From: owner-precious-things-digest@smoe.org (precious-things-digest) To: precious-things-digest@smoe.org Subject: precious-things-digest V11 #65 Reply-To: precious-things@smoe.org Sender: owner-precious-things-digest@smoe.org Errors-To: owner-precious-things-digest@smoe.org Precedence: bulk X-To-Unsubscribe: Send mail to "precious-things-digest-request@smoe.org" X-To-Unsubscribe: with "unsubscribe" as the body. precious-things-digest Sunday, September 17 2006 Volume 11 : Number 065 Today's Subjects: ----------------- [pt] clash magazine interview [wojbearpig ] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Sat, 16 Sep 2006 01:46:37 -0400 From: wojbearpig Subject: [pt] clash magazine interview the following interview appears in the september 2006 issue of clash . The interview is not available on their website but you can find information for subscribing or ordering back issues there if youre interested in a print copy. Thanks to ordbok from @forumz for transcribing and posting ! woj _______________________________________________________________________ So why did you decide to release A Piano? In my life Ive really enjoyed certain boxsets, especially Led Zeppelins. So when Rhino Records approached me, I decided here was a chancebefore I get too old and senileto make a collection of my songs, add some unreleased tracks and remaster everything, but still hold true to the original recordings. How did you choose those songs? Nine albums is a lot to choose from I tried to pick what I thought was still holding up after all this time, including the original Little Earthquakes, which was rejected in 1991. They said that I had to take all the pianos off and put guitars on, because piano players werent happening. So, a battle started between those in power and myselfand I continue to war with them now. But their faces change; they have their golden handshake, they leave the company and someone else comes in. How did you fight back? You have to do more than stay confident because they can really fuck you up. They can witthold promotion money, bury your record. You have to play this chess game and understand that there are consequences to everything. Sometimes Ive gotten it right, like with my debut record in 1988, and sometimes Ive pushed it too far. But I was always fighting for the music and the right reasons. Is this easier now youre older and wiser? Thats a trick question, but a good one, because you cant leverage. When I tour I take no moneyI have no tour supportbut thats so the label cant make any demands on the music, the band or me. Sometimes I feel like Im in Easy Ridera road dog mama (laughs). I do have this autonomy because Ive been touring for fifteen years, but I still have to communicate with people: if you alienate everyone there is no upside. Is it hard balancing being a mother and a solo artist? Music isnt a nine to five jobits something that is in you, a state of being. Before I was a Mom, I was a musician first, a woman second and a girlfriend third. Then I became a Mom. You cant stop the fluidity of the creative muse, but I have to be present with whatever shes doingforget my agenda to just be there and listen. Before I had a child I didnt do that. Musicians can be every selfish: you have to fuel the fire, find inspiriation and research. Being a mum is the biggest change Ive ever faced in my life. Would You have any more kids? No way. It isnt in me. It has to be ok for women to realise that they are not a career Mom  for some women having kids becomes their job. I have a lot of repect for those women but its not easy and you have to have a certain personality to do that. Women who dont are made to feel guilty: they want to have a child but they also want more. Sometimes you have to say if I dont work Im going to wither and diewhich I refused to do. How do you manage touring? Bringing a kid on the road is a very different thing to leaving your kid back with the spouse or with the grandparents. Its an adventure and not something that I would change. When youre just breaking as an artist there is a romance that the public have with you and you have with the world. But once youve travelled the world for fifteen years many times over you have to find new ways of enjoying it, make it freshnot a cliche of yourself. How has touring changed for you? You can get a good crowd in any country but you can also get a dead one. It depends on what is happening in the worldevents surrounding an audience can really affect them. You have to learn how to gauge that. Have you noticed that recently? DefinitelyI played Rome the night of the bombs in London, and even though it didnt happen there you could sense a change. I was in Manhatten on 9/11when youre there you have an understanding that the outside world, whose interpretations from the media, cant have. In Rome, on stage in this festival, I played Imagine and the crowd raised their voices to sing all the words. When you have 50,000 people singing with lighters aloft, there was a solidaritytowards London. When you play enough concerts when these tragic events happen, you realise being around others can be almost healing. When will you tour again? In 2007 well tour again with the new record that were working on now. The box set is the end of an eraits very much about pulling everything together over the last fifteen years before I jump ship. You have to sense what is going on in the worldits a really disturbing place right now. A few years ago I had more confidence that people would make the right choices for our leaders in America and they didnt. So therefore its time to take the gloves off. ------------------------------ End of precious-things-digest V11 #65 *************************************