Angela McCluskey could start a fight with her newest solo album

But the Scottish singer would rather just "Breathe"

By Megan Martin
Published: August 14th, 2010 | 12:00pm

Angela McCluskey is comparing songwriting with falling in love. “Can you describe the process of falling in love? No,” she says wistfully in a cooed Scottish accent. She goes on, “There is a chemical; there’s a catalyst. And then there’s a moment, and then there’s a catharsis, and then all the little things pull together, and then… it’s amazing.”

McCluskey speaks in these two introspective worlds, the first where she modestly admits her lack of knowledge or incapacity to capture it in words, followed by the statement that verifies she knows exactly what she is talking about. It’s a mesmerizing tone of lackadaisical certainty, as is her voice, her songs, and much of her newest solo album, You Could Start a Fight in an Empty House (Bernadette).

The songstress has a lifetime of music and an elaborate résumé of genres behind her: electronic, classical, blues, jazz, rock, and contemporary pop. She attributes her easy transition through musical styles as if it were an ordinary fact of life. And it is, for her life.

“It’s simple. I can do electronic, I can do classical, I can do jazz, I can do punk. To me, music is everything. Its one of those things that, as you grow, you want to do different things. I can’t do electronic music for the rest of my life. I can’t always live on the run in a van with four guys and sleeping in the back of a truck. I can’t be doing that forever. So you look around you and opportunities come up.”

Opportunities certainly did come up for McCluskey who went from touring, writing, and recording with the group Wild Colonials to joining forces with the French pop group Télépopmusik, where she co-wrote and sang on the hit song “Breathe.” The track led to major successes for the group as a whole, as well as for McCluskey individually. Its popularity was attributed, in large part, to the use of the song in a Mitsubishi commercial—a fine balance between art and commerce, but McCluskey has zero regrets about moving in that direction.

“We went from selling 200 records to selling 200,000 in one month, so that’s how it works, honey. If somebody comes up to me and says, I would never sell myself to the devil I’m like, well, good for you. But to this day, that one song is still keeping me alive—not a record label. And I’m not saying everybody should sell to commercials or whatever, but it’s a different world now.”

The song, which has had millions of hits on YouTube, gives a strong sense of McCluskey’s capabilities to appeal to a mass audience as well as those more critical of music. Her vocals are like her way of speaking, a duality between angelic and seasoned, soft and rough—not like sandpaper, but like freshly sanded wood.

Her latest solo feat, You Could Start a Fight in an Empty House, catalogues her past lives and brings them into the present where she lives, splitting her time between two coasts with her husband, contemporary classical music and film score composer Paul Cantelon. Its thematic journey involves writing music, fighting the inevitable fact that the Internet is king in music nowadays, and continuing to create powerful music.

“The songs span across the past fifteen years,” she says of the album. “I didn’t want to make a concept album. I didn’t want to make a record that would get a connection right away. I knew that for people who were real fans, they would listen and wait for the song to breathe and start. And then there are the people who were into Télépopmusik, which is obviously a mix of dance music and electronic, so those fans want to vibe, they want something that will make them feel good about dancing under the stars." If anyone can create that feeling, it's McCluskey who's celestial body of work continues to shine bright.

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Angela McCluskey official site

Angela McCluskey MySpace page

Bernadette Records