Interview Piney Gir: Morrissey Fights For My Honour

has just released her third(ish) album ‘The Yearling’, and the first single from it will be released a little later this month.

Here, she tells us about all the other projects she’s currently working on, including a new Country Roadshow album (for her country music), a Christmas video with an animated Morrissey (seriously), an audio book she’s recording, and a Valentines Day single that may or may not happen. Phew!

Hello Piney Gir, how are you?
I’m fine thank you, how are you?

Good thank you! On your MySpace blog you complain about the lack of manners people display nowadays. Is society going downhill? Have you had a bad day?
Well, I didn’t have a bad day really, I guess I just come from a place where people are all smiles and say ‘howdie do’ and so forth. Sometimes in London people get so pushy and shove a lot and it’s like ‘Are you getting where you need to go any quicker by being rude to people?’ I am guessing the answer to that question would be no. So it’s just like all this aggro is being let out into the world and some days I soak it up like a sponge and it brings me down. So yeah, maybe I did have a bad morning this morning. But I had a coffee and a banana and feel better now. Thanks for asking.

Your new album was out in September, and you’ll be releasing a new single from it later this month. How do you feel about the release a couple of months down the line? Still happy with it all? It seems to have been fairly well received.
I’m so lucky that all the reviews seem to be good (I’m knocking on wood and crossing my fingers while I say that) but the press and the public have kindly received my record and I’m so proud of it, I’m just happy to see it out there in the world living life and making people happy or thoughtful or whatever my album does for them. It’s amazing to connect with people.

Have you started to think about a follow up yet? You don’t seem the sort of person to be short of ideas.
Well I am sitting on a finished audio book with an electronic soundtrack that Mark Radcliffe kindly narrated. I also have a finished Country Roadshow album that is in need of a home; it’s all recorded and mixed and ready to go! And I’ve started writing the next Piney Gir album which is coming along nicely… so yeah, I guess that’s keeping me busy.

What’s this Christmas video you’ve been working on with Geoff Howell?
It’s insane, but Geoff is such a talent when it comes to animation that I am just going with it! It’s got a tiny cowgirl who kind of represents me, but as a cow in a dress. There is a big green Morrissey and we walk around town hand in hand encountering friends and foes. Morrissey fights for my honour. It’s an age old tale told in a really creative way. I love it.

You’ve been around and making music for a very long time now, but there still seem to be people who don’t know who you are. Do you get people treating you as a ‘new’ artist?
Well my first album came out in 2004, is that a very long time? Yes maybe it is. To some people I am new, and that’s fine. Maybe they will get into this album and explore my back-catalogue and hopefully they will be delightfully surprised by what they find. Because of my strict Christian upbringing I was a late bloomer when it came to secular music and I figure it’s better late than never when it comes to that kind of thing, right? I’m still discovering David Bowie, but that doesn’t make him any less good.

We had a look at the Spotify mixtape you put together for the Independent, there’s not much new music on there?
Yeah I guess there’s not a lot of new music on there, I hadn’t thought of that. I am kind of an old-fashioned girl and some of my happiest memories involve the period when I lived with my Grandmother on the farm in Wisconsin picking berries and baking pies. We listened to a lot of Andrews Sisters and Doris Day; my Grandpa liked Johnny Cash and Dolly Parton. I think there’s a lovely sense of nostalgia in that music for me, paired with the fact they are just GREAT SONGS that will stand the test of time forever. I think too because I wasn’t allowed secular music until 1989 means I’m still discovering older music that a lot of people have grown up with and take for granted. So what seems old hat to someone, I might have only heard for the first time the other day. So it’s fresh to my ears. I love all music, and there’s plenty of new music I listen to (Beirut, Antony Elvin, Pete and the Pirates, Ralfe Band, Efterklang) but the stuff that I hold dear to me does seem to be older songs for some reason. Maybe I have an ‘old soul.’

And finally: what does 2010 hold for Piney Gir?
I plan on getting the audio book out there, as well as the new Roadshow album ‘Jesus Wept’. I also want to do a sort of double a-side single for Valentines Day, one side bitter - one side sweet. I will tour, I will gig, I plan to tour the States, I want to finish this new album that is rattling around in my head. I think it will be a busy year but I like it that way.