Owen's Goals: An Interview With Judith Owen

Welsh-born singer-songwriter Judith Owen knows all about the dark side of the mind. Having struggled with mental health issues for much of her life, she has now learned to live with it, as she explains.
“I manage it,” she says. “I’m on medication and I have to be for the rest of my life. It’s almost like having diabetes and I’m fortunate in that it works for me. But I have some bad days, usually when I’m off the road. Because normal life is more difficult to deal with than actually doing the thing that you love.”
Owen, who now lives in Los Angeles and who also happens to be married to one of the funniest men alive, Harry Shearer (of Spinal Tap and The Simpsons fame), says that musicians and artists in particular can suffer from the condition more than most. “I’m never surprised when I hear someone like Bruce Springsteen talking about depression,” she says. “People are usually drawn to the arts because of their mental make-up, and it tends to be people who have this capacity for great light and great darkness.”
Dubbed “a hipper Norah Jones” by one critic, Owen has been recording for over two decades, having collaborated in the past with Richard Thompson on several albums. Her last studio album, Ebb & Flow, saw her fulfil a lifelong dream of working with the LA session kingpins who played on some of her favourite albums, such as Carole King’s Tapestry. Those musicians, including bassist Leland Sklar, drummer Russell Kunkel and guitarist Waddy Wachtel, also appear on Owen’s latest album Somebody’s Child, which she says is more of a transatlantic affair. “It’s American and British – my two worlds coming together,” she beams. “Those are the two places where I divide my time.”
The title track came from a real experience Owen had a few years ago while walking down the street.
“I was in Manhattan on 5th Avenue,” the singer recalls. “It was winter and nightmarishly cold with snow on the ground. I saw this homeless black woman sitting in front of me, probably eight to nine months pregnant. All she was wearing were two rubbish bags – one on her chest, the other on her legs and in the middle was this giant orb – her belly. She was about 17 or 18, crazy on drugs, probably very mentally ill, very drugged up. I tried to avoid her by crossing the street, but then at some point my humanity kicked in and I thought, ‘Jesus Christ, that’s somebody’s child’. It was that moment of awareness where I thought, ‘I’m lucky and without being given the breaks and the life I was born into, that might be me on the streets.’”
As well as performing her own compositions, Owen has a reputation for taking well known classics and transforming them almost beyond recognition (her version of Deep Purple’s ‘Smoke On The Water’ is one such example). On Somebody’s Child, the singer covers the cheesy 1960s hit ‘Aquarius’, which was originally from the stage musical Hair.
“There’s a joy to doing a song that is great, but a bit naff and over-the top,” considers Owen. “But I like to make songs mine rather than doing a karaoke thing. So I started doing it with strange chords during sound-checks and I thought it sounded bloody marvellous. Singing it in a serious way is kind of tongue-in cheek.”
Owen also tackles Bryan Ferry’s Roxy Music hit ‘More Than This’, which was recorded at his studio.
“We were touring with him last year,” she explains. “We were due to do the Albert Hall, but then he got ill and it was cancelled. So I had downtime in his studio and we did it. It’s such a great song and every time I sing it I think the same thing. It says to me there is nothing more important than this life and the people around you who you love. “
In another twist, Owen also appears in an upcoming episode of The Simpsons, where she sings a Bond theme – of sorts.
“Being Welsh I do a bit of a killer Shirley Bassey impersonation,” she chuckles. “So for the 600th episode, I was asked to do this mock James Bond theme. I was thrilled to be involved and they even have me animated. It’s fantastic – I am a ham and an actress at heart. I love all the extras that come with the thing that I do. My life is so different from the one I used to have and it’s night and day from the person I used to be. Anytime I get flashes or glimpses of that person, it scares the life out of me.”

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Judith Owen performs ‘Somebody’s Child’ with legendary bassist Leland Sklar, percussionist Pedro Segundo & cellist Gabriella Swallow, Upstairs @ Avenue by Nick Munier, 1/1A Crow St., Dublin 2 (off Dame Street) on November 4 and 5.