A Girl Called Eddy Interview

A Girl Called Eddy is lovely music about experience and knowledge. Taking her past as a musical palette, A Girl Called Eddy has come-up with an extraordinary debut record full of romance, elegance, sophisticated melodies. Born Erin Moran, Eddy grew up in the small New Jersey town of Neptune, close to Asbury Park. The mechanism for her own songwriting came when her mother fell ill and died in 1997. This was an experience that directly inspired the song "Kathleen." This great loss inspired a self-belief in her own songwriting. Around this time Eddy started playing shows in the New York area. An EP appeared in America in 2001, which brought her to the attention of various independent labels all over. Soon she was off to Britain to work with producer Richard Hawley of Pulp and Longpigs.

Eddy went to Sheffield in the middle of winter to work with Hawley. The album also features the band that made Hawley's recent album, Low Edges. Hawley and Eddy really got along.Ê She put out this record last fall. It was one of my top records of the year. I finally got to meet her at Noise Pop 13 in San Francisco. She just was in the midst of her tour with Keren Ann. As we were talking, Joanna Newsom was playing in the main hall at the Swedish American. Eddy was curious and we interrupted the interview to watch Joanna Newsom play a little bit.

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AL: You have been playing for a while. You don't have a lot of records out.
Eddy: I did an EP a few years ago, with Le Grand Magistery. Now I did this full album with Anti. I started seriously making music in 1994. I started writing songs in 1996. I didn't get a deal until 2000. I didn't play a lot of shows before that. I got a publishing deal in the UK first and things started after that.

AL: You are known more in the UK than here?
Eddy: Yeah. People know me in the UK and Europe through this first album. People might think I am English because I worked with Richard Hawley. I recorded the album in Sheffield. I actually lived in Manhattan for several years.

AL: How did you get from New Jersey and New York to Sheffield in the winter?
Eddy: I couldn't find the right people in New York. There are a lot of good musicians, but not anyone who understood what I wanted to do. I heard Richard Hawley's music and thought that I found what I was looking for.

AL: You are talking about his solo albums, Late Night Final and Lowedges?
Eddy: Yeah, his solo stuff. I didn't know who he was until someone from Setanta Records turned me on to it. That was his label at the time.

AL: What did you think of it when you heard it?
Eddy: I thought it was amazing. I heard the first few bars of Late Night Final and thought: "Oh my God!" That record had just come out at that time. I loved the esthetic of it. I loved the beautiful cinescope quality. It was very rainy and melancholy. When I got there I realized that it wasn't brain surgery. It was just him and his band. It was the studio where they got that sound. It wasn't any pyrotechnics in the studio. It was the way that they played. They were able to play my songs while I sung them. It was fairly easy.

AL: How did you figure who was going to play on the album? Was Hawley always going to play on the album?
Eddy: Yeah. He's so good. He is a songwriter and a singer and a producer. Hawley can do it all. A guy who is playing with me tonight also played on the album. Shez Sheridan is also in Hawley's band. He is really the only person from the album that I have on tour with me. In a very paired down way, we are presenting the tiny essence of the album. We have the lap steel at the end of "Golden." We have 12-string guitars pumped through a hot rod amp, and it sounds old school. We are recreating some of the sounds on a small scale. There are three of us.

AL: Can you play all the songs properly?
Eddy: I can't recreate the album without the whole band. It's strange. The record label can't give me much money at this early strange to do that.

AL: Has Hawley joined you onstage for any of the UK shows?
Eddy: No. Disappointingly No. I asked him to come on, come onstage, and he shows up late for sound check. He does that on purpose. It hasn't happened yet. It would be nice.

AL: I don't think that Hawley has come to America many times to play. Maybe with Pulp and Longpigs he did, but not as a solo artist.
Eddy: He is crazy not to. I think that he would do really well. I think that Nashville would love him. I think that the big cities would love him. He is very hesitant. He had down so much touring with Longpigs that he had had it in America.

AL: You are a big Anglophile. You were really into The Beatles and Monty Python?
Eddy: Yeah. When I was a kid. Big time, yeah. I have always been into all the British movies.

AL: Did you go to England a lot?
Eddy: I went once when I was fourteen. I saw that I would come back as a popstar. I didn't think it would take twenty years. I am still not a popstar there though. I love going to England though.

AL: How do you write songs yourself?
Eddy: It can start with a variety of things. It could be a nice chord pattern. It could be a melody only. It could be a title. It could be a combination of those. It's never really any pattern.

AL: "Kathleen" started with a title?
Eddy: No. That one started out with some chords. It was ding-dong ding. It was supposed to be very much like The Beach Boys. It ended up being something very different. I was talking to someone about The Wondermints the other day. I was looking for someone to do the new album with. I saw the Brian Wilson Pet Sounds and Smile tours. I thought that band was absolutely unbelievable. I was talking to someone about it, and they were saying, "I know someone in that band, and I'll get your CD to them." IT would be a dream come true.

AL: What are your songs about generally? Are you just telling stories or creating moods?
Eddy: "Did You See The Moon Tonight" was about a boyfriend in Paris, when I was living in New York. So it's pretty self-explanatory. I was wondering whether he was looking at the same moon that I was looking at. Very corny.

AL: It's kind of like the Metaphysical Poets. They always had poems about the alignment of stars and that was like perfect love.
Eddy: The stars and the moon have been fodder for a long time.

AL: How many shows have you played?
Eddy: I have toured in England and Europe a lot over the past year and a half. Over here this is my first tour in the States. I am doing about a dozen shows here in America.

AL: Have you played some festivals?
Eddy: Yeah. I have toured with The Cure. I did a few shows with Rufus Wainwright. I have played with The Beautiful South and The Divine Comedy.

AL: How did you get involved with The Cure?
Eddy: Robert Smith heard my album. We share the same publisher. He liked my album. He just asked if I would do it. And I said "yeah." Wow. He was a fan. He told me that he does the washing up listening to my record. That visual of Robert Smith with rubber gloves listening to me I can't get out of my head.

AL: You think of him as some dark lord.
Eddy: Personally he is a sweet guy. He is a nice guy. He has been married forever. He is not like what you would expect.

AL: How has the tour been going so far in America?
Eddy: It has been great. The two LA shows were surprising. People were really getting it. I had no clue that anyone knew who I was. It was nice that people came.

AL: This coming summer you are going to play some festivals?
Eddy: Yeah. In June I am going to play Glastonbury. I am going to play a songwriter festival in France with Regina Spektor.

AL: She is a quirky piano player.
Eddy: A lot of that going around (points towards Joanna Newsom). I need to get a shtick. I need to be more quirky. I am not as quirky as I should be. Maybe I should put my hair in braids. Maybe I should wear lederhosen.

AL: I wasn't sure what you looked like.
Eddy: I just broke my glasses. You can tell everyone that I have a real sexy look. I showed up wearing geek glasses with tape on them. Inside the CD booklet there is a photomontage. That is my sexy boudoir photo.

AL: When you recorded this album did you record the album live?
Eddy: Two songs were done live. Those were "Somebody Hurt You" and "Did You See The Moon Tonight." We were all in the room together. I just walked in and sang Dusty Springfield style. Hawley's band has been playing together for twenty years. They have a great understanding of music. They heard the songs and just went right, and played them. That was it. The rest of the songs we laid dow n the basic tracks and I did the vocals. We add in string and other things.

AL: Do you do a lot of vocals?
Eddy: I only do two or three takes at best. It's not because I am so great. It's just because I don't like overdoing it. If I get it, I get it. I don't like going back trying to make it perfect.

AL: What are some of the music that influenced you?
Eddy: All the obvious stuff. It's obvious just listening to my record. I like Burt Bacharach, The Carpenters, David Bowie, The Beach Boys, and a load of stuff. I like Kraftwerk. I love Paul McCartney, Gilbert O'Sullivan, and Prefab Sprout. Melody is probably the most important thing for me. If a song has a good tune to itÉ. If a song has lame lyrics, it's okay because I like to sing it. Melody can make you feel happy or sad.

AL: Do you prepare before a show?
Eddy: I do absolutely nothing. In fact I am a bit sore right now. I have just been doing the shows and giving it my all. My voice is really resilient. I don't do any of that "la, la, la" stuff. I feel like that I am listening to the Peter Pan soundtrack. I swear to God. I am just curious to see what that is all about.

AL: Well we can have a peek. (Intermission). We are back from seeing a bit of Joanna Newsom.
Eddy: It seemed lovely. It looks like it could be interesting. It almost sounds like someone is strangling her, but it is also quite sweet.

AL: It's very precious.
Eddy: Yeah. I will probably end up liking the record.

AL: You have been over in the UK a lot the past two years. What do they think of Joanna Newsom and Devendra Banhart over there?
Eddy: She is quite popular over there. People are really into other people who are just really bizarre. So maybe it's a bad time for me.

AL: Did you ever meet Jarvis Cocker?
Eddy: He is actually a fan of my stuff, through Richard. So yeah. I have met him once or twice.

AL: Did Richard work on the Relaxed Muscle record?
Eddy: Yeah. I think he did.

AL: What was up with that?
Eddy: I don't know. I haven't a clue. I haven't heard much of it and I am quite frightened by it.

AL: You will be working on your next record soon?
Eddy: Yeah. I want to finish it by the end of the year. I have about twelve ideas for songs. I am looking for people to work with. I love Jon Brion. I like the guy who produced the last Thrills record.

AL: His name is D. Sardy. Maybe this new record will be The Wondermints playing with Jon Brion producing?
Eddy: It might be a West Coast thing. It could be a touch warmer. I listen to the first one and think, "That is sophisticated." I would like to do more singing and more harmonies. We'll see.

Alexander Laurence

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