Michelle Branch |
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Mon. June 16.2003 10:50 AM EDT |
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Michelle Branch: Heartbreak at the Hotel PaperThe superstar teen is back with "real" emotions and tales of Jimmy Carter, Jane's Addiction, and Albany strip clubs by Gil Kaufman |
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Michelle Branch (Publicity) |
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In the past two years Michelle Branch sold almost three million records, helped establish a new wave of female singer/songwriters, recorded with Sheryl Crow and Carlos Santana, and won a Grammy. Your typical 19 year old? Not really.
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"There’s a whole different energy when I perform," she says of the new material. “[These songs] are full of things I went through. The first record had love songs on it and people asked whom they were about. I was 14 and 15 when I wrote them, so I would say it wasn't about anyone." Branch has since been raked over the coals of love, and she hopes the guy who inspired "Are You Happy Now?" knows the song is about him - actually, she suspects he does. Augmenting her acoustic songs with string sections conducted by David Campbell (Beck's dad), and a roots-rock duet with Sheryl Crow, the singer aimed to expand her sound without diluting it. She took a moment from summer tour preparations to tell us why she doesn't regret signing on to open for the Dixie Chicks, what Jimmy Carter way dying to tell her at last year's Nobel Prize concert, and how a recent slip of the lip during a show had moms and dads in her audience wondering if she'd gone all dirrty on them. VH1: What has been the most fun part of your rise to fame? Michelle Branch: The Santana song ["The Game of Love"] caught me off guard. It was something that I never thought would happen. Everything we did for promotion and playing with him was pretty incredible. Being out with my new band is more fun than I've ever had on tour. The energy is different, because this album is so personal and the first one wasn't. When I'm performing, there's a lot of depth because I'm on stage living through the songs. VH1: Was there a moment when you remember thinking, "This is it, I've made it!" Branch: I was invited to play the Nobel Peace Prize Awards in Oslo, Norway. It was me solo, Santana, Willie Nelson, and Angelique Kidjo - all amazing artists who I look up to. I was in awe to be performing there. They were honoring Jimmy Carter and I was walking down the hall when one of the people who worked with me said, “Oh my god, Jimmy Carter is looking for you!” I went into his room and he was surrounded by all these CIA guys and we sat and talked for five minutes. He said his whole family wanted to come because I was playing and that his grandkids listen to my record all the time. VH1: Do you regret signing up to tour with the Dixie Chicks? Branch: Not for one moment. I was really disappointed [with the recent Chick bashing] because I think the most special thing about being an American is having a right to say how we feel. The people who disagree with Natalie [Maines] have a right to say how they feel, but it got out of hand. Music is one of the things that should take you away from everything that's going on. Everyone is complaining about what she said, but no one is returning concert tickets. I'm just going to show up and have fun. I'm happy to be on a bill with girls who aren't afraid to say how they feel about issues. VH1: What and where is the Hotel Paper? Branch: I wrote a song called that and the first line is, “I write mostly on hotel paper/ Knowing my thoughts will never leave this room.” In a nutshell, that's the last year or two of my life. When I'm on tour, I always take hotel stationary and write my songs on it. VH1: Is this your attempt at the classic road song? Branch: There are no tour bus references! That's the only line that talks about that. And, I did actually write “Hotel Paper” on hotel paper in a hotel in Kansas City. VH1: Was "Are You Happy Now?" inspired by a particular breakup? Does that person know it's about them? Branch: It was. I don't know if they know. It excites me to think that it's on the radio now and I'd like to see his face when he's on the road and driving along and swerves off. I'm sure he'd know it was about him. VH1: Do you have to keep getting your heart broken to have good songs? Branch: I hope not. There's part of me that loves the fact that I got my heart broken because of the writing I got from it. It's exciting to think, '”Where am I going to be as a person emotionally a year from now? What will happen to me and how will it effect my writing?” I look forward to it. You always hear that cliché, “I can't write songs when I'm happy.” I always thought it was bullsh*t, but it's kind of true. I write better when I'm unhappy. VH1: You hook up with Jane’s Addiction guitarist Dave Navarro for the single. That seems like an odd combination. Branch: The band’s bass player [Chris Chaney] played on most of my record. They [Jane’s Addiction] were recording across the hall from me in a studio in LA and we were blasting “Are You Happy Now?” in its baby stages and Navarro came bursting through the door and said, “Who is this? I have to play on it!” We kept coming in to steal Chris, so he knew who I was, but we didn't talk that much. When we met, it was cool because it wasn't anyone setting us up. He heard something he liked and genuinely wanted to be a part of it. VH1: Can you tell us something about Sheryl Crow that might surprise people? Branch: What you see is what you get with her. There are no surprises. People think that when you get two female artists in a room, it's a catfight. I've never been that way, but it's always expected that the feminine thing will be going on. But Sheryl was really open. She said “You remind me of me at your age.” VH1: Did you ask her for any advice? Branch: You don't sit and talk like that. Anything that is learned or taught happens naturally. On tour I watched how she interacted with her band and how she treated her crew. When a female is in charge people can mistake your being the boss for being a bitch. VH1: You must have asked Carlos for advice, though, right? Branch: You just enjoy as much time around that person as you have. There were a few moments when I had to geek out and say, “So my mom and I were at your concert one time ...” And, '”Who were you hanging out with in the heyday?” VH1: You hooked up with Hanson for their next record, which is kind of payback since they gave you a break early on, right? Branch: They are friends of mine and I'm not ashamed to say I've always been a fan of theirs. We were hanging out and they were making their record and they needed a harmony part and I went down and sang a part. VH1: What was it like the time you opened for them early in your career? Branch: I think you never stop learning about stage presence, but that was definitely one of my more interesting shows. Being up there with an acoustic guitar in front of thousands of screaming teenage girls who were not there to see me. VH1: What's the most embarrassing thing that's happened to you on stage? Branch: I was playing in this really small club in Albany in a strip mall. Right before we went on, we were joking about “rockin' the strip mall!” We got off the stage and came back for the encore and it got real quiet and I was talking to everybody and I was thinking about being in the strip mall and I said, “We're rockin' the strip club!” All the faces where like, "Hmm…" All these girls and moms and dads looked at me like, “What's going on?” VH1: If you could be someone else for a day, who would you want to be? Branch: I would have loved to be either Stevie Nicks or Joni Mitchell in their heyday. I see all that old footage and you see these chicks in the middle of all these rock guys and it just seems like so much fun. |
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