| What's the experiencing of touring like for you?
Well, it's certainly always full of surprises. Anything can really happen out there on the road and it
does! But, the satisfaction of physically going somewhere outside your home territory and giving people your songs in a live setting is so incredibly gratifying. Everything's digital nowadays, so that personal connection with people who dig my music makes it worth it to drive hundreds of miles.
Jazz, blues, rock, you've practically have seen and experienced it all. Are you continuing with any particular genre/subgenre for your songs?
It's so hard to say. I've
just started working on songs for my next album and it's got R&B influences (old school), a bona-fide original blues song and vibey rock-n-roll. I know industry folks are going to be asking me 'Who are you?' when they hear this, but this is who I am. All those things are there and I'm not going to deny them if they want to come out. I haven't written a metal song yet, though so I can name at least one category of music that I'm not!
Your name of course has a
decidedly Irish flavor. What ties do you maintain in terms of your heritage?
I'm so American it's not funny. And despite my looks, my roots are Scottish, German, French and Norwegian. (But I still get over and let people buy me Guinness on St. Patty's Day.) With so many heritages, I have to say it's overwhelming and I haven't kept up much with my history much at all. Maybe because it's so scattered.
Were you the one 'playing the scene,..over 18'
in your signature song "She Really Is A Rock Star" ?
That's one of those story songs that started with my own story but grew into something a little different during the songwriting process. The true part is that my dad played guitar all my life and has had a few gigs of his own. When I was growing up, he and my mom always encouraged my desire to sing in public and my dad would accompany me on those awesome Linda Ronstadt songs from her Greatest Hits album.
But he was also a banker and I followed that a little by going to Georgetown and studying finance. Then in my senior year, I made a U-turn and decided to pursue music as a career. The unfortunate part is that I didn't really pick up the guitar seriously until about a year ago. I co-wrote that song with my producer Con so I'm still trying to learn the guitar part to that damn song!
Tell me about Maria's Lament. It almost reads like a past-life memory!
Well that
song came out fast. I had two phone conversations on the same day. One with my mom, where I basically said, Look, I might never get married and I think it's ok for a
woman to choose to live on her own and not make marriage a goal in her life. You know a mom never wants to hear that but she was so supportive and proud of me for pursuing my music and being so independent. An hour later my friend, who's middle name is Maria, called me all upset. She had a great job, awesome friends, and is also a
super-talented artist (paintings and mosaics
and things like that), but her mom never let her live down that she was over 22 and didn't have a marriage prospect yet. Ugh, I could just see it hurt her so much that her mom wouldn't hear her when she said she was really happy with her life. So I had to write it.
I'm curious to know about your lyrics, especially with the theme of love and memories of love. They seem to point the way to what can happen tomorrow. Does this reflect of yourself or of someone you know or
someone else?
That's so freaky that you asked. I was just thinking today about some of my songs and
that when I wrote them, they were not true in my own life at the time. But they became true. I really don’t know how that happens, but when it does, it’s just further proof that songwriting is magical and that if you work at being open to letting songs come to you they will, and they will mean something to someone. I don’t want to sound too airy, but it’s truly cosmic when that happens. It gives me chills, really.
Your website visitors know you make mp3s available of
your songs..at least a few of them. Where do you side with the issue of downloading music?
Downloading has hurt the music business, but it might just be the kick in the pants that was needed to get us back to good, meaningful music. It’s making people think outside the box and that’s never a bad thing. And the accessibility to good music through downloading (both legal and illegal) is good for the spirit of music as a whole. The tough part is that as an independent
musician, every CD sale counts in trying to stay solvent. So I try to mention to people that buy the CD that I hope they’ll recommend it to friends to buy and not burn it for them. I also tell them I’ll give them a deal on multiple copies so everybody wins. But our culture has truly changed so it’s going to take more than that for people to place a dollar value on music again.
Congrats on selling the first 1000 CDs! Is the goal of selling the next 1000 the same as it
was when you first started out? Where do most of the sales come from?
The goals have changed so drastically from
the first pressing to now. At the time “She Really Is..” came out, I was working a full-time job and financing every musical endeavor with my steady paycheck. I guess I was being a bit naive and just hoping for a label to bail me out on the business end of it. Some time after the CD came out, a light bulb went off in my head that the business is in trouble on its own and that my musical destiny was up to me to make. Kind of like realizing that even musically I’m not just waiting for the knight to come. I left my day job and am making music full time now. With that comes a whole new view of things and a more comprehensive plan because I have to sell CDs, get placements in film and T.V. and make a profit at shows to make a living and to keep making music. So now, as things grow beyond my ability to keep up as one person, I’m looking to build a team that would include an independent label, booking agent, management and publicity. But in the meantime, I’m going to keep moving forward with the help I do have until all those pieces are in place.
Tell us how you first linked with singer Esme Montgomery
A good
friend of mine, Julianne, knew Esme from a temp job they both worked for a while and she brought me to one of Esme’s shows. Esme stood up there with bare feet, looked the audience in the eye, guitar in hand, and just poured her heart out. It was really powerful I instantly admired her work and her spirit. So we started talking about singing backup vocals for each other’s projects. Besides working together, we became instant friends and a big support for each other in terms of trying to stay sane while pursuing a musical life (as if that’s possible!)
Tell us about the other bands and projects you’ve been involved with in the past.
Well, my very first band in New York was called Miki Finn. I had no idea what a Miki Finn was until about two months after we came up with the
name. We did some originals and then we did some cover tunes, but covered them with our own style. It was a good way for me to transition from playing in a cover band, which I did right after college, toward writing and playing original music. Then there was Xspot, which was a total switch in terms of musical style, whereas Miki Finn was straight ahead soulful, classic rock styled, Xspot was more of an eclectic pop mix.
After Xspot, I joined an all-girl rock, rock, rock band, Amy Says, with Yoshiko Hirashige on guitar, Marni Pickens on bass and Alyson Fairbanks on drums. That was a ton of fun, but the classic ‘we’re-getting-interest-from-some-big-wigs-so-now-we-have-to-break-up’ experience. It’s really no coincidence that that happens so often because as the stakes get higher, if people have a different vision of where they want the band to go musically, how to split up the money, and how much commitment you can make to the band you realize very quickly whether you can withstand the crucible. After Amy Says parted ways, that’s when I finally decided to ‘go solo’, which for me did not mean playing solo, but did mean taking all the responsibility for my project as the lead creative and financial source. In my case, I didn’t create a band name or make it a goal to have the same players all the time. Instead, over time, I’ve built up a roster of musicians to work with on various gigs. It’s fun and always interesting that way. That approach has also helped me grow musically, in order to be able to communicate better with accomplished musicians and not piss them off or frustrate them! Every musician has a nightmare singer/songwriter story to tell and I don’t want to ever be the subject of one of those stories! So communication is key and musical understanding is the only way to good communication within a band.
Well, there’s telepathy too, but that only works occasionally!
"Mountains" has a few extra credits on the CD. Who are those folks?
“Mountains” was written with XSpot. We were hitting the scene from Hoboken and it was probably the first real all-original band project I did. It was a great learning experience in terms of writing and collaborating. XSpot really taught me the value of complimentary (and sometimes conflicting) approaches to
writing music. Plus the bass player, Jeff Ashey, placed a huge importance on poetry in lyrics. His pride in the craft of lyric writing definitely rubbed off on me and has made me a better writer.
One more: What's ahead for you in 2004?
Well, I just came off my first tour and will definitely be doing more of that in 2004. We met great people and the response is awesome when you’re away from
home. I’ll make a return visit to Nashville and also stretch North. Maybe I’ll even be hitting the West Coast. Of course there will be the NYC and NY-area shows too, but I’m concentrating more energy outside of New York, at least as far a playing live on a regular basis.
I also just started working on a new CD! Did I just say that? Again, I went in to demo some
songs and decided they should be on an album. I’m not in as much denial as I was the first time around (when I thought I was doing a demo, upped that to an EP, and then finally decided to go for the whole thang!). This time I’m quickly embracing that my next full-length album is on it’s way and making a schedule for it. It’s so awesome being in the studio again and watching songs blossom with a whole band and the luxury of additional tracks to work with to get the full arrangements and backing vocals that can really complete a song. Mmmm mmmm, fun. I love it! I can’t wait to share these songs with people and seem to be spreading around the 1/2-mixed tracks quite a bit!
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