Martha Davis is The Motels!"When I started out the record company was always trying to feature me, put my name on the cover, put me on the cover. Our first record did not have me on the cover, and that was a big deal. But I didnít want the music to be about me. So I kept telling them, ëIt is just The Motels.í Now, years later, when I want to tour, it is just the opposite. I wanted to tour as Martha Davis, but people kept saying, why not just use the Motels name? People know that name, not Martha Davis. So I figured, what the hell, I own the name. But the funny thing is now Iím doing exactly what I begged people not to do, going out on tour as ëMartha Davis and the Motels.í"
It is one of the great shames of the ë80s, in a decade that gave us the first truly great, original and self contained female vocalists like Kate Bush, Chrissie Hynde, or Sinead OíConner, that one great voice often overlooked was the lead singer of a California pop group named the Motels.
Davisí love affair with music goes back to childhood. She loved music and wanted to sing, but did not see herself in any of the pop female vocalists of the day. That is until she heard David Bowie.
"I liked R&B as a teenager. But back then white people didnít sing R&B, so I didnít have any role models. Today you have Christina Algueria and everyone. But when Bowie came along, and was singing R&B [the Philly Sound years] I was blown away. He was singing these wonderful, thought out songs, backed by great musicians."She didnít get any training for her voice. "I never wanted to sing in the chick voice, I wanted to have a ruined voice, a tortured one, like Bowie. I tried so hard to ruin it. Cigarettes, etc. Thank God now my voice still holds up. I want to protect it! In the ë80s I was kind of blindly using my voice, not comfortable with it. I now feel much more comfortable, and I have given up smoking!"
Indeed, listening to the new Motels anthology Anthologyland on Oglio, one can hear a definite transition from the primeval incarnation of the Motels, The Warfield Foxes, to some of the first appearances of the band at showcases in LA in the late 70s. To be nice about it, Davisí found her voice in-between. She laughs about it when I point out the difference to her, but swears she had fun in that band. "Who knows, the original Warfield Foxes are still around, maybe we will get back together!"
Anthologyland is chockfull of lost and rare Motel gems. Far from being an double CD set of barely listenable studio outtakes, it is in fact full of great songs, lost along the way for one reason or another. One example is a fantastic version of Joan Armtradingís "Love and Affection" which Davis sang with Sly Stone.
"Oh that was weird! First of all Joan Armtatrading is hard to sing! She has such a great voice. It was really difficult to get into. But the best part of singing with Sly. Guess how we did it? Would you believe I was never actually allowed to meet him? No one would let me meet him. I kept saying, ëItís okay, Iíve heard the stories, I know whatís going on, I still want to meet him, he is such an idol of mine.í He changed the face of pop, rock, and soul. But I never did, they edited the tracks together."
I ask her about the movie it came from, the infamous "Soul Man.""YeahÖ C. Thomas Howell was the lead right? Not my first choice. Strange movie now to think about huh? And the song was in the movie for about a second, in the background. Most people who have seen the movie donít remember hearing the song at all."
Another brush with movie song fame ended even worse for Davis. That was her version of "Take my Breath Away."
"The version on the CD is not even a finished version. We were doing work with Mororder and he had this song. He wanted me to sing it for a demo. Afterwards he really liked what I had done with it and told me he wanted to use it in the movie. Much later I get this sheepish call from him telling me that Berlin had sung it instead. I donít think he even knew I still had the tape. I keep everything, he throws away everything."
When I ask her about how she feels missing out on one of the ë80s biggest songs she is philosophical." I donít know how I would feel about having my biggest song be someone elseís. I am a songwriter first, and would feel weird I didnít write that. The ë80s were a crazy time too. I remember going to an awards show, and Terri [Nunn, lead singer of Berlin] was there, and Cyndi Lauper. I think I was the only one with normal hair in the whole place!"
"I think also that movies rely too much on songs. I like the old fashioned scores better. I love Danny Elfman that way. He writes such great scores for movies, very nostalgic." The Motels were part of the same LA scene as Ongio Bongio and Berlin (to name a few).
Not that Davis is stuck in the past. Discussion of the glory days of video calls up the standard dis of MTV, but also reveals surprise faves.
"MTV bad, but Nelly good, Really like him. I got a call the other day from someone who was listening to an LA rap station and they said the DJ broke in, played "Only the Lonely" and kept going on about good it was. Strange huh?
I like some of todayís stuff. I like songs though. When I watch MTV or listen to the radio I just want to go back and put on some Tom Waitts, some old fashioned songs. So much of todayís pop music is about achievement on the vocalization. Every song a mini-opera."
Davisí own music has changed too however.
"When we play stuff live I like to change it up. ëMission of Mercyí has a new verse when we do that now."Which brings us to the Motels today. As the only member from even the mid ë80s line up, Davis has been through a lot, but hung on the to name, if not the people.
"The end of the ë80s was a bad time. I left Capitol, and didnít do anything with music for a whole year. I moved out of LA, went up to Ventura county." Davis remembers, eerily echoing fellow Californian Beth Hart.
"I got offered a gig, so I decided to put together a band, not of seasoned pros, but young guys. We are sort of a garage band. Basically we did it all over again. I felt that if I went with session players then I wouldnít get any feeling. Each note would be perfect, but there wouldnít be any umph behind it."
In addition to Anthology land, Davis has been busy at work on a new Motels album or rather several.
"Crazy, I started working on it, but I had so many songs I had to divide them up. So now I have a kids record, a Country record, and R&B. I figure Iíll just put out as many as possible until someone signs me!"And if the hidden new track on Anthology land, "Coco and John" is any indication, the new stuff will be well worth the wait.