"YES, it was raw emotionally. We weren't public people. We were just writing songs to get them off our chests. They were a form of expiation I suppose. But they weren't written for the public."
Kate McGarrigle is letting her mind wander back to the time, 21 years ago, when the debut album, Kate and Anna McGarrigle, swept like a fresh wind over the barren emotional wasteland of the music scene. Since then, however, the career path of herself and her sister has not always run smooth.
But this month, their new album, Metapedia (Hannibal) their first for six years was released to widespread critical acclaim. Time has passed but the Canadian sisters' ability to create music of enduring and haunting quality has not diminished. And next week they come to Ireland, playing in Galway's Roisin Dubh on Tuesday, and the following two nights in Whelan's, Dublin.
Speaking by telephone from her home in Montreal, Kate McGarrigle is as open, friendly and thoughtful as her songs would suggest. Although clearly looking forward to their European tour, she is way past the stage where she feels it necessary to put up some kind of a showbusiness front. So the conversation is frank, funny and thankfully devoid of cliche.
Her son Rufus Wainwright, from her marriage to singer/songwriter Loudon Wainwright III, will open the proceedings before joining Mom, Aunt Anna and other musicians for a couple of songs. Her daughter, Martha Wainwright, will not be crossing the Atlantic though she, like her brother, is apparently, seriously talented. Indeed, Mom revealed that Rufus - immortalised in Loudon's tribute to motherhood, Rufus Is A Tit Man - has just become the first signing of the newly established major label, Dreamworks.
With that kind of upbringing in the public eye it would be little wonder if the children resented being the subjects of their parents' songs, the little goldfish in the bowls. "No, I don't think so. My children are real Wainwrights. They're really out there. Plus living in Montreal is another factor. Of all of the cities in North America I think Montreal is the one which knows least about Loudon Wainwright."
Montreal and their Irish French background are central to their work. Their singing in French has been a feature of their performances through the years, in particular on 1981's French Record, while their Irish influences have been apparent in their haunting folk based melodies. Today, their new album, Metapedia, retains the same verities, albeit with 1990s production values. There is a fine song in French, Arbre, while a local river lends its name to the title track, a stunning ode to the passing of time inspired by a chance meeting between an old boyfriend of Kate's and her daughter.
But the centrepiece of the album is another song by Kate, Jaques et Gilles, which tells the story of Quebecois forced to travel south from their small impoverished farms to seek work and money in the fertile fields and mills of New Hampshire and their differences with the Irish, who wanted something more than cash while the French speakers wished only to return to their Canadian homes and did not want any hassle, the Irish were agitating for better conditions. In the history of North America it is but one of many stories, but the sisters bring the drama to life with a wonderful mix of voice and melody.
Kate explains that she came across the story when she was doing some research on another son of Quebec, Jack Kerouac: "It was just a battle I was never aware of", she says. On the song she uses her spoken voice very effectively. Was this deliberate? "I was conscious in that I felt I had more to say than to sing. Sometimes things can get lost in melody."
Metapedia underlines the enduring quality of the sisters' writing and performance. Their sweet and sour songs of loves lost and lives lived are redolent of the ones that fell largely on deaf cars in the late 1970s, gradually forcing them to decide between the commercial route or a quiet retreat from an increasingly unsympathetic industry.
They choose the latter, walking away from their prestigious Warner Bros contract near the end of the 1970s, outraged when they heard that the man chosen to produce their fourth album, Paul Samwell Smith, would be paid more than them. "I said what? Give the producer more money than the artists? Then we walked away from it. And then we realised that we had just cut our throats."
Could it have been different? "In some ways I wish it had been. At the time I was living in New York and I knew everybody - mostly through Loudon - in the milieu there. Whereas Anna was involved at all. I did try to drag her into it, kicking and screaming, but she didn't want to do it. But I said `Ah go on you'll love it'. She didn't. Anna's the kind of person who says that if we really try hard at it, we'll fail . . . She likes to keep everything mystical, mysterious and low key. Twenty one years later was it worth staying low key? I don't know. But I mean, we didn't even plan to make a record, it was all just an accident."
This year Kate McGarrigle turns 50 while her sister, who lives with her family an hour away in the Ontario countryside, will be 52. Songs like Heart Like A Wheel have become classics, burnished by the years and covered by many other singers. Although Kate admits to knowing little about current music, they have established a happy routine, playing certain cities and venues every year, recording the odd album in between rearing their children and living their lives. "We are full time musicians in that is how we make our living," says Kate. "We live comfortably, but not ostentatiously, that's for sure!"
Fame on a massive scale may have eluded them, but they have found a lasting place in many hearts. Many of those long time fans will be at the shows this week, but don't expect a showbiz extravaganza because, as Kate jauntily warns: "We won't be changing our clothes between sets.