It's Martha's turn - Martha Wainwright interview

Published on Friday 11 April 2008 16:59

Chitra Ramaswamy hears for herself why Martha Wainwright was never going to play second fiddle forever

IS THERE any question that Martha Wainwright won't answer with complete honesty? On the subject of the hilariously dramatic title of her second album, I Know You're Married But I've Got Feelings Too, she has this to say: "I think it's really funny, but also it represents a desperation that is present in everything I do. I'm just doing what feels right and it feels good to complain, and cry, and yell." What about her reason for working with three different producers on the album, one of whom, Bra

During our meeting in London, the 31-year-old daughter of folk singers Loudon Wainwright III and Kate McGarrigle and younger sister of Rufus gets more and more outrageous. On getting together with Albetta during the two years spent recording her first album of 2005: "It wasn't like sex on the mixing desk. It was more like tears."

On her most famous song, the extraordinary love letter to teen angst, 'Bloody Mother F**king Asshole', which is about her father: "Payback time!"

What about being a young woman in a cut-throat, male-dominated industry? "All of the rejection I had as a teenager from boys turned out to be okay," she says in her Canadian, nicotaine-stained drawl. "I didn't get f**ked over that much, y'know?" A mischievous smile follows, and I realise she's not done yet. "I didn't get f**ked either," she adds, and what follows is unprintable.

Wainwright is great company, and of course she knows it. Yet her ego ("My heart is a very full place… filled with images of myself") is tempered by a surprising amount of self-awareness, humour and self-deprecation.

"You have to be willing to give a lot to be in a relationship with me because a lot of the time it's about me," she says. "I have to remember that maybe my husband doesn't want to be my slave, maybe he doesn't always like being in the background. I need to learn to not take advantage of people."

Wearing scuffed boots, tight jeans, a tighter (and generously unbuttoned) shirt and tailored jacket, Wainwright is beautiful in that rather unkempt way. She looks a little older than her years, and that suits her too. "I've always been given respect because I'm kind of mannish, and I'm not a great beauty," she says, not for the first time denouncing her looks. "I've never played the coquette card because I'm no good at it."

Much of the conversation with Wainwright revolves, like her music, around her family. Her second album may seem less confessional than her first, but many of the songs – told in that plaintive, howling voice of hers – are in fact autobiographical. From the acoustic country blues of 'Bleeding All Over You' to the dramatic cabaret of 'Tower' and the pared-down ballad, 'I Wish I Were Here', it's a stunning record, more varied, produced and ambitious than her last effort, and no less potent.

One song, 'In The Middle Of The Night', on which she duets with Rufus, is especially personal. "It's about my mother getting sick with cancer," she says. "These songs about other people… hopefully, I haven't abused their trust. I would never want to reveal the details of her life in a song, but it was such an important thing that I needed to write about it."

She is very close to her mother, who writes and performs with her sister, Anna McGarrigle. Both have contributed to I Know You're Married But I've Got Feelings Too. "I hope to become more and more like her, which is not something most people say about their mothers. Everyone adores her because she's charming and funny and interesting, but also very emotionally honest.

"Cancer is terrible," she adds. "It's put into focus everything that's important, and of course the first person I called when my mother got out of her first surgery and I was afraid was my father. Right away, you're back into the nucleus of the family."

Last year, Wainwright sang a single song, 'Stormy Weather', as part of her brother's recreation of Judy Garland's legendary 1961 concert at Carnegie Hall. Having started out as a backing singer in Rufus's band, how did it feel sharing a stage with him in her own right? "Well, it was still him doing 35 songs and me doing one," she deadpans. "I'm just kidding. He's my older brother and he defends me. He walked me to school and in many ways he's walking me through life. I've had a lot of help in my life and a lot of people who have been good to me... so I don't know why I'm always upset." She laughs heartily. "Basically, I'm a spoilt brat."

In many ways it was an idyllic childhood growing up in Montreal surrounded by music, though Wainwright stresses "it wasn't constant banjos being played by toothless people". With all those egos battling for space, though, it was hard for Wainwright to make herself heard and even more so to admit that she too wanted to sing. "Rufus was always singing show tunes and I remember my grandmother going, 'now wait a minute, it's Martha's turn.'"

When Rufus landed a major record deal, Wainwright fled to New York. "I had a blast living my life, playing four nights a week in little clubs, drinking and doing drugs and falling in and out of love." She still lives in New York now, in "my crappy, dumpy apartment with Brad".

She wrote 'Bloody Mother F**king Asshole" when she was 21. Her father had documented his children's lives through song for many years and she wanted the chance to respond. His song 'Rufus Is A Tit Man' is about breastfeeding, while 'Five Years Old' explores his desire to maintain a relationship with Wainwright after divorcing her mother. 'Hitting You' is about the guilt he felt after striking her once, and Wainwright didn't even realise that 'I'd Rather Be Lonely' was about her. "I thought it was a really mean song about some poor woman," she says. "Then I found out seeing him on stage that it was about me. It was horrible and I was upset. You know, it's all water under the bridge."

What's funny, she says, is how much of an extension of her parents she has become. "I'm in hotel rooms night after night, playing a lot of the same venues as my dad and carrying the guitar that used to be his. We're the same person. I don't know if he realises how much of a legacy he has left to his children." She should write a song about it, though knowing the Wainwrights she probably already has. v

• I Know You're Married But I've Got Feelings Too is out May 12, Drowned In Sound. Martha Wainwright plays Glasgow Royal Concert Hall, May 23

• www.marthawainwright.com

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