Having taken longer than ever between albums to make the follow-up to her 2004 gem Afternoon, Mandell had more material than usual to parse through before making Miracle Of Five. Again, Kaulkin provided invaluable input. “As the producer, Andy did a really good job of being the father figure. He chose the songs. I fought for a couple that didn’t make it, because he really felt they didn’t fit. It was important to him for the record to be cohesive.”
She felt secure in his judgment. “Andy is a musician, first and foremost. He has a lot of experience recording. So I didn’t feel like, ‘This guy is really taking me for a ride.’ I figured we were going to be OK.” In addition to his credits as a player (Merle Haggard, R.L. Burnside), Kaulkin is also head of Anti- Records — which posed some obstacles of its own, at least in terms of scheduling studio time.
“Andy has other people who are a little higher up on his totem pole…like Tom Waits and shit,” she says, laughing.
Mandell was willing to wait. Experience has taught her the value of finding the right outside producer. For her 2003 album, Country For True Lovers (which included covers of Merle Haggard, Irma Thomas and Hank Cochran tunes alongside her originals), she tapped Tony Gilkyson, formerly of X and Lone Justice. “He was a great producer,” she says, “and forced me to take a little more care with what I did.”
“I feel very good about the country record,” she adds. “Then again, it isn’t that far off from what I normally do. It just has more pedal steel on it.”
Other times, she has been less particular about such technical details, and less enthusiastic about the final results. For her 2004 six-song jazz EP Maybe, Yes, bass player Feves oversaw production. “We’re close friends, and it is always a little more difficult when you already have that relationship,” she concedes. “Everything is in fun, and you’re all enjoying yourselves, but nobody is cracking the whip.
Nevertheless, her way with a jazz standard led to one of the more attention-getting episodes in her career. The sultry voice warbling Cole Porter’s “I Love Paris” in a salacious TV commercial for burger chain Carl’s Jr. starring a certain Hilton sister? That was Mandell. “Surprisingly, I did not earn what some people might think for that Carl’s Jr. commercial, but it got so much publicity,” she says.
It also meant she had to join SAG, the Screen Actors Guild, which opened the door to additional such gigs, albeit of a more tasteful nature. A few months ago, she recorded a Christmas song for a Crest commercial. Alas, the producers ultimately went with a male vocalist instead. “I was really disappointed,” she sighs. “My dad is a dentist.”
Does she wrestle with demons over getting in bed with Madison Avenue? Not especially. “In some ways, I wish I took a high moral stance, but I actually enjoy doing it,” she says. “It’s always really challenging just to sing something I wouldn’t normally sing. And I like making money.”
She might feel differently, however, if she was asked to license one of her own songs for a commercial. Maybe. The opportunity hasn’t come up yet. It doesn’t seem too distasteful to her. “Nigel Harrison, who was the bass player in Blondie, and I are in a side project together, called the Grabs,” she relates (their debut album, Sex, Fashion & Money, came out in 2005). He wrote ‘One Way Or Another’, and it was used in a Swiffer commercial last year, and he was pleased as punch.”
Mandell didn’t always have such a que sera sera attitude toward her art. But she had a no-bullshit career adviser and confidante in Chuck E. Weiss. “He always said that you need to have a thick skin, and build a following, and stop thinking about yourself so much,” Mandell explains. “He was tough on me, and that was really great. He just didn’t stand for any whining or feeling sorry for yourself. I learned so much from him.
“My favorite thing was, when I used to call him crying, he’d say, ‘You got a hundred dollars? Pay me a hundred dollars and I’ll shoot you.’ That always snapped me out of it, because I’d just start laughing.”
Nowadays Mandell is far less likely to call a friend with tears streaming down her face. “I had my first good relationship” the gent who inspired “Make-Out King” “and that made me realize just how much you have to appreciate and enjoy life. I feel so lucky,” she says.
“I opened for Stuart Staples, the guy from Tindersticks, a few months ago. It was five or six days before Halloween, but I thought that still meant, ‘Let’s dress up.’ So I wore my 1930s nurse’s uniform, and made a hat out of paper. And, of course, I was the only person there in a costume. I was up onstage, just feeling hilarious that I was all dressed up and nobody else got the memo. And I thought, ‘What a great job I have. I love this!'”
Some artists fear contentment, terrified it will neuter their muse. Not Mandell. These days, there has to be more to her life than just fretting over songs. In addition to sewing, she knits, and she recently took up tennis. “I have all of these silly…no, not so silly…run-of-the-mill things that I’ve added to my routine,” she says. “And they have made me enjoy life so much more.
“I find I get a lot of the same kind of pleasure from sewing that I get from songwriting. Nothing compares to getting onstage and interacting with an audience, and singing your heart out. That’s its own special thing. But as far as being creative? I kind of like being creative in all different ways, and letting the songs come to me. And I accept that they may stop coming someday. And that’s OK.”
The well hasn’t dried up yet. Expect to hear further evidence of Mandell’s newfound happiness on her next album. That means fewer songs about her old standbys: passion, sex, and death.
“I need to get a new gimmick,” she concludes, with a self-knowing chuckle. There are other sources of inspiration, with timeless appeal, to draw upon. Such as? “Crafts. That’s what I’m moving toward. Love and crafts.”
Seattle-based contributing editor Kurt B. Reighley wrote about the Decemberists in ND #66. An avid knitter, he treasures his copy of Dorothy Rodgers’ My Favorite Things: A Personal Guide To Decorating And Entertaining.
