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An interview with Catie Curtis

Catie Curtis‘ career as a signed musician started in 1996 and has been going on strong ever since. There is no doubt in my mind that she was able to reach folk rock icon status thanks to her songs’ ability to take you back to specific memories regardless of if you’ve heard the song she’s singing before. She writes from the soul and is somehow able to tap into the universal human experience.

Earlier this year, Curtis released her 11th album, Stretch Limousine on Fire, and it is a powerful reminder of how and why she’s been able to maintain such a strong career. We got to speak with the refreshingly down-to-earth musician about her music, gay parenting, officiating weddings and being asked to perform at the White House for the second time during Obama’s presidency.

AfterEllen.com: First of all, congrats on the release of your 11th album!

Catie Curtis: Thank you!

AE: So many artists barely make it past their second album and are able to continuously release fresh music, much less make it to icon status.

CC: Well thank you! You know, I subscribe to that theory that half of success is just showing up. And I’ve been showing up for a long time. [Laughs] You can’t help but learn.

AE: Well and the audience keeps showing up for you, too, so it’s not just a one way street there! So as an artist with a long career do you ever look back and say, “This is my eleventh album. Wow, how the hell did I do that?”

CC: Um, not really. (The albums) mark chapters in my life so I don’t look back and just see this huge stack of music and feel like, “Oh, so much done!” I feel like every record is a haircut or a girlfriend or some place I lived or a phase I was in where I was traveling or living or what I was in to. Or, “Oh that was my religious phase.” [Laughs] It’s not that you can tell on the record necessarily – and I think since record number three, I’ve been with the woman who I’m now married to. So there hasn’t been much from the drama department.

AE: [Laughing] Well that’s good! Always a plus!

CC: Now I just need to find other things to write about – that was difficult at first!

AE: I can kind of understand that. Even as just a writer, I find that my best writing has come when drama was happening or some kind of painful event.

CC: Yeah you need a little of that. You know, even just having periods of having separation from your loved ones or the people in your life, just being alone in the world sometimes. Just touring or for whatever reason it’s just important to have some of that time to come back to yourself.

AE: Well that makes a lot of sense, actually. As someone who just listens or just shows up to a concert – you don’t necessarily think about some of the pain that’s involved in being away from your family or just your normal lifestyle – and maybe that alone will give the edge that the artist might need.

CC: Yeah, I think so. You never really get too comfortable with your life because you’re always saying goodbye and going somewhere new. As much as touring can be a challenge for me and my family, in some ways I think it gives all of us a bigger appreciation for each other.

And also independence. You know for our children – my wife and I have two kids – we both travel. She doesn’t travel quite as much as I do but they really understand that they’re safe and they’re happy with me and the same goes for her. The two of them bring each other a lot of comfort, too. I think it’s good for them to be able to trust these transitions and trust we’ll come back.

AE: I find it really interesting that you’ve gone from your last album’s title, Sweet Life, which paints a picture like Bob Ross paints happy trees, to a darker album title whose name makes me think of how great things go up in flames. I know the album deals with loss and not everything going the way you planned, but what happened? It seems like a pretty big leap.

CC: [Laughing] Yeah … well when I wrote Sweet Life, I believe in trying to be hopeful, which isn’t the same as being optimistic. Hope is incredibly important to me so I find hopeful things to write about and try to show appreciation for life. But I’m also a realist and I know that as hopeful as you can be it doesn’t mean the outcome is going to be good. And I think in this world there are lots of reasons to be concerned and we can’t protect ourselves with money and individuals can’t protect themselves with a limousine.

It’s just the nature of life is transitions and endings as well as beginnings. I like to bring that out because I think with Sweet Life people interpreted that as being kind of “Pollyanna-ish.” And it’s not – look, I wrote a lot of it during the Bush administration and there were all of these troubling events going on but I look at my kids and think, this is a really sweet life. And I wanted to appreciate the things that are beautiful. I think that the song “Stretch Limousine on Fire” and a lot of the other songs on this record are, in my mind consistent with my philosophy, but also look at the more ironic side to my writing.

AE: I mean, definitely. The song order in fact is even like that. You go from “I Do,” which is so sweet and maybe not saying that everything is perfect, but for the most part it really is.

CC: Yeah, that’s the most bubbly sweet song I’ve written in years. Kind of like, “I believe in our future together wholeheartedly,” and then it goes into “Wedding Band” which about breaking up. “When I met you I was really wounded and maybe that’s why we got together.” And it’s like, “Oh gee it’s a good thing because you’re amazing. But, really, it could’ve been anybody!” [Laughs]

AE: Ha, well I can relate to that!

CC: Yeah – I’ve done it many times. So you have to have this kind of irony when you talk about weddings because people go into it believing they’re going to be together forever and so commonly that’s just not what happens. And in the meantime you have the majority of gays and lesbians not even being allowed to get married. So I feel like there’s a lot of energy around getting married surrounding me right now.

AE: Kind of speaking of irony I guess, tell me about being ordained as a minister to officiate weddings after all of this. I mean, where did that idea come from and how has all of that influenced this album?

CC: The idea of becoming ordained came after having so many people say that they’ve used a song of mine at their wedding. So I thought it would be fun or special to do this for people who have fallen in love while listening to my music or who passed mix tapes back and forth with some of my songs or who went to one of my concerts during the early stages of their relationship, it might be cool for them if I was the one who marries them. And I do believe in the importance of some kind of ceremony to make an intentional commitment. I mean I definitely think if you’re thinking about having kids it’s a good idea to try and kind of put that into a ritual or ceremony to understand how important it is to you and to each other.

And so I just really liked the idea of ceremonies and I thought it would feel really cool to marry people. It’s pretty cool, I’ve done it a few times now, not a ton, but in states like D.C. where it’s legal you actually get to say, “Now by the power vested in me, I can now declare you married,” and it’s really great! And then in Maine where it’s not legal, I feel like it’s not as significant as what’s happening personally at a wedding. The legal status is a whole other thing but a ceremony is a ceremony.

AE: I absolutely agree and I actually, have already been through my own failed one, with another woman. And, honestly, part of me is really happy that it wasn’t legal at the time.

CC: I know! I know right? I’ve been there. [Laughs] I know.

AE: I think part of it though now that it’s in the spotlight and we’re fighting so hard for these rights, and I’m not saying it’s all couples, but I feel like some couples feel like in order for them to feel like they’re fighting and making a difference, they feel like they have to get married and sometimes way too soon. It’s just a shame.

CC: Yeah, it’s a bit of a problem, especially when some of the states where it’s legal you actually have to live in that state for a year, technically. Or in order to actually get legally divorced they have to technically be living there for a certain amount of time.

AE: Oh yeah, that actually happened and caused a bit of drama in my condo building recently with two guys. Another story for another time. But now at least though, I’m armed with the knowledge that it’s not going to happen again for a very long time and when it does happen, it will be very small. I told my girlfriend we can have a 10-year party and we’ll call it good. But at the same time, we’re thinking about having kids – and you have two daughters – and I do feel like it’s important that if you’re going to take that step, to make some things as official as possible. Not that a piece of paper will be able to tell me who I’m in love with but when kids are involved, I think it’s important.

CC: Yeah and it’s important to the kids too. Now that my kids are in elementary school, they really want the security of knowing that we’re married to each other. They like it and they want to know that we are a family and it’s funny, I never thought about it from their perspective – I just thought about the legal aspect. But they need to feel secure in their family. And I think for them, even using the word “family” and “married,” it matters in their mind.

AE: Wow, yeah I really never thought about it from the kids’ perspective. You talked about Washington and doing some officiating there. I know you played at the White House a couple of years ago and I see from your schedule that you’re going back there in a couple of weeks – what was that like and how did you get asked to play there?

CC: Yeah, I actually played there last year around this time and we’re excited to go back! For me, the Director of the Office of Visitors happens to be a fan of my music so early on she reached out to me and we connected. I went on a tour of the White House and then I got an email about playing there – so that happened. So it’s really from her and I guess there’s a couple of fans that work at the White House so I visit with them and it’s really neat.

AE: You can tell us the truth, it was Hillary Clinton that actually asked you, right?

CC: [jokingly] Oh yeah, it was totally Hillary. I played for just her in a private showing. [Laughs] It’s been a thrill to play there really. I didn’t grow up in any sort of political family so I had no real exposure to that world so it was a lot of fun to sort of get close to it.

AE: Yeah, that must be really exciting. Well, back to your album and maybe this is a total leap in convo or maybe it isn’t. Your song, “River Wide,” seems to revisit, what I got from it, your musical coming of age and strikes me as being sad even though you’ve persevered. So, was this a reflection of how you were feeling back then when you were just starting out? Or in some ways, since you’re writing it now, does it reflect how you’re feeling about the music industry? Like it keeps throwing things at you and just when you feel like you’ve finally gotten through, all of a sudden there’s a new big river to cross?

CC: Whoa, yeah! Definitely – you’re right on target. I have this feeling of connection to when I was starting to do music and a sense of amazement that I have gotten and continue to have the opportunity to explore something that I love so much and make a living doing it. I think the sound of sadness you hear (at the end of the song) is realizing that there is no final milestone that you can reach as a musician. There’s really only one as a human, and that’s just that there’s going to be the end of the story at some point. And then you’re just going to depart.

I guess it’s kind of that momentary glimpse at your mortality where you’re like, “There’s nothing that I can do, or, I’m never going to feel like I’ve arrived. Other than the day you let go and realize you’re not going to do anything else,” [Laughing] And it really sounds kind of morbid, but I think it’s actually a relief. I feel like you could live your life feeling like – oh as soon as I achieve this or that, I’m going to feel like I’ve gotten there. But in truth, I mean – I just love singing that line, and I co-wrote this and I’m pretty sure I didn’t write that one so I’m allowed to praise it, “Fly as far as you’re meant to and finally we are meant to go across the river wide,” and for me that’s kind of departing.

I guess it goes back to me being optimistic about things but I think it also transcends it because if you don’t let go of this strive to “get somewhere” where you feel like you’ve been fully realized in your life, I think you can be more satisfied if you can let go of that because I don’t think there is a point that ever feels like you’re fully there.

AE: I feel like it would be sad actually. I mean, it does feel sad to think about not being able to feel like you’ve achieved everything, but then it’s like once you are there, what the hell else will you do with your life?

CC: Right, what would you do if you could get there? Then you’d be done. That’s the kind of thing, I guess I’ve always enjoyed the strive and to create and to kind of push on with new ideas. When you look at people who have had sort of a storybook success in the music industry, such as a major pop hit, they still have to go on afterwards and continue doing what they’ve got to do, and it’s not always the easiest thing either. So I don’t know, I find a lot of peace in that song and a kind of humility that I don’t always have a grip on but in a moment of some of that drama I do.

AE: I have to tell you, your album when I listen to it, I just think of it as the Facts of Life album because the theme song was going through my head – especially after going from listening to “I Do” to “Wedding Band.” I was like, oh God, you take the good and then you take the bad. But it’s really great and I’m happy that you’re able to tell the truths about relationships that so many of us can relate to – even if we don’t always want to relate to them.

So I know you’re going on tour right now and you’ve got a bunch of upcoming dates ready but what else do you have coming up in the next year?

CC: Well, I’m looking at starting a non-profit. I find that I get asked to do speaking engagements about being an artist, sometimes about being a gay mom. So I’m looking to start a non-profit to get to do those kinds of things as part of my job. I think I can probably do it because it’s something I’m passionate about.

Catie has a bunch of tour dates already lined up for the new year and I highly recommend checking out Stretch Limousine on Fire if you haven’t already.

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