Press release

Press release by Sony Music Entertainment, March 1996

Danielle Brisebois as an artist and her album 'Arrive all over you'

At an early age, Danielle Brisebois had already accomplished as an actress what many young talents strive for years to achieve. Yet she turned away from a potentially long and lucrative career to concentrate on her first passion: music. With her Epic debut Arrive All Over You--a dreamily woven and soulful collection of pop songs--the 24-year-old Brooklyn native has emerged as a multi-talented singer and songwriter. But even more important, Danielle's album conveys the simple truth that dedication, conviction, and hard work all help to bring out the strongest and most real form of artistic expression.

It is to this end that each of the songs in this strikingly intimate and personal collection can be felt on a purely instinctual level. Affairs of the heart are an underlying theme: The wistful acoustic ballad "Crawling" conveys the sweetly painful emotions of love and heartbreak, while "Just Missed The Train" evokes the sad memory of a relationship that almost worked. "Gimme A Little Sign" is an upbeat and openly coy invitation to romance, and in "Promise Tomorrow Tonight," Danielle explores the complete range of her vocal skills in an uplifting duet with album producer and co-arranger Gregg Alexander. Whatever feeling she gives to a song, there's never any doubt that Danielle will give it her all.

"I've always wanted to put music first," Danielle avows. "I even did voiceovers when I was a kid. And in a way, I guess wanting to express myself is what got me into acting. But after the TV show, when I was about 17, I really felt like I needed to get back to the music, because this was something that I'd wanted to concentrate on from the beginning. I wasn't into just being an actress all my life."

"The TV show" to which Danielle refers is, of course, "Archie Bunker's Place," where she was first cast alongside actor Carroll O'Connor. Even as a teenager, Danielle was

poised and comfortable in the public eye. She had appeared in the original cast of "Annie" on Broadway while still in grade school, and also had performed regularly with the New York City Opera Company. Growing up in an atmosphere surrounded by music reinforced her desire to become a singer and musician, and Arrive All Over You bears this out: Danielle co-wrote and plays on the album. Still, with all her outside influences, Danielle has a silky vocal style--at times breathy and soothing, at others deep and sinewy--that is distinctly her own.

"When it comes to music, I've always been into a lot of different things," she says. "It might be a bit of a cliché, but my favorite sounds are from John Lennon and the Beatles--I grew up loving them. Deborah Harry, when she was with Blondie, was one of my favorite singers...Parallel Lines was a turning point in my life. And then there's Prefab Sprout, the Cocteau Twins...I've been accused of having a very eclectic taste in music. But on top of all that, I don't consciously try to be like anybody else. I do what I feel from the heart."

Not only does Danielle imbue her work with a profound sense of sincerity, but her songs draw directly from life, sometimes with a dark and yet humorous effect. The album's title, for example, actually comes from a crank caller's phone message. "I'm sure he thought he was abusing me, but really he helped me out with that title!" she admits with a laugh.

Every song on Arrive All Over You tells a story, including "What If God Fell From The Sky"--the first single and an enchanting video directed by Randee St. Nicholas. "The song isn't really about anything that has to do with religion," Danielle explains. "I was thinking more about hypocritical people. For all these people who look up to someone--whether it's God, their parents, or anyone else--I'm asking, if something like this happened, would they come through at that moment or would they fall out? It can turn out this way with anybody...you can't always expect someone to be there. And when that happens, you have to fill in that emptiness they left behind."

Indeed, an unswerving self-reliance has been instrumental to Danielle during the two years she spent writing material--on both piano and acoustic guitar--for the album. Words and melody work together to give us an inner glimpse of a young artist who has experienced much in such a short time. Danielle knows, as she sings with subtle and soul-stirring power in "Welcome To Love," that honesty isn't to be taken for granted, that love is never a certainty. But her songwriting never comes from a bitter place; instead, it all stems from her dedication to the music.

"I'm not striving to wake people up to anything or to make some kind of analytical statement," she says. "I just wanted to make a record that people could enjoy listening to. All I want to do is make music, and if someone can get something from it, and it happens because of what it is then that's great. If they tap into it in a certain way that helps them, then I'm thankful for that. But if they just enjoy it, well, that makes me happy too."

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