Helen Money - Topic

Alison Chesley, known also by her stage name Helen Money, is a Chicago-based cellist and composer.
Chesley was born and raised in Los Angeles, California. She moved to Chicago to attend Northwestern University, where she received a master's degree in cello performance in 1994, studying with Hans Jorgen Jensen. While at Northwestern, Chesley met Jason Narducy. They performed as an acoustic rock duo called Jason & Alison, and went on to release two albums for Epic Records: Chronicles, produced by Bob Mould, and White Out, produced by Brad Wood. Opening for such bands as Frank Black, Bob Mould, Counting Crows, Live, Morrissey, Liz Phair and Brad with Stone Gossard, Verbow toured nationally for seven years. Meeting and working with Bob Mould was a big influence on Chesley forming the Helen Money project for aggressive, amplified cello.
Verbow broke up in 2001 and Chesley turned her attention to a busy career in Chicago as a composer/performer and session musician in the studio. She most often recorded at two of Chicago's busiest recording studios, Steve Albini's Electrical Audio and Soma Studios.