We were lucky to catch up with Phoebe Legere recently, and we’ve shared our conversation below.
Phoebe, thanks for joining us! We’re excited to have you contributing your stories and insights.Can you take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers and explain how you got to where you are today?
I am a multi-instrumentalist, composer, filmmaker, painter, poet, animator, performance artist, and playwright. My multidisciplinary art operates in the space between painting, drawing, feminism, spirituality, and environmental science. Art and music are my laboratory for social and personal transformation.
My first band was called MONAD: a multi-racial, multi-ethnic band of teenage girls. MONAD was a rock band that combined all art forms—we did street painting, street performances, and feminist graffiti in addition to playing loud, original, experimental, political rock ’n’ roll.
I was part of the East Village Renaissance, an explosion of multidisciplinary art. I was friends with Keith Haring, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Larry Rivers, Peter Beard, Jack Smith, David Wojnarowicz, Richard Kern, Allen Ginsberg, John Ashbery, Kenneth Koch, Hunter S. Thompson, Michael Jackson, Ethyl Eichelberger, David Bowie, Joni Mitchell, and many more.
I graduated from Vassar College with a degree in Art. (Linda Nochlin, Advisor) MFA Computer Art Program at the School of Visual Arts (Perry Hoberman, Advisor), NYU Graduate School, CUNY, and Juilliard. I trained at the avant-garde loft jazz jam sessions of the Lower East Side. I studied jazz piano with John Lewis of the Modern Jazz Quartet, Composition with Dinu Gezzo and Mort Subotnick, painting and video with Larry Rivers, drawing with Hilary Knight and writing and film with Hunter S. Thompson and Terry Southern.
I love music. I’ve been a soloist at Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center’s Avery Fisher Hall, Symphony Hall in Boston, and CBGB’s. I’ve been closely associated with the Rivington School, No Se No, A’s Performance Loft, and the Pyramid Club. My band, MONAD, played on the first night at the Pyramid—a legendary venue associated with the East Village Renaissance.
In the 90’s the East Village scene declined due to AIDS and real estate speculation; I went West. I lived with Hunter S. Thompson in Woody Creek, Colorado. I created many paintings, videos and songs about our life together.
I love film and video. I always made my own music videos, like Trust Me and Marilyn. Then, I started writing movies. Film is a perfect synthesis of sound, vision, and story. I created Marquis de Slime, a horror film about a female wrestler with supernatural powers—a reflection of my experience navigating the male-dominated music and art industries. I starred in Toxic Avenger, one of the top 10 cult films of all time, contributing my own costumes, music, and stunts. The music I created for Toxic Avenger is available at Ship to Shore Records. Later, I opened for David Bowie on his national tour. Eventually, I became disillusioned with the music business and created avant-garde classical music. (Einstein Records, Off the Score Records, Mercury UK) I traveled the world documenting indigenous people and plant medicine across six continents.
I love to paint and draw.
- My solo retrospective Evanescent Landscapes/Vanishing Women, a show about Native American issues and the environment, was recently held at the Bundy Museum.
- Next week, I have paintings in two group shows:
- #1: a juried show for the National Association of Women Artists. The online show can be viewed here, with an in-person exhibit from November 4–9, 2024, at the National Arts Club. The online show runs from November 4–December 8, 2024.
- #2 ENDGAME, at the White Box Gallery, 9 Avenue B. The show opens on November 5, Election Day, and runs until December 7. More information is available at whiteboxnyc.org.
I love children. I am the founder and national director of the Foundation for New American Art. In the financial crisis of 2008, funding for music and art was cut from New York City public schools. Our free after-school program, Paint Brushes Not Guns, nurtures and trains the visionary artists of tomorrow. We were awarded a National Endowment for the Arts grant for our work, and in 2023, we received a three-year grant from the New York Department of Cultural Affairs to support Paint Brushes Not Guns, a free program for children ages 8–12. Learn more and donate at foundationfornewamericanart.org. My website is phoebelegere.com. I’m on every major digital platform, including Spotify, where I have 16 original albums and almost 700 songs available online. My newest movie, The Gender Symphony, features eight original songs.
Check out my YouTube channel at youtube.com/phoebelegere or follow me on Instagram at instagram.com/phoebelegere. Follow me on Twitter/X at @legere.
Do you think your parents have had a meaningful impact on you and your journey?
Both my father and mother were artists. Their world revolved around creativity, design, drawing, and beauty.
Mummy and Daddy taught me how to draw and paint before I could read: I learned perspective, geometry, oil painting techniques, design, and colors. Visual art skills were the building blocks of my childhood. While I didn’t get the hugs, encouragement, or unconditional love that should be every child’s birthright, I received a classical artistic education that shaped me.
My grandparents were musicians. At age three, I started playing the piano. By age five, I was painting in oils. By six, I was composing music.
I ran away from home at 15 and lived on the streets of the Lower East Side. I painted on buildings, sidewalks, and the bombed-out ruins of Alphabet City—and even on my clothes. I made a living playing jazz piano, then performed original punk music with my band, MONAD. It was nearly impossible to get signed because we were female and on top of that we had musicians of color in the band. MTV did not allow African American musicians back then.
To gain creative freedom, I created multiple income streams. I started House of Legere, a clothing line, including my famous Fur Bikini with post-Chanel accessories. I sold my art fashion at Patricia Field’s. I started getting famous and then
my music started to gain traction. I was signed to Nemperor Records, owned by Nat Weiss, who had been the Beatles’ lawyer and Brian Epstein’s partner in Apple Records. When Brian passed, Nat renamed the label Apple/ Nemperor Records. I was the only female artist ever signed to Nemperor Records.
Michael Jackson and Walter Yetnikoff (CBS/Sony President) heard my songs. That led to me being signed to the most powerful record company in the world. – CBS/Sony.
They said, “Your music is incredible, but it’s not enough just to be a great songwriter Phoebe. You must be sexy.”: “Bleach your hair platinum blond or you are off the label. You’ll sell a million more records if you are a blond.” I resisted, preferring the dark soft texture of my natural hair.
The industry’s focus on image over musicianship was heartbreaking. With technological changes like MIDI and vocal processors, real musicianship was no longer valued. They wanted me to fire my band and perform with dancers to a backing track—something I could not accept. I said: “My band is my family.”
The music industry was collapsing, so I started placing my music in films. I approached Troma Pictures. They looked at me kind of funny when I walked in with my tape recordings. They said, Stand over there. We want to take your picture. Before the polaroid was even developed Lloyd Kauffman said, “Do you want to be the lead in our next movie?” They cast me as the star of Toxic Avenger, a cult classic. I learned filmmaking from Troma and had a college radio hit with my song Marilyn Monroe from the movie Mondo New York (Island Pictures)
David Bowie saw me on English TV and invited me to open for him on his Sound and Vision Tour. With all this attention, I used my platform to make a political statement. I produced my musical Hello Mrs. President, about the first African American female president of the United States. Its environmental, pacifist, and racial justice themes led to Phoebe Legere being blacklisted by the Bush administration.
My journey has been difficult but has shaped me into the unapologetic artist I am today. I learned early not to seek approval. That resilience has helped me survive in the gladiatorial arena that is the art and music marketplace.
Now, I make sure the kids in our bilingual after-school Paint Brushes Not Guns programs receive the encouragement and love I didn’t get as a child. I teach them to believe in themselves because, without that belief, the world will eat you alive. My parents were tough and unavailable; the music business was brutal, and New York’s streets were a harsh teacher. But those challenges have made me strong. All my abusers, through their emotional absence, taught me to find my strength within.
Are there any books, videos, essays, or other resources that have significantly impacted your management and entrepreneurial thinking and philosophy?
I love the mom-and-pop businesses of America. Bands are small businesses, too. Business comes down to math and customer service.
One of my strongest influences is author Susan Rakowski, who wrote for The Wall Street Journal and was, for many years, the Editor-in-Chief of a magazine called Small Business Opportunities. She wrote a great book called Suetastic.
All the major international superstars you know about started as mom-and-pop businesses: Taylor Swift, Celine Dion, Michael Jackson, and Madonna are notable examples. They had their close family behind them, rooting for them and helping them every step of the way. Then the big corporations got involved, and that is why these people are international superstars.
You need to align with someone in your family who will pick you up and dust you off every time somebody punches you. If your family is so damaged or jealous that they want you to fail, then you need to build a new family. You can do it.
Listen to the greatest, toughest motivational speakers you can find on YouTube. We didn’t have this resource when I was starting out as a teenager growing up on the streets. I favor African American motivators, but there are a couple of white ones that are good too. Les Brown is one of the best. You must go through hell and back to be a great motivator. I call myself a “Middle School Motivator.” I nurture young geniuses. I teach them to stand up to oppression, jealousy and stupidity.
Everybody will try to take what you have. They’ll steal your name (Phoebe from Friends—yes, they did), they’ll steal your music, they’ll steal your look—they’ll even wear a wig to try to look like you.
And get ready, because when the shit hits the fan, as it always does in show business (since big entertainment is entirely trend-driven), you gotta have a couple of true friends who love you whether you are rich and famous or not.
The music business raped me, ripped me off, and left me for dead. You can’t live for the admiration of the public. The public is so wounded and so scared they will lock into anything that can distract them from the horror of death and food prices.
If you love to paint, if you love to write songs and play music, just play to your niche and ignore everyone else. If you are truly creative, people will always hate you anyway, so make the kind of music you love, paint the paintings you love, and make the movies that YOU love.
Songs are poems. The music business would have you believe that songs are money. But no. Songs are magic incantations, a way of speaking to the Gods. If you are a musician, you have God’s ear. Sing for you, sing for peace, sing for beauty, sing above all, for praise and thanksgiving. YOU are the poem at the center of this Universe.
Cherish your genius, treasure your unique madness, and if the gatekeepers at galleries and museums won’t let you in, print your paintings on beautiful clothes and REFUSE TO BE DENIED!
See my fashions at HOUSE of LEGERE:
- Universe of Love Felicia Dress
- My song from an album with Eno and Leo Abraham on Mercury UK// Ultra Romantic Parallel Universe
About Mom and Pop Businesses in America: Bread and Roses
Teenage Weimar – reading from my autobiography:
Soundcloud Link
Any insights you can share with us about how you built up your social media presence?
I used to love Facebook. It felt like a family. I was in touch with kids from my kindergarten and people from all over the world. Mark Zuckerberg sent me a personal invitation to join Facebook when it was still exclusive to Harvard University.
I realized the tremendous power FB had as I started posting paintings and music with short motivational messages. Then I got hacked. The hackers live in Singapore; I know their IP addresses. If I were a certain kind of person, I’d go there and settle the score once and for all. I started a new FB account three months ago. I started from zero and quickly reached my follow limit of 5,000. Then, suddenly, I got hacked again. I’m done.
Instagram is very seductive. I post my paintings and NFTs on Instagram. My favorite is TIKTOK because it is so funny and crazy. (@phoebesongbundle—my Native name)
What I loved most was Twitter, now X (it will never be the same). I made real friends on Twitter. In 2012, when Barack was running, it was exciting. Barack Obama tweeted back to me—I wrote something about jazz, and he tweeted back, “How about some cool Coltrane?”
Artists, poets, and musicians are prophets. We can see the future. Don’t bore me by saying, “Oh Phoebe, you were ahead of your time.” No. I have vision. I can see the future. I could even see the people copying me IN THE FUTURE. I am a living model for the visionary artists of the future.
All proceeds of my art and music support the Foundation for New American Art’s Paint Brushes Not Guns after-school programs.
Contact Info:
- Website: Phoebe Legere | Foundation for New American Art
- Instagram: @phoebelegere
- Facebook: phoebelegere (make sure you don’t go to the hacked and copycat sites; there are about 15 of them)
- LinkedIn: Phoebe Legere
- Twitter: @legere and @umuseum
- YouTube: Phoebe Legere
- Soundcloud: Phoebe Legere
- Other: Spotify | Bandcamp
- Blog about MONAD, the seminal East Village Multidisciplinary NoWave Band:
Phoebe Legere’s Monad Blog - My wearable art at Le Galeriste:
Le Galeriste
Image Credits
Blue Fender Mustang Guitar photo by Bob Gruen
Fur Bikini and accessories by House of Legere
Red Accordion with Top Hat Squeeze Me Cover
By Bobby Miller
Photo of me with large paintings at Bundy Museum credit @Bundy Museum