Sarah McQuaid: How Has Music Changed

Sarah McQuaid talks about being produced by the person who was the hit maker of the 90’s (Michael Chapman)

Interview Conducted on January 29, 2018

By Dan Locke

Sarah McQuaid is a singer, guitarist and songwriter. She is the author of The Irish DADGAD Guitar Book and has recorded five solo albums: “When Two Lovers Meet”, “I Won’t Go Home ‘Til Morning”, “The Plum Tree and The Rose”, “Walking Into White” and now “If We Dig Any Deeper It Could Get Dangerous” in addition to the Mama album “Crow Coyote Buffalo” – FB

You have art in your blood, with your parents being American art critic Jane Addams Allen (founder and editor of the New Art Examiner) and Spanish artist José Paredes Jardiel. How did they support your up bring into the music world?

Sadly I never met my father, and my mother died three years before I finally got up the courage to quit my journalism job and become a full time musician. But as you say, it’s in my blood, and I hope that I’m honouring both of their lives by doing what I do!

Did your family ever talked about your great-great-great aunt, prominent pacifist and activist for women’s suffrage Jane Addams?

Oh yes, Jane Addams was a huge figure in my life and came up very frequently in dinner table discussions in my childhood. I read her autobiography, “Twenty Years At Hull House”, when I was very young, and when I was 11 years old I chose her as a “famous person” to portray for a school presentation — I dressed up in period clothes and gave a talk about her life based both on the aforementioned autobiography and on a biography of her that was written by my great-grandfather, James Weber Linn. His mother had died when he was very small, so she was the primary mother figure in his life and consequently the primary grandmother figure in my grandmother’s life. Later, when I went to Haverford College, I wrote my “Senior Essay” for my BA in philosophy on Jane Addams as a philosopher — it was called “Jane Addams and the Philosophy of Social Ethics”, and I still have a copy of it to hand — sources cited in my bibliography included not only the aforementioned autobiography but also her books “Democracy and Social Ethics” and “Newer Ideals of Peace” among other sources.

You grow up in Chicago. What part of Chicago? Tell me about your up bring in Chicago and what places you used to go to check out music?

I grew up in Hyde Park, on the South Side of Chicago, as did my mother and grandmother before me — my great-grandfather, James Weber Linn, was a professor of English at the University of Chicago, and I attended the University of Chicago Lab School from 4th through 8th grades. When I was 13 we moved from Chicago to Washington DC, so I’m afraid I never got a chance to “check out music”, but I was a member of the Chicago Children’s Choir from age 7 until we moved away, and that had a huge impact on my future music career. We rehearsed very intensively, three days a week, and we’d go on tour for 10 days at a time during which a typical day would include an early start, a long bus journey, two or three school presentations, maybe a local television taping, and a concert in the evening after which we’d all be parcelled out to host families for the night! It was a great introduction to the professional side of music.

How did your distant cousin, well-known singer/songwriter/storyteller Gamble Rogers inspire you to become a singer/songwriter?

I only met him once, but that meeting made a powerful impression on me. He came to visit my grandmother when I was seven years old, and I remember being told that he was a professional storyteller and entertainer, and thinking what a great thing that was to be.

You lived 13 years in Ireland and now resides in Cornwall, England. How is music different in each area?

When I first moved to Ireland I was immersed in the traditional Irish music scene, but gradually I came to know people who were writing their own songs, and became part of a little group of singer/songwriters who used to get up and perform at an open mic run by a guy called Dave Murphy at the International Bar in Dublin. That group included Declan O’Rourke, Paddy Casey, Gemma Hayes, Mundy, Damien Dempsey — so many artists who’ve all gone on to have careers in music, and all of us just starting out at the time. Later, when I moved to Cornwall, I was lucky enough to meet Zoe, a former pop star who’d moved from London down to Cornwall to get away from it all. She and I started writing songs together and made an album of songs we’d co-written under the band name Mama, and that’s what really made me decide to focus on songwriting.

Tell me about the development of your musical style?

My first album was mostly focused on traditional Irish music, although I did have one of my own songs on it. I recorded my second album not long after my mother died, and most of that album consists of the American folk music that she taught me, plus two songs that I wrote about her — the album as a whole is dedicated to her. Between that album and my third album “The Plum Tree and The Rose”, I made the aforementioned Mama album with Zoe, and as result my third album featured a lot more of my own songs, plus several Elizabethan songs that seemed to fit with the Elizabethan theme of songs I’d written like “Kenilworth” and “Hardwick’s Lofty Towers”. The fourth and fifth albums both featured mostly original material, and thanks to Michael Chapman’s insistence that I play some electric guitar on the new album, it has a rockier, grittier sound than its predecessors. Which is a good thing, I think!

What genre of music are you?

I used to get annoyed about being classified as “Folk” until I saw some of the other artists who were labelled with the same genre and realized that the music industry’s definition of “Folk” was a little broader than mine! When faced with a list of category options I generally choose “Singer-Songwriter” if it’s available, and “Folk” if it isn’t — but I try to write songs that aren’t limited to any one genre.

Tell me about the Irish national television The View?

It was a long-running Friday evening arts program on Ireland’s national television station, RTE1, hosted by a very interesting guy called John Kelly, and always finished with a musical guest performing a song live. I was lucky enough to be featured as a musical guest on the show when my 1997 album “When Two Lovers Meet” was re-released in 2007, and that’s what kick-started my solo career — having a video of me performing live on national TV was a massive help in getting gigs!

Tell me about DADGAD (Celtic tuning)? As I understand it both Jimmy Page and Jeff Tweedy uses that type of tuning?

Yeah, loads of guitarists have used it over the years — Davey Graham, John Renbourn, Pierre Bensusan, Dick Gaughan, to name a few! I’ve been using nothing but DADGAD for over 20 years now — I find it does everything I want to do. There’s a misconception that you can only play in the key of D when you’re in DADGAD — that’s totally untrue. It lends itself to playing in loads of different keys, and to my mind it offers a lot more flexibility and variety than standard tuning.

What type of music did you listen to growing up?

My mother had wildly eclectic tastes in music, and I guess I learned to share that pretty early on. The Beatles, Bach, Joan Baez, and Ella Fitzgerald were all perennials on my Mickey Mouse record player…

How did you find your band members?

I always perform solo, but I do have a number of guests on my new album, notably Michael Chapman — see my answer to the next question for how I met him! Roger Loxton (percussion) is an old friend and former bandmate of my manager and sound engineer, Martin Stansbury, who recorded and mixed the album. I met Georgia Ellery (violin) thanks to a songwriting workshop I gave at her secondary school — she wasn’t in the workshop itself, but I asked a few of the participants to be my opening acts at a concert in a nearby arts center, and Georgia backed one of them on fiddle — I was so impressed with her playing that I took her details straightaway with a view to getting her to play on my next album. I met Richard Evans (trumpet) when he and another local musician did a spot at a concert I was doing at another venue up the road, and Samuel Hollis (bass) and Joe Pritchard (cello) were both referrals from friends when we were asking around about possible musicians in the run-up to the album recording. But I’m touring the album solo, as I always do — I’m playing two guitars, a stage piano and a drum, so the stage is pretty crowded already with just me!

Your latest CD “If We Dig Any Deeper It Could Get Dangerous”, was produced by legendary singer-songwriter and guitar sage Michael Chapman. How did you get him to produce your CD?

Actually, it was his idea. I met Michael at a festival where we were both playing back in 2014, and his wife came to a gig I was doing in Memphis, where she was exhibiting her knitwear designs at a fashion show. They organized a gig for me at their local cricket club, and Michael very humbly asked if I’d mind if he did a short opening set for me at the gig! We got to be good friends and I stayed at their house a bunch of times while travelling up and down the country on tour. On one of those visits we were having a glass of wine and he said “Why don’t you let me produce your next album?” I was really glad he said it, cos I’d never have dared to ask.

Michael Chapman has given you his Ibanez electric guitar on long-term loan. What is the model of Ibanez is it. And was it one of the lawsuit Ibanez guitars from the 70s. Because if it is you have a prize.

It’s an Ibanez Artist of some sort — I’m not sure exactly what model, but I don’t think it’s particularly old. It’s a lovely guitar, though.

I see you have a 1965 Martin D-28 and custom-made Andy Manson acoustic guitars. What are the stories behind those guitars? How did you get them? And with Andy Manson did you suggest anything special in building the guitar?

My first job out of college was working in a place in Philadelphia called Vintage Instruments, where there were loads of beautiful old Martin and Gibson guitars for me to play. I think I played pretty much every guitar that came through that shop while I was there, and one day a guy called Bill Dillof brought in his 1965 Martin D-28 for us to sell on consignment. I played it and knew right away that I had to have it — I’d played loads of D-28s, some older, some newer, some the same age, but this one was the most beautiful sounding guitar I’d ever played and I asked the shop owner, Fred Oster, right away if he could set the guitar aside for me and let me pay for it out of my wages. It took me two years to pay for it. I still love that guitar, but I wanted a smaller guitar that I could play standing up more comfortably, and ever since I was 18 years old I’d wanted to get a guitar made for me by Andy Manson. I’d seen a bouzouki made by Andy Manson during my travels in Ireland, and I’d asked the guy whose bouzouki it was whether the maker of the bouzouki also made guitars. The answer I got was “Does he make guitars?!!!!” So in 2007, after my husband and I had sold our house in Ireland and moved to Cornwall, I phoned up Andy Manson and said “I’ve just sold my house, so I’ve got some money — will you make me a guitar?” His immediate answer was no, he was too busy, but I persevered and he eventually asked if there was anywhere he could come and see me play live. I told him I was doing an opening slot for another artist at a theater called the Exeter Phoenix. He came to the gig, came backstage and introduced himself afterwards, and invited me to come to his workshop the next morning to discuss what kind of guitar he’d make for me. I told him I wanted a fairly shallow-bodied guitar so I could play standing up without being hunched over, and I wanted a deep cutaway so that I could play as far up the neck as possible. I also wanted a guitar that I could take on tour and not have problems crossing borders with rare woods, so he suggested cherry — he had another guitar in the workshop that he’d made out of cherry, and I really liked it. There’s also some yew wood on the headstock and neck block, which is beautiful, and the top is spruce and the fretboard is mahogany.

Tell me about the song “Break Me Down” and how does your cat get credit on the track?

My cat Nightshine is actually credited on “One Sparrow Down” — was that the song you meant to ask about? “One Sparrow Down” is a song I wrote after watching a sparrow hurtling himself against the plate glass window in our kitchen, attacking his reflection in the glass, completely oblivious to the fact that the cat was sitting on the windowsill inside, watching him and licking her chops. It struck me as a perfect metaphor for xenophobia and the way so many people these days don’t seem to realize who their real enemies are. We used lots of “found” percussion on the track, including an empty wine bottle and an oven grille, and it seemed appropriate to have Nightshine contribute some backing vocals as well, so I recorded her on my iPhone and gave Martin the recording to incorporate into the track.

How did you get Arts Council England Grants for the Arts to help fund your CD?

The grant application was one hell of an undertaking — it took me weeks to complete and came to over 100 pages of single spaced text, so I might as well have been writing a book — but thankfully the effort proved to be worthwhile and I’m incredibly grateful to both Arts Council England and Cultivator Kernow, another arts funding body that also gave me a grant, for their support!

What was the different in your recording technical from your first CD to now?

My first album was made way back in 1997 — in fact it was recorded in 1996 for release in 1997 — and we were still using reel to reel tape back then — I remember Trevor Hutchinson, who engineered and mixed my first three albums, having to splice tape to do edits. Now it’s all digital, but we still use a certain amount of analog technology.

Tell me about your process on how you write music?

When I made my previous album “Walking Into White”, I’d been really busy with touring in the few years leadingup to it, and I’d had lots of song ideas but hadn’t had time to sit down and flesh them out into complete songs. Then I booked the studio time and the flights from England to the USA to record it (that album was recorded in upstate New York, with my cousin Adam Pierce producing) and realized I’d better finish some songs quickly! So I sat down with all the song ideas I’d accumulated — snippets of lyrics, recordings of guitar riffs and bits of vocal melodies — and started working up various ideas into songs. I was really happy with the way all the songs seemed to work together and bounce off each other and combine into a coherent whole — several of the reviewers remarked on that also — so I decided for this album to try and do the same thing — I deliberately made a point of not finishing any songs until I had the studio time booked and was ready to think about making an album. Once again, I felt it worked well to be writing songs with reference to other songs and how they were going to sit alongside each other, so I think I’ll almost certainly keep writing that way from here on out.

You recently was honored with a Lifetime Achievement Award by the Ards International Guitar Festival in Northern Ireland. How did you find out you were getting the award?

It was a total shock. I’d just finished my main stage set at the festival and the audience was shouting for an encore, but before I could come out to do the encore, the festival director appeared onstage and started talking about this Lifetime Achievement Award. I was furious — all I could think was “Dang, now they’re going to bring some big-name guitarist out to get this bloody award and everybody’s going to forget about me and I won’t get to do my encore.” Even when they started saying how it was about time they gave it to a female guitarist for a change, the penny didn’t drop; I was thinking “Hmmm, what other female guitarists are playing here besides me?” It was only when they mentioned DADGAD that I finally realized it was me who was getting the award. I couldn’t believe it, and I have no idea what I said in my acceptance speech — whatever it was, it wasn’t planned! But I did get to do an encore after all.

Three years ago you release a video The Silver Lining. It showed people what a typical touring is like for a small artist. Which was kind of cool. What give you the idea?

It was Martin’s idea, actually — he’d been playing around with a time lapse app on his phone called “Lapse It”, and he said what about doing loads of time-lapse footage of me in the van, loading and unloading, changing strings in hotel rooms, logging receipts, setting up at venues, sound checking, selling CDs at the interval — all the stuff that goes into touring alongside the performing. Not everybody liked it — one guy commented on the YouTube video that it gave him a pain in the eyes! — But I was really happy with it and felt that it suited the song.

Any plans for any touring?

Yes, as I type this I’ve just come back from a three-week album launch tour in England, and I’m about to set off the day after tomorrow for a four-week tour in the Netherlands and Germany. I’ll be doing a six-week UK and Ireland tour in April and May, an eight-week USA tour in September and October, and another UK tour in November.

What type of clubs/places do you like to play in (size)?

My favorite venues are small theatres and arts centres that seat between 100 and 300 people — small enough that I can see most of the people in the audience and chat to some of them while I’m selling CDs at the break, but big enough so that I have a proper dressing room and all my gear fits easily on the stage — plus there’s usually easy access for loading in and out. The UK tour I’ve just finished was a really nice one in that the majority of the gigs were in that category. I did also play some really tiny places, though, and they’re good fun but can be a bit of a nightmare logistically!

What music fests would you like to play in?

Any that pay! It would be great to be able to get gigs at some of the big well-known festivals, both over here and in the USA — I think they make a huge difference in terms of raising the profile of an artist. But I’m not overly keen on traipsing through the mud with instruments ….

Tell me about any endorsements you have and may how do got them?

I have an official endorsement deal with Elixir Strings, which I got after chatting with two Elixir Strings reps in the company’s booth at the London Guitar Show, where I was doing a showcase spot. After various emails back and forth I actually got to visit the factory in Maryland during one of my US tours and met some of the people behind Elixir Strings. They gave me a T-shirt too, which was nice! I also have a close relationship with G7th The Capo Company — I’ve been using their capos for years, and the fellow who designs them invited me to his house for lunch during one of my tours and showed me various prototypes for new capo designs. They also gave me three gold-plated capos engraved with my original album cover artwork — two to give away as pre-sale campaign incentives (which worked a treat — they sold out the first day they went on offer) and one to keep, which I’m still using.

How would you explain your live performance?

I try and keep it as varied as I can by making sure to include songs with lots of different tempos and styles. I’m also now playing four different instruments — acoustic guitar, electric guitar, piano and drum — so that helps to vary things as well.

You do workshops. What type of people come to your workshops?

The vast majority of my workshop participants appear to be men in their 50s and 60s, which I guess reflects the majority of people who play guitar and have the time and money to attend workshops. Most them also have beards and wear glasses. No idea why. I’m always delighted when somebody female and/or under 30 turns up for a workshop. It does happen sometimes!

If someone was listening to you for the first time, what 3 videos or songs would you tell them to look/listen to and why?

“The Tug of the Moon” for starters, because it’s beautifully shot and edited by filmmaker Mawgan Lewis — it’s the first “proper” music video I’ve ever had, and I’m delighted with it. Mawgan also made a documentary video about the making of the new album, which has interviews with me and Michael, studio and rehearsal footage, and excerpts from a bunch of the songs on the album, so that one would also be good to watch as an introduction to me and my music. It’s on YouTube as “Documentary – Sarah McQuaid – If We Dig Any Deeper It Could Get Dangerous”. Then maybe one of the live videos as an example of what I’m like in concert — “Leave It For Another Day – Live in Evesham, July 2017” is a nice one.

Who is your favorite female singer and why?

Ella Fitzgerald, for the quality of her voice and the effortless way she uses it.

How do you see your band in the next 5 years?

I’d like to be basically doing the same thing I’m doing now, but with larger audiences!

Any guilty pleasures your fans would be surprise you listen to?

“Sweet Child o’ Mine” by Guns N’ Roses came out the year I graduated from college, and even though I know it’s mawkish and sentimental and commercial I still get teary-eyed listening to it.

What is on your bucket list?

Making a living.

What is on your phone for music now?

I don’t listen too much of any music on my phone — I hate wearing headphones, apart from anything else! I do like listening to vinyl albums and CDs when I’m at home — at the moment the album that’s sitting on the turntable is Joni Mitchell’s “Blue” and the CD in the player is by a sadly short-lived Irish band called The Guggenheim Grotto — they were a fantastic group and everyone thought they’d be huge, but it didn’t happen. The CD that’s sitting on top of the player, because I play it all the time, is Dayna Kurtz’s “Postcards From Downtown”.

Anything in closing you would like to say?

Nope, I think that about covers it! Thank you so much for your time, and I’d ask anyone who’s interested in learning more to visit my website.

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