Written by:
Kelly Rulon
» Order
this Issue of Curve:
Vol. 18#6
Malea McGuinness was raised in the musical and cultural Mecca of New York. Influenced by a high school teacher to pursue a career in singing, she studied opera at the Tanglewood Summer Music program, and then went on to spend two years at the prestigious Oberlin Conservatory. Finishing her operatic studies at the Manhattan School of Music, she landed the lead in a Broadway production of The King and I. However, having always been a big fan of rock, McGuinness set off for Los Angeles. Inspired by her favorite ’60s and ’70s rock bands including: The Beatles, Led Zeppelin, and Fleetwood Mac, McGuinness composed her first album, True Believer. CURVE was fortunate to catch up with the singer-songwriter in her L.A. home.
Do you have a relationship with the lesbian community?
You know, it's funny, I've had actually more of a relationship with the gay [male] community. That one song I wrote, "Too beautiful to stay," was for one of my best friends who had died of AIDS. Well, you know, I haven't had a close relationship with anyone from the lesbian community, but you know, the door's always open. I guess you could say I do, because I have a lot of correspondence with a lot of my fans from Myspace, and they're wonderful. They have been great fans to me, and I'm very grateful [for] that.
Are you really happy with the response you've gotten from this record? I've really been enjoying it, and I imagine that you've gotten a pretty wonderful response from everyone.
Thank you so much! You know, I've been lucky. The people that have listened to it, have liked it, it's just kind of, I guess, about getting more people to listen to it. But you know, it was a great learning experience for me, and my first album, it's very personal, and I've been very happy with the response. Myspace is great for an independent artist. I've gotten all this feedback that I would have never known [about] without it. People from all over the world have written me messages, and that's a great way for me to know my music has made an impact on people.
I realize you just picked up your life in New York as a model/actress [and moved to L.A.] to pursue this dream, and I imagine that was probably difficult.
Well, I want to just say that I was only doing the modeling and acting to support my music and myself in school. I had been an opera singer, and I did it to support myself during school, because working 60 hours a week and a full time student doesn't work very well. I knew there had to be a way of doing this without coming to school half asleep. So, that's what I came up with to support opera, and then I was on Broadway.
I think it was percolating for a while. All of my favorite kinds of music were things that I wanted to try myself, maybe have a band, but I wasn't really sure. I knew I needed a change. Intuition said it was really time to take off, but it took me a little while to decide how I was going to do things, and that I was really going to change my field, you know, kind of the way I was singing...I was like a freight train, I couldn't stop myself. [laughing] Luckily it worked out!
When you decided to change your style, did you have a particular audience in mind that you really wanted to connect with?
Yes, definitely, as a woman speaking to other women, and of course you want your music to touch everyone, but there is something about women, who are going to know, you know, what you're talking about in certain ways that a man could never know. And there are issues that women deal with, whether you're straight or Lesbian or whatever, in a society we are all the same. So I think in that way, yes I've definitely had an audience [in mind]. I definitely want to reach other women... It's great for women to have that voice, because it's been a male dominated business.
How would you describe your music to someone if you had to fit it into a genre?
I would say, because live I'm a lot more folk rock, [there’s] even a little bit of that southern rock in there, [I’m] kind of more of that Eagles-y, Linda Rondstadt, little bit like old Almond Brothers... I have two bands, I have an acoustic band, where it's all acoustic guitar and some like, keyboards, and Guy, my publicist, plays percussion. And then the full band is electric, where it's electric guitars and keyboards, drums and bass; so they sound definitely more rock. It's just up to different venues that I play, I can travel with either, and they are both great groups of musicians and great friends, so it works out. I'm very lucky to play with so many great musicians.
You have said this is a very personal album. Where does your creative process start? Do you find your inspiration mostly in your own life?
With music, what I'm doing right now, I really just want to touch people in a good way and to make myself happy. My songs haven't been very political, and maybe someday that will be relevant, but I've just talked about things that are closer to home. I figure people hear enough from the news, you hear it constantly, I mean I'm bombarded, so I really don't want to hear it when I … buy a record. Who knows really, definitely now things are personal, how they've shaped my life. With this next record I'm writing and working on, a lot of the songs are from observation[s] of people around me.
That was going to be my next question. Are you working on anything new?
Well, [I’m] definitely working on a lot of songs. I'm recording a song right now and we're working also on Korea Town Music, which is a TV pilot. It's a [show] to help other Asian musicians. We're trying to get everything together, concepts and things, so that's all I can really say about now. It's a forum for Asian musicians, American Asian musicians to really be heard. I have a lot of shows coming up [and] I actually have show with Donovan soon. We are planning our whole tour schedule this year.
Will it be a big tour year?
Yeah, lots of traveling and I hope to come up to your neck of the woods [Portland]. I think a lot of my audience call Portland and Seattle home. I have different parts of the country that I [get] good responses from, so I'd really like to come play there.
Are there any songs on the album that you really want people to listen to?
Well, they are all from different periods and when I listen to them I remember so much. I guess, "Too Beautiful to Stay" is one of the most special songs to me because that was for my friend. I really like "Love Me Don't Forsake Me," that's one of the first songs I wrote, and it was just a really special song. I was having a hard time writing that song. I was going through a bit of depression in there, so it came out of that. "Sweet Light," because I was born on an army base and my dad was Green Beret and I grew up with my grandparents. My grandpa also fought in Iwo Jima so I come from a lot of military in my family, and so that was a song about all the people who are serving in Iraq and hoping they are coming home safely. But I really like hearing about what other people think the songs are about, and when they see something completely different. And I like that people can make it about what they are going through in their lives.
|
