Student Musician; Mitchell Articulates Her Artistry

Author: Allison Quady Arts Editor

Allison Quady: I'm sitting here with Anais Mitchell '04 in the radio station which we thought would be fitting, or inspirational, so Anais…

Anais Mitchell: So, Allie...

AQ: Tell me when you started playing.

AM: Guitar? When I was a freshman in high school I started taking lessons and didn't really play too much and kind of learned the basic chords and didn't learn anything else for many years, and now I'm moving in more a music theory, actually-knowing-what-the-guitar-is kind of direction.

AQ: Is that because you're taking guitar classes or because your interests are changing?

AM: If you play something enough, I think you have to find new ways to play it.

AQ: Do these guitar lessons give you more freedom or less to explore your own personal style?

AM: Umm, more freedom, but the actual practicing is pretty mundane, but in the long run it gives you more facility with the guitar. And that's what I really want to figure out how to do, to play the guitar really bad ass because lots of other people can

AQ: Can you tell me a little about the story behind "In the Kitchen with Leonard Cohen?"

AM: The story behind it, yeah, okay, it was the summer I was living in Boston. I took a year off after high school. We were so miserable all summer, I was working for the census, which was so boring, and I was doing this secretarial work and he was working as a butcher and it was really hot and all of our friends were gone because they had all been in school in Boston and we were lonely and we weren't really in love like we wanted to be and we were pretty bitchy about it. And then one day we were in house, making dinner. We just put on this Leonard Cohen record, and we started dancing and we stopped bitching, and I just kind of realized that you can make whatever you want out of a situation.

AQ: Well, its cool because although you say it was a depressing summer, and maybe other songs of yours might be based on depressing things, you don't sing depressing folk songs. Are they mostly about your…self?

AM: Yeah, mostly they are, although I do want to move away from…I want to write political and socially aware songs, but I've heard a lot of songs that I feel like are just vehicles for a political or social message, and they suck. There's no emotion behind them, and I don't write that much, so when I write, I want to write about myself because I have to get it out, but I feel like if I was writing enough then I would get beyond that and I would be able to work in, you know, more, less selfish themes.

AQ: Do you find that the Middlebury environment is conflictive to getting out those themes, and concentrating on that work?

AM: I know what you mean. I definitely find that I feel that people don't really talk about, or challenge me about or compliment my song writing or my lyrics. They're often like, "Your voice was great", or "it sounded great." But songwriting is the most important to me and I want to really work on that.

AQ: When do you like to write your songs?

AM: I really write well in the morning, I wake up early before other people are awake.

AQ: What is it that comes over you, how does the spirit arise?

AM: I usually have an idea, it's usually a concept and I start to brainstorm all the different images that I associate with that concept, but usually I don't understand exactly what I'm trying to say until I've written a lot of verses and thrown them out and then I figure out what it is, but I'm a terrible reviser and I want to work on that because I get a song out and I'm so excited that I want to start playing it and then I don't want to revise it because I feel like its been out there.

AQ: I was going to ask, what do you love most about music, but I don't know if it should be phrased that way. What is it about music that draws you?

AM: The playing, or music in general?

AQ: Start with music in general.

AM: Well, I like the idea that if you're in the room with a bunch of people and you're all listening to the same music then at some visceral level you're all in the same place, do you know what I mean, emotionally you're all in the same zone. When you walk into a club and its pounding dance music you all get in that zone pretty fast, or if you're at a folk club. And it brings people together. I like the lyrics of music too, really good lyrics that bring me somewere, connected to the artist

AQ: What is it about folk music?

AM: That's interesting, huh?.I don't think it's folk music necessarily that I like, but I do like music where the lyrics or the vocal line is at the front, or is prominent in the music. So there's some rock music that I really like, like the Red House Painters, or even the Beatles. But when rock gets to be more about the instrumentation I don't feel connected to it as much.

AQ: So you listen to the words. And you could say that's a folk aesthetic, that the words are very important, self expression

AM: Although I 'd say there are a lot of really lame folk lyrics out there

AQ: Yeah, that's the thing, you have to guard that ambiguity and some artists guard it by hiding their lyrics with instrumentals, and others in their songwriting, I guess. What's 'Anais'' next move, as far as your music?

AM: I want to record an album in December and give it as Christmas presents. And my New Year's resolution last year was I was going to record an album before the end of the year. But then, also I'm taking the spring off and writing songs that whole time and I'm going to really buckle down and work through some creative songs and might try to get a 500 project

AQ: Okay, I've got a better question: What's your favorite song that you've written?

AM: That I've written? It tends to be the most recent one that I've written and that's what it is for me right now. Although I don't know what it means yet. I think that part of it, is that it is moving incremental steps away from being really self centered, broader themes.

AQ: Has Middlebury had an effect on your performing?

AM: There are so many opportunities to play here and I try to do them all. And I feel a lot more comfortable playing now than I used to. I used to play open mikes in Boston and a lot of times would just be really nervous and it was hard to play them decently. But also I've found, I'm moving away from this, I think a lot of women do this and I've definitely done this before, kind of ingratiate yourself to your audience, and act really cute as if to say "Maybe my art isn't that good, but I'm so cute so love me anyway,". which is pretty lame. I want to move away from that. And you don't see a lot of men do that, they're just like, "Here I am, take it or leave it."

AQ: Yeah, but there is the joking with the audience, the bantering, in some spaces that you find, and all folk artists seem to love to do that.

AM: It's a thing, and indie rockers never do it.

AQ: It depends.

AM: They don't have to, though.

AQ: No, they could be totally sullen and everyone would love them, but not a folker, or folk rocker.

AQ: Where was your first performance?

AM: At the bookstore, with my community and I knew them and it was okay. I love when I can be present with the people there and its hard to do that all the time.

AQ: What's your favorite space to play on campus?

AM: I had a lot of fun playing at the Gamut Room last night.

AQ: When is the next Chick Jam?

AM: Dec. 1, for sure.

AQ: Can you think of any more questions you want to ask yourself? What do you love about music. Allie?

AM: I love the emotion. I get wrapped up in the emotion, it teaches you a lot, I hate preachy songs, but, it's calming, it's soothing, its exciting, it's every
thing that isn't, that you can't exactly verbalize.

AM: No wait, I have to ask you, I told you this thing that Iggy Pop said that music is, it's a quote, "It's kind of about a young girl running away from home, it's kind of about white boys really wanting to dance but they can't." And what I really like about that is, I feel that in so many ways people use their art to express not just who they are but this yearning for who they want to be, what they want and how things could be.