Before releasing her 1996 debut Trailer Park, Beth Orton was mainly known to dance music fans as the ethereal voice that floated atop beats by William Orbit and The Chemical Brothers. After Park¸ Orton was recognized as an eloquent creative force in her own right. The album merged Orton’s love of delicate folk music with her interest in what was then starting to become known as electronica. Working with both her backing group and Primal Scream producer Andrew Weatherall, Orton crafted a beautiful album that served as a launching pad for an acclaimed career. On the occasion of Park’ reissue as a Legacy Edition with the requisite second disc of bonus cuts, Orton recently talked with CMJ about the making of her debut, collaborating with her favorite singer and, briefly, about her next move.
You had a couple of things out where you collaborated with people like William Orbit and the Chemical Brothers, but Trailer Park was your first big release under your own name. What are you aiming for on your first public showing?
It was my first album, yeah. I recorded an album with William Orbit (under the title Strange Cargo) that only got released in Japan, but this is my first album, yeah.
What were you aiming for?
I knew that I wanted to create a very… it’s such a strange question, I don’t know why it’s such a strange question. I was listening to a lot of Nick Drake, I was trying to create a record that was very honest and had a very raw, acoustic sound, but I was also very driven towards working with Andrew Weatherall, who was very interested in the idea of those two worlds meeting but at the same time finding an integrity within. I don’t know, because I would have such a great thing with my band, we had that beautiful, open, warm… it was kind of unusual at that time… a tender sound. But at the same time, I was intrigued to see what would happen with Andrew Weatherall. It was a very organic process and all those cliché words.
How easy was it to combine electronic music with the more open folk type of music?
What happened was I went in to record the album with my band, and I fell so in love with my band and the musicians and the feel of what we were doing. It seemed to have so much integrity and beauty. It was sort of like, do we really want to? They were not into the idea of me going off and saying, right, “now I’m gonna hand it off to this guy, who’s gonna take all the guitars and completely fuck up what you’ve done.” But there were three songs that I wasn’t completely satisfied with whatever we did, and that was, “Tangent,” “Galaxy of Emptiness” and “Touch Me With Your Love,” so I thought well, ‘let’s just see what would happen if Andrew Weatherall took those and did some messing around.’ So he and I went into the studio together and I redid vocals and I just loved what he was doing, and for me it felt pretty natural for them to stand next to the other songs as well. It was a bit of a difficult process because I didn’t want to be disloyal to my music or my band or to the beautiful music we’ve made, but it was a definite calling and I was very driven to try this idea out. And also I never knew if I would make another record, so I wanted to do it all now. But I think it worked really well.
One of the songs that got heavily played on college radio stations was “She Cries Her Name.” Can you tell me a little about making that song?
It was the first song pretty much that I wrote. I wrote it with William Orbit in the early days when he was very into the idea of me being a singer and fronting his Strange Cargo project. I hadn’t done anything like that before and wasn’t entirely convinced that it was something I should do. But one time he started playing those three chords and they were really beautiful and I just sang along. And what I did was, in my mind, I pretended I was Rickie Lee Jones and I sung the song. And out it came. And that was the first idea, then it took us a while to write. I remember I had a different chorus and different lines for each line, and he was like, ‘why don’t you just take one of those lines and repeat it?’ That’s how I learned about—cause I wrote poetry—and he taught me how to simplify the ideas. It was very natural to me, and I really quite enjoyed that process of simplifying and reducing a bit.
What made you decide to name the album Trailer Park?
Well, when we finished the record I met this lovely woman called Ellen Nolan. I’m from Norfolk which is the east of England, and I had friends that lived in camp, like gypsy camp, basically and I used to go there occasionally, and it was so beautiful, and it was all like, real old, like metal and glass. Just all different styles of caravan. We went on there and did our first photo shoot and Ellen really loved it. It’s like, you can point a camera anywhere and there will be something interesting. And then we got into the idea of taking it further and going into America and going around all the trailer parks in America in Southern California. Then I started to write this song about trailer parks called “Trailer Park” and I actually never finished it, thank god, it was dreadful, and I was playing it to my brother, and at the time I wanted to call my album Winnebago but then I couldn’t get permission, and my brother said, “fuck it, call it Trailer Park.”
So after the album came out, did you kind of listen to it from time to time or is this the first time you put it on in awhile?
Have to say, it’s the first time I put it on. The fact of the matter is I never really listened to it. I know it sounds strange but after I made it I could never listen to it without thinking, “oh, why did I leave that violin in, or why did I sing like that, or why didn’t I work on those words?…” I couldn’t listen to it without picking it apart. And to be quite honest, last summer I was in Norfolk again and I was driving along and I was listening to the record, and it was almost like I was listening to it for the first time in a way. It was really beautiful; I was really touched, ya know? I could no longer hear the little bits I couldn’t do. I just thought like “yeah that’s a really beautiful expression of a young woman doing her thing.” I was almost looking at myself from who I am now but almost as a parent like, if my little girl came to me with that work I would think it was beautiful; I wouldn’t pick it to pieces. I suppose I sort of had that compassion and heard it again and heard how honest and earnest it was. It was really quite touching, I thought.
On the reissue’s bonus disc, there’s a couple of songs you did with (reclusive Chicago r&b/folk singer) Terry Callier. How did you end up working with him?
The thing with Terry Callier came about because I am a huge fan. When I first made Trailer Park and just before it was released, I was taken around on this thing where you go on all the radio stations in England and driven around by this guy I had never met before and I would just sit there and read to him as we were driving along. And it was the most bizarre experience ever; I had never done anything like this in my life. Anyway, I was driving along with this guy and he was telling me that it was his birthday and that his friends bought him tickets to go see Terry Callier. And I was like “Shut up! He’s dead!” And I couldn’t believe it; I didn’t think someone as incredible as Terry Callier could be alive. And so, for that, he actually gave me his spare ticket to see him. So we went and danced down in the front the entire time. At the end we went to meet Terry Callier. I was like, “I adore you, I love you, let’s sing a song together.” Then I sent him my record and apparently he just loved it. And he was like, “fine, let’s do it.” It was a really strange experience because I did not expect him to do it and he did. So he flew over to England and we went in the studio for four or five days and recorded a few songs together. It was an amazing experience and a dream come true. Funny thing was on the way there to meet him I was like, “just turn this car around. I shouldn’t be in this car. This is ridiculous. I can’t go meet this man.” It’s quite good to remember, actually. It still had results. It was a beautiful, beautiful thing that came out of that.
Are you working on a new album that you want to talk about it?
Yeah, I am. I am very excited about it. I’m sort of not talking about it because I’m right in the middle of it, or right in the middle of beginning it. I’m a bit superstitious about those things, but I am and it’s quite an interesting departure to some degree, but it’s an experiment and it’s coming pretty well, so we’ll see.
Do you have any idea when it will come out?
I hope, in my dreams, that it will be out in October.
http://bethorton.astralwerks.com/
-Michael Tedder
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