| Q & A: Megan Hickey of The Last Town Chorus |
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| Written by Andrea Myers | |
| Thursday, September 20, 2007 at 07:00 AM | |
 Megan Hickey Even those unfamiliar with The Last Town Chorus may have heard Hickey before; her ethereal, haunting version of David Bowie's "Modern Love" was featured on an episode of Gray's Anatomy and commercials on the Learning Channel, helping Hickey to shine a spotlight on her own impressive original work. Her most recent album, Wire Waltz, is plush with pleading vocal lines and haunting, distorted steel melodies, the perfect accompaniment to staring out a window on a rainy day or getting lost inside one's own mind. Prior to her show in Minneapolis this Tuesday, Hickey took a few minutes to talk to Reveille about her undying love for pedal steel and her excitement about coming to Minnesota. Reveille: How did you discover lap steel? Megan Hickey: I didn't even know what lap steel was until I had one in my hands for the first time. I started playing it in 2001 by a fluke, it was brought over to my place by my original band partner. I don't know that I ever really learned how to play it, per se, I just discovered it over the last seven years and self trained. It really is inseparable from the Last Town Chorus. Reveille: Did you play other instruments before? Hickey: Yeah, I've played instruments since I was nine. I was more of an instrument collector, because I never really found my calling in any other instrument--I guess bass was the closest I came, but I've never heard anything as strange and expressive and exciting as the lap steel before. That really changed everything for me. Reveille: Were you a songwriter prior to that? Hickey: Yeah. I mean, I probably wrote a song a year for a number of years, but it was a very insular, private affair. It wasn't until I heard the sound of the lap steel and the effects that it was very clear to me what my creative calling was and what the band would be. Reveille: When you tour, do you play solo? Hickey: No, I play with ensembles that range from a duo up to a five piece band. [The show in Minneapolis] will be two of us, and some backing tracks, and in some cities we will be joined by other musicians; in New York I always play a huge band show. It's sort of a revolving cast of characters that I play with. Reveille: Your best known song at the moment is your cover of "Modern Love." What is it like to have people learning about you through a cover? Hickey: The age we live in is completely saturated with musical offerings. I'm pretty realistic about that... Most people don't even realize that that's the song it is until about half way through, and I recognize that it is something that people are receptive to, and that's fine by me. If it was a straight cover and not a fairly unique interpretation I might feel differently about it, but I'm honored to be associated with that song. Reveille: Have you met David Bowie? Or have you had any exchanges with him about permission to play his song? Hickey: One doesn't need permission to record it, just to pay him a royalty for every album printed, but he has had to approve of the various licensing usages; it was used in Grey's Anatomy, and it was used on commercials for a Learning Channel documentary about Princess Diana. And we seem to only be two or three degrees removed, he is based out of New York for the most part, but I haven't actually met him or talked to him in person. But I guess he likes it enough, or likes the money enough to approve its uses. Reveille: I think the most intriguing part of your CD is listening to your voice collide with the lap steel. When did you first discover that the two of those things fit together? Hickey: I play it through these delay effects that give it this other-worldly sound, and my feeling when I am playing is that it has a very animal-like dimension to it, it feels like an animal voice in many respects, and a human voice. So I sometimes feel like it's two voices singing, or they just seem to be perfectly sonically married. It feels almost magical to me personally to have discovered that particular sound. Nothing makes me happier than singing and having that sound in the same room, like chocolate and peanut butter [laughs]. Reveille: Well we look forward to seeing you play in town. Hickey: I love Minnesota. I've only played there once before, but my mom is from Albany, Minnesota... I thought it was the sweetest, quaintest state. I'm excited to come back through and maybe drive back up to my mom's home town. The Last Town Chorus MySpace page The Last Town Chorus website Watch the video for "Modern Love": COMING UP: The Last Town Chorus plays the Triple Rock Social Club this Tuesday, Sept. 25, opening for The Weakerthans (also on Reveille: a CD review of The Weakerthans' Reunion Tour by Rob van Alstyne). 5 p.m. All Ages. $15. |
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| Last Updated: Wednesday, September 26, 2007 at 08:30 AM |
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