Karen Lehner and Jamie Myerson
Author: Jonty Adderley
Sunday, November 10, 2002
"Even though the word 'tit' is not allowed on British radio I really enjoyed saying 'Tits up, lips pout.' They're great words to get your mouth around." West Coast singer/songwriter Karen Lehner laughs as she explains the lyrics in her new single Made To Order, an intelligent house track examining the contradictions of today's US popular culture.
"Anorexic/ inflated", she continues. "You starve one part of yourself then you inflate some other part to appeal to someone's fantasy of what a female's supposed to be. The correct image for women today is that they have butt (bum) like a 12 year old boy and cartoon breasts. Guys are doing it too, it's this whole idea of pursuing perpetual youth whereas young girls are having to assume a heavy sexuality in early life that they can't comprehend, certainly not psychologically."
Sitting to her right, sprawled across a couch is fellow American producer Jamie Myerson (previously best known for reworking the likes of Kelli Ali and Dubstar) who's just arrived literally from Heathrow. The pair are kicking off a day of interviews in the bar of one of London's most luxurious hotels, a setting considerably different from Karen's usual source of inspiration.
"I write a lot of my lyrics when I'm cleaning my house and I think to escape doing that, my brain goes "well hello, I have a song idea for you so now you don't have to vacuum'," she told Skrufff's Jonty Adderley.
Skrufff: How did the two of you first connect-
Karen Lehner: "We decided that we wanted to develop some interest in Europe, I'm a big fan of Sarah McCloughlin and Jamie did a great remix of hers, which kept the integrity of the song but brought it to a whole group of people. We then listened to lots of show reels from different producers and most of them made my head hurt, but then I heard Jamie's and you could hear the songs. The words still had meanings and they weren't just producer's noises, he combined the words with the beats. The second I heard it I called my label person and told her 'There's only one and she said 'Jamie Myerson'. That was it. There's not an easier person to work in the world with than Jamie."
Jamie Myerson: "That comes from being an old man, I've chilled out now (chuckling). They asked me if I liked the track and I liked it straightaway. I have the ability to hear an original song and instantly know what I can do with it and this was one of those occasions. When you've got a great sing with substance, then there's no work to be done, the remix is already there."
Skrufff: Have you literally just flown in from LA-
Jamie Myerson: "That's right, and I haven't slept for three days. I also do an acoustic project and perform and write songs, that's what I do to keep myself sane. I performed a couple of nights ago, got home around midnight, did my laundary, packed my cases the my driver showed up to take me to the airport. I got about two hours sleep."
Karen Lehner: "The truth is, you can call Jamie at any hour past midnight and he's guaranteed to be up and working, he's manic."
Jamie Myerson: "The original was totally different harmonically from how the remix turned out. That's the fun part about doing records like this because when the vocal melody is particularly strong you can take away the original music completely and write new music. The song's there no matter what."
Skrufff: What inspired these lyrics attacking beauty culture-
Karen Lehner: "Every September in America, all the ladies fashion magazines come out with bibles of what you're supposed to wear, some of them are 900 pages long. And they're full of adverts. I remember looking at one which was saying I was supposed to have short hair that was long and full, thin lips but they should be voluptuous, you supposed to be really glammed out but looking natural and I thought 'Who the hell can do this-' And I was thinking of al Tags