A Conversation with Sarah Borges (continued)

PM: Are you guys selling records?

SB: Yeah, we're not selling as many as I'd like, yet. Part of it is that nobody knows who we are. The way people find out is they come and see us, or they happen to see us because they're watching someone else. So we sell a lot of records at shows. But the SoundScan system, it's difficult.

PM: Oh, yeah, SoundScan doesn't know anything about what's sold off the stage. Those numbers never get entered. [It's keyed to cash register sales at retail outlets.]

SB: They do, but it's this whole series of hoops you have to jump through. They give you this form, you have to fill it out, have the authorized person from the club fill it out, put in all their address and telephone information.

PM: Interesting.

SB: Then you have to get your label to sign it, put in the UPC code of your record, put in like the label ID number, and then you have to fax all before--

PM: Nobody gets all that together.

SB: Yeah, all before a prescribed time.

PM: Oh, yeah, right, that happens a lot on a rock 'n' roll tour.

SB: Exactly. The whole thing gives me an ulcer, literally, it's just such a pain. And it makes me so mad, because with all those records we sold, we probably would double our Sound Scan numbers if they only knew.

PM: Right. Yeah, no doubt about it. And is there any road manager on the tour, or are you guys just road managing yourself?

SB: Well, it's kind of just me doing it.

PM: That really sounds like the road manager's job, but there isn't one. [laughs]

SB: It is. And if we had the money, God, would we need it. I sound like a little whiner here, but it's a lot to know where you're going and manage the money and deal with all the crap.

PM: Well, it doesn't sound like whining to me.

SB: Especially when you're a girl, and there's three men or four men.

PM: And none of them want to help.

So do you find time between your rock 'n' roll life and your job at Berklee to read? Are you reading anything lately that turned you on?

SB: I've sort of been reading only short things because I only have a little short time period. I did just read that Richard Russo book, Empire Falls. And we had watched it on the last tour, that HBO miniseries.

PM: What did you think of that?

SB: The series I liked, mainly because it was very entertaining, and somewhat wholesome. I'm like really into wholesome entertainment.

PM: You are?

SB: I hate like Quentin Tarantino and all that stuff.

PM: Really?

SB: It makes me feel icky. [laughs]

PM: You're surprising me. I wouldn't have guessed you were so G-rated.

SB: I'm so puppies and kitties.

PM: Well, I'll try not to hold that against you.

SB: Still, every once in a while, I find something that I can hang with. We did have a day on tour when we sat in the hotel all day and drank beer and watched only Rolling Stones movies. We watched Cocksucker's Blues and Gimmie Shelter back to back.

PM: Well, there you go.

SB: So every once in a while I fall off the puppy and kitty wagon.

PM: How about that new Stones' record?

SB: It's really good.

PM: It's great!

SB: That Rough Justice is something else.

PM: Yeah. So you read--although you read Empire Falls--mostly short things because that's all the time you have.

SB: Yeah. I'm really addicted to Vanity Fair magazine. I feel like it sort of puts me into the Hampton set for like five minutes at a time, and I'm brilliant.

[laughter]   continue

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