“Nobody buys [albums] so there’s no reason for me to have a concept idea of an album,” she points out. “I want to show people I have different tastes and outlooks. You go to iTunes, and people that like electronic will buy the electronic stuff, and people who like rock will buy the rock stuff. I’m working the odds here. So I have a three in ten chance.”
     If McCluskey sounds like a marketing executive, that’s because she has had to become one. After turning down laughable record deals, McCluskey is self-releasing Empty House on her own Bernadette Records imprint. Thinking of Bernadette as her wake-up call to the reality of not just the music business, but all creative fields in this current climate, McCluskey is branching out to music supervision, film production, and branding. Bernadette is McCluskey’s alter ego, a 17-year-old Parisian girl from the ‘60s. It is around this character that the branding will be based. There is also an alter-ego band formed around Bernadette with McCluskey and erstwhile Supreme Beings Of Leisure member, Kiran Shahani. “I’m going to QVC, baby,” McCluskey chortles. “I want to go back to the ‘60s where there really was some good style. Everybody keeps going back to the ‘80s and ‘90s. I’m not wearing another puffed sleeved jacket or another pixie boot, un-sexy “Little House On The Prairie” with shoulderpads. Please somebody make a bonfire of this stuff. Enough already.” Soon everyone can look like a Christmas tree, and feel fabulous doing it.

Buy this at iTunes.