A Conversation with Mary Gauthier (continued)

PM: You've created a niche for yourself in some pretty high profile singer songwriter situations. Have you run into singer songwriters lately or in the last couple of years who really blew you away, ones who may not be famous and that we should mention?

MG: Yeah. I'm on a Canadian spree right now. I love the new Lynn Miles CD. And I'm always going to be a Fred-head.

PM: Oh, yeah, Fred, for sure.

MG: No doubt about it, Fred [Eaglesmith] is one of the guys who just keeps writing great songs. And I just love him. I love what he does. I love his spirit. I'm a huge, huge Fred-head. And there's a guy I met when I played some festivals in Canada last summer, named David Francey. I really, really like him.

PM: I've been hearing about him.

MG: And I still get bootlegs a lot on the road, and people compare me to Townes a whole lot, particularly in Europe. And they feel compelled to tell me that they were there the last time Townes played Berlin or Munich or Glasgow, and they have a bootleg of it, and they give it to me. And I listen to all these old bootlegs, and they're just great. They're just great. I listen to stuff people give me a lot. I don't know when was the last time I actually bought a record. I guess that happens once you get in the business.

PM: Yeah, it happens to a lot of people, I think. But I've digressed a little bit, Mary, pardon me. As big as Drag Queens in Limousines hit, and it hit really great, it was Filth and Fire, the next one, that made you #1 in The New York Times and No Depression and all that. I mean, it just kept getting better, right?

MG: To be honest with you, I've been working so hard I haven't had a chance to sit back and reflect on what I've done. I'm always setting goals and trying to reach them, and I haven't really sat back and said, "Oh, look what you've done." Over the last few months, everything has really come down to this record deal that I'm doing, and there haven't been a lot of gigs. So I've been able to sort of reflect. It is kind of quick. It didn't feel quick when it was happening. It felt slow, and I wanted more and I wanted more and I wanted more. But looking back on it now, hell, I've only been out of the restaurant two and a half years, three years--

PM: Oh, my God!

MG: --and I'm doing great!

PM: Oh, it's unbelievable. And it's totally unprecedented. Before we get to your imminent Record deal, how did the one with Signature Sounds for Filth and Fire come together?

MG: We shopped that around to everybody, and nobody wanted it.

PM: Nobody wanted it.

MG: Nobody wanted it.

PM: Even after Drag Queens hit so hard?

MG: Didn't want it. Didn't want it.

PM: What the hell is that about?

MG: I'm too old, basically, I think that's what it came down to.

PM: But you were good looking, so what's the rub?

MG: Well, not that good lookin'.

[laughter]

MG: Well, I don't know--I can't understand why they didn't want it, but nobody wanted it. And the few that did want it wanted to sign me for six records, and they wanted to own the masters, and it was just horrible. I mean, horrible record deals where I was going to be--

PM: A slave.

MG: A sharecropper, as Courtney Love would put it.

PM: Yeah, right.

MG: I was too business savvy and too--well, too old, actually, to be manipulated like that.

PM: Right.

MG: So Signature Sounds did a licensing deal with me. They agreed to do a one-off, which was what I wanted to do. I didn't want to get married before I dated somebody.

PM: Yeah, really.

MG: Unless they're putting some serious money on the table, which they weren't. So Signature licensed it from me, and they gave me a very fair deal. And Jim Olsen, who owns the company, believes in me. It just seemed like the right place to go. And besides, Fred was there. I thought, "If Fred is there, I should go there too."

PM: [laughs]

MG: What the hell, it can't be that bad, Fred doesn't make big mistakes. And I'm glad I did it. It was a good thing to do at the time, because now I own three of my records. If the worst case scenario were to happen with this big record deal, I've still got three records to fall back on. You can't take away my career. Those records are how I pay my rent, and it's how I live. My performance fees have never really gone up that much. So that I can continue to work, I'll do deals with clubs that don't guarantee me very much, and do percentage deals so that they don't overextend themselves, knowing that when I go in I'll be able to sell CDs.

PM: That's really smart, Mary. That's really smart.

MG: And essentially, the fact that I'm older has worked for me. It really has worked for me, because I've been around enough to know basically how to cover my ass. And Fred has been a mentor. He's always been there for me when I have questions. And Taj Mahal has been a mentor.

PM: Really?

MG: Yeah, Taj is indie all the way. He showed me how to go do Europe and get sub-publishing deals. He does that every year, at Midem [big European Music Conference] if he has a CD. And these guys, they're willing to help other artists if you just ask them, and ask them to show you how they did it, they're more than willing to help you.

PM: I've interviewed both of those guys, and they're both fascinating characters. [see our interviews with Taj and Fred]

MG: They're smart. They're not only great musicians, but they learn from their mistakes really quick. I mean, you can't avoid making some mistakes. That's impossible. That doesn't happen. But you can warn people about big mistakes not to make. You can tell them the mistakes you made, and offer your own wounds as a lesson so that they don't have to make them too. And I like artists helping each other, because the business ain't there to help you.

PM: Yeah. Nobody in the business is going to help you but another artist, that's for sure.

MG: Well, the business is there to help itself. Which isn't to say that's wrong. It's just that if artists are going to get any real help, it's going to have to be from each other.  continue

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