Beth Orton

0:00Oh, fuck. Your call is being connected. Long distance charges will apply. One, two, one, two. Hello. Hey, is this Beth? Yes, you think. Hey, it's Matt Schichter with MSN. How are you? I'm good. How are you? I'm good. You got time for a quick interview? Yes, I have. Excellent. So how are you feeling when you're in Toronto or hit your little under the weather? Everything better? Oh, my God. Yeah, that was a nasty call. It lasted for like 10 days. Really? Really heavy. Yeah, it's kind of, it's pretty hard. Yeah, no, I'm good now.

0:45Well, yeah, it must be tough to recover when you're on the road and you got to sing every night. Yeah, it goes on and on and on. Very boring. There we go. We're all right now. Everyone's good. Excellent. Okay, so let's talk about this record. Let's talk. I guess we'll start with the break because a lot happened. There were babies and you stopped smoking, I heard. You almost went back to school. So, I guess, how were the last six years? I mean, they've been busy, you know, they've been busy and they've been along. I don't know what you're saying. Yeah. I've been busy. How? Yeah. How was being a mom changed your songwriting? Has it at all? I don't know. I mean, I think any profound change in my life is going to affect my work and the way I write.

1:35So, maybe it's hard to say. I mean, it's hard to say. I suppose there's certain challenges that arise in being a parent. That kind of bring out, you know, this, I don't know. I think I'm not really sure now. Well, how's it? Maybe. One if I have an answer to that question. One if I go. Well, here, let me pry it a little bit then with this. Are you more self-conscious about what words come out of you knowing that you know how kids that will hear them? Sometimes that is an element of like, there's an element of that, actually. I mean, there's an element of it.

2:20You know, you are aware that in a lot of ways I'm aware of, you know, the action, the amount of legacy that we live by children in general. I think it's how children become really aware of like, yeah, I think that's an interesting point. It kind of, you've won re-addresses so much. And in every way, just like, oh, I wonder what affects this action might have on my child, you know, and I guess, yeah, that does sort of affect the right to a person with a degree. How did stopping smoking, I'm obviously going to help your voice. Have you noticed it and improved the vocals?

3:07No, it really messed my voice up for a long time. Really? It's entirely, I mean, smoking is what it is. It's a lot of great things and smoke. I just couldn't throw health reasons, couldn't keep me, otherwise, my God. Right. Yeah. Well, let's talk about this record in a sentence because I heard there was a couple of, a couple of different times you tried to get it started with M Ward, with Midlake. So how come it worked with Tucker? There's a couple of what? Say that again? A couple of, I heard you tried to make the record a few times with M Ward and maybe with M Ward. No, I did not try to make this record a few times. Oh, I'm interested. Where did you hear that?

3:52I don't know. Somewhere in the internets. I haven't written down here in my notes, but that's good to know. No, I certainly did not make this record a few times. The last record comes out to strangers. I made a few times. Okay. This record I made once. So, so how did I? Sorry, I was going to say, what was so special about Tucker that made that partnership so great? Tucker, Tucker, I don't know what's special. I mean, Tucker is just a lovely guy. We had, we had a great relationship. We have a great relationship. We just, we just, yeah, we just, I don't know what to say. I mean, we got together and, what do you mean what's so great about it?

4:39I don't understand the question really. Well, what did you, what, because when you choose a producer for a record, there are reasons you choose someone you know, especially with someone you haven't worked with before. So I wonder if there was a record that you had heard that was like, oh, I really want those sounds or was it maybe friends that told you was a great guy to work with, that kind of thing. I mean, the only work that I knew that of Tucker's before was quite a record that, a lot to me, which was won by Laura Bierd called Carbon Glacier. But I had never looked at him, or I wonder who produced that. I only ever thought that record is her really. I had never really second guessed it in any other way, but I met Tucker and I met Laura, his wife, Laura Bierd, and they were very lovely people. But what really got me, I was looking for a producer and he spammed my husband and said,

5:27you should call Tucker. You know, he's fantastic. He's a lovely guy. I was like, yeah, he was nice. I mean, so I called him. He just completely out of the blue on the other hand. And we started the tour with Skype, actually. And I immediately was taken by, by yes, he's indeed a lovely cat, you know. And I sent him the song and we talked again and talked about a band that we would like to get together, what would be that band. And it just kind of rolled from there. It was just very easy. And I think when we came together to talk about what fans would be and just take on the songs and how they, how he reacted to them. Kind of pointed away that someone I should be crippled with.

6:14And so I did, you know, and to a degree that you never really know has something like that's going to work. Right. But it really did. And all our hunches and all our instincts turned out to be right. Absolutely. Yeah, the record sounds phenomenal. And if we could, we could focus on a few tunes here, that'd be cool. Like, call me in the breeze. I really like, I like that vocal chorus thing that you're doing in there. I know that you and Tom from the Chemical Brothers wrote it together. What I found, what I found interesting is my brother works with Tucker from time to time. He happened to be in the studio while you guys were doing that. And he showed me a video of you sitting. Oh, him? Yeah, yeah, yeah. He's not there. I love your brother. He's sitting right beside me right now. He's driving. He says hello. He's sitting beside me right now. Oh, good. Hi. She says hi.

6:59But what he showed me in the video was you sitting on the floor doing your vocal? Do you do that a lot? That's interesting. No, literally that song. It's like an off the cuff moment. It was like, you know, that was a song that I did with Tom Marlinson. And it was a song I wrote and essentially with him. And then I asked him and Ted to transfer onto the band and get a respect for me. And they did. And then I was just like, you know, let's do that song. Let's just quickly put that song down, you know, that call me the breeze song. And so I just sat on the floor and, you know, and we just did it off the cuff. You know, I didn't know what was going to happen. And I was going to work really, you know, and it totally did. It was beautiful. And so yeah, it was kind of the moment.

7:47Where's the quote that I had? Oh, I heard you say I stretched myself as a singer and used voices I have never before as a writer. What did you mean by that? I don't know. It sounds a bit weird when you say it like that. I mean, I sort of, yeah. I didn't say it quite like that for that intonation. I am sorry. Just, yeah, in the writing when I was writing a song, I tried to stuff out. You know, I had a sense of like writing for myself and I know that's always so I've gotten to me today. But it's true. And I just kind of said that I'm just playing really because my voice and playing with sounds.

8:32And so, and in a way, I guess that's stretching, though. I wish I hadn't used that expression. It's more of an earthy record than the past ones. There's less electronic elements. So is maybe that way? By stretching going for that. No. Okay. No, not really. No. But it's not, I don't mean it as a record anyway. I just mean it as a writer. So I don't know if people always call it a record. And it's like, but when you write, you don't write a record, you write a song, you write because you write that by two. You know what I mean? I do. And I like that point. So let's go with that because a lot of the writing happened in the dead of night I heard for this record.

9:20So do you have a room that you write in? Are you a pen and paper? Are you always writing? How does your writing process typically work? Well, I mean, it's different, different times. I mean, the last six years, yes, there was some writing done at night. There was also though equally, I had to start setting time aside and I did have to start making it a space in which I could work. So I started working on garage band and logic and would set time aside in which to write, which is the sort of discipline I've never really done before. You know, I would just use it to write whenever they really grabbed me or took me in. This time I just sort of went and just saying, okay, I'm going to put myself in this room and I'm going to, and maybe that's part of the stuff.

10:06You know, and that's a different way of writing a file. So yeah. Do you labor over songs? Are you, are you really focused on every word or do you let things come out and say, well, that's what came out of me. So that must be what, what I'm supposed to say. I do both. I do both. Were there any. Were there any songs in this record that took a really long time to write? I know I keep calling it a record. I came back. I said that I'm sorry. I said, I just kept coming back and forth to songs, you know, over a long period. Yeah, but you know, some of them, yeah, they take a while, but that doesn't mean you labor them in a kind of difficult way. It's just, I enjoy it. I couldn't say that it was ever not a labor of love. It was always, it was always, you know, I love writing songs.

10:53So for me to keep coming back to something and kind of just plugging away at it or just like changing something or it's always, I like that. You know, I like doing that. Mm hmm. Now let's talk about the band here for a second because, well, Sam obviously is in the band for a reason, but why, where did you find the other, the other folks for this record? Well, that's part of what happened with Tucka Martine. I mean, Brian Blade is, was Tucka's call a friend of Tucka's and a long-term, long-term work colleague of Tucka's and he suggested him and I was like, okay, I'm amazing. And also that kind of, that made sense to some of the references that I was sort of talking about with Tucka in terms of other people's music.

11:42Like, like, Revert a Black First Take or Pentangle or whatever. And then, and then also I was both these besties, Fachtenberg. He played on, he toured with me for a long time around centralization and we recorded together and so on. And so, and it just so happened. He was also a great friend of Tucka's and someone he knew and worked with before. And then Rob Berger, who played on my last record, was just about to move to Portland. And it just went on like that. And then of course, Ted Barnes is my old man in cohort and he slams my husband. So, you know, essentially though, yeah, it just, it was very, we were like, what about this? Like, me? What about that? You know, it was part of the reason we ended up working together. We were sorry, excitement that, like, in your span, you know.

12:28You hear the excitement in the record. It almost sounds at times like there was a lot of improvising going on. Like, you let the band just do what they could because, well, they're all top, top, top notch musicians obviously. Was that the case? Yeah, I mean, I didn't give them any chops and I didn't tell them what to play and I didn't, I wasn't directing in that way. They only think it was directed them with the song, you know. And, and I would just play them a song and they would just play along and it was just, you know, it was very inspired in that way. The way they just, yeah, it was an amazing, much musician he worked with in that way. So, yeah, very, very much of the moment. Are we going to have to wait another six years to hear the next record?

13:13I was not. I don't think so. Do you have stuff brewing already, stuff starting? Because I mean, I know this was made about a year ago now. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's really brewing. Yeah, building up. Before I let you go here, we got to do something called five questions, five quick questions, one word answers. Okay. Road or studio? What? Road or studio? That was a hard question to answer in one word. Road or studio? I'd say neither. I don't know. I like writing. You're like, oh, that's a good idea. I like that. I've never heard that before. That's good. Leninger McCartney.

14:00Leninger McCartney Lennon. When you hear a song, what usually hits you first? Lyrics, melody or rhythm? Lyrics. Song you've written you're most proud of? Oh, song I've written I'm most proud of. I don't know. Maybe... maybe... missed it. Cool. And in one word, Beth Orton. One word, what? In one word, Beth Orton. In one word, Beth Orton?

14:45Yeah. I don't know. That's good. I'll close it with that. I don't know. I like that. Yeah. Well, thank you so much. I really appreciate it. Love chatting with you. Thank you. The record's amazing. Andy says he's going to come to the show in Vancouver tomorrow. Oh, whoa. Yeah. So, uh, so have a good time. You're not coming? I live in Toronto. So I cannot come. Andy's flying back to Vancouver tomorrow. So go to your show. So... Well, tell him something high. He will come and say hi. Yeah, definitely. Okay. He says definitely. Awesome. Well, thank you so much. Thank you. I really appreciate it. I knew. Thank you. Okay. Have a great night. Bye. That was weird.