THE RECORD THAT LAUNCHED MY CAREER
A CONVERSATION WITH MARTHA WAINWRIGHT
Back in 2005, Martha Wainwright released her eponymous debut album, showing the world she is just as talented of a singer-songwriter as the rest of her family. In honour of 20 years of the record, Wainwright is embarking on a tour and has tons of special treats for fans, including putting the record on vinyl and releasing alternate versions, rarities, and songs never released before.
“You know, it’s interesting a lot of people, friends of mine, who are musicians who are around my age, this is happening, their 20th anniversary or 25th anniversary of their first record is sort of occurring at the same time, so it seems to be a trend amongst the 40 to 50-year-olds now,” Wainwright says about the 20th-anniversary tour. “We really try and represent the record, so I’m doing them in the order of the album and trying to maybe keep some of the more identifiable parts to it. That’s been really interesting for me because normally, I just sort of do what I want. Having to try and duplicate in some way these recordings kind of makes it more of a honing process than I’m used to, and I like that a lot.”
Celebrating the anniversary of a special album is always a rewarding experience for the artist and audience alike. So, what can people expect from Wainwright’s anniversary shows? “Basically, we do the whole album with some extra bits,” she comments. “I’m breaking it up in half, and in the middle, I’m reading from a book I wrote, a memoir that came out a couple of years ago. I’m also doing one song from my last record and one or two songs from some other records that people might want to hear, and then I come back and finish with the album.” Listeners will delight to hear clips of her reading from her memoir, Stories I Might Regret Telling You, as well as a track from her last album, Love Will Be Reborn.
Wainwright’s eponymous debut album is what put her on the map. “I suppose it’s the record that has my most recognizable song on it, which is “Bloody Mother Fucking Asshole” but I think more importantly it was the record that launched my career,” she reflects. “Lots of musical discovery in the years before and then finally getting the record out, and it, you know, got lots of good reviews and was really appreciated in many ways. Not a huge commercial success, but I think an artistic success and really launched me into the career that I’ve had now for over 20 years, so it means a lot.”
One moment that stands out during this time was when Wainwright performed on Later…. With Jools Holland. “I played “Bloody Mother Fucking Asshole” by myself, solo in the center of the stage,” she exclaims. “It was just really exciting. I felt that a lot of my worries about whether or not I was going to be able to be a singer-songwriter, considering everybody in my family is a singer-songwriter and I had been working towards I felt like, ‘Okay, maybe it’s gonna work out. I’m in the game.’”
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As part of the 20th anniversary celebration, the record will bae on vinyl for the first time. “I think in 2005, when it came out, not everybody was pressing vinyl,” says Wainwright. “For years, fans were really lamenting the fact that it wasn’t available on vinyl because I did end up putting all my other records on vinyl because that became a popular thing to do. I always intended to do it on vinyl, and this was the perfect opportunity. We got it to Abbey Road, and they did a beautiful, special vinyl mastering, so we really got to give it an extra zhush. Then on CD, 20th anniversary CD, there’s another 14 songs that were sort of things never released, some outtakes, some stuff that was on EPs before. There’re some special little things there which are also available digitally… There’s a version of “Far Away”, a song of mine on my first record, but there’s a version with just me and Garth Hudson from The Band. He does play on my first record as well, but this is just like a little special moment there.” Wainwright is reminiscent about “Our Love”, a song she recorded with her mother, Kate McGarrigle as well as her aunt, Anna McGarrigle. “There’s a song that I totally forgot about. It’s with my mom and my aunt. They’re singing and playing their instruments. I think I was 20 years old or something. You hear their voices. It’s a pretty good song. There’s a couple that are a little embarrassing. This one song called “The Sex Song”, there was a reason why I didn’t put it on a record. But I did know in this situation, in this context, it was the 48-year-old me looking back at the 20-year-old self, I was like, ‘Why not? Let’s just put it on even though it’s a little embarrassing.”
Looking back at the songs that made the cut of the debut album, Wainwright finds all the right choices were made. “I contacted my first manager, Nicholas Hill, who is this amazing guy who recorded everything, and he really got me going in New York City, and he recorded all these live shows, and we went into the studio and did a lot of stuff with different musicians, so I did have a chance to go through and listen to a lot of stuff and what I realized is we made the right decisions,” she says. “I thought I picked the best takes. We did a pretty good job on the mixes. I was a little sad in that I was like, ‘Oh, I’m gonna find some jam of some genius thing,’ but I was also proud of what I heard and sang pretty well. I think I lacked confidence back then. I was just impressed with my younger self.”
6 Songs was a self-released EP sold exclusively at shows in 1999. As part of the 20th anniversary, Wainwright made 6 Songs available digitally worldwide. A limited number of CDs will also be sold at upcoming shows. “In some ways, that EP should have been released,” she exclaims. “6 Songs I find really beautiful and moving. Maybe it’s a little bit more scattered stylistically. You know, I was trying some jazz and rock, and I think that record, that first record, finally got to the point where I was a little bit more direct stylistically, which I think is necessary.”
Aside from her music career, Wainwright has appeared in a few movies and TV shows. She has a brief singing role in Martin Scorsese’s The Aviator. “Being directed by Scorsese, it really was just a total highlight, as you can imagine,” she smiles. Wainwright appears in a more significant role in Olive Kitteridge alongside Frances McDormand as Angela O’Meara. McDormand and her husband Joel Coen were both huge fans of her and her music, in particular her Édith Piaf cover album, Sans fusils, Ni Souliers, à Paris: Martha Wainwright’s Piaf Record. The admiration led to an offer by the show’s director, Lisa Cholodenko. “Frances was a fan and is a fan, and I still have this handwritten note about how much she adored my Édith Piaf record, and her and her husband have always been really positive about my music, so the director of that series, contacted me and said ‘We would like you to play this role’… I was really excited to have that opportunity. I did a bunch of scenes with Frances, and they didn’t cut any of my scenes, which is apparently a pretty good sign as an actor… I went to theatre school, so I had a little bit of an understanding of the preparation of what an actor could do, but at the same time, I really had no idea what I was doing. I was totally thrown into this very remarkable production.” Wainwright also admired the cinematography by Frederick Elmes. “The cinematographer was the cinematographer for lots of David Lynch movies. It was shot on film. It was a very high-level production. The acting is phenomenal, and just watching Frances, she stays in character through the whole day and watching these geniuses at their craft and the work they put in is just really a life experience that I’ll never forget.”
If you are a fan of Wainwright or an avid folk music lover, then you should definitely check out one of the upcoming shows. “This is a big tour for me,” says Wainwright. “We’re hitting a lot of cities because I’m sort of taking advantage of the fact that this record is possibly my best known… So just reconnecting with the audience, getting to play these great venues, and I live in Montreal now, and I have two kids, and as a female artist, I think in particular, you know it’s hard to sustain a career, especially once you have children. So just making sure to go back out and keep those connections, keep touring, and still go home and be able to take care of my kids, of course. That is, I feel, such a great privilege. Being able to do both things is what I’ve always wanted to do, and I feel I’m succeeding in that.”
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Photo Credit: Gaëlle Leroyer
