Singer-songwriter Chan Marshall, a.k.a. Cat Power, hasn't released an album of original music since 2006's The Greatest, a raw, soulful tour de force. Life got rougher after that. The epically troubled singer suffered a psychotic breakdown in 2006 and had to cancel a tour, leaving her nearly bankrupt and in foreclosure. But now she's back with Sun, her ninth Cat Power record, on which she's shed her band and her sad-indie-chanteuse sound for something pissed off, alive, and masterful. She spoke with GQ from a sidewalk café in Hamburg, where she was having a drink or two.
What have you been up to the past few years?
I moved to Los Angeles to be with a man I loved. I started making this record three and a half years ago in Silver Lake, and then someone from the label said the songs sounded like "old, depressing Cat Power." I got depressed and didn't work on them for eight months. I got the itch again, but then I ran out of money. I cashed in a bond and bought some gear and rented a house in Malibu and wrote these other songs. I saw on the Internet this morning that it was "a breakup record," and it made me wanna hit something, because we broke up a couple of months after the record was done. It's like it invalidates it somehow.
Sun doesn't sound like a breakup record. It sounds like you're riled up.
It's an outrageous time. It's not a politics record, but I am a human being from America. I'm not super-educated, but I give a shit.
I felt like I was hearing your inner Mary J. Blige come out.
I would love to have that kind of pride—that Mary J., Beyoncé pride. Hip-hop and RB is mostly what I listen to. I don't have a connection with punk rock—I just never had that experience. I listened to [Blige's] The Breakthrough when I was coming out of the hospital; I was on that.
There's a lot of talk about how this is going to be your big crossover record. Is that why you finally got a manager?
I got told so many times I needed a manager. For a long time I resisted, and I finally got one so I can pay my mortgage, and it helped me from becoming a homeless person.
You're offered a lot of opportunities, but it seems like you mostly say no. How do you know what to turn down?
I am just going where the wine takes me. I got more guts than brains, and that's my problem. My gut taught me a lot, so I know a little bit. Does that answer the question? [laughs] This is my ninth record. I still don't believe it. I definitely thought I would be married and have a couple of children by now. I always thought for a boy's name... I think it's Sarah in the Bible, she never found love, and finally a good man shows up: Boaz. I always thought I would name my son Boaz Mexico. "Mexico" just because it sounds good. I had a dream I had a daughter and we were on the beach and she was sayin' "Mama! Mama!" and I opened my eyes and the sun was behind her head and I called her Tumbleweed. What do you think of the name Tumbleweed for a girl?
It's hard to imagine it on a business card.
There will be no President Tumbleweed. [laughs] Since this is for GQ, can you make sure they Photoshop me to look like I have a big penis?
