Anna McGarrigle interview with Michael Hunter, December 15 2004.
The last time Kate and Anna McGarrigle (sisters, proud Quebecans and purveyors of wonderful harmonies for a few decades now) toured Australia was back in 1986. At that time, Kate's son Rufus Wainwright had not even begun his own musical career. In 2005, they are touring that part of the planet again, this time with Rufus as main act, and his sister Martha also included on the bill. Their musical paths and approach to the business have differed somewhat but the family link draws them together, in a new style of show that sees each performer in the role of both lead and support throughout the performance. This interview with Anna McGarrigle was conducted for dB Magazine, to support the Adelaide show on their Australian tour.
MH: It's an all-family affair, but are you bringing a band as well?
AMcG: "Really, it's Rufus and Martha, Kate's two kids, who sing independently of each other, they have independent careers, and then the two of us and I believe a bass player. I think it'll be the bass player who's with the Leonard Cohen show. It's not really "Kate and Anna and band"; it's not that kind of show. I mean, obviously we're going to do some of our songs but it's going to be different."
This is the first time you've done that kind of show in Australia, but not the first time ever, I gather?
"The very first time we did it was in England just this past May, and we did one show in Dublin too, so it was something… I don't know, people seemed to like it! The last time we were there, we were there with kind of a large band and it was rollicking, and it's different as I say."
Is it flexible from night to night or is there a strict format?
"It's probably going to be a pretty strict format, because of this bass player that we still have to rehearse with, and it's more complicated. It's really three acts that will be performing. I don't even know what kind of billing Martha has. Martha is a heck of a performer too. Her first record is coming out in March in the US and I think in Europe too."
Speaking of deals, is it right that you & Kate don't have a record deal at the moment?
"We put out a French record last year, called La Vache Qui Pleure (The Cow That Cries) and we did it really more for a local audience; we did it for a label out of Montreal, although Kate and I made the record ourselves. It's coming out in Europe and the UK this March."
Not this side of the planet, though?
"We'd love to. Some people have written to us and we just have to act on it. We don't really have managers, we don't have an office. Kate and I do everything. Our office is in our hat (laughs), you know that kind of person?"
I suppose that has its advantages as well? You don't have other people to answer to, or other people making silly decisions on your behalf.
"Yeah, but the thing is that it really makes it a lot more stressful to do this. I see Rufus and he's got all the bells and whistles in management and publishers and stuff, so he can concentrate pretty much on what he's doing. I mean, you don't make as much money but you're probably more relaxed. Kate and I, we still roadie for ourselves!"
You can't share Rufus' management?
"Yeah, he's a very different kind of kid. He looks at it maybe in a more professional way than we have. Also, maybe being women, you're more used to multi-tasking and there is a lot of that going on, and always has been."
It's a strange world where an act like Kate & Anna McGarrigle, who have been around for let's say a year or two, is without a record company, and it's by no means an unusual thing.
"You know, the thing is I'm not going to say it's by choice, but we were actually with Rykodisc and we did have two records out with them. We could have continued with them, they wanted us to, and we just decided to do this French thing off in left field, because we had a bunch of French songs. We thought we would aim them directly at the audience that we're surrounded by, which had never been done before. So it's interesting to do that thing.
"Because Quebec is always waffling, it doesn't know if it wants to be part of Canada and there was a time when things were very touchy and Kate and I were a little nervous singing in French with English names, but now the people really love us. I think they consider us true died in the wool Quebecans, which we are, we're half-French but sometimes if you have a name like McGarrigle they don't believe it."
Surely the music must speak for itself!
"It should, yes. It's very tribal but we are part of that tribe…"
Of course, a lot of people are going the whole independent route of selling CDs at gigs and over the Internet."
"I guess we could do that too but because we're already doing enough as it is, I think we wouldn't have to do that. I mean I did try selling stuff over the Internet back in like '95, '96 or something but I don't think enough people were on the Internet yet when I was doing it. I just had a Web page and you were hoping everybody was already on it but they weren't, and the Internet wasn't what it is today. It didn't quite happen.
"The thing is, it's nice to have a label because people associate you with that label and if you don't have any label at all, it's difficult. I mean, we would have to probably hire our own publicists and do things like that and I don't think we'd be capable of any of that. We could probably tell somebody else how to do it but I don't think we could do it for ourselves."
Thinking in terms of musical families on the road, and there probably aren't too many if we're talking about extended families, but one that comes to mind in the UK is Waterson:Carthy. Martin Carthy has said that the harmonies that families can achieve together sound like no other, just somehow because of the fact they are related, but he couldn't exactly explain how that comes about.
"I'm like him, I don't know why but I'm sure there's some geneticist that would be able to explain it. I know that sometimes, even today, I'll listen to an older record Kate and I did. I know when she's singing lead and I know when I'm singing lead, but when we're together, clumped doing harmonies, I can't pick out the voices. Sometimes I think she's me and it's just very strange. Maybe it's just because I'm older, and my hearing's going (loud laugh)!
"I'll tell you one thing about singing with Rufus and Martha, because we're all family, they have a hell of a lot more power, especially Rufus. We just did a couple of shows with him in Montreal, Kate and I sang with him and it's amazing to sing on stage with him because he's so robust and young and everything. You do feel kind of dwarfed. You just hope the sound mixer is getting it right."
Does it inspire you to kick out a bit more?
"The thing is, you don't really want to compete with that, you can't really compete. Rufus is not a belter, in the way somebody like Mick Jagger might do it, he belts in a full-on, slightly operatic voice. It's a different kind of strength that he has and I wouldn't want to try and compete with that. You want to keep your tone, too!"
For details on Kate & Anna McGarrigle, visit their Web site. Rufus Wainwright's site is here while his sister Martha's site is here.
