When singer/songwriter Rachael Yamagata was growing up, she went to all-girls school that she says warped her into the relationship-obsessed woman she’s become, at least in the lyrics of her songs. She began singing with a funk-crazed dance band called Bumpus while she was in college studying theater. While touring and recording with Bumpus, she was also writing confessional, deeply emotional songs that didn’t fit the band’s format. Happenstance, her first solo album, was a folk/pop charmer. Her tunes have appeared on The O.C., The L Word, Grey’s Anatomy and Alias, and Ray LaMontagne, Ryan Adams and Conor Oberst all expressed admiration for her vocal style. Having just issued Chesapeake (Frankenfish), Yamagata will be guest editing magnetmagazine.com all week. Read our brand new Q&A with her.
Yamagata: I’m obsessed. I prefer hardcover over paperback, but either will work. These are my versions of the daily latte or weekly manicure. I love them all and really can’t afford the habit, but I do indulge every now and then. They come in all shapes and sizes and deal with small spaces, French country style, artist’s dwellings, feng shui, houses by the sea, treehouses in the air, loft living, whatever. I don’t care; I love it all. Creative solutions to all sorts of environments. I can look at them for hours and never tire of them and frequently move furniture and paint walls and build things just to try out some of the ideas. I’m one who is very affected by surroundings so am constantly trying to make the most beautiful, logical, and symbolic space in which to live. These books give me loads of ideas and occasionally reaffirm that I am not a crazy person to have built an indoor swing, painted a wall black or to have hung suspended windows from bolted chains into the ceiling. Do my neighbors think it strange that I gather 12-foot fallen branches after a storm and bring them inside to make indoor trees? Probably, but I don’t care.
I would list my favorites; however, I’m not near home as I write this. I’ve just checked online to see if I recognize the titles and have just now realized I can buy these books online, and that is opening a big can of worms for me. In hopes of not maxing out any credit cards right now, I’ll switch to the wonders of HGTV.
HGTV. This is the sole reason I don’t have cable. If I did, I would never turn it off. As one who marvels at the success of reality television and often is opposed to it, I am lord-grateful thank-you forever happy about HGTV. Divine Design, House Hunters, Property Virgins, Design Star, Selling New York … OMG. All of them. I cannot get enough. Show me again how to tile a bathroom and install that light fixture please! Can’t we lay some concrete together and make a pergola? I totally know which house they are going to pick! It goes on and on. Trust me I say to myself, you get cable and your music career is over.
Video after the jump.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gbpG9vAeCuo&feature=relmfu
