Quelques questions à Melody Gardot ...

Vous avez été nombreux à particulièrement apprécier la divine Melody Gardot.. Moi le premier, vous vous en doutez, alors puisqu'il s'agit d'un véritable coup de coeur et pour j'espère votre plus grand plaisir, je me suis empressé de l'interviewer afin de faire plus ample connaissance...

Eric : Hey Melody, how are you today ?
Melody : Bonjour Eric! Pas mal….. It's a bit chilly here….and I'm trying to warm up with a nice cup of ginger tea (warming from the inside out seems to work best)!

So tell me now.. Where are you from and how did you fall in Music ?
I'm from the US, I moved around quite a bit as a child and wound up in Philadelphia. As a teenager I worked in Piano Bars on the weekends playing and singing music. At the time it was a hobby, and something that came easy to me. Life threw me for a loop one day and I wound up getting hit by a car while riding my bicycle home. The result was I suffered a TBI (head injury), and pelvic fractures as well as other injuries that left me physically disabled and unable to walk independently. During my lengthy recovery a doctor suggested I try music therapy because it had been shown to assist in repairing cognitive functions and he believed it could help me. I couldn't play piano though because I couldn't sit for more than about 10 minutes at a time and I felt incredibly discouraged by his suggestion. However I learned that I could hear notes just as easily on the guitar and began to teach myself how to play. I would create patterns and play them over and over late into the night trying to remember what I did and play it again the next morning. When I thought about how I used to study in school I remembered that the best way to remember unfamiliar material was to utilize all your senses, so I started to write out charts for what I was doing (my own strange little drawings and doodles that helped me identify what I was playing), I would use a voice recorder and listen back to what I had done as well as try to hum the parts while without a guitar. I tried just about every way I could imagine. Eventually a friend gave me a device to record that was a bit more hi-tech and I made several recordings. One thing led to another and I wound up in a position where people were asking me for copies of the recordings of the music I had made while in bed! It was just therapy, and a tool for me to learn how to remember again, but people wanted to have it. Eventually it wasn't about wanting to make a CD; it was about needing to.

Do you remember an album or an artist in particular when you were child ?
I remember my mom listening to Cat Stevens "Starry Starry Night:" which is actually a song about Van Gogh. My mom, as chance would have it, used to sing to me and she was the first person who introduced me to music. When my parents divorced I don't recall, but I remember going on long rides frequently as a child with my mother, and we would pass the time by making up songs about silly things like how much someone's feet stunk, or who ate the last cookie…really silly things. I'm sure that's where I developed some kind of musical affinity. The idea of singing being "fun and natural" was brought on by my mother.

Your EP and your new album "worisome heart" are a dream for my ears and a real blow of heart .. your voice, the music wow, everything sounds so good... Who are your influences and how did you work on them ?
Thank you very much Eric for your kind words-that means a lot!! Especially coming from you. It is a very personal album, as I really don't know how to write anything except what I know. And up until this point in my life, a great deal of my time has been spent re-stitching and repairing the seams of my heart as its been broken many, many times  - more than I'd like to admit in fact!
Musically my influences are everything from days gone by. I think the works of Cole Porter are classic and fundamental because they not only have cunning lyrics and arrangements, but they are simple and natural in their progression. Its as if he wrote the songs we all had in our heads. I of course admire all interpreters of great songs too, such as Miles Davis and Billie Holiday. More modern artists like Bill Withers and Donny Hathaway are up there on my list as well as I cant turn off a song that seeps with soul and both are well known for their ability to capture that.

Your voice is incredible.. your interpretation too.. is it natural? Did you take lessons ?
I didn't take voice lessons, as I said I wasn't really schooled, however I do remember a bit where I was in a choir in school.   I don't remember liking it, and frankly I think I was bored because I was never one to want to sing songs that didn't mean something to me, and as beautiful as a song may be, if I didn't relate to it I didn't want to sing it. As far as phrasing goes, I get ragged on by my guys all the time for never managing to come in on the one count. I hear things are being looser and freer and don't have so much a rhythmic sense for things as I do a melodic sense. I guess I just hear it in my head and try and get it out as naturally as possible. Im not one for big vocal tricks and finales, on the contrary, I think a simple song can be just as beautiful as long as it maintains a strong sense of emotion.

How do you work on your songs ? What are your sources of inspiration ? Your own life ?
Because of the difficulties that I have with my memory, I have about 15 minutes to get a song done. It comes to me all at once in a rush, the melody the lyrics; the whole pattern. If I don't get it out, record it   or write it down right away, its lost forever. Its sounds funny, but writing for me is a very difficult task because it pours out of me so quickly, its almost like I have to catch it…net it and keep it a while so I can really figure out what I'm looking at. Im inspired by everything, a moment when you know things have changed especially. Could be for good or for something not so pretty, but the second you realize things aren't the same, you grow. Those moments when I have grown have been my inspiration. Often times, as within the words of a lot of the songs in this album, it is as a result of me growing past a rather difficult relationship. Men never cease to amaze me (laughing) and quite frankly I cant even hold   a grudge against a lot of the ones who turned out to be schmucks because they gave me inspiration for songs. (Just don't tell them that!)

What do you listen to these days ?
Ive been listening to a lot of Classical and Jazz lately. I don't know why but I seem to go through phases with music where I just dive into something like most people dive into a bad food habit and get so incredibly wrapped up in it that its literally all I'll listen to. Ill spin the same CD till its near the point it wont even play anymore! Its absurd really. Im looking at a stack of CD's on my desk and these are the seven titles: 

1. Miles Davis – Sketches of Spain
2. St Germain - Tourist
3. Zero Seven – Simple Things
4. Duke Ellington -16 Most requested songs
5. Frank Sinatra – A Frank Sinatra Christmas
6. Ali Farka Toure – Talking Timbuktu
7. Lutz & Kowalski - Salut D'Amor  ("Mazurka" – by Sibelius is my favorite)

If you could choose an artist to work with ?
That's a tough question. Alive or dead?  If I could go back in time there are so many! However, if I could only pick one, I would have loved to have sang/written with Cole Porter. If you meant alive, I would say undoubtedly Andre Previn. I think he's absolutely incredible and his sense of arrangement even on the simplest things is impeccable.

What are your upcoming projects ?
I'm currently in the process of sorting out the details of making a live record. I believe there is something to be said about the energy of a live performance and I'd much rather share that energy with others vs immediately making another studio album. I recently recorded with two artists, Seth Kallen on a track titled "my sweet darling" and Phil Roy on a song on his new record, "The Great Longing". Both are fantastic artists.

Any chance to see you perform in France in the not so distant future ?
Definitely. You just buy me my airplane ticket Eric and Im there. Ill even play for free if you feed me crepes and tea from Le Palais des Thes.

I will not forget this proposal ! Be sure of that !!! And finally,is there anything you'd like to say to your French readers.. in French if you'd like...
Merci, et j'espere que vous aimez la musique ! 

Thank you so much Melody ! And see you in France very soon and take care of you..

Mesdemoiselles, mesdames et messieurs, lecteurs et lectrices chéris, les amateurs de musique que vous êtes, se doivent de détenir l'album "worisome heart" de Medody dans leur discothèque, c'est un indispensable.. Vous trouverez infos, extraits et surtout la possibilité de l'acheter directement sur son site officiel.
Au passage et puisque Melody évoque l'idée d'un petit passage en France.. je dois vous dire que l'idée d'un mini festival ou qqchose dans le genre me trotte pas mal dans la tête.. J'ai en effet de plus en plus d'artistes étrangers, nord américains le plus souvent, qui me contactent pour programmer et organiser leurs venues... alors pourquoi pas.. je vais voir.. Affaire à suivre.

Comments

[Rédigé par: Wilbur]

J'ai écouté, j'ai beaucoup aimé, je vais donc aller l'acheter fissa !
Une idée à creuser, ce festival, il y a effectivement beaucoup de très bons artistes trop méconnus sur ton site.

[Rédigé par: berlin]

Gut!