Of all the Spice Girls, I’ve always had a fondness for Mel C. She wasn’t my original favourite, but awkward Sporty, with her crooked smile and galumphing tomboy energy, gradually won me over. The fact that she was the only Spice capable of actually singing didn’t hurt. By the time she returned (with fixed-up teeth) for the Girls’ reunion, dancing acrobatic circles in bedazzled Adidas trainers around her sisters in Spice (the rest of whom wore ridiculous hooker heels), I was rooting for Melanie Chisholm to break the shackles of her girl-group past and emerge victorious.
So it’s thrilling to discover that This Time, her most recent solo album — released last year in the UK and out now in Canada, where her rigorous promo tour brings her to the Phoenix May 8 — is not half bad. It’s a collection of solid mainstream pop, co-written with folks like Robbie Williams collaborator Guy Chambers. This Time is the work of a candidate for the Grey’s Anatomy soundtrack, not some washed-up wannabe from a once-successful bubblegum act.
For her part, Chisholm — who has a relatively successful solo career in Europe — sounds almost ecstatic to be starting from square one.
“I almost did things backwards,” she chirps over the phone. “Right from when we started out, the Spice Girls were one of the biggest bands in the world — it was all private jets and arenas. And so when I started my solo career, I wanted to play little clubs and earn my stripes. The biggest thing to overcome was the nerves. Without that support network of the other girls, it was daunting at first. But now I feel like the stage is my playground.”
Chisholm’s not the obvious choice for a post-Spice career, but in contrast to her Spice peers, she’s always been an accessible personality, less cartoonish and more open about personal demons (like her struggles with eating disorders).
“I’ve always tried to be very honest,” she offers, when I ask whether she thinks her de-glam, butchy persona helped make her a role model for insecure tweens. “If I were sexual or very provocative, it wouldn’t be me. I think I’m aware of — and we all became aware of — the fact that our fans were so young. I mean, we were young too, but we really tried to be careful and to be good role models. Of course, everyone makes mistakes, but there are so many young stars now who are having very publicized problems — rehab and drugs and all those things — and thank god us girls never had to go through that.”
Like Robyn, another erstwhile, prefab pop star who’s making a comeback, Chisholm founded her own independent label, Red Girl Records. Does she ever wish she, too, could start with a clean slate?
“I’d be really foolish to have any regrets,” Chisholm says slowly. “We’re part of pop history, which is so amazing. It is restricting at times, and a lot of people have very narrow perceptions of who you are, mostly because of the way the media frames you. But I’m a 34-year-old woman now, and I’ve experienced a lot more stuff since I was in the Spice Girls. I hope people get to understand that.”