INDIE PLAYER: Sarah Jane Hudson is that increasingly unusual thing in modern pop: a début artist who is not pre-packaged. She tells Kevin Courtney about going independent
'My, what athletic legs you've got," remarks the Irish music- industry type, eyeing up the slim, dark-haired woman seated at the bar-stool in front of him. All the better to run away from you with, thinks Sarah Jane Hudson, smiling back through gritted, perfect-white teeth. The 23-year-old Irish singer is in Dublin on a six-week jaunt to promote her début album, and her legs feel anything but athletic. Since she got off the plane from her adopted home of New York, the Malahide-born diva has been pounding the pavement, pressing the flesh and pushing her product, helped only by her publicist, Stevo Berube; her dad, former showband musician Jim Hudson; and her ever-attentive mum, Denise. She's met record company execs, radio DJs, television producers and music journalists; bearded Dustin The Turkey in his own Den, sung on the Strawberry Alarm Clock on FM104, and answered some stinkers on Radio 1's music quiz programme, The Vinyl Curtain.
She's attended every lig in town, from the Meteor Music Awards to the launch of the Heineken Green Energy Festival, sipping nothing stronger than mineral water and trying not to cough amid the clouds of cigarette smoke.
She's done numerous interviews, go-sees and industry meet-and-greets, keeping her perma-grin fixed through endless idiotic questions, empty promises and asinine chat-up lines. In her adopted home of New York, there are far more sharks per square mile - and far more pavements to pound. But while the waters aren't quite so treacherous, Dublin still has its fair share of wolves in cheap clothing.
"I don't know how many coffees I had that week, but I was wired to the moon," recalls Hudson, sipping yet another cuppa, and speaking in a soft American accent tempered by a vestige of Dublinese. "If I had been drinking, I would have been in rehab by now." Happily, Hudson was well able to cope with the non-stop schmooz-fest.
With no manager to mollycoddle her, and no record label to roll out the red carpet, she's had to learn how to fend for herself in the shark-infested streets of New York, so Dublin is a doddle by comparison.
At 19, Sarah Jane Hudson set off for the Big Apple in search of fame and fortune. Four years later, she has her début album, much of it produced by the hot-shot production team of Jimmy Greco and Ray Contreras, whose previous credits include Jennifer Lopez and Santana. Released on her own Little Emerald Star label, Sarah Jane Hudson is an assured début with a mature, contemporary sound, its mix of chiming guitar tunes, piano drenched ballads and pop-electronica pitched somewhere between The Corrs and Madonna. In a world where début pop artists are normally backed by big industry names and supported by million-dollar advertising campaigns, it's a wonder Hudson got her album off the ground in the first place.
"Oh, I robbed banks and mugged some old ladies in the streets," she laughs. "You'd be surprised how much cash those bag ladies have in their purses.
'ACTUALLY, the budget for the album was very small, and it came from a couple of different places, mainly my own pocket, a little help from my father, and also I'd done some part-time work in the States. I've waitressed, I've paid my dues, and I've saved some money. The tips are good in New York. And I worked out a deal with Ray and Jimmy where they wouldn't take any money up-front, because they want to be involved in my career in the long-term, so if something good happens down the road, they'll be on board again."
Her role model, Hudson is unashamed to admit, is Madonna - and there's a definite echo of Ciccone in the aching ballad, Breathe.
"It's an all-round thing that I really respect about her. She uses everything she has to its fullest potential. She's always been the one to call the shots, and been in control and had a vision of what she wants to do - and she's made great inroads for women in the industry. And of course you've got to respect someone who's been around so long and is still on top. That takes hard work."
A few years ago, Hudson was signed to Peermusic in the UK, but walked away from the deal. "I felt they were trying to steer me in a Celine Dion direction, and that's certainly not where I want to go."
And so she took the road less-travelled, managing herself, co-writing and co-producing her own tracks, raising her own finance, and being closely involved in the making of the album from songwriting to mastering. On the plus side, it means that none of the songs on the album sounds remotely like Celine Dion; on the minus side, there's a distinct danger that the album might be lost to the world, simply because the big money isn't there to promote it. Hudson, however, isn't losing any sleep over it.
"I think about it, but I don't dwell on it. I just really put one foot in front of the other and see where it takes me. Even when I was making the album, I was thinking, I can't do this! But now, looking back and seeing what I was able to achieve on my own, I thought, hey, you can do a lot on your own.
"You don't need a label to come along and make an album for you. But having said that, it still would be nice to have more power and deeper pockets."
And with that, it's time to head back out onto the well-worn pavements of Dublin. After her promo tour of the Republic, she flies back to New York to begin the daunting task of promoting the record in the US.
Footloose, footsore and fancy free - maybe this time the streets really will be paved with gold.
Sarah Jane Hudson is on Little Emerald Star Music, distributed through Record Services