Patty Larkin

Patty Larkin is a singer-songwriter with a quick wit, and terrific personality on-stage, and off. Living on Cape Cod she has joined the New England music community winner numerous Boston awards. In addition Larkin tours constantly. Her most recent CD, à Gogo is a collection of live performances from cities nationwide.

For more information on Patty Larkin go to pattylarkin.com

FEMMUSIC: What obstacles have you faced as a woman singer-songwriter?

PL: I think that has to deal with that there are limitations being female in the world, period. It has to deal with business, and the glass ceiling. Are you in a field where there is a limit to what you can do. I think that well there have always been female stars.  I think that, only ’til recently,  this industry has started to open up to women songwriters a bit more. So, I think coming up, I did bump into the concept, “Well we have a women singer-songwriter on the label whose doing this kind of work. Plays with an acoustic guitar”, or “Could you drop the guitar and just sing?” That kind of thing. I think that that’s changing all for the better really. There’s a need for women’s voices and there are listeners out there now who have an interest and they also have the money and the buying power to demand women’s voices. It’s all for the positive. It’s all a good thing.

FEMMUSIC: Who have been your greatest musical influences?

PL: Joni Mitchell, as a female singer-songwriter, as a young songwriter the thing I liked about her was she a real personal viewpoint. She had a sense of humor. She played very interesting guitar to me. It had a lot of different colors to it. She’s a great poet and great artist. It’s a win-win situation. She was a major influence as was Bob Dylan, and Paul Simon and some of the more folk oriented writers. When I was growing up, I mostly listened to Pop radio but then when I got to college, I was involved with a jug band which was more like Delta Blues. Did some old timey playing and did some Celtic playing, then studied jazz, and then was in a rock band so it’s kind of like a weird combination of things. Sort of digressing here.

I think Richard Thompson encompasses  what I would like to encompass in terms of coming out of a traditional base with acoustic and electric instruments. Really focusing on the guitar. Being a guitar oriented songwriter which is what I identify with.

Women, being female I think people like Bonnie Raitt and Joan Armatrading and Flora Perum, who is a Brazilian singer. Any woman who was doing what I admired was an influence, I think. Anyone who sang beautifully or played great guitar and sang had an impact on me.

FEMMUSIC: The tracks on à Gogo were recorded in many different cities. Why did you choose that format instead of a single show taping?

PL: …..It’s all about the recording. The show is on its own to do as it will do. I think the good thing that I learned about limiting the number of performances is, well, first of all, you don’t have to listen to fifty tapes, and hours of material.  You do have a bit more control soundwise, although I think it was fun playing for different audiences. I think that we found that it was really challenging to mix because of that variation in sound quality. I probably wouldn’t do it again. I’d probably choose a couple of sites and really concentrate on that and try do two shows per site. When I do this again in ten years.

I talked to an A & R person at Vanguard, Steve Buckingham. He’s done a number of live albums. I know he’s did one for Dolly Parton and bunch of other people. He said, “It was the hardest thing he has done in his career…,” and he’s produced the last twenty years. He just thought it was very challenging task to mix this and get that intimacy and to have the sound quality for recording you really want. He wanted to meet those high standards. As a result we didn’t use things that were great takes but we didn’t feel the sound wasn’t totally there and we really wanted to get a feeling of the performance and feeling intimacy of the audience in the performance. It was a daunting task.

FEMMUSIC: Do you have a favorite track from à Gogo?

PL: I like “Wolf at the Door.” It’s the one that starts off the album.  I like playing that live. I like the response that the audience has. It’s very positive. It’s also in New York so that’s perfect for that song.

I like “I Told Them That My Dog Wouldn’t Run.” That was recorded the most recently. That was recorded after that tour. We did it last winter and I just think the version was pretty much what I wanted to do with the song, as well as “Boots of Glass.” Those two ballads, I think were vocals that I would have liked to have gotten in the studio. That was exciting. To capture that on tape. They’re good especially “Boots of Glass” is technically hard to pull off on the guitar and the voice simultaneously. Both of those songs actually, I had a number of takes in the studio before I was happy and said , “Ok. We can use this.” So to get that in one performance was very exciting.

FEMMUSIC: You have an aggressive tour schedule for à Gogo. How important is touring, and what do you (as the artist) get out of it?

LP: On a real basic level it’s how I make my living. When I have a new album out it’s time time to get out there and work with the album. I think beyond that it’s a way for me to perform my songs and to bring them out to the audience. I think if I were just recording and releasing material it wouldn’t have the same impact for me. I like the idea that these songs are going to be played live. I like the idea, get feedback about the songs. It’s pretty immediate from an audience. There’s something about it that appeals to me as a writer, and I’m also very into the performing. I enjoy it. I enjoy the actual act. Sometimes I’m sitting backstage completely nervous wondering what I’m putting myself through. “Why would I do this again?”  It’s a real connection for me and it’s really part of my life. I enjoy being able to see the country and see things I wouldn’t otherwise be exposed to. I think as a result of my job I sort of get an insider’s view to certain places. Certain doors have been opened to me that I wouldn’t never have walked through had I not been a performing artist. I treasure that.

FEMMUSIC: What sort of doors?

PL: Well okay. I mentioned it in the album notes being able to be taken on a bush plane right around Denali the day after a show in Alaska. Go up to have an astounding experience. You know it’s not something I would say , “Oh yeah. I definitely want to go to Alaska and fly around Denali.” But the pilot Doug Geating was an opener for the show and he said, “If you want to go up tomorrow, we’ll go up.” I was like, “Okay.”

I’m in New York now, and I went to this film premiere of a movie that’s coming out this week that has a song of mine in it. There I am meeting Harrison Ford and Kristin Scott Thomas and Sidney Pollack, and it’s “Me.” I’m very aware of the differences between Hollywood and Pattywood. There I am walking down the red carpet as a singer-songwriter. I don’t know if it will ever happen again. It was a real moment for me. It was very exciting.

Even subtler things. I’ve always liked to tour Europe as a songwriter because you would get taken care of little bit more. You would get more stories, more history. I like hearing what’s going on. What are people doing? What’s going on in the city or the town or state. I think that happens in touring the US too. I find that after I do the performance that if I can stay another one day that I can have experiences that make me more of an insider than not. People want to take me surfing or sailing. Sad thing is usually I have time BEFORE the gig. It just depends on the place. If I can take advantage of those opportunities and those connections it really is remarkable.

FEMMUSIC: You were involved in last year’s RESPOND CD project. How did you become involved in that?

PL: Well they contacted my office to use a song which was on Perishable Fruit, “Angel’s Wings.” “Angel’s Wings” the subject matter deals with domestic violence and violence against women. A fan asked me to write the song a few years back. I appreciated her comment and wanted to do that but I wasn’t really in touch with issue. It took me a couple years to really keep reading about it, keep thinking about it to get that sense of outrage enough to write a song.

RESPOND got a hold of us, and asked to use it. As a result of it I’ve been working with them in a limited way. Working to do fundraisers. I just did one in Boston for the twenty-fifth anniversary. Selling the CDs at the shows although I don’t have any  for this Fall tour. I think it’s a very positive reaching out of this organization by way of me being involved it’s a sort of way to advertise that this group is here, or this issue exists. It’s a bit of a taboo to talk about it to some people but I think the more we talk about I think the better it’s going to be in terms of dealing with problem. There’s nothing but positive.

FEMMUSIC: How important is it for an artist to be involved in the local music community?

PL: Ideally it’s fantastic. I live now a couple hours outside of Boston on Cape Cod. I’ve been feeling, especially the last few years, sort of cut off from what’s going on there. One positive aspect of recording Perishable Fruit in my home studio was I got more in touch with people in Boston. I used Boston engineers. I got more in touch with my Cape musician friends and borrowed instruments and used the local professional music store down in Hyannis. Re-connected with them. Found out, in my community, who else is doing this sort of thing. Who else has a recording studio in their home, or small recording studios in my community. I think that’s a really cool thing. It keeps you connected and gives you a sense of who else is out there, and that we’re kind of working on the same thing.  We’re working on making our music in our own ways.

FEMMUSIC: What are your goals for new millennium?

PL: Wow! That’s a first. No one’s asked me that one yet. To be alive I think is one. Well I have an album now that will be out in July. I’m just finishing up. I’ll be mixing in December and January. So that’s musically probably the next thing up. I want to do some instrumental work, and different kinds of writing but other than that….Wow. The next millennium. I think , in general, to get more into this recording process and writing process. After my forays into Hollywood and film I’m kind of enjoying it. I want to hook up with a publisher that will get my material out and do more of that kind of work. Film, TV.

In a broader sense probably to keep growing as an artist. To get out of my own way. And to keep going deeper. And whatever that takes. Whether that means studying with somebody, or writing a certain way or whatever, taking time off. I’m willing to do that. It’s probably the most important to me in terms of what I do is to number one, keep doing it, but number two, keep doing it differently.

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

PL: I think to be true to yourself as much as possible. Like define what it is you want to do, and what makes you different, and to do that. Within whatever confines you need  to feel safe, and feel normal. I think for some people they don’t  think that’s kind of what makes a great artist. That’s what you really different. And if it’s songwriting or whatever it is, to just KEEP DOING IT. I think that is one thing that I’ve learned through the years is that you have to have a body of work. You have to be able to show the work somehow. So if you’re recording, that’s one way for you to hear the music. For people to hear the music. So it all sort of then becomes this process of writing and recording, writing and presenting. I found that I didn’t really value the power I had. The power I have was the ability to produce songs. That’s my wealth. That’s something nobody can take away from me no matter how hard the road is or no matter how difficult the record contact is or whatever. I still have that body of work and that’s of great value to me.