“You’re the only person that knows that,” she laughs slightly mystified at my knowledge of her mother’s infatuation with Bowie. “I don’t know how you found that out. I was always quite moved by that record [The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars]. It came out when I was born, so I didn’t really understand it until I was a teenager when I was given it from my mother. He was all over the place when I was growing up. There were a lot of uncool things in the ’80s, and a lot of really cool things. He was one of the really cool things. He was a game-changer. I was young so I didn’t quite understand the artistic directions he was presenting at the time. When I was recently asked that question, ‘If you were to take one record to a deserted island what it would it be?’ I always thought to myself ‘Oh, it’d be Ziggy Stardust’.”
While the Starman had a great effect on Marshall, she’s come to terms with the mortality of her inspirations. Most notably now that of Bob Dylan, who she refers to as God Dylan.
“When I was younger I lost a lot of friends,” she notes. “A lot of my friends died: two to AIDs, four overdoses, three suicides and others to illnesses and accidents. It’s what happens after losing so many people that you love. When it happens to you once, the first time, it’s devastating. By the 20th time you understand quite well that one day your heroes are going to be dead. So will your best friend. So will you.”
Indeed, Marshall has lived through some traumatic incidents over her lifetime. She’s had multiple mental breakdowns over her career, one caused by the death of a boyfriend and another after a cocaine and alcohol binge, leaving her suicidal. In the late ’90s and early ’00s she was better known for her shaky live performances than her actual music. Once at the Bowery Ballroom in New York she left the stage, sat on the floor and played her track Cross Bones Style with her face perched on the ground, audience members trying to comfort her by patting her back. In 2012, following the release of Sun, she was diagnosed with Hereditary Angioedema – a potentially fatal rare blood disease that causes swelling around the throat, oesophagus and internal organs.
Unlike most artists of any form, Marshall’s presence on social media is rarely used to spruik her own creations. In fact, for the most part, she’s highly politically engaged. In November 2014 she weighed in on the Michael Brown saga (when Michael Brown, an unarmed black teenager, was shot and killed by a white police officer, in Ferguson), writing: “PLEASE COME FORWARD TO SPREAD WORD FOR PEACEFUL PROTESTS AFTER MIKE BROWN VERDICT IS ANNOUNCED AS KKK WILL LIKELY APPEAR.” Most recently she’s been sharing statistics over the current water poisoning scandal taking place in Flint, Michigan and campaigning relentlessly as an advocate for Bernie Sanders to win the upcoming USA presidential election.
“I feel the same way about the election as anyone who has a heart would,” she says. “It’s forced on you, the whole election game. It’s shoved down your throat in almost every Western country. It’s sad, it’s really sad. But it’s inspiring to see that someone like Bernie Sanders has stepped up to the plate. It’s a huge job, but he’s not in it just to be a ‘celebrity politician’, he’s in it for the right reasons.”
Cat Power’s been regular on Australian shores for the past 18 years. In the time since the release of Sun (her last studio album), Marshall co-headlined Golden Plains 2013 and performed three shows at the Forum in full-band mode, before returning in 2014 for four nights in solo mode at the Thornbury Theatre. This time around she’ll be bringing her fragile-yet-enigmatic live performances for intimate solo shows around the country, where fans can expect to hear beloved classics and a smattering of new material.
“Probably a quarter of the songs that I’ll be playing people will never have heard,” she says. “Half of them people have heard but they’ve never been recorded, and the rest people have heard and I have released. I like to play a lot of songs that people have never heard when I tour before I go and record them. That’s the way I’ve always done it.”
Looking further ahead, I quiz Marshall on what she plans to focus on for the rest of the year. “Studio and health,” she says. “And obviously my child, my son. I had a baby, last year in April. It’s great. It makes me so happy. I love being a mum. He’s #1, my health is #2 and studio is #3.”
BY TYSON WRAY
