Steve Conte Delivers New Song 'Girl With No Name'

10-14-2023

(Earshot) New York Dolls icon Steve Conte is back-- following the summer release of his single "Fourth Of July" (co-written with Andy Patridge of XTC)-- with his latest track "Girl With No Name."

Conte says, "This is a song of regret...about missed opportunity and lack of skills in meeting someone you're attracted to. When putting my new album together, I was looking for songs that would fit nicely alongside the songs that Andy Partridge and I had written for it and I kept thinking of this one. I wrote it back in 1984 and never forgot it - which was a good sign.

"Because it came to me so long ago I can't exactly remember my process for writing it, except that since I was young & single at that time I was probably experiencing these kinds of situations & feelings on a daily basis!

"Musically, I can hear what was influencing me back then; mid 60s Beatles, mid 80s XTC, and that beloved Motown groove from a certain Diana Ross & The Supremes song..."

A follow-up LP to Conte's acclaimed 2021 solo album Bronx Cheer, is expected in early 2024 via Steven Van Zandt's Wicked Cool Records.

Long known for his memorable guitar work as a member of New York Dolls, as well as former Hanoi Rocks frontman Michael Monroe's band (with whom he still performs), Steve found international fame in recent years via his collaborations with Japanese composer and artist Yoko Kanno on the soundtracks to several hit anime series, including Cowboy Bebop.

Over the years he's also worked with Peter Wolf, Eric Burdon of The Animals, Willy DeVille, Billy Squier, Maceo Parker, Willie Nile, Jim Jones, Hubert Sumlin and has even been Paul Simon's rehearsal vocalist for solo & Simon And Garfunkel tours.

Conte first met Wicked Cool founder Stevie Van Zandt when the Dolls played Van Zandt's Underground Garage Festival in 2004. "But my connection with him goes back to Jersey," he says. "I grew up with his cousins in Matawan [near the Jersey shore], so I had been hearing about his legend for years."