The 41 year-old, Les Paul-wielding, indie princess in exile, speaks candidly to PopMatters' Will Layman about her new album How to Walk Away, and her frank, tell-all memoir When I Grow Up. Here's an excerpt from the interview:
"These days I worry about money more. To make this new album I had to go through a big chunk of my savings. It costs a lot of money to make an album in a studio in New York with a producer and musicians. I have to pay a publicist every month. I have to pay for mastering, production, the manufacturing of the discs. Then, to promote an album properly, you have to spend a lot of money. With my last album (Made in China) I didn’t spend much money—I recorded it really fast and cheap and didn’t put much into promoting it. But, then again, no one really heard it.
The great thing about doing it this way is that all the money comes back to me—I don’t have to give any money to a record company. If this record doesn’t sell, I’m kind of screwed. I don’t know if I can ever do this again—this might be my last record if it doesn’t get some attention or doesn’t pay off in some way. Now I’m just hoping I can get some choice licenses—I’m actually praying to get my song on a car commercial or something—movies or TV. That’s the only way for someone like me to make music these days. I don’t expect to sell very many of these because (A) people don’t buy CDs any more, and (B) you know, what are the chances that my record’s gonna take off after all this time? Chances are very, very slim that this record is going to take off."
