A Little Q.T. with Ladies on the Verge of Victory

It’s not every day that an Oberlin Review editor has the privilege of spending 15 minutes asking four of her favorite singer/songwriters about their careers. Cat Richert was this lucky Wednesday night when she interviewed Voices on the Verge, a four-course meal consisting of Erin McKeown, Rose Polenzani, Beth Amsel and Jess Klein. In addition to their successful individual careers, the four have joined vocal and instrumental forces to create a quartet of chill-inducing harmonies. Recently, Voices on the Verge released Voices on the Verge: Live in Philadelphia, backing it with a tour that brought them to the Cat in the Cream Wednesday night. Before the show, the four spoke to Richert about their fairytale incarnation, musical inspiration and what they think they are on the “verge” of.

Cat Richert: I was looking on the website today, and read the Tolkien-esque story Rose wrote of how the four of you met. However believable it is that a wizard concocted you one foggy, magic-ridden night, I am wondering what the real story is.

Erin McKeown: Basically it started out when I had a dream. I asked God to take all my strengths (laughter) and all my weaknesses, and show me my weaknesses and build three women…

(McKeown trails off, all laugh).

Jess Klein: And now they work for me…

(all laugh)

Rose Polenzani: If you really want to know how we met, I’m sure each of us could tell a very different story. But over the period of three months, we had all met each other in the winter of 1997. We are all singer/songwriters, we are all interested in, or gigging around the Northeast. And that’s a small community. You won’t go too long before you’ve shared a show with any of us. We got put on a bill all together at the Iron Horse, which was called “Voices on the Verge: The Cutting Edge Campfire.” When we got on the stage, we started playing each other’s music. It’s really boring to sit there and listen to other people play. You basically spend the whole show waiting for your turn. It was a way for all of us to cut past that. We ended up having a very good time.

CR: So it just worked right away. You meshed from the start.

EM: It worked right away. We’ve also put a lot of work into it after that initial spark. We reached the point where things stopped being spontaneous but they also weren’t rehearsed. There was a floundering in that sense. So we chose to start rehearsing… I remember making the decision that we needed to actually rehearse (laughter).

CR: So, you all just released an album together. Do you find it difficult to manage your own individual careers while still being part of the group? Is this project just a focus for a little while or is this going to be a big part of ya’ll’s careers?

JK: I think that we all committed to tour behind this record when it came out. For the time being we’re all focused on the tour. Although Beth has a new record that just came out, we all committed to do this. None of us really know for sure what will happen after that. But we’ll probably all go our separate ways and then get back together.

RP: I think that this really balances well with our careers because of the fact that we’re all in kind of a lull. we’ve been working a lot on our individual records. And now here’s this thing that’s going to employ us and keep our creative juices flowing in the off-time, when you don’t have a record you’re pushing.

CR: What are your greatest sources of motivation to keep doing what you’re doing and what inspires you musically?

Beth Amsel: Other music, other musicians, books that I’m reading. I find a book and read it outloud. If it rings a bell for me, the way the words are put together, I’ll mumble the words over chords on the guitar.

CR: I found this poster advertising your performance tonight (holds up exhibit A) with a quote from Beth saying: “The real problem is that we like each other so much…”

RP: The thing is, I remember when that article came out and I remember Beth saying “I didn’t say that!”

JK: But wait! What does the rest of it say?

CR: It says: “I’m still waiting for the big cat-fight to happen. I want to do hair-pulling, high-heel spike kicking, the whole nine yards.”

(laughter)

CR: What is it like to tour so closely with other people? Does it get totally crazy and unbearable sometimes, or do you all get along as well as Beth supposedly claims?

JK: I think any time you work closely with other people there’s a lot of negotiating. Ultimately the reason we’re all here, what makes the complications worth it, is that the music feels really good. It feels like we’re doing something that people relate to.

CR: Before we end, I wanted to do a little word association game with you. If you had to add one word to the end of “Voices on the Verge of,” what would it be?

(long pause as the four contemplate an answer for this question they have never been asked before)

RP: Voices on the Verge of “a major success”…

(laughter)

RP: Yeah. Like “Voices on the verge of a major success.” Or “Voices on the Verge” as in terms of, like, we’re on the fringe. New, insurgent music.

JK: And also, it’s just our dynamic is kind of edgy in that we try new things. So we’re…verging.