TIFT MERRITT – SEE YOU ON THE MOON INTERVIEW
Wayne Waters
September 05, 2010
The album has been getting good radio airplay, debuting at #24 on the Americana Music Association chart the first week of May. It´s been climbing since to hit #11before the end of the month. Cashbox Magazine also has it at #11, while The Roots Music Report has it at #7. Paste Magazine rated ´See You On The Moon #5 on its list of summer albums they were most looking forward to. I don´t see any reason they should be disappointed.
Wayne Waters (WW): Your fans know the basic story of how your last album, ´Another Country,´ developed. You were worn out from performing, felt you needed a break, and took off for Paris with no particular intentions of writing songs but the songs came to you. How did ´See You on the Moon´ develop?
Tift Merritt (TM): I think that I wanted to have the purity of that experience [´Another Country´] but make it happen without running away from home (lets loose a pleasingly hearty laugh before collecting herself). I wanted to make the record very simple and direct and unfettered. This record isn´t framed by a plot like ´Another Country´ was but the story is in the music. I just wanted to make a record that had some magic, some strength, without having to isolate myself to find it – which is a lot trickier, I think. For me, I usually feel a sense of freedom by locking myself away and writing somewhere no one knows me. But it was time to do it in the middle of the day wherever I was.
WW: How big a role does your physical environment play in your creative process – location, weather, soundscape?
TM: I think my work is always infused with a sense of place. You´re hoping wherever you are has an effect on you. That said, if things are going well in the creative process, it doesn´t matter where you are, it doesn´t matter what time it is, you get deeper than any of that. But for me, over the past few years, I do like to be very deeply alone when I´m writing, at least when I´m starting, but I´m beginning to be able to be more integrated into life when I´m writing and less of a freak.
WW: How does living in New York City play into this?
TM: I really enjoy being in a city where people are living very openly right in front of you. I´ve found that very comforting to me when I´ve been writing in the past few years. I used to be on a very isolated farm in North Carolina when I was writing which had a totally different energy and I loved it so much – walks with my dog, and nature, and rural influences were an inspiration. Now, in New York, I´m really enjoying being in close contact with other people who are going about their business while I´m going about mine.
WW: Aside from wanting to write good music without running away from home, what else were you trying to do with ´See You on the Moon´? Were you purposely trying to make something a little different from ´Another Country´?
TM: Yeah, the first thing I wanted to do, I didn´t want to come to this record with an idea of what it was supposed to be or should be. I just wanted to get out of the way and make a very simple and direct record so that the writing wasn´t fettered by things that didn´t need to be there and had a really direct sense of strength. I wanted to do the same thing in the studio where there was a sense of economy and sense of "less is more." I know that sounds really subtle but sometimes if you have a focus just like that and really keep to it but also allow the songs and the record to move the way they want to, that´s a good, real thing. I wanted it to be what it was. I wanted to get out of the way, in the writing process and in the studio.
I will say one thing we did in the studio, we wanted to build this around these songs, not around necessarily going to a full band immediately to figure out what the song was. We built around the songs rather than building around the band.
WW: Was any of this part of the reasoning for bringing in Tucker Martine to produce this album? How was it working with him?
TM: The main reason we brought Tucker in is because he´s awesome and so sweet (chuckle). I think everything we did on this record broke down to just doing what felt right. I remember the first time I talked to Tucker on the phone and I said, "Well, what do you like to do?" and he said, "I just like to bring out the best in the people in the room." And I think that´s exactly what he does. He really has a special empathy for what you´re trying to do and helps protect that. He puts everybody at ease to the extent that you can go further, dig deeper and work harder because you know you´re standing on solid ground with him.
WW: Speaking of digging deeper, you´ve admitted in interviews before that you can be incredibly sensitive, a trait often associated with the artistic personality. How does that play out as you go on in life? Does it get easier or harder? Do you have to make a kind of protective covering even thicker or do you get more comfortable without it?
TM: Wow! You are so getting to the heart of the matter. That´s a great question. I find that you try to get better at being more sensitive. And that´s definitely a practice in zen (laughs). But you can´t cut yourself off because it hurts. You just have to get better at feeling more, not less. I think we all have things we feel sensitive to in ways that aren´t productive and that´s where you´re in trouble. Then you have to practice. But most of the time, the things we´re sensitive to are the good things in life.
WW: Hmmm. ´The things we´re sensitive to are the good things in life.´ That´s interesting. I don´t know that I would have thought of it in that way. You think that´s the case?
TM: I do. I think being sensitive always comes out of love, the desire for connection and experience and being awake. I think we feel in isolation, you know? (again, that adorable laugh) I didn´t mean to get poetic on you this morning – sorry.
WW: No, no. That´s great. You´re giving me a great perspective and I see what you mean. Let me ask you this - what do you think people can know of you from your work? I´ve heard you ask that question of others on your Spark interviews and I just couldn´t miss the opportunity to ask you.
TM: Ooooh. You know, nobody´s ever asked me that. I hope people can tell that I´m trying my best.
WW: I can´t imagine anyone thinking otherwise. But you know, it is easy for listeners to think that your songs are literal reflections of things that have happened in your life and that´s not necessarily the case, right? Although I think many of your songs do tend to be very personal.
TM: Yes, but I think of it kind of like photographs. When you think of how you can know someone through their music, it´s like this is a snapshot but 100,000 frames have unfolded since that first shot. So, it´s a little bit static. I ask that question [of other artists] because when I love someone´s work I want to know that person, I want to be close to them, I want to understand their point of view and what they´re trying to get at. For me, whether I succeed or fail at it I´m trying to say something true and to do the best I can at it.
WW: Let´s talk about a few particular songs on ´See You on the Moon.´ What can you say about "Engine to Turn," which, by the way, I think would make a great single.
TM: Oh, thank you! That´s one of those songs that just kind of popped out to drag me by the hand in the right direction. You know, sometimes your songs are taking care of you. I love the energy in singing that song. I think while I´m on tour I´m going to have that song in my mind.
WW: In that song, you wrote the lyrics "Most days I want to speed up, Seems like I ought to slow down." Do you often feel that way?
TM: I do feel that way. (Laughing, harder now) I know my husband feels that way about me. Again, I think it goes back to the idea of being sensitive. We´re all kind of running around and we do all the things we need to do and be all the things that we´re supposed to be but it´s probably a much better solution to just stop and do a few things well and enjoy a few things along the way.
WW: There are a couple of songs on ´See You on the Moon´ that you didn´t write, something you don´t do much of.
TM: Yeah, we cut a bunch of songs and it was just clear what belonged on there. And it was kind of nice to have a couple from other people. My grandmother died while I was writing the record and grandmothers of some of the band members died and all of a sudden we were just kind of feeling some really elemental stuff and so "Live Till You Die" really fit. Then we recorded that Anne Murray song ["Danny´s Song"] so accidentally. Somebody was joking about her hair or something and we were saying "What are you talking about? Anne Murray´s cool." And we watched footage of her singing "Snow Bird" in 1971. And you talk about cycles and elemental things and Tucker´s [Martine] girlfriend was pregnant and we´re all kind of at that age where all of a sudden you understand that song ["Danny´s Song"] and we laid it down in two or three takes. So, we had it as just sort of an extra something but we played it for people and they´d say, "You´ve got to put that on the record." And we´d say, "No, What are you talking about?" Then we came around to saying "Well, I guess we do have to put it on the record."
WW: I think it´s an inspired choice because it just sounds like a perfect song for you. In fact, it sounds like a song you could have written.
TM: I know. It just kind of walked into the room and came to the party. It was the perfect thing.
WW: You´ve always refused to be constrained by particular musical genres. Your music through the years has incorporated spare singer-songwriter ballads, folk, a kind of alt country sensibility, soul, rhythm and blues, a little gospel, and you and the band can really rock when feel like it. Yet, "Mix Tape," the opening song on ´See You on the Moon,´ seems a little different than anything you´ve ever done.
TM: When we´re inside a song and it´s kind of 10 chords and a beat you don´t ever think that it´s that different than anything you´ve ever done before. I think the economy of the arrangement of that song…I really tried to keep the kind of introverted sense of making a mixtape and not taking it too far over the top to something that was silly. We had to think about it in a lot ways. We went into the studio and thought about songs and how they should be. What was the truest sense of how they should come to life. You´re pulling from all of the knowledge you have about music, whether it´s the car stereo when you´re seven years old and your Dad doesn´t differentiate from soul music and pop music and folk music, or that there was a time when you really dug into Bill Withers´ records, or whatever you´ve learned. I think writers do the same thing and painters do the same thing. I don´t ever think it´s that exceptional that I don´t see things in terms of genre. To me, it´s an artistic question. What really just feels right? If we didn´t push things a little bit, then that´s not like us but then you don´t want to push it too far because that´s not right either. You want to stretch yourself but you want to stretch yourself in a way that feels natural, an extension of yourself that was there all along.
WW: You mention artistic questions. In the lyrics of "All of the Reasons We Don´t Have to Fight" there´s a lyric that says, "I stayed up all night and I made this song." It just caught my ear because I bet 99 out of 100 songwriters would have said, "I wrote this song." Is there something of note in your word choice there or am I making way too much of this?
TM: No, I love that! I think making songs is more than just a mental exercise in writing. It´s a physical thing. When people ask me what I do or what makes me happy - I like to make things. There´s stuff on the floor at my house that no one will see, like bad art or craftwork or something. But sometimes what I make is a song. And I love writing but I just felt that ["make"] was a little bit more of a picture of what it really takes to write a song. It doesn´t just come from your brain.
WW: So, you´re going to be touring extensively with the official release of ´See You on the Moon." How are you feeling?
TM: It´s such a weird time right before your record comes out. It´s a time when you´re not master of your own fate. It´s just about the place in the world that your work is going to find. Your just have to go along for the ride. I haven´t always been good at that but that´s what I´m trying to do right now (laughs).
Originally published at www.thealternateroot.com/tift-merritt-interview-with-wayne-waters
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