Kim Ruehl: I know a lot of the reviews that I've read about it are focused on how happy Red Letter Year is, like they can't believe you had it in you to write some happy songs. I'm wondering were you surprised by that? Did you expect that kind of surprise from people?
Ani DiFranco: You know it's probably our own damn fault at Righteous Babe Records. I noticed recently that in the press release for the record it talked about how happy I am. [laughs] I was like, oh Jesus, there it is. Right in front of the horse's mouth. Whoever wrote the press release kicked that ball off. So I guess I reap what I sow. It's a little weird to me, because it's not exactly a Jackson Five record or something. There are worse things that could be repeated.
"Red Letter Year" (purchase/download) the song, itself, didn't strike me as the happiest tune in the world.
No, the whole record starts with Katrina hitting New Orleans with that tune, and then it moves on from there. It starts with New Years Eve, and then a lot of great things do happen over the course of the record: a lot of love and giving birth, sharing in the love of a kid. There's also a lot of in-your-face political ranting along the way. "Red Letter Year"...I chose it to represent the record because Katrina was such a transformative event. It's very much a record about transformation. It's a drunken lament, I would call it.
Where did the idea to bring in Rebirth [Brass Band] for the reprise (purchase/download) at the end come from?
Well they do play on the actual tune, so they sort of bookend the record. The reprise, though, is just them. That was a spur of the moment thing that just happened in the studio. They're old pals of mine. I invited them to open a summer tour of mine like ten years ago. We traveled coast to coast playing outside all summer and we became friends, so it was kind of a reunion to invite them on this record. While we were in the studio, they played in the very beginning of "Red Letter Year" and then in the end when it gets into that Salvation Army Marching Band side. Then my partner, my trusty co-producer Mike, after they'd done that, was like "How about they play it their style as well? Play the changes second line style?" We didn't really know what would become of that, but I just used it in its entirety...to bring the joie de vivre in at the very end.
Going back to talk a little bit about the political rants that you mentioned. You have that new song "November 4, 2008." Where were you on election night? Was that song something that just came to you? Or did you feel like, "I need to document this"?
I pretty much wrote it on November 5. I was here in New Orleans and feeling the global joy with the New Orleans flavor. I had so many friends that described it as the perfect Christmas. The one that probably never even existed: you're nine years old and Santa gives you everything you want and it snows, your parents are kissing and the cookies are baking in the oven. It was just such a great feeling among people. I was inspired to write immediately.
So what do you do now with songs like "Millennium Theater" (purchase/download) and all those anti-Bushie tunes? Do you stop playing them altogether? Do they get retired?
Yeah, the last tour we did in November, I definitely was putting down some of the more melancholy songs that came out of that time period of rage and sadness, and looking for the more hopeful tunes in my bag of tricks. One of the things I said when he was elected was, "I have to write all new songs!" This is a new era and...it was funny. Whenever I would get doubtful [before], I'd think "Oh man, I have to represent more rage and even more disappointment, melancholy, and disillusionment?" Then I felt this glorious pressure set in when Obama was elected. I was like, yeah! Okay, I have to write new shit and I'm so happy [about that].
When you sit down to write, how much of it is honoring the legacy of being a folksinger—documenting the times—and how much of it is just whatever comes to your head?
I think I'm aware of that, but that does not dictate what I'm doing. I think it's just naturally part of me—that instinct to represent the un-represented, of which I'm just naturally part in my various ways. For one thing, just being a chick, which is probably somewhat an under-represented experience even in folk music, the music of the people. I've been asked a lot over the years about my role as a folksinger. I feel that, even just writing about relationships or the male-female dynamic, is some not very charted territory in folk music and political songwriting. [Folk music has] been so male-dominated. There's a lot more workin' on the railroad and goin' off to war. So I'm definitely aware of my role as folksinger and I relish it, but it always comes from my heart first.
Interview conducted Dec. 12, 2008
Page 2: Ani DiFranco on Babeville, Buffalo, and the Best of 2008
