Entering the White Tomato Era

It's been a very long time since I've written anything here, but I wanted to get some thoughts out of my head and onto the world wide web, in advance of the release of my fourth-ish solo album (counting the one album I did with my band, Devin Tait & the Traitors).

This has been a long, strange trip, as this album actually began life way back in 2018 when I was recording my third album, "Art Damage" in Hollywood. At that time, my alter-ego, Mannifred LaCroix was working on an EP titled "International Agent" which I was recording concurrently with "Art Damage." During the final vocal recording session for that album, at a studio called The Room on Melrose, I banged out all the vocals for "International Agent" - or so I thought! Later, when I listened to it, I realized it just wasn't working. I realized I didn't have the time or energy to complete two projects at the same time, so I focused on "Art Damage" and released that in early 2019.

I had fun plans for "Art Damage" which included a little mini-tour that saw me playing mainly around Los Angeles, but also travelling to Bisbee, Arizona, and my hometown of Paradise, Kansas. I was thrilled to have the lead single "Anyone Can Break Somebody's Heart" played on the radio in Los Angeles - the culmination of a dream for many years! It became my most successful solo release, mainly due to the inclusion of Wendy Ho's amazing lead vocals and a superb remix done by Scott Anderson, who had previously remixed my former band Shitting Glitter's "Slut Buffet."

By late 2019, I was pushing my musical escapades to the limit, participating in several regular showcase nights where I'd perform cover songs and originals at places like Nabu Wines and Hotel Cafe, and participating in the weekly Social Jam on the Sunset Strip and other spots. I was learning cover songs in a matter of a day or two, memorizing chords and lyrics, as well as playing solo gigs of my own music. And then, of course, we all know what happened in early 2020.

For a few months, I was able to transition to virtual performances. I subscribed to a software program that bolstered my livestreaming capabilities, and I had a fun time putting together skits and songs for my streams. But increasingly, as we all tried to get "back to normal," I found myself with little inspiration or ideas for new music. It was a classic writers block, but worse. I wondered if I even had a place in the music world. I had pretty much decided nobody wanted to hear me anymore, and I had nothing left to say.

Lot of changes occurred in my personal life, as I made a conscious effort to focus solely on my professional career. My husband and I moved to a new city, and I stopped telling people I was a musician. I made new social media accounts that didn't have any information about my stage persona, "Devin Tait." I decided that Devin Tait was a character that I had played for many years, and that he was now dead... or at least, in hibernation mode.

The truth is I started my "music career" using my real name, but once my brother joined my band, we decided to use our middle names instead of our last name, so that people didn't automatically know that we were related. And as I began to become known as Devin Tait, I pushed myself to be a larger-than-life personality, with colorful, sparkly outfits and outrageous hair and makeup. Eventually, Devin Strecker grew up, but Devin Tait didn't, and I couldn't reconcile being both anymore.

While I stopped playing live music and collaborating with other musicians for a couple of years, I did continue to work on music as I focused on completing the fourth Shitting Glitter album, "Damn Skippy Baby," which contained original demos that some of the surviving band members helped complete with new contributions, which I had professionally mixed. That was released in September, 2023. 

In an unexpected and brief burst of creative energy, I quickly wrote, recorded and released an EP just one month later, under my alter ego's name, Mannifred LaCroix. "Denizens of Doomland" contained 5 tracks, 3 of which were started and completed within the span of a few days, and released to Bandcamp in October, 2023.

Slowly, I started planning to finally complete and release the "International Agent" EP that I had worked on back in 2018. I salvaged three songs from it, but realized that despite multiple re-writes with different lyrics and ideas, two of the songs just weren't working. I started writing some new songs and really liked them. I set up my studio in our den, and began rehearsing . I decided I would just start performing as Mannifred LaCroix, a new start in a new town. 

However, I had developed one rule for Mannifred: things had to be done quickly, on the fly, without too much thought given to them. It would make it fun and spontaneous. The only problem was, I really started to like some of the new songs I had written, and wanted them to sound as good as possible. This meant that I was tinkering with them, modifying the lyrics, adding new keyboard sounds, etc. After awhile it became apparent that I wasn't making a Mannifred LaCroix album: I was making a Devin Tait album!

Once I realized that, several things started to make sense. I had been fretting about the name Mannifred LaCroix because it didn't seem very easy to market. I worried about creating a whole new persona, even though I had already bought some wigs and worked on my fake, vaguely European accent. But being myself, or at least a version of myself that I had already lived with for many years, felt much more "right."

I've had a habit now of working on a project under a working title, only to change it at the last minute, and then pick the working title back up later. "Mixed Signals" started life as "Art Damage." Then, of course, "Art Damage" came next, but had been known as "The White Tomato" before. There's even a line in the song "Hotel Terminus" from "Art Damage" where I sing "I guess I'm just a loverboy, looking for the white tomato." So it started to make sense to pursue "The White Tomato" as my next project. 

There's still a few holdovers that point to the "International Agent" theme: "The Spy Who Loved Me" was written explicitly to fit that title, and "ROSEGOLD/WINTERGREEN" is a cinematic-oriented instrumental with a title meant to evoke a covert operation's code name. But I think that just plays into the lore of The White Tomato, a mystical and secret concept that both describes me and my place in the world, as well as being a cryptic totem.

Essentially, Devin Tait is back, but he's a little different now. I remember in my early twenties, I always had it in my head that 28 was the age at which you were officially "old." I remember thinking how cringe it was when people in their 30s and older were still chasing dreams that had obviously passed them by. I vowed that I would never be one of those people, and that if I hadn't accomplished my dreams by age 28, I would throw in the towel. But the funny thing about being much, much older than 28 is that I don't really care what anyone else thinks and I am not just chasing some silly dream. I'm expressing myself and creating what I want to create. I also know that you can't go viral if you aren't producing any content, and I believe in myself and my worth so I want to be part of today, not just yesterday. For those reasons, I am happy to announce that "The White Tomato" is coming on August 8, 2025.