Shawn Brackbill
Mackenzie Scott barely contains her smoldering voice on Sprinter.
Over the course of nine cosmically inclined rock songs on her 2015 second album Sprinter, 24-year-old singer Torres (born Mackenzie Scott) barely contains her smoldering voice, snarling out complicated thoughts about her childhood and Baptist upbringing in Macon, Ga. “Mother, father / I’m underwater,” she pleads on “The Exchange,” the album’s devastating final track.
After articulating feelings of alienation and isolation so well on Sprinter — which she’ll still be touring behind when she visits the High Noon Saloon Jan. 14 for FRZN Fest — it can be difficult for Scott to keep talking about the ideas behind the music.
“I feel like I said everything I wanted to say in the work,” says Scott, who earned a formal songwriting degree from Belmont University in Nashville in December 2012. She says her education isn’t necessarily a “super special thing,” but credits it with giving her a deeper understanding of what it takes to make music.
Scott spoke with Isthmus about how she learned to hone her craft (“That’s what I call it, a craft,” she jokes) and her experience opening for Garbage on their recent tour, including an Oct. 18 show at the Orpheum Theater.
You emulate people like Nick Cave, who treat songwriting like a day job.
Yeah, it’s really important for me to get up at an early hour — and by early I mean 9 a.m. — and take my time with breakfast and coffee, take a slow start to the day. But then I get dressed, brush my teeth and I just get ready for the fucking day. Then I try to stay busy, whether that means keeping my pen busy or keeping my brain busy while I think about things before I write them down.
How much has your live show changed since you started touring behind Sprinter?
In the beginning, my band and I were playing the record. We started touring this record in May and just tried to get through the show by playing the record as is. But after you’re on the road for a month and half, you say, “Okay, it’s time to step this up. We can’t get bored with ourselves.”
We might do small changes each show that make a huge difference. Those small moments being the cohesive element that makes people go, “Oh, I get it now!” So maybe now I think people are starting to understand what I’m going for.
Last time you played Madison you opened for Garbage in a large venue. This time it’s a smaller club. Is there any difference between those types of shows?
With opening slots, it’s always our aim to play the hits — the songs that will get people excited immediately because we have such a short window of time to win them over.
With headline shows, we get to start the set the way we want to and take our time with the intro, our exit and with transitions. We get to be a little more self-indulgent.
Garbage is a big deal in Madison. Did the band pick you to be the opener?
Yeah, and that was a huge honor. I think Shirley [Manson] really went to bat for us on that tour, which was so fulfilling for me. It was great to feel like we were wanted. [Garbage] really made us feel like we were welcome. A lot of times, going on those huge tours with really famous bands, you never really know what to expect. Garbage was completely gracious and spent time with us — talked with us, laughed with us.
It’s fun to hear that people are nice.
It is! Isn’t it great to hear that your heroes are not dicks?
