Song Exploder - Michelle Branch - Best You Ever

Episode Date: June 14, 2017

Michelle Branch is a Grammy-winning singer/songwriter. She released two platinum albums when she was still a teenager. Because those records were such huge hits, for a long time they defined her as an artist—for better or worse. Over a decade later, in 2017, Michelle put out her third album, Hopeless Romantic. In this episode, Michelle talks about why she was in musical limbo for so long, as she takes apart her song “Best You Ever." songexploder.net/michelle-branch

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 Hirwe. Just a heads up, there's some explicit language in this episode. Michelle Branch is a Grammy-winning singer-songwriter. She put out two platinum albums when she was still a teenager. Those records were huge hits, and so the sound on those records defined her as an artist, for better or for worse.

Over a decade later, in 2017, Michelle put out her third album, Hopeless Romantic. In this episode, Michelle talks about why she was in musical limbo for so long as she takes apart her song, Best You Ever. This is Michelle Branch. I was signed at a really young age. I was 16 or 17 when I signed to Maverick, and my first album came out in 2001, and everyone's first impression of me was that.

Certain people had a hard time letting go of that. I feel like a lot of people just wanted me to make a pop record, But it started to dawn on me that I had never made an album that sounded like what I really listened to. I don't listen to a lot of pop pop music. I'm more of a fan of rock music. And I found myself in a weird position because I was under contract and they wouldn't drop me, but they wouldn't release any of the music I was making. So it was really frustrating.

It felt kind of like I was being held hostage by my own record label. I was like, can I just please put out an album? And they were like, well, this isn't pop enough. We don't know what to do with it. And it was really, really, really frustrating. And so finally, in 2014, a new labelhead came in. And he's like, I cannot believe what you've been through. And you deserve a fresh start.

And I'm going to let you go. So I finally got out of my contract with them in 2014. But it was really strange time for me because I was, newly divorced. I had just separated from my husband of nearly 11 years, and my whole identity is like a 20-year-old as an adult, actually, because I had spent my whole life signed there. And so suddenly it felt as if like the rug had been pulled out from under me, and I was like, what is happening with my life? The slate has been wiped clean. So that's when I started writing for this record. This song was written at a writing session with a dear friend

of mine named Amy Cooney and this writer in L.A. named Harlan Silverman. We went over to Harlan's house in L.A. and he has this little home studio. And where this song started was me talking about how much I loved the yeah, yeah, yeah's. And I was talking about Karen O's voice and how I'm just a super fan of hers. I was like, let's try to write a yeah, yeah, yeah song. And Harlan picked up his bass. So there's the bass and a drum loop. And I was like humming stuff and eventually humming something that became the vocal melody. And that's when we kind of stopped and said, okay, what do we want the song to be about? Amy was going through a breakup. I had just gone through a breakup. And because we know each other outside of work, like there was a comfort level

there where we could really just shoot the shit about our breakups. Amy and I started talking. She said, what if we wrote a letter to our exes of like, hey, one day you're going to regret breaking up with me. You're going to miss all the things that I did for you that made your life so easy that you took for granted. She was scribbling away on a piece of paper, and she just kind of like handed me this letter. It said, dearest lover.

I wanted it to sound kind of like, fuck you. I wanted it to sound. sound like I still had some, like, power over the situation. I actually have to say, like, my divorce was really, really amicable. And, you know, it just ran its course. But I do feel like there's things that come up a year after breaking up with someone that you've been living with for so long that you're like, hey, you know what? I wish I would have said this. I definitely felt like I was anticipating a lot of, like, what does this person need? What can I do to be more helpful. And I never fully felt thanked for that, damn it. And so we had this kind of weird little

demo. It was unfinished. There wasn't a bridge and it was very sparse, but the most important elements were there, which was the vocal melody and lyrics. The demo has a lyric that doesn't appear on the album. The demo ends with, I'm the best you never had. But that made it a little bit too literal. Best you ever, dot, dot, dot seems a little more mysterious and kind of open-ended, and I liked having it be that way as opposed to being laid out. Earlier that February, I had met Patrick Carney from the Black Keys at a Grammy party. I remember walking in and not really knowing anyone, and Patrick was sitting in the corner, and he flagged me over and he was like, what the hell have you been doing?

Like, you haven't had a record out. What are you doing with your music? Are you still making music? And that's when I told him, like, what was going on. And I said, hey, I know you're a really great producer. I would love it if you ever were open to working together. Could I send you some of my demos and pick your brain? I'd love to get your thoughts on it.

And he was like, yeah, totally. I ended up signing with Ferv Records July of 2015, and at the end of the month, Patrick and Gus Sefer and I went into the studio in L.A. at Gus's house to work on the record. Gus and Patrick knew one another because Gus played bass in the touring band for the Black Keys, and Gus became our kind of co-pilot. And I remember we listened to the demo of Best You Ever, and we all agreed that it was like drag, It seemed too slow. And we knew we wanted to speed it up.

So we sped it up a bit. And Pat kind of laid down a drum loop. When we started, I really wanted stuff to be a little more riff-oriented and coming from guitar world. But Gus is such a fantastic bass player. A lot of that ended up being dictated in bass world. There's three different bass parts going on. So there's the bass.

and then we have the Fender 6. What is a Fender 6? It's a low-tuned guitar, I guess, bass? What is it? I'm interrupting for a second to answer the question. Fender 6 is a bass guitar. It was originally called a Fender Bass 6, but it's smaller than an electric bass,

and it's styled more like an electric guitar. It's just tuned an octave lower. Okay, back to Michelle. Gus had one at the studio, and I was talking about how I love spaghetti, Western, sounding guitar parts and I loved taking my guitar and tuning it down to C

and Patrick was like, oh, have you ever played a Fender 6? And I was like, no, what are you talking about? So we ended up doing it on a couple tracks on the album where we doubled a bass line with the Fender 6. There's also some synth bass on there

because it didn't feel like it was low enough. We all played synth throughout the record. There was a roll on There's Prophet 6 and there was a melaton. I wrote the bridge next because there wasn't a bridge

and I remember writing it sitting in the studio. I kind of played it for them in the room and Patrick was like, great, go in and sing it. I think lyrically that bridge as much as it's written about my ex-husband And it's probably written about my record label as well. Like, I don't know why I'm trying to get you guys to be on board with me. Like, I don't need you anymore.

And so at that point, we were all like, okay, we're really into this. We really love this. We want to see what this leads to. I got signed to Verve, but the head of Verve, but the head of Verve, at the time would only approve for us to do five songs. He was like, I don't know if Patrick's the right producer for this. You've never worked together. So instead of giving you a full record budget, I'm only going to give you a budget to do five songs. I was like, okay, well, let's see what this is like. So we turned in those five songs and the guy at the record label hated them. Like,

I mean, hated. It was terrible. He came down. down to the studio and he heard them and it was so awkward and we all just kind of sat there and smoke was like basically coming out of Patrick's ears and Gus's ears and like tears were stinging in my eyes because I was just like, see, this is what happens when I'm at a record company. I never get my music out. I was already like looking for the escape hatch and he left the studio and at that point Patrick was like, you know what Gus, Michelle, I'm really into this project. I believe in what we're doing. And if he doesn't believe in it to give you the budget to continue, fuck that guy.

Like, I'll pay for the album if you want to continue. And so at that point, Patrick and Gus and I decided that we were going to just continue working on the album. And we weren't going to talk to the guy at the record label. And we were basically like, you know, at the end of the day, if we turn in this album and it's finished and he hates it, then I'll be able to get dropped from the record label and I'll be able to take this album somewhere else. and it'll be mine at least. But Patrick was like, I'll finance it. Let's just work on it the three of us.

Like, let's go rogue. And it was really fortuitous that it was Patrick when I walked in at that party. And then it ended up being him because we ended up falling in love while we were making this record. So I'm glad it was him and not someone else. It was gradual for sure.

I think just all of a sudden it was there. And we were like, oh, when did that happen? We were constantly talking. We'd leave a long day of being in the studio all day together and separately go home late at night and still be, like, texting. I remember going home from the studio, like, one of the first days of working. And I told my sister, who was living with me at the time, I was like, I feel like I've just met someone who's going to change my life.

Like, I feel like I've met my collaborator, like we're going to start a band or something. We just like totally are on the same wavelength. So it didn't occur to either of us at that point that it was romantic, but of course, like, there's nothing more romantic than telling someone that they're going to finance your album. The guy who hated the initial stuff got fired. New label people came in and we finished the album. As painful as it was not having an.

an album out for that long span of time, I'm actually really grateful that those albums didn't come out. Because I don't think they were right. And I feel like as hard as it was emotionally, the time away afforded me kind of like a clean slate. And I found myself when I started this record feeling like no one knew what to expect for me. And that was a really great place to be. It was incredibly freeing for me. And now here's Best You Ever by Michelle Brand. in its entirety. SongExploder.net for links to buy this track

and to learn more about Michelle Branch and watch the video for best you ever. For more on Patrick Carney, check out Song Exploder episode number 80, in which Patrick and his uncle Ralph Carney break down the theme they made for the Netflix show, BoJack Horseman. 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, Rishikes, Her Way. I started making songs. 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 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 Robe. 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 Malina, 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, Rishikesh.co, or just go to songexploder.net slash live. That's songexploder.net slash live. Thanks.

Next time on Song Exploder, Fleet Foxes. Song Exploder is produced by me, along with Christian Coons. Song Exploder is a proud member of Radiotopia from PRX, a curated network of extraordinary cutting-edge podcasts, made possible by the Knight Foundation and listeners like you. Learn more at Radiotopia.fm.

You can find Song Exploder on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram at Song Exploder. And you can find all the past and future episodes of the show at SongExploder.net or wherever you download podcasts. My name is Rishi Kesh Hereway. Thanks for listening.