Talking To...Madison Violet
Madison Violet, formerly known as Madviolet, are Brenley MacEachern and Lisa MacIsaac. They have just released their third CD, No Fool For Trying and are in the middle of their fourth tour taking the UK by storm, before heading to Europe.
Fatea seized the chance to talk music, touring, fluke meetings, life, and even death, with Brenley and Lisa, who were open, honest, and very funny, before they opened for Sam Baker at The Cluny2 in Newcastle.
LM – Lisa MacIsaac
BM – Brenley MacEachern
HM – Helen Mitchell
HM: I can’t quite remember, but didn’t you meet in a bar that had a colour in the name?
LM/BM: The Green Room!HM: I had blue or green in my head.
LM: It’s very appropriate that being artists we met in a place called The Green Room. It was quite chance meeting. I was in a conversation with someone and Brenley overheard me say my last name, MacIsaac. MacIsaac is not a common name in Canada but it’s quite a famous name as my brother is a musician who has quite a reputation across the country. We’re from Cape Breton Island on the east Coast and Brenley’s father grew up about a mile down the road from where I grew up. So she walked over and introduced herself and asked if I was a MacIsaac from Cape Breton, obviously I said I was, we struck up a conversation and lo and behold I knew more of her relatives than she did! Shortly thereafter I joined Brenley’s band – kind of an ambient pop band called Joey Fish and we found out that our fathers had sat next to each other at high school.
HM: (lauighing) For a moment there I would have sworn you said your fathers had sex!
BM: (laughing) It did sound like it didn’t it?!
LM: (laughing) No, our fathers had sad – they did not have sex! It’s the accent.
BM: You never know though!
LM: Yeah, it was just very fateful, us meeting.
HM: It’s a small world, really, isn’t? Isn’t it the six degrees of separation?
BM: Yeah, absolutely.
HM: In fact, I know someone in Ontario you know.... I know her through Tia.
BM: Oh, okay, there you go! We just saw her the other day.
HM: if you had to pick a favourite of the songs you’ve recorded, which would it be and why? Maybe a hard question...
LM: I think mine changes daily. I think right now if I was to choose one I would say The Ransom.
BM: Me too and you know the reason why - we probably have different reasons for that – I was so p*****d off when I recorded that song, at the producer; we were not having a good day together, and I recorded that one time from top to bottom – the vocal – and I never sang it again on that record. Lisa ended up singing over it, she didn’t record it at the same time - we usually do our vocals together – and I’m really happy with the vocal on it and I’m never happy with the vocal on a record but with that one I’m happy with it.
HM: Well, Lisa, maybe you need rig it so she gets mad at producers more often!
LM: Yeah, or I can just p*** her off!
BM: (laughs) Right.
LM: (laughing) I think for me, it’s just the thought of the struggle of being an artist and there have been moments, as of late, when I have contemplated how challenging it is to be a musician and be on the road; even though I feel very privileged and very blessed to be on the road as much as we are, it can be quite challenging. I think that’s why it’s my favourite right now.
BM: It was written at a time when we really did want to go home.
HM: It feels like the idea of it is that the ransom is the price you pay for doing what you do.
BM: Absolutely. Especially when we’re out on the road so much, nine months or so of the year. I’ve given up counting, it scares me when I count! It’s nice to be out on the road, but it’s nice to be home and we want to start looking at other ways of making money with our music too, like film and tv. That again, takes a lot of time and energy to pursue.
HM: yeah I guess you don’t want the touring to become a chore, rather than you enjoying it.
LM: Yeah, we have taken some breaks recently which I think were much needed because we were feeling drained and if you can’t put that energy forth on stage to the audience, they won’t give it back. If you can’t give it to the audience, they can’t give it back and there’s no point being on stage if that’s happening.
HM: I like that you see it as a two way thing between you and the audience. Lots of artists appear to see it differently.
LM: No, it’s a relationship when you’re on stage and if you don’t develop a relationship or a rapport with the audience, then you’re not doing your job. The audience might as well listen the CD. You want to get a piece of the artist’s personality when you’re at a show.
HM: Co-writers – you don’t seem to have many? It’s nearly always just the two of you, isn’t it?
LM: On Caravan we had three co-writes with Ron Sexsmith, who’s a friend of ours and an amazing, incredibly talented songwriter . I felt quite privileged having the honour of doing some writing with him. On the new album, there’s only one co-write and it was the song LauraLee. It was with two friends of ours, in different locations as well, that both came from completely different musical backgrounds, but both brought something to the table which enabled us to finish the song
(at this point we all laughed as Sam Baker walked in, interrupted to say hi and check he was in the right place...)
HM: I’ve lost the thread now...
LM: Co-writers
HM: Oh, yes. Do you find it harder writing with other people, or do you enjoy it?
BM: I enjoy it. It’s never the same, though. There’s certain people that you’ll sit down and write and it’s just not coming, like there’s nerves getting in the way, or insecurities...you know you’re afraid to spit it out. Then there’s other people, like with Ron, and he’s such a great writer, you’d think you’d be insecure a little bit. He’s notorious for his lyrics, I mean, Paul McCartney talks about him and so does Elvis Costello, but for some reason it’s really easy to just throw out your ideas and we had a lot of fun. All three of us would throw out the most ridiculous ideas, knowing they’d never, stay, just a s a joke.
LM: He has a similar sense of humour to us, which is why I think it worked so well.
BM: Right. Then we’ve had other situations with other people where it just wasn’t natural at all.
LM: Like pulling teeth. It’s a challenge.
BM: It’s fun but quite challenging. Even we have to be careful sometimes. You know, Lisa might say a line that I really like but there’s one word in it and I have to think how important it is for me or for the song – do I need the change for me or the song, and I have to ponder that for a while. Most of the time if I suggest not using this word, she’s already thought that she doesn’t want that word either, but just didn’t know a better word. So it’s very organic, the way we write.
HM: I don’t know how people do it or where it comes from – it’s such a gift. I know a friend write a song which came from something I said a couple years ago – that’s probably the closest I’ll ever get to songwriting!
BM: (laughs) There’s your moment.
HM: Okay, I’m going to ask you to do something for me.....Can you describe each other in three words?
LM: Tall, blonde, bimbo, nahhhh just kidding! (laughs)
HM: i suppose I walked into that for you didn’t I really?
BM: (laughs) You did, Yeah. Okay, beautiful, courageous, stubborn.
LM: Patient, considerate, talented. I mean, you’re hot, too but I’ve only got three words....
HM: I prefer the other three.
LM: Yeah.
BM: We’ve never been asked that question before.
HM: I’ve not interviewed a duo before, so thought it would be interesting to see what words you came up with. I do it with children at work and wondered if it works with musicians, too! I guess it’s not something you often think about, is it.
LM: No
BM: No, not three words. We usually have about twenty words.
LM: What did you just call me?
BM: Beautiful...
LM: Stubborn....
BM: And courageous
LM: Hmm, good, I’ll take it.