Margaret Cho Sings About True-Life Murder on New Comedy Album

Posted on Aug 24th 2010 10:00AM by Emily Tan
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Austin Young

Writing songs about lost love isn't a new trend. But when Margaret Cho found out that a former flame actually murdered his wife, she was so affected that she enlisted folk rocker Andrew Bird to help her write a tune about it. The country murder ballad, 'I'm Sorry,' appears on her new album, 'Cho Dependent,' which is out now and can be heard at Spinner's Listening Party.

"I don't even have a right to be upset, but I was really upset," Cho tells Spinner of the song, which is a true story about sitcom writer J.J. Paulsen. "I was freaked out about it so I wrote a song with Andrew Bird about it. It's called 'I'm Sorry' and it's just about the horrible dark side of love and what love can do."

Working with a veteran songwriter like Bird, Cho felt at ease putting everything she wanted to say into 'I'm Sorry.' "Andrew's so funny," the comedian and actress says. "He's just like, 'Oh, that's good. OK, let's go write it.' He just didn't say a lot. He's the perfect person to do the song with because in his music there are dark scenes, so it's a very appropriate topic for us to work on."

But that wasn't the only song that Cho was very excited to add to her album. Producer and songwriter Jon Brion and Of Montreal's Kevin Barnes worked with her on 'Enemies.' "Kevin Barnes of the great band Of Montreal plays on that song, and they're my favorite band, so I got to have my favorite guitarist on the song with me," she says. "I played on it, too, and that's the only time I play, so that was really special."

Tegan and Sara also worked with Cho on the album's first track, 'Intervention.' The Canadian twin sister act blogged about Cho's musical ability, praise that naturally left the comedian feeling flattered.

"I love Tegan and Sara," she said. "We worked together and they're all such amazing musicians and writers -- and really funny, too. They're really, really hysterical, and it's amazing that they found musical talent in me, which I'm really proud of. The whole experience of making the album was so rewarding and special so I'm very, very pleased that I got to work with these people and be their friend."

Cho has already released seven comedic albums but this is the first time she's shown that she has one set of pipes. Although she knew she could sing, Cho didn't really give her talent too much thought until now. "It was always something I wanted to do but never really the inclination to really work for it," she reveals. "But now that I have, I'm very proud of it, but it definitely took a lot of work."

"I hope to elevate the form for comedy music [and] to make it something that is viable, that is actually on par with all the pop music that's out there, to have a contribution to this art form that I love so much and to create more," Cho adds. "That's what I hope to do."

Listen to Margaret Cho's 'Cho Dependent'