Motorbaby

By Smantha Donen and Alex Teitz

   There is no good reason why Sharon Middendorf is not signed. Her band Motorbaby is the role model for the rock band. Their songs are hook-filled and catchy. Their beats can be easily memorized into consciousness. Middendorf is a pop icon by herself and can be found among the elite. Motorbaby’s album, Rise, includes some of the best producers including Tony Vinconti, Eve Nelson and Kathy Valentine. In a world of almosts, it is a wonder that a band with all the elements, in the right way, is so easily ignored.

FEMMUSIC interviewed Middendorf earlier this year. Here’s what she said. For more information visit motorbaby.com

FEMMUSIC: Can you describe your song writing technique?

SM: Umm….it’s funny, you know. Alanis Morrisette described her songwriting technique in Rolling Stone and it’s exactly what I do. So, I think allot of artist kind of do the same thing I do. I have read it before. Like Sheryl Crow and other people that write songs. Basically for me it’s like a stream lining of consciousness. You pick up the guitar, I write on the guitar. So, you pick up the guitar, you strum a few chords, you find a beat a rhythm, you create this sort of thought melody, its very spontaneous and I’ll throw it down on a cheap little cassette deck that has a microphone.
Just come up with a phrasing or a melody line, or maybe even a catchy wording phrase. Like, “You can’t download me”, something like that. It just sort of magically appears. Giving birth to a song, basically. You know and Its great. And the song won’t be finished on the first sitting. I would usually just keep coming back to it. Refine it as the day or week goes on. It is just a fine tuning of stream lining of consciousness, you understand that? I think its almost like any kind of writing, ya know? Occasionally, I’ll look at a magazine or something and I’ll see a word or a story and I say wow, that’d be a good song. Or maybe I’ll start with the words. Most of the time for me it comes out of the music. Like when I used to write with this friend of mine, John Carruthers, he was the most amazing guitar player, he used to be in Sioux and the Banshees…he just had this guitar that was like angels singing. And he’d play these pieces for me and I’d just sit there and words would just come out because that music would just pull it out of me. It’s the music really for me that drives it. That’s just the way I work. I am self taught so I have to pull it out of somewhere.

FEMMUSIC: When I was looking through everything. I was sort of amazed with everything that you have done. You seem to be doing 20 things at once.

SM: I don’t know. I think I sort of take on too much at times. Right now, I really got it. It’s good, it keeps you busy. And it’s exciting because you never know and each day is a different day. I can’t, I’m not a 9 to 5’er type of person. And I can’t really live that kind of lifestyle. So for me its whatever works. And I am very game, I’ll try anything. Pretty much. If I think that I can help or make something happen and work in a good way, I’ll give it a shot.

FEMMUSIC: Do you have one or two experiences from the album that really stick out?

Sharon: I have many experiences from it that stick out. Probably the most incredible moments were working with Tony Visconti. He just recorded the new David Bowie album. And he has worked with many famous artists for years. And he is probably one of the best producers I have ever worked with. I learned a lot working with him in his studio. It was pretty much just me and Tony. And we wrote a couple songs together. one of them I just wrote by myself, “Rise”, and I brought it to him and we recorded it in like a day or two. It was really fast. I just knew right then, alright that’s meant to be. So, that was a really wonderful experience working with Tony and working with Kathy Valentine, of course too. She is amazing and so prolific and such a great artist. She is an amazing musician. She plays bass and guitar, keyboards, well everything! She is just a full blown professional. That was an incredible experience for me because you know she is another women. To meet another women is as inspiring as that, for me, was really great. So, there are many, many memories from this record for sure.
Even doing the art work was incredible. I really enjoyed the photo session I did for this record. I love the images, and I loved putting it together and the packaging…I just loved the whole process. From the start of the songs, to the making of the music, to the production of it, to the design, details, to the picking the front cover. This record was from the ground level up, I put it together completely. So, that. I just love that.

FEMMUSIC: That’s amazing

Sharon: Yeah, now we have to get this damn thing out there. Its funny because you’d think Sony would check this out and be like, Wow, Yeah lets put this out. But you know? This friend of mine, I think we actually got a response from a Sony type person, and they are like yeah this record has everything. And the image is great and this music is great but ya know, we’ll have to pass. You just have to laugh and be like God, whatever. Who can even explain what goes on with these people in the record industry? It’s like hitting your head against the wall.

FEMMUSIC: What do you think was the biggest challenge putting this thing together?

SM: Um, well the biggest challenge, really honestly is marketing it. I don’t have the big bankroll to market it correctly. So, honestly, it comes down to the economics again. Because this record should be heard by the globe ya know, and it is difficult to be sort of on your own trying to market it, mass market it. You can’t really do that, you know, on your own, and that for me is the biggest and the hardest thing for me. The music end of it is a cinch its a natural easy thing for me to do, that’s the easy part. It’s the business side of it, the marketing, the promotion, …

FEMMUSIC: Do you have one thing you would like to change about the music industry itself?

SM: That’s a hard one…what comes to mind is the bureaucracy. But then again that’s kind of broad. And to pin point one thing would be so hard. Because, you know the mass, the record companies, the big labels they are just looking to make a buck so its not really about the music with them. If you noticed all the, like Fiona Apples, singer pianists. Or the Vanessa Carltons, and all the little girls that follow her. They go out and they sign these chicks up. It’s a bunch of people following a sales number a marketing number. That drives me crazy! I don’t know, it’s hard to explain it. It’s just the bureaucracy and the bull shit of the business. I don’t know that you could really stop that. Anyway, I think the music industry is going to change drastically and everything is going to be pretty much digital. And those people will probably be out of business soon, so who cares! It’ll be over.

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

Sharon: Yeah, I can’t think of a time. I can’t really pinpoint it. I think as a beautiful girl in the music industry, I have been discriminated against. Especially, in the beginning. Then that fell by the way side when people started taking me seriously. For a long time, people looked at what I did as oh that’s sort of a nice hobby for a young girl to do. They didn’t really take me seriously as an artist. So, I had a lot of dealings with that attitude, which is really hard. But, ya know. You just keep on going and ignore them and finally they go away. Its true, its really hard. Cause I’d get gigs just because of my looks, at the same time I wouldn’t head line when I should have been headlining. You know they’d put the punk guy band on. So it’s interesting. I think its a mans world, thetas the way it is, its true. Woman can definitely get by and do amazing things. I think Sheryl Crow is doing some amazing stuff. Madonna, Bjork…so I think it definitely works for some people real well.

FEMMUSIC: What advice would you give to somebody wanting to start out in this business?

Sharon: Um, man, I would say…just to keep your feet really grounded and try not to look at the stars and do everything diligently, do it yourself, build it up, do your tours, create your own records, put them out on your website, and do it. don’t even think about record companies. And if they hear about you, they will come to you. And a perfect example of that is Kid rock. Another perfect example of that is U2, or even the Cure. Any band that ever really did anything, did it that way. And thats my advice.

FEMMUSIC: Who have been your biggest influences?

Sharon: That’s hard, I always say that David Bowie, and U2, that Led Zeppelin, the doors, The Pretenders, Madonna- I got say, I hated her in the 80’s but man she is rockin’ now. I really think that when she started working with the European producers, and she got out of the new York funk scene. I really, really like what she is up to now. So, people like that. but ya know, when I was growing up the biggest influences for me were Bowie, T-Rex, and Roxy music, and the pretenders…I wanted to be Christie Hynde, So, I sort of did that in a little softer way. She is really balls the way but she is great.