In anticipation of her performance at the Landmark Theatre, 362 S. Salina St., DiFranco chatted with the Syracuse New Times during a Nov. 6 phone interview. The concert takes place Friday, Nov. 14, 8 p.m., with Hamell On Trial, a one-man act penned by Syracusan and punk-folkster Ed Hamell, to open. Tickets are $36; for more information, call 472-0700.
DiFranco, 38, began her career at age 9 in Buffalo after learning to play guitar from Michael Meldrum, a fellow guitarist and singer-songwriter who DiFranco has credited as an early influence. Due to her early fans’ demands for recordings of the immense repertoire of songs she’d written as a teenager, DiFranco created her Righteous Babe label in 1990. The label has since grown large enough to foster other artists, including Hamell on Trial, the ethereal, placidly profound soloist Anais Mitchell, eclectic indie rockers Drums and Tuba and even Meldrum himself, among many other niche and folk-tinged musicians.
Having struggled to break stereotypes throughout her career, DiFranco’s immense body of work has scooped from the basins of a wide breadth of genres, a fact that has always factored largely into the rich diversity of her albums. Although DiFranco’s liberal political views sometimes dominate her lyrics, she has also explored innovative uses of her guitar as a connection to her novel melodies and quixotic poetic conceits.
Perfectly DiFranco: Singer-songwriter Ani DiFranco, pictured during a gig at her venue, Babeville, in Buffalo.
DiFranco left her hometown of Buffalo in 2003, and moved to New Orleans. In fact, she was recording her 2006 release, Reprieve, just prior to the city’s destruction by Hurricane Katrina in 2005. According to her 2006 interview with Alternet.org, DiFranco returned to the Big Easy shortly after the storm to rescue the master tapes for the recording, as well as master tapes of Hamell and others with whom DiFranco was working at the time.
Righteous Babe, however, remains in Buffalo, causing DiFranco to triangulate between those two metropolises and New York City, a hub with obvious value for most modern musicians. With a little help from her boyfriend Mike Napolitano, who co-produced Red Letter Year, DiFranco gave birth to the couple’s daughter, Petah Lucia DiFranco Napolitano, in 2007. “She’s come on every tour with us so far,” her mom proudly declares.
Q: How did Red Letter Year come together?
A: It was recorded mostly at my home studio here in New Orleans, featuring my new touring band that I’ve been working with for about a year now, and also my partner as co-producer, which is a really rare thing for me. It was very awesome and benefited the record like crazy.
Q: Given the album’s political connotations, what’s your take on Barack Obama’s presidential victory?
A: I can barely think! I’m so ecstatic! I think that democracy has been revived through the election of Barack Obama. One of the first things he said in his acceptance speech is that this is your victory, and it’s so huge for that reason, not just because he’ll be an exceptional leader and a brilliant and capable president. I’ve just never known so many people in my life to donate their time to a campaign, you know? I know so many people who went door to door. I got involved in my way. It proved to me what I had sensed all along from playing shows to hordes of really energetic, progressive young people every night. The energy is out there: It just needs a spark. So I think that this is the beginning of a new era of democracy in our country. That spark has ignited and people are reinvested in the idea of democracy.
Ed Hamell: The Syracusan and nihilistic folkster will blow minds prior to DiFranco’s performance at the Landmark. MICHAEL DAVIS PHOTO
Q: You’ve noted in recent interviews that you wished that you had musically tapered down some of your earlier albums. Do you think that came across in the song choices on this album?
A: Well, I wasn’t referring necessarily to song choices, just that the songs themselves weren’t realized good enough, you know? On this album I feel like {the songs} got a fair deal. I took a lot longer to make this record: two years as opposed to my typical two minutes, and that has a lot to do with the fact that I’m a mom now. I’ve got a kid that’s about 2 years old, so you can do that math. The baby mostly slowed down the process and me in general. I also benefit because with time comes perspective, and those are awesome things to infuse into an album before it’s released. This is my new revelation.
Q: During your concert at the State Theatre in Ithaca last February, you seemed to be experimenting with new types of instrumentation. Is your band continuing to do so during this tour?
A: I think I’ve always experimented with instrumentation over the years. There’s always been a lot of different stuff going on, on the records. As far as my live situation goes, I just have slowly put together my band with great musicians that I’ve encountered along the way. I guess the vibraphone and the glockenspiel, an orchestral percussion element in the band that Mike Dillon provides, is sort of unconventional. About a year ago we did a tour as a trio without him: Todd {Sickafoose} and Allison {Miller} and I. Todd brought this little {Casio} SK-1 keyboard that he had and a couple of effects pedals, and he was sort of flying in atmospherics from this tiny, cheap synthesizer. He still has that on stage, so now there’s these two elements of electronics and such going on. But those are not things that I sit down and plan grand strategies for: “Oh, I’ll develop a sophisticated sound that’s part organic and part electronic.” These kinds of things just happen when musicians are interacting.
Q: How’s business at Righteous Babe Records?
A: Business sucks, as it does for anybody in the record business! People don’t really buy records like they used to, so we’re struggling a little bit to change with the times. It’s a little unfortunate, because I wish we had the budget that we used to have, to invest in other projects and other artists. We’ve downscaled a bit, you know? Then there’s the economic crisis in general, which hits anybody in whatever business they’re in.
Q: Ed Hamell, originally a Syracuse musician, is now a member of the Righteous Babe lineup. How did you hear about Hamell?
A: We had a mutual friend that took me to see him play in New York City maybe a decade ago now. I was just totally blown away by Hamell. His sound and the literary scope of his writing is so in-your-face, so punk rock, and yet so refined. He just fits Righteous Babe to a T. He’s political, and he’s portable: a guy and a guitar. We’re really kind of family—an artistic family or something—so it was natural to join forces.
Q: Ever get a chance to rub his bald head?
A: Goodness, yes! Fulfilling a wish.
Q: You’re often described as a do-it-yourself musician in that you produce, perform and manage business concerns. Given that many musicians are now moving toward a similar trend, do you think you’ve been influential to other musicians?
A: Well, that’s what people have said, and that’s great. All the people that I’ve met or get letters from that say I inspired them to either do their own thing in the music world or in other worlds, you know? It’s a great feeling to inspire people to just become themselves and do what they have to do without waiting for help from anyone. It’s a good feeling to just be one more example of a possibility out there.
Q: Have you ever felt pinned-in by the way people have perceived you over time?
A: Oh, sure. There’s been a lot stated over the years. Way back in the day it was “angry girl,” people who were scared shitless of the little, bald girl with the guitar: man hater, militant feminist, angry. That lasted for a bunch of years, and then it just crumbled under the weight of my actual personality. After that it was the sort of independent image: “Oh, shit! She’s not just a feminist. She sold all these records by herself.” So then I was “indie girl.” That story has had legs as well.
Sometimes it’s kind of frustrating for me to never be seen as a musician or as a writer, but as some kind of business-savvy entrepreneur. People are asking me what is the key to my success. It’s like, “Dude, obviously you’re not a fan. Ask them!” I play music. I write songs, and I connect with people through that. That’s my big business plan.
Q: Your tour will take you to Australia next year. Will you be bringing your daughter Petah with you?
A: Well, jeez! We’ve been talking about that one, but that involves 24-hour travel. So that may be the first tour she doesn’t come on. We haven’t figured it out. It’s a long haul for a baby.
