Last Spring, in what would turn out to be one of the last shows I saw at Chicago's now defunct Lounge Ax, I realized that I will always love the way Chan Marshall sings. After opening with a very personal, and seemingly autobiographical, song about the resolution of a relationship ("To Be a Good Woman") and the personalization of an anthem such as "Satisfaction", Chan Marshall continued her accompaniment of the silent film The Passion of Joan of Arc by laying out several songs that seem to have been made with the film in mind. Catching the connections between image and words and music was momentarily fantastic -- how a close up of Maria Falconetti (playing Joan of Arc) would sync to the longing chorus of "When the King Rides By," or the way Marshall's paraphrased version of the Velvet Underground’s "I Found a Reason" echoed Joan’s actions in the court. Near the end of the show, Marshall sang "Wild is the Wind". "Wild is the Wind" has no special meaning for me; I just think it is a beautiful song. I was taken aback, though. In fact, I broke into tears. The song is not a plea from young lover to young lover, but a sorrowful and passionate entreaty from an older lover to the person he/she loves, about the necessity of their love but also the unspoken understanding that the love might need to end. Marshall’s voice wrapped around the song sweetly and lovingly. After the show, as the performance played out repeatedly in my ears, it occurred to me that this was not an accident -- a delivery and reading of a song like that, let alone the performance of the entire show, was a masterful work. With such craft and the promise of her version of "Wild is the Wind", how can one not continue to love the voice and love the way Chan Marshall sings?

If Chan Marshall, as Cat Power, had stopped releasing albums after Dear Sir and Myra Lee, I’m not so sure I would still be listening to those two albums. Though I enjoy them, I think my enjoyment of them comes more from the fact that they are important markers on the road Chan Marshall has traveled as her style and voice have become more her own, than as independent works. On those two early albums, Marshall seems to be singing from her stomach, in the moment’s pains and joys, often at the expense of clarity and the melody. With the release of What Would the Community Think and culminating with Moon Pix, Chan Marshall has in a way stopped being Cat Power and become Chan Marshall. There is a care and certainty, in addition to a sense of deeper personal involvement and commitment, to her singing and songs on those two albums that the early works can’t match. Even when Marshall opens up on a song, such as "Nude as the News", it’s not the same rending, breakneck voice as before. A more aged sense of emotion supports the vocal and lyrical runs. More importantly, Marshall has apparently found a place for quiet -- both a lack of sound and a stillness -- in her work.

Marshall claims she's not that connected to music. She could apparently walk away and never create another album. In fact, she has already done this once, with her short lived retirement after the release of, and problematic touring for, What Would the Community Think. But I don’t think she'll quit. Once again, it’s her voice. Anyone who can capture a song -- let alone people’s hearts and minds -- as she can, cannot truly give it all up. Marshall may long for privacy, but I think she also sees in herself what she can do for people. She has become a meaningful artist and performer, and though she hasn’t yet created a work that sparks widespread emotional epiphanies, she has managed to create shorter works that show that it is possible, such as "You May Know Him" or "To Be a Good Woman". I’m content to wait for what may come.

Recently Splendid had an opportunity to have a hurried conversation with Marshall as she prepared to release her newest album, The Covers Record. She was kind enough to discuss how the new album came about, performing and how she started singing, among other things.

Splendid: Is this the Piano Album? [Marshall’s name, refered to in previous interviews, for sessions recorded after the release of Moon Pix]

Chan: Yes. But it didn’t really turn into that.

Splendid: How so?

Chan: There were a lot more... There were some songs that I wanted to do on piano, but I decided to do them with guitar.

AUDIO: (I Can't Get No) Satisfaction

Splendid: How did the Joan of Arc tour come about? You were not touring in support of an album, you were just touring?

Chan: That’s right. The touring actually gave me the idea to put out a record because Matador wanted a record as it had been a while. I thought, I don’t want to go on tour for my new rock record, which I already have most all the material for; I knew it would be a huge recording process for that. I know these songs which I’ve enjoyed touring on. It gave me the idea of putting out a record and maybe hit St. Louis and some other cities with this. The record gave me a chance to be able continue playing these songs that are more enjoyable.

Splendid: Enjoyable how?

Chan: To play live, because playing live with the rock band before, for Moon Pix -- even though Moon Pix wasn’t a rock record -- playing live, rocking out all the time, really took a lot out of me.

Splendid: Does that mean you won't tour for this new album?

Chan: Oh, no, I’m going to still tour with The Covers Record, because it is very relaxing.

Splendid: Are you use to the press/publicity process by now -- it’s just part of the job?

Chan: Yeah, absolutely. It’s being fair to my record label; an obligation. They’re all working for my album. (Publicity is) me helping.

Splendid: When you write, what comes first: the lyrics, the melody or just phrases of a song that you stretch and work out?

Chan: Definitely starts out with just being bored and playing the guitar or the piano and I just start singing a melody and the words that I’m singing, while I’m singing the melody, make the song.

Splendid: Do you keep notebooks and then refer back to them?

Chan: No. I’ve done that a couple times, where it is really meaningful, like a letter I was going to write. Rarely if ever do I do that. Usually it’s just playing the piano or the guitar just out of uncontentment, discontentment. I just start playing and whatever melody I’m singing, those words become the song. That’s how they get written.

Splendid: When did you start singing?

Chan: When I was very little. When I was a baby girl. My grandmother, when I was like 6, every time I’d go visit her, she would always put a tape in a tape recorder and ask me to sing.

Splendid: Do you still have those tapes? Have you heard any of them since then?

Chan: I have one of them, from when I was seven. I remember her doing it all the time. She had these religious tapes and she would record over them. I have one that she found. About three years ago, she sold her house, her house that she raised her kids in. It’s great because me and my sister are both singing “The Gambler”, “Yesterday”, “Salty Dog” and “Tomorrow”.

AUDIO: Salty Dog

Splendid: Is that why you chose to put “Salty Dog” on the new album, or is that a coincidence?

Chan: No, that’s totally it. Last summer when she gave me that tape, I didn’t cry, but it was "Oh my God, listen to that little hick." [Chan imitates herself singing as a seven year old singing “Salty Dog”. Her pitch is higher and the drawl is more exaggerated]. That’s how I’m singing, I’m a southern little hick. I was just a little thing. [Imitates self sing “The Gambler”]. It was hilarious, you know what I mean? I don’t believe this is me. I loved to fucking sing. It was great. That comes from my dad. My dad use to make us sing when we were babies. Meanwhile, he’s smoking grass right in front of us.

Splendid: Do you put a lot of time into practicing; playing and singing everyday?

Chan: No. My boyfriend... I did this interview with this Australian magazine and my boyfriend was there, and they asked me "How often do you practice?". I just started laughing. My boyfriend was like, "I’ve only seen Chan pick up a guitar at home once and that was to get it out of the way." I have so many different friends that are guitar players, and they practice. They play every day. If they don’t play every day, they play every other day. The only time I’m playing is when I’m on stage or in a studio or that initial time when I am making a song, right when a song comes out. That’s the only time I ever touch it. I know, I realize now that I’ve been playing nine years. My god, you’d think I’d play really well, but I don’t and that’s why. My friends that have played that long are just great guitar players.

Splendid: Now do you not play...

Chan: I don’t want to. [Laughs]

Splendid: Now that you’ve had a few albums out and you're fairly well established, do you look at playing and putting out music as a job or as something you like to do? Is it a balance between the two?

Chan: When I write...When I’m feeling... Sometimes when I haven’t gone on tour for a month, it’s just because it’s natural, I feel "do I have to do that again". I have to feel inspired to want to do it. And it is a job, so when I’m on tour, I might not really want to be there. It’s a responsibility. I said I would do it. What was I thinking? It’s one of the ongoing perils for me -- playing live. Sometimes I feel really inspired and I make these promises. Other times I feel really guilty, thinking I shouldn’t be doing this. These people deserve somebody better. Somebody who knows how to play their guitar.

Splendid: It’s funny that you say that, because every time I’ve seen you or my friends have seen you, we all have come away from the show really amazed with the performance. I was really impressed with the two Joan of Arc shows I saw.

Chan: With this record, because with these songs I don’t feel as vulnerable, they aren’t secrets -- they’re just exposed parts of song history that everybody knows (so) it’s not a big deal. There’s an attachment. There is an emotion I have with them, memories and things, but when I play these live, it’s not breaking my back. I’m inspired by these songs, by the way they sound; how they make me feel, with memories and inspiring me. I enjoy playing these songs. If I can enjoy it on tour and try to give an audience... I was just now realizing that a lot of times that I can’t even look at the audience because I think they hate me. I think they hate me; have this feeling that they hate me. And they are there because a friend told them they should check this out because a guy from Sonic Youth is the drummer, or they should really go because Sally is going and John is going. And yeah we can meet there and we can talk there. Or you go there because they have the kind of beer you like or it’s a Friday night. That’s what I’m thinking these people are like. But lately, on the front row, there are a couple girls on my left or this guy on my right, so innocently there for me, appreciating me. I can tell that they like me, respect me. Once I make that connection with a couple people in the audience, and I can see them and how they look at me, that makes me feel better. I’m so scared otherwise that they’re all jaded rock critics or something.

Splendid: Do you think you will ever perform just as Chan Marshall?

Chan: Interesting. Maybe I should for this tour? Should I?

Splendid: I don’t know. Do you see a difference?

Chan: It’s weird. I don’t know if I want that many people knowing my name. Do you know what I mean?

Splendid: Yeah. Cat Power is the public Chan.

Chan: It just seems so weird. I’m a vessel. I just try to remain so objective about it that I don’t really know how I feel about it. I don’t want my name to be there in black and white. I don’t want to see it.

Splendid: But, because this is a different set of songs -- because they aren’t really your songs -- would you feel comfortable touring under your own name?

AUDIO: Sea of Love

Chan: Yeah, probably. Once I played this show in New York and this girl my boyfriend was friends with, but thank God is not friends with anymore, tried to make him not go out with me because (a) I was crazy and (b) I was a junkie. And I couldn’t believe it. I’ve never even met her. I don’t know what the fuck she looks like. He said she thought that from seeing me play. There is no way in hell I’d want to associate my name, put my name there. I don’t want anybody doing that. You can make fun of Cat Power... this girl is such an idiot, such a dumb person, so ignorant. She thinks it’s okay to say things like that and she doesn’t even know me. I’ve never even seen her face. I’ve never even spoken with her, yet I’m crazy and I’m a junkie. I don’t do drugs, it’s just things like that. That girl from Cat Power... It’s just better for me because people like that are in the world.

Splendid: As Cat Power you have a way of removing yourself.

Chan: Yeah. Basically, yes. It would feel too weird just seeing it in the paper: Chan Marshall. As weird as it sounds, it just wouldn’t be me. I know that sounds totally fucked up. It just wouldn’t be me going under my real name.

Splendid: Can we talk about some of the unreleased songs? “Leopard and the Lamb” and “To Be a Good Woman”, will they appear anyplace?

Chan: “Leopard and the Lamb”, that was going to go on this record. So was “To Be a Good Woman”, but because it’s a covers record... I did put “In This Hole”, but it’s different. It’s like I’m covering myself. I want to wait for the next record to put those out. Those songs are going to be so much different from the rest of the record, but I wanted to save those because they are my little gems.

Splendid: When do you think the next record is going to come out?

Chan: I’d say next Valentine’s Day maybe.

Jason Broccardo used to be our man at Adobe. Now he's our man at the unemployment office. If you've got a post-production job open in the Chicago area, email him.