Song Exploder - Cat Power - Woman

Episode Date: October 4, 2018

Chan Marshall is a singer-songwriter who’s been making records under the name Cat Power since 1995. In 2018, she put out her tenth album, Wanderer. It includes this song "Woman," which has Lana Del Rey on backing vocals. In this episode, Chan breaks down the song and what it means to her, as she tells the story of how she made  "Woman" in Miami and Los Angeles over the course of a few years. songexploder.net/cat-power

You're listening to Song Exploder, where musicians take apart their songs, and piece by piece, tell the story of how they were made. I'm Rishi Kesh Hirway. Sean Marshall is a singer-songwriter who's been making records under the name Cap Power since 1995. In 2018, she put out her 10th album, Wanderer. It includes this song, Woman, which has Lana Del Rey on backing vocals. In this episode, Sean breaks down the song and what it means to her, as she tells the story of how she made woman in Miami and Los Angeles over the course of a few years. My name is Sean Marshall. The song Woman was inspired by events that happened in my life that I'm not ready to talk about yet.

But the reason I wrote this song is because I couldn't find the words to describe how I was feeling inside, very alone, because I wasn't feeling empowered or strong as a woman. The beginnings of writing it. was just a few of these guitar chords that have been strumming in my alone time. And then I began singing. If I had a dime for every time, you tell me I'm not what you need. If I had a quarter, I would pull it together, and I would take it to the bank and then leave. Yes, I would take it to the bank and then leave.

The beginning lyric where it says, if I had a time for every time, you tell me I'm not what you need, I would take it to the bank and leave, is because I would have been a billionaire with all the different situational, abusive times this had been in my ears that I wasn't good enough or whatever. And that was the beginning, was this. Just lament.

And I have a lot of little things like that that I have had for many years. Some of those kind of little things I do by myself when I play solo. I'll sing them intermittently, these small laments in different shows around the world. But there's a lot of them that have never been recorded. And so I have lost many.

I felt a real sadness at some of these songs that are gone that I have no memory of. But those songs served purpose for me, whether they were a recorder or anybody heard them or not, they helped me get through whatever moment in time I needed some help. And that's where it was for a long time, was just that lament. If I had a dime for every time, tell me I'm not what you need. I'm also a new single mom.

And when I was recording, you know, I had my little baby, you know, this in my house recording, in my home studio, this pink house in Miami. I like that I got to begin it there because I was alone with my dogs, you know, in my belly while we were setting the studio up. And then after my son was born, you know, so the first two months were in that realm, wouldn't you have a kid? All the stuff that maybe made you sad before doesn't make you sad anymore. When you have a kid, it's like, oh, I'm much stronger than I was before.

And I don't have time for any of that beep-ity, beep, beep, you know. And I think that made it easier for me to sit with these laments. I've been traveling around with all these years and meditate on what else I'd like to say. And so through a lot of time passing, that little lament became the skeleton. I started adding more collarbone, a leg, and it started to grow. When it came time to flesh out the song, Woman, I had very clear sounds already in my brain that I tried to find.

I love the roads sound. The lament to me sounds questioning. Doesn't sound resolved at all. The roads, just the intonation, the notes, it sounds like it's moving forward in a way of like one foot in front of the other. like the beginning of the new journey. And also the bass, I knew that I needed what I needed, which was boom, do, no, but what I really wanted was the slide in on the boom.

Whenever I'm trying to get an exact note played, I have to sing it as best I can. I didn't want to sustain, so I made sure to get a boom, doon, dun. I then came out here to LA to work with Rob Schnapp for mixing and went to his studio, Mant. That's an electric banjo from Rob Schnapp that I played. I forgot that that's in the song, but it's exactly where I wanted it to be. It was the return, the return to verse. I just felt similar to how the roads reminds me of one foot in front of the other. in my brain I heard that note which equaled to me vast terrain so that I needed to go do that note.

My brain wanted those sounds, like a thick cloth, to keep that part of the song warm. I wrote the song because I needed strength and I needed empowerment and I needed to do it myself. Your cage is like a weapon, a tool for me. You think I'm like the other ones. Well, my cage is a weapon. It's perfect for me. It's the one suit you seem to never see. Your cage is like a weapon, is the social projection on women.

There's a lot of social pressure to be the standard, live up to the standard in so many ways. And I think when I'm saying, well, my cage is a weapon. It's perfect. for me. It's because it keeps me feeling secure. It's the one suit you never see because I've always been a tomboy since I'm a little girl. So that's the suit is the tomboy clothing. And I think it's really important for anyone who wants to go against norms to do so as I began to record more for the song, more instrumentation, background vocal. It was because,

when it became an homage for, too, about with women in general around the world. And young girls, too, you know, and people that identify as women. Woman, woman, woman, woman. But it needed some divine feminine transcendence, which as a tomboy, I don't have sonically with my voice, the way that I sing. So besides my own voice, the backing vocals are Lana Del Rey. Woman, woman, woman. I met Lana years ago at a hotel pool,

and she was such a sweetheart, genuine sweetheart, and that always stayed with me. So many years passed, and she invited me to go on tour with her in Europe this past April. There were some personal things going on, and she was a good friend when I needed someone to talk to. So anyway, that's why I asked her to sing on my song. My first thought was,

maybe you could just sing this intro with me, just me and you. And I would take it to the bank and then leave. Yes, I would take it to the bank and then leave. Because of the loss when I was making up the song, this lament that I was going through is that leaving a buddy, that kind of nod that she's with me. And then it kind of shifted into parts of the rest of the song. I'm taking the jump.

I took the leap. I need you to believe. There was one song that she sang on this tour that we did in April. and the way that she sang. What she did was so timeless and pure. I felt all kind of ways. Like she could have been in like a calico dress from the 70s, and I could have been like four years old maybe.

And I thought about her for this song because of that moment. I'm a woman of my word, and I haven't you heard. My word's the only thing I've needed. I can't hear Lana Del Rey as well as I wish I could. because I can't find my calico girl on there. I actually wish that the background vocals weren't there so that I could hear Lana's dignity. I'm a woman on my word.

Now haven't you heard, my word's the only thing I've ever needed. I'm a woman of my word. Now you have heard. My word's the only thing I truly need. Before doing vocal pass for background vocal voice, There was lead-in time. So you press record, you know, rolling, and then this song's going to come on. So there's like a preemptive moment there. And so I wanted to warm up for the song, you know, vocal warm-ups. I was entering the song at that point. I wanted to be connected within the song. So I was singing, woman. So we left the warm-ups on for the beginning. Being able to write the song. This song allowed me to acknowledge my strength and acknowledge my individual sense of truth in my character and my constitution that I believe in as a female.

That's why I wrote this song I needed to have a proclamation for myself. But I don't look back with this song. I look forward with this song, which is why I think, we make art is to push forward. Know if this song would help, but I hope that it makes someone who needs to feel better, feel a little better. That's all. And now, here's a woman by Cap Hauer in its entirety. You tell me I'm not what you need.

If I had a quarter, I would pull it together, and I would take it. I would take it to the bank and then leave. Yes, I would take it to the bank and then me. You might want them to speak. More than you think you know about me. More than you think you know me. Circle. See a thousand.

Visit SongExploder.net for more on Cat Power. You can watch the music video there, and you'll find a link to buy or stream the song. I have a new album of my own coming out on April 24th. It's been about 15 years since I last put out a full length, and this is the first one that'll be out under my own name, Rishikesh Her Way. I started making Song Exploder when I was feeling lost in my own music career. And then for over a decade, I've gotten to have these incredible conversations about the process of making music, talking to other artists,

and it made me completely rethink my relationship to music and my way of writing songs. And this album is the product of all of it. of that. It features contributions from some of my favorite artists, including some folks that you may have heard on this podcast, like Iron and Wine, Kevin Morby, Vagabon, Fenlily, and the producer Phil Wine Rope. I'm going to be on tour playing in cities across the U.S. starting in April, and I'm trying to bring the spirit of the podcast with me. So every show that I'm playing will begin with a conversation about the album with a different amazing guest moderator in each city, like Adam Scott, Samin Nasrat, Jason Manzukas, Josh Molina, Minjin Lee, Ken Jennings, John Roderick, Austin Cleon, and more.

They're all going to be my conversation partners on stage, and then I'll play with my band. The album is called In the Last Hour of Light, and the first couple songs are out now. You can listen to the music and get tickets for the shows on my website, rishikash.co. Or just go to songexploder.net slash live. That's songexploder.net slash live. Thanks. This episode was produced and edited by me along with Christian Coons. The illustration for the episode was done by Carlos Lerma,

and you can see that on the Song Exploder website too. Next time on Song Exploder, Janelle Monet. Song Exploder is a proud member of Radiotopia from PRX, a collective of fiercely independent podcasts. You can learn about all of our shows at Radiotopia.fm. If you want to share your thoughts on this episode, you can find Song Exploder on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter at Song Exploder. My name is Rishi Kesh Hereway. Thanks for listening.