Eileen Rose has taken her music to Detroit, tracked down the city's deep-rooted musical soul and made it all her own. FemaleFirst caught up with the singer as she prepares to release her most accomplished record, yet; a joyous celebration of the accidents of life, love and human nature.You are about to release your new album, “At Our Tables, how would you describe the sound?
The overall sound is like the rest of my albums; a mixture of lots of different influences, there’s always rock and roots there and a little bit of country. From song to song it’s a little bit of everything, but for this record I used more loops and drum beats which I’ve done before and I really like.
You have already had three successful records under your belt, how did making this one compare to the other three?
Each album was its own thing; the first album I made with the guys from Alabama Three and the whole band went residential to a place called Model Valley and we all pretty much lived there for a week and made the record.
When I did Long Shot Novena that was spread out over a couple of months and I worked with two producers and went in every day and it was more of a slower process and a little bit more crafted.
With this one I went out to Detroit, which is a city I haven’t spent much time in, and people flew in to help, the guitarist flew in from London, and my brother flew in to play mandolin but it was different and it felt a bit more like what I had always imagined making an album would be like when I was younger, but still, when it comes down to it, I still go into the room with my acoustic guitar or a piano and I still put down the core of the song and everything else get’s built around it. The style we record in changes, but at the end of the day, I’m still sitting there staring at a microphone.
What was it like recording in Detroit? It has quite a violent reputation…weren’t you scared?
It was pretty scary, but it is mainly the press who make it scary. The people who live there are poor, with no jobs, and the automotive industry which kept it alive his now gone and left the place in a pretty scary way.
What was it like working with seasoned producers Al Sutton and Eric Hoegemeyer?
Before I went to meet them I was quite intimidated but one of the reasons Al and Eric are successful is they have the ability to put people at ease and just focus on their music so when I was working with them, particularly Eric, it was like there were no other records or artists and the most important thing in the world was me and the songs and the band, and that’s why they are both good.
I could be intimidated by the names and the record sales, because Al was doing Kid Rock’s record at the same time, that record went to number one in the states and it was really strange because he’d come in and talk about what was going on in the Kid Rock camp and he was like “we’ve mastered it and he doesn’t like it, so now we’re going to mix it again!” and I thought to myself ‘Wow, the budget to master your record is the budget to make my record and you’re just throwing it away. It keeps you humble anyway!
All of your albums have been inspired by events in your life, what was the inspiration behind this one?
I live in England for about 12 years and then 9/11 happened and my parents are 82 and I started to think I’d been gone a long time and, without being too morbid, I started to think about death and how the dynamics and shape of you families change as you get older and I grew up with eight brothers and sisters and my mother was one of nine and my father was one of something like 14 other children, so when we grew up there was a lot of cook-outs and family gatherings and my uncles playing cards and playing volleyball and we all visited each other a lot.
Now, we just had our annual family reunion barbeque and there were so many people who were not there; that generation have died and gone. My father is ill and in his last few days and he’s the last one of his family, his brothers and sisters have gone, my mother has one sister left and you don’t realise that it has slowly gotten carved away and you begin to think “Wow, now I’m the aunt sitting around playing cards.” when I used to be one of the kids watching the aunts.
So a lot of the album is about that, and where you are in your life, I am in the middle of my life and it just sneaks up on you. I have my nephew who plays bass in the band and it’s awfully funny to have him there as I’m the aunt and he’s the nephew! Nothing makes me feel less rock and roll than when he say’s “Auntie Eileen, should I do a bass solo now?”
Where did the album title come from?
The album titles comes from a book I was reading: For One More Day, by Detroit author Mitch Albom, had an opening quote which read: “The Dead sit at our tables long after they have gone.” and the book was about getting just one more day with your dead mother.
Even when we’re sat around making fun of each other in the garden, you still feel like those people who have gone are still around you. I think the older you get, the more those people pile up, and you do end up surrounded by ghosts.
Who do you look up to on the music scene?
I would have loved to have seen Leonard Cohen, I couldn’t get tickets, but we’re never in the same country at the time! The review I’m reading about him are so impressive because they’re talking about how passionate and into it he is and I would love to be able to get into my seventies and for people to say; “my god, she really meant it!” and to be able to mean a song that you wrote 30 years ago and still be able to deliver that successfully. But I do really love Neil Diamond; he’s just my kind of thing. He isn’t ripping it out of his soul anymore these days.
If you could work with anyone, alive or dead, who would it be?
Do I only get to pick one? There’s so many, let me have one alive and one dead! [FemaleFirst: “Okay”] Well dead it would be Elvis of course! Who wouldn’t want to work with Elvis?!
Alive - I really like Ethan John’s production, I have been wanting to work with him for a while, and he has worked with Ryan Adams and Kings of Leon.
What’s next for you?
I’ve got this really extensive, long tour coming up, so we’re going to be out for a few months, it’s very exciting, we’ll be doing the UK and Italy again, which I really love, I do really well in Italy because I have been so many times. I’m going to Sardinia and Prague too, which, despite the fact that I’ve done so much touring, are places I’ve always seemed to miss out. I’m really excited because this band I have now they’re just incredible and I’m really excited to play with them every night.
We ask everyone we interview to come up with a question for the next person we interview....and MTV’s Rickie Haywood Williams wants to know; “Have you ever licked the top of a square battery and how old were you?”
I have! I use those in my tuner and it’s one of those things I have to do and I hate it! I hate that feeling! But something even funnier is that my nephew actually likes it, so when I need to test a battery I just walk over to him and put it on his tongue.
And what would you like to ask my next interviewee?
Which member of the band spends the longest in front of the mirror?
Watch this space to find out which of The Shapeshifters spends the longest in front of the mirror!
FemaleFirst - Ruth Harrison
Eileen Rose has taken her music to Detroit, tracked down the city's deep-rooted musical soul and made it all her own. FemaleFirst caught up with the singer as she prepares to release her most accomplished record, yet; a joyous celebration of the accidents of life, love and human nature.You are about to release your new album, “At Our Tables, how would you describe the sound?
The overall sound is like the rest of my albums; a mixture of lots of different influences, there’s always rock and roots there and a little bit of country. From song to song it’s a little bit of everything, but for this record I used more loops and drum beats which I’ve done before and I really like.
You have already had three successful records under your belt, how did making this one compare to the other three?
Each album was its own thing; the first album I made with the guys from Alabama Three and the whole band went residential to a place called Model Valley and we all pretty much lived there for a week and made the record.
When I did Long Shot Novena that was spread out over a couple of months and I worked with two producers and went in every day and it was more of a slower process and a little bit more crafted.
With this one I went out to Detroit, which is a city I haven’t spent much time in, and people flew in to help, the guitarist flew in from London, and my brother flew in to play mandolin but it was different and it felt a bit more like what I had always imagined making an album would be like when I was younger, but still, when it comes down to it, I still go into the room with my acoustic guitar or a piano and I still put down the core of the song and everything else get’s built around it. The style we record in changes, but at the end of the day, I’m still sitting there staring at a microphone.
What was it like recording in Detroit? It has quite a violent reputation…weren’t you scared?
It was pretty scary, but it is mainly the press who make it scary. The people who live there are poor, with no jobs, and the automotive industry which kept it alive his now gone and left the place in a pretty scary way.
What was it like working with seasoned producers Al Sutton and Eric Hoegemeyer?
Before I went to meet them I was quite intimidated but one of the reasons Al and Eric are successful is they have the ability to put people at ease and just focus on their music so when I was working with them, particularly Eric, it was like there were no other records or artists and the most important thing in the world was me and the songs and the band, and that’s why they are both good.
I could be intimidated by the names and the record sales, because Al was doing Kid Rock’s record at the same time, that record went to number one in the states and it was really strange because he’d come in and talk about what was going on in the Kid Rock camp and he was like “we’ve mastered it and he doesn’t like it, so now we’re going to mix it again!” and I thought to myself ‘Wow, the budget to master your record is the budget to make my record and you’re just throwing it away. It keeps you humble anyway!
All of your albums have been inspired by events in your life, what was the inspiration behind this one?
I live in England for about 12 years and then 9/11 happened and my parents are 82 and I started to think I’d been gone a long time and, without being too morbid, I started to think about death and how the dynamics and shape of you families change as you get older and I grew up with eight brothers and sisters and my mother was one of nine and my father was one of something like 14 other children, so when we grew up there was a lot of cook-outs and family gatherings and my uncles playing cards and playing volleyball and we all visited each other a lot.