Court, Susan - Indie Singer/songwriter

By: Dominick A. Miserandino

DM) You've been compared to Kate Bush and Tori Amos. Have you ever performed their songs live?

SC) No... at least not outside of my bedroom! (heh). Most of the blame for how much I sound like Kate Bush can probably be traced back to all those times I spun "The Kick Inside" on my turntable and sang to it at the top of my lungs. For a long time I was sort of morally opposed to doing any covers at all, but then again, I wasn't performing at that time either. I still don't do any covers, with the exception of maybe including some folk songs in the public domain for longer sets in the future. I'm working on something for my next album that sort of falls under that category... I worked up a piano intro and solo to wrap around/within it so as to make it more my own. But I think the closest I've come to doing anybody else's song has been to write "Mercury Infers", which has several references to Tori's "Crucify" buried in it. I think part of the reason so many people think my music is "different" is that I would habitually steer away in the opposite direction whenever I would hear a string of notes that sounded too familiar to a particular song or someone else's inflection in my own songs. The word "bizarre" has come up in a review recently. I like that.

DM) Your music has been described as "bizarre"?

SC) Yeah. I think the actual wording was "bizarrely pretty vocals" and the writer was comparing me to David Bowie.

DM) And you didn't take that as insulting?

SC) Why on earth would I? (You can read the whole thing on my reviews page, to see the context. It's very complimentary.)

DM) I also read that you have a column you write. How did that come about?

SC) Oh, man, where did you find that? If you're talking about "Consternations," that was a little diversion on my website. Mostly it was there to provide some content to keep people interested while my CD project was continuing to take its own sweet time. I think there's a link to it buried somewhere on the current site, under the old "bio" section. Speaking of that column... If you can set me up an interview with Conan O'Brien, that would be great!

DM) Conan O'Brien? Why do you want to interview him?

SC) No, silly... I want to be interviewed BY him, as a musical guest. (Actually, the secret purpose for my column was to angle for a spot on Conan's show... you caught me.)

DM) And has this effort been successful yet?

SC) I take it you've never seen the show.

DM) How old were you when you started playing piano?

SC) Hmm, my parents bought a piano for my sister Connie and me when I was around seven and she was twelve. I think that's right... my memory is pretty foggy. We had lessons every Tuesday, and during my sister's lesson, I'd run across the street to the drugstore and buy a book of cartoons to read during her lesson. I never practiced. But I continued lessons all the way through high school and into college. I was going for a master's degree in piano performance, because for some reason I thought I would end up as a piano teacher someday. Then I woke up and realized that I didn't have even remotely the kind of patience or habits that would lead to being a good teacher. I had to learn to be a student first.

DM) Did you ever teach anybody how to play piano?

SC) Not really. I had an adult student for awhile who already knew guitar, and we swapped lessons briefly. But I couldn't really handle the idea of calluses on my fingers, so I stopped. Someday I hope to learn guitar, but probably not anytime soon. I also gave a few theory lessons, which was more in my element, being such a music nerd.

DM) So when you write, do you actually consider theory or just what sounds nice?

SC) I think good theory almost always "sounds nice", so it's hard to separate the two. You have to know the rules before you can have fun breaking them.

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