I caught up with Lisa MacIsaac and Brenley MacEachern, who make up Canadian duo Madison Violet, just before they hit the stage on the last show of their sell-out UK tour.
Playing venues as far apart as Bournemouth and Glasgow, taking in Dublin, Belfast, Milton Keynes, Cardiff and Gateshead “We’ve put many many miles on the van” as Brenley put it, with a look that says they are ready to put this tour to bed but appreciative of the fact that all the venues have sold out, making the hard work done on previous visits worthwhile.
The pair have been working together now for 11 years “it’s the anniversary of our first show on Feb 4th this year…” and the closeness that is a key part of their chemistry on stage is evident here in interview. Answers to questions flow easily between the two of them as they complete each others’ sentences and take gentle digs at each other throughout. These are two people comfortable in working together and spending a lot of time on the road in that van. A quick check of their website lists all their tour dates and one can see how they have averaged nearly 100 gigs year on year either in their own right, or supporting artists as diverse as Ron Sexsmith, Sam Baker and Gordon Lightfoot. They have been delivering their harmony’s and incisive songwriting all over Europe, Australia, United States and of course there isn’t many a hall in Canada that they haven’t graced.
Nobody can say that Lisa and Brenley haven’t earned the plaudits now coming their way. This is especially true in a media climate that doesn’t have many outlets for the Country/Americana type of music that Madison Violet deliver. In fact this can be a source of frustration at times. As they put it “…a band comes out, they have never toured before and they have one song that’s a hit on the radio and the next thing is they are selling out Shepherd’s Bush…”.
However recognition has justifiably come to the hard working pair as the song The Ransom from their widely acclaimed album No Fool For Trying has won the prestigious John Lennon Songwriting Contest as Song Of The Year. Lisa and Brenley views this as something really special “..we were up against literally thousands and thousands of entrants.. we initially won for the Folk Category..which they then take and run up against all the other finalists..so the worlds of Rock, Pop, Gospel all goes against one another and the panel of judges, including Elton John, Mary J Blige, Wyclef John etc decide on the winner. Its nice to know that such re nowned artists have listened to and respected our songwriting enough for our song to shine through”. Asked if they had spent the £20,000 prize yet Lisa laughingly said “Tenfold!!”. Brenley wryling commenting that it had “..gone on flight tickets!”.
Madison Violet are due to start recording their next album in March and are intending to stay with the same producer (Les Cooper in Toronto) that worked on No Fool For Trying. “We intend to go into the studio in March. Historically we have taken a break and work on the songs or ideas before going into the studio” says Brenley “but this time we don’t have the luxury of doing that, so we have had to work on the songs on the road. Hopefully we will have 20 or so songs to take into the studio which we will whittle down to around 10 or 12 for the album”. They tend to work together on songs to end up with something that is uniquely Madison Violet. While they occasionally bring their own songs to a session it more often than not is a genuine combined effort that produces the finished article. As Lisa says “there is no real formula to a song, one of us may get something three quarters done and then it needs a bridge and the other will take it in a completely different direction..” Brenley adding “..or we write them from scratch together – from top to bottom”. When recording they try and get as much live as they can as far as vocals and harmonies are concerned, but find that it works best to overdub certain instruments like the banjo or strings to ensure a tighter overall sound. But they don’t spend the months or years that some artists take to produce an album. “..usually when we record we work fairly quickly. We will get it done within 10 days to two weeks..”. As Lisa comments “when we go in to record a song..we don’t dilly dally!… when we go in nothing has changed (to the song)”.
I wondered if the pair had ever thought about touring with a band, I was aware that there is the odd video clip of them around showing them with backing musicians. “we’re very comfortable touring as a duo….we have been touring a lot with a bass player that we take on the road when we can…it depends on the venue, depends on the territory and depends on the pocketbook!” Lisa added that “Eighty percent of the last shows have been with a trio” but as Brenley observed “we started as a duo and sometimes it’s nice to just play like that”. There have been occasions on tours around Europe and Canada where they have used a full band but “…you are on the road with five musicians and you have two days off…it’s like wrangling kittens” cracked Lisa with a chuckle.
On that point I quizzed the girls about the way in which they coped with the strains of touring constantly and how they dealt with the lack of time to call their own. Whilst Brenley retreats to the gym, reads or goes for a run, Lisa admits having “the attention span of a gnat ..so I am a bit like a squirrel…more scattered” so she utilises a big store of DVD’s in the van and admits to rediscovering the gamer inside her from her youth and playing a mean game of hockey on Ron Sexsmith’s Playstation on the last tour. Also the introduction of WiFi in touring vans has been a massive boon to reducing the boredom levels….but actually they claim to get on incredibly well on tour, which having done it for eleven years is a testament to that bond I mentioned earlier.
Influences play a large part in forging many a musicians career and with these two it is no different. Brenley’s parents introduced her to Dolly Parton, Tammy Wynette, Charley Pride, Freddy Fender and lots of Elvis, with some Gordon Lightfoot and Beach Boys thrown in. As she says” I grew up with a lot of that old time country …” and she feels ” that kids today don’t listen to Country music much anymore..probably because its not rebellious enough..but when I started buying records I got right into Cat Stevens and Neil Young’s Harvest ..those early records just got me, then I got into a lot of British pop like The Smiths, The Cure and Depeche Mode until I then came back full circle to Americana/Country” Lisa however followed a different direction. With her parents being well known fiddle players “ I came from a traditional Scottish fiddle background. I didn’t know there was any music outside of fiddle until I was fifteen!..things like Buddy McMaster, Jerry Hearn and Hallie McDonald …but my parents also had some East Coast folk like John Alan Cameron who I listened to growing up and then actually later joined his band as a fiddle player..which was pretty special”, Brenley then added that when they compared their parents record collections it turned out that they shared a lot in common.
I brought the interview to an end, so that they could get ready to go on stage at another sell-out show in Gateshead, by asking what they would have done if they hadn’t been making a living as musicians. Lisa couldn’t see herself doing anything else and then pondered before saying “I’d be crying…and being bored!!” while Brenley saw herself “busking” but they feel that as musicians they are lucky that their job is also their hobby. Like most musicians they get antsy when not on the road as Lisa mentioned “you panic after a couple of weeks vacation when the calluses start to go from your fingers and you know it’s going to hurt when you go back out again”.
Hopefully Madison Violet don’t decide to stop making music for us and give us at least another eleven great years.
John Jobling Feb 2011
This Interview Originally appeared in www.maverick-country.com
