The Passions of Martha Wainwright

It takes a broken heart to write the kind of music Martha Wainwright does. And for a happily married woman, her songs are sullen. We called up the Canadian singer to discuss bleeding hearts, holy matrimony, and not getting fat.

Martha Wainwright is proof that genes are for real. She is the product of musician parents, and was a singer and a performer from an early age (she sang on family albums at the age of 7). But somewhere along the way, the idea of life in the music business appalled her. A stint as a theater major in Montreal was her bid to escape the grasp of DNA, but somehow, she drifted back to the guitar, back to the microphone, back to the stage. Collaborations with her aunt and mother, singing backup vocals for brother Rufus, an acclaimed, self-titled debut album, and even a cameo in Martin Scorcese's The Aviator, has all led up to the singer's latest disc, I Know You're Married But I've Got Feelings Too. It's a revealing ode to ex-love that features her brother, Pete Townshend, and Steely Dan guitarist Donald Fagen. But the real star of the show is Martha, and here we are with the singer in an intimate conversation about her married life, her exercise habits, and of course, her album.

BlackBook: The new album is solid. Where do you get your inspiration for your songs in general?

Martha Wainwright: My feelings. On this record I think I’m a little bit more outward-looking than on the first one. The first one had a kind of wonderfully navel-gazing quality because of the age at which I wrote the songs. And I think I was sort of able to lift my eyes and see realities of other people and larger tragedies other than my own personal ones.

BB: What’s your process like?

MW: I write with a guitar. Generally, I try to start with a chord progression that often comes out of the melody line. I like melody. I like to find quirky melodies and things that are beautiful, but at the same time, disturbing.

BB: These songs read like diary entries. Do you keep a diary or express yourself in any other way?

MW: No, I’m really lazy. This is expressive enough. I think I’m using up my allotted expression time by making these songs.

BB: The songs are quite intense and relationship-oriented. Martha, let’s talk about men.

MW: No (laughs). 

BB: Is there a direct inspiration for the song “Bleeding All Over You”?

MW: Yeah, that’s in reference to two or three past unrequited love interests. I believe that these love interests don’t die necessarily. When you really love somebody, and then you can’t have them, and then five years down the line or ten years down, there’s still something there. But writing the song is a way to move on.

BB: So when you loved them, were they already unavailable?

MW:Yes.

BB: Do you have an affliction for unavailable men?

MW: Well obviously not any more. I’m married, but I think unavailable men in my twenties might have represented a general search for myself, and my ability to shoot myself in the foot.

BB: How old were you when you wrote your first song?

MW: Not that young, like seventeen, because of my family.

BB: Was your family the impetus for you to start writing?

MW: Well, in the sense that the song was about a half-sister that had recently been born and I was expressing my welcome to the dysfunctional family. and also saying we might be together and love each other.

BB: Most interviews that I’ve read with you, there’s always a background given about your family life. Do you promote that? Or are you trying to remove yourself from that for this album?

MW: Obviously for this album it’s important for me to remove myself because when I get up on stage and do all this work, I’m giving the love. My family has been a great gift, like anybody’s family, and very helpful in many ways, but in other ways it’s very important for any artist to be in control of what they’re doing

BB: When did you get married?

MW: In September, to Brad Albetta. He produced this, and the first record. I figured if you could get through the last five years, you can get through anything. There’s so much insecurity in my life in terms of where I’m gonna live and if this music thing is gonna work out for me, that it’s nice to have security in one thing and to make the commitment.

BB: When you were younger, did you have dreams of doing something other than making music?

MW: I don’t know. I guess I went to college and did other things. I studied theater and took courses, but I guess I picked the thing that was the most natural. And also singing backup with Rufus in Montreal, I was watching the attention he was getting and I was curious if I too could write a song because I never tried.

BB: If the music thing doesn’t work out, what would be next?

MW: I don’t know and that’s what I’m devastatingly afraid of. I’m motivated by the fact that I don’t have skills. I guess I could sing jingles.

BB: Any hobbies?

MW: I live life, I clean, or I try to clean because I’m very messy, so I’m always trying to clean up after myself because it doesn’t really work. I’m kind of obsessed with preparing food.

BB: What do you like to cook?

MW: Everything. I’m a bit of a gourmand, unfortunately. I have to also jog with the amount that I eat. I jog over the Williamsburg bridge or I go to McCarren park and jog just so I don’t get totally fat, because I would, seriously. I have been. I’ve been fat before and in this business it sucks.