Poe (born Anne Decatur Danielewski ; March 23, 1968) is an American singer, songwriter, and record producer.Mirken, Steve. "Atlantic's Poe will be Unfamiliar Nevermore." Billboard Magazine September 2, 1995.Doerschuk, Robert L. "Rough Mix." Musician Magazine December 1995.Herman, James Patrick. "A Control Room of One's Own." Elle Magazine November 2001.Huhn, Mary. "Alt.Rock." Rolling Stone November 28, 1996.Blush, Steven and Thomas Colbath. "Poe" Seconds Magazine Number 35, March 1998. Poe's musical style is a blend of rock, jazz, electronica, folk, and hip-hop elements combined with intimate lyrical compositions.Grecco, Stephen. "Village Voice." Vogue Magazine September 1996"Spotlighting Sound Talent." Interview Magazine January 1996."Spin Fashion: The Clash." Spin Magazine January 1996.Searle, Laurie. "Poe Evermore." Hits Magazine September 30, 1996. Many of Poe's songs have been featured in films and on television. Poe first hit the modern rock charts in 1995."Alternative Rock charts." Billboard Magazine October 17, 1995.1996 Rock Music Charts . 90sxchange.com. Retrieved on 2012-12-14.
Some of her early charting singles included "Angry Johnny", "Trigger Happy Jack", "Hello", and "Hey Pretty".Digital Songs. Billboard. Retrieved on 2012-12-14.Poe Songs (Top Songs / Chart Singles Discography) ••• Music VF, US & UK hits charts. Musicvf.com. Retrieved on 2012-12-14. Videos for these singles had heavy rotation on MTV.The Music Video Programming Guide." CVC Report volume 13, number 17, October 1, 1995.Robinson, Lisa. "Rock Talk: Poe's the Boss in the Macho World of Rock" The New York Post Tuesday, February 13, 1996. Poe spent six years with Atlantic RecordsPoe - Music Biography, Credits and Discography. AllMusic. Retrieved on 2012-12-14. and is currently on her own label, Repoezessed Music Records.
Poe's involvement with her online community of fans via her website and the fan sites that supported her early in her career predated modern social networking platforms and were among the first of their kind.Kelly, Sean. "Poe: The Angry Psycho." Computer Life Online September 1997.USA Today. "Hot Sites, " Here's Poe, Weekend Edition, Aug. 29-Sept. 1, 1997. Atlantic Records' Senior Vice President of New Media, Nikki Sleight, referred to Poe's online power and one-on-one communication with thousands attending her concerts as "unheard of and pretty phenomenal" in Sleight's 1997 interview with Web Magazine.Victoria, Laura. "One Named Wonder Poe Sings the Web's Praises" Web Magazine(Sleight: "I remember tracking the digital activity at one of Poe's theatre shows in 1996 and it turned out that 1755 of the people coming to her show had actually communicated with her online one-on-one which was unheard of and pretty phenomenal.") September 1997.
In 2004, she co-founded the digital innovations agency Signature Creative Inc with John Gheur.
In September 2014, Poe received the title of UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador due to her invitation by Yoko Ono to participate in a UNICEF campaign and her donated performance. The campaign launched a world version of John Lennon's classic song "Imagine" featuring dozens of musical artists from around the world. Poe joined others singing in the music video that included a video clip of John Lennon that spearheads a global campaign by UNICEF to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the Convention on the Rights of the Child.
Early life Born in New York City, Poe is the daughter of Polish film director Tad Z. Danielewski and his wife Priscilla Decatur Machold. Poe and her brother, novelist Mark Z. Danielewski, lived in six different countries before she turned eight.Udovitch, Mim. "You Poe, Girl" Details Magazine. November 1996.Young, Paul. "A Message You can Dance To" Buzz Magazine. December/January 1996 . Her father's film directing took the family to Africa, India, Spain, Switzerland, England, and the United States. When Poe was 12, her father moved his family to Provo, Utah to join the Arts faculty at Brigham Young University. Poe attended junior high school and some of high school in Provo. When Poe's parents divorced, Poe, then 16, left home and moved to New York City where she lived in a squat on the lower east side of Manhattan while attempting to connect with her estranged mother.Knight, Sophie. "Poe: The Singer's Daring Disc Will Blow You Away" Seventeen Magazine. January 1997. Poe continued submitting schoolwork to her high school in Utah and eventually graduated. She pursued her undergraduate studies at Princeton University, where she organized her first band.Connelly, C. "The Face: Poe" Talk Magazine. Page 48, December 2001
Early career Poe began experimenting with musical samplers and sequencers as a teenager. Noteworthy are her early collaborations with J Dilla of Slum Village.Williams, Dan Keith. "Poe World" Tao Noise Magazine. Premier Issue 1995. Poe's musical influences ranged "from Black Flag to Bob Dylan -- from Billie Holiday to Tribe Called Quest" according to music writer Stephen Grecco.Grecco, Stephen. "Spotlighting Sound Talent" Interview Magazine. January 1996."I loved the incredible story telling in Cole Porter and Dylan songs, and I related terribly to the heartbreak and vulnerability I heard in Billie Holiday's voice. Punk Rock and Hip Hop, on the other hand, influenced me deeply with their language of empowerment and raw immediacy. Those genres demanded a brave refusal to be silenced or forgotten, and that inspired me tremendously." – Poe. Robertson, R. "Poe to Poe" Venice Magazine. December 1995.
Poe was signed to Modern/Atlantic Records in 1994 on the strength of the demos she made with J Dilla and RJ Rice in RJ's living room in Detroit.Music News, Politics, Reviews, Photos, Videos, Interviews and More. Rolling Stone. Retrieved on 2012-12-14.
On January 28, 1996, The New York Times named Poe, along with Alanis Morissette, among the defining voices of the current "movement in music" which featured "angry" female artists who were "...articulate, sexually explicit, both lover and fighter...(women who) reject self-pity and refuse to define themselves purely in terms of their connection to men."Pareles, John. "Pop View: The Angry Young Woman: Labels Take Notice" The New York Times. January 28, 1998. In September 1996, Glamour published a picture of Poe, with a snarl on her face and wearing a tee-shirt on which she had written the words, "Happy-Well-Adjusted Female." In the accompanying interview, Poe says "I don't think 'Angry' really sums it up at all!"Hwang, Caroline. "Don't Call 'em Angry Women Rockers" Glamour Magazine. September 1996. In the November 14, 1996, issue of Rolling Stone, Poe's album, "Hello," attained a position on the Reader's Top Ten Chart."Rolling Stone Readers Top 10" Rolling Stone. November 14, 1996. and in August 1997, Esquire named Poe, along with Gwen Stefani, Lil' Kim, and Sarah McLachlan among the top five "Women Who Rock Our World"."Women Who Rock Our World" Esquire Magazine, Vol. 128, Number 2. August 1997.
Poe began her first major tour in January 1996, as the opening act for Lenny Kravitz.Los Angeles Times. January 14, 1996. She and her touring band (Daris Adkins on Guitar, Dan Marfisi "Jones" on Drums, Toby Skard on bass, and Cameron Stone on cello)Saldana, Hector. "Poe Sizzles as Garden Rocks" San Antonio Express News April 3o, 1997. then continued touring extensively as headliners and at festivals until 1999, when she stopped to begin pre-production on her second album for Atlantic. Pollstar Magazine reported in 1998 that Poe had performed for approximately 600 shows in a two-year time period.Poe Tour Dates . Pollstar (2001-05-25). Retrieved on 2012-12-14.
Hello Poe's first album, Hello, was released in 1995. Musically, the album was described as a sample-rich amalgam of hip-hop, rock, and jazz."Spin Fashion: "The Clash" Spin Magazine. September 1995.Cannon, Bob. "The Week Singles: "Poe's Slap Happy Groove Turns a Creepy Scenario into a Celebration of Survival" Entertainment Weekly. February 9, 1996. Lyrically, the album was filled with literary allusions, film nods, comic book references, and psychological irony.Tucker, Karen Iris. "Poe" Time Out Magazine New York. February 7–14, 1996. The CD was critically acclaimed.Picardo, Michelle. "The Importance of Being Poe" The New York Times. June 1998.Hendrickson, Mark. "Poe: Never Underestimate The Unpredictable Path Of Creativity" The Music Paper. May 1998. Hits Magazine called "Hello" an "over-the-top PoMo masterpiece." In an interview on Spotify's Landmark series discussing the making of Alanis Morissette's Jagged Little Pill, Glen Ballard quoted "Hello was probably the biggest influence I had at that time, honestly, because it was a brilliant record that had jazz influence, hip hop, electronic, rock. It was a hybrid of the first degree."
Not long after the album's release, Poe's single, "Trigger Happy Jack (Drive By a Go-Go)" broke into the top 20 of the Billboard Alternative and Modern Rock chart.Pisacane, Lea. "Poe: Trigger Happy Jack" Album Network. January 26, 1996."Top 20 chart" Billboard Magazine. October 17, 1995. "Trigger Happy Jack" was produced by Dave Jerden (Jane's Addiction, Alice in Chains) and Jeffrey Connor and featured Matt Sorum (of Guns N' Roses) on drums and Dean Pleasants (of Suicidal Tendencies) on guitar.
Poe met Jeffrey Connor towards the completion of the record as a session bassist she hired for additional overdubs on "Hello". Connor had given Poe a track he started writing after working with her. Poe heard the demo and passed it to Jerden who immediately gave the track the green light and had Connor come in to produce. Connor brought in Sorum and Pleasants for what was to become "Trigger Happy Jack".Demalon, Tom. (1995-10-10) Hello - Poe : Songs, Reviews, Credits, Awards. AllMusic. Retrieved on 2012-12-14. It featured the lyric "You can't talk to a psycho like a normal human being".Trigger Happy Jack Lyric Meaning - Poe Meanings. Songmeanings.net. Retrieved on 2012-12-14. The song's video went into high rotation on MTV and introduced Poe to the mainstream. Also in 1997, Atlantic released a maxi CD and 12-inch vinyl single of "Trigger Happy Jack" which included "The Drive By Remix" and "The Psycho Demolition Mix" by Steve Lyon, an instrumental version of the song, and a "Poe Only" Mix.Poe - Trigger Happy Jack (Drive By A Go-Go) (Vinyl) at Discogs. Discogs.com. Retrieved on 2012-12-14. Another single, "Angry Johnny", broke into the top 10 of Billboard'''s Modern Rock chart, and also enjoyed heavy rotation on radio. The song's video received high rotation on MTV.CVC Report. April 1996.Hits Magazine. March 1996Chart Album Network. March 23, 1996 The song featured the line, "I wanna blow you...(pause) away."Angry Johnny Lyric Meaning - Poe Meanings. Songmeanings.net. Retrieved on 2012-12-14. A promotional maxi-single of the song was released to radio but was never available commercially. This single included a "Band Mix" produced by Poe and Matt Sorum that received heavy rotation on radio.Chart. Album Network. March 23, 1996. There was another remix done by the Spanish producer Jesus N. Gomez.
In August 1997, Atlantic released a maxi-single of the song "Hello" that included six remixes of the song ("Hello: E-Smoove Funk Mix" by E-Smoove/ "Hello: Modern Mix" by Edge Factor/ "Hello: Nevins Electronica Mix" by Jason Nevins/ "Hello: The Generator Mix by E-Smoove/ "Hello: The Edge Factor Mix" by, Edge Factor, and "Hello: Trial Dub Mix" by Edge Factor.)Poe - Hello (CD) at Discogs. Discogs.com. Retrieved on 2012-12-14.
On September 13, 1997, "Hello" hit number one on the Billboard Hot Dance chart.Poe Biography . Sing365.com. Retrieved on 2012-12-14. The video for this song also enjoyed heavy rotation on MTV.Gebroe, Erin. "Suit Yourself" Live Magazine. October 1998.Chart. Billboard Magazine. September 1997.Chart. Hits Magazine. September 1997.