Eileen Rose interview (page 2)

18 July 2008

Now, we just had our annual family reunion barbeque and there were so many people who were not there; that generation have died and gone. My father is ill and in his last few days and he’s the last one of his family, his brothers and sisters have gone, my mother has one sister left and you don’t realise that it has slowly gotten carved away and you begin to think “Wow, now I’m the aunt sitting around playing cards.” when I used to be one of the kids watching the aunts.

So a lot of the album is about that, and where you are in your life, I am in the middle of my life and it just sneaks up on you. I have my nephew who plays bass in the band and it’s awfully funny to have him there as I’m the aunt and he’s the nephew! Nothing makes me feel less rock and roll than when he say’s “Auntie Eileen, should I do a bass solo now?”

Where did the album title come from?

The album titles comes from a book I was reading: For One More Day, by Detroit author Mitch Albom, had an opening quote which read: “The Dead sit at our tables long after they have gone.” and the book was about getting just one more day with your dead mother.

Even when we’re sat around making fun of each other in the garden, you still feel like those people who have gone are still around you. I think the older you get, the more those people pile up, and you do end up surrounded by ghosts.

Who do you look up to on the music scene?

I would have loved to have seen Leonard Cohen, I couldn’t get tickets, but we’re never in the same country at the time! The review I’m reading about him are so impressive because they’re talking about how passionate and into it he is and I would love to be able to get into my seventies and for people to say; “my god, she really meant it!” and to be able to mean a song that you wrote 30 years ago and still be able to deliver that successfully. But I do really love Neil Diamond; he’s just my kind of thing. He isn’t ripping it out of his soul anymore these days.

If you could work with anyone, alive or dead, who would it be?

Do I only get to pick one? There’s so many, let me have one alive and one dead! [FemaleFirst: “Okay”] Well dead it would be Elvis of course! Who wouldn’t want to work with Elvis?!

Alive - I really like Ethan John’s production, I have been wanting to work with him for a while, and he has worked with Ryan Adams and Kings of Leon.

What’s next for you?

I’ve got this really extensive, long tour coming up, so we’re going to be out for a few months, it’s very exciting, we’ll be doing the UK and Italy again, which I really love, I do really well in Italy because I have been so many times. I’m going to Sardinia and Prague too, which, despite the fact that I’ve done so much touring, are places I’ve always seemed to miss out. I’m really excited because this band I have now they’re just incredible and I’m really excited to play with them every night.

We ask everyone we interview to come up with a question for the next person we interview....and MTV’s Rickie Haywood Williams wants to know; “Have you ever licked the top of a square battery and how old were you?”

I have! I use those in my tuner and it’s one of those things I have to do and I hate it! I hate that feeling! But something even funnier is that my nephew actually likes it, so when I need to test a battery I just walk over to him and put it on his tongue.