INTERVIEW WITH MARGOT SMITH
Written by Michael Smith
Published in Drum Media 3.3.98
'Snapshot of a Soul'
THE FIRST THOUGHT IN ART IS USUALLY THE MOST PURE & HONEST, THE INSPIRED MOMENT THAT IS SO DIFFICULT TO RECAPTURE BUT ALL ARTISTS MUST ATTEMPT IT AS THEY DEVELOP THAT IDEA INTO WHATEVER IT MUST ULTIMATELY BECOME - A SONG, POEM, NOVEL, PAINTING. BRAVE IS THE ARTIST THAT GOES WITH THAT FIRST THOUGHT EMBROIDERED BEFORE THE PUBLIC.
"I write straight to tape, so it comes out of the soul", explains Margot Smith about the making of her new album, "TASTE". "What would usually happen would be I would go into the studio and just make something up, and then everybody else would put things on top of it. That's why I think the things are so short, because they're snapshots of a mind. Everything was written straight to tape except for Kilbey's song 'AN ARRANGEMENT', so it's really like listening to people think".
The Kilbey of the piece is Steve Kilbey of the Church, and the Church connection extends across the bulk of TASTE, with songwriting as well as instrumental contributions from guitarist Peter Koppes and drummer Tim Powles, who also produced the album. Now, some of you might recall Margot's name from a couple of years ago when she got the big push from EMI with her debut album 'SLEEPING WITH THE LION'. The core of that album was written with her original songwriting partner Michael Wade. While that first album presented us with an eclectic singer songwriter with a certain take on sensuality, TASTE takes us closer to a heart that has known a deeper kind of sadness and an inevitable cynicism.
"Actually, I think there is a lot of anger in those lyrics. I realised Id been trapping myself, boxing myself into a corner where I really
didn't need to be. Id been told so many times "You're not a musician, you're a singer songwriter, and yet
I'm one of the people creating these songs. I got really really angry. Michael used to write with me, was my right hand man and I
wasn't sure I was going to be able to work without him, but I was really fortunate when Kilbey put out his hand to me and said "Come on, you can do it". Kilbey is so in tune with my mind he'd know if I liked something or not so we can write together very naturally".
"Steve and I have been working together for about 7 years now. He worked with me on the first album SLEEPING WITH THE LION, so this time around, he knew everything that was going on in my life and wanted me to make another album. It was a really strange time -I had no money, everything looked like it was going to fall to pieces - and he said if we have to make it for free, we make it for free'. And we pulled in a whole lot of friends who believed and it got made. It's quite phenomenal actually the number of people who put in effort that the didn't have to."
As for that major label start to her career, it turns out Margot was unfortunate to find herself "lost" within a company restructuring itself and trying to identify what it wanted to do creatively in the local market.
"EMI and I really did split amicably, they've been very good to me. They could have taken some of the songs off me, from the Filthy Studio sessions, because they paid for that. I still talk to them, its fine. There were a lot of supporters for me at EMI at the time and there were a lot saying I wasn't making the kind of music that we want as a multinational company.
"And then Peter Koppes came into the picture. He'd started Immersion Records with Sebastian Chase over at Phantom, which has REFO:MATION, Peter's new album which is called LOVE,ERROR,IRONY (it became LOVE ERA/IRONY) and now myself. That way I have a lot more control over what's going on."
End of interview
(Thanks to Matt P. for this copy )