Transcript of Interview:
David Byrne: You did some Lilith Fair dates.
What was the vibe on that tour?
Beth Orton: It was brilliant. The first day I was
there I was sitting at a table with Phil Kaufman,
having my lunch, didn't know who he was. And
Emmylou Harris comes up to me and she's like,
"Hi," and I'm like, "Hi." And then she tells me she
really likes my songs and just sat with me and
talked to me. It was amazing. And then came and
saw my show that I did. It was just so friendly.
David Byrne: She listens to everything.
Beth Orton: She's incredible. She seems to plant
seeds of goodness wherever she goes. I just think
she's really positive. She just exudes positivity.
She's just amazing. She's so beautiful. So, that for
me, made it. And she knew things like "Sugar
Boy." She's like, "That's like an old blues song,"
and I was like, "Yeah, yeah, yeah." It was mad.
She really had listened to my record. It was
amazing.
David Byrne: You just did a video with Hal
Hartley. Would he tell you to stand and give you
stage directions? Stand here, take two steps, look
to the left?
Beth Orton: Yes. Very much. Because of the story
of the video, it had to be like that. Because there
are three boom operators and it's all
choreographed. It was brilliant. I loved it. And he
is a brilliant director, obviously. But to actually be
there, being directed by him, he is so succinct and
it was just right. That is what makes a good
director. He's a normal person and then he goes, "I
want to do this." And he did it exactly, and then he
just goes back to being a normal person.
David Byrne: Is it partly his body language?
Beth Orton: Yeah, his body language is genius. It's
so precise. When he goes into it, he goes into it.
And all the people, the three actors, they were
amazing. It was the best day.
David Byrne: When I saw you before you were
with some strings. Do you do that from time to time
or is that just for festivals?
Beth Orton: No, it was constant. But we did a
whole tour with loads of us. It was like Santana or
something. Hundreds of people on stage. Brilliant.
But this tour was just me and Ted doing it on our
own. Doing an acoustic one, just for the hell of it
really. Just doing it. Something about really
parsing it out, and I just really wanted to do it and
hear how it works like that. I think it works really
well. It's like magic. It's like potions. It's like any
ingredient you put in, anything else you put in it can
just totally change it. But it's really good to take it
right down and then see what I would add to it. We
were about to go on tour, and again next year for
six months or something. And it's thinking about
how we're going to do it next, the elements for a
live show. But, yeah, strings I'm sure will be back
on board.
