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On 24th April 2006, avant-garde American blues songstress Sandy Dillon released ‘Pull The Strings’. The album is Sandy’s eighth in total, her fourth release on One Little Indian Records, and her strongest material to date. With previous comparisons ranging from Janis Joplin to PJ Harvey to Patti Smith, Sandy had a lot to live up to, and ‘Pull The Strings’ delivers, offering us a sparse, rich soundscape to a storybook album.

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Having worked with artists as diverse as Mick Ronson, hip hop god Man Parrish, the French composer Hector Zazou and Dieter Meier from Yello previously, the role call on ‘Pull The Strings’ is no less impressive. Producer and multi-instrumentalist David Coulter {recently associate musical director for Faustian theatre production The Black Rider by Tom Waits, William Burroughs and Robert Wilson} features along with guest turns from Waits’ longtime horn-man, Ralph Carney, and Robert Love, singer from Alabama 3, who duets with Sandy on the album’s title track ‘Pull The Strings’ and the gorgeous Sinatra/Hazlewood-esque ballad ‘Why?’, produced by Ken Thomas {sigur ros}.

The album's origins began with Sandy and long-term guitarist/slideman, Ray Majors, joining Belgian ambient acoustic quartet Troisseur and visual artist Helga Nullens to form The Bovine Solution, an artistic and musical project designed to integrate into a unique audio-visual experience that culminated in a live performance at The Hanlesbeurs Theatre in Ghent, Belgium. Three of the songs she wrote during that time were recorded at The Verandah, the Belgian farm where Troisseur live, and feature on ‘Pull The Strings’. The other tracks were recorded in Paris by David Coulter and on a farm in Surrey with producer Ken Thomas (Sigur Ros, etc).

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Brought up as a Catholic in the area of Cape Cod known locally as Kennedy Country’, on America’s East Coast, Sandy earned her degree in Traditional Compositions for Orchestral Music as a teen at the prestigious Berklee College of Music in Boston, before moving to New York. Based at the infamous Chelsea Hotel, in between playing jazz piano for Tennessee Williams at Rounds on 52nd Street, recording background music for what turned out to be gay porn films she played the Broadway role of Janis Joplin in ‘Rock n Roll: The First 5,000 Years’ where she was seen by manager Tony DeFries. With clients including Davie Bowie and Iggy Pop, Defries helped Sandy land her first record deal with Elektra, for whom she recorded two albums, ‘Candy From A Stranger’ produced by Man Parrish and ‘Flowers’, co-produced by Mick Ronson and Dieter Meier of Yello. Unfortunately, her lucky break somewhat faltered. At a time when the music business was obsessed with everyone sounding like Cyndi Lauper or Madonna – take your pick – Sandy resisted attempts to mould her, and Elektra did not release either of her albums.


Sandy and Mick Ronson travelled to London to promote the singles Heavy Boys and Flowers, which were released by EMI/Priority. It was then that she met with musician/producer Steve Bywater, who would later become her husband and musical partner. After splitting with Mainman, Sandy and Steve built a studio in their living space in East London. There with Steve, she recorded the albums ‘Skating’ (Bonjour 1996), her One Little Indian debut ‘Electric Chair’ (1999), and with Steve and Hector Zazou ‘Las Vegas Is Cursed’ (Crammed Discs 2000), and ‘East Overshoe’ (2000), her last recording before Steve’s untimely death. Sandy remains in their home where she later recorded ‘Nobody’s Sweetheart’ (2003).