Mary Lou Lord
Got No Shadow (Work Group/Sony)
An interview with Mary Lou Lord
by Margo Tiffen
How old were you when you first started playing?
When I got serious about playing, I was twenty-three. It’s kinda later in life. I started singing when I was about six. I sang in school, in the choir and in high school. When I was living in London, I was living in a squat and we didn’t have any heat. So to avoid going home after school I hung out in the subway and would kind of just be warm and watch the subway musicians. One of the guys I was watching asked me to look after his guitar when he went to the bathroom. I did and I played a few chords and someone threw money. I was like, “Oh man!” So the next day I bought a guitar. I’d go down to the subway after school and I knew about three chords. So I learned a song, then another song, and I had like five songs on my repertoire. I did it for about a year and then I came back to Boston and I started doing it there. In the initial period, when I first began, I was pretty lousy and I wanted to get better. Then I met Shawn Colvin and she turned out to be a really inspiring role model who also showed me that it is possible to make a living out of playing music. I went to school in London at the School of Audio for production, and I wanted to be an engineer or producer. I ended up playing because I stumbled into it and I said to myself, I just don’t want to wake up one day when I’m thirty-five and say, I should have tried to play. I also had to make myself into an artist that I could work with as a producer.
Was there anything that specifically inspired you to do this with your life?
I liked songs that had good stories, songs that I could immediately relate to… songs that come from the heart. Mostly about relationships that went bad, that kind of thing. I liked everything. I was a DJ when I was thirteen at this college radio station. I did that for four years, then they came up with a playlist after the fourth year and I was like, this is ridiculous. I hated following the playlist. I just figured there had to be a way that I could play songs for people. That I could set the precedent of what I wanted to play so they could hear it. The only way I could find a means to do that, other than radio, was to do it myself. If a song could be listened to, it comes to life once again. So when I started playing I was like, oh, god, there’s all these songs that need to be heard.
You do a lot of covers, what are your favorites? I know you do a lot of Elliot Smith, a lot of Shawn Colvin…
I just like to do songs that I know won’t really see the light of day any other way. Songs that are B sides of B sides, that have been buried for awhile. Songs that are not immediately accessible.
So your new album is coming out soon on Sony, tell me about it.
It’s got a pretty nice group of people on it. Shawn Colvin singing back-up vocals, William from Sunny Day Real Estate playing some drums, Money Mark from the Beastie Boys is on keyboards, Roger McGuinn, who used to be in the Byrds, is on guitar. Nick Saloman from the Bevis Frond is on guitar. I co-wrote a lot of the record with Nick Saloman, he’s an awesome songwriter. I was in the studio at Sunset Sound in L.A. for about five months, and that’s about it. It’s a good record.
Are the people who played on the record friends of yours or did you call them up because you enjoy their music?
Some of them were friends and some of them I called up. With Roger McGuinn, we decided to give it a try and see if he’d do it. Shawn Colvin’s a friend, Money Mark did it because somebody I know called him. You know, that kind of thing.
You told me a while back that Billie Joe from Green Day and Tim Armstrong from Rancid were on the album as well, am I right about that?
The song that we were going to have Billie Joe on got cut. It didn’t make it to the album. It was really funny because Tim Armstrong and Billie Joe Armstrong were both hanging around and there were these women playing the Appalachian dulcimer on my record. You know, really quintessential folk chicks. Billie Joe and Tim were in there and they were like, “Wow, what’s going on? What’s that?” So the ladies gave Tim and Billie Joe Appalachian dulcimer lessons, it was really funny. It was like kindergarten.
Tell me about moving from Kill Rock Stars to Sony…
If I do well on Sony, Kill Rock Stars will do better than they ever could with me with their back catalogue. They just don’t have the power that Sony does. If I do well, I’ll sell more records for Kill Rock Stars than I would’ve if I didn’t leave.
Why Sony?
I picked the Work Group. I talked to about fourteen different labels. I picked the Work Group because I was the first artist that they wanted to sign for one thing. I love the Work Group. They’ve been good, financially, it’s been great, they’re letting me do what I want. Sometimes if you have an idea, ideas can be expensive. They’re letting me run with my ideas, so it’s very artistically fulfilling.
When is the album coming out?
January 6th.
Tell me about the tour you’re on.
I’m just doing a little tiny promotional tour. What I’m doing is, I’m playing in the street mostly, and meeting some record store people. Just kind of placing myself in the middle of a college campus and playing and trying to expose myself to as many new people as possible. You play in a club and the people that come are usually the people who have already seen you, they already like you. When you play in the street you’re able to reach at least five hundred people who have never heard you and out of that five hundred maybe a hundred will like it. So it’s constantly gaining more audience.
Would you ever consider doing a regular tour and playing at venues?
I’m going to do a big full-on tour in January when the record comes out, with a band. I’ll probably go on tour with someone like the Wallflowers or Sheryl Crow.
Are there plans to make a video for any of the songs?
We’re probably going to make a video sometime between now and December. I think it’s gonna be “Lights-A-Changing” because we re-recorded it. It might be “Some Jingle-Jangle Morning,” I’m not sure.
Are you excited about everything that’s been happening?
I’m pretty excited. I love to play and being on a major label is not only a cool thing because you get to have this great record come out… I’ve also been having a really good time because on the label they have college reps, these kids that work for the label. All the different cities that I go to they come out and help me with my equipment and they show me where to play. So when I get to a town, they’re very helpful. They’ll take me to the University and they’ll kind of help me get set up and stuff, so that’s one of the definite benefits of being on a major label. I’m just having a really good time. I don’t want to get my hopes up too much about anything. I just want to be as realistic as possible, but work as hard as I can. Not leave it up to the label for the success of this album. It’s mostly up to me, how much I put into it. A lot of people, they sign these mega deals and they think that they can sit back and put their feet up, and it’s just not like that. You have to make yourself totally available to it. A lot of people wonder why so many people know who I am. I’ve not had any radio play, but I’ve been there. I’ve been there, in person, for them to hear it. If I did become successful, some people who remember me might feel part of it. They might say to themselves, the reason why she’s doing so well is because back in 1991 I gave her a dollar. It’s true. Don’t ever wait for a club or a record company to call you back. With people, just go out there and play, get it done that way. DIY is the way to go. When you’re ready, don’t go to the major label, let them come to you. Make them work for you. I’m not desperate for them and they like knowing that I can work just as hard with them. I think they like the fact that I’m the boss.
