SCARLET'S WALK THOUGHTS

Scarlet's Walk
Thoughts

On Scarlet's Walk

"Scarlet is walking in my shoes. You could say she's based on me. Or perhaps I am based on her."

On Amber Waves

"You find so many stories in Los Angeles. You see especially where all the movies come from - and how the game of chess works. Amber Waves is part of it - if she represents America or if she's a woman, everybody decides for his- or herself. There's this anthem with "amber waves of grain" in it - and then there is this porn star in "Boogie Nights". She notices at a certain point that she has to learn to appreciate herself. L.A. doesn't appreciate unconventional personalities. Too many are standardized."

"Scarlet's Walk begins on the West Coast, where she visits Amber Waves, a phrase found in America The Beautiful and also the name of a porn star in the movie Boogie Nights. Amber's in trouble. She had arrived in the city of angels with a dream of being someone. But ‘from ballet class to lap dance and straight to video', her soul has been slowly eroded. She's still a young woman, perhaps in her late 20s. But the porn baron who made her a star has moved on to the next ingénue. The public has eaten her and spat her out and she has nobody who cares. So Scarlet and Amber undertake a journey, which eventually leads Scarlet to Alaska to see the Northern Lights. There she's given the message to tell Amber they're not drowning, but waving."

On A Sorta Fairytale

"By the end of it -- once they masks have come down and they see who each other really is, not the fantasy of who each other is -- then, they decide that they don't know why... 'cause there's enough love, but there's not enough something else and they don't know what that something else is. So, they part. And, that's why it's only 'A Sorta Fairytale'."

"A Sorta Fairytale finds Scarlet back in LA with a man she has convinced herself is her life's soul mate. They take the big trip in the classic car up the Pacific Coast highway and across the desert. But as they go on, the masks drop away and they discover the fantasy they have of each other isn't who they really are. They end up back where they started and Scarlet leaves. They did care. But somehow they lost each other. Which is why it's only A Sorta Fairytale"

"Scarlet's in love at that point and taking that classic trip up 101 and Highway 1 on their way to San Francisco, and they cut off because they are having the trip of their life, and they go out West to the Southwest. And that's where the masks come down for them. Who they thought each other was is not who they really are. It's one of those things where it's not about not having enough love for each other, it's just that you don't know why you can't make it work. You don't know how you are losing each other and you're sitting right in front of each other in plain view, but you can't seem to make it work. And that's why it's a 'sort of' fairy tale, because she wasn't a princess."

"Well, she's been to the porn awards with her friend Amber in Vegas, and she didn't want to go, but needed to go with her friend. They sort of part ways in Nevada, and Scarlet goes to Alaska to see the northern lights and give them a message from Amber Waves how's really at this point on her knees, and there's not a lot of her left. So as a friend, Scarlet goes to take this message and they give her one to give to Amber back. So once she delivers the message, she sets off on this trip with this love, her soul mate, up the 101 and they're falling in love, and they decide to go deeper and so they go to the desert. He decides she isn't his fantasy and she looks at him and says 'Well I didn't know that you didn't see me the whole time'."

On Wednesday

"Scarlet moves on to take other lovers. In Wednesday she's in a relationship with a man who harbours secrets. "The trust is gone and she doesn't know whether she is imaging that he's up to something or whether he really is. She's becoming something she never wanted to become - possessive and suspicious." But on another level, Scarlet's love-affair is with America. "Is the land of the free really so free? People have put their trust in the ideal of America. But whether it's the broken treaties with the Native American people or the recent stock market crash, greed has taken over."

On Strange

"On Strange, Scarlet's journey takes her to the sites of some of the last stands of the native American people, including Little Big Horn. From there she journeys on through the Bad Lands. "Scarlet has taken on the beliefs of her lovers and on another level those of her country. But she's begun to question them. We are taught that America stands for democracy. But that's not what she's seeing."

On Carbon

"Next she meets up with the manic depressive Carbon. They travel through the Black Hills of Dakota and to Wounded Knee, scene of one of the darkest episodes in Native American history. All Carbon wants is to disintegrate into nothingness. So it's an extremely destructive story. Just as people risked their lives to keep their sacred land, a meltdown is about to happen in her life and a waltz into insanity is on the horizon. She's on this downhill race in her mind and Scarlet has to get to her before she kills herself." They end up in a ski resort - Bear Claw, Free Fall and Gunner's View in the song are all ski runs. But for Carbon the normal parameters and boundaries have ceased to apply and given way to self-mutilation and an urge to plunge over the cliff. Scarlet walks into this madness, but the outcome is left unresolved."

On Crazy

"At this point a character called Crazy comes into Scarlet's life. "He makes a lot of sense and seems to take the pain away for a while so she follows him. He's seductive and dangerous and it's delicious. But you know that it's not forever because you can't hold on to him. Together they travel through cowboy country and back to the desert, before he abandons her in Tucson."

On Wampum Prayer

"There [in Tucson] Scarlet picks up the voice of the Native American ancestors on Wampum Prayer after visiting the site of a massacre of the Apache people. "She has a dream and follows the voice and prayer of an old woman who survived and whose song is woven into the land." There's an obvious parallel with the song lines of Aboriginal folklore in Australia as Scarlet is propelled by the dream until she reaches Cherokee country and the ancestry of her own people."

On Don't Make Me Come To Vegas

"In a further dream, she hears the cry of her niece, who is living in Las Vegas, 18 and in trouble. "The problem is that if Scarlet has to go to help her, she's going to need to confront her own past. The Prince of Black Jacks, who runs the town, is an old flame. If she goes, she's going to need his help but she knows there's going to be a price to pay - hence her cry, Don't make me come to Vegas."

"The song Don’t Make Me Come to Vegas, it’s like Blazing Saddles or something."

On Sweet Sangria

"Her prayer is answered and instead Sweet Sangria finds her in Austin, Texas. There she meets a Latino revolutionary, fighting American intervention in Central and Southern America. But the more Scarlet is drawn into the fight, the more she begins to see that she can't go along with hurting innocent people - on either side. For him, the end justified the means. But although she believes in the cause, she can't load the gun... It's about what you believe in and how far you're prepared to go."

"Sweet Sangria has this whole Mexican revolutionary moment. So a lot of the musical influences are coming from the land itself, and the history."

On Your Cloud

"She leaves him on the border at Laredo and Your Cloud finds her travelling alone up the Mississippi to Memphis. From there she travels on to a place where thousands of Cherokees died. She's thinking about the idea of segregation and people separating themselves from the land. Everybody has a body map, and she's trying to find hers. She also visits the battlefields of the Civil War, before she arrives in Philadelphia where she sees the Liberty Bell - and observes that it is cracked."

On Pancake

"Pancake finds Scarlet heading into Delaware and towards the north-eastern seats of learning and power. There she meets a Messiah figure, but swiftly becomes disillusioned. If her Latino revolutionary was all action, this Messiah is all talk. He doesn't uphold the values which he preaches. He's deaf to the real needs of the people and is becoming drunk on the kind of power which he once denounced."

On I Can't See New York

"When they watched it on TV, people had to remind themselves that it wasn't a movie. Being there and being able to smell it, you knew that it was reality."

On Mrs Jesus

"Trying to escape from New York, Scarlet picks up a ride. Scarlet has a lot of questions and no answers at a time when the world is in deep trouble. Everything is twisted. But Mrs. Jesus represents life and she takes a ride with her out of the city to try to make some sense of what has happened."

On Taxi Ride

"They part in Chicago, where Scarlet looks up old friends. There she learns of the death of a gay friend and resolves to visit his house in Baton Rouge, before travelling on to New Orleans. Taxi Ride is about how people react to death and the betrayal that can happen even after death."

"The odd thing about 'Taxi Ride' was that this song was being written before he died, and he even heard that line, 'just another dead fag to you.' I was writing it as part of another song about a gay guy who was dying of AIDS. He miraculously recovered and the song didn't get written. It started propelling itself again early this year and Kevyn and I were having conversations and I didn't know what was coming. But I knew he was in a lot of pain, and he felt betrayed by people who weren't there when he was in need. Then everybody who shows up in his death can give a statement but they weren't there in the trenches. His death brought up a lot of things in people - some lovely and some despicable and disgusting. 'Taxi' is for Kevyn."

(the below quote was taken when this song was called Just Another Dead Fag)
"It refers to another bright light that has left us. The British call cigarettes fags, and I like the meaning of that the fire and the brightness that shines in a person. Its been tricky to write because sometimes I feel there's a sacred ground that I shouldn't intrude upon. This song, in particular makes me feel a sense of toil and trouble."

On Another Girl's Paradise

"New Orleans is warm and balmy with the smell of honeysuckle in the air. But Scarlet is grappling with covetousness in Another Girl's Paradise. Her travels take her through Florida and to Hawaii, before she returns to Miami. "All the time she's having a conversation with Desire. And she realises that very few of us can genuinely wish each other good in a selfless way."

On Scarlet's Walk

"On Scarlet's Walk she traces the footsteps of the early European settlers along the east coast and passes through the capital of the Cherokee nation. In the song, America is a young girl looking over the water at another young girl, who may be called France or Spain or England. She's curious so she invites them over. Pretty soon, they've moved in and taken everything - the husband, the house and the job - and the new sheriff is in charge." The walk also picks up the story of the grandfather of Amos's grandmother, a full-bloodied Cherokee."

On Virginia

"In Virginia, Scarlet makes her way up to Washington and visits Jamestown, one of the earliest settlements. She wonders how a land built on the notion of freedom for the settlers could deny freedom to the native American people. "In her mind she sees the white brother coming and the young Native American girl following. The mythology of another land has been imposed on America."

"I was working with rhythms and tones that came… intrinsically with the land. So in Virginia, for instance, I would pull in certain instruments and rhythms and voicings."

On Gold Dust

"From being the woman of adventure, she now has another life dependent upon her. And she sees that which is permanent and that which is transitory in a new light. When the Twin Towers went down we realised that what is permanent rests in your heart."

"Natashya is at that age where so many people were telling me to enjoy it, savor it, hold it. Everyone tells me that---all the mothers in the play group. Right now she loves crawling up on Mommy and Daddy's laps, and there are so many cuddles and kisses, and there isn't any embarrassment; it's still okay to be lovey-dovey. In some ways I still can't believe I'm a mom. But it has really become a major part of who I am."