In an interview that's long overdue, I recently met up with Cecilia in San Francisco.
She and her husband are exquisite hosts and beautiful people, who drove us around their city, blowing our minds at every turn. After cooking us a meal and plying us with champagne and wine, she also agreed to share herself with Witchgrove.
So Cecilia, is your glass full? Have you got an adequate supply of Scharffen Berger chocolate that you'd like me to help you eat? Good.
Now tell me, who is Cecilia Populus-Eudave?
Cecilia Populus-Eudave is a woman in San Francisco, who loves music and is determined to come back as a person who can play at least 3 different musical instruments and can sing!To make up for her lack of musical talent, she began publishing a fanzine many years ago, while living in Los Angeles called From Ears and Mouth (title taken from a song by Bauhaus – 10 points if you can guess it), focusing mostly on unsigned indie bands.
In 1994, she and her future husband moved to San Francisco. FEAM became a music program on local cable and the name changed to On the Tip of My Tongue. She went from writer/publisher to producer/director. She still can’t play a single musical instrument.
Oh yeah, and she spent 5 years in Veracruz, Mexico, where she experienced education in an all girl Catholic school and learned how to laugh uncontrollably during mass without making a sound; it was very painful, which of course was very appropriate.
She wishes she could be more disciplined when it comes to her music show and her watercolor classes. She never talks in the third person and so is completely baffled as to why she is doing it now.
Your show highlights local bands and their music, is that something you've always wanted to do?
Yes, I always wanted to be connected to music one way or another, but I knew I didn’t want it to be my full-time paying job for fear that I would come to hate it.For instance, I would loathe being ASSIGNED to cover a group or artist I didn’t care for, whilst being force to ignore the bands that I would think deserving of some exposure. This way I can bring into the studio whomever I please and I don’t have to answer to anyone. It’s a great feeling.
I bet.
If anyone reading fancies becoming a television personality themselves, have you any advice or tips about how to realize that dream?
It should be very easy. Check out your local public access stations, take the workshops and begin producing a show; you’ll be on the air in no time!! The world needs more witchy related programming and it’s something I’ve been considering.Do you ever get recognized in the street and/or have to beat off adoring fans?
Yes, I’ve had to run seeking cover a-la Beatles and Austin Powers style – then I wake up. Nopers, it’s never happened. I usually don’t appear on camera, it’s about the musicians and their music, not about me.Have any bands or artists appeared on your show, who have gone on become successful?
There have been many that have reached different levels of success: Austin Willacy has won several international awards and pc Muñoz had Jackson Brown and Doctor Fink (from Prince and the Revolution Band) on his latest CD. Marty Willson-Piper of the Church is a guitar god; The Devlins, c’mon we all know the Devlins...Come on, spill the beans, which were your favourite guests?
Colin Devlin, Marty Willson-Piper, Itsawhale, pc Muñoz, Austin Willacy, Lisa Mandelstein...Anything embarrassing ever happen on or off air that you now wish you could buy all the tapes and destroy them?
See, I’ll pretty much do anything on camera as long as I don’t have to watch it later on, so there might be stuff out there that I’m not aware of. No nudity though as there is already too much violence in the world.There was that interrupted stage diving event way back when, but no cameras were rolling.
You're really going to leave us wondering about that, aren't you?
It isn't only rising talent who are featured in your show, who are some of the bigger names that have graced your set?
The biggest feather in my producer’s hat is Marty Willson-Piper. I really feel that, if the show goes away, I’ve accomplished what I set out to do. He’s a huge musical hero of mine.Have you ever found yourself completely frozen in the face of celebrity?
No. Firstly, I really don’t deal with “celebrities”, I mean the musicians I interview or film have been, for the most part, incredibly kind, generous and accommodating. Funny, I’ve only had problems with two musicians and they were strictly local and never went on to bigger things...Oh, one embarrassing thing with Michael Stipe, he and Natalie Merchant were at the same Camper Van Beethoven show my friends and I were. So after the mandatory gawking and giggling session, I walked over to him and said, “Give me your hand.” He did. For the next 5 minutes, I tried to put on his wrist this bracelet I had made, but I couldn’t get the damn clasp to close.
I was getting extremely flustered, so I finally gave up, turned his hand palm up and placed the bracelet inside and said, “When you have time maybe you can put this on.”
He smiled and said with his gorgeous southern drawl “Well, I think your wrist is a bit smaller than mine.”
I don’t freeze in the face of celebrity, I do goofy things!
Yay! It is lovely to hear stories about heroes that reveal them to be lovely people in real life. Talking of which, you've worked a lot with the Devlins. Could you tell us a little about that please?
Peter and Colin Devlin are the two most gracious people you’d ever want to meet and, because of their generosity, they’ve allowed me into their musical world.The first time they went above and beyond for me was during the Tori Amos tour. Through their record company, I was able to get free tickets to the show. When Rafael and I went to the will call window, Rafael noticed there was something inside the envelope besides the tickets. Two backstage passes!
I was floored and thought it was the record company that set it up, come to find out later the passes came courtesy of Colin and Peter, sweet.
Since then, the lads have asked me to take charge of their street team and forum. I was going to also manage their MySpace music selection, but I don’t have the right iTunes program, ah well.
Oh, Peter and his wife just had their second baby daughter: Romy Devlin.
Please pass on our congratulations to them.
What's in the future for your show? And for you?
The show’s future: I have no idea. Sometimes I want to give it up but then I remember it’s one of the things that keep me sane.For me: continue with my watercolor classes and really get serious about learning the tarot via the fantastic guide that you wrote.
I was actually thinking of doing a series of shows based on your guide, what do you think?