From Fader Magazine Dec 03 - Jan 04, photo by Mr. Bonzai:
http://www.geocities.com/fionaappleaddict/fionafader.txtFrom Blender Magazine Dec 03, photo by Lionel Deluy:
Transcript from Blender:
In the Studio
“Optimistic!”
Fiona Apple follows up her dark 1999 masterpiece When the Pawn... with something a bit more humorous
>>“Personally, I think humiliation is worse than death,” Fiona Apple says, taking a break from mixing her first record in more than three years. “Not that death is OK; it’s just that humiliation is something you have to live with.”
Rock’s reigning philosopher-chanteuse hasn’t lost her dark edge during her hiatus from the spotlight. But according to those who know her best, she has lightened up a bit. “These songs definitely show more of her sense of humor,” says producer Jon Brion, who worked with Apple on her last release, 1999’s critically lauded, commercially overlooked album When the Pawn....
One song, “Better Version of me,” began as a litany of personal put-downs. “By the last verse, I realized that all the qualities that make you feel unequipped in life can be turned around to your own advantage,” she says. “It actually became sort of optimistic.”
Apple chalks that up less to a newly rosy outlook than to just growing up. “I’m still the same,” says the 26 year old. “I still have horrible days, but I started to look at them with more appreciation as an observer. Rather than ‘I feel horrible and I want to die,’ now its more like, ‘Isn’t that interesting how I want to die right now? I wonder how I’ll feel five minutes from now?’ ”
The new songs are filled with woodwinds and strings, but they’re never limp. As for the album’s title, Apple is keeping mum.
“If you knew what the title was,” smiling mysteriously, “you would know why I can’t tell you.”
Right.
Oliver Jones.
