Melanie C - The Interview

With the concert tomorrow night, I thought I would post the full interview with Melanie C, Maclean's style.

Q: Looking forward to coming to Canada?

A: I can’t wait. And I haven’t got long now, I’ve only got two days before I travel to Montreal to begin this, the Canadian Adventure.

Q: You decided to break Canada on this album and not the States, which is kind of an unusual choice, and I was just wondering what your thought process there was?

A: Well, my last two albums have been made on my own labels, Red Girl Records, and in different territories, I licence through different labels, and when I was over with the Spice Girls working with EMI, my publishers here, they expressed an interest in releasing the album there, and I just jumped at the chance because I really enjoy working in Canada, and I had a lot of success there with my first album and hopefully this album will be well received and we can have some fun over there too.

Q: I’ve noticed with your previous album you had some tracks that were Germany-only and it was one of those curious things, I had thought.

A: When I first started in the music industry, being with a major label, everything was international, and you went everywhere and did everything. I mean there were certain places you didn’t really bother going to—it’s funny because somewhere like Poland, which I never went to as a Spice Girl but I’ve been there quite a lot as a solo artist—but things are changing and it’s really hard to know where things are going to go next, and currently I’ve really been concentrating on the markets which have been receiving the albums well. That’s what’s kind of taken me to Germany quite a lot, we’ve had a lot of success there, we had a great time in Portugal with this album, so yeah, it’s kind of weird the songs or the albums that certain countries pick up on.

Q: Being as you’ve had a lot of international success, one of the things that I’ve been wondering is that there’s always this obsession with breaking America with a lot of artists—especially UK artists, and it puts a lot of pressure on them. In the past few years we’ve seen some examples of what some of that pressure does, thinking of say Lily Allan or Amy Winehouse for example. I was wondering if that’s something you’ve noticed as well?

A: I think a lot of that is quite media-driven to be honest with you. I’m sure that the labels would love success in America because you can just shift so many units there and it’s a lot more prosperous than other territories. But I think when it comes to the artists—you know, I think it’s kind of hard for me because with the Spice Girls we were very lucky and we broke everywhere and it was like a dream scenario, everything went well for us. Then as a solo artist, I’ve gone hot and cold in different places but for me I don’t see America as this big challenge to try--  I think maybe when I was a little younger, I think because there’s something about here in the UK, you find that American artists are given a lot of respect and quite often the domestic artists are just pushed to one side, and then when you’re in mainland Europe you find that as a British artist you also command a lot of respect. It’s funny, it’s just kind of the culture of the music industry, but I think that some of the artists that you mention and saying that a lot about the stresses and the pressures, I don’t really think that is to do with trying to break America to be honest with you, I think that it’s something a little bit closer to home.  Do you?  What do you think?

Q: Well I think that one of the things I noticed, I was watching an interview with Lily Allan once and she was saying that in trying to break America, she’s only had one album, so she’s doing the same set night after night and she’s so bored with it, but the label says that if we want to break America we have to do all these venues all across the country and it got to a point where she started drinking too much to just cope with the boredom of it all. That was one of those things that I was wondering.

A: I think that the labels are so obsessed with breaking America. The funny thing with major labels is that they tend to make the same mistakes over and over again, and they’ll have a lot of success over in Europe and Southeast Asia, you know, go over, try to break America, spend so much time doing it, usually failing, that all the other territories have gone cold and there’s a new kid on the block. You know, I think especially when you’re a young artist you put your faith in your label, and quite often they make mistakes.

Q: You’ve gone from a major label with international success, to forming your own label as an independent artist, and I’m wondering—partially how that process came about for you, but also what you find are some of the big differences for you as an artist.

A: It came about really when I was released from my contract with Virgin, which I knew was coming, you know the label was in quite a lot of trouble and EMI were taking them over, and it was quite a relief to be released. I was just looking at options because I knew that I definitely wanted to continue my career, and to self-finance and start my own independent label just felt like a really exciting thing to do and quite challenging as well, and just a complete opposite from where I had started from. So we set about doing that, and I found it great creatively, it was really inspiring to have a complete and fresh start, and you just feel a bit more in control of your life.  You know, you’re not wondering if you’re going to get dropped or what was going on at the label because the music industry is so unstable at the moment, it’s hard to know what’s going to happen next. So it’s cool having your own label, you can work at your own pace and you don’t have to answer to anybody and you don’t have to take too many opinions on board and you can just get on with it and make your own mistakes. (Laughs)

Q: What would you say are some of the different pressures then?

A: Well of course you know financially it’s quite daunting because it’s bloody expensive making records so you haven’t got that financial support. And also you lose a lot of your power because a major label with other big artists, sometimes there’s some politics that come into play at radio stations, etcetera, so you lose a lot of your clout. But I wouldn’t change a thing—I’m really happy now being independent. I’ve totally lost my faith in major labels, but I suppose that’s really to do with how rocky the industry is, but yeah, it’s great being independent.

Q: With your last album when you first started out with this label, at certain points you were releasing singles on your website only and things like that. Was that part of the learning process?

A: Absolutely. You know I think the learning is never going to end, because the way things are going now things are changing constantly, and you have to just learn as you go.

Q: You’ve had a definite evolution in your sound between the four albums, and the third album had kind of reached this pinnacle and it was kind of aggressive and then this last one you kind of stepped back a bit. Something that I’d also noticed was this was also the one album that you’d done the least amount of song writing, and I was wondering if that played into it?

A: Yeah, you know this album is really a reaction to the last album. I had such a lot of fun with Beautiful Intentions, I loved writing it, I loved getting out there and playing it, but after I’d done that I felt like I’d needed a dramatic change. I wanted to do something that was more beautiful and I wanted to make an album that had more of a singer-songwriter feel, and somebody like Adam Argyle and Jill Jackson, they’re actually artists as well, and I’ve enjoyed writing with Adam but they just had some beautiful songs that I wanted on my album, so that’s really why I let go a little bit and did some other people’s songs.

Q: Was it kind of scary letting to some of that creative freedom?

A: You know, not at all. I enjoyed being able to interpret someone else’s work. I feel especially with songs written by Adam and Jill, I identify with the lyrics so much. I suppose we’re of a similar age and a similar background, so we kind of see the world through similar eyes anyway, so I’ve really enjoyed singing. It’s almost like a new challenge because when you’re consistently singing the songs that you’ve been a co-writer on, and you know a lot of the lyrics and melodies are your own, it’s nice to just be a singer. You have to search in a different place to get the right vocals, the ones that you’re happy with.

Q: I’ve heard that you’re going back to work on a fifth album shortly, or if you’ve already started.

A: I’m hoping to do lots of writing over the summer, with the Canadian tour, got some more Canadian trips planned and then some European dates, but yeah just getting into the studio, absolutely no pressure and I just want to have a go and see what comes out. So much has happened over the last, well twelve years really. I think it’s time to really just take the pressure away and just be quite free, you know maybe just experiment with some different sounds and have some fun.

Q: Do you have an idea what you want to do with the sound yet, or are you just playing around?

A: Yeah, well I’d like to probably get a bit rockier again for some of the album and work acoustically as well, I really enjoy working acoustically. I think it’ll be a little bit tougher than this album but probably not as tough as Beautiful Intentions.

Q: One of the things I really enjoy are a lot of your b-sides.

A: Oh! Thank you, yeah, me too.

Q: I found that some of them are really incredible, and I’m always amazed that some of them didn’t make the albums.

A: I know sometimes I wonder whether I should have made different choices. But you know, I actually pride myself on having really great b-sides because a lot of people just put crap on the b-sides. (laughs)

Q: I would have to say that my absolute favourite one was from the single for ‘Here It Comes Again’—‘Love to You.’

A: Oh yeah, with Rick Knowles—no wait, that wasn’t ‘Love to You,’ that was with Gary Clark. Yeah.

Q: I just thought it was an amazing track that I really wish had been on the album.  So if you ever need any push to release it…

A: Yeah, that should make a comeback.

Q: Anything in particular that you’re looking forward to seeing while you’re over here this time?

A: Well I’m excited to come to Ottawa because I’ve never been. There’s quite a few cities I’ve never seen on this tour, and we’re on a bus so we’re truly going to see everywhere, so I’m looking forward to that. You know what—I’m really hoping that people in Canada are open to just come along. I’d really love people to come along who don’t know me, who don’t know any of my solo work. If people enjoy live music, you know I’ve got this band—my band played with the Spice Girls shows, and my front-of-house engineer also did the Spice shows so I’ve got a great team of people. The music, it will be fantastic. I’d love people to just come out just out of curiosity and check it out. Usually when people come out to see me for the first time they’re pleasantly surprised.

Q: And you’re excited doing more intimate, smaller venues?

A: Oh yeah, it’s better especially for the type of music that I’m doing. Arenas are fun, but I’d much prefer to go to a theatre or a club, so it works the other way on stage. It’s definitely a more intimate experience.