Nina Gordon

It also marked a two-year anniversary of sorts for her debut solo album Tonight and The Rest of My Life. In November 1998, Gordon and bandmates started cutting tracks at Bob Rock’s studio on Maui. She may also have been cutting her final ties to Veruca Salt.

She left the band the previous February. Whatever the nature of her decision, the charming, intimate Tonight… speaks only of great tomorrows, while a reloaded Veruca Salt rages forward (minus, of course, the Gordon-penned “Seether” and “Volcano Girls”).

Yes, Nina Gordon was in another band. And she expects to have “formerly of Veruca Salt” tagged to the end of her name for a while, at least until she sells as many records as the band did (hopefully, she told POLLSTAR, that will be soon).

Not all careers see an upward spike after a solo move, but Gordon’s has. Supporters include Warner Bros. President Phil Quartararo, who signed her, and Q Prime, which manages her (and formerly did so for Veruca Salt). Also, not all solo careers get kick-started by such debut singles as the title track.

“My mom’s into Led Zeppelin and stuff, so she wasn’t thrown by all the noise (of Veruca Salt),” Gordon said. “But definitely, some more distant relatives, cousins, aunts and uncles were now able to say, ‘Wow, I never knew you had such a great singing voice,’ or whatever because they were thrown off by all of the heavy distortion and that kind of thing.”

Tonight… can be termed an oh-so-cliche “dramatic departure” from the songwriter’s thrash past. The songs are confidently positioned in pop, focusing on the inexhaustible themes of breakups and make-ups.

“(Before), I saw people thrashing around and screaming and throwing shit,” she said. “It’s really nice to look out and see people just kind of holding each other the whole time and looking into each other’s eyes as if they were having this beautifully romantic evening with my music.”

After the split with Veruca Salt, Gordon wrote incessantly. In May 1998, she sent a demo to Outpost/Geffen Records, which loved it, signed her and sent her packing to Rock’s studio.

However, as 1999 grew closer, Geffen’s merger with Universal gave a sense of the unknown to her project. Although she is one of the “most positive people in the music business,” as her agent, Adam Kornfeld of Artist Group International, told POLLSTAR, Gordon still had to try and stay focused. Meanwhile, her calls to Geffen were answered less and less by familiar voices.

By April 1999, while Geffen defined its relationship with Interscope, Tonight… was in the can. “It was all this stupid red tape and I’m just waiting,” she said.

While the record appeared to be heading toward release on Geffen/Interscope, a copy landed on Phil Q’s desk. Quartararo, previously at Virgin, impressed Gordon during the bidding war for Veruca Salt, and she grew excited thinking Warner could be her new label. In November 1999, after some legal wrangling, it was.

“I felt really good about it because I loved everybody at Warner Bros. I felt like I had found a really good home and I trusted them,” she said. However, despite her yearlong ordeal, she was told to wait until the following June to release her album seven months away. “I felt like, all right, if they’re telling me they can’t give it total attention until June, then I’ll believe them and I’ll wait. I’ll be OK. I was, and I’m very, very happy.”

“We love her,” Peter Standish, Warner Bros. VP of marketing, told POLLSTAR. “The album she made is a great one. We all thought it was great but, of course, you never know until you get out there in the marketplace. … The public reacts to it. I’ve seen report after report consistently saying every time the record gets played in the store, invariably customers come up and want to buy it.”

AGI, the singer’s agency for the last six months, has her on a national club and theatre tour through December, with a couple of visits to late-night TV thrown in.

“I’ve done a lot of acoustic performances at radio stations and promotional events but up until a couple of weeks ago, I wasn’t playing real rock shows with my band,” she said, “so I think I’m finding my stage legs. I’m not really worried about commanding the audience yet. I think I will soon, but now I’m just worried about playing the right chords, singing the right words and singing well.”

When it comes to meet and greets, at this point in her career, Gordon relishes the interaction. “I’ve enjoyed actually coming into contact with people who really like my music. I was sort of out of circulation for a couple of years, so I relish all of that feedback and I’m enjoying talking to people. After awhile, maybe I’ll feel like, ‘OK, maybe I should back off and hide a little bit more.’ But for now, I’m feeling very happy being right in the center of the people who care about my music.”