The dual life of being both a singer and a songwriter has intertwined so much through the history of popular music that its hyphenated combination has practically become a style of music in itself.
Of course, such a format can become tiresome and formulaic if you’ve been doing it for an extensive period of time.
Martha Wainwright has been in the trade for over 20 years now, and decided to change things up for her fifth solo album, asking other close musician friends to write songs specifically with her in mind. As a result, an all-star cast stands out among the writing credits for Goodnight City, including The Frames’ Glen Hansard, Tune-Yards’ Merrill Garbus, Beth Orton and, of course, Martha’s brother Rufus.
“Everyone had their own approach – and some probably took it a little more seriously than others,” Wainwright begins. “I think Rufus probably wrote the most Rufus song he could, yet somehow still made it sound like me. That’s him playing piano and me singing that song, which is all about my life – it’s the closest we’ve ever worked together on something. With someone like Merrill, she came in with demos that sounded very much like her – vocal layers and drum machines, things like that. It was definitely in my interest to make sure the link and the trace to her identity was kept in there – I mean, it’s Merrill. No one makes music like her. As for Glen, I think it was just luck that he happened to be working on new songs and new lyrics when I approached him – he just kind of took what he’d been writing and recalibrated it with me in mind.”
Having frequently recorded covers and appeared at tributes in the past – honouring everyone from Leonard Cohen to Pink Floyd – Wainwright knows a thing or two about singing other people’s songs. It was a unique experience for her, however, to be singing songs that people had written with the sole intent of being her songs. As someone who is meticulous with the craft of songwriting – her last solo LP, Come Home To Mama, came out four years prior to Goodnight City – she was very open to and excited by the idea of sharing the workload.
“It definitely took the pressure off writing 12 to 16 songs all by myself,” she says. “As long as I’ve been making music, I’ve been singing other people’s songs as much as I have my own. The album that I did before this was an album with Lucy [Wainwright Roche, Martha’s half-sister], called Songs In The Dark. That was all other people’s songs – and, of course, I’ve done an Edith Piaf record. I see myself as an interpreter of sorts – I take what’s given to me and I try to not only take in the perspective of the song’s character, but also how I see myself in it. It can be kind of voyeuristic, but it’s something that has always been a big part of my music, so it made sense to continue in that vein on this record.”
While perusing the tracklist for Goodnight City, one may well note the very similarly named songs that appear at the start and the end of the sequence. Despite being only one letter apart, ‘Franci’ and ‘Francis’ are two separate songs – the former by Wainwright herself, the latter by the aforementioned Rufus, an accomplished performer in his own right. Both are about Wainwright’s second child, Francis Valentine Wainwright, who will turn three next month.
“It was actually funny when Rufus brought in his song about Francis – at the same time, I was writing and working on ‘Franci’, which I was really fond of,” Wainwright says. “We decided it made sense to have them bookend the album. There’s a real sense of family on that song – there’s Rufus over at the piano, I’m singing, and the words I’m singing are about my son – words that Rufus wrote.
“I think my eldest son [Arcangelo] kind of got a little jealous, though, because I was listening to mixes of the record over and over at home and all he’d be hearing were these two songs about his little brother. That kind of sparked me to write ‘Window’ – I’d be playing guitar in the living room, he’d be over playing at his toy drum kit, and I remember telling him, ‘This is your song! This song’s about you!’”
Wainwright and her three-piece backing band will return to Australia in March for an extensive tour through most capital cities and select regional centres. “I’ve been treated so well by your country so many times,” she enthuses. “It’s so wonderful to be able to come back time and time again and be treated so kindly. No matter what time of year that I’ve come, the weather has always been wonderful. I’ve explored your beautiful cities, your beautiful towns, seen all your wonderful animals… I get to do that all again, and I can’t begin to tell you how happy that makes me.”
[Martha Wainwright photo by Carl Lessard]
Goodnight City is out now through Inertia. Catch Martha when she plays Twilight At Taronga with Oh Pep!,Saturday March 11 atTaronga Zoo.
