SimplyScottish.com Interviews Eddi Reader

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In 1988, everything was perfect for Eddi Reader and the rest of Fairground Attraction, who had a #1 hit in Scotland, England, and Wales with "Perfect", from their platinum-selling album First of a Million Kisses. Between then and now, it's been quite a musical ride for Reader, who is now turning her attentions to the artistry of one of Scotland's most beloved poets. SimplyScottish.com producer Andrew McDiarmid talks to one of Scotland's most vibrant artists.

SimplyScottish.com: Eddi, Thanks for taking some time to answer a few questions for SimplyScottish.com. I was first personally introduced to your music as producer of a radio program I hosted with my father in the U.S. called Simply Scottish. Having moved from Scotland to America with my family at age 11 in 1990, I think I missed out on enjoying important stages of your career. But listening to and airing songs like "Perfect" and "Patience of Angels", I knew immediately that you were a passionate musician and a beautiful vocalist. From the disco sounds of Outbar Squeek to Fairground Attraction, from guest appearances with The Eurythmics to Big Country, and from songwriters Mark Nevin to Robert Burns, your musical career has been richly varied, a tapestry of genres and musical explorations. Through it all, your passion and dedication to everything you've attempted is clearly evident. Chart and award successes can tell us much. But what would you say was the most personally rewarding project you've been a part of so far in your career?

Eddi Reader: Thank you for being interested in my passions. I can see you are equally passionate about life. The most rewarding....hmmmm ....I am now in the throws of doing my interpretation of Robert Burns and this is the current 'passion' to top all others. I am like that - I always think the current passion is the most rewarding. I suppose I won't know until the end of this project. It has thrilled and rewarded me so much I can't begin to tell you why, but yes, Mr. Burns is turning my head and heart and so ask me again in a year, maybe I will have moved on.

SimplyScottish.com: In 1988, you had your first major chart success as Fairground Attraction with "Perfect", from the platinum-selling album "First of a Million Kisses". How did it feel to be on top of the charts in Scotland, England, and Wales? Was it a milestone you knew you would reach someday?

Eddi Reader: Well in my arrogance and as an older person, I can see retrospectively that I had an innate confidence that it was the simplest thing in the world to sing those songs and have a great bunch of people love them as I did. I loved the congratulations and the rewards for all my love of singing. It was a great pity that I couldn't have had the band for a little longer than
the universe allowed me. It was fun!

SimplyScottish.com: You've worked with a variety of record labels, both major and minor,
throughout your career. What can you say about the differences and similarities of big and small labels? Does big always equal more rewarding?

Eddi Reader: I think there are pluses and minuses. I personally believe that I have more control and more care when the label is smaller, but the power of a larger company can bring the benefits of making sure the promotion is getting to more people. As I always say, if you put enough light into it you will attract, and no matter what you do, people will seek it out if they need it.

SimplyScottish.com: In 1994, Warner Brothers released your self-titled album "Eddi Reader" in Scotland, England, and Wales, as well as in the U.S. You had wanted this album to be titled "Hush", but the folks at Warner thought otherwise, giving it your name as the title, despite the fact that it wasn't your first solo album. Why did you want the title "Hush", and what did you like most about this particular album?

Eddi Reader: I wanted "Hush" because it related to [my previous album] "Mirmama" in that "Mirmama" means 'hush' or 'peace' in Yugoslavian and I was dedicating my work to peace and unity in our time. I wanted peace in my heart and in the world and "Hush" suited me. Of course, this is the problem with bigger labels, sometimes there is more pressure to go the way they want. You have to be very strong willed or extremely successful before you can
fight that pressure. I just wanted an easy life.

SimplyScottish.com: 1996 brought Candy floss and Medicine, followed by Angels and Electricity in 1998, called by many your strongest album since 1992's Mirmama. Of those three, which would you say was your strongest set, the one that most closely reflected your musical and artistic aspirations?

SimplyScottish.com: "Eddi Reader Live" and "Simple Soul" (2001) are your latest albums. What was the Cabot Hall experience like as you sang a set of some of your greatest hits? Did you choose the set based on your personal favorites or fan favorites, or a little of both?

Eddi Reader: I always choose on the night the next song to sing. I can only really know what I want to sing to whoever is in front of me when they are there in front of me. They let me know what to sing.

SimplyScottish.com: Eddi, you seem to have entered a new chapter in your musical story in
2003 by turning your attentions to poet Robert Burns. Your desire to bring his work to audiences in a fresh way was sparked one night while you were performing. What exactly did you feel that night, and what do you want your Burns album to achieve when it comes out this year?

Eddi Reader: I want to introduce my friend Robert to those who don't know him and also to those who think he lives in a cartoon form, remote and classical. He was an ordinary man\boy and he wrote one song that everyone in the world, of all classes and cultures and in all languages sings at New Year, Auld Lang Syne. And when we all sing 'here's a hand my trusty friend and gee us a hand o' thine', everyone links hands. How amazing an achievement is that?? Not only that but he stunningly did all these great poems and songs while
digging the ground as a farmer, dying a poor man at the age of 37 without knowing what he did for us all.

SimplyScottish.com: Eddi, the release of your album of Burns music in May 2003 will coincide with another very important event, the Scottish Parliament Elections. How important do you feel it is that the people of Scotland release the potential of their nation by choosing to return full sovereignty to Edinburgh? Do you think 2003 will be the year the Scottish National Party are finally given the chance to serve the Scottish people as the government of Scotland?

Eddi Reader: You know, I am an extremely simple woman. I mistrust 'leaders' and I don't like the way communities can be destroyed on the whims of 'officialdom'. When I was 6 they pulled my home down and tore my family to the four corners of my Glasgow world. I also understood that a lot of the SNP men and women I met in my life were from very upper class families and I come from a place that had a lot of prejudice against 'my kind'. I will wait and see what they do with the power they may or may not get. If they can still protect our poor and our free museums and our libraries and education and our elderly and our sick and lonely then they will have my vote. My relationships are what's important to me - that my neighbors and I get
along. I'm not sure that those leaders will 'care' about the ordinary folk of this planet and there will always be a suspicion in my mind. God is my parliament. I answer to this only. But I am extremely proud of my Scottish heritage and no kind of parliament will take that from me. I carry it with me wherever I go.

"Stateside listeners have scant knowledge of Scottish singer and songwriter Eddi Reader past her fleeting blip of recognition as the deliriously lovely voice of Fairground Attraction, which sneaked momentarily onto pop radar in the late '80s. That's more than a pity: Reader's vibrant mezzo soprano and finely detailed songs are emotionally engaging, ear-filling wonders, marked by a wonderful balance of vocal power and unalloyed feeling, and this, her failed bid at an American career, is proof positive. Its lovely mix of acoustic folk accents and pop bloom is the result of an unlikely gestation in Ojai, California, which says nothing about the music--what tells the tale are Reader's smart, tender songs, which capture romantic enchantment ("The Right Place") and disillusionment (the heartbreaking "Dear John") against bejeweled settings that place this squarely within the canon of the best Scottish folk-pop." - Sam Sutherland