You won a Grammy for Best Engineered Album, Non-Classical for your last album "Ellipse." What was that like? I got told while I was doing a gig in New York. It was November, at the end of my last tour. It came as a surprise when they told me on stage,and I was beside myself with excitement. The audience’s first question was 'what are you going to wear?' That’s what a girl thinks about when she’s told she is going to a special night. I wanted to include the social media side as well as the fans that helped me through the process. This award really meant something to me. I had funded my last record by re-mortgaging my flat and now I had the money to buy my old family house. It was quite a transformation. Winning for engineering made it all really worthwhile since it was done in the basement of that house where I built my studio. I had worked amongst professionals in the studios for years,and I had learned how to do it on my own. They listened to my record and thought it sounded great. I almost felt embarrassed for winning it because I’m not a 60-year old engineer, I’m still in the early stages.
Tell us more about this Twitter dress that you wore at the Grammys…I wanted a theme with the dress. I had never watched the show or knew what they were about till about 4-5 years ago. Last Grammys, I wore something outrageous. It was a dress made by a fan. I thought it would be a rock n’ roll affair, but it was hyper-commercial, and everyone was taking it seriously. I wore a frog in my hair on the red carpet. This time around, I was aware of what I was going to be facing. I wanted to walk down the red carpet with something interesting. I wanted it to be a combination of tech and engineering, with LED lights and screens because I was proud of the engineering nomination. I also wanted to bring the fans down the carpet with me. On the red carpet, I wasn’t alone, fans were sending constant messages to the collar of my dress, the plastic handbag allowed fans to load images to my Twitpic account. It was so much fun being able to look down at my bag and see photos of my fans. I was just about to go onto the red carpet and still couldn’t figure out the wi-fi problem, this was right before receiving the award. So we just closed the laptop that I was syncing with and it suddenly started to work. Tweets started to feed around my neck. We had to bypass the red carpet and go directly to the award ceremony. We got in the door and they said my name and I asked, 'What’s going on,' and my manager said 'you’ve won!' I ran down the aisle like a streak of lightening and got onto the stage all flustered. I didn’t know where I was supposed to be. I fumbled something about not making the Twitter dress work, thanked everyone and walked off stage. Then everyone shouted,'You’re going the wrong way.' I hada biodegradable umbrella, when I reversed backward, I got the umbrella caught in a girl’s hair.
You are an avid blogger and you have written about the recording process for ‘Ellipse.’ What do you think about the relationship between social media, blogs and music? My love affair with blogging and being connected to people who make my career possible - the fans – started 7 years ago. I was talking to my Webmaster, James, and he said 'you should start blogging and talking online to fans, they’d love to hear about your process and stuff.' So I set up a blog and after writing a post, within minutes I had a response back, and suddenly everything changed. It seemed like there was a physical war and a barrier between the fans and me, and I didn’t know who they were. I felt misrepresented in the press, I didn’t enjoy that side of it. I enjoyed being online and experiencing the recording side of things with people online, that struck a chord with me. People buying records should hear about the process of making them. Some people didn’t want to spoil the surprise, others relished in the fact that they could go through the ups and downs and struggles with the artist. They helped me get through the making of the record. I did it on my own, and was sharing it with people along the way.
Was your family interested in music and arts while you were growing up? For instance, what were your parents listening to at home while you were growing up? We kind of made our own music. We had two pianos in the living room, and my sister, brother and I all played on the piano. My mom was quite good on the guitar. My dad couldn’t improvise for the life of him. He would play musicals, some Scott Joplin, and would sight-read jazz or classical music. I would say we were a musical family, yeah. We didn’t listen to popular music. It was perfectly normal for me to gravitate toward the piano. That was my thing. My real passion was improvisation on the piano and making pieces of music. At twelve, I discovered an Atari computer with music software on it. My brain exploded with the possibilities. Now I could hear these pieces that were in my head without having to get an orchestra to play them for me. Then, in high school, at 16, I got involved with the end of year CD. Typical me decided I didn’t need help. Since our school had a recording studio, I learned how to record and make some songs. You can still listen to them, 'Alien,' and, 'Missing You.' My current manager heard these songs and drove me around to a few different record labels, and I just got started. I wasn’t interested in being a singer. I decided I’d give it a go for a year, cause I thought it’d be nice to earn some money and not have to rely on my family anymore. I was 17, I had my own place, and I was making records.
You have aneducation inclassical musicbut you decided tobranch out intoalternative music. Howdid this happen? What was your influence? When I was studying classical music, it didn’t go any further than school. I just got my grades on the three instruments I played - clarinet, cello and piano - and that’s all. My goal was to travel the world with my own orchestra and make my own music. When the element of voice and the songwriting side of things got involved, I started enjoying the scope and using technology. I started seeing that there were other sounds I could use, and that they didn’t fit into classical or pop anymore. I made songs using these sounds. It was never band-driven, or like anything you hear on the radio.
What are your plans for the summer? Any plans to record a new album? This summer [2010], I’m writing music for an orchestra to be performed at Abbot Hall. It’s a film score for a project I’m putting together. When I finish the tour, I’ll announce it and make a website. Its aim is to get anyone who fancies to get involved by taking a photo of why they love earth and send it to the website. Then, over 3-4 months, we will collect the footage and edit it together to make a 30-minute piece about the earth. I want people at our shows to see this and be so in love with the planet that they will want to treat it like a family member, not just a stranger. The plan is to release it just like the French film 'Home,' where it’ll be shown to a packed theatre every night for free. It’ll be the first time I’ll be conducting an orchestra. We’ll open the show with this piece.
You have been involved with some charity work. Can you elaborate on some of these projects?
I was doing this conference called PopTech in Camden in May. I had just rehearsed 3 songs and hadn’t had the time to do any more. At the end of it, they asked if I could play anything else. I said 'no, but I can improvise something.' I asked people for a key and a melody. I made this piece of music that was like 5-6 minutes long and everyone absolutely loved it. They loved seeing the process of how a melody came about. Someone came to me after the show and asked if they could use the song for their charity. I said 'yes.' I could make something easily, inspired by the audience, and create a piece of music that could be downloaded for charity. Audiences can help their own town by inspiring a piece of music. I love this local-based charity idea. We need to help each other and our families, and treat the earth the way we want to be treated. I really believe that home is where it should start.
*Originally published in the July 2010 issue of Time Out Istanbul in English.
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