Machines of Loving Grace isn't on a 'Gilt' trip

(Oct. 5, 1995)

A band ousts a troublesome member and cites the all-too-familiar "creative differences" for making the change.

For Machines of Loving Grace, that expression was all-too-accurate.

"We had a creative split with our old guitarist (Stuart Kupers)," lead singer Scott Benzel said recently, "and soon after that the old drummer (Brad Kemp) decided that he wanted to move out of the rock 'n' roll lifestyle, settle down so to speak. He didn't want to tour anymore.

"So we went ahead and recruited a couple of new guys (guitarist Tom Coffeen and drummer David Suycott). It was an intense transition period for us."

Kupers' departure came as the Tucson, Ariz.-based buzzing-guitar rock group was preparing to cut its next Mammoth/Atlantic album, "Gilt." The Machines felt the retooling was necessary for their sanity's sake.

"We had personal differences that accompanied the creative differences," Benzel said, "but it was a situation where one person wanted to go in one direction and the rest of the band really wanted to go in another direction. That was pretty much the culmination. We're happy to say he's got another project going."

Keyboardist Mike Fisher said things are running like a well-oiled Machine should.

"This is a new band only in the sense that we do a lot less arguing," he said, laughing.

"Gilt," produced by Sylvia Massy (the former Prince, Tool, Babes In Toyland) and released Sept. 19, is a reflection of the group's new cohesion. Among other things, Benzel said, they set a few goals for themselves.

"One of the major ones was to translate the live show or things that we like about our live show more directly to the record," he said. "In the past, we've sort of gone off directly from writing on the computer to the studio.

"This time we really made a conscious effort to play the songs live and to find those peaks and valleys you experience with the live show and include those in the songs."

For Fisher, the mood of the record was "Let's see where we can take this thing."

"One of the problems we had traditionally in the band was that everybody's opinion was so divergent with specific musical directions that there was this constant pull and push," he said. "Although it created an interesting creative tension, a lot of the times the songs ended up being schizophrenic."

"Gilt" is a dark and sinister contrast to MLG's 1993 breakthrough LP, "Concentration." Benzel said the "Gilt" tracks were written during a somber period.

"A lot of the lyrics were, for me, about the end of a relationship," he said. "A lot of the songs about relationships are pretty pessimistic."

What about the source of that pessimism, Benzel's former girlfriend?

"She occasionally leaves me these cryptic messages on my answering machines," he said, laughing. "The other day she called and said, 'I just saw that you guys are playing. I wanted you to know that I care.' (He laughs loudly again.) I thought that was great. And she drops me postcards every now and then."

Ashley MacIsaac fiddles around

(June 13, 1996)

Ashley MacIsaac wants you to like the fiddle as much as he does. It may be a tall order, but he's going to give it a try.

The 21-year-old native of Cape Breton, Nova Scotia, bucks pop traditions on his A&M debut album, "Hiª How Are You Today?" (released June 4). Playing Celtic fiddle tunes in a modern music setting, he effortlessly straddles hip-hop, industrial and folk music from one track to the next.

The musical chameleon is out to shake things up.

"There's this stereotype about the fiddle," MacIsaac said recently, "and I think it comes from 'The Beverly Hillbillies.' Every time that type of music starts, everybody goes 'Hee haw!'

"My job is to get people connected for more than three minutes and actually stay for a whole 75-minute or 90-minute show. I come from a root of playing traditional music, and over the last three years I've become somewhat of a media sponge and will basically put anything else that comes into it, as long as I can retain at least some sense of the root."

It hasn't gone unnoticed in Canada, where he won two Juno Awards this year, including one for best new solo artist. He also had a sizable hit with the Gaelic-sung "Sleepy Maggie."

But will it fly in the land of Bone Thugs-N-Harmony, Garth and Hootie?

Why not?

"When I was young, hip music to me was fiddle music, because I never listened to anything else," MacIsaac said. "I was never one to go out and buy CDs and tapes. I didn't have a tape player or anything like that. The main form of entertainment in our household was fiddle music.

"But looking at everything from like watching your mojo working to the development of American rock music to techno and disco and what has become pop music in the United States, it's all about having one true sense. I don't think there's any music that doesn't do real well that doesn't have feel or have rhythm and soul in it. If it has a beat, I can play over it."

MacIsaac, who will open for The Chieftains' U.S. tour this summer, says his varied audiences explain his music's appeal.

"If you go to one of my concerts," he said, "there's everybody there from age 90 to age 14 or 12. You see 9-year-olds sitting there and really enjoying the stuff I play for them and also really enjoying the fact they're seeing all these kids getting up and dancing to it. And when I slow down and play something solo, most of them get my point, sit back and listen to it. It's a great feeling to have that affect on people."

The quirky album title comes from MacIsaac's nearly two-year stay in Toronto, where he recorded the LP with several producers.

"As wonderful as Toronto is and has a wonderful sense of culturalism," he said, "it's completely separate. There's no connection between the different spots in the city, and it's really spread out. It's like Harlem maybe about 70 years ago when crime was just starting. People are scared and won't really talk to you if you're walking down the street. It's not like that anywhere else in Canada.

"I got into the habit of screaming, 'Hi, how are you today?!' and I would emphasize the 'Hi!' and then people would usually turn around and answer you back. Then I'd ask them where they were from and likely I had been there so I had a connection there already.

"The same way with the record; it's an abrupt introduction to my sort of calmer sense of playing fiddle music."

Tara MacLean and her storybook life

(May 14, 2000)

When opportunity knocks, even on a ferry boat, it's best to answer.

Most artists wish they had the luck of Canadian singer-songwriter Tara MacLean. When she was a nanny at age 19, she was on a ferry with some friends, setting sail for an island near Vancouver. To break up the boredom, they moved to the top deck and, armed with a guitar, MacLean sang a few songs.

Passengers gathered around for the impromptu gig and cheered her on.

"These two people specifically approached after we were finished," MacLean said recently, "and they were from a record company and they offered me a deal. I didn't think I would end up doing this for a living. I mean, who's crazy enough to actually go be a musician?

"My mom was an actress and my dad was a musician, so I was always the disapproving oldest child who couldn't believe how irresponsible they were. 'You have four children, do you think that's a wise thing to be doing? We don't have any money.' So I didn't think I'd be the one doing it, too. I thought I'd end up being the lawyer everybody needed in the family."

The guiding hand of chance, as one of MacLean's friends described it, tapped her on the shoulder, and she hasn't looked back since.

"I had a year of making decisions and writing and seeing how I was going to approach this situation," she said. "Management basically set me up in a little cabin with a piano and money so I could eat. I didn't have to work; I just focused on my music. A year later, I started the record (her debut Nettwerk album 'Silence'). Then I toured a few years on that record, took a year off and made the next record."

That next record, "Passenger" (Capitol), was released stateside Feb. 29. Her passionate vocals and personal, penetrating lyrics have already garnered followers, particularly with the first single, "If I Fall," which was featured in the "Teaching Mrs. Tingle" film soundtrack. The song is in the Top 10 on Pause & Play's weekly Picks chart.

"I wanted to make a record that was thought-provoking and would evoke emotion," she said. "We live in a world that's really good at numbing itself; we have all these doctors ready to give us these nice little pills if we're not happy. I watched my mom do that at a certain time in her life, and she ended up in the hospital and she had to face all of her demons. I said to myself, 'You know what? I'm not going to numb myself - from the beginning.' I'm just going to see what I feel and it's been an incredible journey of terror and euphoria. I want to express that, and I want to show that I've been to these places so that if someone listened they could say, 'Yeah, I've been here. I know where she's at.' "

Her journey has been an unusual one. Born on Prince Edward Island, she lived a bohemian lifestyle with her parents and three siblings in the 1970s.

"Most people had electricity in the '70s and running water, but not us," MacLean said. "My parents were sort of these pagan hippies who grew pot and hung out outside under the stars a lot. It was a very beautiful, nature-filled way to grow up. The outhouse wasn't the most pleasant thing, and we had to pump for water. I remember the day when I became big enough to pull the pump down myself, that to me was becoming a woman.

"Then we moved into the city when I was about 6. The big city, Charlottetown, with about 30,000 people. My father had left us, and it was real challenging but certainly character-building."

She needed all the character she could muster, because tongues were wagging in Charlottetown about the MacLean children and their struggling actress-mother.

"There's a certain kind of small-town way. Everyone knows you and everyone knows your business," she said. "With my mom being an actress, we were very poor, so we got teased a lot for being poor. And my uncle went to jail for selling pot, which is so silly; he got sentenced to like seven years. That's when I realized everyone knew everything, and I just felt so exposed and that I didn't belong. I felt it was time for me to leave; I felt the friends I had, I had outgrown.

"For example, I went to the Caribbean for a year when I was 10 because my dad came back and took us there. We came back and I would be telling stories of jumping off the boat and swimming with fish and no one would believe it. It was so farfetched that you got off the island; no one could comprehend the possibility of these things actually happening. I was so animated as a storyteller, and kids would say, 'Yeah, right, you just went to Halifax.' "

A fire that destroyed her family's home sealed her decision to leave Charlottetown.

"An arsonist came in and tried to burn our house down and succeeded, and he almost killed us all," MacLean said. "A police officer was driving by and just happened to see a little flicker in the window. It could've been just the fireplace going, but he felt something was wrong. He got out of the car and went up to the window and saw that the whole downstairs was on fire.

"My brother jumped out the window, then the policeman got both of my sisters, who were passed out from smoke inhalation. I was the only conscious one and I was freaking out. The rescue was so heroic and courageous; he got us out five seconds before the house caved in. He was awarded a medal and also the story was written up in Reader's Digest. After that, I just couldn't stay in Charlottetown anymore. After that, Charlottetown was dead to me.

"I found out a few years before that that my dad who raised me wasn't really my dad, that I had another dad somewhere off in British Columbia who was a dancer. I decided I was going to meet him and I went on my quest. He's amazing, and I stayed with him for a couple of years and finished high school."

Then came the guiding hand of chance on the ferry boat. Later, "Silence" sold more than 25,000 copies in Canada. She toured the United States, opening for Sarah McLachlan, Barenaked Ladies and Paula Cole and playing at all three Lilith Fairs. Then with "Passenger," released by Nettwerk in Canada late last year, MacLean was hotly pursued by Capitol, Warner Bros. and Columbia.

Now she's in the middle of another stateside tour. Not bad for the poor little girl from Prince Edward Island who never entertained thoughts of being a performer.

"I had done musicals as a kid, and I always sang for the Irish relatives when they came to town," MacLean said. "My grandmother put me in a couple of singing contests when I was a little girl because I could always sing. But I hadn't gone out and done a whole lot of singing in public, certainly not my own shows or my own songs. That's why all of this is still such a thrill for me. Every day, there's something new and exciting."

THE FIRST RECORD I EVER BOUGHT: "I remember five vinyl records that I played over and over again. I must've been about 7. I had Bob Dylan's 'Slow Train Coming,' because my parents got into gospel music; the 'Fame' soundtrack, every week I used to work on the rabbit ears of our little 12-inch black and white television set so I could watch that show and I just loved Irene Cara; Abba's 'Greatest Hits'; I had the 'Annie' soundtrack, and that was important for every 9 year old girl, and I had Stevie Nicks' solo record, 'Bella Donna.' Now that I think about it, all those records probably say a little bit about me."

THE FIRST CONCERT I EVER WENT TO: "It was my dad's. I went to see him play with Gene McClellan, and he had a band called Refuge, a gospel trio. They toured for about 15 years. Gene wrote 'Put Your Hand in the Hand' and also wrote 'Snowbird' for Anne Murray. My first big pop-rock concert was Honeymoon Suite. Hey, what can I say, nobody came through Charlottetown. I want to change that like Shania (Twain) did for Timmins."

THE LAST CD I BOUGHT: "I just got Bruce Springsteen's 'Nebraska.' It's lots of highways, cars and speaking to the judge. I love it. It's very cool. There's something about it that just wraps around you."

BWF (before we forget): Visit Tara MacLean on the Web @ www.taramaclean.com.

Madder Rose weaves 'Tragic Magic'

(July 3, 1997)

It has been a long but rewarding two and a half years for Madder Rose and its lead singer Mary Lorson.

First came the delay of the group's third Atlantic album, "Tragic Magic," in early 1995. After recording eight songs and realizing they didn't sound quite like they wanted them to, they shelved them and started over, salvaging only two tracks. They also changed producers, going with John Holbrook, who engineered Natalie Merchant's "Tigerlily."

All the while, no new money was coming in, so Lorson and band mates Billy Cote (guitar), drummer Rick Kubic and bassist Chris Giammalvo returned to their day jobs.

Finally, on June 24, the solidly crafted "Tragic Magic" was released, and the first single, "Hung Up In You," has all the earmarks of a modern-rock hit - radio gods willing, of course.

"It has been frustrating at times," said Lorson, who works in New York as a waitress and substitute teacher to make ends meet, "but I know as long as I'm in music, I run the risk of having an uncertain future financially. I accept that.

"It gets a little harder as you get older; you get a little tired, but I still feel like I have a lot of really good music in me, as long as I keep my attitude up. I still have a lot of faith that everything's going to be okay."

Surviving on a major label for nearly five years - while bigger acts have fallen victim to attrition - is no small feat. Madder Rose's debut LP, "Bring It Down," was released in 1993, and while its 1994 follow-up, "Panic On," was a critical favorite, it was a commercial disappointment.

Lorson is just grateful they still get to record.

"(Atlantic) has had this reputation of being a label that didn't know how to develop bands," she said. "What surprises me is that we've arrived at a place in this company where they are actually thinking things through in a better way.

"They've learned from the top down what their mistakes were, and committing itself to promoting and supporting an artist's album for a year. It used to be that if you didn't get a hit record, they'd just forget you and your record would sink back, but they have learned they need to work certain records for a while."

Lorson speaks glowingly of Holbrook's experience, production techniques and leadership. "Hung Up In You," for example, was mixed by Mark Saunders (Tricky, The Cure), and Public Enemy mixer Nicholas Sansano was brought in to mix the track "Satellite."

"John's one of the best studio people you would ever want to know," Lorson said. "We would say, 'Well, we want this,' and he'd say, 'Let me think about this,' and he'd plug a few things in and try something else and it would work. It was great to watch someone come up with a great guitar part.

"I feel we all grooved together, and this is what we came up with. It was a great creative experience."