XE Radio Featured Artist
June 2002
XE: Chambermaid has lots of different sounds in it. How do you describe your music?
EA: Funny you should ask, because I actually have invented a term for the sort of music I make. I call it, "Fantasy Rock." That may not mean anything to most people, but it is meant to describe a sound that contains "rock" elements, but isn't afraid to use violins or harpsichords, and is based on fantastical subject matter like chambermaids, fairy tales, myths, legends, and the occasional reincarnation experience.
XE: Where did your musical inspiration come from?
EA: When I was four, I asked my mom for a violin. I don't know why, but my great-grandfather played the violin, so maybe he was laughing in the clouds that day. I grew up a classical concert violinist, but I always wrote music, and always messed around with synths and 4-tracks, so it was just a matter of time before it all got jumbled together into this pop/rock/classical hybrid. Once I'd gotten that far, it was a logical step to start singing as well. When I write, which is constantly, I am inspired by literally everything around me, books, pictures, migraine headaches, the patterns of my own birthmarks... There is music going on in my head all the time, and I don't know where half of it comes from. All I've learned is to keep a piece of staff paper in my corset at all times.
XE: What has been your favorite experience while on tour?
EA: After the 9/11 tragedy, I had written a song called "By The Sword," which we released as a single with proceeds going to the Red Cross. My birthday was on September 22nd, and I had a show that night for a couple hundred high school kids, probably the first time they'd gone out since the attacks. Before playing the song, I decided it might be appropriate to play the "Star Spangled Banner," so I did the Hendrix version on my electric violin. The kids went wild and some were even crying after the show, a reaction I had never expected. I'm still getting fan mail from kids who were there that night. For all the talk about the younger generation and their merits or lack thereof, I felt a whole new sense of hope for the future based on the sincerity and real depth of feeling I witnessed. Also notable was the time I completely lost my voice halfway through a show, and I had to finish the set by playing all the vocal parts on my fiddle, or the time my hair got stuck to my wings, or when the sequencer lost power and I ended up playing Bach sonatas for 15 minutes while we got the gear working again, or when ...oh, were these supposed to be favorite experiences?
XE: What is the highlight of your musical career so far?
EA: Hmmm. I guess finding a message on my answering machine from my hero Nigel Kennedy telling me that my music was "fucking phenomenal" was pretty near bliss. That high lasted for about a year. Besides that, I suppose I'm pretty ecstatic when I find that we've sold out of classical albums at one of my rock shows. But then starting up my own label (Traitor Records) was pretty satisfying as well.
XE: What are your plans for the rest of the year?
EA: I'm anticipating my full-length album release ("Enchant") in the next couple of months, so were currently promoting the "Chambermaid" single through print and radio and all that sort of thing. I plan to tour for that album, but I've also got some projects in the works having to do with my label. We're working on creating a free music industry resource site called "EnterAsk" which in the coming weeks should prove to be the largest free searchable database for all sorts of information independent musicians would find useful -- my gift to fellow artists really. I'm also in development for "OpenMusicSource," a resource for the musical equivalent of open source code. I've also got some videos to make, so the conclusion I have arrived at is that there are simply not enough hours in the day, and that sleep is overrated.
XE: Do you create all of your own music, or is it a group of people?
EA: I do in fact create all my own music; I'm very stubborn about that. Unbeknownst to some, even my albums are almost exclusively performed by myself, though when I tour I have a full band to accompany me. Regarding the writing process, I don't play well with others. Regarding the band process, I don't believe in inter-band democracy. I'm lucky enough to have found or been found by musicians that care to tour with me, but I never professed to be the ultimate outlet for anyone else's creative contribution. I'm far too much of a dominatrix for that.
XE: What music has inspired you?
EA: Oh, so many things. Everything from Hildegard von Bingen to Elgar to Prokofieff to Eric Clapton to the delicious voice of Morrissey to Sting to operas I heard as a child. As far as female singers go, I'm an Annie Lennox girl all the way. I do find equal inspiration in things like film or poetry or tea, and I don't think I've ever written a song without at least one Shakespearean reference hidden in it somewhere.
XE: Do you credit your success so far to a team effort?
EA: If anything, I credit it to a lack thereof. I've always been violently independent, and this has made me work harder than if I were part of a group. I've made good friends with solitude, and she gives me the time and space to work as rabidly as I like. I do however have a great team of friends (both real and imaginary), managers, and band mates who keep me just this side of sane.
XE: Do you have any advice to give to the listeners of XE?
EA: Yes! Support internet radio! Write, call, fax your congressman, whatever you need to do, just hold fast to your freedom and keep music out of governmental paws. While I'm on the soapbox, I'd also like to say that mainstream radio is irrelevant, major label A&R reps spend more time watching porn on their computers than they do scouting music, and Apple computers are a beautiful thing. So is soy ice cream.
XE: Is there anything you would like to add?
EA: I'd just like to say thanks for your efforts and for running a great station. We're all working together to take the music industry back to the people, and I'd like to think we're all on the same team. Do you think we could start guilds like they had in medieval times where each profession got its own coat of arms?