They’ll release an album, then relentlessly tour it into the ground, before disappearing for several months – even years – to work on the follow-up.
The American chanteuse Rachael Sage, by contrast, harks back to a time when you could expect a new release almost every year. Since 1996, she has produced a total of eight albums of critically acclaimed, genre-hopping pop-folk.
When we meet, she is gearing up for a five-night run of her Sequins and Shpiel show at the Fringe, which combines her musical stylings with a variety of anecdotes about, as she puts it, “growing up with strict, strong-minded Jewish parents”. What are her thoughts about why she moves from album to album so rapidly?
“I definitely don’t take a vacation,” she says with a laugh. “And I always like to perform new songs, without even thinking whether or not they’re on an album.
“I think artists on major labels are maybe discouraged from that, but that’s not an issue for me. People will come up to the merchandise table and be like: ‘What album was that song from?’ and I’ll have to explain it’s not actually on one yet.
“I’m working on my ninth album, which is almost done, so I’ll be playing some songs from that, too.”
Sage is a vibrant, chatty character, whose freedom is down to the fact all her records are released on her own label, MPress Records. And she’s keen to stress, in her New York tones, just
how heavily involved she is in everything that affects her career.
“The biggest difficulty is just time management,” she says. “It always seems like there’s more you could be doing to spread the word about the work you have created. Maybe you should be spending another 10 hours online, trying to raise awareness organically. I’ve always been interested in graphic design, so I’ll be doing the posters and leaflets for my work, too. I definitely make it hard for myself, but at the same time you kind of get into a groove doing it.”
It’s possible she inherited this strong-willed mindset from her parents – but not her musical ability, as she says both her mother and father are tone-deaf. Despite this, she displayed a precocious talent, being drawn to the piano from as young as three. “By the time I was about 11 I just knew that I wanted to be a singer. I was writing pop songs even then, based on the songs I was hearing on the radio. I just became obsessed with pop music. For my Bat Mitzvah I said I didn’t want any presents, I just wanted everyone to club together and get me a four-track recorder. After that, I was recording every hour I wasn’t in school or ballet class.”
Sage was also a talented ballerina in her teens, although she eventually rejected the chance to study full-time at the School of American Ballet, on her parents’ advice. They were, however, far more accepting of her decision to strike out in the musical world.
“As ballet only has such a short career span, they were petrified at me going down that path,” she says. “Music made a lot more sense to them because you could go to college and do other things, and still be a musician. It didn’t seem to pose the same challenge for them, in that their daughter could still do that and be well-rounded.
“Of course, along the way there’ve been seedy characters, especially when I was a teenager and trying to get into record companies. They were worried that something terrible would happen to me.
“But they’re my parents, and they love me, and after a while they root for you in whatever career you’re doing.”
Rachael Sage plays the City club, Edinburgh, from tonight until Tuesday.
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