Tag: 5+5

BGS 5+5: Cordovas

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Artist: Cordovas
Hometown: Nashville, Tennessee
Album: Destiny Hotel

Answers by Joe Firstman, Toby Weaver, and Lucca Soria of Cordovas

What was the first moment that you knew you wanted to be a musician?

I always felt like I was an artist or working towards being one. So all I had to do was do it, not “become it.” — JF

I was around 7-8 years old and swinging on the swing set in elementary school. I was thinking about a song that I liked and at that time I had the feelings that I would like to play that song for people. I watched my dad and his friends play music as a child but it was at that moment I decided I would like to get a guitar and learn how to play. — TW

Feeling that feeling of “we’re doing something” as a kid in my friend’s basement trying to play some songs together. — LS

Which elements of nature do you spend the most time with and how do those impact your work?

We spend a lot of time in the desert in Baja. Most of our mornings at the beach waiting for the surf. Checking the waves. Feelin’ the desert. Waiting for songs. Sunsets are also magnificent. There’s a lot of power and the light is changing. — JF

Which artist has influenced you the most … and how?

As far as living artists go, it would be Roy Bookbinder as he has personally learned from the great masters of the blues and has his own interpretation of their works as he performs them and written songs in that style. I got to meet Roy at a guitar clinic in 1998 and it was very inspiring. — TW

Bob Dylan and Grateful Dead. Hearing how Dylan writes made me want to emulate that. The Dead are like lifelong teachers, I learn something about playing music every time I listen to them. – LS

How often do you hide behind a character in a song or use “you” when it’s actually “me”?

This is a writing technique. When we insert the word “I” into the sentence, the line, and the composition takes on an entirely new feel and tone. To make things universal often times we use the term “you” when we mean “I,” but I found that usually these are interchangeable in that the story would not suffer either way we did it. It could be a subtle thing, but being aware of the power of “I” is important. There used to be this drunk acting coach at the bar I went to in Hollywood, La Poubelle. He would always try to get everyone to have a conversation without using the word I. — JF

What other art forms — literature, film, dance, painting, etc. — inform your music?

Lately, I have been reading spiritual guides and literature that feeds the mind and soul as well as biographies and autobiographies. The concepts outlined in these works have contributed to the lyrics I have written for our Destiny Hotel album, specifically the ego. — TW

As a teenager I was shown the work of Whitman and Ginsberg by a great teacher who explained that vein of American poetry. That exposure definitely fueled the writer fire. — LS

Photo Credit: Joseph Ross

BGS 5+5: Northcote

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Artist name: Northcote (Matt Goud)
Hometown: Carlyle, Saskatchewan, Canada
Latest album: Let Me Roar (out October 23, 2020)
Personal nicknames (or rejected band names): Matt, Big Cat, Coat

Which artist has influenced you the most … and how?

I was playing solo shows in cafes while in a full-time hardcore band, that’s how it started for me. When the band broke up I moved out west and during that first year of playing solo I would cover Gillian Welch, Chuck Ragan/Hot Water Music and Brian Fallon/The Gaslight Anthem songs in my set. I remember learning Petty and Springsteen songs to fill my set for when I was singing in tourist bars. You can play “The Waiting” and “Dancing in the Dark” for a long time on a Monday night to help nudge along a three-hour set. The artist that has influenced me the most in the last ten years is Dave Hause. He has taken me on the road many times and I have got to see his energy and passion for the job. He plays with the urgency and respect that it could all go away and I admired that because he was/is right. Gillian Welch is the songwriter I come back to the most often and whose records I feel most at home with. John Moreland in the last bunch of years is like that for me as well. Finally, I was in grade 5 or 6 when Shania Twain’s hit songs began to come out and I did perform them lip-synching in school.

What’s your favorite memory from being on stage?

It must have been 2010 or so, maybe earlier. I was playing on my first release as Northcote and was out east in Saint John, New Brunswick. It is a small city and I think I’ve only been back once since. It’s near Fredericton where we usually stop on tour. The venue that day had an alley entrance with brick walls on either side of the alley. The room had a low ceiling and seemed like a small abandoned store. I remember there were things left behind on the floor like folks had left in a hurry. The walls were white and blue like sky. I don’t remember if there was a PA or not. We were packed in the place about 25 of us singing along as I played through my first EP and the singalongs were quite loud. I was surprised and I felt lost and at home all at once. At that time everyone present was a beginner and we were all just giving it an honest try and that is a very sacred place to be in my opinion.

What other art forms — literature, film, dance, painting, etc. — inform your music?

Before bringing my attention to working as a musician I was studying at a religious college training to be a minister. Over the years the sense of poetry from scripture has stuck with me. I’ve gone from the poems of Thomas Merton to Rumi to listening to Ram Dass then back full circle now. In my twenties I explored more angular and art house influences which are still refreshing at times, but less influential these days. I think my answer is religious devotional writing? My god. For more context, my recent influences are Lovecraft Country (TV), Anderson .Paak’s album Ventura, and Miley Cyrus’ “Slide Away.” The two books open on my desk are Teachings of the Christian Mystics and Thich Nhat Hanh’s How to Connect.

What rituals do you have, either in the studio or before a show?

When we were making Let Me Roar, each morning before I took a shower I would put on the album Trance Friendz by Ólafur Arnalds and Nils Frahm. After that I went to the yoga mat to do some work then made coffee and had a few cigarettes. We had boiled eggs most mornings with bagels. After the work day we made dinner together in the kitchenette and watched the hockey playoffs or a lesser-known horror film. During one film the lead character ate a chicken wing out of the fridge after finding a deceased person. The character said, “Honey garlic, I love it.” From then on in the studio, after describing something we would say, “I love it” in honor of the horror film character.

Since food and music go so well together, what is your dream pairing of a meal and a musician?

I was invited to perform at the Alianait Arts Festival in Iqaluit, Nunavut, a few years back. I wasn’t feeling very good those days and the opportunity to go up North was a bright light for me and is a precious memory that I will never forget. One night up North there was a dinner party hosted by folks in the community. There was a spread of local food and I can’t remember what all was served, but I tried some and enjoyed the warmth and hospitality. There was boxed wine on the rocks and we saw the evening sun. One of those nights some people from the festival invited me to a hall where musicians from the festival were sitting in a circle singing and laughing and telling stories. Since that trip up to play the festival, my wife and I have moved, I quit drinking, we made the new Northcote record and I found meaningful work at my day job in Victoria.

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/6Ha8VdD55SEGNJcKWiUAhM?si=IkUWvU1GR6OGDOnMt8ul1g

Photo credit: Matt Postal

BGS 5+5: Cut Worms

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Artist: Cut Worms (Max Clarke)
Hometown: Cleveland, Ohio
Latest Album: Nobody Lives Here Anymore

Which artist has influenced you the most … and how?

It’s a perhaps predictable or trite answer, but if I had to choose a single entity, I guess I’d say The Beatles or Dylan — either one, respectfully. They both just covered so much ground and have such a wide breadth of material and cultural scope that it’s hard for me to really see or hear anything — contemporary or otherwise in the time since they’ve existed — that doesn’t have some part of their influence in it. Usually whether the artist knows it or not, there’s some influence there. Even people that hate them.

What’s your favorite memory from being on stage?

I don’t know that I have a single favorite memory. When a show is going well, it’s great and it doesn’t get much better. It’s a place you can reach at different points in time where you’re kind of just floating there and this thing is happening. It’s really more about being in that moment. It doesn’t quite stick around in a memory.

What other art forms — literature, film, dance, painting, etc. — inform your music?

I would say film, TV, and books. Those are the main mediums through which I experience good stories. To me it’s all about the stories and narrative styles and touching on some kind of feeling. What someone (who I can’t recall at the moment) referred to in poetry as being “the words behind words.”

What was the first moment that you knew you wanted to be a musician?

I don’t know that there was ever a single moment, but at some point I realized music was able to transport me in a way that other things could not. It seemed like a worthwhile endeavor to try to figure out how to do that. I am still trying.

What’s the toughest time you ever had writing a song?

All of them. It’s hard work I tell you.

Photo credit: Caroline Gohlke

BGS 5+5: The Band of Heathens

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Artist: Ed Jurdi of The Band of Heathens
Hometown: Asheville, North Carolina; band’s hometown is Austin, Texas
Latest album: Stranger
Band Nicknames: The Hand of Beathens

What’s your favorite memory from being on stage?

At the Americana Awards a few years back. I remember being on stage at the Ryman Auditorium and looking around and realizing that I was performing with a bunch of my heroes. Delbert McClinton, Emmylou Harris, John Hiatt and Sam Bush, to name just a few. It truly was a full circle moment for sure.

What other art forms — literature, film, dance, painting, etc — inform your music?

In short they all do. I have always been in awe of painters who can really create a world with their colors and imagery. I find myself being really inspired by the impressionistic painters and the way they use light to offer a unique and different perspective on things that can be somewhat mundane.

What rituals do you have, either in the studio or before a show?

I don’t have any real set rituals, but I generally like to hang around the gig and sing some songs either by myself, or with whoever else is hanging out. It’s a good way to warm up and it’s a fun way to get the group vibes in a positive space.

If you had to write a mission statement for your career, what would it be?

Follow the muse. Lead with your art and expression and figure out how to make the business part of the career work in service of the creativity. I can happily say that has always been the case.

Which elements of nature do you spend the most time with and how do those impact your work?

I live in Asheville, North Carolina, so I spend the most time in the mountains and the forests that surround us. I love being able to hike way out into the woods and find a vista where I can see both the great scope of things, but also hear the rustling of the leaves and the wind blowing through the tops of the trees. In those moments of solitude I find my mind is incredibly clear and clean, which is almost always when ideas begin to present themselves almost out of nowhere.

Photo credit: Jason Quigley

BGS 5+5: Thomm Jutz

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Artist: Thomm Jutz
Hometown: born in Neusatz/Germany, living in Nashville, TN
Latest album: To Live in Two Worlds Vol.2
Personal nicknames: TJ

Which artist has influenced you the most … and how?

At this point in my life, I’d have to say that Norman Blake has influenced me the most. Not just as an instrumentalist, but also as a songwriter. When he started writing original material in the early ’70s he came out of the shoot with a distinctive songwriter’s voice. Unlike Kristofferson, Hartford, and Dylan, all of whom he had worked with, Blake’s focus was not on his inner world but on the old rural America that he’d grown up in. He applied his huge knowledge of railroad history to his writing. His songs were based on local characters that he’d grown up with or places that were meaningful to him. I like to write about historic events or characters from the past and I owe the inspiration for that to a large part to the great Norman Blake.

What other art forms — literature, film, dance, painting, etc — inform your music?

Literature has a great influence on my music. I read all the time. I try to keep something historical, a story and something philosophical or inspirational going at all times. The more I read, the more I write. Sometimes images from books come to me after years and I start writing about them. I also love to read cookbooks. In recent years I’ve really been into the novels of North Carolina writers Ron Rash and John Ehle.

What was the first moment that you knew you wanted to be a musician?

When I was eleven years old I saw Bobby Bare on TV. He hit me square between the eyes with his singing, the way he held the guitar and his cooler than cool attitude. My soul connected with the archetype of the wandering minstrel at that moment and has not let me go since. I never felt like I wanted to do anything but a musician and songwriter. I got to work with Bare a couple of times. He was every bit as great as I wanted him to be.

What’s the toughest time you ever had writing a song?

I can’t say that I struggle too much with songwriting. I believe that if you have a good idea and put in the time and co-write with the right people, your craft should make it possible for you to at the very least come up with something decent every time. One song idea that I had and didn’t know how to approach for over a year was for a song called “Help Me to Hold On” that I co-wrote with Milan Miller and that was recorded by Balsam Range. Every morning when I walked with my dog that idea was in my head, but I couldn’t some up with an angle to approach it. I still remember where I was out here by Percy Priest Lake when all the pieces came together. We wrote it the following Saturday and it didn’t take more than an hour to get it done.

Since food and music go so well together, what is your dream pairing of a meal and a musician?

I listen to a whole lot of Norman Blake’s music when I’m cooking dinner with my wife every night. Another really good pairing is when my friend and fellow songwriter Jefferson Ross comes to visit from Atlanta. We stand around the kitchen or the grill with a beer, cook together and talk about books, music and vintage guitars.

Photo credit: Jefferson Ross

BGS 5+5: Ferris & Sylvester

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Artist: Ferris & Sylvester
Hometowns: Somerset, England & Warwickshire, England
Latest Album: I Should Be on a Train
Personal nicknames: Ducky and Didi. Proudly named by Archie’s nephew, Buzz.

What’s your favorite memory from being on stage?

We’ve toured a lot over the past two years and have been lucky enough to see a lot of the world, from rooftops in Austin, Texas, to a hidden cove in The Faroe Islands. We’ve played to crowds of 12,000 and crowds of 12 and everything in-between. Probably one of our favourite moments on stage was playing Glastonbury last year. We played five sets across the weekend, one of which was in a weird, wonderful tent quite called The Rabbit Hole late on the Friday night. Naturally when you’re playing a big show, we had loads of technical problems and Archie’s kick drum pedal broke… Issy did a sing-along with the crowd whilst Archie got out a screwdriver to fix it. Archie then jumped off the stage, broke down the fence and went into the audience for his guitar solo. Meanwhile a man dressed as the mad hatter jumped up onto the stage and scared the hell out of Issy by pretending to chop her head off with an inflatable axe. THIS IS A TRUE STORY. Best show ever.

What rituals do you have, either in the studio or before a show?

We’ve really loved spending more time in our studio this year. Our studio is a small room, full of wonder with wallpaper covering the walls — no day in it is the same. One day, we’ll have the drums set up to record, the next day they’ll be replaced by a 1963 Hammond organ or a comfy red futon giving us space to write. Every corner is filled with something obscure. We love it in there. It’s where we’ve spent all of our days in the recent months and where our songs find their feet. Rituals include endless cups of tea, writing with pencils on yellow paper and recording dozens of voice notes on our phones. If we think a song is good, we’ll then spend hours crafting it and going over structure, melody and meaning. We’ll develop it in its simplest form, usually one guitar and our vocals. We’ll then work up the demo, experimenting with different instruments and sounds. This can take days. We sometimes get through five or six demos before record it properly. Other times, we stick with the first demo, knowing we captured something special and irreplaceable. It’s a lengthy process and we put everything into it.

We always warm up before a show, singing in harmony and getting in tune with each other. Lemon and ginger tea is a must. We then do a huddle with our band and sing “Cold Beer Conversation” by George Strait really out of tune. We don’t know why.

Since food and music go so well together, what is your dream pairing of a meal and a musician?

Ooh. Our two favourite things. For Archie (Sylvester), the dream pairing would be Django Reinhardt with Steak Frites sitting by the river in Samois-Sur-Seine (where Django used to live)… For Issy (Ferris), a plate of fried chicken and Little Feat. In Dixie Land.

How often do you hide behind a character in a song or use “you” when it’s actually “me”?

We try to be as honest as we can in our writing. We don’t so much “hide” behind characters, though we sometimes work from a place of reality and then play with it and make it something different, until only shadows of ourselves are recognisable in it. For instance, our song “I Should Be on a Train” isn’t really about us, but we definitely put our own frustrations as a couple into it. Getting caught up in the same toxic cycles with each other over and over again, mainly caused by stress or pressure that we put on one another. The song takes you through an imaginary scenario of a relationship ending, but concludes that it is just a thought and not a reality. We’ve never done a proper storm out on each other, never boarded a train… maybe a few slamming doors. But we worked with what we had, and took it somewhere else. We also play around with perspectives a lot. We can shift from “I” and “we” to “her,” “him” or “they” in a song, giving it layers and opinions. Again, we wouldn’t say we’re hiding, merely playing around within the story. It can be hard to expose your inner self in your songwriting, sometimes it can feel too revealing. But we always try and opt for truth.

What’s the toughest time you ever had writing a song?

Every writing experience is different and each song faces its own challenges. Probably the song which has existed in the most forms and been rewritten time and time again is “Sickness,” a song we released last year. It’s our favourite ever recording and we consider it to be one of our strongest songs. But it took over a year to get right. It first existed as a poem, then we recorded a very early demo which didn’t sit right. It didn’t have a structure and sounded so far away from the rest of our stuff at the time. We parked it and returned to it months later. We got a lot closer with next few demos, but it took a lot of time to develop it. When we took it into the studio, we were confident we’d got it right. But we had a change of heart in the session and decided it needed an extra verse and a new middle 8. We hid in Manze’s Eel and Pie House over the road from The Pool Studios in Bermondsey and wrote new lyrics, filling in the gaps. Ironically after such a lengthy writing process, we recorded it quickly on the last day of the session. Everything came together. Archie’s slide solo was recorded in one take, the vocals were recorded late into the night and were done in a few takes. It felt effortless, after all that struggle. We’re very proud of it.

Photo credit: Felix Bartlett

BGS 5+5: Elizabeth Cook

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Artist: Elizabeth Cook
Hometown: Wildwood, Florida
Latest album: Aftermath
Personal nicknames: Shug

What’s your favorite memory from being on stage?

Forgetting that I’m on stage and then coming to and being like, “Oh my god, I’m on stage!” That, and one night in Phoenix, this group of young girls stood at the front of the stage and sang along to every one of my songs.

What was the first moment that you knew you wanted to be a musician?

I didn’t really know that I wanted to be. I was a kid singer — so, I came to it from a funny angle. I fought it for years and tried to do other things, but never found a really gratifying way to fit into the world. I got asked to open for Todd Snider once in Wilmington, North Carolina, at this outdoor amphitheater. He threw a one-man acoustic folk show party riot throwdown. I’d never seen anything like it and really haven’t since. But I thought if this is on the table — I will try it.

What other art forms — literature, film, dance, painting, etc — inform your music?

All of it. I’m always collecting details that ping me in some way… and it can be something that I see, read, taste, touch or hear.

What’s the toughest time you ever had writing a song?

I wrote a song about my mama’s funeral. And of course it’s not something you want to write about, because it’s not something you want to even happen in the first place. But it did. And I was really dreading this event, and the responsibility I felt in the throes of my grieving. I was resenting the whole process. But then, it turned out to be a really beautiful day and it was helpful and healing. And I owed it to the world, almost a right to the wrong for my attitude towards it in the beginning. The song is called “Mama’s Funeral” and it’s on Welder.

What rituals do you have, either in the studio or before a show?

I have a “hard hat” bag! I can get really fussy and anxious right before I go on and dig neurotically for things I think I need. So I made this little bag… it has all the comforts from Advil to throat sprays and drops, a neck and hand massager, extra guitar picks, my lucky rock and some dice.

Photo credit: Electropogram

BGS 5+5: Liz Longley

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Artist: Liz Longley
Hometown: Nashville, Tennessee
Latest album: Funeral For My Past

What was the first moment that you knew you wanted to be a musician?

I grew up in and around music. I was young when I started dreaming of being a singer, but I truly had no idea what it entailed. Despite being shy and introverted, I would sing solos in the middle school choir. At fourteen, I started writing my own music. When I first played an original song, I got a standing ovation from my high school body. That’s a powerful moment for a kid. I knew then that music was what I wanted to do with my life.

How often do you hide behind a character in a song or use “you” when it’s actually “me”?

When it’s about me, I sing it from my perspective. It’s harder for me to connect to it when I’m hiding in character. But, I usually have one or two songs per record written from another person’s perspective. Getting outside of my own story and my own perspective can be very liberating. On my latest record, “Long Distance” was not written about my life specifically. Using lyrics to basically design a set in which to tell a story is a great exercise in creativity.

Which artist has influenced you the most … and how?

Joni Mitchell is always my answer to that question. I was listening to Blue non-stop as I started writing my own music. Listening to Blue taught me that if you have a great song, you don’t need to dress it up much. A great song, a beautiful voice and a guitar still get me every time.

What’s your favorite memory from being on stage?

After ten straight years of touring, I have been lucky to experience so many wonderful things on stage. As far as favorite shows go, I’d probably choose one of the last shows I played pre-COVID. It was February and I was headlining The Bluebird Cafe here in Nashville, Tennessee. The show was an intimate celebration, packed with people I love who flew in from all around the country. That night kicked off a whole weekend spent with twenty Kickstarter donors who made Funeral For My Past possible. It was the kind of togetherness that I really miss these days.

What rituals do you have, either in the studio or before a show?

A good little vocal warm-up always calms me down and helps me prepare for shows/singing in the studio. The one I do now involves blowing into a straw that is in a cup of water. It’s not annoying at all for anyone who has to hear it. 😉

Photo credit: Kate Rentz

BGS 5+5: Elliott BROOD

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Artist: Elliott BROOD
Hometown: Windsor, Ontario
Latest album: Keeper

Answers provided by Casey Laforet

What was the first moment that you knew you wanted to be a musician?

I’m not sure there was ever really a moment for me, to be honest. I started playing guitar in high school (because of Nirvana like so many other kids of that time) I always liked playing, but I never really considered a career at it as a viable option. I’m still not sure that it is! For the first few years of the band as a duo, it was all just for fun and we both worked full time jobs. Things started taking off for us and we had to leave full time work to tour. I think I knew it was going to be a career on our first tour of Europe. That made it all seem very pro.

What’s the toughest time you ever had writing a song?

Some songs seem to just fall out of you and others are definitely harder to pull out of the air or wherever the ideas come from. The song “Northern Air” was a tough one as it involves the death of a friend. The song (chords, melody, etc.) was already written as a breakup song called “Goodbye” about an ex-girlfriend with different lyrics, but at some point it mutated into “Northern Air” which is the story of an annual camping trip taken to visit the memorial spot of a very dear friend. Twenty years ago we brought a mailbox (which was involved in the car accident that killed him) up into the forest in northern Ontario. Over the last 20 years we’ve gone up there to visit him. It took a while to get everything right with that song because of the personal subject matter. I agonized over it probably more than any other song thus far anyways…

What rituals do you have, either in the studio or before a show?

It kind of depends on the show. One thing I don’t do is eat within 2-3 hours of a show. I play better when I’m hungry. I usually take a post-soundcheck walk for about an hour to check out whatever town we’re in. A lot of times I’ll go find some random bar and grab a drink and hang with some locals for an hour. Those can be fun and informative times. I actually bought a folding bike I’d like to use someday if touring ever comes back.

Since food and music go so well together, what is your dream pairing of a meal and a musician?

That’s a pretty good question. I can guarantee it would be a Mexican restaurant, that’s for sure. It goes Mexican, Vietnamese, Italian in my book. As for the musician, my number one would be Levon Helm. He’s probably my biggest musical hero. I’ve read and watched everything there is to read and watch about the man and he just seems fascinating to me both as a musician and just as a person. I had the opportunity to see “The Ramble” at his farm in Woodstock the year before he died. Garth Hudson was the special guest that night. That was the coolest thing I’ve ever seen. Tequila and tacos with Levon would be my pick.

How often do you hide behind a character in a song or use “you” when it’s actually “me”?

I think I do that a lot. I think we always try to be as universal as possible. We like to leave it up to the listener. I definitely draw from my own life and experiences but it’s never direct. A lot of times a song may seem biographical but is actually put together from a lot of unrelated experiences. We’re more of a storytelling band. I’ve always loved that kind of songwriting like from The Band or Dylan or Neil, just being able to become different characters and be their voice. That’s always the goal in our book even if the songs are personal ones.

 

BGS 5+5: Native Harrow

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Artist: Native Harrow (Devin Tuel and Stephen Harms)
Hometown: Just outside of Philadelphia
Latest album: Closeness
Personal nicknames (or rejected band names): A good band name we didn’t use is “Tuel & Harms.” As for personal nicknames, well, those are secret and too embarrassing to share.

Answers provided by Devin Tuel

Which artist has influenced you the most … and how?

Though I could list about 50 artists, I feel the most honest answer is Neil Young. I used to listen to Live at Massey Hall while I rode the M1 bus up and down First Avenue from my college to the Lower East Side. Listening not just to the brilliant songs and guitar playing, but also to the way he held attention, to the way he tuned, to his grumbling, and his storytelling. I was transfixed by that record.

I grew up listening to Neil. My Dad is a huge fan. He took me to see him perform when I was young and I remember being on the edge of my seat the entire show, mouth agape. I felt so electric after seeing that. And thru the many years of my own career I have looked to him for inspiration, for guts when I can’t find mine, and for a “What would Neil do?” approach to difficult situations. He seems to have a reverence for nature that I share and I have always felt he could appreciate an open field just as I do.

What’s your favorite memory from being on stage?

This past year and much of 2019 we have been in the UK more than the States supporting our release of Happier Now with Loose. We have played in so many beautiful spaces and met many wonderful people. These are some of our favorite memories of touring to date. And in January we played a sold-out show at Paper Dress Vintage in London during the Americana UK Fest, and as I was singing the opening notes of our first song, “Can’t Go On Like This,” I realized there were people in the audience singing along with me. If any musician ever says they don’t care about that, they’re lying. It’s the most special, heartwarming, exciting thing ever. Someone loves your song enough that they want to sing with you. That’s the best.

What other art forms — literature, film, dance, painting, etc — inform your music?

I grew up dancing — I was a ballerina with a Pennsylvania-based ballet company for about 13 years. So since a very young age I have been exposed to theatre life and the world of the performing arts. I still find seeing ballet so moving I often end up in tears. The classical music I grew up dancing to feels deeply rooted in my muscles and bones. It is so evocative of human emotion and passion and can take your spirit on such a journey. I think that is something we are always trying to achieve with our albums. We want to take you on a journey where the listener is transported away for a while and when the last notes ring out, you are slightly changed by what you’ve just experienced.

Certainly poetry has long been an art form that I have drawn inspiration from. I am deeply connected to nature and thus very moved by the poetry of the natural world — Whitman, Wordsworth, Frost, Keats, etc.

Which elements of nature do you spend the most time with and how do those impact your work?

Stephen and I take two walks daily that wind up and down the rolling hills near our home, past fields of sweet grass and hay, dense forest, and old farm houses. Whether the sun is shining or grey clouds and rain accompany us, it’s so necessary to turn off and just be in nature. I am always making a reference to the weather, the season, or birds on several songs on each album we’ve made. The song “Turn Turn” on Closeness begins with “Turn, turn, watch the weeks go by, moving slowly ‘cross the field ‘til the grass is greener….”

I have written poetry for over a decade and almost all of it is nature-based! There is endless inspiration and it is ever-changing, full of life and full of mystery.

How often do you hide behind a character in a song or use “you” when it’s actually “me”?

Hardly ever! I am honest when it is about me. Which for better or for worse has kept our songs raw and truthful. The best material I have to draw from is that which is stirring in my own heart and before my own eyes. So I try to tell it honestly and rarely rely on fiction to save my face.

Photo credit: Parri Thomas