Circe Link’s Pure “Dumb Luck”

If you caught a show on the Monkees’ latest tour, you probably noticed the striking, sweet-voiced singer joining Michael Nesmith’s son Christian and Micky Dolenz’s sister Coco on backing vocals. But Circe Link, a self-described “musician, poet, [and] muse,” is no mere backup singer. Together with her partner Christian Nesmith, she has released nine albums and regularly records original and cover songs, complete with accompanying music videos, for Theme Music, a Facebook group of over 1,000 professional and amateur musicians. I spoke with Circe recently about her experience on the Monkees tour, her creative process, and the elusive definition of “cowboy jazz.”

You’ve just finished up a tour with the reunited Monkees. Were you a fan of the band growing up?
I was never really into the Monkees as a kid. I had seen that they were on TV, but I spent so much time outside enjoying the wild outdoors. Other than The Twilight Zone, I did not come inside for much!

When I saw the tour in Merrillville, Indiana, I was struck by how well you, Christian, and Coco Dolenz blended together. Tell me a little about the process of arranging and rehearsing the backing vocals.
As you may know, Christian Nesmith was promoted to vocal captain this tour. So all the magical sounds you heard from the big vocal blends came from his creative impulse and hard work. And anybody could sound good singing with both Micky and Coco [on] either side of them! I felt very fortunate!

What kind of response have you gotten from the Monkees fans you’ve met? Has there been a crossover between fans of the Monkees and fans of your original music?
Because Michael Nesmith is Christian’s father, we have always had a small group of Monkees fans get into our music. But obviously, since the tour and our visibility being so much more heightened, we have gained lots of new friends and fans!

I find Monkees fans to have very discerning ears — they are used to a level of writing craftsmanship on the records that we also try to have, as well as a diversity in style. I think that’s why we have had such a great crossover.

Your website mentions that you used to call your music “cowboy jazz.” How has that sound evolved over time? How would you describe it now?
Cowboy jazz was a way for us to come up with something clever and cute to describe the music that we were doing. But anybody who knows us knows that we will do any kind of music that comes into our hearts, as we love every genre. Our latest record, Dumb Luck, is actually what I would call cowboy jazz, but you never know what we’re going to do next!

You started out as a visual artist, and your song lyrics and music videos are full of striking visual images. Do you feel that your art background informs your musical work? How does the creative process differ between the two?
Of course my background in art influences all that I do in music. I am very much visualizing as I write lyrics, and when Christian and I go into production to make a video we are highly aware of the importance of an aesthetic. There’s not much difference between painting, making music, baking bread, gardening, or doing anything creatively. If it’s your art and the muse is guiding you, while the process may be different in form and function, the impulse and joy are the same.

You and Christian are partners in life as well as music-making. What’s your creative partnership like?
I could not ask for a better person to create art with. We get along wonderfully and have many similar tastes and complement each other. And like any good partnership, we sometimes disagree, but we have great ground rules for working out our differences!

My first exposure to you was the cover you, Christian, and Robbie Rist did of the Beach Boys’ “Good Vibrations” for the Theme Music Facebook group. How did you get involved in Theme Music, and how has it affected your work as a musician?
Theme Music is a Facebook group that was invented by our friend Matt Brown. We were invited by Robbie Rist to join. It’s a group where a theme is posted every week and the musicians involved will post music videos of themselves playing a song that fits that week. One can play originals or covers, and make big production videos or just do something small. Once we joined Theme Music, our creativity level went through the roof in regards to making videos. We realized that through that accessible technology we could make both casual and high-production-value videos pretty much all on our own.

It can sometimes be frustrating to have to focus on creating videos to go with music, but that’s the state of the music business today, [and] we have embraced it fully. Theme Music helped us do so.

(Cover photo via Circe Link.)

Carey Farrell

Carey Farrell is a writer, musician, and teacher from Chicago. She enjoys collecting vintage books and records, watching terrible movies, and telling people about the time her band opened for Peter Tork. Find her on YouTube or Bandcamp.