Almost three decades into her life, singer/songwriter Ingrid Michaelson is happy she’s finally learning the distinction between love and infatuation. Even if the lesson did require several rounds of mistaking mere hankerin’ for actual love.
“There’s a difference between a desperation that you have for somebody — you put them on a pedestal; you don’t even know them that well but you think you’re in love with them,” she explained.
“And then there’s a real, deep connection that you have with somebody that you spent many, many years with. You know them, and it’s like, there’s no finish line. It’s just like, ‘Here I am. I’m not racing to get anywhere.’ You just are settled and you know that you don’t have to put your foot in the door.
“I was always a big foot-in-the-door person, or just sort of racing within that relationship. You know, just fighting and drama and making up and fighting,” Michaelson said. “I feel like, at times, we can substitute dramatics for actual, true love.”
The experience upon which she bases that feeling forms the core of “Everybody,” the follow-up to Michaelson’s 2008 collection, “Be OK,” and the indie artist’s 2007 debut on her own Cabin 24 label, “Girls and Boys.” That’s the one containing the cheery piano-pop single, “The Way I Am,” which sold zillions of sweaters as the soundtrack to an Old Navy commercial.
“Be OK,” an album done as a fund-raiser for cancer research, has “Keep Breathing,” the song heard at the climactic moment of the “Grey’s Anatomy” season three finale, when, with a church full of people expecting a wedding, Burke bails on Christina.
“It’s a little bit of a concept album,” Michaelson said of “Everybody.”
“It’s sort of the deterioration of a relationship, centering around the idea that love isn’t enough, it isn’t the only thing, and just because there’s love, it doesn’t really mean anything. There have to be other things to back that up, to help sustain a relationship.”
In the song “Are We There Yet,” the New York native sings, “They say that home is where the heart is/I guess I haven’t found my home/And we keep driving round in circles/Afraid to call this place our own.”
In “Maybe,” she confides, “I don’t want to be the first to let it go/But I know, I know, I know/If you have the last hands/That I want to hold/Then I know I’ve got to let them go.”
The songs chronicle a relationship that ended a year ago. The person they’re about knows he’s the subject, of course. But it hasn’t caused any fallout.
“I’m a songwriter; that’s what I do,” she said nonchalantly. “If you get into a relationship with me, you know what’s gonna happen.”
She’s been in what she considers true love twice, including now. Though it’s not a cheerful album, for her, “Everybody” has a happy ending because she’s in love again. But she knows people can appreciate good relationship songs, regardless of whether they’re about being together or falling apart. “I just write love songs,” she said. “I’m not trying to break any new ground.”
Michaelson, whose music has been described as “sweet but mellow lounge pop” by “Rolling Stone” magazine and “quirk folk” by “Entertainment Weekly,” started making melodies as a child — or at least playing them. She was four when her sculptor mom and classical composer father sent her to her first piano lesson.
She later earned a college degree in musical theater, toured with a theater company and worked with an after-school kids theater group.
But she had also compiled a collection of original tunes, which she recorded in 2005 and released online as “Slow the Rain.” She followed it up with “Girls and Boys,” originally released in 2006. (It was re-released in 2007.)
Michaelson’s trajectory to stardom began when a music supervisor found her work on MySpace. That woman worked for Secret Road, a company that places songs on TV and in films. Secret Road landed several of Michaelson’s songs on “Grey’s Anatomy” and other shows.
Then she was asked if she’d like to write a song for “Grey’s.” That was the emotional “Keep Breathing;” 25 million people heard it during the episode’s big ending. In September 2007, her Old Navy commercial aired more than 65 times in prime time, according to Billboard magazine.
Of course, major label offers came flying in. But she noted, “I was already getting a lot of promotion from television shows and commercials and people were buying my album. I didn’t really need anything else. So there was no point in giving up what I’d worked for so somebody else could take 75 percent.”
That stance has earned her hero status among indie stalwarts, but she has major-league distribution and a team of heavy-hitters behind her. She also knows her success is a product of exposure that wouldn’t have happened without help.
Still, she likes being her own boss. Having a significant other to share her success with is good, too. One thing seems sure: We’ll hear more about him on her next album.
Provided by Last Word Features
Concert preview
Ingrid Michaelson with Greg Holdon. 8:30 p.m. Sept. 22; $15 in advance, $17 day of show; The Loft at Center Stage, 1374 Peachtree St., Atlanta; 404-885-1365, www.theloftatl.com
About the Author
The Latest
Featured
