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Written by Gregg Shapiro, Staff writer
Nov 16, 2011
Eleanor Friedberger. – Photo: Courtesy
Fiery Furnaces fans can breathe a sigh of relief. "Last Summer," the solo debut by Eleanor Friedberger, does not mark the end of the duo, which includes Friedberger's brother Matthew. Instead, "Last Summer" is a chance for her to flex other musical muscles and venture out momentarily on her own, she says.
Beginning with the irresistible and bouncy "My Mistakes" and continuing through the hip-shaker "Roosevelt Island" and the Latin-tinged "Early Earthquake," Friedberger has crafted a warm and radiant solo debut.
Gregg Shapiro: There must be people who are thinking, "Is she taking a break or are they breaking up?" How do you respond to that?
Eleanor Friedberger: Well, I say we are not breaking up (laughs). I think due to the fact that the band is composed of me and my brother, we're never going to not be brother and sister playing music together. I can imagine making a record with him when I'm in my 60s.
I really love the funky, vintage 1976 disco of "Roosevelt Island." Why did you choose to take it in that musical direction?
That really came out of my demo. I use GarageBand. I don't have the fancy version, I just have the basic stuff that it came with. There are very few drum loops. There are only a couple that sound remotely OK. One of them is like this Motown drummer beat that I used for that song and that was kind of like the basis of it. Then we decided to keep that beat. That came out of limitations and necessity, but I grew to like it.
Are there plans for a dance remix for your gay fans?
Not yet. Nobody has approached me to do anything yet, but I hope somebody does. That would be great.
Geography figures prominently in a number of songs, including "Owl's Head Park," "Roosevelt Island" and "Inn of the Seventh Ray." Can you say something about the role place plays in your work?
I like putting details into songs. I feel like it's just part of the story. When you're telling a story, of course you're going to say where you were and where you're going – that's just part of storytelling. I like it in songs. The way I started writing songs was by telling my brother stories and then turning that into lyrics, so it comes very naturally to me to set the scene. I don't know how else to do that without describing where you are and where you're going.
I was fortunate enough to attend your Chicago show at the Hideout in July and your mother was at the show. Do you find that you perform differently when you know she's in the audience?
That's a good question. Because I think I've only performed one time in Chicago when she wasn't in the audience. It actually was at the Hideout the one other time the Fiery Furnaces played there. She wasn't at the show for some reason. I feel her presence, I'm aware of it, but I try not to let it affect me. I'm sure it does. She's a huge fan and supportive mother and she loves it, but I can't help but feel a tiny bit inhibited while she's there.
Have you already begun to think in terms of the next solo disc?
Yeah. I haven't thought about how I want it to sound, but I have written a lot of new songs that I want to include on the next album. When I made "Last Summer," I really didn't want to sound like a girl with a guitar trying to do some kind of fake, folksy thing. I didn't feel comfortable in that role. I'm not a great guitar player, I feel like that's just been done a million times. Now doing these shows, playing the guitar alone singing, I kind of like it. There's a lot of freedom in it. I've watched (the Bob Dylan doc) "Don't Look Back" enough times, there's something very satisfying about just standing with a guitar and singing. So actually, just recently, I've been thinking about maybe I do want to make a record like that, where it's very much just a guitar and voice.
