Michelle Malone

By Alex Teitz

Michelle Malone is the rebel. The reserved one. She has a career spanning over ten years, three record labels, and six albums. Her seventh release, Home Grown, is under her own label, SBS (Strange Bird Songs) Records and is filled with hope. Emily Saliers of the Indigo Girls guest stars on a couple of tracks. Malone has a freedom in her writing and in her style many wish for. For more information visit michellemalone.com

FEMMUSIC was honored to have a few minutes for a phone interview. Here is what Michelle she had to say.

FEMMUSIC: Describe your songwriting process?

MM: Pretty basic. Sit down with a guitar and start playing. If something happens, great! If it doesn’t I go make a sandwich. I go outside. I do something else. I don’t really toil over it. I don’t really believe in that.

FEMMUSIC: Who have been your major influences?

MM: I don’t know. Probably my mother. She’s a singer. She’s a great singer.

 FEMMUSIC: I was surprised to see that you were once with Arista Records. Could you tell me why you left them?

MM: Wasn’t a good situation. Wasn’t appropriate for me. Besides that was ten years ago, and I’m pretty past that.

FEMMUSIC: SBS Records is your own label. What has been your biggest challenge running it?

MM: Sleeping. There just aren’t enough hours in the day to run a label, and tour, and play shows and write songs. It’s a little nutty.

FEMMUSIC: What are your goals with Home Grown?

MM: I don’t really have any goals with it. I just wanted to put out a record and tour. Just do what I do. It’s the beauty of not being in an corporation. I don’t have to set commercial goals or financial goals. My goals were to write and record my own record and put it out and have it be as honest and down to earth and heartfelt as could it be, and not worry about what “The Jones'” were doing for radio. I think I already accomplished that. As far as I’m concerned, my goals for Home Grown were met upon it’s release, and everything after that is just icing.

FEMMUSIC: That’s great!

MM: I kind of have to be that way or I’d go nuts.

FEMMUSIC: How has your music changed over time?

MM: Hopefully it’s matured as I have as a person. Hopefully it’s just gotten better with practice. Gotten more honest. I can’t really say. I’m not a good judge of my own work. I don’t really think about it. I just do it. I don’t need to analyze it. There’s enough people out there doing that.

FEMMUSIC: Home Grown has songs about renewal and a return to a safe place. Could you tell how the album sort of formed?

MM: Well I’ll tell you about the songs. Most of the songs are written after I left my last record label and decided to put out my own record. Most of the songs I started writing after the age of thirty. Most of the songs I started writing after I felt I was given a second chance at life. That’s why they’re about renewal, starting over. They’re probably a lot more positive and that’s probably because my life is better than it used to be. I don’t know if it really is, or I just feel that way, but thank god.

FEMMUSIC: What would you like to see changed most about the music industry?

MM: Probably a year ago I would have had all these answers for you, but now I don’t give two shits about the music industry. All I care about is making my music and playing it for the people who want to hear it. The music industry is going to hell in a hand basket. I’m out of it. I don’t care what they do. I’m doing my own thing.

FEMMUSIC: This project has become a focus on more of your soul versus your career.

MM: I guess I’ve been with enough record labels and made enough records, and toured enough to come back to a place of….For me, I’m not a very good pretender. I’m not good at posing. I’m not good at faking. I can’t really be something I’m not. I don’t know if that’s a blessing or a curse, but it’s just who I am. I tried to do the whole corporate thing years ago when I was a lot younger, and more eager to please, and more concerned about fame and fortune. It’s taken me years to figure out that I probably do best undermining the system. Doing my own thing. Letting the music and the fans let me know what is expected of me, and not the radio, or Wall Street. ‘Cause I’ve got to be able to get up and look in the mirror and be happy with myself and proud of what I’m doing. ‘Cause I think that translates, not only into your own personal life, but also translates into your music and to other people. I’d much rather have a positive impact on the world than rich and famous and ridiculous. All about myself.

“Me, Me, Me.” This business is already centered around the artist. So it’s already as selfish as it can be. So whatever you can do to keep it from being completely egocentric is necessary to me. You write songs about yourself, and your own experiences. You live in a bubble, and you tour, and it’s all about you. Everyone writes about you and asks you questions about yourself. It’s easy to get sucked up into the vacuum of you. I just don’t need reinforcement of that, and that’s really what the industry caters to, among other things. That’s not what makes me happy, and ultimately that’s what life’s about. Being happier in the best way possible making use of it and being a happy person. Spread a little bit of that around and you’re doing all right.

I think I’ve overcome a lot of obstacles to get to where I am now. Not necessarily in my career, or at a level of success, but just who I am. That’s me. Definitely more important than all that other stuff.

FEMMUSIC: What advice would you give to an artist just starting out?

MM: Tour. Write, write, write. Tour, tour, tour. That’s all there is to do. Everything else is secondary. Everyone’s looking for a record deal, and everyone’s posing. Trying to wear the right clothes and that’s all so irrelevant. A lot of people e-mail me, ask me, come to the shows, “What sort of advice can you give?” All I can say is, “You’ve go to stay on the road and play your music for people.” There’s nothing a record label can do for you that you can’t do for yourself. They are just like a glorified organizer for you. Go get a damn organizer/date book and do it yourself!