|
MM - Where
do you call home?
LA - Right now I'm living (and really digging) Vancouver, B.C. I'm
originally from Toronto.
MM - You've been out of the
rock scene for a while now, what have you been up to?
LA - For the past 3.5 years I've been recording and performing jazz
mostly. I still get offers to do festivals and larger shows performing
rock which I do every summer and sporadically throughout the year. I'm
pretty focused on the jazz right now but not at the exclusivity of
playing rock.
MM - How did the transition from
performing rock music to jazz music come about?
LA - I took a year off in 1996. I didn't sing for an entire year
which is odd for me because I'm a workaholic. I'd become quite
depressed about the "treadmill" I was on and also about being
consistently marketed as a "pin-up" and fighting for musical
credibility. I was seriously re-evaluating why, and or if, I still
wanted to be in this business.
I decided at that time to return to my roots and do something that made
my soul really happy - that was exploring jazz. Change is good. Evolving
is good.
MM - You have a new rock album due
for release in the year 2001, tell us a little bit about it.
LA - Well....... I've written about half the material so far. I like
it. It's a continuation of the more reflective material I wrote for the
Emotional Rain cd, and some of it's tougher. It's more modern in
production approach.
Writing fluffy party drivel doesn't interest me anymore......substance
with strong melodic hooks baby.
MM - For anyone who hasn't heard your rock music before how would you
describe it?
LA - I really hate this question. To someone who loves Tori Amos I'm
really heavy and loud, but to someone who likes Courtney Love and Hole
I'm probably a lightweight. Music is so subjective. I'm like Sheryl Crow
meets P.J. Harvey? Something like that.
MM - In the past you have
done a lot of work for various charities, helping to make people aware
of the problems other have to face. Do you still help any of these
charities out with spreading their message?
LA - I do charity work whenever and as often as I am able. In the
past 3 years as a jazz artist I have done charity work for People Living
With Aids, The Breast Cancer Foundation, The Handicapped Society and
several others. Giving back is important.
MM - When the new album
comes out next year do you hope to do a tour at the same time to promote
it? If so have you thought about whether you will come back over to the
UK to play?
LA -
I adore the UK and would welcome the opportunity to play there again. I
suppose it all depends on the type of distribution I end up with and how
the CD performs. Touring overseas is an expensive venture for
North American acts unless you get the commitment of tour support from
the label.
MM - It took a long time for your home country to notice your wealth
of talent, whereas elsewhere, particularly in the UK, you were not only
noticed but held up at the forefront of female rock musicians. How did
this make you feel to have to struggle for so long in your own home
country when elsewhere you were being held in such high esteem?
LA - Wow. Thank you. I'm reminded and honoured. I didn't really
"break" in my home country of Canada until my 5th album. Up
until then yes, Europe and the UK had really embraced me. I'll never
forget about that. Timing can be a very strange thing in this business.
My best selling albums in North America were not my best selling
overseas and vice versa. I'm grateful that I was selling records and
able to work in Britain and Europe when Canada hadn't caught on yet. It
certainly elongated my career in the long run. Mine is not an overnight
success story by any stretch of the imagination. It's humbling for the
ego.
MM - In the past you have toured with some of the biggest names in
rock, is there any particular band/tour you can say stood out from all
the rest?
LA
- In 1987 I toured The UK and Europe solo but during that time I met and
became quite good friends with The Scorpions. What an amazing bunch of
guys.
Klaus, Rudy and I had a lot of crazy times together. They invited me to
sing guest vocals on the tune "The Rhythm of Love". I stayed
on at the end of that tour with my road manager Petra and we travelled
to Cologne together to do the session.
During the recording Rudy and his guitar tech took Petra to the local
pub and proceeded to get her completely and rightly pissed. When I was
finished, Klaus, Rudy and company drove us back to the studio guest
house but Petra had lost the keys. The boys dumped her entire handbag
contents onto the sidewalk and proceeded, with flashlights courtesy of
the tech, to drunkenly search through.. well let's just say some rather
feminine articles in quest of the lost keys. It was quite funny.
Those guys were notorious for getting us to do shooters they called
"Tequila Bang" with them. Usually led to trouble. That's one,
but I've got a million road stories.
MM - Do you feel that
this new album might bring you back into the rock spotlight and not only
appeal to your die-hard fans of the 80's, but also attract a lot of new
fans who were too young to really remember much about you the first time
around?
LA
- Well....I can't promise anything but this is what one hopes for. Even
during the success of Bodyrock in 1989 I often had Mother/Daughter -
Father/Son combinations coming out to my shows. I think music can
transcend barriers like race and age.
MM - Music seems to have always been in your blood, was it a
conscious decision of yours to be the singer in a rock band as opposed
to playing an instrument?
LA
- I studied piano when I was younger and my main instrument in school
was alto sax. I played in both the jazz and concert bands. Singing
however, was my first love.
MM - Do you think the
Seattle/grunge scene in the early 90's killed off rock music, or was it
a natural progression that opened up the avenues for new bands to come
forward?
LA
- Both. Yes, it killed big hair, corporate 80's rock but I think that
whole scene needed a breath of fresh air anyway. What happens in
music is that a newcomer with a fresh sound will come along and blow the
doors off the present popular concept of music. Then, all the record
labels start signing up every band that sounds remotely like the
"new thing" and the market gets saturated. People ultimately
get sick of it because it's all so homogenized.
Then, some newcomer with a fresh sound comes along.....Throughout the
cycle of musical pop culture some record execs get fired and some get
rich.
Some bands have their 5 minutes of fame and a few genuinely unique and
talented artists retain a fan base and don't die in the process. O.K.
... then there's the Rolling Stones.
MM - How would you like to see
rock music progress in the new millennium and what bands do you see
promise in that are around now?
LA - I'd like to see rock music invite more of a hybrid of musical
styles into the mix. Metal bands are rapping. That's a start. Macy
Gray's disc blends funk, rock, r&b and soul. It's very cool. People
have to get past the idea that music needs to be tightly
compartmentalized.
My "Slick Chick" cd (jazz) is certainly more adventurous and
aggressive than the traditional form. Some of the purists cannot get
past the idea of a former rocker setting foot in their idiom.
Trendsetters are not safe and do not conform to rules. What rules? It's
just music for goodness sake. As Miles Davis said "There are no
wrong notes."
MM - Are
you glad to see a lot of the old 80's hair bands out strutting their
stuff in style and not just vanishing without a trace?
LA - Many of them wrote classic tunes. You can't erase that from the
history books. People still want songs they can sing along to. Hopefully
they still have hair.
MM - What is the most important
thing to you right now?
LA
- Doing great work. Producing myself.
MM - Lastly, if you could give anyone trying to start out in the
music business one piece of advice what would it be?
LA - Read a book about the business side of music. So many young
artists enter this industry without a clue and end up either broke or
with no self esteem left.
You get to be a "Rock Star" for 5 minutes but you can be an
Artist for the rest of your life.
|