by: Chris Riemenschneider
Former 10,000 Maniacs singer returns to Austin with satisfaction of proving herself
If there's one thing being a solo artist has done for Natalie Merchant, it's helped restore her faith in herself.
"I have more self-confidence now than I've ever had," Merchant said on Tuesday, having returned from a walk outside her hotel in Berkeley, Calif., just in time for a phone interview.
The 31-year-old singer is touring for the first time without the name of her former band, 10,000 Maniacs, floating above her, and it's a turn of events she readily will confess she loves. Merchant and her new band will perform Monday at the Austin Music Hall, with Innocence Mission opening.
Merchant left 10,000 Maniacs at its peak in 1993, after the multiplatinum success of its Our Time in Eden and MTV Unplugged albums. But her leaving the band did not mean she was leaving its success behind.
Merchant's solo debut Tigerlily recently went platinum, her two singles, Carnival and Wonder, have received nearly as much airplay as the 10,000 Maniacs' songs ever did, and her critics more often than not have praised her solo ventures. For Merchant, it's an affirmation.
"The success of the album has proven to me at least, that I can be recognized as an individual song-writer," she said. "And it proves that I was probably the main sonwriting force behind the success of 10,000 Maniacs' songs, which I had suspected all along but wasn't completely sure of. That's something I wanted to find out on my own."
If it sounds as if Merchant holds a grudge for her former bandmates, who are continuing as the 10,000 Maniacs with the group's violinist and backup singer Mary Ramsey as its new lead, that might or might not be true. Merchant doesn't like to talk about them, except to say she wishes them the best. And she confesses that leaving the group was a difficult decision. [webmaster's note: this makes it sound like Mary was a member of the band as a back-up singer which is not true. Although she toured with the band in 1992 she did not join until 1994 and when she joined she joined as the lead singer]
"Leaving the band took a lot of courage," she said. "Bands really do form into family units, and beyond that, you feel a certain obligation for the other players' careers and for being involved in the creative process. I certainly felt obligated to continue in the band."
It was before Our Time in Eden even was recorded that Merchant told the rest of the Maniacs, whom she had performed with since she was 17, that she was striking out on her own. She still toured with the band the following year and recorded the MTV Unplugged album, giving her plenty of time to think her decision over. But she said she was certain leaving was best.
"I wasn't happy," she said. "I felt limited and confined. And if I was going to be unhappy, and if I wasn't going to be wholeheartedly involved in the creative process, then I at least owed it to them to not continue in the band."
While Merchant said the main reason for her leaving the 10,000 Maniacs was to play with other musicians and pursue other musical avenues, she also admitted that the end result of her first solo outing wasn't remarkably different from her previous work. While Tigerlily features a wider variety of rhythms and slower, longer songs, it still follows many of the same lines the 10,000 Maniacs' albums did.
"I didn't want to take a huge leap right away," Merchant said. "I probably will be playing with a lot more different styles in the future, but for now, I just wanted to continue to explore the framework of a pop ensemble.
"Tigerlily, I think, is most similar to Our Time in Eden, which is probably somewhat intentional," she said. "That, really, is the (10,000 Maniacs) record I am most proud of, not just because we were the most grown and experienced as a band on it, but because I was really proud of the songs. I wanted, in some ways, to show that can I write songs like that on my own."
Tigerlily is, for the most part, a lyrically driven album. Any review of it likely will contain the word "personal," as Merchant has, for the most part, cast aside the political topics that often surfaced with the 10,000 Maniacs.
Perhaps the most moving song on the album is Beloved Wife, a ballad that explores the magic of a long, healthy marriage. The inspiration for the song came from Merchant's grandparents, who died within days of each other.
"Their bond was so strong that it seemed, literally, that they couldn't live without each other," she said. "First my grandmother died, and three days later, so did my grandfather, after more than 50 years of being together. It's one of the greatest love stories I've ever known."
The song on the album -- actually the video -- that is earning the most attention is the new single, Wonder. In the video, women of all ages, shapes, sizes and races are helping Merchant sing the song, including an 8-year-old girl with Down syndrome, whom Merchant said is named Jackie. While the idea for the video came from its director, Jake Scott, Merchant said she fully realized its beauty when Jackie came to one of her concerts and sang along to every word in the song.
But the video's all-female cast seems to have inspired Merchant in other ways. Much of the entourage she is on tour with, including everyone from band members to her manager and roadies, are women. Merchant said it wasn't intentional, but she's enjoying the female companionship.
"Before, it was all men, not just in the band but in the whole touring circle," she said. "Now, it's nice to just be able to share a dressing room with Jennifer (Turner, her guitar player) and talk about the show afterward, or to walk around and have someone to talk about women matters with. I don't feel so alone or isolated."
Austin audiences already had an opportunity to see Merchant in September, when she opened for R.E.M. That was her only show with the boys from Georgia, and, she wanted to make clear, it was the first show of her band's current tour. So not only will Austinites likely see a smoother, tighter performance at the Austin Music Hall on Monday, they also will get to hear many songs the 45-minute opening slot didn't allow.
That includes, as everyone is wondering, some 10,000 Maniacs songs, which Merchant said she has no qualms about performing.
"I wrote, like, 75 songs in 10,000 Maniacs, and I'm proud of all of them," she said. "So why shouldn't I perform them?