Shara Worden’s eclectic and ambitious album All Things Will Unwind (her third as My Brightest Diamond) has been enthralling us since its October release. Charming, clever and ecentric – the album pushed pop’s boundaries making it eminently listenable but distinctly out of the mainstream. We caught up with Shara for a Call Back.

Bowlegs: Which album has been a major influence in your life, and why?
Shara: Nina Simone’s I Put a Spell on You. Nina Simone had so many different kinds of expressions, colours and sounds in her voice and she wasn’t afraid to be transparent in her music or in her performances. She was a fantastic entertainer and also a very challenging one. This record was probably the first one that I really fell in love with and I often go back to it as a reference. There is immense variety in the songs and the arrangements are also so beautiful.

Bowlegs: What was the last album you bought?
Shara: Tom Waits’ Bad As Me.

Bowlegs: Which bands have you been listening to this week?
Shara: I’ve been flying a lot recently and for airplane rides I’ve been listening to music that this amazing flute player, Alex Sopp, sent to me. She has asked me to write a piece for her next record, so I asked her to send me all her favourite flute music. The George Crumb pieces have been astounding to me.

Bowlegs: Name an up-and-coming band Bowlegs should look out for?
Shara: Revival Hour, DM Stith, Son Lux, Gabriel Kahane, Tim Fite, Clare & The Reasons, Diane Cluck.

Bowlegs: What was the last gig you went to?
Shara: I saw St. Vincent in Dallas a couple weeks ago and it was amazing!

Bowlegs: Who is the best band you have ever shared a bill with?
Shara: I once sang on Jools Holland and Annie Lennox was on the stage directly across from us, and I had to sing while staring over her maroon fedora as she watched us. That was pretty nerve wracking. I was also in a show with Kim and Kelley Deal and we had some pretty monumental conversations that changed my life. All those ladies are super awesome.

Bowlegs: What was the first gig you ever went to, and who did you go with?
Shara: I won tickets to a Manhattan Transfer gig from a radio station in Tulsa, Oklahoma when I was about eight. I took my mom and we loved every second of the show, especially the part when the red-headed singer ripped off the bottom half of her fringe dress to turn it into a mini-skirt. I was equally shocked and mesmerized.

Bowlegs: What made you realise that being a musician was the career of choice?
Shara: My parents, grandparents, aunts and uncles were all serious musicians, so it was normal in my family to be making music and working hard at it.

Bowlegs: What is your favourite music documentary?
Shara: PJ Harvey On Tour: Please Leave Quietly.

Bowlegs: What was the last film you saw, and was it any good?
Shara: Bento Monogatari by Pieter Dirkx and it is an incredible short film!

Bowlegs: Name three great books Bowlegs must read?
Shara: Wildwood by Colin Meloy; The Elegance of the Hedgehog by Muriel Barbery; and The Third Chimpanzee by Jared Diamond.

Bowlegs: What do you see when you look in the mirror?
Shara: This question makes me think of the Bjork song, I See Who You Are, and it also makes me think of that picture of Snow White looking into the mirror and seeing the evil queen!

Bowlegs: Name a song that takes you back to a certain time in your life?
Shara: I am immediately back in high school whenever I hear Heatwave’s Always and Forever.

Bowlegs: What is your favourite album cover of all time?
Shara: Antony & The Johnsons’ The Crying Light cover with the butoh dancer Kazuo Ohno is so expressive.

Bowlegs: What was the last thing that made you laugh out loud?
Shara: This morning at breakfast my husband started laughing and crying, because he realized that in his mind, he had been sitting there thinking about all the times we are going to be coming home from tour for one or two nights this winter, and that he will be able to build a fire in our new fireplace each time. It’s hard to explain how wonderfully ridiculous it sounded, but we started laughing together, and then my 15-month-old little boy started fake laughing, even though he didn’t understand what was so funny.

Bowlegs: Do you think music videos are important and do you like making them?
Shara: Yes, I love making music videos! The visual presentation of music is certainly important and hopefully when you make a video, you don’t muck up the images that people have in their heads, but you help them get inside the song in a different way.

Bowlegs: Are albums still important or is it more about individual tracks?
Shara: This seems like a business question, as much as it is a sociological one. Everyone knows the music industry is dramatically shrinking, but the musical output culturally is expanding. Certainly people are able to access their one favourite track easily in the internet age, and Lord knows I had to buy a lot of Prince albums for that one track that I liked back in the day. Nowadays, I think it takes a lot of luck or promotion money or novelty to get a single track noticed, so while everyone has accessibility to great home studio equipment and can post a song on the web, it’s not easy to stand out in this bigger and bigger crowd.
I think it’s amazing that more and more people are realizing that music is fundamental to being human, and expressing their human experience in a musical way that I think wasn’t happening ten-years ago. And making a recording is no longer such an exclusive experience.
On the flip side, I think a stock compressor plug-in does not a great engineer make. The guys that have been turning knobs for 30-years are really dang good at what they do and I really respect their understanding of sound. Writing music is really ecstatic and joyful, but it’s also very challenging. One great song does not a long career make. Creating a large body of work is of course really important if you dedicate your life to music.

Bowlegs: What do you have planned for the next six months?
Shara: The next couple of months are really jam-packed and crazy and exciting. A European tour, opening for The National at The Beacon Theater in NYC with the chamber ensemble yMusic, a show and subsequent vacation in St. Maarten, composing a solo organ piece, composing guitar music for a Buster Keaton film, a performance with the Indianapolis Symphony, and a debut of a piece about the death of classical music by David Lang at Carnegie Hall!

Bowlegs: What is on your iPod?
Shara: Chamber music album Beautiful Mechanical by yMusic!