Tag: 5+5

BGS 5+5: Kirby Brown

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Artist: Kirby Brown
Hometown: Nashville, Tennessee (by way of New York City; Dallas; Sulphur Springs, Texas; and Damascus, Arkansas).
Latest album: Uncommon Prayer + new EP, Dream Songs out June 7, 2019
Personal nicknames: Kirbs, KB, Corbin Biscuits (hi, Matty!)

Which artist has influenced you the most … and how?

I could never narrow it down that far, so [I’ll] touch on a few here. Joni Mitchell, for her ability to be raw and personal while simultaneously touching on something emotionally universal. Townes Van Zandt, because nobody else could make plain language sound so sacred. I love Randy Newman for the juxtaposition of his complex sense of character development with the simple familiarity of his melodies. John Prine is the master of using levity to disarm you in one line, only to jab the dagger through your heart in the next. All of these have made a lasting impact on my approach to the song craft, but I could go on and on. Of course, I probably can’t escape the influence of my musical surroundings growing up: country gospel, ‘90s alternative, the radio.

What’s your favorite memory from being on stage?

My friend Dylan LeBlanc took me as solo support on his European tour in Fall 2017. There were several “wow” moments on that tour, but I specifically remember a show at Pustervik in Gothenburg, Sweden. The venue was perfect, the sound was on point, and the audience and I just felt like we had something special going on. It was one of many magical moments on that run. There’s something to be said for European audiences’ capacity to tune in and really “go there” with you. I’m so thankful for that, and I’m looking for any excuse or opportunity to go back.

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

After my parents split up, I’d only see my father every so often. He’d gone back to college as an English major and (I think) rediscovered a lost interest in literature, specifically poetry. For that reason, many of our visits would come back to whatever he was reading at that time. He gave me Norton’s Anthology of Poetry when I was nine years old, and so began a lifelong journey with language and how we use it. I’m still walking down that road — this year’s focus has been Maxine Kumin, Donald Hall, and Anna Karenina. Film-wise, I once went through a period when I was trying to learn a second language and watched only Spanish-language films for a year. I found one of the songs I recorded on my new EP in an Almodóvar film, and it has haunted me ever since. Lately it’s been Westerns by John Ford. I digress… I guess we’ll save painters for our second date.

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

Aren’t they all tough? Not really, I guess they do come fast and easy sometimes. Still, the longer I do this the more pressingly I feel the need to filter myself. This is for the best I’m sure, but it does make the writing slower and more arduous. I carried around the phrase “a Playboy for the interviews, a Bible for the maps” for the last three or four years. I don’t even know why, maybe I thought it was funny? Anyway, it only recently found a home in “Little Miss” from the new Dream Songs EP. I don’t even know if it works. Either way, at least I’m not toting it around anymore.

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

All the time, honestly. I approach most everything I write like it’s fiction: made-up characters and stories, some conversation I heard in passing, etc. But somewhere along the way it almost always ends up being me or someone I know or some synthesis of all the above. Still, I don’t think it’s hiding, maybe it’s just a very effective trick I keep playing on myself. Mark Twain has a quote attributed to him about “not letting the truth get in the way of a good story.” I tend to believe that it’s best to not let a little fiction stand in the way of the truth — even if it’s the hard truth about yourself you weren’t ready to hear.

Photo credit: Jacqueline Justice

BGS 5+5: Frankie Lee

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Artist: Frankie Lee
Hometown: Pampa, Texas
Latest album: Stillwater
Personal nicknames: frankly, Frank Ely, bolo

Which artist has influenced you the most … and how?

My mother. Anyone who can raise three children on their own, work in public health and provide a foundation for free thought and exploration is going to an influence you. She also makes time for music as a spiritual extension of our souls and sings from her experiences. Unlike most parents of today who hand their kids phones and let them listen to garbage all day and buy them Beyoncé tickets to make up for their non-present parenting styles. She showed us a way into music and it wasn’t through a screen or a wallet

What’s your favorite memory from being on stage?

I once sang “Let’s Get It On” in a biker bar outside Missoula, Montana. Drank for free that night…on the house, let me tell ya. You want an honest reaction to drunk divorcees butchering classic songs, you don’t have to go to Tokyo, you go to the Chug n Loaf outside Missoula, Montana.

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

I like comedy. I like what comedy brings out in people. The tragedy of life. The weak spirits having truth shoved in their face from the dog dish of life. They cry out in despair and demand censorship and apology. Plus, the sound of laughter is very hard to fake and I feel it brings the heart in people together. Nothing is funnier than the truth, as the saying goes…and the world has become so truly absurd, all one can do is laugh.

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

Any tree or flower or weed that cracks through concrete. I like things that find light, those who reach for something above where they were planted or from what seed they were sown. We’ve tried to cover this country in concrete. There’s a lot on the surface of it…but last night’s vomit will sprayed away, some dead dogs paw prints will be jackhammered to dust, the blood will run into the gutters and the city will crumble back down to dirt.

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

I’d love to be backstage with any of today “stars” and see how they react when they don’t get what they want to eat. I’d love to be in the same room with any “musician” who complains about food when their job is to stand on stage and spin around to a backing track and make more money in a night than an entire hospital staff of nurses do in a year. Perhaps the water is too warm or the vegan wings aren’t dressed right. Maybe someone’s allergic to nuts! Can you imagine what a dream that would be?

BGS 5+5: Carl Anderson

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Artist: Carl Anderson
Hometown: Charlottesville, Virginia
Latest album: You Can Call Me Carl (EP release, May 31)
Personal nicknames (or rejected band names): BIG CARL

Which artist has influenced you the most … and how?

I’m not sure I can point to any one artist as being my main influence. Growing up my mom would listen to folks like James Taylor, Simon & Garfunkel, Joni Mitchell, and a handful of other singer-songwriters. At the same time I was also heavily influenced by what my sister was listening to and that was more along the lines of The Smashing Pumpkins, Rage Against the Machine, Weird Al, The Beatles. Some of it I was really moved by, other stuff not so much, but I took it all in nonetheless.

What’s your favorite memory from being on stage?

I had the opportunity to tour around the United Kingdom and Germany this past August with my friends, Sons of Bill. I would have to say my favorite recent memory of being on stage came during a performance in Munich. I remember really connecting with the audience that night and thinking how special it was that here we were, a couple of Virginia boys far from home playing songs that at one point didn’t exist. That night we got what anyone who does this can really ask for and that is an audience’s undivided attention.

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

I am influenced by all sorts of different art. I like to think of it as all being valuable source material. In the last few years I began painting on a semi-regular basic and have enjoyed learning about different painters throughout history and how they worked. I like that Mark Rothko kept traditional office hours while he worked on the Seagram Murals. I’ve taken to such a schedule with my writing and it has actually worked quite well for me.

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

I remember sitting around with my mom and sister when I was in middle school and listening to the first Nickel Creek record and being moved by the songs. I think it was in that moment that I knew I wanted to try and affect people like that. I had started learning a little guitar prior but hearing that music and getting goosebumps that put fuel on the fire. I was on the path from that point forward.

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

I think my mission is simple. I want to try and write honest songs and be as earnest with people in my performances as I can. I am just a man who, like everyone else, is insecure and looking for love. I feel like I am able to share parts of myself with my music that are otherwise difficult to articulate.

BGS 5+5: The Dead South

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Artist: The Dead South
Hometown: Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada
Latest album: Illusion and Doubt
Personal nicknames (or rejected band names): answers by Colton “Crawdaddy” Crawford

Editor’s Note: Look for The Dead South at the Blue Ox Festival, held June 13-15 in Eau Claire, Wisconsin.

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

We’re all big movie fans. We love Quentin Tarantino, Sergio Leone, Wes Craven, etc. Those guys make awesome movies with killer soundtracks. Scores from films such as these have been a big influence on our music from the start. Having a cello can add an orchestral feel to the band, and we try to arrange our songs to include a lot of instrumental parts. It’s been a dream of the band to write a score for a film someday.

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

Before the show, we get dressed, listen to System of a Down, and maybe enjoy a whiskey or two. Right after we get off stage, we head straight to the green room and listen to Afroman. Then the lineup for the shower begins.

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

I would love to eat a Donair with Tom Waits.

What’s your favorite memory from being on stage?

The scene that always jumps to mind is the first time we ever saw people we didn’t know singing along to our songs. It was a show at the Owl, the university bar in Regina, and there were some people right up front who knew the words to all of the songs. After the show we all asked each other whose friends they were, thinking strangers couldn’t possibly know our music, but they were unknown to everyone in the band.

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

Most of our songs are stories about fictional characters, or sometimes exaggerations of ourselves. We don’t have too many songs, if any, that are meant to be taken literally. As I mentioned earlier, we all love horror and western films, and we draw a lot of inspiration from those films and those characters when writing our songs. We try not to take any of it too seriously and always try to keep an element of comedy (sometimes very dark comedy) in our songs and performances.

Photo credit: Brandon White

BGS 5+5: Gillian Nicola

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Artist: Gillian Nicola
Hometown: Hamilton, Ontario, Canada
Latest album: Dried Flowers
Personal nicknames (or rejected band names): Ginny, Giggy, Giggz

Which artist has influenced you the most … and how?

This is a really tough question for me to pin down, because I am influenced by so many people. Kathleen Edwards is probably my most influential songwriter. I love her storytelling and how easily she can float between fragility and strength. She was one of the first Americana/Canadiana artists I started listening to and I think her music very much shaped the way I think about songwriting. I am also very influenced by genre-fusing artists like Joni Mitchell and Kacey Musgraves.

What’s your favorite memory from being on stage?

Last year, I performed a small house concert in cottage country in Ontario. We performed the concert on a dock and it was a very beautiful, intimate concert — with a nice summer breeze as the sun was setting. That on its own was magical enough. What I didn’t know at first was that while we were playing, boats were pulling up to watch from the lake. It was such a perfect Canadian scene and I will remember that one forever.

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

I don’t remember this one too clearly, but I’m often told this story by my family. When I was about 4, I was at a family friend’s birthday. In a party mostly full of boys who were playing sports and racing around the room, I took out a chair, sat down, and insisted that everybody stop what they were doing, because I was “going to sing for them now.” Music has always been a part of me — it’s not a firm memory, but rather, an inseparable part of who I am.

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

I think open space and the atmosphere of nighttime is a strong part of my work. I sing about the night a fair bit on my new album (“Night Comes to Call” and “Moonshine”) and write the most during the night. There’s also been a lot of influence from water, mostly in terms of writing about space and distance, and how well that’s reflected through bodies of water.

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

I have a very strict policy of never revealing who a song is about and whether or not it’s a personal anecdote or about someone else. Many of my closest friends don’t know who or what I am singing about (though I’m sure many could take a stab at it) and I prefer to keep it private that way. The only song that I’ve written where I explicitly talk about who the character is on “Across the Sea” off of Dried Flowers.

I wrote this song about one of my best friends who moved to London, England, a few years ago. He is the first person I send new songs to and despite the distance, we have remained very close. It was really nice to be able to write a love song for a friend, instead of from a romantic angle. Other than that, everyone will just have to make their own assumptions, which they probably would do anyways even if I confirmed or denied anything.

Photo credit: Jen Squires

BGS 5+5: Ordinary Elephant

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Artist: Ordinary Elephant
Hometown: Austin, Texas (Sort of. We are nomadic, living on the road full-time in our van/travel trailer set up with our dogs.)
Latest album: Honest
Personal nicknames (or rejected band names): Extraordinary Eggplant (given to us by a musician friend from San Antonio)

What is your favorite memory from being on stage?

It’s hard to pick one favorite, but there was a night in San Marcos, Texas, that particularly stands out. There is a little bakery/coffee shop that also hosts music. Rather than being background music in a noisy cafe though, it actually turns into a listening room environment with people gathering around the tiny wooden stage, you know, listening. Before we started, we met an adorable 70-something-year-old couple, both retired teachers, who were the type of folks that immediately make you feel like you’ve known them for years.

In the middle of a song during our first set I look over to see them sitting side-by-side on a bench seat, like mirror images, on the same side of a table whose width was intended for a single person, elbows on the table top and chins resting in their hands, with grandparent-proud smiles, creating a moment that made me smile with every part of myself and also close my eyes to keep from forgetting the words.

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

Tea. Moroccan Mint or Ashwagandha for me (Crystal) and Pau D’Arco for Pete. Ideally in a ceramic mug rather than a paper cup (or glass). It’s not just having the tea, but the pouring of the water and the waiting for it to steep — the whole process. It’s grounding and calming. Once it’s done, it’s nice having something to hold. Having mug of tea also makes any conversations we have with new people feel more like… conversations.

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

Be true, to ourselves and the songs. Tell what needs to be told. Don’t compromise. Do what we do, and we will find our community.

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

We are drawn to two opposite environments — areas full of trees, forests, and mossy dirt paths and the desert (particularly New Mexico and West Texas) — and the mountains they can both have. They are both quiet, but in different ways. Forests have the lack of road and city noise, but the desert is a whole other level. It’s like when the electricity goes out and every background hum stops, but turned up to 11. The quiet lets our brains breathe. I am often hypersensitive to noise and can feel overloaded in a sensory sense in loud situations, so these places let me recharge.

There is more than the quiet though. The life and color in a forest and how clean the air feels–there is just something about being tucked inside this and the trees that feels so comfortable and calming that it’s as if it were a home in a previous life. The sunsets and dark night skies in the desert feel sacred.

We have songs about some of these places (e.g. “Before I Go” and “Thank You” from our previous album, Before I Go), but I think nature most impacts our work by letting us do our work.

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

I think we more often do the opposite. This is a transition from earlier writing though, which I think is probably common–start out writing what you know, your own stories, then expanding to tell others’ stories. We’ve learned to not be afraid of embodying a character that we are not, in order to tell a story how it wants to be told.

Photo credit: Olive and West Photography

BGS 5+5: The Felice Brothers

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Artist: The Felice Brothers
Hometown: Palenville, New York
Failed band name: At first we were ‘The Brothers Felice’ but quickly realized that was really dumb.

Answers by James Felice

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

I really enjoy sitting and looking at a photograph with a lot of small details. I also did a lot of reading as a young man. Read the classics, Moby Dick and War and Peace. Those tremendous works of genius that were able to capture both the grand and mundane moments of life equally well.

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

I never knew I wanted to be a musician… I just knew I really wanted to play music. It was a language that always felt very natural and intuitive to me, but I didn’t ever think that I could do it for a living. It never really occurred to me such a thing was possible. I assumed I would become a carpenter like my father. Luckily I was an absolutely abysmal woodworker!

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

Sometimes songs take forever. Hammering away for years at one little idea, trying to mold it into something of value. Usually it doesn’t work out and you wasted hours and hours of your life, but once in a while you get something special, and it makes it all worth it.

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

I photograph insects. I spend a lot of my time very close to these strange creatures, and I enjoy the astounding amount of detail on their tiny bodies. It helps remind me that even the smallest things that no one else cares about can matter the most.

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

Oh all the time! I also do the opposite. I say ‘me’ when it’s actually ‘you’. Usually though, I like to write about people who have a very different life experience from me, I find it exciting and challenging.

Photo credit: Lawrence Braun

BGS 5+5: Patrick Park

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Artist: Patrick Park
Hometown: Los Angeles, California
Latest album: Here/Gone
Personal nicknames (or rejected band names): Double P, P Diddy, Paddy P

What’s your favorite memory from being on stage?

My favorite memory being on stage would have to be getting to play at Red Rocks. I grew up in that little town in Colorado and literally looked up the mountain at Red Rocks every single day and could hear the concerts from my room. In high school my friends and I would hike up the hill in the dark and scale the walls to sneak into shows there at least once a week during the summer. So being on the other side, being on that stage and getting to play there was almost like an out-of-body experience.

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

There were so many moments, but one that stands out was when I was probably 8 or 9. I had a guitar teacher briefly in grade school who had a cover band that had a standing gig a few nights a week at dive bar somewhere out in east Denver. Every now and again he would have a night where some of his students got to come up and play a couple songs with his band. I remember I played “Taxman” by the Beatles and “Panama” by Van Halen. Hahaha! We played to basically my parents, the bartender, and a couple regulars, but it was so fun! He let me take the guitar solos, and I remember thinking I would do it every day if I could.

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

Working to understand my true self through music, so as to be less reactive in a reactive world and better serve others.

What is the toughest time you ever had writing a song?

There have been so many tough ones hahaha! Writing is an exercise in letting go as much as it is anything else. For example it becomes difficult anytime I find I am stubbornly clinging to an idea that I want to work but doesn’t. Songs have their own momentum. It’s when you try to control that in some way, or try to force it in a direction that it doesn’t want to go, that you feel stuck. Our lives are the same. One that I especially remember being hard to crack was a song on my third record called “Silence And Storm.” I probably worked on it for six months.

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

Literature probably has influenced my songwriting more than any other art forms aside from music. Dylan Thomas was really inspirational to me early on. How he often used words in ways they weren’t necessarily intended to paint a picture or express a feeling. Rainer Maria Rilke, the way his words implied and circled around something inexpressible to words, but who presence was felt in the spaces.

Photo credit: Mia Kirby

BGS 5+5: Tylor & the Train Robbers

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Artist: Tylor & the Train Robbers
Hometown: Boise, Idaho
Latest album: Best of the Worst Kind

Which artist has influenced you the most … and how?

It’s so hard to choose just one, I’ve been inspired by so many great songwriters. My first major influence as a kid was Hank Williams Sr. I was introduced to his music through my grandparents record collection and it was a sound I had never heard before. My first songs were heavily infused with his tone. Over the years I’ve drifted from that, but it still serves as an important first step down the songwriting rabbit hole. John Prine was my next big influence and his music has continued to inspire me to this day. I find myself re-listening to his records and finding nuances in his writing that I never noticed before and that to me is the mark of a truly great songwriter.

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

I grew up watching a lot of old Western movies with my grandpa, which played a big role in my writing of the track “The Ballad of Black Jack Ketchum” on the new album. The imagery from the films painted the picture for the backdrop of this song. I also pulled inspiration from the language and storytelling style of Louis L’Amour from his classic series of Western novels.

Honestly though, my biggest inspirations come from other musicians. I love listening to all kinds of different music, new and old, to pull ideas from. I feel like the best way to continue being inspired is to listen to more music.

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

From an early age, I just remember that whenever I was listening to music I had a strong desire to want to play along and learn the songs. My mom played guitar and sang to me a lot when I was kid, she had always wanted to be a musician, but never pursued it. I found one of my mom’s rusty electric guitars in my house and started to try to teach myself to play, which eventually led to my parents getting me my first acoustic guitar. I pretty much knew right then that this is what I wanted to do and I never really turned back. I was really lucky that my mom was always very supportive of my dream and never tried to talk me out of it.

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

Probably the toughest song I have ever written is actually on our new album. “Storyteller” was written back in 2012 when my grandpa passed away, he was a huge part of my life and we lost him at a pretty early age to illness. I wrote the song to help cope with the loss, but couldn’t completely finish it for over five years after his death. Sometimes I feel like that song and the time it took to write it are a literal representation of the time it took me to grieve.

What’s your favorite memory from being on stage?

For years I had a goal to play The Braun Brother’s Reunion Festival. If you’re not familiar with it, it is an annual Americana music festival in Challis, Idaho, with some of Red Dirt/Americana’s best bands. It’s hosted by the Braun family (Cody and Willy of Reckless Kelly, and Micky and Gary of Micky & the Motorcars). They are Idaho natives who took their music to Texas and have thrived in that scene for many years. I went to the BBR for the first time back when I was 18 years old. It was the first time I had seen that much of the music I loved in one place and from that point on, it was my goal to play it someday.

In 2017, a good friend of mine, Jeff Crosby was playing the festival and he reached out and asked if I wanted to come play a Tom Petty song with him during his set. Of course I said yes! He got me up in front of that crowd and on that stage for the first time. He introduced me to the crowd and told them that we were his favorite Idaho band, which meant a lot. It took us a couple years after that, but this year, 2019, the band and I are on the bill for the festival and we can’t wait!

BGS 5+5: Tim Baker

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Artist: Tim Baker
Hometown: St. John’s, Newfoundland
Latest album: Forever Overhead

What’s your favorite memory from being on stage?

In late 2017 my former band Hey Rosetta played our final farewell shows before going on hiatus, and probably the final one had the most beauty packed into it I can remember being packed into any show before or since. We were a seven-piece sort of scrappy orchestral indie-rock band from St John’s, Newfoundland, that somehow managed to tour off the island and around the world and get awards and make records for 12 years and I have no idea how we did it but our hometown was very proud of us and good to us and the very final show was in the sold-out stadium there. It had so much emotion and love and nostalgia and significance around it that I don’t think my feet touched the ground the whole time, even though I had bronchitis and strep throat or some god-awful combination of classic touring lead-singer afflictions. I sang and played everything powered by 12 years of support and love and it is the brightest and biggest and best memory I have a show.

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

Listen, sing freely, think freely, listen, don’t be too hard on yourself, don’t be too easy on yourself, listen, work, play, and try to have it all help people and do good. By mostly listening.

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

As a Newfoundlander recently resettled in Toronto I spend a lot of time missing and dreaming of nature. And actually this impacts my work a lot. Several songs on this latest record are about moving from a place with easy, instant access to the ocean and the woods, to this grey and glass land of shadows and cars. About trying to get back home, whether literally, or to some forest from our collective past.

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

Well, as a man with a lot of dietary restrictions these days I may be more excited about the dream meal than the company, but I would love the most to sit down with Leonard Cohen himself and eat a grilled cheese sandwich, followed by some handmade raviolis, and then some Montreal smoked meat sandwiches, all there around the corner from where he lived and wrote for so long. And then maybe some coffee and cookies and a walk through the mountain after.

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

You are always doing this. Perhaps it’s a defense when your songs get too personal, or perhaps you don’t want to come off as a narcissist that alienates your audience, but yeah, you do this a lot. But actually it can be kind of nice when you listen to songs years later, when you’ve grown so far from that younger singer, and you feel that perhaps this kid is indeed talking to you, and sometimes even has something to say to you.

Photo credit: Britney Townsend