Neither Annie Lennox nor Wendy and Lisa have been prolific record-makers lately. However that might change, because the three girls have been writing collectively, as revealed by the latter duo throughout a private look this weekend.

In a keynote Q&A held at USC Friday night time as a part of the 2024 Pop Convention, Wendy Melvoin and Lisa Coleman have been requested what they’re engaged on now. Moderator Timothy Anne Burnside’s tone indicated she may need had a tip-off that promising issues are in retailer.

Certainly, the duo’s transient however intriguing response indicated that the general public may be capable of anticipate a collaboration that nobody noticed coming. Melvoin and Coleman mentioned that they’re engaged on writing new music with Lennox for a joint undertaking. They even went as far as to name the unit they’ve fashioned with the ex-Eurythmics singer a “band.”

Though it appeared as if they may have been talking figuratively in utilizing that time period, Melvoin had a quip that lent itself towards a literal interpretation.

“If you happen to’ve received any good names for a band identify for the three of us, that’d be nice,” she instructed the viewers.

Even when it turned out that this materials was simply going towards an Annie Lennox solo album, that might nonetheless be good for a information headline. Lennox’s final album of unique materials got here out 17 years in the past — 2007’s “Songs of Mass Destruction.” Even her final album of canopy songs, “Nostalgia,” got here out a decade in the past.

A contemporary Wendy and Lisa album could be information all by itself, too. Their final official launch as a duo was 2008’s “White Flags of Winter Chimneys.” They’ve remained energetic within the scoring world, together with co-composing the music for Season 2 of Hulu’s “Merciless Summer time” final yr.

That Lennox may need struck up a friendship with Wendy and Lisa, if not a gaggle undertaking, will come as no shock to anybody who’s tracked their public appearances during the last yr.

All three appeared at a few Brandi Carlile-hosted “Joni Jams” celebrating Joni Mitchell in 2023, first on the Gorge in Washington, then in October on the Hollywood Bowl. Extra lately, in February, the three appeared collectively performing “Nothing Compares 2 U” as a part of an In Memoriam phase on the Grammys, in honor of Sinead O’Connor — although Wendy and Lisa’s time as members of Prince and the Revolution additionally clearly resonated within the efficiency of a Prince-penned music.

The lapses because the final albums by both of those events has not finished something to decrease the mass public appreciation of, and starvation for repeat appearances from, Lennox and Wendy and Lisa. Specifically, Lennox’s shock appearances on stage have been greeted as if she have been the star of the present on the two Joni Jam live shows; equally, she obtained a homecoming hero’s welcome when she sang for Mitchell at a Gershwin Prize taping early final yr. (See Lennox’s 2023 interview with Selection about her lifelong appreciation of Joni Mitchell right here.)

Friday night time’s dialog with Wendy and Lisa was the second keynote of PopCon 2024, an annual presentation of talks by music lecturers and journalists, following an earlier dialog with George Clinton on Thursday night time, additionally at USC.

Burnside, a curatorial specialist with the Smithsonian Museum, led Melvoin and Coleman by means of a full historical past of their work collectively, together with rising up as childhood mates and their tenure with Prince throughout his most celebrated interval within the Nineteen Eighties.

Not surprisingly, the topic gravitated towards Mitchell’s affect. The story was instructed of how, after Prince had already introduced Coleman into the band, at a time when he knew Melvoin solely because the keyboard participant’s girlfriend, he overheard her taking part in guitar down a hallway and, after he walked in and requested her to play extra, Melvoin performed the star a snippet of Mitchell’s “Don Juan’s Reckless Daughter,” instigating a key chapter of their careers and in music historical past.

Burnside performed the opening riffs of “Purple Rain” and requested Melvoin about arising with the half. The guitarist unfold the fingers of her hand extensive as in the event that they have been a spider’s legs, to point out the unusually extensive circumference of their attain, and mentioned she had discovered to play Mitchell’s famously odd tunings with out the capo that the majority gamers must use… a capability or method that allowed her to search out the “Purple Rain” chords that cowl bands have struggled with for the final 4 a long time.

Newer exercise was coated, together with Wendy and Lisa being a part of the all-female band for Allison Russell‘s Grammy-winning 2023 launch “The Returner.” Melvoin described engaged on the Russell album as among the best, most uplifting studio experiences they’d ever had of their lives — regardless of her unique misgivings that an ensemble made up of nothing however feminine musicians may attempt to outdo each other in that setting. “She’s the actual deal,” the guitarist mentioned of Russell.

Requested concerning the secret to their longevity as skilled companions, Melvoin invoked the phrase “in love,” saying that despite the fact that their time as as a pair personally got here to an finish a few years in the past, the 2 of them remained in most methods as shut as ever.

Burnside reminded the viewers that Wendy and Lisa are solely award away — a Tony — from being EGOTs. With out providing any particular plans, the pair vowed that they intend to work on that.