Interview: Ruthie Culver on jazz and sweatshops

There we were, tapping away to Ruthie Culver's catchy jazzy tunes, when we realised she was singing about sweatshop labour and toxic dyes rather than love, Ipanema or Brooklyn. Partly excited, partly puzzled as to how it was possible to combine tricky topics with easy listening, we caught up with Ruthie Culver to find out.

SmartPlanet: On your newly launched album, Refashioned, there's a song called The Perfect Dress in which you sing about the dress not being perfect because it's made in a sweatshop and it's been dyed with toxic chemicals -- what inspired you to write that?
Ruthie Culver: It's my eco and ethical song -- there are other political songs on my album about war, poverty and religious bigotry.

I've always been aware about what's going on politically and ecologically -- I've worked for the Soil Association and the Rainforest Foundation as a freelance event manager and I'm a member of Friends of the Earth; and although I love singing about love, I always look for songs that are about other things as well -- for example the state of the environment.

The idea for The Perfect Dress popped into my head one day I was out shopping. I was looking at clothes and couldn't believe how cheap it all was. We used to have to save up for clothing and now we just buy it. And it's certainly not because I'm more wealthy, it's just that everything has become so cheap. Although we're already aware that the reason clothing is so cheap is obviously because of exploitation of people -- often children -- and the environment overseas, this song is about the gradual realisation that retail therapy is not all it's cracked up to be. There are many people it doesn't benefit.

SP: Do you feel it's difficult to mix the kind of jazz you do with the kind of lyrics you do? Does it not put off your audience who might be sitting there in their fancy (cheap) dresses listening to your music?
RC: I'm careful about what I sing and when I sing it and sometimes people really just want a nice evening out. But when it's my show people know what to expect and they know I do combine the personal and political in what I do. I mean, we don't go to see stand-up comedians just because we want to laugh -- we also hear uncomfortable truths about ourselves and the way we live our lives and yet we also laugh about it and it makes us think. And I think music has often avoided that. Especially in pop music, when the musicians say, "this song is about poverty," I just think, "these lyrics are so oblique, I didn't know that's what it was about!".

Being upfront with my lyrics might be a brave thing to do and some people will be put off, but most people seem to love it and people last night (at the launch of Refashioned) were saying to me: "I particularly liked this one…" And often it would be one of the political songs because it made them think.

SP: The music is very upbeat while the lyrics are quite serious. What do you try to achieve with that?
RC: I definitely don't try to tell people off. The Perfect Dress, for example, is written from the point of view that there is a conflict that goes on in the back of my head and while the strongest drive is to just buy this dress because I love it, I want to try and express that little conscience niggle that I have and that I think many other people have, too.

SP: Are you a conscientious, ethical consumer yourself?
RC: Yes, very much so and I have been for a long time. There's probably more I can still do, but I've never owned a car, I always take public transport, recycle and buy fair trade and recycled products -- including dresses.

I do as much as I can. For example, I've tried to make my new album as ethically as possible. The case is made from recycled cardboard, the varnish is water-based and it's all printed with vegetable inks rather than chemical ones. I recorded it in a solar-powered studio as well and I wear a recycled dress from Junky Styling on the cover (see above).

SP: You've done a gig at 10 Downing Street -- that sounds very political. Was it?
RC: No, not really. It was a party where all the politicians were chatting and they were not really listening to my lyrics. It wasn't the point of them being there. But when the point of people being there is to listen, I make sure I give them something to listen to. Not that I in any way held back and thought "Ooh, I can't do that here", but there is no point when people are talking at the same time.

SP: Will you continue writing these kinds of lyrics or is this just a one off?
RC: Oh no, no, this isn't a publicity stunt. This is me being me on stage. Anybody who knows me will tell you I'm a passionate person and these things matter to me and music is a wonderful way to get into people's hearts. Love songs are wonderful and I wouldn't give them up for the world, but at the same time other things rouse my passions and if it gets other people to think about who they are in the world, that's great. I just think there's so much music can say and it's great when you can cross boundaries and appeal to new people.

Ruthie Culver's new album Refashioned is out now and available from www.ruthieculver.com.

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