Page under construction, bear with me…

RachelAPP is my older stuff. Though different in name, it’s quite similar to my current stuff. I guess you could say it’s an even rawer and more lo-fi version of Nat JM.

Discography…
“Indigo sessions”, 7 tracks mini CD-R. This is a collection of early demos. Tracklist: My tongue is ill, Insane, A little mouse, Big mouth girl, Simple test, Alive, She’s waiting.

“Burstin’ EP”, 6 tracks CD-R. The first “official” release. Tracklist: New era, My new home, Is this the place I am working for, All my efforts, Reese, Best friend.

“Oh No EP”, 6 tracks CD-R (out of stock). The follow-up EP. Tracklist: Oh no, I love technology, No revenge, Out of grace, Tomorrow, Well known fact.

“Fire in my head”, 11 tracks CD. The first album. Tracklist: Stuck, Another question, In denial, Is he dead, My pain, Not much, Brainless, No care, Stop/trust, Green silver, More sugar.

A bit of history…

I started performing under the name of APP (HLMHB) back in 2002.

It was a solo effort but I was coming from the riot grrrl and punk scenes, where everyone was in a band and I lacked the confidence to say I was doing something solo so I decided to pretend it was a band.

This curious combination of letters means “A Punk Princess (Has Left My Heart Bleeding)” and was referring to a particular situation in my life - though interestingly enough, it turned out to be a very positive situation, as it got me into music again, after a dry spell of about 5 years.

I did a first CD-R of 16 songs, called “Bif B@x@w Bhu”. Yes, I was going through a criptic phase… This stands for “Buffy Is Fierce But Xena Would Beat Her Up”, which was something I had told a friend once and the line had stuck in my mind.

For the liner notes, I decided I’d make up some fake band members. As I was a huge fan of the TV show “Friends” back then (still is actually!), I decided to call the guitarist “RachelAPP”, the bassist “Monica”, and the drummer “Token Girl”, which was a reference to the way some riot grrrl bands with male drummers were calling them “token boys”.

I think I made 10 copies of that CD-R, and I sent it out to one radio show in Germany, which played it. I got my very talented friend Takako Nishioka to do the cover artwork.

The songs were all recorded on my 4 tracks tape recorder and now, when I listen to them, they make me cringe, except a few of them that I actually still like (but I guess it’s to do with nostalgia more than anything else!).

Anyway, I started recording more songs for another CD, to be called “CA-D Misfits”, a reference to my day job as a CAD technician.

I went as far as getting the artwork ready (curtesy of Takako once again) but I never actually made any physical CD-R of it. By the time I had recorded it, I wasn’t liking the songs anymore and felt I needed to experiment and develop musically before recording more stuff.

So followed one year of experimentation, writing song after song, getting a soundcard for my computer, learning how to use a free recording software for Linux, called Ardour, and so on. I recorded several songs during that period but they are firmly locked away on my heard drive.

After that, I came out of it with more confidence and a desire to make another record. By then, I had got the confidence to show myself as I was, ie one person and not a band, but I wanted to keep a link with my previous stuff, so I thought the best way to do this was to use the pretend names I had made up for the band members.

This is a rather long explanation but this explains how I came up with the name RachelAPP.

I did two EPs, a collection of demos, and one album, and played gigs in the UK and in France, as well as a couple of radio sessions on Resonance FM.

After two years of playing as RachelAPP, I felt that I was ready to peel off the last protective layer and perform under my real name.

So I changed my name to Nat JM. I’ve been asked many times what the letters stand for. Well, my first name is Natalie but everybody calls me Nat so this bit is pretty obvious. The “M” stands for my surname (Masse) and the “J” stands for Jacqueline, which was my mother’s name. I chose this because sadly my mother died when I was 20 and I wanted to acknowledge her great influence on my life. So there you have it. No more protective layers to peel off. No place left to hide.

More to be added later.