After a bidding war for their services, Letters settled on Giant Records, and that was the beginning of a strained and strange relationship with the regular record business that Hanley says she is completely over today. "Being an artist of sorts never appealed to me. I don’t like to draw attention to myself: I just want to make records. I’m not a socializer. I love what I do now, which is write songs for other people. It’s good for me creatively to approach this as a job too — I wrote 35 songs last year. Before that, I was barely writing at all."

Hanley has credits on various discs, the most eclectic being a new release by Canadian singer FeFe Dobson. "I thought it would be a cakewalk out here," she jokes. "Like I was the first person that thought of relocating to LA and doing the songwriter thing — crazy, huh?"

Almost as crazy as the idea her old band tried shortly after signing their deal: they shopped songs out to movie and TV soundtracks. That unthinkable act was the basis for Hanley’s greatest success to date, the inclusion of "Here and Now" on the Melrose Place soundtrack in the mid ’90s. "That wasn’t done then. It was sorta ‘sell-outish,’ you know? But our A&R man, Jeff Aldrich, told us that Paul Westerberg and Aimee Mann had songs on the thing, so we thought it was kind of an honor — we didn’t know that a re-recorded version of ‘Here and Now’ would be the first single."

And a relative smash, since it closed the Monday-night hipster soap for the better part of an entire season, complete with an LTC video that entered MTV’s Buzz Bin and introduced them to a big cult audience. "I was terrified and kind of unhappy," Hanley now admits. "I felt like I might have to change what I was." Eisenstein laughs. "We were always on the road anyway, and the gigs went from like 50 people tops to 400 and up, all because of the song."

A standard pop-grunge explosion that slams into an almost indecipherable tongue-twisting mantra of a chorus, "Here and Now" pegged Letters to Cleo as that band. Hanley claims the rapid-fire delivery of the pre-chorus, which climaxes in the hooky title phrase, shows the influence of old-schoolers Run-DMC. It’s no wonder that she and Eisenstein still "bust the song out" when they do the occasional show as a duo. "We were opening for Cheap Trick in a club recently and played it," says Michael, who has also done roadwork as guitarist for modern-rockers Our Lady Peace. "People still know and love the thing."

But with no follow-up and the specter of the boy-band music-business takeover looming, Letters to Cleo folded and the couple moved to California. They did the Josey and the Pussycats soundtrack, recording as the fictional title group, and had fun with it. "I have no problem with the idea that I create product as product," Hanley says. "To me, it would be so amazing to have written a hit single, not just because it pays good but because after a while you really do want that massive approval." Kelley and Tap agree. "You can work here doing that kind of thing, just writing and producing," Kelley says. Indeed, Hanley and Eisenstein have the mandatory home ProTools studio rig in a side room. It’s estimated that there are more than 10,000 of these in the Greater Los Angeles area. Which may account for the closings of the larger studios all over the LA basin.

But that’s another story. For now, Tap still does Web design, as he did in Boston, but mostly he’s working on a new CD’s worth of material for the Paula Kelley Orchestra, and he takes the occasional temp gig. "It’s such a grown-up city," Kelley muses. "Back in Boston, you had your local hang, which for us was T.T.’s, a real-life Cheers that you can walk to." Hanley interjects, "Or have post-gig parties over at people’s houses, which no one has here. In LA, you have dinner parties, you have showcases, you have screenings, everything is based in events and getting people to them, to make deals. Not like, go home after you play and get hammered and that’s it. Which is fun in a way, sure, but it isn’t like you can do it forever . . . or even want to."

And then there’s the Phoenix factor. In the wake of this interview, Hanley and Kelley begin collaborating as songwriters. They hope to continue working together. If they break through music’s glass ceiling, remember who gave them a boost.