Sequins, Schpiel and the Magnetism of Sage

It is a warm summer afternoon in London and I am at Ramsey’s York and Albany in deep conversation with celebrated independent singer, songwriter and producer Rachael Sage. We are talking about everything under the Camden sun, her Jewish heritage, the new album Delancey Street, her friendship with the late legend John Lee Hooker, founding MPress Records, her philanthropic endeavour- a compilation series, my Ivrit, our mutual training in and love of dance and it strikes me that it would take an interview at every Michelin starred restaurant in the Western hemisphere to exhaust conversation with the eloquent songstress.

The flame haired American musician is astute, charming and honest. Her credentials are noteworthy-Ballet at the prestigious School of American Ballet, Drama at Stanford, a track in the 2009 Hollywood remake of ‘Fame’, a smash hit Edinburgh Fringe show ‘Sequins and Shpiel’ with soon to be followed ‘Stop Me If I’m Kvetching,’ numerous music awards and accolades and a dedicated following across the globe.

Spirited Sage’s ability to vividly narrate and create intelligent musical tapestries has won her many admirers. Legendary producer Tony Visconti calls her “incredibly talented” and the champion of the independent music world’s latest album splendidly pays heed to that. If her previous album ‘Chandelier’ was about fragility, the newest ‘Delancey Street’ is about acceptance of vulnerabilities and summoning the strength to boldly learn, live and grow. The album is a poignant bittersweet collection of reflections on the musician’s heritage, life and perspectives gained, a transition from old to new that echo a decade of Sage. Mixed by Grammy award winning Kevin Killen and featuring musicians who have collectively worked with Elvis Costello, Tracy Chapman, Evanescence, Coldplay, Rufus Wainwright, Fab Faux and Ari Hest; Delancey Street is a gem.

Sage takes the MOBO spotlight…

MOBO: Tell us about your childhood…

Rachael: I grew up in Connecticut which is only forty-five minutes outside New York. I went to New York virtually everyday by the time I was eleven to study at the School of American Ballet. So it was just that life, city life, the diversity of New York city was something I saw very early and I knew I wanted to be a part of that wider world and what that meant for me was very quickly I knew I wanted to be an artist. I wasn’t even certain I wanted to be a dancer, I’ve been writing Pop songs and playing music by ear for years, playing the piano since I was three years old. I’m self taught but I also know that being a Ballet dancer exposed me to so much great classical music exposed me that in a way that was my education. Even learning who the composers were what pieces of music the variations were attached to, you know in a way it was a sophisticated education but I just never really learned how to read notes properly or anything but I would come home and play all that music by ear on the piano and you know I was always trying to do that at school at regular assemblies or talent shows; but it was alienating knowing that young what I wanted to do. I was in such a hurry I couldn’t wait to be done quit growing up and school and to just be able to go to New York and be an artist. I was literally yearning to do it and if I had a different family, I probably would of run away from home to just do it but they were very strict, very protective and there were some opportunities earlier on in my teens to sign a record deal, work with a manager who had worked with some famous people and every time these would come up they would be opportunities I just sort of pursued on my own in spite of knowing the rules and knowing that I wasn’t really going to be able to pursue them and not go to college or whatever; but I would take them as far as I possibly could and try to be in a situation where I could make demos with that producer and my parents would be very supportive. Creatively they were wonderfully supportive in that sense, you know great extra curricular activity that looks good on the college resume but until I got through college I was not going to be allowed to pursue it. Which is kind of striking to me looking back because most people, most of my peers in the music industry, they didn’t really have that restriction in a way they mostly tended to rebel and just do it or nobody cared that much and that was why they sought comfort in it. It was a way to create a new family. I had a lot of rules and discipline.

MOBO: Do you think that your disciplined background and those values instilled in you enabled you to become a better performer?

Rachael: I don’t think better but I cherish the freedom I now have as an independent artist in almost a religious way because for me, the choice to be an artist and to continue to do it and to re-choose it every time you face an obstacle or by being in a situation where someone else might give up, you know, is your way of finding who you are. While I knew very young what I wanted to do, I was not sure of how I was going to do it. At that point in my life I really wanted to be part of the system in a way with major labels and to be discovered and be on top forty radio when I was young. Then discovering, why I actually wanted to be a musician…

MOBO: You studied Dance at the prestigious School of American Ballet, Drama at Stanford and have gained an MFA from the Actors Studio. What then inspired you to enter the ubiquitous realm of music?

Rachael: I love acting and I hope to get back to it at some point so that’s sort of on the back burner and not dismissed at all, but you know music has always given me an opportunity to create a life for myself beyond just being on stage in those moments that I’m performing. It’s a community and that’s the part of it that I really didn’t understand when I was just trying to be a pop star as a teenager but when I went to college and when I became part of that San Francisco Folk scene in a way even though I wasn’t really doing Folky music but just the history of that Haight Ashbury kind of scene and the political progressiveness of that region kind of endowed me with more of a sense of purpose in music and I also got more in touch with my feminism at first while I was at college and became part of some theatre pieces that spoke specifically to that and to female body imagery and then I was part of a women’s performance collective. It was an acting troupe but they also incorporated a lot of popular music into their performance art. People like Ani DiFranco and Suzanne Vega. I can even remember the songs that we used like Ani had a song called ‘The Story’ which was really all about her story and how it conflicted with who her father wanted her to be. There’s a song from Suzanne Vega called ‘Blood Makes Noise’ just other pieces that had resonated with artists who had elected to be in this group. They were reinterpreting them to a particular theme they were exploring and that was a great way to start to teach me that a lot of my relationship to music had been autopilot. It was more about performing and being impressive and showing talent and by the end of my experience there I couldn’t of cared less for any of those things to be honest. I just wanted to be part of something that continued the tradition of storytelling and created insight and an experience. I got a little hippied out and bridging that with the music and pop music became my new challenge, to create a synergy.

MOBO: Who were your childhood musical influences?

Rachael: I loved The Beatles, I was obsessed with them as soon as I heard them I would try out all their songs on the piano and I also love the way the infused classical music into their music so that had a big influence on my arrangement sensibility, I heard their classical strings in their albums! I also loved Billy Joel, Elton John. We’ve signed a new artist to my record label that sounds like Billy Joel reborn. He’s twenty-one and has an amazing voice, his name is Seth Glier and he is just phenomenal. He’ll actually be performing in my show at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival with me.
I listened to Doo-Wop. That was more my dad’s influence. We would be in the car driving to school or somewhere and he’d put on a station called WCBS- FM and it was all Doo-Wop there’d be the top one hundred Doo-Wop countdown and otherwise I wouldn’t of heard those artists probably. A lot of the songs sounded the same to me at the time but the variety amongst that form appealed to him I guess and the nostalgia of the music. Now when I hear that music I think it’s great!

MOBO: You have shared the stage with artists such as John Lee Hooker and Judy Collins, could you describe that experience?

Rachael: John Lee Hooker actually became a friend of mine in college. It was a bit of a strange circuitous occurrence. I was playing the piano for the happy hour at my dormitory and every Friday I would always sit and play, it wasn’t an official gig or anything but that was when the keg of beer was delivered for the happy hour at six o’clock and there was a baby grand piano in our common space and I would play all alone plenty but I preferred to play when there were people around and tried to bring people over; and it just forces you to play differently so I would sit there and play for at least an hour. One day the guy who delivered the keg, who was a new guy and he was just a character, heard me playing. This wonderful six foot dynamic African American musician guy who happened to play organ in John Hooker’s band and he just sat down next to me and started grilling me and asking me what my deal was and was this my original music and he was also probably hitting on me you know but I tried to just give him the benefit of the doubt. I’m as friendly as I can be short of it getting weird and so he ended up inviting me to a BBQ at John Lee Hooker’s house and he also heard me mention that I was a DJ at KZSU which was the station at Stanford and that was one of my main things. I had the moonlight shift from midnight to 6am several times a week because I’ve always been a night owl and I would just play whatever I wanted on the show and he heard radio and he was probably schmoozing to get airplay for John Lee Hooker’s new record. I’m just some kid but that was just one of my big lessons that radio is radio and people just want to connect and be heard. So I had this lil’ invite on a piece of paper and I ran upstairs to my boyfriend and asked if I could borrow his John Lee Hooker collection because he was a Blues fan and I wasn’t too familiar with his music. I knew some of his big songs like ‘Boom Boom’ and that was about it and he was so jealous and so so annoyed with me that I had this opportunity to go to his house not only for this BBQ but I’d been asked if I’d interview him for my radio show. So I was told to bring a recording device and questions and so I really felt I needed to listen up and learn all about him. I went to the library and read up about him and it was just a funny thing because here I was a nice Jewish girl from Connecticut growing up on Doo-Wop and Billy Joel and I honestly didn’t have a clue about him… And that was my education in the Blues, he was my education in the Blues. Not only his music but his life story, his sensibility, just how he struck out on his own to do it at aged eleven. The minute we met he was just so charming and a big kid and he loved people and he loved the ladies and he was just always surrounded by young people, musicians and once we hit it off he invited me and also my friends to hang out on the weekends and he would have jams and he ended up buying a Wurlitzer so that I could play on it because he only had guitars there and we’d go into the city and see him play and eventually he started his own club there ‘Boom Boom Room.’ I went to the Bammy music awards and interestingly there was this one year when Elvis Costello honoured him by remote or it was pre-recorded on video and played on a screen, about how much John Lee Hooker had influenced him and congratulated him and he turns to me and says, “Rachel, who is this young fella?” He had no idea who Elvis Costello was which was hysterical to me because he was my favourite artists and of course he was greatly influenced by his music and a lot of other artists. It was very funny I was like, “He’s a great rock artist but he also plays Blues...” and I was explaining to him who Elvis Costello was!

Judy is just the most lovely and classy and refined human I think I have ever come across. Everything about her is just so elegant and just naturally connected with everyone around her. She’s a beautiful listener, she’s witty she takes an interest in young artists in a way that she doesn’t have to but she chooses to because she’s a really sweet lovely person you know and I think she probably identifies with the experience of young independent artists and her journey when she was on Elektra and the community she had with people like Leonard Cohen, Bob Dylan and Joni Mitchell and so she has one foot in all of that and she talks about that very generously at all her shows and just hearing about it is awesome; but she’s also very contemporary and she runs her own record label Wildfire Records and they have a lot of great artists, some of whom I know and am friendly with and her label manager first heard me when I was performing at a showcase MIDEM in France and immediately befriended me and invited me to perform at their Wildfire Festival and that took a year or two to happen but when it did, Judy actually asked me to sign with her label which we sort of theoretically explored and I just continued to run my own thing. We were just so involved at that point that is didn’t make sense to but it was quite an honour and she’s continued to be a wonderful supporter and a source of inspiration.

MOBO: You are a seasoned artist having released nine albums. ‘Delancey Street’ is your latest album- is the most seminal from the artistic point of view?

Rachael: I hope not, I hope that I’ve not made my most seminal record yet haha because that would be a little bit depressing. I would like to think that I’m capable of far more, that I’ve not even reached the surface but I like the album and I think that in a lot of ways, the thing that I enjoyed about making this record is that I already knew going in to it how I wanted the sound of it and the song selection because I always have so many songs. I need to whittle them down to be more positive and to be more out of myself and more in the world so I hope that it has more of an expansiveness to it and also thematically as you’ve probably read, I was moving from a place where I lived for over ten years that had started to kind of cave in on me emotionally and physically I needed to change, I needed to feel that I was in a new space that reflected who I am now and not just all this stuff I’d collected that had been kind of wearing down for all those years so the record was also kind of a soundtrack for encouraging me to make that shift, to not just talk about it but to do it. I made a record that I wanted and needed to do. Create a collection of songs that was more positive and didn’t go into that safer place for me which happens to be melancholy and angst. A run threw of some tracks, ‘Big Star’ is a tongue in cheek up tempo tune about what it takes to be successful in this business. ‘Back to Earth’ is a song I wrote about a good friend of mine who is suffering from an eating disorder and just that feeling of helplessness and the grip of that disease can be so strong I hear it can be stronger than Heroine that physical, physiological grip. ‘Arrow’ is an anthem that speaks against having to suffer to be an artist you know? That there is a way to be happy and balanced and actually live your life productively and with a certain amount of common sense and a lack of self destructiveness and that you can still make good art and this song is sort of an argument for that.

MOBO: You have received numerous accolades- two OUT Music Awards, Performing Songwriter Magazine naming you as one of the top one hundred independent artists of the past fifteen years and the legendary Tony Visconti describing you as “incredibly talented.” What is your ultimate musical aim?

Rachael: You kind of touched on it a few minutes ago when you noted the diversity of an audience and that someone like Johnny Lee Hooker or someone like Judy Collins has been able to transcend their genre and the box that they maybe even put themselves in, in the beginning of what they were doing and that maybe what I’m doing to a degree now is help people come into my world. I’m also performing a show at Edinburgh Fringe Festival this summer that is kind of spoon feeding people that opportunity to get that other side of me which is more the actress and the comedian and improvisational performer almost cabaret and to use different parts of myself in a more ambitious way than just making pop records so that’s leading me towards my ultimate goal which would be to be able to look back on my career and to feel that I have used all the different tools G-d gave me to be an expressive human being and to connect people and to inspire. I feel that I have only scratched the surface of that if I’m honest with myself, which there is no point not being because how else do you shift gears right? I have a lot of goals, I’d love to produce other artists, I’d love to write a musical that ends up on Broadway, I know that I have that in me. In the interim, just continue to allow my albums to take me on ever wider international adventures. Learning from other people, how we’re the same, how we’re different and how all of that can continue to shape where I want to go because how do you know what you want really unless you have explored and experienced?

MOBO: What advice would you give to aspiring artists?

Rachael: This ones kind of easy for me because if I look back, I don’t have regrets but there is something that I wish I had absolutely known earlier and that was how important it is to perform live and to not be precious about it. I used to think that I had to save my energy somehow and to only play quote on quote when it was the most real kind of gig or showcase which was important when this or that lawyer is coming down or this or that manager or I had to book the biggest place I could fill and only play there once every six months knowing that I could get a hundred people there; but looking back I wish I had just got a regular gig every week somewhere where I didn’t know anybody where I could screw up and make mistakes and really figured out what works and what doesn’t for that, personally I think it is important for each artist to figure out how they interact and relate to an audience in a live setting and to not wait for that magical opportunity to have an industry door open to them to do that. There’s just no excuse or reason to haha, there are opportunities to play, they may seem too few and far between but if you really want to become a great artist I think you have to just do it constantly, put in that time and you can’t do it in your bedroom or in a rehearsal room.

MOBO: Which artists are you currently listening to?

Rachael: I’m listening to Seth Glier. The minute I get back to New York we’re going to be mixing his record which he produced himself and he’s a crazy little studio genius that way but I’m executive producing so am going to lend my ears and give support as much as I can.

We’re also putting together a new volume of emerging artists for our charity compilation series which is called ‘New Arrivals Volume 4’ so I’m listening to all different independent artists, one that comes to my mind immediately is a young guy called Ethan Clarke who’s phenomenal. I heard him on tour in North Carolina randomly in a bar, he blew me away and my whole band away and normally artists have to go through a contest submission process to be part of our compilation but I just invited him!

There’s also a fantastic artist from South Carolina her name is Danielle Howle. She has sort of a Bluesy Rock vibe like Janis Joplin. I do love Imogen Heap, she’s just so original. It’s vocal acrobatics; she makes herself sound like a machine when she’s not even using one! Her range is just gorgeous. I feel like she’s the kind of artist who didn’t produce her stuff in this very modern electronic way, a hundred years ago could have been performing Opera, she just has it.

I really love Elvis Costello as I mentioned. I can count on him to have a new record out and one of my favourite artists, Marc Cohen is about to release a new album of all covers from 1970, all different artists that influenced him, so I can’t wait to hear that soon but I’ve already heard a few teasers because on the industry side of things I get to.

There’s an artist who I love who just moved to England and I think she’ll be huge here, Jesca Hoop. She sounds a lot like Kate Bush and her guitar playing is extraordinary. She has an interesting story, she was discovered by Tom Wait because she was his nanny for his kids and she is just the same as Seth, fully formed, prodigious instrumentalist, writes these incredible ethereal songs with lyrics and images that seem to fall from the sky that are genius and her structures are very interesting, it’s not like what you hear every time but it all hangs together in a way that’s still accessible. She’s just brilliant.

MOBO: When you are not immersing yourself in the Arts, which other interests receive your attention?

Rachael: Anything visually art oriented. I am such a frustrated designer, crafts person you know I, I make a lot of my own clothes but only when I have time and I wish I had more time to do it for love. To look at that art form from more of a sort of a legitimate visual art perspective and I hate to shop but I love to go look at windows and look at beautiful things and see how they’re made and just get that inspiration. I love going to museums, going to exhibits and um I love going to hear music and it doesn’t even need to be within my genre or anything that’s quote on quote relevant to me but I love Jazz and I also really enjoy antiquing, I like that connection of what people let go of and seeing what story there might be in it. I also do graphic design myself, a lot of it is for work and for my label. If I had more time I’m sure I’d explore that for fun.

MOBO: Describe Rachael Sage in three words…

Rachael: Colourful, adventurous… Hard working.

MOBO: If you had the power to create THE musical artist, which artists from the past and present would you use as building blocks and why?

Rachael: The first person who sprang to mind was Buddy Holly because first of all we lost him so early but I heard his music when I was very young and he just doesn’t sound like anybody else, he is so unique, so I think he covers the unique, original end of my value system. He was innovative without even trying it seemed, he just did what was in his head even though it was a bit different. He wrote beautiful ballads and fun up tempos that they were universal and simple without being throwaway. He would be for originality and directness.

Elvis Costello would be for range because he seems to be basically able to do any kind of music that he wants to from Rock to Punk to Folk to Classical to Americana to I’m sure something that we haven’t even heard yet.

I absolutely love the Indigo Girls’ harmonies they melt my heart and I also love their political drive and their progressive sensibilities. They would be in charge of the committee that gives all the profits of this music genius to the community because that’s who they are. They live and practice what they preach.

Um, I would have to say John Lennon because I just don’t think there has been anyone more imaginative and musically detailed like him. He grew throughout his life in so many different directions and he seemed to of never been self satisfied as an artist and I think that’s crucial. He had that hunger and he wanted everything he created to have meaning.

Bette Midler, because she has an unbelievable sense of humour and she knows how to perform she isn’t precious about it- high art, low art quote on quote girls on stage with pasties and mermaid outfits in wheelchairs you know, Vegas meets the ‘Wind Beneath My Wings’ meets whatever the hell she wants to do she’s just a diva and I think divas are fun; and plus you know, she’s just hilariously funny and sexy.

I would add Wyclef Jean because I just feels he’s like the kind of person who again no fear, loves to collaborate with other musicians and I think you need him in there to ringmaster all of these talents. He has a big heart and he stands up for all he believes in. He’s all about entertainment too, he has that balance coz its not enough just to make people dance. Maybe it is for some people, but not this artist haha…

What does music mean to you?

Rachael: It means opportunity to travel and to time travel aswell, to be part of a tradition and to fling doors open also to be part of the future. I always have one foot in the past and one in the future. I know you’re supposed to live in the present but you do what works for you.

It is a mild summer’s eve and the stage is set for Rachael Sage to play an intimate press showcase at Soho Theatre. As guests anticipate the charismatic performer’s arrival, the stillness of expectancy is suddenly broken by Sage’s customary foot stamping and with tremendous poise; the graceful musician takes the stage. The darkened room is lit by luminous Sage seated at her blue star spangled piano and the artist goes on to dynamically deliver a mesmerising set, interspersing music with warm theatrical musings. Several spellbinding Sage songs and an endearing rendition of a Hall and Oates number for a birthday girl later, the artist has captivated the audience. Her sultry voice has us transfixed and resonates far beyond the curtain call and the l’chaims.

The enigmatic performance is a reminder lest we forget, of the consummate performer, the artist’s artist that Rachael Sage truly is; and of her brilliance.

Rachael is kvetching at the Edinburgh Fringe from 15th-30th August 2010

www.edfringe.com

www.rachaelsage.com

Delancey Street is out in stores now.

By Reema Kumari Jadeja ©