NAU NUA: ELEANOR FRIEDBERGER

Her own world and other mirrors

Yes, she is. Eleanor Friedberger is the past, the present and the future. From the early days being one half of the indie rock duo The Fiery Furnaces, along with her older brother Matthew Friedberger, releasing their debut album Gallowsbird's Bark in 2003 and their last, for the moment, featuring new songs titled I'm Going Away in 2009, the talent of Eleanor Friedberger has grown from the role of vocalist to share the songwriting tasks and to develop a solo career. Her debut solo album was Last summer (2011), very well received by critics. Now she releases Personal record (2013) written along with the novelist and folk singer John Wesley Harding. The sound of the album is basically classic pop rock arrangements with the personal touch of Eleanor Friedberger, always elegant, clever and powerful. The album is her present, her current voice and lines, and the future will bring us more and probably even better signs of her talent.

Don’t you want to bother us?

I do want to bother you! That 's the whole point; it's the opposite sentiment. "Bother" is a funny word. It's not one usually associated with love; it's much more cold and I think it's a great way to start an album because I'm talking directly to the stranger-listener.

Why is your latest album your first Personal record?

I guess it's because I feel more confident than I ever have before. I can be bold enough to say it's my "Personal Record."

“That was when I knew I was wrong”. What was the mistake?

The mistake is thinking someone was right before. It's about the moment of epiphany, when you realize you connect with someone. You thought you knew, until-- BAM!-- you realize you were actually wrong all along: about life, love, whatever.

The sound of the album is quite comfortable and peaceful, even in I’ll never be happy again in which you sing Love is an exquisite kind of pain. Another mistake?

Make no mistake about it.

The album reminds me the seventies and you sing I am the past, obviously the song don’t talk about this but do you think the classic rock music will always be the best time you ever rehearsed?

I do think rock music from the 1970s is the best rock music that will ever be recorded. I don't think I could ever do anything better, or that anyone could. No one who's trying to play in that style at least. But I think it's important for people to have contemporaries to listen to and look at.

She’s a mirror plays magnificently with the ambiguity of what we really are, if somebody knows it, and what we appear to be. Who are you?

That's a good summation of the song, but a tough question! I'm everything that that song describes.

Listening to you singing Leave me in my own world I wonder what do you think of loneliness?

I don't really have a problem with it. I like being on my own just as much as I like spending times with friends, sometimes more even. I've never had a problem doing things on my own.

Do you think we live in a Singing time?

I'm not sure. Probably. It seems as though more people than ever are singing, just as a part of popular culture. Everyone wants to be a singer. But more in line with the sentiment of the song, I would say no: Singing Time is over. The good times are more or less over, I would say. Things keep getting worse!

How do you see your Last summer now?

“Last summer” was a lot of time wasted. I probably should have recorded my album then, instead of waiting until October. I guess I needed a break from all the touring, but it's always better to keep working, unless you take a proper holiday, which I didn't.

Could you explain us a dream?

Last night I dreamt that the police had taped off my house as if my downstairs neighbors had committed some crime and fled the country. I couldn't believe they would do something so bad. I tried collecting the mail from the mailbox and the cops gave me a really hard time. And then a bunch of people asked me to sign some of their posters. Autograph hounds.

Eleanor Friedberger videos here