Downtown Phoenix’s 110-degree temperatures are getting to Natalie Merchant.
“I went outside to get some Mexican food and quickly retreated to my room,” she says, calling from her hotel’s 18th floor. “I’m from New York. We don’t have heat like this.”
Merchant is touring in support of “Leave Your Sleep,” her first studio album since 2003.
In contrast to the art-school R&B she made in ’90s buzz-band 10,000 Maniacs, the record finds the singer globetrotting through a number of throwback genres. There’s heartbeat reggae (“Topsy-turvy World”), supper-club jazz (“The Janitor’s Boy”), fish-fry Cajun (“Calico Pie”) and chamber folk (“Equestrienne”).
For lyrics, Merchant used poetry from Ogden Nash, e.e. cummings, Robert Graves and others. “I liked the simplicity of language and how condensed the language was, which is something I think I understood from my own songwriting over the years,” she says. “But these people were masters at it. Also, I’ve never worked in this direction, having a whole structure of words to build on. I usually start with music and fit words to the music.”
What’s the most unusual venue you ever played?
In 10,000 Maniacs, our bass player’s sister had Down syndrome, and we would play for her group home, mentally handicapped adults. It was fun because there was an immediate response to the music with no filter. No holding back.
It’s been several years since you’ve toured. What did you miss about it?
The camaraderie with the musicians and the connection with the audience. But the thing I have to contend with now is I have a family and I’m away from home, and that’s too much of a tradeoff. The shows are great, but I miss my family.
“Leave Your Sleep” engineer Nick Wollage previously worked on soundtracks for “Atonement” and “Pride and Prejudice.” Did you think that would help capture the vibe you were looking for?
Definitely. I listened to many of those soundtracks he had recorded and was impressed by how wonderful they sounded. They were very authentic to whatever time period or place that music was supposed to be coming from.
You do a bit of genre-hopping on this record.
Yeah. But I also thought (Wollage) had the versatility and experience there because he’d done so many full-scale orchestral sessions, but also jazz bands and early British folk music and Elizabethan music. He’d also been a pop studio musician at AIR Studios. George Martin schools all those engineers at AIR in his techniques, so there’s a legacy there I was interested in attaching myself to.
What was the first track you cut for “Leave Your Sleep?”
The reggae band was first. Nick, Andes (Levin, co-producer) and I had never really been in the same room together and we were recording with a band we'd never met. So it could have been a recipe for complete disaster. By the end of the first session we were such a great team. It was magic. And that magic just kept happening over and over and over, no matter who we brought into the studio.
It sounds like you had a lot of fun recording “Janitor's Boy.”
“Janitor's Boy” was really exciting because it was a day in the studio with Wynton Marsalis and his quintet, who are some of the best jazz musicians in the world. It was intimidating and fun at the same time. A lot of the musicians I chose to work with were established instrumental groups with no singers, like Medeski, Martin & Wood, Wynton and The Klezmatics, who sing some but are also known for their instrumentals. Even the Memphis Boys, who backed up Elvis Presley in the '70s. The sessions were fun from that point of view because I was learning so much about the instruments they played, the styles of music the played and the messages they used to communicate about music. The Chinese musicians spoke about music in a completely different way than the Cajun or reggae musicians.
You collaborated with Dr. John at a benefit for Katrina victim relief. What do you remember about working with one of New Orleans' musical legends?
It was a great time. We did a couple of my songs, then we did a couple of his songs and then we did a few covers of classic Crescent City stuff. Some Irma Thomas. He's a pretty phenomenal piano player. But we also did “I Hear You Knocking” and he played guitar on that and I didn't know how great a guitar player he was.
Yeah, he started out as a guitar player but suffered a gunshot wound to his right ring finger that made it difficult to play guitar. So he focused on piano from then on. What's your pre-show ritual like these days?
I don't really have one. I like to brush my teeth and I stretch my hamstrings, but outside of that I don't have any rituals. I always have to iron my clothes before I go on.
How do you keep track of new song ideas on the road?
I've kept journals for years. But to tell you the truth we're moving at such a blistering pace on this tour, all I have time to do when I'm not onstage is feed myself and sleep.
What have you been listening to?
That's another thing: I can't listen to music on the road. I've never been able to organize. To me it's kind of a busman's holiday: If you're making music all afternoon and night, it's nice to have silence for a couple hours a day.
Natalie Merchant plays The Peace Center 7:30 p.m. Sept. 1. Tickets are $30-$50. For more information, call 864-467-3000 or visit www.nataliemerchant.com.
