Maia Sharp took a bit of a gamble on her latest album: for the first time in her 15-year recording career, the talented singer/songwriter acted as her own producer. The resulting Change The Ending shows that not only does Sharp have chops, smarts, and good ears – she’s blessed with the sort of perspective and objectiveness that one needs to oversee their own work in the studio.
Change The Ending is loaded with Sharp’s trademark ear-snagging melodies and smart wordplay, performed with the help of some very talented friends. (The title tune is a classic example of Maiaisms: a failed romance is looked upon as “a beautiful story – if you change the ending.”) The bottom line is not only has Sharp succeeded as a self-producer – she may have just cut the best album of her career to date.
We caught up with Maia at a recent gig at Longfellow Square in Portland, ME. She was kind enough to spend a goodly chunk of her time between soundcheck and the show discussing the separation of artist and producer; those aforementioned talented friends; and her inner jazzster.
BR: Sometimes you worry me … you write so eloquently about heartbreak.
(laughs) No, no – I get to get it all out in the songs so I don’t have to live it. (laughter) I’m actually way happier than that.
Well, that’s what I hoped. (laughter) Let’s talk about producing the new album yourself – there has to be both good and bad sides to that.
Yes – you’re right on. The best part is just being able to take a chance on something wacky … and maybe taking a longer walk to find it, you know? To get it wrong a few times before getting it right. I might have hesitated to take those walks if there was somebody else at the helm – or even if I was just sharing it. I’ve co-produced a couple of records and I think I subconsciously felt a responsibility to keep things moving with somebody else.
So on this one there were things that I took the time to do that I might not have otherwise.
Like?
Like … we did two completely different versions of the title cut, for instance. We’re offering the alternate version as a bonus track on iTunes: if you buy the whole album, you get the other version of “Change The Ending”, as well.
I really like to encourage people to get the whole thing … to me it feels like one animal.
Oh, I agree. I still think about albums – about records – with the song that has to be the first song on the first side or the first song on the second side …
Me too. And hopefully, the person who made the album was thinking about it as a whole experience: wanting the audience to sit down and listen all the way to the last song. And there will be a kind of curve to that; I’ll hear what the artist was feeling.
I was surprised when we walked in during soundcheck and saw just you and Linda on stage. Change The Ending is all full-band songs, but the two of you were definitely getting it done up there.
Thank you. I’m really hooked on the duo right now – hooked on the space of it. Plus, Linda’s so versatile and accomplished as a player; so song-oriented. She’s never “Look at me – look at me!” It’s never about her chops. It’s about how she can serve the song.
You’ve seen what Linda has down at her feet, right? The big pedal board? She’s constantly working that – and tweaking it to fit the room.
At some point in every show you’re going to hear something and be wondering, “How is that happening?” (laughs)
I love my friends who play the bass and drums, but this is where I’m at right now.
I think the last time we saw you in Maine was in Freeport – you, Linda, and David J. Carpenter on upright bass.
Yeah, that was a really fun tour. Dave’s such a musical player – plus you get the percussion out of the bass and the third harmony, you know?
Actually, another reason for the duo is that when you add the upright bass, the logistics of the tour change in, like, six ways. (laughter) You now need a car that’s three times bigger; you’re now flying something that’s overweight, over-length, oversized … it’s different.
But I really love just doing the duo thing right now. Even when I’m back in town – in L.A. – where there isn’t any traveling to do, I still like the duo. You can just push it and pull it and follow each other … it’s just the two of you.
You did some writing with your dad [Randy Sharp] on the album.
Yes – we wrote the newest song on the record together: “I See Cecelia”. I was using an old Fender Rhodes that I’d
traded my Gretsch with him for.
Oooh …
(laughs) Yeah – it was a reissue hollowbody Gretsch. It looked great, but I couldn’t get it to speak for me. My dad wanted to do all these things to it and we traded. He loves working on things like that. His Rhodes is the real deal: it’s from the 70s; it’s falling apart; and there are probably a couple of spiders living in it. (laughter) But it’s great.
You’ve written with him before, haven’t you?
Uh-huh. We wrote a song called “A Home”, which was on my record Fine Upstanding Citizen. The Dixie Chicks recorded it, too. That was our big family victory. (laughter)
When the two of you write together is there an obvious division of duties?
Actually, Dad is probably the least defined writing partner that I have. Maybe it’s because I learned so much from him, you know? We’ll hand it back and forth: I’ll do some of the music and then jump in on the lyric; and he does the same thing. I think the key is that nobody’s afraid to say something stupid. We’re not worrying about that.
The core group for much of Change The Ending is yourself, Linda, David on bass, and Matt Chamberlain on drums. Where do I know Matt’s name from?
Oh, Matt’s played on a ton of stuff … Fiona Apple, The Wallflowers … he’s been all over the place. Matt’s a hell of a drummer – really musical; huge ears. He made the music part of the sessions very easy and smooth.
And, yeah: pretty much any band project I have going on now, I hire Dave and Linda. We’ve gotten to the point where you just kind of give a look and they know what I mean … and I know what they mean.
Bonnie Raitt was on board for a couple of tunes …
Yeah!
And you’ll be touring with her this fall.
That’s right: we’re doing a few shows in Florida, Alabama, and Nashville together in October.
Bonnie and her band have that same sort of thing I was talking about with Linda and David. If something goes wrong, it’s just a facial expression – everybody is on the same page.
Formation flying.
Exactly. And I’m not always in the lead; maybe we realize that Linda’s onto something and we’re all going to follow her, you know?
Adrienne Gonzalez’ vocal work on the opening cut, “Me After You” is something else.
I love her voice – we kind of stimulate each other’s vocals.
Had you sung with her before?
We wrote “Sober” a long time ago, which is also on this album. I actually produced an earlier version for Edwin McCain. I think that was the first song Adrienne and I wrote together.
Since then we’ve written a few more – the most recent being “Me After You” that you mentioned. She put a version of “Me After You” on her own album – a completely different version that’s totally 180 degrees away … but really, really cool.
So the album was actually recorded where?
I tracked it in three days at a place called The Lair in L.A. The drums, bass, electric guitar, horns, a couple of overdubs … anything where I wanted to have a big room with a lot of air in it I did it at The Lair.
Then I took it back to my place, where I was off the clock, Then I could do strings; tons of acoustic and electric guitar overdubs; all the vocals … that all happened at my place.
And you have a studio?
It’s just a big room – 20’ x 20’ … just enough for a one-woman show. It’s the rehearsal room, the writing room, and the overdub room. I wouldn’t track a band in there.
Was there any song on Change The Ending that started out in one mood and ended up somewhere totally different?
Actually, the title song started out as an ode to the 1970s; like something that you might have heard on a Jackson Browne album back then. There’s even a David Lindley-style steel guitar in there. It came out great and I was really happy with it … but if it was going to be a single, it needed to be more like the demo – up and bouncy and driving. That’s what we recut for the album.
And the original version is the iTunes bonus?
That’s right – and hopefully it’ll be incentive for people to buy the whole album and get that version of it.
But, yeah – that was basically starting over with two complete productions on a song – I’d never done that before.
You mentioned the steel guitar on that version – who played it?
Greg Leisz.
Oh, boy …
Yeah – he killed it. He’s such a sweet guy. So quiet and so nice … then he plugs that thing in and – wow! It’s like he doesn’t have to have an attitude; he plays with it.
Why did you choose the older songs that you did for this album?
“The Bed I Made” was one that I’ve been wanting to put on a record for a while, actually. It was originally scheduled to be on Fine Upstanding Citizen. At the time, Bonnie said she was interested in it and very politely – didn’t insist, just very politely asked if I minded if she was the first to put it out. I’ve never said “No” to Bonnie Raitt and I never intend to. (laughter) Of course I didn’t mind. And she put it on Souls Alike.
“The Bed I Made” really works on this record, which has a little more of a nod to my … not jazz _roots _ – I don’t have jazz roots … jazz phase. (laughter)
I went through a jazz phase and then I got out of it, but every now and then …
You can say what you want, but I don’t think you’re ever really out of it. (laughter)
Well … there’s just a couple jazzier numbers. Maybe “Stepping Stone”; maybe “The Bed I Made”; and then the remix of “Buy My Love” … that was so fun.
There – see? There’s your inner jazz self, right there. (laughter)
You know how it is – so many times a remix of a song goes totally the other way: electronica; special producer with a hundred tracks … I wanted to take it completely in the opposite direction: break it down and play a little horn …
Yeah … the cool beat jazzsters – right down to the goofy nicknames everyone has in the credits.
There are stories behind each of those, but some of them are kind of dark … (laughs) I don’t know how family-friendly they are. (laughter)
Promise me something
What?
Promise me you’re going to do a jazz album – an instrumental album … I want to hear you play that horn some more.
(laughs) You know, we were talking about it.
Really?
Well … (laughs)
When you first finish an album – before you do any of the marketing, promotion, or any of the touring, it’s easy to have this big plan for what the next album is going to be, you know? (laughs) But yeah, when this album was done, Bill [Bill Straw of Blix Street Records] and I said, “Okay, let’s do instrumental versions of this whole album – it’ll be like a sidecar.”
It would’ve been a blast … and inexpensive. You really just get a bunch of friends together that you love and trust – and you just roll. It’s live – you either got it or you didn’t. So the production of it would all be the sonic choices – not a lot of overdubbing.
But now there’s work to do. I’m feeling like I owe this album a good year or two of trying to let everybody know about it. So if I’m out on the road, it might be while before there’s another album – which I think is only fair to this one.
I hear you. But maybe at least an EP of jazz tunes?
I’ll tell you what: you tell me which ones should be on it and I’ll talk to Bill about it.
Fair enough. (laughter)
