Laura Bradshaw, 26, Glasgow
Alela Diane Being interviewed by Laura Bradshaw.
Alela Diane is a singer-songwriter from Nevada City. Her music has strong roots in the place that she comes from and her songs often tell stories of the women in her family, past and present. I feel a strong connection with her music and feel it resonates with so much of what is important to me. I chose to interview her for these reasons. I also intend to interview my maternal grandmother-asking her some of the same questions asked here. I am interested comparing the similarities and differences between her generation and mine.
Glasgow 26/03/09
LB: Im currently involved in making a piece of performance which explores what it means to be a woman today. I have been drawn to looking at my ancestry and the strong line of women I have come from. What influence have past generations of women had on you?
AD: Well, now I have to decide which route to go! I feel like in a lot of my songs I do tend to draw on stories that were passed onto me by my mother or talking to my grandma. On the new record theres a song called Age Old Blue which I actually wrote about a story myI was talking to my grandma about where we came from and she said ,well, theres definitely some Scottish heritage actually, and she was talking to me about when she went to Scotland for the first time she actually found the place where her ancestors had come from and she found out that they were tenant farmers, upon this piece of property that overlooked the ocean (and overlooked England as well, I think) and she was talking about how she suddenly understood why she has this strange desire to always live next to water and my mom was the same way she moved to the ocean and she just needs to be near water, and my grandma is like that. So, it was interesting talking to her about that and then I wrote the song about why the women with blue eyes have to follow the ocean.
So, I write a lot of songs about little remnants and my interpretations of those stories passed along.
And Im also fascinated by old things, I wonder where they came from, I think about who wore this ring?, theres such a history behind it all so I write about that stuff too.
LB: What do you have to thank your mother for?
AD: All sorts-my voice definitely my mom is a great singer and I attribute my being able to sing without holding back and without fear to my mom, because my whole life she was singing everywhere. I remember wed be walking down the street and shed be singing at the top of her lungs and I always found it quite embarrassing when I was younger but realising that she just never held it back and always let her voiceshe wasnt afraid to sing and I think thats the biggest gift she gave me.
LB: What do we have to thank our mothers for?
AD: Well, for life! And for passing along all those little things and watching over usso much
LB: In your music theres a lot of references to nature and the natural world. What do you think the connections are between those things and you, as a woman?
AD: I think were all connected to nature. Everything reproduces and is like us.I prefer to live in the country, when were travelling around like this we're always in cities and its strange not being near the countrysidewere just driving through lots of beautiful countryside. But even still its land thats been worked and fields that have been ploughed and tamed.
LB: I have recently started to learn to play the guitar in order to find new connections with my dad. As your dad plays in your band with you, does the fact that you share music contribute to your relationship?
AD: I definitely think it does, its a common ground for us, its what we do together-we play music. Since I started doing this, since I started playing guitar and writing songs my dad and I definitely are a lot closer than we ever were. Its our connection.
LB: If you could speak to your great great grandmother how would you communicate our time? How would you tell her things have changed?
AD: I think it would be really really difficult to translate what has happened in my life-time and in my mothers life time to someone who came from a much simpler life. I mean I have a hard time understanding all of the new kind of technologies and conveniences- I accept it, I use the internet, I talk on my cellphone etc. But its really hard to understand that weve become so attached to all these strange things and I wish that I could go back to before all that existed . I would probably tell her it was some strange form of magic that had happened! Because its so foreign, thats how strange everything has become, its surreal that you can communicate so instantly and hear a voice across the world. I think it would be nearly impossible to explain this.
LB: What might you tell her about the role of women in our time?
AD: I would tell her that were becoming more powerful and stronger and were becoming more equal, were trying to become more equal to men, and that were not under the mans control quite as much. Men do dominate our world even still but we have it a lot easier than they did, we really do. To tell someone from the past that, they would probably be shocked and not accept it! Its funny I never thought about trying to explain our time to someone of the past because I always think that if I could do anything fantastical it would be to go back in time and meet my mom and my grandma and my great grandma when they were my age, in their own time.
