Tag: 5+5

BGS 5+5: The Carolyn Sills Combo

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Artist: The Carolyn Sills Combo
Hometown: Santa Cruz, California
Latest album: Return to El Paso
Personal nicknames (or rejected band names): None that are fit to print

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

Literature greatly influences my songwriting. I love the written word, love the endless possibilities of alliteration, puns, double entendres… it’s a thrill to craft a song that doesn’t give itself away on the first listen. I’ve written a few songs based on the work of authors that had an effect on me when I was younger. On our last album, Dime Stories, Vol. 2, we put e.e. cummings’ “Buffalo Bill’s” to music.

Our upcoming release, Return to El Paso, is a collection of songs written about the main characters of Marty Robbins’ “El Paso” off his Gunfighter Ballads and Trail Songs album. I’ve always been fascinated with back stories and motivation… those characters that play a role in an event, but aren’t the main focus. Like where did the horse come from that Marty steals as he runs out the back of Rosa’s Cantina? And who was the ranger that shot him down at the end of the song?

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

I learned early on that the best ritual to have is no ritual. For a short time, I refused to eat before singing Patsy Cline, after enchilada-burping during “Sweet Dreams” one time… but then I learned if you don’t eat before the show, the kitchen will probably be closed after. In the past I’ve had some rituals like warming up, using the restroom, having a shot of whiskey, but life happens and each show is unique, so unless you’re willing to warm up while having a shot of whiskey on the can with two minutes until showtime, it’s best to just let it all happen, and not tie the success of your performance to any rituals.

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

Can we consider my dog, Cowboy, an element of nature? He is a force to be reckoned with. I spend the most time with him, and he’s definitely impacted my songwriting. A lot of melodies and lyrics were written on our walks along the Monterey Bay or in the redwoods. I think we’re all having trouble these days allowing ourselves to get lost from time to time. It’s hard to resist wanting to fill a free moment by checking your phone, as we’re getting more and more trained to need constant stimulus. The best ideas pop into my head when I’m not distracted, not doing anything but being receptive to what’s around me. I used to have more of this time when I lived in a city, and walked a ton or took trains every day. Now that time is harder to come by, and Cowboy is my sherpa to those needed moments.

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

If there are no limits to this question, my dream pairing would be eating pasta “fazool” followed by a banana split while being serenaded by Dean Martin and Louis Prima.

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

My mission is to write as many meaningful songs as possible, that provide a welcome soundtrack for people, and are genuine to who I am; to always experience the collective enthusiasm of playing in a band setting, bouncing off others’ ideas and interpretations; to see as much of the world as possible with my wonderful combo through touring; to end up, in my 80s, playing 1940s country music every taco Tuesday in some small town with my guitarist husband, Gerard Egan.

Photo credit: RR Jones

BGS 5+5: Catherine MacLellan

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Artist: Catherine MacLellan
Hometown: Baie-Egmont, Prince Edward Island, Canada
Latest album: Coyote

Which artist has influenced you the most … and how?

If I couldn’t include my dad, then I would say Joni Mitchell. But truly, the artist that has influenced me the most is my father, Gene MacLellan. He wrote such songs as “Snowbird” and “Put Your Hand in The Hand.” He died when I was 14. Learning his songs and sharing his life story over these last few years has taught me so much about him, but also about the art of songwriting. As a kid I would watch him constantly with guitar, pen and paper — always editing, jotting down ideas, working out songs. That work ethic plus the singability and melodic structures of his songs have taught me all I need to know.

What’s your favorite memory from being on stage?

It’s hard to choose one favourite moment, there have been so many. From unexpected collaborations to beautiful settings or amazing connections with audiences. But if I have to choose one… I remember my first tour to the UK. It was my first trip that far from home and I had left my young daughter, Isabel, with my mom. I was feeling very homesick and far away from Isabel. I was touring with two other artists and when we entered the Bell Pub in Bath it was noisy and chaotic.

I felt depressed and frustrated that we had to play a loud bar. I really just wanted to go home. I offered to play first, so I could just get it over with. But then, as soon as I hit my first chord on the guitar, the entire crowd turned towards me and you could hear a pin drop. They were one of the most attentive audiences I have ever experienced and very forthright with their love for the music we were playing. It was such a switch of gears for my head and heart, it reminded me to have faith in hard times.

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

I remember being in high school and everyone always asking “What are you going to do with your life?” I tried so many times to pick a practical career that also included creativity. Nothing ever seemed to stick. Music, though, was a constant companion and songwriting (as a severely shy kid) was my voice to the world. Music seemed to pick me, rather than me deciding. As far as a career choice, I did have to make a decision when I was still a fledgling artist and about to become a single mother. I decided to keep going with my music career, despite knowing it would be challenging to do both well. My daughter is now 14 and I feel like it was all worth it; she is amazing and I am still making a living at music as well as making a life at home.

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

I recently promised a young girl that I would write her a song for her birthday. What should have been an easy project turned into painstaking research and a “try, try again” approach. By the time it was finished, and I shared it with her, I was happy with the song. Part of the problem for me was the pressure of doing a good job, as I knew how much it meant to her. It created a real roadblock for my creativity.

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

I live rurally, so nature influences just about every one of my songs. Where I write I can look out over a big field that leads to a river, and if I’m outside I can hear the sounds of the ocean, birds, and the wind through the grass or over the snow. These elements seep into everything I write.

Photo credit: Millefiore Clarkes

BGS 5+5: Jeremy Ivey

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Artist: Jeremy Ivey
Hometown: Still looking for it
Latest Album: The Dream and the Dreamer
Nickname: Jivey
Old band names: The Lunar Ticks, Riverbottom, and Horse Sense.

Which artist has influenced you the most … and how?

I was influenced early on by poetry. Poets like T.S. Eliot, Poe, Dickinson, Keats… all those ones you get exposed to in high school. I put a tune to Longfellow’s “The Fire of Driftwood” And would play and sing it. Later I got into the Beats and that really twisted my head in the best way. After that it was Bob Dylan, Joni Mitchell, Leonard Cohen and all the song poets.

What’s your favorite memory from being on stage?

The first time I got to join John Prine for “Paradise” and more recently, I did my first encore. That was surreal.

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

I think of everything as an influence. I mean, when I was a toddler I watched Captain Kangaroo, when I was 9 my uncle was struck by lightning, when I was in high school I had a deep infatuation with a girl I was invisible to. That’s all living art and I think it affects the art we in turn make. Film is definitely important because of dialogue. There’s dialogue in songs too. I like Sam Peckinpah.

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

I’m still not sure I want to. It’s more of a calling I guess…a nervous twitch I can’t seem to shake

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

Oh I don’t know, I probably blocked it out. I try not to try when comes to writing. There’s no bigger drag than hitting that high stone wall of effort over inspiration. I try to stay inspired period. If it’s not happening in a song I’ll go find it in nature or in a book.

BGS 5+5: Charlie Parr

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Artist: Charlie Parr
Hometown: Duluth, Minnesota
Latest album: Charlie Parr
Personal nicknames: Jeff, my actual first name. My mom calls me Jeff.

Which artist has influenced you the most … and how?

Koerner, Ray & Glover have probably had the biggest impact on me as a musician, and it’s hard to put into words exactly how. When I moved to Minneapolis in the ’80s there was so much amazing music everywhere you looked and each scene had a certain vibe to it, from jazz, funk, the beginning of whatever they were calling alt-country then, punk, hardcore to the incredibly unique West Bank folk/blues scene. I loved it all, but I lived on the West Bank and that sound that K,R&G made either together or in their parts (K and/or R and/or G) changed my life.

What’s your favorite memory from being on stage?

I’ve been lucky to have had mostly good and great experiences performing; there are so many nights that stand out it’s hard to say I have a favorite. This summer an audience in Bozeman, Montana, threw flowers on stage after my set and it really made me happy. Normally I just want to play and that’s the primary mover, but when I feel like an audience likes what I’ve done and responds with that kind of love it’s just about the most amazing thing I’ve ever felt.

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

I read a lot, mostly novels and short stories, some history and biographies, a little philosophy, and that all goes into the pot. I go to galleries when I can, and occasionally see a film, but not as often as I’d like. Everything tends to influence the music.

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

I drink a little coffee, walk a little if there’s time and room, or at least pace. I like to warm up on the guitar if there’s a place to do that. I also really like spending time in the venue, I like to see who else is playing and meet some folks who came to the show.

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

I live near Lake Superior, which is a powerful force up here for everyone, and I really like getting to go walking near the lake. When I’m on the road and there’s time I like to walk wherever there’s water; it grounds me and gives me a sense of balance.

BGS 5+5: Tow’rs

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Artist: Tow’rs
Hometown: Flagstaff, Arizona
New Album: New Nostalgia

Which artist has influenced you the most … and how?

Kyle Miller: There have been so many artists I have placed on the altar of my adoration over the years. One seemed to keep rising above all the rest as I kept reflecting. Without a doubt, Jeff Tweedy has sat the longest on the above-mentioned altar. My first interaction with Wilco was my freshman year of college. A friend with extremely pretentious taste in music drove me around in his Subaru Outback blasting Sky Blue Sky. To be honest I didn’t get it at first. I didn’t even like it. I remember I bought it and had it in my car because I felt that as someone who enjoyed music I better damn well like Wilco, haha.

The years went on and Tow’rs started to become more of a realized job for me in my life. My wife and I had two kids all the while juggling our music career and family life on and off the road (as we continue to do). On our first tour my manager Paul was driving and was listening to Sky Blue Sky. I can remember being so blown away by the record in a way that I hadn’t before. The timing of it was perfect and it became mine. Since then, give or take five years ago, I’ve studied Jeff and his work. I’ve listened to him talk about family and music, process, mental health and band dynamics. All the while taking notes and applying it to our band and my own life.

Wilco and Jeff’s solo stuff has become a weekly part of my listening experience, but in a deeper way he has been a voice that I look to for advice. While writing our record New Nostalgia I listened to Jeff’s memoir Let’s Go (So We Can Get Back). I found a sense of peace while writing because of that memoir that I have always wanted permission to have, but didn’t know if I could. The way Jeff talked about the way he interacts with his work set me free and gave me permission for whatever reason to explore and not be sad when I was writing. As a result I think we wrote the best record we’ve ever made. I’m grateful for his vulnerability and I hope in my own way to share myself as he does.

What’s your favorite memory from being on stage?

My favorite memory on stage was in Bryan, Texas a few years ago. We were opening for a band called Seryn. The room was sold out and I was so nervous waiting backstage I thought I was gonna throw up. When we took the stage the crowd was so kind and inviting. Throughout the show I could at times hear them singing our songs more than I could hear myself in the monitor. There was electricity in the air that felt like we were all one.

On our last song I had a string break right before a really important drop on the song. The band saw it break and kept playing the build to the drop while I switched guitars. I stripped my guitar off and grabbed my spare and plugged it in as fast as I could and came in on the one of the drop with the band. The crowd lost their minds and my guitar sounded terrible the rest of the song. Everybody was laughing and clapping.

It reminded me not to take myself so serious. I think that moment was my fave because I struggled so hard to not beat myself up about shows the first couple years we toured. I’ve searched to find that tension that what we do is important to an extent, but that when I take myself too seriously I suck to be around. I’m also not convinced it makes me better to self-deprecate in that way. What we get to do is so fun and I hold it with open hands because I know it’s not for forever. I treasure those moments where you remember the absurdity and gratefulness and hard work all in the same space.

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

I played violin and piano starting at around 5. There was never a year I had during elementary, middle and high school where I wasn’t learning music in some way. Looking back, the moment I felt I took ownership over my own journey in that was when my grandpa took me to see the Phoenix Symphony when I was 10. I remember we had balcony seats at the symphony hall and my grandpa took each step really careful getting up the stairs. We sat in our seats and listened to the symphony start to tune. My grandpa sat back in his seat and closed his eyes until the symphony started.

Once they started he put his hands up and puppeted the conductor and the music took over his body. You could see his face wincing and his toothpick on the corner of his mouth dancing around. I couldn’t stop staring at him. It was like watching a group of people laugh at a joke you don’t get. You want to understand it so bad. It was the first time I realized music had this involuntary effect on people who need it and let it in. It sent me down the songwriter’s path on how to capture that in a way that could accompany people in their life and mine like the symphony did and still does for my grandpa.

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

I try to get out trail running in the pine trees every week here in Flagstaff. Especially while I am in a season of writing for a record. I had heard a story a while back about “runners high” which is essentially this endorphin rush you get from dipping into certain parts of your body’s energy only accessible through intense aerobic exercise. There were these stories of crazy mental clarity after running that I tried to use as a tool while writing. And it totally worked… maybe it was just a placebo, but either way it worked.

I would go out on the mesa next to our house (which, fun fact, is where they discovered Pluto) in the middle of the forest and run and stop when I got an idea, as well as sit down and “ride the high” when I got home in the studio. We live at seven thousand feet with amazing views, mountains, and everything that comes with that terrain. We also get four seasons here so you’re always aware how fast time is moving because nature is postmarking it. I feel like nature, specifically the forest, has influenced my writing more than anything.

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

I’ve tried to create a discipline around reading both poetry and literature in my life. I watched that documentary a while back Jiro Dreams of Sushi and he had a line in it about how he gives his employees the best sushi, the same kind they try and serve their customers. He said that’s because he doesn’t believe you can make good sushi without knowing what it tastes like. Pretty simple and obvious, but I’ve tried to apply reading other people’s work I respect into my life for the same reason.

How can I be a good poet if I don’t read good poetry? I recognize this is subjective to an extent. Lately, I’ve been enamored with Steinbeck as well as Leif Enger from a literary standpoint. The poets who have most informed me have been Dickinson, Rilke and Wendell Berry. I’ve also really enjoyed Abraham Heschel’s words and meditations. There’s something about finding a poem or book that scoops a truth out of you that you’ve always tried to find the words for, but couldn’t. I think that moment is why I keep writing.

BGS 5+5: Ben Morrison

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Artist: Ben Morrison
Hometown: Oakland, California
Latest Album: Old Technology
Personal Nicknames (or rejected nicknames): Bunjo, Murray, Snowflake

Which artist has influenced you the most and how?

I’d have to say Huey Lewis might be my all-time favorite artist. His was the first music I ever bought for myself when I was a kid and I always admired his music and his outlook on performing. I saw an interview with him a while back and he talks about how lucky he was to get a break and had some hit songs, but if he hadn’t he said he’d still be playing his harmonica and singing in bars every night.

I really loved that outlook and his passion for playing music. Not to mention he wrote some great tunes…and that voice! I had the honor of meeting him a couple years back at a festival up in Canada. A band I play in called The Brothers Comatose covered one of his songs and it turned out he really loved our version. They got us tickets and backstage passes to their show and we got to hang with them afterward. He and his whole band couldn’t have been nicer dudes and their show was amazing.

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

This isn’t the toughest time I had writing a song but it’s definitely the oddest and most serendipitous. I had been working on this song (“I Hope You’re Not Sorry,” from this album) about a stalker that I had that all of a sudden stopped coming to our shows and how I surprisingly felt wrecked by it. I thought writing a song about losing your stalker to someone else was kind of funny and I had a couple verses but was stuck.

It wasn’t until I traveled across the world and was playing a festival in Australia, where I was hanging at the bar after our show and met a musician, that I finished the song. We got to talking at the bar and he’s like, “Let’s be Facebook friends,” and when he pulled out his phone and plugged in my name he looked at me and said, “We have a mutual friend,” with a freaked out look on his face. Turns out my ex-stalker had become his new stalker. Right there I got the bridge to my song…but I had to go halfway across the world to find it.

What’s your favorite memory from being on stage?

My fondest memory of being on stage is playing Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival several years back. We had a great time slot on a Saturday afternoon playing to around 20,000 people and as I looked out into the crowd, I saw that it was littered with familiar faces from old co-workers and teachers I had back in elementary school, family and friends that I hadn’t seen in forever and tons of people were singing along to the words of our songs. It was such a beautiful moment that will be seared into my brain forever.

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

My mom was in a band when I was a kid and my brother and I used to sit and watch them rehearse all the time. That was the first seed that was planted. But it wasn’t until I was a young teenager and my parents took me to a holiday party at a local recording studio called Prairie Sun Recording and a bunch of musicians showed up, not knowing each other, and just started playing songs together and that was magic to me. I wanted to be able to do that and I knew right then and there that being a musician is what I wanted to do with my life.

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

I have two things that I always do before a live show and people think it’s weird but it feels great to me. I always like to brush my teeth before I go onstage. Singing a lot dries my mouth out and brushing before I hop up for a show gives me that clean and fresh feeling. I also like to breathe in steam before singing at a show — it really helps lube up the ol’ vocal cords for singing. I carry a collapsible water kettle with me and before I go on stage you can usually find me with my face over that thing breathing in deeply.

Photo credit: Michael Bonocore

BGS 5+5: Amy Speace

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Artist: Amy Speace
Hometown: originally from Baltimore, Maryland. Currently lives in Nashville, Tennessee.
Latest album: Me and the Ghost of Charlemagne

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

I remember from way back, because I started playing piano at age 3 (or so the story goes) and started formal lessons at 5, that I could disappear into my own world at the piano, inside the sound. I didn’t understand it but inside music was always this safe space for me.

So it’s hard to pinpoint when I wanted “to be” a musician because my earliest memories are that I was a musician. I just understood music from the start. Not that I didn’t have to work and practice, but it just made sense to me. So I’d chase that feeling back to being too short for my feet to hit the pedals practicing scales on my grandmother’s black upright piano.

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

Definitely all forms of storytelling. I didn’t write a song until I was about 28 but all through my childhood, I wrote poetry and stories and plays. I drew and painted. I read everything I could get my hands on. In college, I was a dual major in English and Theater and got obsessed with Shakespeare, Performance Art and Avant Garde Theater and Improv Comedy.

Then I went to NYC after college to study classical acting at The National Shakespeare Conservatory for two years and for the first time in my life started going to art museums and got lost in the big physical paintings of Pollock and Rothko. I lived in the Lower East Side and in Greenwich Village and really really loved living in that kind of Bohemia in my 20s.

I worked three jobs, one of which was as Lainie Kazan’s assistant on Broadway and in her cabaret shows, where I got the chance to meet so many legends of the theater. I hung out with dancers and clowns and actors and musicians and poets and we were all broke and idealistic and scrappy and I went to every show, every concert, every happening I could talk my way into.

I mean, there’s not really an art form out there that hasn’t moved me to tears and to want to create something of my own in response, from seeing Sondheim on Broadway to a poetry slam in the Lower East Side to my friend dancing burlesque. It all kind of informs whatever soup is all up there in my head, processing the pictures and the emotions and the memories. But when it gets down to pen on paper and crafting a song, I think that’s when film is really my guide: I think like a director/screenwriter/playwright. What’s the entry point in the story? What do you see out there? What’s the landscape like.

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

Easy. That will be the next one I write after I finish this one I’m working on. Because it’s always like starting over at the beginning and I go through all the fears that I’ll never write another good song again and I’ll just sink into the ocean of bad cliches and stolen melodies.

What’s your favorite memory from being on stage?

Probably the earliest, honestly. I was in 8th grade, Curtin Middle School in Williamsport, Pennsylvania. I was a very awkward, permed hair, 14-year-old. Bookworm, nerd, and not really that cool. I had joined chorus for the first time (I didn’t think I was a good singer) because my best friend Laura was a good singer and convinced me to join.

The end of the year the choir did a musical theater revue. I was kind of a class ham, very theatrical, did all the accents, and the choir director gave me a solo doing “Adelaide’s Lament” from Guys and Dolls because I could fake a good thick Bronx accent. I will honestly never forget how I felt when I stepped out onstage and the lights were on me and I disappeared into this character. It felt like the crowd roared and I got a standing ovation and the next day was like a freaking Christmas parade…

I went from being the new kid at school to everyone looking at me as if for the first time. The choir director took me aside and really encouraged me to study voice. She said, “I hear something in there…I think that you have a gift.” And literally, from that moment on, I knew I wanted to be onstage singing. I literally felt like I’d found myself that night.

I’ve had incredible stage moments, like being onstage at Town Hall in NYC opening for Nanci Griffith to a sold-out crowd — and you could hear a pin drop. To playing Gruene Hall with Guy Clark a few years before he died. To the first festival stage I was on at Glastonbury a few years back. Even to some incredible house concerts and small clubs. But that first time, it’s still so present to me, that I think that’s my favorite memory because it was when I first felt that I knew something true about myself.

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

Fascinating question. I don’t hide. I bring me into all the he’s and she’s and they’s and you’s in my song. If I don’t understand the characters’ passion, their desire, I can’t write it. So there’s got to be some autobiography in there, even if it’s masked by someone else’s story, even if it just creeps through two words in a bridge.

If I only wrote about my life and what was going on with me, literally, well, I’d have a short catalogue of songs because my life isn’t that interesting to sustain a career of writing about it. I don’t have time to hike the Himalayas or to be the captain of a ship. I’ve got a 16-month-old and an album coming out and I’ve got to get posters out and keep up with FaceTwittInstaHell. I’m tired. All the time.

Plus I have songs that need to get out and I have literally only the 30 minutes when my son may be napping to get a chorus idea down. So I have to find stories in newspapers or thieve parts of conversations I overhear or steal what you say that rhymes that you don’t even hear the rhyme. I’m always listening for ‘language of lyric’ to show up in my life and then, if I’m lucky and I can catch it, I keep it in a notebook for those naptime writing sessions.

So I may not let on that the “you” is actually “me” but it’s always a little bit of me.

Photo credit: Neilson Hubbard

BGS 5+5: Ana Egge

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Artist: Ana Egge
Hometown: Brooklyn-based, by way of North Dakota
Latest album: Is It the Kiss

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

Well it might go back to my first concert seeing Willie Nelson at the North Dakota State Fair when I was 5 or 6. My parents and their friends all listened to his records. We had a poster on the wall at home with animals wearing cowboy hats that quoted him, saying, “Mama, don’t let your babies grow up to be cowboys.” And I remember sitting up on my dad’s shoulders watching this gentle man with a long braid sing and play the guitar for so many people all singing and smiling along. I lived in Ambrose, North Dakota. A very small town of fifty people. That made a huge impact on me.

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

I love to read. One of the songs on my new record was inspired by Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston, and what a powerful, deeply felt love story it is! The love between Teacake and Janey practically jumps off the page. I’ve just recently had my mind blown by the insane talent of Anton Chekhov and his short stories.

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

That’s a good question. It might be “Bully of New York” from the album Road to My Love. It took me about three years to finish that one. And I knew it was so special from the get-go. Sometimes they take a little while, but I couldn’t figure out how to differentiate between the three characters in the song. It’s a true story about hitching a ride with a park ranger in Central Park in the rain and him sharing his stories of his hard life with me while I was daydreaming of my new girlfriend. So many are silently suffering. Lend an ear and you might just lessen the loneliness for a moment.

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

I’ve always wanted to be an artist and a musician. I’ve always wanted to be a good person and to build and make things and share them with people and maybe, just maybe, bring people together in that. To quote Barry Manilow, “I write the songs that make the whole world sing, I write the songs of love and special things, I write the songs that make the young girls cry, I write the songs, I write the songs.”

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

I like this question. I feel like my head is so often in the clouds that it helps when I slow down. So air, breathing. And earth, when I get grounded or think of being grounded. It is part of the work.

Photo credit: Shervin Lainez

BGS 5+5: Bug Martin

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Artist name: Bug Martin
Hometown: Philadelphia, PA
Latest album: GUTTERBALL
Personal nicknames (or rejected band names): formerly known as Dead Bugs

Which artist has influenced you the most … and how?

Undoubtedly there have been a select few at different points in my life and work, but I’ll say Will Oldham has been a notable influence on me. He occupies a very specific corner of folk, or Americana — or “new weird America” or whatever you want to call it — that can be hard to pin down (as evidenced by the game of horseshoes I just played with genres there). [He] always takes on the task of exploring sound in unique ways.

The first record of his I ever heard was I See a Darkness, the title track of which Johnny Cash later did a version of with him. I listened to I See a Darkness at the recommendation of a friend and didn’t like it for a long time. I’d walk around at work with it playing in my headphones just having an all-around bad time; but there was something about it that continued to draw me back. I’d be thinking about what that unnameable glinting thing was way too much while I was listening to it. Eventually I learned to lean back and appreciate the joy of not knowing the answer.

Years later, I got to meet Will and heard him give a lecture to a very intimate crowd, maybe only 30 people, about topics like what songs are, the songwriting/recording process, and live performance. I asked him a question I had been pondering a while and he gave me an unsatisfying answer. Brought me right back to where I’d originally found him and that initial journey of un-learning and for that I’m forever grateful.

What’s your favorite memory from being on stage?

In the town I grew up in there were lots of loud and lively bands. It’s the common plight of the up-and-coming acoustic act; show up to a bar or venue and play your heart out while folks zone out or talk over you. I always saw all these electric bands come through town that tried to command attention through volume and were also unsuccessful and it got me to thinking.

The next time I played, I brought a few power strips and as many electronics as I could fit in the car — I’m talking toasters, Christmas decorations, a TV looping a muted Looney Tunes VHS while I was playing… pretty much anything that I had in my house at the time to spare. I plugged all of it in around me and turned everything on while I was playing. It was probably the quietest that place had ever been as a room full of people collectively tried to figure out what was going on.

A thunderstorm rolled in and the whole room was pretty much dark and silent except for the glow of all these unnecessary electric props and what I was singing. After the set was over, people came up and talked to me about things they had just noticed in those same songs that I had played a dozen or so times in that same venue. I was glad they were able to be mindful of something going on in front of them and connect with live music. I was gladder still that I didn’t short out the entire fuse box mid-set.

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

My job is to be a conduit for whatever stories the ghosts around us have to tell. When I’m presented with an idea from wherever it is thoughts come from, I can give my opinion on it in a song but that doesn’t mean I can claim any ownership or that the story is mine. Thoughts don’t belong to or define the thinker.

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

My partner is a very talented abstract painter, so our studio space and home are full of visual works. In the past we’ve collaborated on work where, say, the title of a song will be the inspiration for a painting or I’ll meditate on a piece of theirs and try to capture feelings that the colors or forms stir up. It’s a great exercise to shake up patterns you fall into as an artist.

Besides that, I’m a film buff and a fairly avid reader. I had the pleasure of working recently with a friend of mine who is a dancer to create choreography to a song off of GUTTERBALL. Basically I have no allegiance to any specific medium of expression and recognize that inspiration is everywhere if I have the good sense to accept it.

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

Living? I’d happily make brunch for Alice Gerrard any day she’d let me. All-time? I’d take the Carter Family out for ice cream.

Photo credit: Mia Fiorentino

BGS 5+5: Elaina Kay

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Artist: Elaina Kay
Hometown: Wichita Falls, Texas
Latest album: Issues
Personal nicknames (or rejected band names): Laines, EK

What’s your favorite memory from being on stage?

The first thing that comes to mind for some reason is being on stage when I was 10 years old. One of my first times on stage and my whole family was there. I was singing to a tape, yes a cassette tape. All of a sudden it just stopped in the middle of my song. The MC quickly got it playing again as he joked about it.

From that moment I learned how to smile and recover. It reminds me of life. Show business is a lot like that. It’s not a steady path or always perfect, but that is what made me fall in love with it. That is what made me know nothing could keep me off that stage.

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

The toughest time I ever had writing a song was when I wrote about my biological father. It really was a small memory I buried back into the back of my brain, but that’s how I knew it had to be written. That is why I write. To overcome something, to have more of an understanding, or just to get close to it for a while so I become at peace with it. That is what I did with that song, even though it was uncomfortable.

It was also hard because I got a lot of resentment and hate from people who didn’t like the story I told in the song. I was even afraid to put it out for a while. Then I realized this is MY story, MY song. I didn’t start writing to only sing about the happy times. That isn’t genuine. I am real, and I want real listeners, real fans. It can be difficult taking that risk.

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

I grew up on a working cattle farm and ranch. My favorite days are the ones I get to be horseback. There isn’t a better way to connect with nature in my opinion, than being on a live animal, in the country. I was fortunate enough to spend many days working side by side with my family on the ranch, and also competing in cutting competitions and rodeo. Farming and ranching is a lifestyle, just like music is a lifestyle. My music has greatly been impacted and inspired by it, and always will be. I think about being on horseback every single day.

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

I love watching and listening to stand-up comedy. The good ones are brilliant. It’s about writing, but the delivery is so important. Just like music.

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

BEAR DOWN.

Photo Credit: Cal Quinn & Aly Faye