It’s a Game: Edith Frost talks
Writing and performing fascinating country music that’s difficult to pin down, Edith Frost visits New Zealand in April for two spellbinding concerts. BRANNAVAN GNANALINGAM spoke to her as she prepares to tour Down Under.
SINGER-SONGWRITER Edith Frost has been making highly compelling and fascinating music for over a decade now. Labelled everything from alt.country to freak-folk, her music touches on highly personal themes and relationships – a comparison that’s not, contrary to popular opinion necessarily autobiographical. She’s touring Down Under with another renowned figure, Richard Buckner and plays at the Schooner Tavern in Auckland on April 17, and the San Francisco Bathhouse in Wellington the following night.
She’s always been a compulsive web-logger, with her elaborate website providing plenty of information for a would-be interviewer. “Well I started before there was the word blog. It’s been a love/hate thing – I want to be able to post things and blab but then I get shit for it”. And for anyone who’s interested, edithfrost.com is a fascinating place to spend time on, capturing her friendly and interesting persona perfectly.
She admits that it was always going to be music growing up. “I’ve been into it my whole life being a huge fan. I started playing when I was a kid. I always wanted to – it wasn’t until Drag City [her record label] called that I thought I could do it for real. I always said when I was a kid ‘I want to be a singer’. It was just a matter of convincing my family and myself that I could do it.”
She’s released four critically acclaimed albums since 1997, Calling Over Time (1997), Telescopic (1998), Wonder Wonder (2001), and It’s a Game (2005). With these albums she’s fallen under the rather random label “alt.country”. It’s clearly been a successful way to describe country music that’s not Garth Brooks, but does anyone actually know what the term means? “I used to get annoyed when I got called alt.country because I didn’t think I fit into that. People don’t use alt.country anymore, it’s now freak-folk. I’m not that either. They call it what they like.” But then again, Frost has played with the likes of Calexico, Jolie Holland, Wilco, Yo La Tengo and the White Stripes, which kinda makes the whole pigeonholing process quite pointless. “If you play with people enough times you get to be friends. It’s just about music that you like. People introduce you to other people, though it’s not exclusive to one kind of music. The indie scene – though it’s diverse – is pretty small-town.”
Her music covers some very personal issues, overwhelmingly focused on relationships. The line “what’s the use of trying when I know you’re going to break my heart” from the It’s a Game track ‘What’s the Use’ gives some idea of the spareness of her lyrics. However while Frost aims to write about personal stuff, she’s not trying to fill it with personal details. “It’s always bugged me when there’s too many specifics. It [the lyrics] ends up being feelings, impressions, natural things.” This can lead to the impression that we’re listening to an aural diary. “I’ve got shit for that. That’s really annoying. If you look at it one way, it might be personal and true, everything is true in some respect, but I’m working on making a good song, getting to the next chorus. It’s a bit mathematical, making things rhyme, getting the metre right. It’s a puzzle. I made a mistake by telling people I broke up with my boyfriend a week before It’s a Game was released, so people said it was a ‘break-up’ album. How could I have written an album in a week???” I ask if ex-boyfriends do worry that deep down, the songs may be about them. “I’m sure they do. There’s no names.”
It’s a Game in particular came out after a four year hiatus between albums. “I was just touring, I toured a lot. There was a lot of turmoil going on in my life, my family and my personal life. I’ve got a one-track mind. I’m either in touring mode or in writing mode. When I got back from touring it took another year to start writing. But when it came out it felt right. Everybody was asking why did it take so long. It didn’t seem that long to me.”
Her music has a beautiful production sense that belies the emotional starkness. The quite lush background is the result of producer Rian Murphy’s production style. “He likes to keep things sounding very timeless. He gets annoyed with things that sound dated. His style is putting people who are very talented and letting them do their own thing.” Capturing these emotions live must be difficult, and Frost is disarmingly frank about what it’s like playing live. “It seems to come across. When I’m up there singing, I’m not up there emoting. I’m trying to get it right, getting the chords right, making sure I don’t forget the words. Magically they think I’m up there acting my ass off.”
Frost has been someone who’s moved around a bit throughout her career. Her recent move to San Francisco included an earthquake, something that she may expect when she comes down to the Shaky Isles. The San Fran earthquake was worrying enough. “Since then, there’s been one a week. There was one which was higher on the Richter Scale. They’re scary, they freak me out a little. They’ve all been quick – a jolt. It’d freak me out a lot worse if it continued. They have not been too dramatic. It’s still a strange feeling – I looked outside and nobody was out there, nobody was asking if you’re ok.” There was the consolation that she’s no longer living in Chicago, with its chilling winter blizzards. “Earthquakes versus blizzards. I’ll take the earthquakes.” Hopefully the tectonic plates stay stable for a while, while Frost brings her wonderful lilting voice, beautiful melodies and winning personality down to New Zealand for, what will be a most excellent concert.
