Singer/Songwriter
SARA HICKMAN
LAIH: Tell us your story.
SH: I grew up in Houston. I went to the High School For the Performing and Visual Arts and got a degree in vocals. My mom said I was singing before I was talking. She said I�d crawl around the house, �la la lala la.� I told people when I was a little kid that I was an angel and I was sent here to make music and make people happy.
LAIH: Are you succeeding?
SH: I think so. I pay my bills. I get to travel and meet interesting people. Have sex with some of them. Just kidding. (flutters eyelashes) I�m going to wait until I get married.
LAIH: When did you get your first record deal?
SH: In 1988, I was in Dallas and all of these people said, �Why don�t you make a record?� So I had about five different guys offer to loan me money. I drew up a contract and negotiated when I would pay them back and made this record on vinyl and cassette. At my release party I sold 750 units, which was pretty good. I thought, hmmm, I�m on to something here. So I went and had CDs made. It was like the forefront to make CDs, for an indie person, and I was taking a real chance.
In the meantime I won some Dallas Observer awards and I was on the cover of the Dallas Observer. That ended up in New York City on the desk of the vice president of Electra Records. I wasn�t soliciting my record, I didn�t even give a shit. I was just making records because people asked for it and it seemed like the fun thing to do. (The Electra v.p.) saw my picture and read about me. He told me he liked the way my name sounded and he liked my picture. He called down to Texas and a friend of his bought my LP. He loved it. By then I was on tour with Killbilly and that was cool because since I had a record we could get press, but since they were a band we could get club dates. Howard Thompson came down from New York and saw me in Kansas City. He told me that night, �I want to sign you.� And I said (laughs), �Give me another shot of tequila! You�re buying.�
LAIH: Tell us about your troubles with Electra on your third record, Necessary Angels..
SH: I don�t think anybody ever felt quite right about it. We had differences of opinion about which direction my career was going. Nothing against them, but I really think they wanted to utilize my big lips and have me be this sexy diva a la Taylor Dayne or something. I said I really didn�t want to do that. I want to be a female Billy Bragg and talk about social things that are important to me. The record got finished with like three different producers. Angelo Badalamenti is that big swooping�I don�t know if you�ve ever heard Julee Cruise? My stuff was either straight ahead folk, with drums sounding crisp and crunchy. Paul Fox�s stuff was this polished pop stuff. The president of Electra said, �What�s this?� So we parted ways and they told me I couldn�t use those songs for five years. I couldn�t re-record them or sing them in any recorded format. I just got mad that they had the rights to my songs. I didn�t care if they had those recorded versions. If I had left them, I�d understand, but they dropped me. I wanted to keep (the record) simple and straight-ahead. I didn�t want all that fancy stuff.
My Mom and I talked and she said, �This is ridiculous that you can�t even sing your own songs.� She said, �You know, I�d help you buy it back.� I laughed and said, �Well, Mom, they just spent $250,000 on this record, I don�t think I�m going to have that kind of money. She goes, �Well, I think you should just call them and talk. I bet they�d work with you.� I got to thinking about it, since I�ve always had a little chutzpah. So I thought, Why not? I bypassed my lawyer and my manager and just called Electra and said, �Look, I want to buy the record back. I�m not talking about a major label or any label, I�m talking about me, my Mom and some friends. He was like, �OK, Sara, that�s very interesting. Let me think about it and I�ll get back to you.� He called back and said they�d come down to $100,000.
I called my Mom, and she said, �You can raise $100,000. Just get 1,000 of your fans to donate $100 each. I started thinking, I know I have at least 1,000 fans because I sold 100,000 copies of Shortstop (her second album on Electra). I sent out 1,000 things that said, here�s the deal: in exchange for your donation you get an Unnecessary Angles bracelet like those POW bracelets that you can wear until the hostages are released, you get your name on the CD and cassette liner notes, you get a free CD or cassette, I�ll throw a party.
and pay for it personally for angels only, and you�ll also be on my eternal thank-you list and get stuff throughout your life from me.
I raised about $40,000, and then I got stuck. I called Electra again and they came down to $50,000. By then five or six months had gone by and I was getting really sick of it. I only asked once, I didn�t want to ask again. It didn�t feel good to me. So then Electra came down to $25,000 and I bought the master back. The party cost me $4,000�the last of my savings. Angels came from all over the United States. The way they got in was they had to wear their bracelet I had the Arcadia in Dallas and we showed videos. I have about 10 videos, which you�ve probably never seen unless you watch VH-1.