The Bald and the Beautiful with Trixie and Katya - Little-Known Michelle Branch Facts with Michelle Branch

Episode Date: December 7, 2021

From music stardom as a teenager to a Grammy win with Santana to numerous appearances on TV and Film, Michelle Branch has been an icon of rock and pop music for more than two decades. This week, the insanely talented singer and songwriter joins Trixie to discuss her illustrious career, her family life, and everything in between. Follow Michelle: @MichelleBranch Follow Trixie: @TrixieMattel Follow Katya: @Katya_Zamo To listen to our podcast on YouTube: http://bit.ly/TrixieKatyaYT Don’t forget to subscribe to the podcast for free wherever you're listening or by using this link: http://bit.ly/baldandthebeautifulpodcast If you want to support the show, and get all the episodes ad-free go to https://thebaldandthebeautiful.supercast.com/ If you like the show, telling a friend about it would be helpful! You can text, email, Tweet, or send this link to a friend: http://bit.ly/baldandthebeautifulpodcast To check out the Trixie and Katya Live Tour, go to: https://trixieandkatya.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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because I said, this is going to be like, this is a personal moment. You don't need to be a part of this. So I had to let her go, but I am very privileged to have, let's be honest, my favorite guest I could have ever, ever had on anything in my entire life. My all-time favorite musical artist is here, Michelle Branch.

Hi. Hi. Well, I was excited to meet Katja. Sorry, Katja. We need to have another conversation, I guess. I mean, she's like 40 and very vascular. Like, you're not missing much you know I'm very excited to be talking to you though I just can't believe I was talking to my boyfriend

today is gonna go so what do I do I say should I play it really cool should I um you know should I ask very like open-ended questions and act like I don't already know the answers should I ask very like open-ended questions and act like I don't already know the answers? Should I ask questions in a way that if somebody is a casual fan of yours, which everyone's at least a casual fan of yours, should I ask surface questions or should I be that freak who has really weird deep questions about your illustrious and unending career? You know? But let's start at the top. You're reporting live from Nashville.

I am in Nashville. we just got home uh we have a house in charleston also and we were there for the holidays so we just got home like the other night and today is feeling like such a monday sort of monday that this is like i'm like hiding out in our studio talking to you. I'm so happy to be speaking to an adult. I have, I have a toddler who is three years old and wild. Um, and I have a teenage daughter who's 16 and so sassy. So you're picking the two best ages. I need, yeah, I have a three major and a teenager and I'm just happy to be speaking to an adult and not be watching like a cartoon right now.

That's what kind of Monday it is in my life. Well, I'm really happy you could come on the pod because you could have chose violence and just canceled and you didn't.

So I really appreciate that. No, no, no, no. I'm very excited to be talking to you. Well, it's nice that you guys have a studio. I guess people at home don't know

your husband Patrick is in the Black Keys. So between the two of you being professional musicians, you probably have a pretty sweet setup at home. I lucked out by moving in with Patrick because my home studio that I had before we met when I was living in like the Valley in LA was like a room with a computer and like a you know just a microphone this is like a proper proper recording studio that i've married into um and we do a lot of work here which has been amazing during the pandemic um kind of keeping us sane we were able to just kind of like hide out here and and did you do a lot of did you do a lot of hopeless romantic there though like pre-covid no so actually hopeless romantic um i made an album called hopeless romantic for those who don't know that's when i met my husband patrick um i asked

him to produce it and i was living in la at the time so he actually flew out to la and we worked at our friend gus's studio so we we maybe did one vocal track here at the end of the day but but yeah we've we've made a new album here we made um the 20th anniversary spirit room we made here that's right so we've we've done a lot of stuff here but um it's just been like a godsend during the pandemic to just not have to actually like go anywhere. It made it probably hard for you to be lazy. You're like, well, I do have the tools to work. I guess I should do something. Yeah. It's, it's definitely, um, well it's, it's not work. It still feels like something I'd love to do. It's a luxury at this, at this point, if I have time to do it,

it does feel like a luxury um yeah and i'm always just chasing kids around oh my god i i can't it's hard enough for me to even sit down and like i live in hollywood to not have like a dump truck or something screaming down the street i don't know what do you do lock the kids up when you guys record what do you do no we have like we definitely have to like have a nanny or someone uh to you know be watching my daughter my sweet daughter her name's owen she uh she's 13 years apart from her little brother and so she gets she bears a lot of the brunt of the babysitting duty which she totally didn't sign up for but i'm like hey owen I need you to watch your brother for a minute.

She's like, uh. She's like, what's in it for me, bitch? Yeah. I'm like, you get to live under this roof. That's your payback. So this was quite a year for you coming straight out of the pandemic, though, because you had your 20-year anniversary

re-record of The Spirit Room, which was like, uh, such a gag. What do you think about that? It just, it happened a lot it feels in in one way it feels like a lifetime ago and in another way i cannot believe it's been 20 years um but i've been wanting i knew that i wanted to do this project since literally the album was like five years old i've been looking forward to this milestone. I'm a humongous Alanis Morissette fan.

And she, yeah. The re-recorded Jagged Little Pill? Yes, yes. So when that came out, as a fan of hers, I was just like, this is the most genius idea ever. And I want to do something like that. When it's my turn for Spirit Room, and the 10-year anniversary came and went so quickly i was ill prepared so i was like okay at 20 years i'll re-record this and i just wanted to have like an updated version mostly um just after singing these songs for so many years live i just i feel like i've lived in them a lot more and they've changed a lot more.

My voice has changed. My voice was so high on the original recordings. Cause I was like 15, 16. Yeah. The color, the color of your voice, the,

the, the shape of it, like the, the roundness of it has changed a lot of it. For anybody who listens to, I mean, I've listened to all your records since I even have broken bracelet I'm that girl so you know your voice has changed in a way that's like um similar to the way Alanis's was when she re-recorded

Jagged Little Pill it is a different sound well I think you know I was so so young when I recorded the spirit room and just like, I mean, having, I was told by, by a voice teacher years ago that when you have a baby, your voice gets lower. And so here I am, like, you know, two babies in, I can't sing everywhere in the original key. I have to sing it a half step down. There's multiple songs on the new version of the spirit room that I had to knock down a key. Because I just, I can't hit the high notes anymore. My voice has changed that much. I'm like definitely an alto now, not a soprano like I was when I recorded it. So just little stuff like that.

It was nice to be able to give it like, you know, a fresh perspective. Yeah. Well, women's voices are different they mature earlier i think men's voices they say are fully mature around 30 which is obviously a lot later women's voices like that's why women are singing like dramatic like classical roles but in their 20s you know what i mean that makes sense because your voice changes so much and I also went to school with this girl who was pregnant and she sang you know through her pregnancies and then when she had the baby there was like the the pressure changes and the anatomy

changes did you experience that I hadn't thought about it but you know I haven't I haven't been singing that much this pregnancy I've been chilling chilling, but I was on tour, um, the whole time I was pregnant with my daughter, Owen. Um, and it was, it was definitely interesting because like the space to just, to take a breath and fill your lungs with air, you know, all that space starts to get taken up as you, as you get further and further along and it would be weird because i would be playing guitar and i could feel her moving around in my stomach and kicking me as i was playing so she was probably more exposed to music in utero than the other two but she should have come out singing i mean come on i know you know she came out like opposite she's

like a scientist she's like mom i don't want to follow in your footsteps. She's like an actual, she's going to get a real job, which is a relief. That's how I would feel. I was just, we were at Thanksgiving. We were talking about children. I was like, if I had a kid, I went to school for arts and work in arts. And I still would be like, are you sure you want to do arts? You know what I mean?

I'd be like, are you sure you just don't want a fun hobby like you know so you've recorded these songs oh 20 years later i believe that the jagged little pill we record was 10 years only right yes it was and i believe if you haven't heard it by the way people listening in go go put it on it's such a great record. Like, not to be bold, I think it's, I mean, I find myself playing it more than the original now. Me too. Me too. And some of those, I mean, some of those, her reimaginings, I'm like, right through you on that record, I'm like,

oh my God, this is so cool. Yeah. And some of the weird, like, parallel strings she's kind of playing with and that i mean and her voice i mean it's like it's like it's the same voice but it's coming from a totally different direction almost like as an actress singing the music you know did you experience that re-recording some of these um you know it was it was interesting because songs like everywhere all you wanted goodbye to you i i've never really stopped singing them but deep album cuts like here with me and something to sleep to like i i haven't played or listened to the original versions in so long that it was such a trip to like really deep dive back into them

because um there's the way i remember them sounding because i they're like in me and then i would go back and listen to the recording i'd be like oh it's not like how I thought it was. So it was just, it was also a trip to have a 16-year-old daughter and look at this record that I wrote when I was basically essentially her age and just be like, where did this come from? Well, kids were more bored than they are now. Like you were probably more bored in that year. You're like, what else am I going to do? What else am I going to do? Especially in Sedona, Arizona, where there's like literally nothing to do thank god I was so bored and musically it was at a time where I mean unless you played an instrument I don't know how you

would produce music but I think now if you're a 16 year old and you want to make music you could pretty much build a whole record with like on your phone yeah not to minimize but this is a time where you weren't like on twitter and you were probably i mean i remember i played guitar as a teenager and i remember summer breaks being so bored like having nothing to do but play guitar i mean it just be and it just becomes the thing you do in your bedroom anytime you're alone. Yeah. That's probably why. Yeah. Look at it and look at us. It served us both well. And look at us now. I remember I got your, I don't remember, I think the Spirit Moon was probably one of

my first records. And I don't remember how I found it, but that record, that was what made me aware of like songwriting period. I was like, who wrote all this? And the fact that you wrote all of it, I was like, who wrote all this? And the fact that you wrote all of it, I was like, a person wrote it and then sang it. That had just never occurred to me, really. And then I was like, oh my God. And then I guess to me, guitar was traditionally always such an aggressive male instrument. I mean, the way it's sold, if you go to a guitar store,

the ads are like, you know. Yeah. It's never like a woman having an intimate experience with a guitar. It's like some guy with smoke and like bleh. Yeah. Like 80s hair. Yes, which is still fine. Yeah. I still love 80s hair. But like, I guess the time I was coming up listening to the radio it was like you and and and Cheryl

and Avril and it was like um all women with guitars and so there's like a pocket of time where women with instruments were such a thing and that was such a profound did you notice that at the time yeah I mean as a so as just a music fan, like coming up just around that era of Lilith Fair, the Lilith Fair era, I mean, it was hugely instrumental in, you know, in my writing. cheryl crowe fan huge huge lisa loeb fan um gosh who else joni well joni mitchell of course but like the fiona apple record came out um i'm trying to think alanis i mean all of these incredible women came up right before i was you know discovered and able to start recording but i i started out um my mom is, uh, my mom was managing a restaurant at the time I grew up in Arizona. She was managing a Mexican restaurant and I played a set there on like Tuesday nights in the bar. And it was essentially

me playing like jewel songs, Sheryl Crow songs. It was like a cover set of all of these, you know, songs I loved so much. And then like, I throw in a couple of original songs here and there and, um, they'd kick me out the minute I was done playing. Cause I wasn't old enough to be in there. But, um, that's, you know, that's, I was raised on like classical, classical rock, like Led Zeppelin, The Beatles, stuff like that. But that era of women that came out right when I was playing guitar and learning how to write songs was, I mean, massively, massively inspirational for me. This episode is brought to you by CIBC. From closing that first sale to opening a second store,

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that is innovative and practical? A path to stay current and connected to industry, a place where you can be yourself, you will find it at York University School of Continuing Studies, where we offer career programs purpose-built for you. Visit continue.yorku.ca. Well, you being so young doing this record specifically, and I mean, you've had so many records since then. And I love hearing your songwriting changes. When you listen to Crazy Ride or something like that, you're like, this is not something a 16-year-old would write. And that's what's great about following someone over time is their perspective changes and their songwriting changes. And if you age with them, like I have aged with you, it's like, oh, oh, oh, you kind of, your POV grows as a writer the same way your POV grows as a listener.

And that's, and when you're recording some of these songs, like any fan of yours knows that a lot of these songs are your imagination. You were almost writing romantic fairy tales to yourself. Yeah. But now that you've had love stories, was there any sort of new information recording these um i think that there was just an appreciation for whatever i was tapped into at that time i don't know if you feel this when when you're writing but there's's some, for me anyway, it literally sometimes feels like something is just like downloading from somewhere else. And that's, it comes from out of nowhere.

I'm not sitting there like, you know, usually this is what I find fascinating about music. And I'm always curious from other writers is the songs that ended up hitting the biggest and going on to have these huge lives are usually the songs that are the easiest to write or the ones that just fall out of the sky and it really does feel like you're like connected to something else and just having this kind of like moment where you're channeling something um because i do feel like to have to be that age and be writing about things that i still i find relevance in in my own life when i listen to them now and when i sing them that's like so wild to me that yeah that that happens i mean i was sitting in my room and Sedona having like never really had

even a serious boyfriend and never having left you know the state really to these songs kind of coming out of nowhere but I also I have an I'm at an active imagination I listened to a lot of music. I watched a lot of movies and was very influenced by like pop culture and what was going on around me. Well, in a lot of ways, being young and imagining what a relationship will be is almost more relatable than any actual relationship. Because all relationships are different. But imagining being in love, everyone does that. Yeah. Well, and I also think that everything is so much more intense at that age, too. Your, everything is magnified.

Everything is, like, either, like, you know, the end of the world or it's just a dramatic time. So I think if you can, like like tap into something at that point, I think people definitely underestimate teenagers and what, you know, they're capable of as far as like output, creative output. Yeah. Well, and the teenage brain is also not writing songs about getting older or I don't know what I'm going to do with my life.

The teenage brain is probably very focused on like, someone doesn't notice me. Like, you know, someone doesn't want to be like, it's very traumatic for what it is. Yeah, it is. But also good songwriting. You do have to output, don't you think, at like 150 for the audience to get 75%. They're like, oh, oh, okay. Now, Patrick obviously knew your music before working on The Spirit Room. Did he, between the two of you, if you're allowed to be immodest for a second,

was there anything going back through these tracks where you were like, damn, I snapped on that, like that lyric or that song? Were you like, wow, I was really hooked in? You're like, no, I hate all of it. No, I don't hate it. I think the kind of thing that fascinated me the most was that of all of the music I've been fortunate enough to make, that that album had the most, uh, the least amount of outside input. Um, I didn't have

co-writers really. I had, I had my producer who's still one of my closest friends, John Shanks. Oh, icon. He helped arrange stuff. But I wasn't going to writing sessions. I ended up experiencing every album after that. I wasn't being put in the room with other people who were saying, hey, let's try this or let's try this. It was genuinely just like a snapshot of me as a teenager. So I was impressed at that aspect of it that I was able to make something

that was really minimally fussed with by outside people. Was this at a stage where you were maybe turning over a demo that like beginning to end was like done? Like this is the first lyric, this is the last lyric and then it just became about producing it yeah when i i was talking to john shanks about this record because we both got interviewed for various pieces on the anniversary and it was really interesting to be able to have hear his memory of how stuff went down like he he remembers me coming to him with the song everywhere for instance and uh saying that i had played it for my a and r guy and he said oh like don't waste time on that song like

maybe you get to that song in the next batch and And so when John was asking me to hear new songs, I was like, oh, there's this other song, but I'm not supposed to be playing it for you because I don't think they want us working on it. And he's like, OK, just like play it for me anyway. And I played it for him. And he he says that basically it was like the verse and chorus were exactly how they are now. And it really only needed a second verse lyric and the, the bridge and that he like really fought behind the scenes to record it, which I didn't know that, you know, at the end of the day for me being at the studio with him,

you didn't know this whole time. No, I didn't know that he was like, no, we're real. This song is really worth working on. And so it was cool to learn stuff about the record after the fact like that. And hear it through his ears because I'm sure that when I was making that record, I was 16 years old and I was staying at the Best Western by the Hollywood Bowl on an island. Wait a minute. I know exactly.

It's still there. Yeah. I was with my dad because I was a minor. So my dad was there with me, you know, driving me to the studio every day. And so I don't really remember the nuances of what was going on outside of just i love stories like that though i think that artists need stories like that to really like push through sometimes like i remember hearing that joan jett pitched i love rock and roll to 27 labels and they all said no it's not a hit oh i mean stories like that are always so like like i just saw um margaret

cho and she was telling me about a show she recently bombed at and i was like you need to hear once in a while that margaret cho bombs or that i love rock and roll was received as a flop yeah someone heard everywhere and was like no but then again from my understanding the production of the track changed it quite a bit yeah it did for sure maybe maybe it did turn into like you know silver to gold like just a few things but you never know yeah um this is a speaking of those kind of stories this is little known michelle branch facts i so i was signed to maverick after my first record um i got an a&R deal with Maverick and was told I could start signing bands which I was at the time very passionate about finding like new artists and

getting them signed was this like a hotel paper era yeah okay and I had found this little band called Kara's Flowers um and asked them to open up for me on tour and heard this album that they'd made in their garage, basically. And it ended up being, I took the album Songs About Jane from Maroon 5, which is who they were, to the label and said, I wanted to sign them. And they said, I don't get it. I don't understand it. And I was like, this record is so good. You don't understand. I, so they passed on that. Didn't want to sign it. And then I brought them this kid from Atlanta who was a guitar player who sang named John Mayer. And they on that too what was it are you just bad

saleswoman like what's up I guess I'm so like it's fine but I'm still kind of just like I'm laughing at the I'm laughing at bringing this stuff to like Guy Oseary and him saying like I don't get this I'm not gonna sign this also i'm just gonna say it it happened it probably had to do with your age and your gender for being honest you know like if you had been an older man i bet you they would have been like we'd love to hear him you know yeah but i mean the maroon five record that ended up being released and was a massive hit the record was that was the same record i literally walked into the songs about jane so was it like a demo version of that record almost it was the same it was basically finished when i brought it in with like she will be loved and all that i played them she will be loved

because i remember hearing that song at a house party in los feliz they were like can we play you our record and i was like yeah and i was like holy shit this is like a huge fucking smash song this is like the biggest song i've heard yeah and um yeah it says you know this happens people get passed on and luckily they both went on to be discovered but my uh my career as an A&R woman quickly quickly died so we're like she has great taste we just can't let her pitch anything because apparently everyone hates her so you're not going to be doing used car sales or anything like that no I'm a bad saleswoman I guess by the way I have a friend who photographs me all the time do you remember Albert Sanchez the name sounds very familiar he shot this picture of you. I love that picture. Yeah.

We shot that at the El Rey. For some reason this popped up and I, it was for interview mag. I think it was part of your spirit room rollout. And I was like, Oh, I wonder who took this. And I saw his name and I texted him, did you take this? And he was like, Oh yeah, I remember that. But you know, in LA, these photographers at a certain point they have shot everyone and they forget about it I uh yeah I think that was shot uh maybe I was opening up for Lifehouse on tour and we were playing the El Rey and so the photo shoot was at the El Rey theater before doors were open before they let people in and it was like a very quick that's how I feel about photo things I'm like just literally bring the shoot to me and we'll make it really fast and to move on and i don't know about you but i'm always like two pictures i'm like we got it we got it okay bye

oh otherwise the longer you stand there i hate having my photo taken you do awkward hate it even in the full hair and makeup fantasy you don't full hair and makeup, I can kind of get into it. But I mean, I'm just thinking of when I first started, it was still, people had budgets back then. It was like a two-day affair to shoot an album cover. And you had so many people. That's not what happens now. Now they're like, do you have an iphone and a mirror great entirely they're like oh well the album's we have to have it to print by friday can you

just shoot something wednesday you know can you just do something like that so i'm actually dealing with that sorry i'm dealing with this right now so i have a new album that is, has finished. It's totally finished. It's turned in. And originally my plan was for it to come out in like March or April. And then I found out I was pregnant and I was like, whoa, I'm going to put this on hold for a minute. So it's going to come out in the fall. And I just got an email over the holiday break saying, Hey, uh, so for the album to come

out in the fall, the album artwork is due February 4th, which is the same week I'm meant to be having a baby. And they're like, so, um, do you want to do a photo shoot or like, we need this album. We need this. Like now we need all the artwork everything turned in february 4th for an album that doesn't come out to like september basically and i'm like how is this why are you pressing vinyl it's happening yeah that's why vinyl is crazy and there's vinyl shortages right now did you know that i know i know adele bought all the vinyl damn that's what i've heard've heard that she ordered so many of that record that everyone had just. You know what?

I'm not even mad at her about it. She's like, I'm not just going to make music better than all of you. I'm going to make it impossible for you to even make a record. How about that? She's really cornering the market. I find her so charming. I want to just be best friends with Adele. She's so fucking funny.

And the voice. I mean. Yeah. How many records is this going to be? I just could listen to her. I could just listen to her talk all day. If we're counting the re-recorded Spirit Room and we're counting maybe the records. The records.

How many is that? Eight, nine? Let me think. Are we counting Broken Bracelet? I think we're counting Broken Bracelet. Broken Bracelet, Spirit Room, Hotel Paper, The Wreckers. Then my country record that kind of half came out. Is it ready to let you go?

The EP. Yeah. I love that record. Thank you. It's so good. I'm going to send you like the full version of that record that never got released um i had not to be an idiot when i i have the the record i thought it was i thought it was just like an ep because isn't it like six eight tracks yeah it was a full lp and then it got and it ended up

getting shortened to a an ep so six songs are, but there's six songs that are still not released that I have to finish. I will send them to you. There's so many good songs on that record. Everything comes and goes. Ready to let you go is so good. Crazy ride is so beautiful. Oh my God. Thank you.

You didn't make me want children, but like almost. You made me want to babysit. I would say at least babysit. Yeah. You made me want to babysit. would say at least babysit or yeah you maybe want to babysit so then what is it then hopeless romantic then hopeless romantic and now this i wouldn't count the re-record is that weird i mean it did take a lot of i did pour a lot of energy into it but i wouldn't count it as like a new album. Yeah. But yeah, this album is finished and coming out in the fall. And I am scrounging for artwork currently.

Like, okay. Panhandling. Do you paint? Maybe you could do a Joni Mitchell. Do a painting. If you saw my paintings, you would definitely not buy the album. Okay. Never mind then.

You'd be like, I pay this woman to never paint again. I wish I could paint. Brandy's album, by the way, I forgive you. I think it was a painted artwork. That was really beautiful. Maybe that's the way to get out of doing a photo shoot. Yeah. Have one of your children.

Have the three-year-old. Yeah, exactly. I'll have a, like, Play-Doh sculpture or something. Yeah. Leave him in charge of it but I think I um my father-in-law has tape is a he's not a photographer but he's a journalist and he's a good photographer he's taken photos over the years and I found a photo of his that I love it's a black and white photo that was taken in like 1969 or 70 in Cape Cod on the beach.

And it just kind of captures the mood of the record. So I might use that. But then I called him the other day to ask him if that was okay. And he's like, oh, I don't even have the negatives for that anymore. Like, I don't even know if I have like a high res version of that photo. I'm like, so now I have to see if if it'll even work but we'll see maybe you're so beautiful you could dress up as me and i think and you could do the photo shoot that could be my breakthrough into brown wigs that would be such mean somehow like a nude oh pregnant are you kidding we'll do like

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Yeah, someone's paying for it. I'm actually going to pay you this time. And you bake. So maybe there's like a trading situation. Yeah. Yeah. But yeah, I love doing makeup. I have done it so much from being on tour for so many years that I feel like I can do it in like the worst lighting with no mirror.

I can do it in a moving vehicle. I know you could probably give me a few pointers as well. It's so funny on tour because one night you'll be in like almost like a theater that shows Broadway shows that has full front lit vanities. Yeah. You'll have entire chorus rooms to yourself and you're like wow i mean more lights than you it's almost too much and then the next night if you play like a house of blues or something you're like there's four dirty couches in here and no mirror we have to travel with like our own little rig of lighting and mirrors because

i i can't have that as a variable every night like if I come in yeah and the lighting is bad and stuff and I have to get ready in like a I don't know a bathroom I'm like this is no way to start the night no it's the worst everyone thinks touring is so glamorous it's not it's it's it's like the underbelly it's like the thing you dream of and then when it's happening you're grateful for it and it is magical in a way and it becomes like a summer camp feeling you get close to all these people but then you are like wow i'm in socks that are crunchy you know what i mean like when i started traveling with my assistant brandon he started doing my laundry which definitely kept me above water as far as like clean underwear and clean socks which is i need a brandon you need a brandon i'm too much of a control freak that i like like to do all that stuff myself on a day off have you now if you push this tour or if you push this record

i'm assuming there's going to be some available live dates are you gonna have to go with new baby and three-year-old yes work okay so this is what my husband and I are like panicking about right now and trying to figure out so my my ex-husband Owen's dad was my bass player and it was so easy because we all toured together and so it was like the whole family would get on the bus and it was really cute and easy now you know being married to Patrick he has he tours so much right he's like one of those bands I mean Black Keys if you guys don't know Black Keys is one of those bands where you hear them everywhere and don't even realize it. And they're never not touring. They're always on tour. And what's going to happen this year is they have a new album coming out.

I have a new album coming out. They're touring. I'm touring. Nannies, you have to. My manager was like, so how do we do this like how do we alternate like when one of you's home and i was like i don't know i i have no idea but you know of course i can't like send all the kids with him so i can work i also have to like be a mom it's just that's how it works so it's gonna be very interesting and also

i'm like are you gonna play drums in the band so we can like make it easier or am i gonna hire a drummer well doesn't he play bass too he does he plays everything he's one of those annoying people who can kind of pick up anything but yeah it's gonna be chaos but i'm excited about it i'm i mean we just got spirit room so i didn't even conceive of a new record coming out so that's very thrilling very very thrilling um has your assistant does your assistant like children yeah you're going on tour well he puts up with me um when we started working together we were together a long time and he said the one thing i won't do is touch your poop that's the one thing and so far that's not happened well guess what with children under the you know with a toddler and a baby you have to touch shit that's what i mean i think that's where i don't know i don't know if he's cut out for

for being my assistant damn it so can I ask a nerd question? You get ready. I love to ask professional performers, what kind of makeup products do you use a lot? Oh, yeah. So I'm kind of in this, I've kind of pared down everything to where like I have my essentials. And for those who don't know, I have a Port Weinstein birthmark on my face under my right eye. And I cover it when I work. I don't know where this happened, how this happened.

But when I went to go do the photo shoot for Spirit Room and do the video for everywhere, there was like a full on meeting at the record label. Like, do we cover Michelle's birthmark or do we not and i think it's really amazing because if in 2021 if i had been showing up to a record label with a birthmark no one would have ever thought to like cover it but if anything they would have been like we're gonna make the most incredible viral tiktok about birth yeah we're gonna play your song under it. So it was made like, there was like a decision made like, no, you know, it looks strange in film. Like you can't really tell what it is. And like, we're going to, we're going to cover her birthmark. So that became my first kind of like thrown in the fire way to learn about makeup because one of the things that I would use at the time in photo shoots was tattoo cover on my birthmark because it doesn't move once it's on. And if you're sweating and whatever, that's what I would use.

And as I've gotten older and I think also just having my daughter, as my daughter got older, I didn't want her to see her mom like constantly covering something on her face that I was like born with. And that, do you know what I'm getting at? I know exactly what you're saying. I've been way, like way lax about covering my birthmark in recent years. And, but weirdly, I still like I still put concealer on when I play um but I I'm a black eyeliner addict I have to always have like black eyeliner I use Chanel pencils um and the more the more the better i use like drugstore mascara l'oreal um black mascara still to this day i use um some of those drugstore some of those drugstore mascaras have been coming really hard

they are really good that maybelline what is it called maybelline sky high yeah this is crazy how is this ten dollars or whatever really hard they are really good that Maybelline what is it called Maybelline uh Sky High yeah this is crazy how is this ten dollars or whatever I love um I love I use like a NARS powder dark dark brown powder on my eyes to do eyeliner that almost looks black called Bengali I think is the name. I cannot live without that. I use NARS blush. I really love Marc Jacobs makeup, like eye stuff. Beautiful. Those giant bronzers are like the size of a hubcap. Yeah.

Love it. I love makeup. I think because of the pandemic the last few years, that has been the thing that has dwindled most in my life. Like I used to just love going to like, you know, a department store makeup section and just like pick through things and makeup between having like the pandemic and no reason to really like get dressed and having children. I'm like, eh, all right, today we get mascara and like a colored lip gloss, but it is fun to get dressed up. When I worked at makeup counters, I mean, today we get mascara and like a colored lip gloss. But it is fun to get dressed up. When I worked at makeup counters, I mean, it was a cultural shift.

Women would come in and go, well, I just had a baby. So now I need to figure out how to put makeup on with one hand. They'd basically be like, I'm shopping for a five-minute version of what used to be my 20-minute thing. Exactly. You know. But also during the, I'll say this, as somebody who owns a makeup company, people also turned into little whores during COVID covid they had nothing to do but sit home and put makeup on people bought so much makeup yes uh well i guess that is something that's like

instant gratification it's small you can buy it for yourself feel good about yourself like you know it's different i i always say like shoes and makeup are so important because like i'm never gonna worry about like my shoe size changing or like a lipstick not being not working like yeah if i if i eat like you know too much too many cookies through the holidays like my lipstick's still gonna work yeah and you can you can you can dramatically improve the shape of your day with lipstick which is like five ten dollars you know i mean depending what you get they call it actually in marketing they call it the lipstick effect and every time there's economic downturn lipstick sales go right up because people are like oh how am i gonna pay this this month oh a lipstick it's like a lot yeah

that makes sense. I'm going to ask you a couple more questions. Yeah, that sounds like, sorry, I'm just fascinated by your makeup line. Like how. It's crazy. How much time. Making makeup is so crazy. Like that has to be an all-consuming project to have going on.

I mean, we have a warehouse in Burbank that's an office in a big warehouse. And sometimes I go there and there's, you know, a dozen people in the office that day. And I'm like, these people all work here. And they have jobs because of this makeup company, which is my idea. Like, sometimes I can't think about too much

or the pressure is, like, too real. And I'm like, huh. Yeah. But making makeup is so much more complicated than you think because it's technically food and drug too so everything has to be regulated and ingredients matter and so you're dealing with that you're dealing with having uh the formula the smell the wear all that matters if you're talking about the product what is it going to come in is that component yeah gonna is it compatible with the product and then what does the box look like

and then the box has to have all that FDA approved information on it it's so complicated to make one little thing if you want to print a t-shirt, it's a t-shirt but to make a lip color that's a year of work I've never even thought about it that way it's bananas

we're working on holiday 2023 right now I i was gonna say i was gonna say you also probably have to be so far ahead of a season or a trend or yeah you're also predicting trend in a way and in some cases makeup companies set trends i mean if a company comes out with a really compelling campaign of a new way to wear a product, that gets incorporated into what makeup artists do on celebrities, which trickles down to people. It's such a weird. It's like that scene in Devil Wears Prada where, you know, she's talking about the cerulean shirt. Like, oh, yeah, you think what we do doesn't matter?

Yeah. See? And the internet has changed it so much too. Because it used to be celebrity makeup artists would watch runway shows, put that on the celebrities and then your mom would watch the celebrities and do that on her face. It was like, that was sort of the way.

But now with the internet, it's like, somebody can see something on TikTok and then because of fast shipping now, you can order that product and have it tomorrow to wear to the club Friday. Yeah. Trying to move so fast now my daughter knows way more about makeup than i ever did and she's learned it all you know on tiktok or on online where i'm like you know she'll come out to go to a friend's house or something and she has this like full face of makeup and i'm like a where where'd you get that b B like, I'm kind of slightly

offended that your mother who has a lot of makeup experience wasn't considered in this, you know, decision of how you were going to wear your makeup. But, um, it's, it's cool. I mean, I love it. I think it's so fascinating to see how creative people have multiple creative outlets. Like you obviously have such, you know, you have so many ideas. I'm a psychopath there. No, it's amazing. I don't know how to pick a lane. No, but I think that's like, it's really fascinating. Like I have food, like that's my other, my other outlet. You have like this, a makeup empire, which is amazing. I will say this, you are snapping on your Instagram with, I mean, especially during lockdown, you were cooking like a monster.

Oh, I know. That's all, that's all that I do. It's actually gotten kind of to the point where I'm like getting so, my husband is a really good cook as well um like he's his job before his band blew up was he like worked in kitchens so he knows his way around a kitchen which is great so both of us cook a lot and it's gotten to the point where I'm like I'm so tired of the flavors that are coming out of our house like I want someone else to cook for us. Like new tastes. Like that's going to a restaurant and trying something that doesn't taste like it's been churned out of our own kitchen. Yeah, you're like I'd love to even have something bad for once. Please, switch it up.

Exactly. Can I ask, when did you, I mean I'm assuming you, when did you realize you had so many gay fans? Was that surprising to you? No, it's not. I, you know, I think it's been like when I first, when I first started, I had this message board called the MBMB, Michelle Branch Message Board. And a lot of fans found each other there. And I think that was like the birthplace of a lot of like, you know, the internet was new back then. And people were like finding their common interests and also like realizing like I get messages still to this day, like on a daily basis of like, like oh i found like one of my best friends

on your message board and oh we realized like i realized i was gay when i was talking with another person on your message board and we were talking about like what we were going through and and or how i identified or and i just think it was like it was a safe space it was think it was like, it was a safe space. It was a fandom that was a safe space for people to be themselves. So I think that might be part of it. I mean, I just... Because I started realizing, I thought in a lot of ways, like my obsession with your music was sort of probably, you know, when I think of queer people, I think of like EDM and stuff.

So I always was the person like, nobody wants to hand me the aux cable in the car. music was sort of probably you know when i think of queer people i think of like edm and stuff so i always was the person like nobody wants to hand me the aux cable in the car in the car you know i'm like you guys gotta hear this jody mitchell song they're like it's a friday and we're drunk you don't need to play no no one wants me to have the aux cable either but then like bowen yang for example who's a star of saturday night live he is obsessed with you and has always been obsessed with you and i once I found him, when you announced the spirit room we recorded, I think I just woke up and sent it to him

and texted the word, bitch. And he was just like, bitch. Very devout people out there for you. I do have this amazing kind of like hardcore gay following and it's... I don't feel deserve I don't feel like I'm like

diva enough to deserve it but I fucking love it um I remember also beyond that like I think initially it was definitely like I noticed that I had a lot of gay fans and that was it was definitely noticeable but then when i started the wreckers i started to have like lesbian fans oh i never even thought about that and was like, we know you're secretly with Jessica, aren't you? And I'm like, no, but more the merrier. You're like, will you buy more records if that's true? But so I noticed that shift when I switched to country music was like suddenly the girls started coming to the shows. I have a lot of queer women who come to my shows.

And I think a little bit of yeehaw goes a long way with that community. But then again, my fans are so young, like they're young queer women. So like I loved Melissa Etheridge so much. Yeah. And I learned guitar, listened to those records and these like 18 year old girls are like, who's that? And I'm like, oh, I guess I am your Melissa Etheridge. Okay. Well, by the way, that's that? And I'm like, oh, I guess I am your Melissa Etheridge. Okay. Well, by the way, that's your common thread. You know, John Shanks was Melissa Etheridge's guitar player.

I did know that. Didn't he play? I think he played on Yes, I Am, right? Yeah. You and John. Have you met John yet? No, but I'm obsessed with him. You and John need to meet.

I'm obsessed. I mean, he just has a sound that inhabited my ears in so many different records over the years. I love him. Next time I'm in LA, we'll have to have a dinner. You and John need to meet. A dinner moment. And to go back to the records too, I remember when I got that record,

it was like, I'm sure you hear this all the time, even as a diehard fan of yours, some songs I had to be like, who's singing right now? Who's singing right now? and then on that record specifically you can tell i could tell i always felt like you can hear the songs that you probably presented finished because your song writing is so specific and um i guess we're wrapping up here but you i just i'm such a lifelong admirer of your work you're're so amazing. Thank you. You couldn't have had a bigger, nobody's had a bigger impact on my life as a performer than you.

You're just so wonderful. And your songwriting is so compelling. I don't know what to even say. Thank you. I wish I was there to actually like give you a hug. It's just, it's interesting. interesting it's just I think like the biggest compliment is hearing that from someone who has gone on to have to be creative themselves and I mean that's that's all at the end of the day like as a music fan listening to people who

are important to me and then like having that experience as a fan and then hearing it from someone else who's gone on to be this huge superstar is amazing the circle continue the circle of life i'm just glad you still make records because i have so many favorite female artists who i love the runaways there's two records yeah i love the donnas there's two records it's like there's so many female icons where i'm like well i love the Donna's. There's two records. It's like there's so many female icons where I'm like, well, I love the Go-Go's. There is records, but they're really spread out. Yeah.

But I'm just so happy that every time I'm ready for a new record, you pop one out just like children. Well, this is my last child. I'll continue making records, but not babies. I promise you that. I'll continue making records but not PB's I promise you that I encourage everybody listening to go ahead and listen to obviously the original copy of the spirit room but the re-record is truly fabulous

and magical thank you where can the host find you basically Instagram is where I hang out Instagram and I was told recently that I needed to hire like a social media person to run it for me. And I was like, no, that's mine. Michelle, you got to get on Twitter. I am on Twitter. I just, I am not on there as much. I'm, I love Twitter. I go through my Twitter

phases, but, um, yeah, I'm mostly just on Instagram. I'm technologically challenged and I'm, you know, starting to be a certain age where like I don't know how to work TikTok. I don't know. Do you think that your grandmother willow? Do you think you're an old woman in a tree? Is that what you think? I am. Like I need my I need my daughter to teach me how to. My daughter secretly had like a TikTok account that I didn't know about.

And she had thousands of fans. And I was like, when did this happen? So I need my daughter to actually show me how to use all this stuff. You're like, help me. Well, I hope everybody can find you on the internet and stalk you. You do post enough. And I will say this. Some people hire social media people and it's glaringly obvious.

And then it's a huge turnoff. Yeah, I don't like it. I mean, I know like everyone's like, you know, you need to post more photos of yourself. I'm like, you know what? I'm posting photos of pie and cookies and my children. And if you don't like that, then oh, well. I'm sure once i start like getting ready for tour and releasing this album there will be more photos of me one day there's plenty of photos

of you you look great and also people want to see your food and i also have to circle back to this one more thing before we go um you were personal friends with adam schlesinger, who was also a huge influence on my life. And last year was so sad. And I just, I met him once I was doing a TV show. I was pitching a show and we were hiring music for the show. And he came in and I was just, I mean,

I just was like a cork, like a corked bottle to explode. And I said, I just have to tell you before this meeting starts, I said fountains. It was like, could not have had a bigger influence on my life. And I said, even your live records, you before this meeting starts, I said, Fountains, it was like, could not have had a bigger influence on my life. And I said, even your live records, you guys sound even better.

You're amazing. And he was so, you know, to him, he's like, oh, yeah, that was a cool band I was in. Oh, I mean, that's what a writer. I mean, part of why I love you so much is because your writing is so amazing. But Adam's writing, I i mean it's just transcendent yeah his melodies out of control and the rhyme is the way very beetle like he's up there with beetles for me for songwriters yeah he reminds me of amy do you know do you like amy man yes oh we were taught i think i was talking to you about amy man because i was like

have you heard bachelor number two like my one of my favorite records because you're giving me major amy man i'm just obsessed with her and she's kind of like him where some of the word choices too it's a rhyme that sounds so obvious but you're like i've never heard that used before. Yeah. What an icon. But I'm glad you knew him a little bit. Sad. I mean, it just sucks that like here we are, what it's almost going into 2022. And we've we've learned so much about the virus that like I feel like Adam would have made it had he just gotten sick like four months later or something you know yeah and that's I think that's the most heartbreaking part of it oh but we have his music yeah I'm part of being a huge influential musician like him I mean you and I are talking

about his band career but obviously his television career people people with careers like his they never really go anywhere in that way, you know? Yeah. Well, that's a nice high note to end on. If you need a good cry, listen to the spirit room. We record. There's some good crying tracks on there.

There's also some really great uplifting pieces on there. And I know everyone's going to love it. I feel like I could talk to you all day. Thank you for having me. Are you kidding? This is, I've been every day. I've been like, Oh my God, we're really, I mean, if you could have told, you know, they say if you could tell 10 year old version of yourself what

you're doing, you would shit your pants. I mean, I learned guitar listening to your records. I bought an acoustic guitar to, to, because I just was obsessed with you and well, and then I just, I guess was stubborn and never quit. So here we are. I love it. It makes me so happy. Well, I'll see you in Los Angeles or I'll see you when I'm I guess was stubborn and never quit so here we are I love it it makes me so happy well I'll see you in Los Angeles or I'll see you when I'm coming out to Nashville and

yes please you know if you're still pregnant we'll go eat okay pregnant people like that I do like that we'll go to a restaurant yay take me out I'll put I'll put on makeup I promise okay wonderful okay bye Michelleelle bye nice to see you