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I felt like I was able to express some things with these songs that I wasn't finding in the American popular standard form-you know, personal experiences, engaging in a sort of singer-songwriter confidentiality.
It's almost like you're saying, I know this is wrong, it must be wrong, but right or wrong I can't get along without you.
So much of what we do as artists is a combination of personal experience and imagination, and how that all creeps into your work is not so linear.
You know, I've sung a lot of emotional songs in my life, but when you're writing it yourself, it's very difficult to decide what to reveal.
I'm not really on a mission to tell anybody anything. I'd rather be figured out.
You know, we recently played a benefit with my husband, Elvis Costello, and Sir Elton John, who is a mutual friend of ours. Playing with Elvis and Elton and accompanying them with my band was a pretty euphoric experience.
My dream as a child was to play with a bass player like Ray Brown, who played with the Oscar Peterson Trio. The feeling I had listening to his work was almost carnal, so to actually play for him was earth-shattering for me.
That's why these songs have lasted as long as they have because they're just about feelings that don't change. They are love songs, they are not specific, those kinds of feelings don't change.
This tune on The Girl in the Other Room, 'Narrow Daylight,' which Elvis and I wrote together, is like a hymn of strength.
It's also influenced by this photography show that I saw of Richard Avedon's work. It included this series called 'Drifters,' where he took pictures, just black and whites, of these nameless drifters. I still can't get those images out of my head.
I think that I was being much more uptight about those things before. I feel like I really don't have to prove anything at this point other than what I'm doing.
You're creating an intimacy that everybody feels, that it's their experience, not yours. I'll never introduce a song and say, now this song is about 'my' broken heart.
The album is a definite departure. I haven't written original material before, except for one song on my first album, but Elvis and I did six songs together on this one.
There were some things that I found I really enjoyed singing about; like, on the title track, there's this film-noir character of a woman who's sort of losing it in a room.
I love music so much I love what I do. I work very hard at being the best musician I can be because I love it.
Well, you know, it's been interesting because an album is just a snapshot of where you are at that time. Not all pictures of everybody are just in jeans and a 'T' shirt, or a ball gown. You have many different sides and this is a snapshot of where you are at that time.
It was probably when I met Jeff Hamilton, the drummer I've been working with for the last 20 years. He's the one who brought Ray Brown to hear me sing at a restaurant in my hometown.
I like to interpret 'Call me a River', as if I'm saying, 'Now you're telling me you love me after all that, and I'm telling you to shove off.' That's my interpretation. But I would never 'say' that because somebody else might interpret the song in another way.
I mean, I don't think I would call Claus to do an album of big band tunes. You know, just like arrangers write for the artist they have in mind; you have to keep in mind if you're going to work with Claus Ogerman. You invite him to do what he does.
But the greatest thing about music is putting it out there for people to figure out. You want the listener to find the song on their own. If you give too much away, it takes away from the imagination.
I've always thought if I were ever to have the opportunity to work with Claus Ogerman, it would definitely be an album of ballads and bossa novas.
When you drive by Radio City and you see your name up there and it's only 'your' name. I just went 'ooh'. I thought this is really like looking at another person.
Sometimes I can't get out of the character because the story is very intense.
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