Anne McCue

By Alex Teitz

    Sydney born Anne McCue is a pop songwriter and musician. Her first CD Amazing Ordinary Things has taken her from Australia to LA and now as the opener for the Lucinda Williams tour. McCue speaks with quiet confidence and has traveled a long road to make it here.
The youngest of eight children McCue stumbled into songwriting. Eventually, her work led her into Girl Monster, an all-girl band that overwhelmed the Australian independent charts. Anne went solo and traveled from Vietnam to performing at the Lilith Fair (with Eden aka) and even being signed to Columbia.
She recently left that stage of her life and is now signed to Relentless Records. For more information visit annemccue.com and look for her on the Lucinda Williams tour.

FEMMUSIC: Can you describe your songwriting technique?

AM: It’s a fairly organic process. I might have an idea of what I want it to be about but also often I might find a new tuning on the guitar and find some voicings I like, and then I’ll add a melody and then I’ll the lyrics as part of that process.

FEMMUSIC: What was the biggest challenge making Amazing Ordinary Things?

AM: Getting it made. (laughs) I think that’s the biggest challenge anyone faces. I started it scrounging around for the budget and I had a pretty simple scenario for the instrumentation. Just acoustic guitar and some strings and vocals. And then I got some more money and I was able to use more instruments, and there’s one track where it almost sounds like there’s a full orchestra on it. Also I had quite a few tracks that I wanted bass and drums on too so it was a lengthy drawn out process but the main thing for me was to keep in mind what I wanted it to sound like. Seeing as I had an oral vision of what I wanted it to sound like I think jells pretty well.

FEMMUSIC: What was the best experience making Amazing Ordinary Things?

AM: I think the best experiences are when you’re playing with people that you really like and you’re having fun. “Laughing” for instance. We recorded that in one day in Melbourne. It was a great day. We were all friends: The bass player, the drummer and me. We had a great engineer/co-producer Laurence Maddy. We were in Tim Finn’s house. Tim Finn from Crowded House. He had a studio in his house so we were in a really nice environment. It was a real chilled-out, laid back, fun creative day. It was just a creative fun day and that’s the type of atmosphere I like to record in.
When I came to LA and I started recording I got to be homesick because I was recording with musicians I didn’t know, but I actually ended up being friends with them as well. I think mostly you want that sense of collaboration and joy in the work and that all came out on the record.

FEMMUSIC: What one thing would you like to change about the music industry?

AM: I would like everybody to start at stop at start again. It’s kind of…It’s grown in…I wouldn’t swear but the kind of music that their signing, the labels are signing, and the way they treat you in the major labels and minor labels, you always end up getting shafted at some way and there’s no respect. I’d like just some people with good musical taste to be making the choice of who’s getting the budgets to record. I mean people say that CD’s aren’t selling as well and I think it’s partly because of the bland music that’s being…I don’t think people know what good music is anymore and blah, blah, blah, blah (laughing). Especially I’d like to get a big budget to make my next album. It goes on and on and on.

FEMMUSIC: As a woman in the music business, have you been discriminated against?

AM: Yeah I think so. I think everyone gets discriminated against for whatever reason. When I was in Melbourne and I was in an all girl band, and we were obviously one of the most popular bands in Australia at the time, and we were number one on the independent charts for a record amount of time, we knocked The Cure off the number one position and the major labels wouldn’t have anything do to with us because we were an all-girl band and they weren’t signing all-girl bands. That’s an example.
I think things have changed a lot even since then. Fashions change. Like now for instance, female songwriters aren’t being signed. They’re not the ones the music industry is interested in. You get discriminated on a marketplace, or what they imagine a marketplace to want. You get discriminated on that level.
You know I think everyone suffers from discrimination at some time. The main thing is you work on your craft and you become really good at what you do and eventually you become an undeniable force and it doesn’t matter what you are, what you look like, what color you are, whether you can walk…You know what I mean? If you focus and just do the work eventually, I believe, and I may be idealistic, but eventually you’re work will come through just for that because of all that focus and attention and love that you’ve given it.

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

AM: I would say find a good teacher if you’re playing an instrument, and I would say learn to be objective about your work. Just because you’re doing it doesn’t mean it’s good. And you have to learn to take criticism and advice. Hard as it may be, you need someone in your life who will tell you the truth about what you’re doing. You don’t necessarily have to agree with them but you have to open to that …I think a lot of people start playing and make a CD before they’ve really worked on their craft or people aren’t willing to take criticism. You just have. You got to listen to what people say because you’re not playing for just yourself. You’re playing for an audience. That’s the hardest part. Just taking the criticism. If you can use that to your own benefit then I think that’s important. But also I think just doing the hard work, and it is hard work. You just have to stay home and do it. You don’t learn to play guitar at parties. (laugh) You don’t write songs at parties either.