Patti sez
I have a new band. I had a couple different line ups in the past, all great people, but it was never where we started a band simply from scratch. It was like, "okay now I have a record so lets put a band together in 2 weeks." I met Freddy Katz ( co-writer and guitarist), we met in a really organic way. We hung out every day and talked about music and what we would do if we worked together. And then shortly thereafter we started working together and we recorded in his home studio. He has a Tascam 8 track, and we can get that warm sound.
Elda sez
You are a very emotional singer and which is something that I love. There’s a lot of expression in your voice and in your attitude. So I imagine that digital wouldn’t do you as much justice.
Patti sez
I think it has to do with a lot of different variables. If you have a producer who knows how to work with digital then you can get good things. But I still like to listen to my old vinyl records. If you think about George Martin, he really had very little to work with, so he had to be very methodical about where things would be on what track. Sometimes you have so much to work with that its difficult to actually get something that’s really hot because you’re relying on the machinery. you’re not really using your limitations to work for you.
Elda sez
Bobby Keyes told me once "If you can’t do it in eight, you can’t do it at all." So tell me about how you came to discover yourself as an artist.
Patti sez
Ialways had fantasy ideas. I never wanted to be in the real world. Its sort of like a way to exist in a coherent fashion in a separate way without totally loosing your mind. I went to art school, Parsons School of Design.
Elda sez
I saw some of your artwork. Its amazing stuff.

Patti sez
There’s a couple of different things I like to center on. One is like the fun characatures where I try to capture personalities. I try to capture the person’s face with as few lines as possible in a simple way. I also do serious portraits. When I went to art school I thought, "well, I’ll learn a trade." I never thought I would be able to do art in a way that is so free. I do whatever I want and then it ends up on my record. One night at school, everybody had a night off and instead of going to the local pub, which was a little hole in the wall, I decided to try to do a painting. At that time I had no idea that it would be the cover of my record. Then years later when I was discovered as a singer, busking in the subway…
Elda sez
That’s how you were discovered?
Patti sez
Yea, it wasn’t really a major part of what happened to me but it was definitely a major part of how I was marketed. I wasn’t one of those people who was busking all the time, it’s just that some musicians caught my eye and so a couple of times when I was traveling the subway with my guitar, I stopped and played with them a bit. That’s when someone from EMI came up to me and said "do you want to make a record."
Elda sez
You knew you wanted to be an artist, but how did you discover that you had a voice?
Patti sez
Good point. My mother is a singer, she sings cabaret. When we were little I didn’t appreciate it much, but she took us for singing lessons. Tthe teacher said about my sister who really isn’t a singer at all,"she’s going to really do well. " About me she said, "The little one, she’s not a singer, she doesn’t focus." She was right about the focus part, it’s hard for me to focus, but I do things in my own way."
Elda sez
That’s what forges originality in music and art.
Patti sez
Yeah, like with David Bowie, people didn’t understand him very much at the time, he was so out there. In the same way people didn’t accept some of the things that Madonna has done. She had to do them first then afterward people then accepted them. When they see you at first sometimes people are afraid, because there is this projection and its a reflection on themselves.
Elda sez
Artist present change in the world because their ideas and expressions precede the reality. But after you do it, people get used to it. It becomes a part of the culture and then people don’t think twice about it....So tell me about the musicians in your band…there’s Freddy…
Patti sez
There’s Freddy Katz and there’s Yeves Gerard, he’s the drummer and then there’s Mary Adams, she’s the bass player
Elda sez
She’s really great
Patti sez
Yeah, she’s really got it going on. It’s funny, I never really see her play, because I’m in the middle of my own thing. I really like her. I want to get a video done just so I can get to see what she looks like on stage.
Elda sez
So tell me something, the other night when I saw you performing, you started to cry during the middle of your own song. How can you get so close to your own lyrics that it would wig you out like that?
Patti sez
Oh my God, it was one of those moments. It was almost like I was listening to the meaning of the lyrics as I was singing them and I was like "oh no!"
Elda sez
It reminded me of something. When I had the Stilettos, a theater director who I had worked with ended up working for David Bowies’s production company. He came to us and said that he would like to direct the group and prepare us to tour opening for Mick Ronson. I knew he was going to start with the method acting. He had already put me through it so I knew what to expect, but Debby (Harry) had never been through it before. So he started cracking her open, because she’s not singing the lyric, she’s not feeling the lyric, she’s not delivering the lyric, and it sounded like a bunch of words. Once it started happening and she started projecting her own emotions into it, she started crying and crying…That happened for weeks, but, then she sounded great. I think it was a very valuable part of her training. That’s why I found your crying so endearing, because I see that as an artist you are emotionally so close to yourself that that can happen.
Patti sez
MMM. I never thought of it that way.
Elda Sez
From your new material, which one is your favorite.
Patti Sez
I have a song called Candelabra Cadabra. Its like a fantasy song. I have an idea in my head of what the video would be like…what the song looks like. I like the magic of the way the words word fit together. Candelabra Cadabra, abra la puerta nirvana. Its like a little nonsense poem that works.
Elda sez
It is sort of like a conjure.
Patti sez
Yes. It is like a conjure.