Jewel live on Radio Scotland!! ------------------------------ Notes and Transcript by Kev (ifu95341@strath.ac.uk) Originally posted to the Jewel/EveryDay Angels mailing list October 27, 1997. Last night Jewel was on Radio Scotland's Soundcheck for a 30 minute interview. I found out completely by chance and due to this missed the first 5 minutes. I thought it was a pretty good interview and Jewel came across very well. It was light hearted and Jewel even gave the Interviewer Grant Stott a quick yodelling lesson on air. I know this transcript is quite long, but it was good to hear her talk about herself. Although there is nothing new here I thought some of you may be interested in having a read ;) *when I turned on the Radio she was in the middle of singing Satellite* [Key: I- interviewer JK- Jewel Kilcher] I: The miracle of Hollywood.... JK: *laughs* I: Some new material from Jewel, right well lets go back, lets start at the very beginning, why not? It was not a particularly, shall we say, luxurious upbringing you had, where was it Alaska .. is that right? JK: Uhuh I: How was it? No shower, no telly? JK: Yeh... I: Outhouse? JK: Um outhouse, we had running water just not plumbing so we didn't have hot water, anything like that. It was a good living too, I mean everyone makes my life sound like it was some sort of horror stricken, poverty stricken thing but it was also great. You know living on the land is a wonderful thing. I think it gives you an honesty and a discipline that a lot of people lack. *soft laugh* I: Now tell me, you had a Swiss grandmother... JK: Grandparents I: Grandparents! And eh was it your grandmother that taught you how to yodel? JK: My dad taught me how to yodel I: Tell me about the yodelling, you incorporate this into your live routine JK: Sometimes. Um, its nothing that I really think to much about, its something that I have being doing since I was six and its a bit like selling used cars. You know like *laughs* it's a trick. I: Well I've never sold any used cars and I've never yodelled either so how easy would it be to teach me the basics of yodelling? JK: Probably pretty simple, wanna give it a try? I: Go for it... JK: You just go from your low voice to your high voice and as you slide up from your low register to your high register there is a crack so .. *gives example yodel* I: *makes pretty bad attempt* JK: Pretty good, you almost had a crack there I: But has it got to be a sharp... JK: you have to push, push more like... *gives another example yodel* I: *another bad attempt* JK: Perfect I: In tone as well, tone would help wouldn't it JK: *laughs* I: So that's come from obviously the Swiss side of the family, isn't it? JK: My dad didn't actually learn to yodel until he came to America, off of cowboy albums actually, so... I: There we are I was trying to think of famous yodellers of our time but not to many spring to mind ... Slim Whitman! there we are JK: Jimmy Rodgers I: Aye there you are, see loads, loads, were these the influences in your life because I know you did come from a musical family, was there a lot of music about the house? JK: Yeh, but never records ot anything like that just my dad was a songwriter and he taught me songs that were his and other songwriters but I wasn't raised listening to music really. I: So when did it all come about, when did you first start creating what are now... songs for you. When did you first get into this pattern if you weren't, you know, surrounded by music when you were young? JK: Um, well being raised performing as a kid you know at the age of six I started singing on stage, at aged eight I was an actual duo with my dad and was a professional musician touring around bars and all that. So its always been in my blood and my lifestyle to be a performer and I've always written poetry so when I picked up the guitar around sixteen or seventeen it was just a natural thing and a real accidental thing... um... I just didn't know better. I: Importantly your writing, was this personal about things that you were experiencing or was it just you just start on something and go off on a tangent? JK: Um, it was I think a real survival skill for a while in my life when things got really hard... um... I sort of lost all equilibrium and used writing as sort of a steady, you know, something to steady my self upon. To help me understand myself and what I was going through... um... it was kinda like having a friend or something, or therapist or something and a, its become a real crutch for me and a good way of really coming to depend on writing. I: So what is the songwriting process for you do you sit down and write a poem and then you put music to it or do you find it all comes together now? JK: It all starts with an emotion... um.... I know its the right word the right melody if it doesn't dilute the power of the emotion, um, other than that it doesn't really matter, words can come first, melody can come first, it just sort of forms its self around the emotion. I: Alright what are you going to do for us next? JK: I'll do it off the album, it called, I wrote this when I was sixteen, so its an old song, its called Who Will Save Your Soul.... *sings WWSYS and is in really good voice* I: Who Will Save Your Soul including the yodel as well I noticed JK: *laughs* a bit I: Incorporated there a little smidge. Um, you went on to study the arts and encapsulated the whole lot now do you think that this helped in the process or do you think that it was there anyway, what you have, the talent you have? JK: Definitely helped, its always good to get out of where you grew up, its always highly recomended *laughs* as well the artistic integrity of that school the kids practised eight hours a day as well as their academics. It was just a very talented environment so it put the pressure on you to do better.. I: How long did you study for? JK: Just a couple of years. I: Then after that, as is often the pattern you found you had to go out and work for a living, you mentioned earlier on that you were waitressing and living in a van. You went to San Diego is that right?... JK: Uhuh I: ...to join your mum there, now San Diego doesn't strike me as a sort of musical.. JK: mecca *laughs* I: ...place not exactly of the States. JK: I didn't go there to do music. I: Right. JK: Um, I'd just started writing songs I'd just wrote WWSYS at that point and I didn't think that I was a song writer and I didn't think that anyone should be hearing what I was doing. Um, I just wanted to figure out what I was supposed to be doing with my life, what was my purpose what would fill me with passion because I was pretty miserable doing nothing. Um, so I got a bunch of odd end jobs and ended up getting, you know, fired or quitting from most of them. I: Why? JK: Why did people fire me? I: Hmm JK: Oh, you know if your heart isn't in it... I: *laughs* JK: ...and finally when I got fired from my last job I just decided that's it. Screw the world. I don't know what it's all about, I just want to make a living. I think that I deserve to live doing something that I like, um, and not compromising myself constantly and decided that I would rather die than do something that I didn't like anymore and I started singing in a coffee shop- never with the idea of getting a record deal out of it, I didn't think I was that good. I just wanted to do it every night and you know make enough money to get around during the day. I: So there you are, you got signed and the rest is beginning to become history. Lets take another pause there and you've got another little tune for us. JK: This is a new one ... my throats really shot *laughs* I'll try it this is called Strangers *sings strangers, again she is in great voice and doesn't falter once, great stuff* I: I have to say I'm very impressed on two counts. I've sat here and watched you play the three pieces of music beautifully, and you have managed to maintain chewing gum in your mouth at the same time... JK: *laughs* I: ...now I was thinking how does she manage to do this? This is obviously a talent which you acquired back in the days when it was a bit rough and you obviously you had to save your gum at all costs, rather than stick it behind the ear. JK: Thats right *laughs* during the depression I: Keep the gum! Dont lose the gum! Um, and here we are. JK: And here we are now. I: With the album, which we are going to look at, this is the only album we have of now at the moment. Lets talk about this for a moment. The songs, I was going through them last night, are these all personal experiences that you yourself have gone through, cause there is a very dark side to a lot of the lyrics. JK: Like what? I: Oh I mean, saying that your dad was possibly a member, well my interpretation as that your daddy, there was a lot of hatred, was he a member of the KKK. JK: *laughs* No! I: No. JK: But that is what the song is about, no it isn't about my dad. Um, I draw it from, you know, partially from my own life from, you know, we've all been pissed at our dads so I definitely could put a bit of that in... I: Well that's a bit severe if your a little miffed at your dad. *laughs* JK: But it wasn't about him, it was about a friend of mine who wasn't allowed to watch black people on TV when we were growing up and I think if you are raised by hatred you become hateful so it was a song for her. I just put it in the first person. I'm just a story teller. I'll write things in the first person if I think it tells the story well. I: I see, Pieces of You as well, that also deals with prejudice so is there anything on the album that is personal to you? JK: It is personal, most of it is personal, in a way that most things are. The morning song was pretty personal or a .. *she chews gum loudly* Sorry! I: Its all about going back to your gum, you see I wasn't lying gum is there to be heard by all. JK: *laughs* Rude kid! WWSYS was about things I was directly thinking about America you know, the state of things over there. I: As we pointed out at the beginning of the program this was all quite a few years ago and there is a lot, a lot more to come from Jewel. JK: Yeh I: But you are here and you are hopefully determined to stick around. JK: Uhuh I: Jewel thanks very much indeed for joining me tonight best of luck because now you are going to do some live dates in November. JK: Yep I: And we are going to finish with your new single You were meant for me. Jewel, thanks. JK: Thanks! *plays the version off the CD*