Liane Carroll - On The Upside

has taken her time in preparing and recording her new album Up and Down. Packed with some of her favourite songs and endowed with the heart-on-sleeve expressiveness we have come to expect from the singer Liane talks to Peter Quinn on her home patch of Hastings about what music means to her and her own battle with some difficult personal demons.

Liane Carroll has just had a shiatsu massage. She’s feeling fabulous – it works especially well on musicians because of the vibrations and energy, apparently. She’s just met me from the train, it’s around 6pm in Hastings, and we retire to a tapas bar close to the station for ribs, chicken fajitas and red wine. I feel slightly guilty – aren’t we undoing all the good work? – but the wine tastes great. As we’re waiting for the food to arrive we chat about the final track on her forthcoming album, a heartstopping interpretation of Michael McDonald’s ‘I Can Let Go Now.’

“At gigs sometimes – this is so awful – because I find it hard sometimes to get through songs as I get overemotional, before I play it I tell the audience it’s otherwise known as ‘The Imodium Song’: I can let go now. And then I can get up and play it. Ian Shaw’s the same. Sara Colman, who I’ve been teaching with, is the same. Sometimes the song is so emotional, you don’t want to disassociate yourself because that’s shutting a door. But if you open the door – I’ve been thrown toilet rolls from people to dry my eyes. I don’t really want that to happen any more, I’d like to be a little bit more in control, but not to the point where it’s shut off. So that’s why you say all this shit beforehand. I’m working out that that’s why I do that – to give myself that breath – otherwise I’m just a stain on the floor.”

This is an extract from Jazzwise Issue #152 – to read the full article click here to subscribe and receive a FREE CD...