Ingrid Michaelson took the MemAud stage Thursday night and The Post had a chance to talk with her before the show.
At 5 p.m. backstage at the Templeton-Blackburn Alumni Memorial Auditorium Ingrid Michaelson had just finished up a soundcheck still in her PJs.
“Don’t worry. I will take a shower before (the show),” she said.
Ingrid Michaelson, indie-pop singer-songwriter returned to Athens Thursday night for the Lights Out tour. Clean and dressed in a black leather skirt with high socks, she waved to the crowd and got started as arrays of lights flashed behind her.
Her set started the night with the song “Home” while the crowd of 950 sat quietly and watched with excitement. MemAud can accommodate 1950 people.
“If you want to sing along at any point tonight, I would love that very much,” Michaelson said to the crowd before starting her second song of the night, “Maybe.”
Michaelson said that she is excited to switch up things for the second leg of the tour as she’s only traveling with four people rather than six.
“It has been fun to kind of do these songs (on tour) that we’ve been doing for a while and sort of change them up,” Michaelson said in an interview before the show. “Doing a lot of sort of mellower, quieter songs that sort of lend themselves to a full band set up.”
While the crowd stayed quiet for the mellow and heart aching tunes, the audience erupted in chatter and excitement while Michaelson chatted with the crowd.
Michaelson went from discussing cookies and the perfect breaking recipes to revealing the song “Over the Rainbow,” most commonly recognized as a “children's song” in the Wizard of Oz, was inspired by the sadness related to the time of the Holocaust and overcoming incredible hardship.
“A lot of people told me my songs are really happy, and I laugh and think, ‘Did you read the lyrics?’” Michaelson said.
While Michaelson was able to create a quiet atmosphere with a crowd shushing one another to hear the music, she was also able to get the crowd on its feet for the “joyous campfire song” — “You And I.” That popular tune led directly into “Be Okay” while the crowd stood, stomped and clapped along to the upbeat melodies.
Michaelson strived to interact with the crowd, regardless if that meant giving out a half-eaten oatmeal raisin cookie to a man in the front row or using a list of big words given to her from backstage to converse with the college town crowd.
But Michaelson took audience interaction to the next level as she jumped into the crowd for “Girls Chase Boys,” her last song before the encore. She danced on the floor and held the microphone amongst different audience members and let them sing out to the crowd.
“I love you and your voices,” Michaelson said before leaving stage.
There was a wide range of people in the audience, from nine year olds to college students to grandparents. All were eager to shout out and sing along at any chance given.
“(The show) was amazing,” said Christine Boening, a junior studying marketing and international business. “I have been a huge Ingrid Michaelson fan since I was 13. … Sometimes, shows like this, especially when you listen to somebody for so long, it seems like there is so much build up and it is so hard to live up to but she completely did.”
While the crowd wasn’t on their feet the whole night, it was a relaxed performance that fit the chilly night.
“I thought it was a really chilled night,” said Andrew Holzaepfel, associate director of the Campus Involvement Center. “It was a good balance of both energy and total attention to the music, which was kind of cool.”
Full Q&A With Ingrid Michaelson
ThePost: How is your day going?
Ingrid Michaelson: Okay, I’m in my pajamas still ... We were in Cincinnati last night. It wasn’t a very far drive so the bus just sort of sat for a while, and I have trouble sleeping in the bus when it’s not moving. So I was up late so I slept very late and haven’t gotten up. It’s one of those days. It’s cold here!
P: You picked a cold day to come to Athens
IM: It was snowing earlier! I like the snow, but I tried staying on the tour bus as long as I could. Don’t worry. I will change and take a shower before (the show).
P: How was the show last night (in Cincinnati)?
IM: It was funny. I ended up on the floor at one point ... It was good. The shows have been really good. They’re really fun. We’re doing a different thing on this leg of the tour than we have been. There is normally six of us on stage and this is just a quartet so we rethought a lot of songs and different harmonies and different instruments, instrumentation. It’s been fun to kind of do these songs that we’ve been doing for a while and sort of change them up. (We’re) doing a lot of sort of mellower, quieter songs that sort of lend themselves to a full band set up. It’s been really nice.
P: You recently came out with your “Afterlife” video. Where did the inspiration for that come from?
IM: I feel like, generally, I have this feeling that when I do something that scares me, I am always happier after I do it. And so I thought — my video for “Girls Chase Boys” was very staged .It was an homage to an ’80s video, Robert Palmer’s “Simply Irresistible.” It was very like staged and choreographed. My movie for my movements were very much like Robert Palmer’s movements. It was a very theatrical piece. I wanted “Afterlife” to be very real, like have a real feeling to it. Just the opposite (of the “Girls Chase Boys Video.) I wanted to do something very different so I thought, “How could I involve fans and sort of bring that element into things” That automatically makes stuff feel very truthful and real life.
Then, I thought that the whole idea of the song “Afterlife” is about living in your moment, not being fearful. So, I thought it would be fun and inspiring to see real people go through things - some things that are more light hearted and some things that are more serious. It would be inspiring for me to see people go through these things and that it would be inspiring to watch. That was the idea behind the video. I put out a call on social media to fans. We found a whole bunch of people who were willing to do some scary stuff. I was lucky enough to have a front row seat to all these people being really bold and brave. It was awesome. I think the video is very beautiful. I’m proud of it and I’m very thankful to the director Jeff Wadlow. He’s amazing and he really got a lot out of everything. I was really happy with it.
P: You had a lot of people face their fears for this video. What do you fear?
IM: So the point of that video is to face your fear of something you want to overcome. Like, I would never jump out of an airplane. That’s a fear I don’t wish to conquer. But, I think I’m pretty good at doing things that I know I want to do but that I’m scared to do. So, I am trying to think of something that I am dying to do. This is going to sound really lame! I had this sort of epiphany. There is this show. This is going to sound really stupid. There is this show in the city called “Sleep No More.” It’s a Broadway show. … Basically ,you go to the show and you can go alone or with people, whatever you want, but they split your party and it’s like a choose your own adventure type of thing where you just wonder around this big theatre that’s been converted into what feel likes a mansion kind of thing. You go into different rooms and different scenes are happening. Everybody has these different experiences. It’s interactive but you all wear masks and it just creeps the shit out of me — like the whole idea of it. But, I am very curious to go. I’ve always said, “I’m going to go. I’m going to go!” but there is a way you can stay with your party if you really want to. I meant they split you up, but you just stay with your person. I’ve always said that I am going to go and just stay with my person. I’ll just sneak over.
Well, I had this whole sort of epiphany the other day when someone was talking about it and I was like it’s going to close and I’m going to be really upset that I didn't go see it, but the idea of being alone and being with a mask on and being with strangers and having actors sort of come up to you. I don’t know why but it makes me really terrified but I’m really intrigued by it. So for the first time, this was like two weeks ago, I was like “you know what. It’s designed to make you feel uncomfortable. It’s designed to frighten you a little bit. That’s why they rip you apart from your familiarity.” I was sort of like a metaphor for my life that I cling to things to help me through things, which I think we should do. But I feel like in letting go and being independent and being brave, you really can get through a lot of shit on your own so I want to do it.
For the first time, I really actually want to do it the way it’s designed- It’s designed for you to experience this on your own! I think I have trouble doing things on my own sometimes. I’m going to go to this show and I’m going to do it, even if I go with somebody or go alone, I’m going to go and experience it the way it’s intended to be experienced. I am really scared. It sounds ridiculous, but I think it’s a metaphor for life in terms of letting go.
Along those same line, this record “Lights Out” is the first one I’ve done where I’ve co-written. I’ve always had a strong hold on writing my own music and that was the way I wanted to do it, but on this record, I let go of that. I’m learning to let go of things. I think letting go is really frightening. One of the girls in the video who was afraid of heights, she wrote me this whole letter about how she let go of this bar on the trapeze and since then, she’s been using that as a metaphor in terms of just releasing and accepting things and letting go of things. I feel like the general idea of letting go, for me, is something that is very frightening, but I’m working on it. And letting go of the control of writing all the songs myself, I think yielded a really great, one of my favorite records so far, my most personal record so far. You get rewarded for being brave and so I am really trying to keep letting go of things. That is my fear. I think I hold on to — I know I do. I have control issues and I hold on to things tightly. I think the unknown is a big fear for me and letting yourself go. That’s what I’m trying to do.
"I have control issues and I hold on to things tightly. I think the unknown is a big fear for me and letting yourself go. That’s what I’m trying to do."
P: What’s the best piece of advice you’ve ever gotten?
IM: Oh my gosh … uh. I don’t know. That is such a good question. No one’s ever really asked me that. Everyone asks me what advice I would give them. You know what … It was a long time ago. I wrote to the guy from Five for Fighting. I remember he was at a local radio station and he gave his e-mail address years ago. I wrote it down in the car and I wrote to him and he wrote me back! I think I asked him for advice and he said, “Work hard and don’t let the sharks change you.” I was like, “I wonder what that means,” but I know what it means now. Stay true to yourself, work really hard, and love what you do. I always remember that. Don’t let the sharks change you. I didn’t know what it meant because I was so young at the time. I was like, “the sharks?” … You know, different people have different opinions on how you should look and sing and what you should write about, which I encountered early on in my career. I didn’t allow any of that into my life. I am pretty lucky I have my own label. I kind of control — again, it comes back to that. It has really stuck with my throughout the years — stay true to yourself.
P: When you perform, what is your favorite part of playing live?”
IM: I don’t have a specific. There is not a song or moment. It is more when I feel the audience is giving back. If I feel there is this cycle of energy where I am giving to them and their giving back to me. That feeling of, that cyclical feeling is what I really love. What I really love about performing is feeling like you’re in this room with all these people sharing this moment and you’re affecting them but they are also affecting you. Sometimes audiences are kind of dead and they’re more detached. A lot of it depends on the room and the size, the day of the week, the city. You never know what you’re going to get in terms of an audience. For me, that’s my favorite part just everyone all together and feeling togetherness.
P: And also, have you been to Athens before? I saw that you were here on tour with Matt Kearney in 2010.
I: I honestly can’t even remember. I wonder where we played. Do you know where we played? I feel like if I looked back or if someone told me the name of the theatre or if they showed me a picture, I’d probably remember, but my brain is totally fried. But, so far so good. It is cold, snowy, Christmas-y and everything like that.
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