You might know Eleanor Friedberger as one-half of the brother-sister rock duo, Fiery Furnaces, or maybe as the (alleged) titular inspiration for Franz Ferdinand’s song “Eleanor Put Your Boots On,” or perhaps you saw her as part of the Portlandia backing band during the live tour of the Fred Armisen-Carrie Brownstein sketch TV show.
But, if you aren’t familiar yet with Friedberger’s solo stuff -- well, frankly that’s where you’re missing out. With the recent release of her second solo album, Personal Record, Friedberger deserves recognition as one of the best singer-songwriter’s around. As a writer's she's funny, dark, honest and insightful and her voice recalls vintage Chrissy Hynde, clear, rich and distinctive.
CBC Music spoke with Friedberger in advance of her Vancouver show, June 11 at the Media Club, about songwriting, Neil Young and unreliable narrators.
Were you wanting to be coy with the album title, Personal Record?
I haven’t used the word coy, but I like puns, you know and it was a title I kind of -- I’d narrowed it down to two titles for [my last record, Last Summer]: Last Summer or Personal Record. I just couldn’t believe someone hadn’t called their album that before! I thought it was either the funniest, best title ever or not. But I didn’t want Last Summer to feel ironic at all. I wanted it to be very sentimental. Before I even really knew what the album was going to be like, I already knew that was going to be the title.
Last Summer was very confessional. On this record, you’re a narrator we can’t quite trust. We don’t know if you’re singing from your personal experience or in character.
That was also part of the point. I don’t want to keep comparing it to my previous album, but that one was so specifically about a certain time and place and so specifically about me, I didn’t want to do that again.
Is there a sense of freedom in moving away from first-person?
Sure... I like the fact that you can’t tell if the songs are about me, but also that someone could say every line is about me. There could be good arguments for either case. I do get some sense of comfort in the ambiguity of the whole thing and that carries over to the gender-bending, I’m really into that. You can’t quite tell if it’s coming from a woman’s perspective or a man’s perspective. I think all that’s really neat. But the reason for that is because both a man (her producer and co-writer Eric Broucek) and a woman wrote the words, but you can’t quite tell who wrote what. I think that means we did a good job.
Do you like writing with someone, getting out of the vacuum of writing solo?
Yeah, we did most of the writing over email, so it’s like getting these little surprises every day. He’d send me something and I’d send him something back and it was like we were trying to please each other in a really fun way. Obviously we had to have this friendship and mutual admiration going on, otherwise that would never have worked. When you get to share something with music, that’s one of the most beautiful things in the world. (Laughs) That sounds corny, but it’s true. nd And that’s what most of the songs ended up being about: getting close to people through music.
Do you have a traditional songwriting process?
I would say I write out a bunch of words and then I start singing them with a guitar or a keyboard. (Laughs) But the words always come first. They always have for me.
Are you one of those people who can write anywhere, or is it place-specific?
Oh, no, I have to be at home. I’m not one of those people who gets inspired late at night in my hotel room. I have to put my head down. (Laughs) It’s work for me. I always go back to this. I heard Neil Young in an interview and I totally love Neil Young, but I remember him saying something like, ‘Oh, the songs come to me. They come to me.’ I just don’t understand that at all. It doesn’t come to me. (Laughs) I have to go to it.
Follow Andrea Warner on Twitter: @_AndreaWarner.