Baltimore native Mink Stole began her acting career with what was known as the “Dreamlanders,” the small group of regular cast and crew for John Waters’Dreamland Productions. Stole has appeared in all of Waters’ feature-length films, including “Pink Flamingos,” “Female Trouble” and “Hairspray.”
She has also worked with theater greats John Vaccaro and the late Charles Ludlam in New York, and with the Los Angeles Women’s Shakespeare Co. Mink returned to Baltimore in 2007, where she has produced and performed several shows at the Creative Alliance with her Wonderful Band. She has just released her first CD, “Do Re MiNK,” after raising money on Kickstarter. She recently spoke with her friend and BmoreMedia writer Martha Thomas about her new album, working with Waters and why she returned to Baltimore.
How was the May 31 show at the Creative Alliance?
We rocked out during the second half. Everyone got on the stage for the last song, “Bring Me Sunshine.” It’s not on the album. It may be on my next record, if in fact, there is a next record.
Cutting a CD turned out to be more than you expected?
In L.A., I did a little demo tape with eight songs and it took two days. One afternoon, the band came in and laid down the instrumental. I came in the next day and did the vocals. I thought it sounded great, but it wasn’t done on high-end studio equipment.
We were in a garage. It’s apples and oranges. I didn’t know that when I started this record. I’ve been working on it for three years. It took twice as long as I expected, even after I realized it would take a long time, because I went back and redid every song. Now that I’ve been exposed to the apples, I realize it was oranges that time.
