Martha Wainwright - Queen of cool

Oct 10 2008 by Emma Pinch, Liverpool Daily Post

Musician Martha Wainwright _320

Emma Pinch talks to a real rock aristocrat about her trip to Greenland

EVEN across thousands of miles of roiling Atlantic, Martha Wainwright comes across as effortlessly cool.

With a phone tucked under her chin, she’s trying to de-junk her fashionably unfashionable Brooklyn apartment.

She’s off, she explains, to Greenland this evening to join scientists and musicians sailing round the polar ice-cap. As you do.

And when she gets back she’ll be thrust headlong into a new world tour. She describes the flat as a dump, but it’s a romantic dump – a huge Venetian chandelier hangs over a grand piano.

“It’s a mess, it’s definitely Boho chic and I’m a bit of a hoarder, especially when it comes to clothes,” she sighs. “I’ve got ripped clothes and clothes that don’t even fit me. I’m stuffing things into drawers and I’m just clearing out some room in case we have some sub- letters, which I want to get in because I’m broke.

“It totally costs money to bring a band on the road. We can’t get them too cheap. The musicians have kids and alimony to pay.”

She’s hiding the family heirlooms and her best shoes.

“I’m trying to figure out whether to hide the Gucci shoes. I wouldn’t trust myself,” she admits candidly. “I love going through people’s clothes then putting them back the same way.

“I have a pair of black pearls I’ve already hidden. They were given to me as a birthday present from my mum and I wore them at my wedding. Also, there’s my grandmother’s garnet ring going into the filing cabinet.”

The family she talks about are folk aristocracy. Martha’s the daughter of American folk/blues musician Loudon Wainwright III and Canadian folk singer-songwriter Kate McGarrigle. Her older brother is acclaimed singer-songwriter Rufus Wainwright.

Martha’s first step towards a solo musical career was on an album by her mother and aunt, called The McGarrigle Hour. The new familial harmony hasn’t changed the searing honesty of her lyrics about their conflicts, the fruity language, or on the raw, sensual vocals she’s known for.

The most notorious was Bloody Mother F---ing A--hole, written about her father, who she claims used to talk to his family through songs, instead of spending time with her.

“It’s good to write about what you know, and my favourite songs are about family relationships,” she explains. “I’ve always thought it was the normal and right thing to do. People are interested in a family; it’s like a soap opera. The family dynamic is so complicated. I realise in this one it’s playing out in public and people recognise their own lives and selves, and that’s why it’s intriguing.”

She is open about feeling insecure; not helped by growing up in the shadow of her brother’s extrovert talent.