Q&A with singer-songwriter Edwin McCain

Daily Helmsman: You came to Memphis just last year for a show, What is it about this city that keeps you coming back?

Edwin: I love Memphis. It’s got a really good vibe. I’m just amazed at the level of musicianship there. It has so many talented musicians.

DH: The Lounge at Gibson Guitar Factory is a fairly small venue and you’re playing a few theaters on this tour as well. Are the smaller, more intimate venues what you prefer?

Edwin: I think everybody does. I know I do. I had my fill of the big show when we opened up for Hootie on the ‘95 tour. It was like 70,000 people a night. It was really fun playing to the big arena.

My favorite thing in the world is being able to sit in a small room, tell the stories and get to know people. To have it be more interactive. It’s all about the storyteller, singer-songwriter vibe.

DH: What is the best part of the songwriting process? Is the actual writing or the first time you play the song for someone?

Edwin: I think it’s the playing for people. The song writing process is hard. It’s really hard. It’s real personal. Excuse the expression, but it’s kind of like whacking off in front of a bunch of people. It’s a real personal thing. You have to dig down and deal with a lot of things you don’t really want to admit about yourself. Or at least that’s the way I like to write songs. You put it down on paper and hope people understand or at least empathize.

DH: Do you prefer the studio or the stage?

Edwin: The stage. I can’t stand the studio. I have so many friends that love the process of the studio thing. They ‘re not big fans of playing live. I’m not that guy. I love being out on the road playing for people.

DH: On your Web site you talk about VH1’s Behind the Music and how the best episodes are the ones where artists crash and burn. Would you ever allow yourself to be featured on Behind the Music? What would be the theme of your Behind the Music episode?

Edwin: You’d be stupid not to as far as a professional stand point. I like weird Al’s Behind the Music. It’s like– ‘I play accordion and everything’s fine.’ If I did a Behind the Music, I would have to make them leave out the P.O.F. – the price of fame.

There really is no price. The idea of fame is completely retarded. Being able to play music and hopefully entertain people and sometimes touch people is the greatest gift you could ever get. The idea that anybody pretends like it’s sort of af f***ing burden to get there. It’s just stupid. It cracks me up.

TV now is all about the suffering. Brilliance doesn’t sell. Pain and suffering does. I love watching that Real World show, because I want to kill all of them. All of them reliving there little twenty-year-old lives. Everything’s so dramatic. Life’s not that f***ing hard and every one makes it so f***ing difficult all the time.

DH: Was Dawson’s Creek more of a blessing or a curse for your career?

Edwin: It was a blessing for the fact that it made us all some money.

I don’t really know how I feel about that episode. It was a wild ride. It was interesting. It was a lot of fun. I got to do a lot of neat things. It still affords me the connections and abilities to have a lot of fun. I guess overall, it was definitely a blessing. I didn’t even know it was on there. I kept getting these questions about Dawson’s Creek. That’s how much I was paying attention.

DH: With all of the processed and formulaic music out there, where do you feel that you fit in the music business? When do you think this ridiculous trend will end?

Edwin: I don’t know where I fit in the music industry. I hope I don’t fit in the music industry. I’ve kind of been at this for so long and seen so many amazing musicians get f***d over by this business. I’m not saying that because they were my buddies. I’m talking about people that were writing and playing really important music and very good artists.

I don’t know what to make of it all. It’s been the worst part about being involved with a big record company– watching this abject waste of money and waste of people’s time. Human emotion and all these things that get tossed around. I imagine how they deal with it like strip-mining. Dig it all up and throw it in the processor. Every once in a while find a chunk of gold. It’s disappointing and it’s dishonest. I think the disturbing trend will be over in about five years.

In five years, with satellite radio and with the Internet, with how much better digital processing has become and the ability for people to download music over the Internet and get it for free. I think it’s going to be free. I think you’re going to have to put out albums and know everyone’s going to download them and your not going to get paid for them. People are going to like your music because it’s music.

I think your going to find the grand experiment of having one company own every single radio station in the country is going to be over soon too. Because their going to lose their asses because nobody’s listening anymore. Because nobody wants to hear the same forty songs over and over again.

I would venture to say, optimistically, in five or 10 years the way we listen to music will be different.

DH: So you support the MP3 and other download sites.

Edwin: Absolutely. Everybody’s like ‘your crazy your losing money.’ It was never about money. I look forward to it. I think it’s fantastic. I think it allows people to make their own decisions.

DH: Obviously this album is a little different than the past three, what kind of feedback have you gotten from it?

Edwin: From all of our hard-core friends in music and people that really like what we’re doing, they really love it.

Nobody is going to tell me that they hate it.

I know one guy that hates it, but he hates everything I do. He’s a good friend of mine. It’s just really funny. He’s like “man, I hate your music.”

DH: Some of your lyrics portray a man that every woman dreams being ultra sensitive, caring, etc. Are you really like that?

Edwin: No, I don’t think anybody’s like that. I think these things, but I don’t know if I execute it.

I was just talking to my wife today. We were laughing because I like to go to parties and be real entertaining. Make an effort to tell stupid stories and act animated.

I’m sure everybody thinks ‘man, he’s the nicest guy.’ They don’t catch me in one of my prick moods, where I don’t want to talk to anybody.

Everybody has their days. It’s one of those things where you have to be honest about the way you want to be, but it may not necessarily be the way you are at all times. I think everybody struggles to be the person they envision to be the best version of themselves.

DH: Who are your biggest musical influences?

Edwin: David Wilcox, Jimi Hendrix, Seal. Ummmmm.

(silence)

I can’t believe I’m sitting here watching Britney Spears.

Have you noticed how much she’s been on television lately? It feels like every time I turn on the television she’s f***ing there.

DH: Yeah, I know what you mean–With the Super Bowl commercials and SNL.

Edwin: She’s hot, but I don’t get it. Then again, their not selling it to me.

Anyway. Jeffrey Gaines is a real big influence. I was a big KISS fan. I loved AC/DC and Motley Crue, the whole 80s hair band thing. I was way into Earth Wind and Fire and all the Motown stuff. Then I went through a big punk faze with Corrosion of Conformity, Dead Kennedys and Black Flag and all that stuff.

Then there was James Taylor and that whole thing. Got into the Delbert McClinton stuff. I was a huge Randy Newman fan. It’s really a melange of many things.

DH: Randy Newman, how many songs has that guy written?

Edwin: What a f***ing monster, huh? That’s what I love about him. He just says it.

I don’t feel like you have the ability to be a Randy Newman in this business anymore. You can’t be a great songwriter. Now it’s just about who is the mouth piece. I don’t know if you’ve heard his new album. It’s so cool. You’ve got to hear it. He’s got this one song, it is kind of a dialogue between this old man and a young girl in a bar. It’s just way too honest and perfect.

DH: Sounds like Steely Dan.

Edwin: Yeah. I love Steely Dan and I like the playing of it. To me a lot of times, some of it becomes a little to extemporaneous. It becomes a little like musical masturbation. It’s cool and I’m into it until I get to a point where I’m like– okay, all right, enough.

So, I just can’t listen to the jam bands. After I’ve heard a couple of guitar solos it’s time not to have that going on an hour later.

I’m a singer/songwriter guy. I’d rather listen to Shawn Colvin or the Indigo Girls. Emily Saliers was doing sound check one day. I was sitting there. She actually yanked tears out of my eyes. She’s just that good. That’s what I find intriguing. The idea that someone would bear their soul and say things about life and honesty.

It was just a brilliant moment.

DH: I have the “Wintertime Blues” album you did with Warren Haynes. It’s a great album.

Edwin: That’s such a cool record. We do that show every year it’s so much fun. What a super, super guy (Haynes). He’s been such a good friend and he’s such a nice guy. He deserves everything he gets in life. He’s such a neat dude.

DH: It’s amazing how he hasn’t had that much exposure. I wouldn’t call him underground, but there’s a lot of people that haven’t heard of him.

Edwin: In my humble opinion, I feel better about myself that I do know. I’d hate it if everybody did. I know that’s bad to say, but some things are too good for general consumption. And I believe that that’s one of them.

I’m a big fan of the Ani Difranco thing. Not a ton of people know who she is. It’s because there not suppose to.

If your not the type of person that’s aware enough to hear that and get it then your not suppose to.

Britney Spears is suppose to be shoved down everybody’s throats because that’s the only way that people would get it. That’s why it’s like that.

DH: Do you think that’s what it’s boiled down to now, when it comes to record sales– just how much marketing an artist can get?

Edwin: Absolutely. With a proper marketing plan you can make an album out of chimps farting and sell eight million copies.

With the proper PR machine behind it, I’m absolutely certain that chimps farting can be a number 10 record on the charts. I don’t know.

Obviously, I’m just a smidgen on the jaded side after being involved in this crappy business. But in the same breath it does afford a lot of people to get out there and get a chance at the big brass ring.

It’s just a matter of you have to respect it, respect what it is and understand that it can be a really nasty business.

On the other hand there’s a lot of people that have come out of nowhere that are just so good and so right that it happens it anyway.

Dave Matthews is like that. I’m as jealous as I can be over Dave cause we all played at the same frat house.

From the minute I first saw him play it was so good and so innovative. For what ever reason it was just mystical how right it was. I said back then ‘that guys going to be playing stadiums.’ I swear he will. Everybody’s like ‘what the f*** are you talking about.’ We were standing some bar in Hiltonhead with about ten people. I said this guys going to selling out stadiums.

I actually won a bet on that. Some friend that night was like ‘ your smoking crack.’ It was like 100 bucks. I haven’t collected that bet, I need to do that.