Amy Millan
Beatmag Albums Of The Year – Q&A
One of the unsung albums of 2007 was Amy Millan’s quietly sensational ‘Honey From The Tombs’ (Arts & Crafts). Where there’s currently an avalanche of identikit female singer-songwriters following a sub-Joni Mitchell folky template, Millan headed out to the prairies for a sound imbued with the aching melancholy of country, laced with the guitars of her ‘day job’ as a member of Canadian indie sensations Stars. Thomas H Green caught up with her just before a gig at London’s Borderline…
Where did this heartfelt left turn into country come from?
Amy Millan: I grew up playing heavy duty country with my friends at the weekend. When I was being a bad girl on late nights, lying about where I was sleeping we’d all get together and play old songs together. The songs [on ‘Honey From The Tombs’] are quite old and influenced by that time in my life.”
Is country big in your native Toronto then?
AM: “Not in Toronto, no, but when I went to Nashville I’d never seen such a bluegrass scene in my life. My first concert when I was seven was Emmylou Harris, I used to love [‘70s country & western movement] the Outlaws and ‘Coalminer’s Daughter’ was one of my favourite movies. I was drawn to how country music can be so sad yet playing it with a bunch of people is such a joyful experience.”
Are you a maudlin drunk?
AM: “Yes. No more drinking references. I’ve used up my drinking references on this record.”
The whole album is stewed in whisky.
AM: “Yeah, I spent a lot of time drinking. Those are quite old songs and I’ve moved on from Bourbon to Bordeaux. Whisky gives you the loneliness idea but there’s nothing like sharing a good bottle of wine with someone. I’m actually in a completely different period of my life than I was when I write those songs but I can still put myself there. Drinking Bordeaux is a little less depressing. I can afford a better wine rather than a cheap Bourbon. When I wrote those songs I was quite isolated and alone. I was in Los Angeles for a while and I was lost. I’d broken up with a couple of bands and a couple of boyfriends, whereas the last three years I’ve had this incredible community of musicians around me.”
How are things with Stars?
AM: “The Stars album came out in Canada before it came out anywhere else so I toured it for two years. We’re ready to step up to the plate with the next record – we’re a little more recognized now. Last time one shipped 10,000, this time we’ll ship 100,000. You have to check your progress in this industry because sometimes you don’t know if you’re moving forward. We didn’t break up or get sick of each other. When you come out after arguing and fighting, and you still want to work together, you feel you’ve accomplished something, a continuation of love and forgiveness.”
Is it strange being on the road as the only woman in the band?
AM: “I’m the only official woman in the band but there is a woman violin player who tours with us. He name is Genevieve Walker, an incredible friend and a fantastic musician. There are always women around although it’s a very male-dominated environment.”
Is it a bit like having joined the circus?
AM: “Definitely, you know, pulling up at the gas station, running about in your slippers, you’ve just woken up, everyone looks at you like you’re some bearded lady. You feel yourself getting further and further away from normal existence and that becomes confusing and sort of rewarding as every day is a different experience.”
How do your family regard it all?
AM: “They live vicariously through the stories I tell, the postcards. You know the movie ‘Big Fish’? I feel like that father – I come home and elaborate with these stories I have to thin down as they’re too fantastic in a way my mother might not want to know about, so I exaggerate other things to get the Thanksgiving table to have a laugh. I feel like a two dimensional figure to my nephews and nieces as my brother shows them videos of me on their computer. Maybe I should breed myself, or settle down and get a cat.”
Where’s the most bizarre place music has taken you?
AM: “What’s bizarre is I’ve been in Germany more then my home country. The small towns in Canada are pretty strange, small towns no-one ever goes to where the people never leave, places like Nova Scotia, a place that’s part of our country but they’re so completely different.”
Are you rock’n’roll or a sensible girl?
AM: “A think I’m a little bit toxic but I don’t go over the edge. When I was a kid all my report cards would say, ‘Amy’s head is in the clouds,’ and I now live my life with my head in the clouds.”
How old are you?
AM: “32.”
How were your twenties?
AM: “Difficult. Turning 30 was a great thing. I was told by a friend that when you turn 30 you’ve earned your bitch card – I bring it out a lot. In your twenties you feel you have to silly putty your way around people. I thought that things would happen without having to take control of them, like with money, in the music industry you have to watch like a hawk how your money is spent. In your twenties you don’t want to think about that. Turning 30 I’ve become a serious bitch.”
Did you go to LA to become a rock star?
AM: “No, I ran away from home. My town was small and I was having domestic issues so I escaped from this place where everyone knows each other’s secrets. I knew a director in Los Angeles but I’d never been there, couldn’t drive, sold all my stuff, put my fish in a jar and got on the plane. I spent all my time in the living room with cartons of Colt beer writing pretty sad honkytonk songs. ‘Headsfull’ is definitely my ode to Los Angeles. There’s a line in it which says, ‘I’m looking for a piece of bread,’ because everyone’s on the Atkins diet and no-one eats bread there.”
Some of the album has a ring of Johnny Cash’s final ones.
AM: “He was my big inspiration so for the production of this record, the work he did with Rick Rubin was influential. I wish I could sing like Johnny Cash. Whenever I sing I feel like I sound like a 65 year old man but when I listen back I don’t sound like him at all. I actually wrote a song for him hoping that he’d one day cover it. The day he died was very sad and tragic for me.”
But you’re comfortable in your skin now.
AM: “I always felt 30. When I was 14 I felt 30. I finally fit into the shoes I’ve been trying to walk around in forever. Before it was, you know, like a kid walking around in her mother’s high shoes.”
Amy Millans’ album ‘Honey From The Tombs’ is out on Arts & Crafts.
