From the Anderson, S.C., Independent Mail:
I tend to work on songs a lot, and for a long time. I wring my hands over them, especially the lyrics. But it’s really hard to talk about writing. You can’t just go, “This is how I do it. This is what I do.” You’re always feeling your way through the process. It’s sort of the opposite of being on-stage. It’s a private little world.
From Chattanooga's The Pulse:
“I love ’60s French films, and I found a Juliette Greco record that I listened to. But all of those things go through your own filter to become songs, “ she says. Of “Mille Tendresses,” which has lines such as, “Si mon coeur cassait, je l’ai sauvegarde/Je me suis cachee dans toute ce mille tendresses” (“If my heart breaks, I have saved it/I have hidden myself in these thousand tendernesses”), she explains she was trying to “let the subtle nuances of the French language come through.”
From the Asheville (N.C.) Citizen-Times:
Touring is a skill set that you get better at; you just have to be an adaptive animal. Yes it’s tiring, but I’ve been so fortunate in various areas of my career. To a certain extent you have to keep making the music you want to make and at the end of the day you don’t have any control over what happens after that. None of those thoughts can come to the piano with me.
From Gramophone:
As Merritt interviewed [Simone] Dinnerstein and they shared their experiences, they immediately hit it off. Both are passionate about music, are around the same age, given to genuine self-reflection, and share a common friendship and fanship with the starry country singer and songwriter Lucinda Williams. By the end of the evening, they were already chatting about the possibility of a musical collaboration. Americana Bach, anyone?
Though Tift is the interviewer, we get this good description of the problems caused by the music business:
One day, when we were out touring, I got a call: I needed to go home and write a big song. I was told to write a hit. And I couldn't get anybody to think that any of my songs were big songs. After a really long time, I got into the studio with the songs that I believed in - by the time I got into the studio, it had been a year. There was all this mounting pressure from my then record company: we've spent the money on you, tick-tock. And they never liked my band. But I was able to go in with this producer whom I'd always wanted to work with, George Drakoulias, and we made my dream record 's “Tambourine”]. I couldn't sleep for three days. I tried to exercise myself to sleep, and I couldn't do it. I lost my voice in the process of recording. But was on many levels a dream come true, and I was willing to sweat and cry and bleed to do it. And it was nominated for a Grammy. But then I was dropped by my label because “Tambourine” didn't sell enough copies.
From the Birmingham (Ala.) Weekly:
I want to write songs that have legs enough to meet me halfway. I have a band that’s been with me for a long time and having a musical family keeps it fresh for me. When you factor in the venue and the crowd, it’s always a different soup. You get to a point where you don’t have to worry about playing a song physically which allows you to get into it on many other levels.
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