of These Days” was written after
Sobule went home to her parents’ house and looked through her
old journals from high school.
“It was so sad,” Sobule said about the experience,
“because I’m writing the same crap that I did back then
as far as “˜I’m going to do this someday, I’m
going to get it together,’ I’ve been writing that for
20 years so I think that it’s pretty honest and also
it’s very funny.”
Sobule’s songs also deal with current issues that she
feels are important and offer her personal thoughts on the
matters.
“I think in the last three albums there’s been songs
that have had either political or social commentary, but they
don’t bash people over the head; they’re very subtle
and have a sense of humor,” Sobule said.
 Her sociopolitical writing stems from her days as a
musical-political commentator for a radio station in New York.
“I would have an assignment in the morning writing a song
about the death penalty in Texas or whatever was in the news the
day before, like drug laws and George Bush,” Sobule said.
“So in “˜Pink Pearl’ I have a lot of the more
political songs.”
Because of the changing themes and tones of her songs,
Sobule’s music does not fit into one genre. It has been
described as everything from folk to country to R&B, but her
writing style and redefinition of herself is what makes her so
unique as an artist.
“No one knows where to put me,” Sobule said about
the ways her music has been classified.
“I always write the words first and put the music on
second as sort of like the soundtrack to the (song’s) story,
and each song has a different sound to it, so I think it’s
very eclectic,” she said.
Sobule also has her own ways of deciding what songs to include
on her albums.
“I have really nice interaction and communication with my
fans and so a lot of times I’ll ask them to name me the best
10 new songs on tour that they’d like to hear me do on a
record,” Sobule said.
She plans to continue touring for “Pink Pearl” until
the end of this year.
MUSIC: Sobule will be performing at 9 p.m. at Luna Park in West
Hollywood, 655 N. Robertson.
