Talking To...Emily Maguire
Emily Maguire already has an amazing story that stretches from the UK to Australia and back again. She has just released her 3rd CD, Believer, which already seems destined for great things. Fatea had the chance to chat with Emily at The Cluny 2 in Newcastle, where the down to earth songstress chatted about shacks, snakes, making cheese, the meaning behind the CD’s title, oh and of course, making music!
EM: Emily MaguireHM: Helen Mitchell
HM: Hi Emily! It’s so great to see you back in the North East!! How long has it been?
EM: It’s great to be back! It must be over a year ago, at The Sage with Roddy Frame...
HM: Well, this isn’t the Sage, but it’s a great little venue!
EM: I think it’s great.
HM: Well, the new CD is finally here! It’s great.
EM: Thanks so much. I’m so excited. It’s my third CD but the first one I’ve recorded out of the Australian Bush. I’m really happy with it and really proud of it. I had some world class players contribute, too; Geoff Dugmore played drums and has played with Tina Turner. Luke Potashnick has been Katie Melua’s guitarist. Our producer, who is also our manager; Phil Tenant, has worked with The Cure. So it was all very exciting and working with them in the studio was a great learning experience. We had 22 songs to begin with, of which we demo’d 16. 14 were recorded and 10 made the final cut.
HM: Why those ten, then Emily, out of the ones you recorded?
EM: Well I’m very conscious of people downloading, and of course and very happy for people to download individual songs, but I wanted the album to be a thing in itself, in its own right, and to be more than a sum of its parts. Those ten fitted together, almost like a narrative and their dynamics work, they flow right. Unfortunately some songs which people have been asking about at gigs, didn’t make it, but I really believe less is more. I’d rather there be ten songs on there which people will listen to right through and be left wanting more, than 14 songs where people never get to the end as they switch it off in the middle!
HM: I believe there are some exciting things happening with the new CD?
EM: Yeah! Lighthouse Man has been Radio 2 playlisted!
HM: Oh, that’s great!
EM: Yeah and Greenpeace have chosen Woke Up to use as the song for their climate change campaign! I wrote it after watching a film on climate change after our running water ran out at the shack when we had had no rain. I’m really happy as the song fits their campaign perfectly.
HM: That’s great news!
EM: Yeah and it’s been great this week playing it to people now the CD is released. I’ve had to try to practice patience for so long, and not very successfully! It frustrates me sometimes that the business side of music gets in the way of playing songs. The CD was finished and recorded at the beginning of the beginning of the year but we had to figure out how to release it. In the end it is out on our own label, Shaktu, the same as the other two, but it is distributed through Universal. It’s funny, we were burgled in London and they took my minidisc player which basically had 5 years worth of songs. At the time I just wanted to go back to Australia. Then it happened again as I had a minidsic problem and it wasn’t backed up. I learned a lesson from that! At the time I was gutted, especially as I have a bad memory, but it was almost as if it cleared the decks, so to speak, and made space for new songs to come through.
HM: Are you excited to be back on the road?
EM: Definitely. I’m so proud of the CD, but you know, people can copy CDs. You can’t copy a live gig; it’s totally different. Going to see a gig is such a unique experience as two will never be the same. Sometimes I play with a full band and sometimes just as a duo with Christian Dunham. Also, as I write the string arrangements, I love it when I get to hear them played live.
HM: Oh yes, you played the cello and violin on the CD and on the video for Lighthouse Man, didn’t you?
EM: I love writing string parts. I just get carried away!
HM: You started playing very young, right?
EM: Yeah, I was brought up playing classical music, we didn’t have a television, so we played lots of music. I learned to read music at the same time I learned to read the ABC. I learned to play the piano at 4, the cello at 7 and the flute at 11. Then I l learned guitar at 21.
HM: how does the guitar differ?
EM: Well, the guitar is what made me start songwriting. This album was different in that I played piano and Luke played electric guitar. I taught myself to play a guitar I got for my twenty first birthday. I’d been ill for a long time and it helped me pass the time. You know it’s funny; at the time it was awful, but it became such a blessing, as I had all this free time to write songs. I started out playing Bob Marley Songs – Time Won’t Tell was first as it only has 2 chords! I started songwriting when a friend suggested it. I guess the biggest difference is that the guitar is portable! I’ve always loved the sound of a guitar.
HM: Did songwriting come immediately, then?
EM: Yeah, the first time I tried, I wrote a song, You Do, which ended up on my first CD. A friend showed me four chords, went away on holiday, came back a week later and I’d written that song. To me, songwriting was like living in a house forever, then finding a new door to a beautiful room you’d never known was there.
HM: Wow, what a lovely analogy.
EM: Can I share a few other thoughts about the new CD?
HM: Yeah, sure, that’d be great!
EM: Well, I think you already know this, but I have practiced Buddhism for about ten years now and that is reflected in some of the songs on the album. Start Over Again, which is my producer’s favourite, is literally my life story in 3.24 minutes!
HM: That’s one of my favourites...
EM: Great. You know, it’s a universal thing, isn’t it? We all have crises, and we all reach cross roads where we have to make a choice to move in one direction or the other. You just have to pick yourself up and start over again.
HM: You know, what you just said there reminds me of a book by Susan Jeffers called Feel the Fear and do it Anyway. That’s all about those crossroads and which road we take. She thinks it doesn’t really matter as either leads to the same place eventually.
EM: Oh I’ve heard of that book – I’ll have to read it.
HM: It’s interesting. So, if you had to pick a favourite song on the new album, which would it be?
EM: Oh, wow, that’s too hard! The last one is closest to my heart though as it is about me.