A Conversation with Imelda May – HuffPost 8.19.11

Mike Ragogna: Hello there, Imelda May.

Imelda May: Hello. How are you?

MR: I’m pretty good. How have you been?

IM: Doing well. This is the last day of the tour, and it’s going very well. I’ve been very busy and very happy.

MR: Very nice. Where did the tour take you?

IM: We were in the States for a month, and then we did a few dates in Canada as well. We did our last gig in Seattle last night, and we’ve just arrived in Canada. I’m speaking from the bed in the tour bus, and I’ve literally just woken up in Canada. (laughs)

MR: (laughs) Recently you were on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno.

IM: Yeah.

MR: How much fun was that?

IM: Oh it was terrific and I enjoyed it. It was a great experience. He was very nice, and the crew was all very nice as well, so it was a terrific day. Then, we got to do Craig Ferguson, and then we got to do Conan O’Brien, who was sweet as anything. Conan came rolling into the dressing room afterward going, “I loved that music!” So, that was terrific. It all went really well.

MR: Did Conan play with you guys a little?

IM: He didn’t–he was playing with his own band a little bit. Hopefully, he’ll play with us a bit if we’re back…he said he wants us back. I got a great kick being in the Warner Bros. studios, that was really cool. I kept singing the Looney Tunes theme song all day. I’m sure they haven’t heard that one before. (laughs)

MR: (laughs) Well, let’s talk about the album. Now, you’ve technically had three, with No Turning Back, Love Tattoo, and Mayhem?

IM: I’d say two and a half.

MR: What, No Turning Back is an EP? (laughs)

IM: (laughs) In my head, I consider No Turning Back my “dipping the toe in the water” album. It was mostly covers of favorite songs, and there were three originals in there. So, it feels like it was just my album to see what the temperature of the water was. We recorded that in the bedroom on an eight-track, and I enjoyed that very much. Love Tattoo, though, was all me on songs, and I produced that, as well as Mayhem, the next album. I got into the studio and it was more organized that way. So, two and a half albums–can I say that?

MR: Of course! Let me ask you about those last two albums. They were on Universal in the States, so are you a Universal artist around the globe?

IM: Yes. Love Tattoo I recorded without a record company. I’d gotten turned down by the record companies–they said they didn’t get me, which is fine I suppose. I just did my thing, and they didn’t know where to put me, I think, because I have so many different styles. So, I just cracked down and made the album anyway, and that’s when everything started to take off. Then, I got a call after we were on a TV show from Universal saying, “What we didn’t get about Imelda before, we get now. Can we talk?” And I said, “Absolutely,” so, they bought Love Tattoo off me, and then I made Mayhem.

MR: Now, Love Tattoo and Mayhem were both number one records in Ireland, right?

IM: Yep, they both went to number one. I was absolutely thrilled that they went #1 in Ireland. Mayhem went to #7 on the U.K. charts, which is quite a difficult place to get in those charts, I suppose. So, I was delighted with how it all went. They’ve kind of stayed in the Top Five, and certainly in the Top Ten in Ireland for months and months. It’s been great.

MR: Now, you said before that labels didn’t get you. How would you describe you?

IM: Ooh, I suppose my music is a mix of music that I love. In a way, I’m lucky that I was never classically trained and never went to a music college. I’m just from a normal working class family, and happened to get obsessed with music as a teenager. I went to jam sessions at clubs when I was sixteen, and my brothers would take me and make sure that I was okay. So, I never had the feeling that this music is this and this music is that, I just loved music like crazy. I suppose my music is a good chunk of rockabilly, a good chunk of country, blues, jazz, and a bit of that post punk kind of madness in there, and sometimes it’s a bit traditional Irish. It’s very strange in that way, but it works for me, it makes me happy, and I enjoy making music. So far, other people seem to like it, or I hope they do. Yeah, I don’t know what you’d call it. Call it “mongrel.” (laughs)

MR: I want to hear about some of your early musical influences. You had a lot of rockabilly heroes, right?

IM: Yeah.

MR: You liked Eddie Cochran and Gene Vincent?

IM: Well, as a kid, I took a cassette from my brother’s room, and on this cassette was Eddie Cochran, Gene Vincent and Buddy Holly. I just went mad for it. You know, at that young age, I was excited and scared by Gene Vincent’s Blue Caps screaming in the background. The hairs stood up on the back of my neck–I just loved it. Then, as I got older, I listened to different music, and I got into Billie Holiday and Patsy Cline, and other classics. I learned a lot from listening to these people. Then I went back to rockabilly, after listening to The Clash, Jimi Hendrix, and all these greats, and it made rockabilly make great sense, as to where it stood in history for me. Once I started listening to others, and then listened to rockabilly again, I’d hear interviews with people like The Beatles saying they wanted to be rockabilly artists. It made it more important to me, it influenced so much of the music that I loved. So, rockabilly became a great love of mine.

MR: Nice. Now, you performed at the 52nd Grammy Awards with Jeff Beck, right?

IM: Yeah, that was a great day, and I had a terrific time. I got to work with Jeff, who is one of the most genius guitar players in the world. Incidentally, Les Paul’s son was telling us that Les said that if he ever had to have his music played by anybody, it would be Jeff Beck. So, that shows you how great Jeff is, if a genius like Les nods to him. To be asked to play with Jeff was brilliant, but most of all, it was brilliant to play a tribute to a genius like Les Paul, who invented the solid body guitar, as well as the multi-tracking system, which we take so much for granted now. It felt like a whirlwind of a day, but it was amazing.

MR: Very nice. Did you bond with folks backstage?

IM: Yeah, there were loads of people backstage. I got into the queue for the photographers between Mary J. Blige, Pink, and Nicole Kidman, and The Jonas Brothers’ skipped the queue and Mary J. Blige and Pink were talking like mad–I thought that was very funny. I met Alice Cooper, who I love. There was a funny moment when we were going on stage. Apparently, Quentin Tarantino and John Legend were in the makeup room, and my manager was standing nearby. I guess when I went out to sing they were saying, “Who is that girl?” He heard them, and he just started screaming at the top of his lungs, “It’s Imelda May!”

MR: (laughs) What a great moment for you. Getting back to your love of rockabilly music for just a moment, you have “I’m Looking For Someone To Love,” which you contributed to the new tribute album, Listen To Me: Buddy Holly, right?

IM: Yeah, I was very delighted to be asked to do that. The lovely Peter Asher was putting together this great album. I can’t tell you what a lovely man he is. I love Buddy Holly, and he was not only a great singer and songwriter, but he was a great producer, and I’m interested in producing also. I’m interested in people who create the whole music and the whole sound, and Buddy Holly is definitely one of them. Eddie Cochran was another. It was great to be on this tribute to Buddy Holly, and I love that song, “I’m Looking For Someone To Love.” The band and I had a great day in the studio, and Peter Asher as well, and we had a great day playing the music. Buddy Holly is a very, very terrific man.

MR: You sound like you’re in love.

IM: I know. He really got right in there to the roots of the music, and produced a whole sound that is really recognizable as his own, even now, you know?

MR: Yeah. Speaking of other projects, you were also on the “Children In Need” single with a few artists, right?

IM: Yeah. I’m always up for doing anything for the kids, and that was great to be involved in that. I’m involved in a charity in Ireland called Make A Wish who make the wishes of very ill children come true. I’ve just written a song for that called “Make A Wish.” I don’t know what will happen to that song. I just sent it to Ireland and said, “If you want to use it, then all profits will go to you.” Hopefully, they can make some money off of it, and send some kids to Disneyland, or to swim with dolphins, or whatever it is that they want to do while they’re having such a tough time.

MR: Very nice. Now, you wrote most of the tracks on Mayhem. What is your creative process like?

IM: Well, I wrote thirteen of them. One was a cover, “Tainted Love,” and then the other one, “Eternity,” isn’t mine–that’s Darrel Higham, my husband. I stole that off of him when I heard it because I was like, “Oh my God, I have to have that on the album.” But the rest of the songs are me. For the creative process, mostly the melody and the lyrics come at the same time. I’ll get a tune in my head while I’m mostly daydreaming–you know, when your mind is wandering? Then, I sit down with the guitar and start to arrange the song properly. I have a little ukulele guitar, and I recently also bought a beautiful little Martin, so I work out the songs and arrange them on that. Sometimes, I just write down ideas for a song and then I get back to them later, but I normally have at least two or three songs rattling around in my brain at any one time. I’m just trying to get the time, at the moment, to sit down and finish them off. Once I’ve finished them, then I get together with the guys and walk it through with my terrific band. I have a very patient band because I know exactly what I want, and I have to go through every bit with them–and they add a lot to it. Then, we get into the studio and record it. Darrel comes up with some terrific guitar riffs too.

MR: Imelda, what advice might you have for new artists?

IM: Oooh, that’s a good one. I would say just enjoy yourself. The main thing is to enjoy yourself. Just enjoy every moment of it. Work hard. Looks are only a small part of it, and hard work is the backbone of it. Once you enjoy your work, you don’t mind putting in 16 hours in the studio–I absolutely love that, very much. I would say, just follow your heart–actually I got that advice from the wonderful Dr. John. I was making the album, and I was arguing my case with the record company to produce my own album, which is not the normal procedure, and I think they were freaking out a little bit, worrying. I really wanted to produce it because I knew how I wanted it to sound and I had all these ideas to do. I met Dr. John and was chatting with him and he gave me some terrific advice about following what’s in your heart, and what’s in your gut. I fought tooth and nail to produce it, and I’m so glad that I did. In the end, the record company became very supportive and backed me up. So, I will pass Dr. John’s message along and say follow your heart. Don’t be afraid to make mistakes is the other thing I’d say. There are all these TV shows for music at the moment, and I worry about people that go on things like that because they don’t get a chance to make mistakes, and they get watched and judged on everything they do. For me, the way I came up was a terrific way–gigging, meeting a lot of friends, meeting a lot of musicians, making mistakes when nobody was looking and learning from them, and thoroughly enjoying it. So, those music TV shows are a small way of getting into the music business, but there are many other ways of getting involved in it. For me, enjoyment and the love of it is the absolute heart and soul of it.

MR: Wow. That is one of the best answers I’ve gotten to that question.

IM: Oh, thank you very much. I can only answer the truth from what I’ve lived.

MR: Imelda, this has really been a joy. Keep us up to date about what you’re doing out there. It’s a really wonderful album, you do a lot of different styles on there, all of them enjoyable.

IM: Yeah, why not? I think most people have a varied taste in music, and I hope they come along on this madness with me. Somebody said once to me, “I don’t know what it is, but I love it,” and that’s the best answer I could get. Thank you very much for taking the time to do this. I’m sorry I sound like I might have smoked for eighty years, but I don’t smoke, I just woke up, so sorry I sound so off.

MR: (laughs) Stop, you sound great. Imelda, thank you very much for your time, and all the best.

Transcribed by Ryan Gaffney