From My Room

#		Title	Length
1		From My Room	4:46	Play
2		Smack Dab	4:13	Play
3		Revelation City	3:52	Play
4		Goin' Nowhere Fast	3:03	Play
5		He Believes	3:50	Play
6		I Wanna Be Remembered	5:53	Play
7		Odd Man Out	3:52	Play
8		The Web Unwinds	5:12	Play
9		Promised Land	4:34	Play
10		When I Love You	7:33	Play
			46:48

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Description

I grew up in a beautiful part of Minnesota, right along the Mississippi. I started taking piano lessons with my Dad at the age of 5, and starting taking guitar lessons at 7. After 2 weeks on the guitar, I got my very first paying gig. I was hooked !! All through grade school and High School I performed in choirs and various singing groups. By the time I was 18, I was a working musician. I did weddings, club gigs, private events. You name it, Id go play there.
I moved to southern California to finish my college degree, and as soon as college was done, I moved to Los Angeles to test the waters of a real career in music.
People always ask me, what kind of music do you do? And its a valid question. I was a kid in the 70s and I grew up in a small town. I was completely influenced by radio. I listened to all the singer/songwriters that were making great music then. Fleetwood Mac, James Taylor, Crosby,Stills, Nash and Young. All the usual suspects.
So I guess Id have to say, Im kind of a throw back to those times and influences. I write what I feel, whats happening in my life, the lives of my friends or family. Nowadays, I guess youd call it, pop-folk-rock. I call it GOOD music.


INTERVIEW OF MARY OTT by: MARC BISCHOFF


Recently I had the opportunity to interview my old friend Mary Ott at her mountainside home/studio, with its back yard stretching straight into the lush forest of the San Bernardino Mountains in Southern California. She likes to laugh a lot. What follows are some questions with Mary about her music that revealed some new insights, dusted off some old memories, broke out some laughter and shook loose some tears. Enjoy. We did.


WHAT STARTED OUT AS 20 QUESTIONS WITH MARY OTT


Q: Lets start with some questions regarding your approach to songwriting in general. Do you write only when inspired or do you sit down and say, Today Im gonna write a song?

Mary: Um, both. Sometimes when I need new material, I actually force myself to sit down and say (laughing), Today Im gonna write a song. And sometimes its pure inspiration.

Q: And how did the majority of the songs on the last CD (Dream Mountain) come about? Did you write those just for that CD?

Mary: No. Actually, maybe half of the ones for the last CD were older tunes that people were requesting be on a CD, that I had never recorded.

Q: By request?

Mary: Yeah, like Big Time was an older song that had never been recorded and people kept saying which CD is this on? And, so, I actually pulled some older ones out.

Q: What comes first for you usually, the music or the lyrics?

Mary: What comes first to me is the music and, so, I have to try to suppress that and work on the lyrics, because the musics always there. I mean, several different forms of the music can be there. I have to try to turn that off and work on the lyrics, so I dont have a sloppy lyric.

Q: Smokey Robinson once told Bob Costas that the words were more important than the music in a song. Paul Simon said the opposite. What do you feel is more important in a song, the music or the lyrics?

Mary: I think the words.

Q: Really?

Mary: Thats what I struggle with, is to have somethingI mean, I want to have something to say. You know, its not just about a dance beat ortheres a lot of music art forms out there that have nothing to do with the lyric. But, for me, I actually want to be telling a story, or have something to share. Yeah, if a gorgeous melody goes along with it, I want that too but definitely the lyrics are more important to me

Q: Have you ever dreamt any lyrics or melodies?

Mary: Yes, a lot.

Q: Did you dream any of the ones from the last CD?

Mary: Maybe, Id have to look at the lyrics.

Q: You cant remember?

Mary: Id have to look at the song titles, cause I do remember where Ive written songs. You know, (laughing), the 101, 405, 110.

Q: Do you really?

Mary: Oh, yeah, Im just a hazard on the road!

Q: I know, Ive driven with you.When you dream, are you dreaming the whole song, or just the melody?

Mary: The whole shebangI mean, I have dreamt full on orchestral things and I have no idea how to capture that.

Q: When you come up with the lyric or melody line, what do you do to save it?

Mary: I get out of bed. I pick up a guitar and I quick try to capture the music. I find the key that its in, write that down, and then whatever lyrics I can remember.

Q: So, you actually write out the music?

Mary: No, just the chords, but I can write out the music. Sometimes, if Im that awake, I will sketch out the melody.

Q: When you come up with lyric ideas, even if you dont dream them, what do you do with those?

Mary: Oh, I write them down.

Q: Where?

Mary: Oh, anywhere. Old napkins, scraps of paper. Preferably I have my notebook on me, but thats not always the case.

Q: Do you keep the napkin then?

Mary: No, I transfer it into my notebook. (Laughing)) Why, you trying to auction it off?

Q: Yeah, auction it on the web site (www.maryott.com).

Mary: (Laughing) Maybe I should. I have some of them, cause theyre tucked in my notebook, but no, generally I transfer them.

Q: Do you like to write lyrics that tell a specific story, or do you prefer to leave some of the interpretation to the imagination of the listener and why?

Mary: Well, there again, both. I mean Ive done things that have told a specific story. Sometimes it could be a stranger, sometimes it could be somebody I know thats crossed my path and it inspires a song. Its been a full fledged story that Ive made up, by this person inspiring, just thinking Wow, that person deserves a songand sometimes I do leave it ambiguous on purpose. I can think of one song specifically, I Want To Be Remembered . People think its about something else than what it really is.

Q: What is it about?

Mary: Its really a love song to music. Just the place that music has been in my life. And people think its about my husband.

Q: But you want to be remembered by the music that you make?

Mary: Right. Its a love song to the craft of music making, but I left it ambiguous.

Q: Which leads to my next question. Do you write from your personal experience or not?

Mary: Yes, I do, most of the time. I mean, I would say 85% of the time. Sometimes its pure fiction. Like that one was totally fiction, the song just flashed into my mind. My husband Mark even said to me Wow, where did that come from?

Q: You were getting ready to write the other day when we hung up on the phone. Did you finish that song?

Mary: I did. It was just about a made up couplefrom the sky (laughing).

Q: You play piano and guitar. Do you write mostly on guitar or piano and why?

Mary: Its changed over the years. Theres been literally years, albums worth of material that Ive written on the piano. And the for some reason, Ill get drawn to the guitar and Ill write a whole bunch of songs whatever, eight, ten songs on the guitar. I write differently on each instrument. I like to switch off.

Q: How do you write differently?

Mary: Different chords come out. Because Im not that great a guitar player. Im not really a better keyboard player, but on the keyboard I can play in different keys, in different modulationsThings occur to me on the keyboard. I mean, Im not gonna play in A-flat on the guitar, but I do a lot on the keyboard. So it just lends itself to different things coming forth. I go back and forth on purpose.

Q: Which instrument do you prefer when playing live and why?

Mary: Guitar. I like to move around. I dont like being behind that wall of keyboards. Its not a great way for me to communicate with people. Especially the way I play, alone. Its not like being with other band members to interact with or watch. If I had a full band it would be nice to sit down behind the keyboard, like I did when I first came to L.A. I did some live shows with an eight-piece band.

Q: Will you do that again?

Mary: Id love to do that again. Its fabulous.

Q: What would it take?

Mary: (Laughing) Money! Cause I like paying people. I like people to get paid

Q: Your latest CD of new material, Dream Mountain, has some songs on it that display a change in writing or production and arrangement style from your previous work. Specifically Rent Free, Whos Laughin Now and One More Night. Does that have anything to do with the fact that those songs were co-written with your husband Mark and what did he bring to those songs?


Mary: It absolutely has everything to do with the fact that those were co-written with him because its his music. I create lyrics and a melody to go with musicallittle riffs or chord ideas, something that he has been playing around with and I tuck around the corner and go Oh, can we use that for a song for us? So, thats why theyre different, because his musical pallet is much richer than mine.

Q: Really?

Mary: Yeah, cause hes coming from a jazz & fusion kind of background. Chords I dont even imagine!

Q: Cant be found on the keyboard?

Mary: (Laughing) Yeah, nowhere!

Q: You cant sing it if you cant play it

Mary: (Laughing) His progressions and stuff are totally different. My stuff is just more basic

Q: So, on those three songs, he wrote the chord progressions and the riffs and you wrote the melodies and the lyrics?

Mary: Right. And I help with structure, because he, there again, is much more free form. Im just going, There needs to be a chorus herewere already seven minutes into the songYou know, so I stop him. I put structure to the song. I let him create whatever music is happening from him. I just cut it short, so there actually ends up being a verse and a chorus and a bridge. Otherwise it would just be much freer than Im comfortable with if I was doing it. You know, a lyric. Thats fine if its all instrumental.

Q: Do you find thats what makes them good songs. The difference in how you each approach your music?

Mary: Yeah, I love it. Hes written a couple of things of his own that have lyrics, but hes not confident or comfortable writing lyrics.

Q: The song Rio has a definite tempo change within its arrangement. How did you go about creating that tempo change smoothly?

Mary: Thats not something that I consciously do. Um, I am a trained musician, but (laughing), I have no ideaI would like to say, Oh, yes, I envisioned this, but I dont write that way. Its just much more instinctual. So as far as getting it on the CD, that was Marks job. We used drum loops for this CD, so I picked out three or four different ones for the verse and three or four for the chorus, and then he helped to mesh them together as far as making a transition in the tempo changes. Theres only one track on that album that has a live drum, Rent Free.


Q: Rio is also unusual in that it has a classical guitar solo in the middle and an electric guitar solo that takes the song out. It works great. Whose idea was that?

Mary: (Laughing). Well, Im always trying to get Mark to play an acoustic instrument. I mean, anything with a classical guitar, Ive been bugging him for that for five or six years. But, honestly, the electric thing, Im sure, was his idea. He truly came up with all those parts, which I just absolutely love.

Q: It works great.

Mary: I did want the outtro to be wilder. You know, thats the whole point. Its supposed to be a song about,take the vacation, take the timethe electric guitar just seems like its more of a potent kind of thingYou know, Lets go!.

Q: Many of the songs or lyrics on this CD seem to reflect an attitude of Life is short and Ive decided to live it on my own terms from now on. Is that an accurate description and what is the theme of this CD if any?

Mary: (Silence).

Q: And why are you crying?

Mary: (Laughing)Was that question on your list? Actually, yes, Dream Mountain happened after our major car accident. So, some of those songs specifically The Softer Side, maybe Matter of Time just kind of came out of the experience of the car accident. Just realizing, God, life is really short.

Q: And for people who dont know, what did the car accident involve?

Mary: I was driving and my husband and I were coming home from our mountain house and were hit head on by some kids on drugs coming home from a rave party. My husbands fine and Im fine, but he was very seriously injured for a time. It just really does slap you upside the head, figuratively and physically. It just makes you realize you can lose people every day. And you do. You know, Rio.Take some time to have some fun, take time to do whatever you think you want to be doing. Take time for it. Even though Rio was written before the accident

Q: Where is Dream Mountain?

Mary: Its just in my head. I thought it would work out as a neat title cause we had just bought a mountain house. It was a dream come true. It all kind of worked as far as what was going on in my personal life, but as far as that story, its just a metaphor.

Q: You once said that you thought Big Time was a song that worked well live, but you didnt initially want to record it because you thought a studio version of it would come out sounding cheesy, for lack of a better description. What made you decide to go ahead and record it and how did you come up with a studio version that you were happy with?

Mary: (Laughing). Cheesy is the right word. I had several songs like that. People like them, so I guess I shouldnt use the word cheesy. I just think theyre more simple, so simple that Im kind of embarrassed to record them, even though Ive written them. Summer Lovin is another one, just a bluesy little thing that people just love, but Ive never recorded it. Same with Big Time. Mark just came up with just such a neat kind of forties vibe that I just loved the recording on that. Im really happy with it. It doesnt feel cheesy at all. I felt kind of obligated to do it because people just kept asking for it.

Q: How did the technical recording of this CD differ from your last one? Were they recorded in the same studio?

Mary: They were radically different. From my Room was recorded in a studio in Culver City over a course of six months, which to me is a tedious amount of time. I dont do well (with that)There were live musicians, which I love. That is my favorite. Cause then you get that kind of energy that you cant fake. The energy from live people playing transfers, even if its digital. So that was very nice, but the rest of the process was very long. Dream Mountain was all done by Mark and I, except for the one live drummer, over the course of three weeks. Right here in our home studio. It would be nice to have the best of both worlds, to have our own studio big enough to use live musicians where the clock is not ticking.

Q: Is that a goal?

Mary: Oh, definitely.overlooking the ocean (laughing)Oh we have big dreams

Q: Is it Marks job to get this?

Mary: Its my job, too! Im just not moving along with it too fast

Q: Which CD is Just Around the Corner from Lonely on and where did a great title like that come from?

Mary: Originally it was on the Somebody CD back in 1992. Its now part of the compilation CD. (Early Works, which can be purchased through Marys web site). The title came from part of a conversation that I had with my Mom right after my Dad died in 91. She told me about this poem she had written and she had around the corner and blueshe read me the poem over the phone. I actually sobbedSo, I quick jotted down some of the lines from the poem and re-wrote it. So, I gave my mother co-writing credit cause I stole her poem idea and re-wrote it to make it a song.

Q: Did you give your dad co-writing credit? He was the inspiration.

Mary (Laughing) Thats right! He died for it! Talk about dying for your art

Q: Excuse the pun

Mary: Oh he knowshes got a great sense of humor

Q: Where did a great title like Three Shades of Mimosa come from?

Mary: Well, there again, most of my songs come from real life experiences and I was sitting around the table with a group of great friends one Sunday (including the interviewer and his wife) for eight hours over about six or eight bottles of champagne (laughing).

Q: New Years day, right?

Mary: New Years day, thats right! New Years day. And that title came from Marc Bischoff, from you.

Q: It just popped out?

Mary: Popped out.

Q: Hes kind of a wise guy then?

Mary: Yeah he isI was refilling glasses with champagne for Mimosas and everyone had different shades of liquid because of the different amounts of orange juice left in their glass and you said Oh, three shades of Mimosawrite that down.So, I wrote that song on a lazy Sunday afternoon. I love that song. I love it.

Q: How about the lyric I got my imagination and my MasterCard? Whered that come from?

Mary: Well, this was back when I was single and us girls used to hang out a lot. The Sisterhood. We used to go dancing and stuff. That line came out of a Friday night, cruising with the top down on the boulevard. I mean, Shes goin out! That line came up while I was writing the song.

Q: Is that a good feeling when you get a good lyric that fits the song perfectly like that?

Mary: Oh yeah, its a great feeling! But a lot of times it doesnt even strike me until the second time that I read the lyrics. Things come to me and I just try to write them down fast so I dont lose them. Cause they just kind of happen and then I just shut the door. Like the other day I was going through my notebook, cause I really need to write, thinking I really have some good lyrics in there.

Q: What do you mean when you say you really need to write?

Mary: Oh, well, sometimes its just Ive got shows coming up and I really want new material, cause thats fun for me. I need new stuff just to keep it interesting for me. And also for people coming back to see me, I like to have at least ten or twelve new songs every season. Sometimes its emotional, too, that I need to write. That Ive got stuff that Id like to work out mentally, emotionally, whatever, by putting it on the page.

Q: What do you mean when you say every season?

Mary: What I consider my playing season, usually from March to October. Lots of festivals in the fall, around harvest time in California. Wine country

Q: Spouses and friends aside, what artists have influenced you and why?

Mary: Well, going back from childhood, groups like Heart, Fleetwood Mac, James Taylor. I grew up in a tiny little town, so there werent any concert venues. I was really a product of radio. Whatever I could get on the radio.

Q: Who else?

Mary: Now I love people like Sheryl Crow. Annie De Franco really inspires me.

Q: Inspires you as a musician and songwriter or as an artist who has done what shes done independently?

Mary: Both. I mean, I think shes brilliant, lyrically, musically, what she doesbut yeah, she does inspire me, too, with her whole attitude after the record labels came calling and shes like, No thanks, Ive got it goin on by myself. I love that!

Q: What about an artist influences you. For example, you said Heart. Was it the whole package, the fact that they were women singers, you liked the melodies?

Mary: Oh, that was the whole package. Cause I really envisioned myself being a female rock artist. I was drawn more to pop-rock. There was a time, ten or twenty years ago when people called me a folk artist and I was offended. I finally just embraced it and said Alright, alright, whatever you want to call me is fine. But I expected to be a rockerI dont mean heavy metal, butHeart, the lyrics were fabulous, musically, just the whole look was gorgeous. Fleetwood Mac, again, there were girls in the band that were doing the songwriting.

Q: Good songwriting

Mary: Good songwriting.I just saw Annie Lennox on an old Saturday Night LiveThere again, someone thats powerful, really gives a performance.

Q: So, when you write, do you consider the fact that youre gonna have to be performing that song live? Does that influence any of your songwriting?

Mary: It does, cause, like when I write with Mark, Im know Im not going to be able to perform them. Because its his music, which I just cant seem to deliver...Thats one of the reasons that Im hesitant to write more with him, cause I know Ill end up with ten songs that Im frustrated that I cant perform.

Q: How would you describe your self and your music now? You wanted to be a rock artist. You just got a fan letter that described you as their favorite folk artist.

Mary: I think Im a little more like a folk version of Melissa Etheridge, actuallyFolk rock, with that kind of power vocally. Some people say musically, but I dont know if I really can say that about my own stuff. A guy up north that books me a lot calls me pop folk. I dont have any problems with that. Cause it is. Among true folk artists, I dont get booked at those festivals. I m too electronic. So, I consider myself folk/pop/rock/country. But there again, if I take my stuff to Nashville, Im not country. To those people I am not country, to the folk people Im not folk(Laughing)Thats the difficulty!

Q: Well, so much has changed from the time of the groups that influenced you. If the Eagles started out today, theyd be on country radio and then they might never be able to develop into the great rock band that they became, cause theyd get pigeon holed.

Mary: Yeah, which has always been a sadness for me. People feel the big need to put a label. There was less of that in the seventies, the sixtiesfor people just to be free, to be creating whatever kind of art was coming out of them and leave the labels for the next generation to decide what they were

Q: In the seventies, I remember hearing the Eagles and the soundtrack to Saturday Night Fever on the same radio station

Mary: Right! That would never happen today!

Q: Has anyone ever compared your vocal style inflections to Trisha Yearwood?

Mary: Maybe one or two. I get more Joan Baez, Joanie Mitchell, I get Linda Ronstadt.

Q: If you could pick one of your songs that would be guaranteed massive, mainstream radio airplay worldwide, which one would you choose? And you cant give us the Theyre all my children and I love them equally answer, either

Mary: You Never Said Goodbye. I dont have to think about it. I think thats a huge hit, but the world doesnt know it yet. I think thats a huge hit song. I dont even have to think about that. I love that song. It was written a very long time ago. I wrote that back in 1988. I think its brilliant.

Q: That was written from personal experience?

Mary: It was. Some of my stuff I love, but I know its not powerful enough as far as the writing, as far as the critics or Nashville people would say.Theyre so into the whole song writing machine, rather than just having things be sweet little tunes once in a while. Whereas, I think You Never Said Goodbye is one of those tunes. Its perfect.

Q: And that song can be found on?

Mary: The compilation CD. That song was actually on a different CD originally. When I first wrote that song, it was a dance tune. It was a fast tune in a different key. It was one of those years that I was writing on keyboard. I got it back on guitar. I started playing the chord structure slower and realized it was better. So it was a whole transformation. It kind of rediscovered itself as a slow tune. Its so much better as a ballad.

Q: Have you ever co-written with anyone other than Mark?

Mary: Yes, one other person. Another personal friend in my life, but I felt I havent been able to do that. Ive had invitations to do that, to co-write with strangers, I justI hate to say shy, cause Im really not shyits just, songwritings a very personal thingI justI guess I dont feel that comfortable getting that naked in front of strangers (laughing)That is the truth! Its a very vulnerable kind of place Its a very personal place for me. I just cant share with Joe Shmoe going to coffee to write songs. Maybe Id be a better songwriter if I could. More prolific.

Q: What role would you say creativity plays in your life?

Mary: Everything. From cooking meals to decorating houses to music, creativity is what its all about for me. To be free to create every day. Have a life that you want in every detail.

Q: Do you think that having an audience is a vital part of the creative process?

Mary: For me, yes. I know theres a lot of people that arent built that way. That can create and record in their room and put it out to the world or not, and its finebut for me, communicating with an audience is heaven. Getting on stage is actually where Im the most at home. Every single time its magic.

Q: Did you ever go through a period of stage fright?

Mary: I did not.

Q: Some of the audience members were frightened, maybe

Mary: (Laughing) Exactly! I picked up a guitar and did my first paid gig two weeks later at age seven.

Q: What was it?

Mary: Either a wedding or a funeral or something. I dont remember. It was something in church. I just remember gettin paid! It was great. I loved it!

Q: Anything else youd like to say to people checking out your web site?

Mary: Just that when Im gonemaybe my husband will write a song for me or somethingthat people will just go, You know, she put some nice music into the mix .


By Marc Bischoff



Mary's Reviews: From The Magazine: Country Music International: "From My Room"

Californian based singer/songwriter Mary Ott delivers a gorgeous, sparkling record that showcases her crystalline voice, her inspired songcraft and a refreshing approach toward musical arrangement.

A delectible track, the opening, From My Room is a skilfully arranged array of passionate vocals, great guitar and neat keyboard passages. The melody is simply enchanting and instantly accessible without crossing too far info pure pop territory.

Smack Dab in the Middle, a co-write with husband Mark Segal, also delivers the goods.

Effectively blending strong emotional vocals with a gentle modern pop musical track.

The Web Unwinds and Goin Nowhere Fast seem to unfold like a dark-hued flower, shimmering in the tremulous daylight of the artists echoes.

The production is flawless on He Believes, which sounds joyous and silky. Mary and co-producers Mark Indictor, Mark Segal and of course the pickers, have come up with a rare rhythmic urgency on Revelation City.

Though not exactly steeped in country, the musicianship and song quality make this an album any fan of good music should make time to hear.


Reviewed by Alan Cackett in the September 2001 issue of Country Music international Magazine
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