Amanda Rheaume Interview: SXSW 2010

Posted on Mar 16th 2010 2:00PM by Nick A. Zaino III
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Amanda Rheaume rolls into SXSW carpooling with fellow featured act NLX. Rheaume is becoming something of a road warrior, bringing her rootsy pop rock to the US and her native Canada. She's been playing and writing since she was 16, when she was invited onstage at the Lilith Fair to sing with Sarah McLachlan, the Indigo Girls and the Dixie Chicks. She has recorded a few albums and EPs, but started her recording career in earnest in 2004 with her 8-song CD, 'Unraveling.' Her latest EP is called 'Kiss Me Back.' Rheaume plans to record her full-length when she gets off the road. Spinner spoke with the singer from the road on her way to Texas for SXSW.

Is it harder to pay for touring these days? I noticed the "Loons for Tunes" program on your site to help pay for your tour.

I think it's always been kind of a hard thing to do. You have to make enough money to cover your gas and your accommodations and your food, and you have to get to the next town. When you're going to new places for the first time, or when you're just starting, it can be quite expensive and not as feasible. I have to get someone to sublet my apartment when I go on tour.

Are you usually gone that long, that you're not back at your apartment for months at a time?

Sometimes. This tour is being followed by a full-out cross-Canada tour. I'll get back from this US. tour on March 30, I think, and then I leave to go to Vancouver and back on May 1. I haven't actually done something like this before, where I'm doing them back to back. We have friends that go to Australia, and they're gone for two months at a time. To cover your home expenses, it can be difficult.

How would you describe your sound?

I get the comparison of Sheryl Crow often. Sort of pop-rock, not quite country -- I can't say country because there's so much attached to that. I've been told I could go in a country direction. I think for people who haven't heard it, Sheryl Crow is a close enough sort of reference point that they could get an idea.

What are your musical influences?

Alanis Morissette is a huge influence on me, actually. 'Jagged Little Pill' came out when I was 15. It was just this massive experience for me. That record -- that changed my whole life. So she was a big one. Ani DiFranco was a really huge influence, as well, on my music and on my guitar playing. I'd say those are the two biggest ones.

Were either of them on that Lilith Fair gig you played in 1999?

No, no. None of them were on that, but that was a huge life-changing experience for me, too. The Indigo Girls, as well, were a big influence. But seeing that was just a catalyst for me to do music. I just was seeing all these amazing women doing what they're doing. That was a really big inspiration.

How long had you been playing when you got that gig?

I had been playing guitar since I was 12. So I would have been playing guitar for four years. I had been writings songs, but maybe just for a year. I was very, very, very green when I had that experience.

How did you wind up getting the gig?

My aunt used to work for Lilith Fair. I was just backstage and hanging out. It wasn't actually a booked gig or anything like that. It was just, "Come onstage and sing a song," you know? I almost lost my mind, I was so nervous. But that's how that happened. It was very random, very organic. It just changed a lot for me.

What's your biggest vice?

Hmm. Just in general for my life, or for my music?

You can choose either, if one lets you out of a more embarrassing answer.

No, honestly, my BlackBerry. I'm really attached to my BlackBerry. I can't live without it, essentially. I mean, I may combust if I lose it or drop it or break it. I'm on that thing all the time.

Do you have anything you consider your SXSW survival kit?

Let me think about that one. Coffee? I've attended a lot of these conferences, and the trouble is, there's always so much you want to see and do while you're there, you just want to make the best of it. It's just about not really sleeping very much and drinking a lot of coffee and just trying to push yourself and catch things even if you're a little tired, because I find when I get home I just wish I had been able to do more. So caffeine is a big one.

What's your musical guilty pleasure?

My guilty pleasure?

Your musical guilty pleasure.

Musical guilty pleasure. Oh, okay. I don't know, I don't feel that guilty about anything I listen to. I just downloaded a best of Willie Nelson. I f---ing love that. I'm in this new mode of downloading all this music, but I don't feel guilty about one thing.

Do you have a side you fall on in the Beatles versus Stones argument?

I'm a Beatles fan. I think the Stones are really, really great. I love a lot of their songs, but I just know so many more Beatles songs. So I'd have to go with them, as far as harmony and songwriting goes.

What's the craziest thing you've seen or experienced while on tour?

I went over to Afghanistan last March, about a year ago, so I saw some pretty crazy things over there, the hospital being one of them. It's nothing to do with music. But I was there doing a gig for the troops, and I saw some pretty intensely upsetting and eye-opening things in Afghanistan. That was the strangest place I ever played a gig.

Nick A. Zaino III is a contributor from Seed.com. Learn how you can contribute here.