that "as I tried to make our sound harder, Dorothy was trying to go softer, perhaps responding to an unconscious influence of autobiographic women songwriters of the time: Janis Ian, Laura Nyro, and Joni Mitchell." According to Byrd, there was a lack of enthusiasm for the band from the record company, who felt challenged by both the band's music and Byrd's politics. In contrast, Moskowitz has said that the company were "just trying to market us", and "we were the ones who were being sanctimonious... [and] rigid...", also claiming that producer Rubinson lost interest in the band after Agnello left. A further factor was other band members' unhappiness with the initial mixing of the album in New York City by Byrd and Rubinson, which when played back in Los Angeles, according to Byrd, sounded "utterly wimpy and lame. The band blamed me, and they were right. My credibility with my own musicians suffered immeasurably." Moskowitz has referred to the band's "internal conflicts, fisticuffs and power struggles." Byrd has claimed that "Columbia dumped me from the band"; specifically, that Rubinson and the band's manager Malcolm Terrence manoeuvered to remove him, and promote Moskowitz as the band's figurehead and potential solo star. Though Moskowitz disputes that claim, she also said that "although I didn't agree with David [Rubinson] aesthetically, I felt loyal to him. He was, after all, the one who had put us on the map." In any event, Byrd announced that he was leaving, and, according to Moskowitz, when he changed his mind, "the manager pleaded with me to accept him back, but I wouldn't. There was never a conspiracy towards a solo career or some 'back story' between Rubinson and myself. It was primarily intransigence and anger about band governance on my part that propelled the final train wreck." Byrd subsequently commented: "The idea was to create a radical experience. It didn't succeed. For one thing, I had assembled too many personalities; every rehearsal became group therapy. A band that wants to succeed needs a single, mutually acceptable identity. I tried to do it democratically, and it was not successful." Rubinson said: "Joe Byrd was one of the most insane examples of control freak that I've, to this day, ever experienced... he was really bizarre, and a very, very difficult person to deal with. So there were constant personality conflicts in and among the band. People quitting, people getting