Home > Interviews > 13 Questions: Melody Gardot
13 Questions: Melody Gardot
25th March 2008
Uppermost in my mind today is ...
I haven't eaten breakfast yet so that's first on the agenda. I'm also getting ready for a really really long rehearsal with my band.
Not a lot of people know that I ...
Am a Buddhist. I also love to cook with macrobiotics every day. This is where the energy of food and balance of ingredients are considered prior to everything. There is a lot of seaweed, brown rice and vegetables involved, everything a small child would not eat. I was looking for a way to become balanced while taking heavy medication for pain. It was experimental, but it ended up working.
I struggle with ...
Making space in my closet for shoes. I'm generally not a materialistic person, but I definitely have more shoes than I need. I made it my mission to get to a point where I could wear shoes which were not orthopaedic. Life is too short not to look fabulous.
People think I'm ...
I have no idea. If they get to know me, they might think I'm hysterical.
I excel at ...
Laughter. Honesty, irony and small children make me laugh.
My ideal dinner guest is ...
60s singer songwriter Janis Joplin. We'd laugh our asses off.
I couldn't live without ...
Love. It's more important than oxygen. I'm someone who believes that hearts don't beat voluntarily, they need a reason. If you lack self love or love for others you die. My grandmother died within moments of my grandfather because she didn't have a reason, she didn't have love.
If I didn't live in the US, I'd live in ...
France, it's the only place I've gotten off the plain and felt like I was home.
My favourite drink is ...
I'm going to be really specific. Herbal tea called The Du Hammam from Le Palai Des Thes. While I was in Paris I visited the shop. It had a wall of 200 different tea jars and you had to smell which one you wanted. It's sort of sweet, with green tea as a base. Everyone who comes to my apartment has to have it.
My first job was ...
Selling carpet in New Jersey. Oh my god it was terrible. I had a good eye for colour though.
When I come home in the evenings, I ...
Pick up my cat and sit on the couch for 10 minutes. He found me before I became quote unquote disabled. The only thing Maestro judges me on is whether he has been fed on time.
I'm different to other musicians because ...
When people compare me to Norah Jones I say that she wins Grammies and I act like one. I move slowly and I'm a bit of an old soul. Musicians are a bit strange and bizarre anyway though, so the cane, glasses and moon boots are a bit of a hit.
My rock and roll demands on tour are ...
I want a cabana boy to bring me drinks and I ask the sound man to get me a camel to sit on while on stage. No I actually demand peace when on the road, and it's an essential physical need to bring an assistant with me when travelling. That was the biggest issue when I was signing the deal with my record company, to get that understanding from the beginning. We're still finding the right person. In some ways it's like a mini marriage. I think some people have christened me Melodiva.
Melody Gardot's debut album, Worrisome Heart was released on the 15th of February.
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