Artist: Ariel Posen Hometown: Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada Latest Album:Reasons Why Personal Nicknames (or rejected band names): AP or Guitariel
Which artist has influenced you the most – and how?
I think I’d have to say the Beatles. It was what I was brought up on and, even though I don’t like to compare things in music, they have always acted as a musical measuring stick for songs. I know they were and still are a huge influence on a lot of people, and it’s for good reason. They’re just kind of the greatest.
What was the first moment you knew you wanted to be a musician?
I think from a very early age. My parents were both musicians and I was also immersed in their shows, their travel and the lifestyle. Once I started playing guitar, started actually getting somewhere with it, and had my first gig, it was clear to me that this was my path and that I might actually be able to make a living doing it, too.
What’s the toughest time you ever had writing a song?
I’ve had a couple songs that I thought I had figured out right from the get-go, and as time went on, I started demoing them, and ultimately recording them, I realized they weren’t where they needed to be, yet. I basically started from scratch and built the blocks once again, around what I felt was holding up, and it took a couple of tries to get it right. I think chasing those type of things always end up being worth it!
What has been the best advice you’ve received in your career so far?
That no one is going to give you anything or “make anything happen” for you. It’s all gotta come from you. You will start to get what you put into it. No one’s out there that’s going to give you opportunities, because they are too worried about themselves and who they think is looking out for them! Get out there and make opportunities happen for yourself, put the work in and just be nice.
How often do you hide behind a character in a song or use “you” when it’s actually “me”?
Probably 70/30. Writing about myself and my own experiences is the most authentic form of songwriting and feels the most genuine. However, sometimes I love to write about other peoples’ experiences, often people I know, as I’ve seen these experiences occur from outside the looking glass, so to speak. Both perspectives have a lot to offer. Nothing is more honest than you being you, though!
I was born in Boston, Massachusetts, and I was raised primarily in San Francisco, but we lived in Havana and Amsterdam before settling in Kentucky, ancestral homeland of my maternal grandfather. My family on my grandmother’s side were Roma and Jewish, my grandfather’s, Scotch Kentuckian. My mother took after hers, and we moved around a lot while she made documentaries and wrote poetry.
Latest Album:Forever Home (out September 22, 2023)
Personal nicknames (or rejected band names): Sadwick, Dadwick, Sandwich, Shadooby, sometimes I am Henry, and so on. We have many names and take many forms.
What’s your favorite memory from being on stage?
If I’m doing my job well, I don’t really retain memories of being onstage… The “I” disappears into the music. Of course, if something goes badly, I will remember it for the rest of my life. But my dearest onstage memory is from recently at a festival in Wisconsin – a tattooed dad and his two punk-rocker daughters were all singing along to every word of our songs. That felt really special… I may have cried about it. I definitely cried about it.
What was the first moment that you knew you wanted to be a musician?
I remember being five years old, dancing in the mirror with my plastic guitar and ripped jeans to my mother’s Bruce Springsteen records. She likes to remind me of that memory. I guess I have always known. Even though there are many career paths that I would like to explore in other lives – baker, teacher, postman, monk – this one is for songs, and I am rich with them. Laden, even.
If you had to write a mission statement for your career, what would it be?
Sing from the heart. Don’t take it too seriously. Remember to have fun, and to be kind. That’s pretty much it! We have a tendency to overcomplicate things, when the simplest answers are often the truest.
Which elements of nature do you spend the most time with and how do those impact your work?
I love to watch trees. We are rich with trees in Kentucky, and out where we live on the farm (just outside Louisville). The last few years I have been trying to learn all of their names, their leaf shapes, their bark textures. A favorite hobby of mine is foraging – black walnut, mulberry, gingko. Mushrooms, too. This year we got lucky with the morels. Last year I missed morels, but was lousy with the butteriest chanterelles, from a hillside near Greenbo Lake in Eastern Kentucky.
I have always felt connection in nature, in a spiritual sense. Nurturing that connection is essential for my mental health, and, I believe, also for our survival as a species. Our dominant culture would have us believe that humankind is separate from nature, but of course we know that’s not the case. We are wholly of the Earth, our larger body. It is this imaginary separation that allows us to objectify and exploit her, which of course has brought about this very real existential threat that is the climate crisis.
How often do you hide behind a character in a song or use “you” when it’s actually “me”?
This is such an interesting dance, as a writer – the one between subject and object. Every time we perform, we are creating a character for the purpose of communicating this particular story. When I was a younger songwriter, I would tend to write about things that had really happened to me – heartbreaks, epiphanies, tribulations and such. Nowadays, I don’t find my autobiography to be quite so interesting. And although there are many such personal narratives on Forever Home, the “I” and the “you” are ultimately “us,” and the perspectives of “writer” and “listener” can be interchangeable in that same way: telling the stories of the human heart and mind, that are universal in more ways than they are disparate. So yes, very often, because in the end, there is only us; only One consciousness experiencing our human and cosmic dramas through the infinite and beautiful forms we take.
Artist:Rebecca Porter Hometown: Harrisonburg, Virginia Latest Release: “Happy Go Lucky” Personal Nicknames (or rejected band names): Becca
What’s your favorite memory from being on stage?
RP: One of my most favorite memories from being on stage is a recent one – singing on stage with The Steel Wheels at Red Wing Roots Music Festival. This was my first year performing at the festival. A couple weeks prior to its tenth year celebration, The Steel Wheels’ fiddle player reached out and invited me to join them as part of a folk choir for their song “Till No One Is Free.” After a couple run-throughs with the band and The Honey Dewdrops backstage, it seemed The Steel Wheels’ set flew by and before I knew it, I walked out on stage with them. I faced the largest crowd I’d ever performed for, shoulder to shoulder with the founders of the festival. So many smiles and festival goers welcomed us all into their hearts with open arms as they sang along with our makeshift folk choir. While the air was filled with countless voices, a calm silence of comfort fell over my heart.
What other art forms — literature, film, dance, painting, etc. — inform your music?
Visual arts impact my music by allowing me to observe and participate in the artist’s work, their vision, their experience. I may not be directly involved in the work’s creation, but the role of observing and appreciating a work, determining if and how it informs my thoughts, feelings, beliefs. All of those things are very similar to how I write, create and listen to music. A couple of my favorite artists include Cai Guo-Qiang, a Chinese artist who works in gunpowder drawings and explosives. The mere ability to utilize materials, typically connected to death and destruction, and repurpose them into visual wonders for peace, understanding and justice is beautiful. Kara Walker, an American contemporary who works in multiple mediums, creates mind-bending silhouettes that question and investigate race, gender, sexuality, and violence.
What was the first moment that you knew you wanted to be a musician?
I was known to dance on the family room coffee table to Billy Ray Cyrus’ “Achy Breaky Heart” a time or two, but the very first time I knew I wanted to be a musician was when I was four years old. I was watching an episode of Sally Jessy Raphael and a young girl sang “I Will Always Love You.” I still remember crying as I watched her sing and feeling a connection, a sort of sense of belonging.
If you had to write a mission statement for your career, what would it be?
Craft honest stories through lyrics, music and voice that foster and create connections. Utilize the power of song to build and inhabit spaces where individuals are safe to process, celebrate or escape themselves and the world around them. As with “Happy Go Lucky,” I want people to know it is okay, many times quite necessary, to feel the feels – do the shitty work for yourself – in order to move on and be at peace or replenish your happy-go-lucky when it starts to run out.
What has been the best advice you’ve received in your career so far?
If music is what you want, take it. Seize the moment, keep strumming. Go wherever your songs take you and then some.
Artist:Julian Talamantez Brolaski Hometown: Goleta, California Latest Album:It’s Okay Honey Personal Nicknames (or rejected band names): Julian & the Knockouts
Which artist has influenced you the most … and how?
JTB: Probably the poet William Shakespeare. I know that sounds cliché to say. I love the way he combines words which have their roots in Old English with words of Romance origin, like his line: “The multitudinous seas incarnadine / making the green one red.” He drank deep from the fount of English, and I’m grateful for what he gave us — language that sings.
What other art forms — literature, film, dance, painting, etc. — inform your music?
Poetry, in both its written and oral forms. I think of folk music as a kind of oral poetry. And I love to see the trajectories of the way songs are passed down, change, and mutate, like a game of Telephone. The song “In the Pines,” for instance, or “Wildwood Flower.” There are so many versions of those songs, and stories around them, wayward histories, misheard and remade lines. I like to think of my songs as operating in that tradition, rhyming and stealing, dressing up old songs in new clothes. My song “Goodbye Brother,” for example, is a rewriting of the Carter Family song “Lula Walls.” And “Covid-19 Blues” is basically a ripoff of “Long Gone Lonesome Blues” by Hank Williams.
What rituals do you have, either in the studio or before a show?
I do these vocal warmups before I sing that a teacher in Philadelphia taught me. They’re very annoying sounding, like a bratty baby crying, and then like a whining witch, and so I get kind of self-conscious doing them, but it really makes a difference. I meditate and try to get myself into a calm place, and focus on my intention to really be there with the songs, to sing them with my heart, and to give my all for the audience.
What has been the best advice you’ve received in your career so far?
My grandmother Inés told me whenever you are speaking or singing, always do it from your heart. Over the years, I came to understand that that is not a metaphor, that the feeling is actually quite literal, and bodily. So I try to feel that heartspace physically, and to remember to direct my songs from there. I think that’s a good piece of advice for life, too.
Which elements of nature do you spend the most time with and how do those impact your work?
I live near the ocean in Goleta, California, near Santa Barbara. I love to sit and feel my toes in the sand, walk along the cliffs, smell the enmineralated air. I go to the ocean whenever I feel upset, and it always helps me. Sometimes, I write poems down there, or I bring my guitar and sit on my tailgate and watch the water. It’s very meditative to be in the water, too, swimming or surfing, and it’s humbling and exhilarating to feel the ocean’s power. I always get ideas in the water — if someone could invent a wetsuit with a zipper pocket for a waterproof notebook, that would be amazing.
Artist:Mikhail Laxton Hometown: Mossman, Queensland, Australia; now based in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada Latest album:Mikhail Laxton Personal nicknames (or rejected band names): Mik (Mick)
Which artist has influenced you the most … and how?
I had a lot of great artists that I loved when I was growing up. But when I was 18, I was introduced to an artist that pretty much changed everything.
I had just joined a music school that was made up of mostly international students. One day, I was relaxing on campus when I heard this amazing song. The style of the song is what gripped me at first, then came these beautiful lyrics. I couldn’t figure out where it was coming from, so I started searching the campus, and as I got closer a friend of mine was just sitting there strumming her guitar and singing.
At first I was just so impressed with her skill and talent. She then told me she couldn’t take all the credit as the song was a cover. She gave me the name of the artist – Amos Lee. I spent the rest of that day and night watching YouTube videos of this guy, and I was just absolutely blown away by his music, his singing and songwriting. It wasn’t long before I was covering his songs and trying to emulate his voice. Not only did that ignite the fire of songwriting in me, it also sparked more interest in the idea of possibly pursuing music more seriously.
Since then, there have been only a few other artists that have impacted me the way he has (Chris Stapleton, and right there with Amos Lee is Glen Hansard). But Amos Lee’s self-titled album is what truly got things started.
What other art forms — literature, film, dance, painting, etc. — inform your music?
Mostly it’s film and photography.
I’m a very visual person. When I hear music, I automatically start seeing visuals in my head like scenes from a movie, and my mind also works the opposite way. When I see something like a film or a photograph, my mind starts playing sounds in my head.
A little interesting side note: A few years ago, shortly after I got married, my wife had an interesting observation. She said, “I find it strange that you’re a musician, but you don’t actually listen to a lot of music at all.” At that particular point, we had been driving for a couple of hours without any music. I’d never taken notice of that before, but when I thought about it, I realized that it’s because most of the time there’s music playing in my head, whether it’s a well-known song or something my brain is working on. And usually if that’s not happening, I’m most likely writing songs and lyrics in my head.
What was the first moment that you knew you wanted to be a musician?
The very first moment was when I was about 12 or 13 years old. I’d started to show a real interest in playing guitar, and I kinda had a knack for it already.
One night, I went spear fishing with two of my uncles. We came back late that night with a great catch. One of my uncles was cleaning the boat, and I was fileting the catch with the other. After a while, the latter uncle looked at me and said, “Mik, you see that guitar over there?” pointing his fileting knife to an acoustic guitar leaning against the wall. “Can you eat it?” I was very confused and said, “No.” He went back to cutting the fish and said, “What about this fish, can you eat it?” Realizing what he was inferring, I said, “Yep!” He then finished by saying, “Always remember, you can’t feed your wife and kids with guitar strings, but you can always feed them with fish!”
Basically, he was trying to squash any ideas I may have had about becoming a musician. I remember staring at that guitar at that moment, and it just made me want to go for it. I never liked being told what to do when I was that age. I’ve always had a bit of a rebellious streak in me, and this incident, thankfully, was no exception, even if it was coming from someone I admired. From that moment on, I knew music was something that I wanted to take seriously.
What rituals do you have, either in the studio or before a show?
I do have a “pre-game” ritual.
– If I’m hungry, I’ll eat no less than two hours before the show. I usually just perform on an empty stomach. This is literally just so I don’t belch into the microphone, ha ha!
– I like to get in my vocal warmups within an hour of performing. I usually do this either on the way to the venue or right before soundcheck at the venue.
– I then like to stretch and warm up my body. This includes cracking my back with some random and probably incorrect yoga poses. I love the way it makes me feel, and it’s good to manage any nerves I might have.
How often do you hide behind a character in a song or use “you” when it’s actually “me”?
Wow, this is a really good question!
A long time ago, early in my songwriting career, I was always extremely hesitant when writing songs that had some heavier content behind it — around then I had allowed my entire existence to be dictated by my faith and community of like-minded people. When I did start taking my writing seriously, I had tried to write without a filter, and I was heavily criticized by so-called friends and fellow musicians who felt that what I was writing wasn’t “nice” enough or was “too dark.”
And so I began to create a habit of censoring my writing accordingly by hiding meanings behind metaphors, and, yes, sometimes characters. Before too long, I found myself having constant bouts of never-ending writer’s block, and perhaps I developed a bit of an imposter syndrome. I felt like the music that I was creating wasn’t really art because I wasn’t allowing myself to freely create and say it how it is.
It took me a while, but thankfully I broke away from those influences. Art and music mean so much to me, and all I’ve ever wanted to do with my art is be honest, no matter how beautiful or ugly it can get. Our stories are worth telling in all their glory.
So, to finally answer your question, I do not hide behind characters. If the song is based on my own experience, you’ll know. But I also don’t mind telling the stories of others from a first-person point of view. I just use the song as a way to walk a mile in their shoes, I let those stories affect me emotionally, and I do my best to put that to paper as accurately as I can.
What other art forms — literature, film, dance, painting, etc. — inform your music?
Surfing. It is a wonderful mirror to playing music. It’s the same spiritual exercise, but it’s played out more on the physical plane. It’s spontaneous, super immersive, and requires deep concentration and awareness of your environment. The best wave riding experience is just like a really good jam. And in my best musical moments I feel like I’m gliding across a wave with the same grace.
What rituals do you have, either in the studio or before a show?
Before a show we all do a lot of stretching. I feel like it’s the best way to release stress and tension and get the blood moving, and get your chi meridians all dialed before you make music with everyone. Ten minutes before we go on the green room is a bunch of dudes getting all bendy and weird.
What has been the best advice you’ve received in your career so far?
Some of the best advice I’ve been given is just maintaining a foundation of gratitude. When life gets really challenging or confusing, just putting one foot in front of the other is much simpler when you take a moment to count your blessings. And on a lighter note, another piece of advice that’s stayed with me is one time my friend Ben told me my guitar was too beautiful to have a plastic capo or tuner clipped to the headstock, so since then I always keep those resting on my amp or in my pocket when I’m done using them.
Which elements of nature do you spend the most time with and how do those impact your work?
I spend a lot of time in the ocean and in the sun when I’m home and I feel like that keeps my body pretty relaxed, and I think that keeps a lot of the music I end up writing on the mellow side.
Since food and music go so well together, what is your dream pairing of a meal and a musician?
I think the dream scenario would change depending on the season, but being that it is summer I would love to see Ledward Kaapana playing with a traditional slack key group, with a large serving of sushi and some iced tea and fresh fruit juice.
(Editor’s Note: Watch a brand new music video for the title track of Lauren Calve’s upcoming album, “Shift,” below.)
What other art forms — literature, film, dance, painting, etc. — inform your music?
I was a visual artist before I was a musician, so visual art has always played a role in my music-making. Interestingly, though, my songs usually inform my art. After I finish writing and recording a collection of songs, I usually go through a kind-of sensory transition from auditory to visual. For instance, after I finished my forthcoming album Shift, I painted a self-portrait incorporating the imagery from Shift for my album cover in the style of surrealist painter Rene Magritte. For me, creating art to accompany my releases enriches the experience of making music.
Which artist has influenced you the most… and how?
Patty Griffin is probably my biggest influence. Her songs have always captured my heart and imagination. And I love how she constantly evolves her sound and songwriting while maintaining her authenticity. In my opinion, she is one of the best living singer-songwriters.
Which elements of nature do you spend the most time with and how do those impact your work?
Walking the Anacostia River paths behind my house is my favorite and most accessible way to be in nature. These walks have elicited everything from song ideas and lyrics to notes for mixes. There’s something about walking in nature that clears my head and allows my creativity to flow more freely.
If you had to write a mission statement for your career, what would it be?
If I had to write a mission statement for my career, especially in light of my recent personal shift, it would be “Songs for Seekers on their quest to know and be known.”
What’s your favorite memory from being on stage?
My favorite memory from being on stage was when I performed with the Mountain Stage band for the first episode of Mountain Stage’s 40th Anniversary year in January. Prior to the show my guitarist, Jonathan Sloane, had been in touch with the band leader; I was pretty much in the dark regarding the instrumentation for my set. It was the day of the show during soundcheck that I learned that the entire 7-piece house band would accompany me — including Kathy Mattea on background vocals! Never in my wildest dreams did I think that such an illustrious group — many of whom had been at Mountain Stage since its inception 40 years earlier — would be my backing band. Unsurprisingly, that set was the best my songs have ever sounded!
Artist:Rachel Maxann Hometown: Memphis, Tennessee Latest Album: Black Fae Personal nicknames (or rejected band names): Fickle Hellcat, I ended up making it my last album name instead.
What rituals do you have, either in the studio or before a show?
I absolutely adore my producer and although this isn’t necessarily a ritual, we tend to fall into a pattern when recording. We sit and talk about our lives for a while and generally catch up as friends while I sit in his massage chair. Sometimes I’ll have a glass of wine while he drinks his favorite new cocktail concoction. Then we’ll dim the lights in his studio and we’ll proceed to record whatever we want to work on that day. I’m excited for the next round of songs that we do! I don’t think it would be the same result if we didn’t have such a good friendship.
What has been the best advice you’ve received in your career so far?
Putting my own name on my music first and foremost. I’ve had a fairly long career with many different formats, some of those being bands. In the past, I would be insistent in creating a new band every time I got new players. An old friend gave me the advice of putting my name out there first, because while different players come and go I’ll always have myself and my songs. It really changed the way I presented myself.
Which elements of nature do you spend the most time with and how do those impact your work?
Wood and the water have a profound effect on my mental health. The album cover of Black Fae is actually at my favorite park in Memphis that is close to my house. On good weather days, I’ll take a run or walk with my dog and just enjoy the shady greenery. Though I love water in all its forms, I feel most relaxed at the beach, and if the ocean is not available I spend time by the lake. “Remember the Stars”was written on a month-long solo trip with my dog in Mexico. Every day I would pack my guitar, a book, and my notebook and sit by the beach and just be.
Since food and music go so well together, what is your dream pairing of a meal and a musician?
I would love to pair my music with comfort foods. The lyrics have a lot of difficult topics and emotions, I would want the listener to be in a warm, safe space in case they are triggered by any of the songs. I have a history as a therapist, and whenever I had a client face an especially difficult feeling I would encourage them to have their loved ones nearby as well as their favorite comfort items. It can ease someone in and out of the process. If it were for myself, I would pick up a vegan oxtail meal from my favorite local Memphis chef, Camri McNary AKA The Vegan Goddess.
How often do you hide behind a character in a song or use “you” when it’s actually “me”?
I wouldn’t describe it as hiding behind it, but rather morphing my experience into a way that is more relatable to the listener. In some cases in the process of writing the song, it becomes more of a message to others rather than about myself, because often what I’m writing about is universal experiences even though they’re deeply personal. With “Last Cut”I first wrote it when I was in a dark place and having suicidal ideations. Shortly after having completed the original version, I lost a friend to an overdose which shifted my focus from my own grief to those of my friends and his family. When I sang it later, it naturally evolved into a story of my sadness into a message of awareness as well as encouragement to those that may be having similar feelings.
Artist:Ellis Paul Hometown: Charlottesville, Virginia Latest album:55 (available June 9, 2023)
Which artist has influenced you the most … and how?
I can’t say which artist has inspired me “the most,” there’s too many great ones in the generations that came before me and too many new ones popping up as I go. And some of them are unconscious influences. I don’t go to James Taylor or Paul Simon consciously, but they are such a part of my youth and DNA that I know they are there. The Beatles are my go to teachers, as is Bob Dylan, Neil Young, Joni Mitchell. Their entire catalogues. When I listen to them with a magnifying glass, I’m constantly awe struck. They make my humility rise as a dominant emotional state. I’m good at what I do. But the gap between them and me is clear to me – but it is also where my great frontier lies. The best version of me is somewhere out there ahead — in that direction — and I need them as inspiration to explore it. To guide my improvements. So I dissect their music. And thank them. While their songs lie like frogs in the biology class of my mind.
What other art forms — literature, film, dance, painting, etc. — inform your music?
All of it! Everywhere I’m engaged in life can create a song — so I’m constantly on the lookout. I see what I do as a form of literature. There is a reason why Bob Dylan is walking around with a Nobel Prize in Literature. It’s storytelling, poetry, lyricism wrapped in imagery, dressed within melody and colored orchestration. It’s a visual medium in people’s brains as they watch the details unfold in a song while they are listening. So it’s like a movie or a painting. The music is a dance. It’s flowing. It’s a kind of geography.
Everything from a great meal to a great movie can inspire. Anytime I’m stuck, I try to get out and see a film or go to a museum or take a walk. Read a book. Watch how film makers tell their stories. It’s all a deep well to drink from, aren’t we incredibly lucky? I love my job.
What rituals do you have, either in the studio or before a show?
One of the best rituals I have in the studio is working with a grid sheet and stickers to watch the progress I’m making as the album evolves. I put it on the wall so everyone involved can see it. It’s a big piece of paper usually 18” by 24”. The songs are on the left side going down and all the tracks run across the top. After a musician plays their part, I give them a sticker to fill in their square for the song. It helps me project out, to see what’s left to do, and to see how much has been done. It helps to focus my thoughts on the parts left to finish and I can be creatively thinking about how I want the remaining tracks to lie against the ones that are completed. It also makes the musician feel good for some reason. They always love it. The stickers are usually cool, like Wizard of Oz characters. It brings out the first grader in people. They choose which sticker and then find their empty box and fill it with Toto.
If you had to write a mission statement for your career, what would it be?
Mainly— create beauty in every part of your work.
Now, since I’m in my fifties, this would be by making the most of your talent and my skill set. Focus on the writing because that is the part that will be left behind when you part from the earthly side of things. The recordings will tell the story of you in the years to come when your gone. So I’m editing the songs until they shimmer, working more in the studio to get things right and less as a road dog doing shows. I was always writing and recording on the fly. Coming into the studio with a voice torn up by the road. And songs written on airplanes. I’ve got more space now, because I’m established, and can live off of fewer shows. I can’t sing as high or sustain notes the same way, but I have more patience and wisdom now. I’m a better writer for those things. And the best is yet to come.
How often do you hide behind a character in a song or use “you” when it’s actually “me”?
I like character driven songs and usually have a couple on every album. The latest album, 55, has a song from the perspective of a tattooed lady in a circus. I did it as a writing exercise where I was assigning circus characters to my songwriting students. So I had to assume a lot of different things with this song: a woman’s perspective, a time/era perspective – because I felt like it was occurring in the late ’40s – and then someone who is essentially a circus act in a freak show. It was fun to write. Unlike, say a “bearded lady” or conjoined twins, the tattooed performer chose to look as she does. I don’t feel like she is a victim of circumstance in the same way, so the character invites the listener to gaze upon her physique. Circus life can be tough as well, doing show after show, so you sense her boredom. Despite the fact that she is lighting the wick on the big gun of the human cannonball. She’s a bit over it.
Artist: SloCoast Hometown: Los Angeles, California Latest Release: “What Are We Waiting For?”
(Answers by Trevor Jarvis)
Which artist has influenced you the most … and how?
There are seven of us in this group. Collectively, we all have a wide variety of tastes and influences, but one artist we all love in common is Alison Krauss & Union Station. I guess you could call that group our North Star for SloCoast. Good players, good songwriting, killer harmonies — the stuff we all love. Our band crush, for sure!
What’s your favorite memory from being on stage?
We recently played a show at a farm up near Sacramento. In the middle of a song, Mark [Cassidy] broke and replaced a string right when he was about to take a solo. The band just vamped while he was doing it and then we all came back into the song form together when he was done. It’s always memorable when something like that happens cause it’s like one big trust fall.
What other art forms — literature, film, dance, painting, etc. — inform your music?
A lot of life experience usually informs our writing — could just be a simple conversation that sparks some kind of idea. Going out to a show can also be really inspiring. Just hearing a good song can open up a lot!
What’s the toughest time you ever had writing a song?
Almost every time we write a song, there will be a flow period where everything writes itself, but then we’ll get stuck on one final line. Sometimes it takes hours (if not days) to finish that one line. This seems to be our process with every song — and it’s maddening.
What rituals do you have, either in the studio or before a show?
Honestly, we have more of a post-show/recording ritual than we do beforehand. After the show, or a long day of writing or recording, we usually sit in a circle with a bottle of Jameson on the table and talk/jam into the midnight hours. Just hanging out together is good for the soul and creates a perfect environment for making new music, too!
Photo Credit: Elle Jaye
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Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. These cookies do not store any personal information.
Any cookies that may not be particularly necessary for the website to function and is used specifically to collect user personal data via analytics, ads, other embedded contents are termed as non-necessary cookies. It is mandatory to procure user consent prior to running these cookies on your website.
