Mary Chapin Carpenter

Mary Chapin Carpenter
a.k.a. Mary-Chapin Carpenter

A CARPENTER'S TALE
Mary Chapin Carpenter Shares Some Big Ideas
On Time*Sex*Love, her first new studio album since 1996's A Place in the World, Mary Chapin Carpenter delivers her most penetrating and literate look yet at the male-female dynamic. The title is based on an astute critique offered up by the singer-songwriter's longtime collaborator John Jennings, who evaluated the inner workings of Carpenter's songs this way: "Time is the great gift; sex is the great equalizer; love is the great mystery." Shortly before heading to Europe to begin a lengthy world tour in support of Time*Sex*Love, Carpenter talked with Barnes & Noble.com's David McGee about the ideas and events that shaped her remarkable album.

Barnes & Noble.com: It's been about four years between studio albums for you. What was going on during that time -- personally, professionally -- that shaped your ideas about what you wanted Time*Sex*Love to be?

Mary Chapin Carpenter: Well, first of all, primarily what was going on was I was working a lot. I was touring. I toured a lot after the last studio record. And then I was doing some acoustic tours as well, and that took up a lot of time. I've always found that it's kind of impossible for me to write while I'm on the road. So in any case, I kind of need to have a lot of time at home to do that. Basically, when I was home I was writing a lot and experimenting doing some co-writing with people, but the things I was focusing on for myself, as long as I was writing for myself, I wasn't all that crazy about. So that sort of accounts for why there was a number of years between records. And as far as what was going on in my life, I mean I'm not really one to talk too much about my personal life, but I think I was just growing older and wiser. You know, it's sort of my attempt to find meaning in my life and make sense of adulthood and all that goes along with it.

B&N.com: A lot of the songs deal with that, but I have to say, Mary Chapin, that men really take a beating in these songs.

MCC: Oh, I don't think so. I really don't think so. But tell me why you do.

B&N.com: Obviously you're a female writing from that perspective about relationships with men, and --

MCC: I guess I will confirm that I am heterosexual, but you shouldn't always make that assumption, David. You know? But I guess I sort of feel like it's about individuals. I'm not condemning men in general. I don't think it's right to do that.

B&N.com: "Condemn" is too strong a word. But I am hearing these songs and relating to them as a man. And the behavior you describe in some of them is not always --

MCC: But I feel like it's about men and women. I absolutely feel that way. I feel like the more personal a song is the more universal it is, in a way. I feel like the issues of passion and intimacy and loss, and all that kind of stuff that this record is about, is what happens to all of us. I have a lot of men friends who are familiar with these songs who feel like the songs speak to their lives completely. So that's why I guess I completely disagree with you in that regard. I feel like every relationship has similar issues; it's not just about men in that way.

B&N.com: Well, to generalize, as dangerous as that is, do you feel men and women, in relationships, are too careless about love, even in the way they use the word?

MCC: I don't feel I can generalize about that. I can only speak to my own experience. Or from my own experience. I do feel like there's a lot of words in our language that are bandied about far too lightly. I can't really say that one person says "love" more than another and doesn't necessarily know what it means. I mean, I feel like I'm still figuring it out. I think sort of in a "global" way, [this album] is all about how we respond to each other in so many ways and whether we're clued in to what makes each other tick. I suppose we could call up Deborah Tannen and ask, "What do you feel about this?" It's certainly interesting to write about, though.

B&N.com: Do you see this as an optimistic album?

MCC: Yeah, I do. And I say that because of the song "In the Name of Love." I think that's an optimistic song in that it's basically admitting, Yeah, I get all twisted with this stuff and it lays me out and it makes me crazy. But in the end there's nothing I would not do, there's nothing we would not do; it's the ultimate thing we pursue in that way. And for that reason it's worth it. It's just worth it. I feel that way about it. I put it in the sequence where I put it on purpose. It's toward the end -- it's the last song before "Late for Your Life." I wanted it there because it feels like a punctuation mark.

B&N.com: You recorded in London at Air Studios, rather than in Nashville or Virginia, where you've worked in the past. What was the reason for going over there?

MCC: It's been a while since I made a record, and I wanted to feel really happy and excited about it. I was really looking forward to the process, and I really felt like a change in environment would be cool. Air is a great studio, I felt comfortable in there from the first time I set foot in it. Logistically it felt like this is such a right decision to make, to do it this way. And that's really the reason I went over there -- I wanted to do something different and be in a different place.

We got over there and for the first couple of days we all sat around the studio and started running the songs, just creating organic arrangements in that way. I had very strong ideas to begin with about how I wanted things to sound. So I was, to a degree, a little dictator, but I was working with such talented musicians, obviously, that they contributed so much to everything you hear. It felt like an organic kind of process. It was just wonderful, and it made the atmosphere of this all-consuming work so great.

B&N.com: There's a nice balance on the album between the more ornate productions and others, like "Swept Away," that are stripped down and minimal, almost like art songs in the way they're so quiet and your voice is so up front.

MCC: Interestingly enough, "Swept Away" is the demo. It's the one song we didn't cut in London. It's the demo we did at Bias Studios in Virginia about six months before I did the record. It's the first take, it was one of those charmed moments where we just played it once and couldn't beat it.

B&N.com: Are there any particular songs on Time*Sex*Love that are your favorites because they most exemplify what you were going for in the big picture?

MCC: You know, I haven't listened to the album in a while, but the last time I listened to it -- and I hate saying this, because I really love the record as a whole and I don't like to extract songs and say, "This is the one I love"-- the song that I wanted to hear again after I heard it the first time, if that qualifies, is "Swept Away." I don't know why, but that's the one I wanted to hit Repeat on. That was written about this guy I saw in the airport whom I had had a love affair with 15, 16 years prior, and I hadn't really seen him since that time. My first instinct was to hide behind a pillar or run, but we were on the same flight. So I ended up greeting him. But that sensation of wanting to run, I was glad I didn't give in to it. That's what the song's about, all that old shit you carry around for so long about somebody. Because he had broken my heart at that time. And all that old stuff just finally evaporated, being able to see him again and connect as a different person.

B&N.com: At the end of "Late for Your Life" you're caught on tape laughing hysterically and then you go into a straightforward country song, "Going Home," which closes everything on an up note.

MCC: That's the hidden track. That was something I put there because it made me laugh. I was having a complete meltdown in the studio, because it was nine days straight at that point and I was sleep-deprived and jet-lagged. Actually, it was a rough start to this record. I went over there and, unbeknownst to me, I had a broken tibia in my leg that had been misdiagnosed as a ligament strain. I was walking around on painkillers, and oh, my God, it was awful. Also I had laryngitis and I had tonsillitis. So I was just a mess. I was trying to keep it together; the sessions were booked, we couldn't move them, had to get this thing done. So by the time of Take 3 of "Long Way Home," I just started laughing and I couldn't stop. And it was on tape. You know, snot coming out of nose, one of those things. Then the song "Going Home," was the last thing we did in the studio; we were leaving the next day, we were all very sort of melancholy but also excited about going home. So we got everybody, including all the engineers, to gather around the microphone. There was just one microphone, so it was a real low-fi kind of thing, just playing this little band song, "Going Home," and we spliced it together. And that was the end.

May 29, 2001