Singer/songwriter Michelle Malone is closely associated with the fertile Atlanta-area music scene from which the Indigo Girls also rose. Malone follows up her well-received 1999 studio disc Homegrown and her 2000 live release ( Strange Bird, Volume 3 ) with Hello Out There ( Strange Bird Songs ) , the latest disc on her own independent label. Beginning with the uplifting and catchy opening track, "Hello," and continuing with the smooth, rockers "Carry Me," "Let Love," "Surrender," and "No Destination," the album finds Malone in good voice and guitar playing to be top notch.
Gregg Shapiro: You produced your last three albums, however, Hello Out There is produced by Rick Beato.
Michelle Malone: It's a bit much responsibility, doing everything yourself, and I'm trying to trim that down as much as possible. Between running the label, writing, touring and recording, and everything, you get to a point where you definitely need some help. I thought it would be great to work with him.... He's a really great hard rock guitarist with a jazz background. He was a professor of music at a college in upstate New York for a while.
GS: Hello Out There is a very commercial sounding album. Is there any chance of airplay on commercial radio?
MM: Really, the only way to do that is to be on a major label so that they can spend millions of dollars getting airplay. You don't just get airplay because people like the music.
GS: Are you getting college radio play?
MM: Oh, yeah. College and public radio and specialty shows...which is great. That's really all I'd hoped for.
GS: You co-wrote the song "Sleepy Sunday Morning" with Emily Saliers on Hello Out There.
MM: I had most of the song finished and I was also working on it when I was on the road with them ( Indigo Girls ) , so I kind of got hung up a bit. I just wasn't in a good frame of mind to finish the song. I asked her to help. It already sounded somewhat similar to her anyway.
GS: How does it feel to be the unofficial third Indigo Girl?
MM: It's a lot of fun. I enjoy it. It's a bit like summer camp, really. You go hang out with your and play some music and before you know it, it's over.
GS: You've released albums on four different record labels ( Arista, Daemon, Velvel and your own SBS ) . Can you say something about your record label experiences and what it means to you to have your own record label?
MM: ( laughs ) It's been really challenging and difficult, and it's been a huge growth experience. I've really come to appreciate all the people that work in the industry and all the hard work they do at every level. There's so much to be done. It's given me a new perspective on it all, which is really interesting. I think, originally, everyone gets into it because they love music. Eventually, ( laughs ) if you stay in it too long, you get a little burnt out and your attitude might change a bit.
GS: You're not alone in being an artist who has recorded for major labels and then has started their own label. Since there are so many independent artists starting their own labels, do you think there might come a time when the formation of a consortium of these labels might occur or if they bonded together to form one new independent label?
MM: In a perfect world, yeah. But, really, it's so much work being a musician and running a label, that you'd be real hard-pressed to find the time to do any of that unless you had an awful lot of help.