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Michelle Lewis:
Letters Out Loud
by Brenda Kahn |
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Photo
Credit: Gilles Bensimon
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"Maybe
this is weird, but I've always wanted to be a cartoon character.
It's like having a super bad-ass alter-ego who always stays the
same age and the same weight." -Michelle Lewis
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WOMANROCK:
How did your deal with Giant Records come about?
MICHELLE:
I was getting known in NYC as a songwriter for other artists,
and I think that gave the New York A&R community a preconceived
notion of that being all I could do. When my manager started shopping
me as the artist, he went to LA, where no one had ever heard
of me. He got my demos into the hands of ONE woman, who just connected
with it instantly and she happened to be the president of Giant
(which was then called Revolution Records) at the time. She made
an offer really quickly and of course, that's when other labels
started offering deals. But Revolution/Giant really went the extra
mile in making me feel like I would be a priority - so that's where
I ended up. The funny thing is, after all my showcasing in NY, no
one at Giant ever saw me perform until the record was finished and
about to be released.
WOMANROCK:
Was it your first CD?
MICHELLE:
Kind of… I had been in a band called the Jazzhole - I know, nice
name - it was part of this whole New York acid jazz scene that was
going on in the mid-nineties. They had a deal with Mesa/Bluemoon
and I recorded two albums with them, made videos and had my first
touring experiences before leaving to do my own thing. While it
was actually a great education in being a recording artist - little
did I know how much harder it would be to be a solo girl.
WOMANROCK:
What was your experience with the major label? Did they support
the album? Tours?
MICHELLE:
My experience with a major label was always dramatic - things which
had always been minor, personal decisions (like what color my hair
highlights should be, for example) were now these big, decided-by-committee
ordeals. And while I hated the drama, it was really nice to have
an entire team of people focused on getting my music into the world.
Amazing! And yet trippy… In the beginning, I felt very supported
- they really let me make the album I wanted to make and did the
things I suppose you need to do to break a new artist. I did a ton
of promotional shows and met most of the Warner Brothers local radio
staff, made a video, did press, put together a touring band and
opened for some great artists. And then I got to hear my song on
the radio while we'd be in the van driving to the next show (that's
an unbelievably cool thing) and the song started showing up on charts
and the crowds at shows got bigger and bigger. Then, I'm not sure
what happened, it was as if a plug was literally pulled.
WOMANROCK:
How did the deal end?
MICHELLE:
The single stopped being promoted at radio and I was taken off the
road while they made a plan for the second single. Then the person
who signed me was fired, the label was changed from Revolution back
to Giant and every one of her artists was dropped - except me. I
was told I would be making another record soon. I then spent a year
and a half in that limbo of waiting… to start recording, to be dropped…
I had no idea. Eventually, my lawyer got a call saying that Giant
would be folding into Warner Brothers - did I want to be bought
out or see what Warner wanted to do? I opted out.
WOMANROCK:
You come from a family of music business professionals. Do you think
it's helped you or hindered you in any way as a recording artist?
MICHELLE:
I think it's helped more than hindered. It's a huge weight off my
shoulders that I don't have to explain anything to my family. They're
not waiting for me to get a "real" job - they're not afraid for
me - mostly, they understand the reality of the business - that
as you strive to break though to some kind of world domination,
you can have a fulfilling and long musical career while in relative
obscurity.
WOMANROCK:
When and where did you record the new album?
MICHELLE:
My original plan with this record was to get it out quickly. I wanted
to take the buy-out money from Giant and get my band into a studio
in New York. We would play the songs through a few times, record
to two-inch analog tape, really limit overdubs, and end up with
a cool, completely un-slick-Pretenders/Tom Petty-sounding record
to press up and sell at shows. But nothing is ever that easy. Being
the divas that we are, Doug and Dan Petty and I are simply incapable
of putting anything out into the world that might be considered
half-assed. So we used the original analog tracks we recorded at
our friend Brad Albetta's studio as basics and dumped everything
into ProTools. After that we called in every favor we could for
free or cheap studio time from our friends with ProTools rigs and
worked wherever and whenever we could. In retrospect, I should have
taken the buyout money and bought my own fucking ProTools. Would
have been much cheaper and much less complicated…
WOMANROCK:
Did you produce and engineer it yourself or did you find outside
producers?
MICHELLE:
I worked with my husband Dan Petty and his brother Doug Petty -
the guys are amazingly talented and we easily fell into a groove
of working together. We also had an astounding group of friends
to call on for help between the three of us - great engineers, great
musicians - I mean, we're really lucky that way.
WOMANROCK:
Is it difficult to play in a band with your life partner?
MICHELLE:
Well, it's difficult not to play in a band with Dan. He's an awesome
musician. He's whom I would use even if I weren't married to him,
because I just love how he plays. We actually didn't work together
for the first year of our relationship, but we found that we have
the exact same taste in music, we have a lot of respect for one
another and that it's much more fun being on the road together than
apart. So we caved in… but the main thing is to make sure that our
relationship always takes priority over our work.
WOMANROCK:
How's married life?
MICHELLE:
All three weeks of it have been cool so far. I think men and women
have really different expectations going into marriage - men's expectations
are really low and women's are really high. So after you get married,
the guy is elated to find out that things simply go back to normal
and women are kind of disappointed when they find out that their
lives don't actually, um… change. Which is not to say that I'm disappointed,
I'm just married.
WOMANROCK:
Tell me how your career as a songwriter for BMG got started. Did
you hand in a demo to someone or did someone hear you perform?
MICHELLE:
Right after college, I was in a vocal group that had a development
deal with Capitol. The songs we were given to sing were these totally
corny, R&B sex-driven, I-want-you-so-bad En Vogue cast-offs. And
I thought I could do better. So I wrote a bunch of songs for the
group, the group broke up over the usual girl drama shit and I ended
up recording the stuff myself. A producer who was signed to BMG
heard the songs and asked me to write lyrics to his tracks. For
some reason, a bunch of the things we wrote together got cut. This
got the attention of the publisher, who then heard the stuff I had
done for the vocal group and signed me [as a writer]. I've been
there ever since.
WOMANROCK:
What are some of your favorite collaborations?
MICHELLE:
I love writing with other women. It happens kind of rarely, but
I always love when it does, because the social part of writing is
so satisfying, and the lyrics come out really strong. To name names,
Janice Robinson is one of my faves, Shawn Colvin was fun, and Jill
Cuniff from Luscious Jackson is incredibly talented. Actually, I
can't think of a single bad experience I've had working with another
woman - even if the song doesn't come out well, it's always worthwhile.
Lately, I've been writing with another NY songwriter named Kara
DioGuardi, and we're even thinking about starting our own publishing
company.
WOMANROCK:
Who else has recorded Michelle Lewis songs?
MICHELLE:
Um… Cher, Shawn Colvin, Amy Grant, Imani Copolla, the Jacksons,
Jennifer Brown, Eternal, and lots of folks who aren't famous (yet).
WOMANROCK:
Is there a conflict in writing songs for yourself and writing songs
for other people? Do you ever feel like you're giving away the best
lines to other people... or lowering your standards to be more mainstream?
MICHELLE: In a word… yes. I've always been conflicted about writing
for other artists, not because I'm giving away the best lines, but
because a song occupies a bunch of head space and takes a ton of
emotional energy and I work really hard on each one - so occasionally,
it feels like organ donation. (I know that sounds dramatic) I think
I used to dumb down lyrics for a song to be more pitchable, but
in my experience that doesn't work. There's a subtle difference
between lowering your standards and simplifying an idea - It's taken
me a while to learn, but I've got it down. And now there's a much
smaller gap between what I write for myself and what I write for
other people.
WOMANROCK:
How did you get picked to be the ELLEgirl Girl??
MICHELLE:
A friend of my brother's came to see a show I did at Arlene's Grocery
in NYC. He happens to be the head of the multimedia department at
the publishing house for ELLE (Hachette Fillipachi) and knew that
they would shortly be launching the teen division of ELLE called,
appropriately enough, ELLEgirl.
He had this idea to attach a theme song to the launch and asked
me to write one. I met with the magazine's editor and we clicked
and then the ideas just came flowing. It was so much fun to be a
part of something creative that didn't have any of the jaded-ness
of the music industry. Everyone was really open to trying things,
which is why they did a cartoon video, a JumboTron EPK, and all
this other stuff.
WOMANROCK:
How do you feel about being immortalized as a Web icon?
MICHELLE:
Maybe this is weird, but I've always wanted to be a cartoon character.
It's like having a super bad-ass alter-ego who always stays the
same age and the same weight. In the cartoon, I open up a can of
whoop-ass on a mugger who has stolen a book from an old lady. A
BOOK!!! It's the perfect marriage of my own nerdiness and my cartoon
version's toughness. I couldn't be more psyched.
WOMANROCK:
Any thing to add?
MICHELLE:
Go Yankees! |
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More on Michelle Lewis - Planet
Girl Show, Little Leviathan.
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_________________________________
 For
more information check out:
www.michellelewis.com
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_________________________________
Brenda Kahn
is a New York recording artist and the editor of WOMANROCK.com.
Past notes from the Editor. |
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