|
So it's like I was saying before,
you gotta stay in the fight. You have to remain
the fool to ever take that step again, and not
just in relationships, but in your career as well.
Then there's the song "More Than This," which
is the last song on the record, which is kind
of this Buddhistic idea that a friend was talking
to me about that I was very moved by. It was this
idea that at any moment, we can just decide that
we are peaceful, and that we need no more than
what we have, and stop craving something else.
There's always gonna be something else, there's
always something you don't have. I have this habit
of achieving things and then (thinking), "What's
the next thing?" as a lot of people in this
culture do.
Bankrate: You worked with three different, very established producers and songwriters on this record -- Irv Gotti, (Third Eye Blind singer) Stephan Jenkins and Linda Perry. What did each one bring to the table for you?
Vanessa Carlton: Linda was the first one I worked with. In terms of engineering, she has a distinct style, with all vintage gear. I love her engineering. She has such a great vocal tone, and I love the vibe of her studio. I started having really late night sessions in the studio (with her), and having wine and enjoying myself.
My first album was a little traumatizing in that it was so austere in the approach to recording it was like work. So her vibey, laid-back approach to being in the studio is just about enjoying yourself. I took that with me to the Stephan sessions, which were superintensive. They were mostly recorded in this haunted ballroom in San Francisco and in this garden, and I made sure to carry all of that vibe there, which wasn't hard to do in San Francisco.
And Stephan, he's brilliant. His arrangement and production ideas, he'll just make them up. With him it'll just be like you're 8 years old, you have 20 different things to work with, and you create 20 more and put them together in whatever way you want with felt and beads and those pipe-cleaner things, and you just make something.
Irv was another pure heart. I know
he's the president of my label, but he's a fantastic
A&R (Artists and Repertoire) man, and he did A&R
this record. He did say, "Take out the drums until
the very end of 'Home,'" or, "Sing it the way
you sing it live, why did you change it," or,
"This should be faster." Whatever. He's always
right on. He was the glue, for sure, and he never
let me feel like I had no one at my back. He unconditionally
believed in me as an artist, and I don't think
I ever had that from anyone at a label before,
because it's always about conditions.
Bankrate: You had a big top 10 hit on your first record, as well as three Grammy nominations. Was having a big hit so young disorienting for you?
Vanessa Carlton: Too young. Yes. It was one of those, you're watching it go by, and you know it's happening, I think it's happening to me, but I don't really ... it wasn't sinking in. I was actually very uncomfortable and didn't have my feet under me at all. You think I'd be on top of the world, but I really wasn't. I was confused, I was working with a lot of people who weren't good for me, and it was like, if I could just slow this all down, that would be great, but I couldn't. Of course, I'd be ready for that now. Now I would enjoy it. I have perspective. I'm not 22.
|
