Tag: Cleveland

LISTEN: Matt Blake, “Ohio”

Posted on by Justin Hiltner

Artist: Matt Blake
Hometown: Warren, Ohio
Song: “Ohio”
Album: Cheaper to Fly
Release Date: February 16, 2023
Label: JTM Music

In Their Words: “My friends and I always talked about escaping Warren, Ohio, the minute we graduated high school. The night sky glowed orange from the Youngstown steel mills, the Cuyahoga River caught fire in Cleveland. That’s probably why I thought living in Los Angeles was a dream. It was exotic everyday. I didn’t appreciate Ohio until years later. Ohio felt like home and that’s a feeling I never want to escape.” – Matt Blake

Photo Credit: TB Scott

LISTEN: Erin Viancourt, “Should’ve Known Better”

Posted on by Editor

Artist: Erin Viancourt
Hometown: Cleveland, Ohio
Song: “Should’ve Known Better”
Album: Won’t Die This Way
Release Date: July 21, 2023
Label: Late August Records

In Their Words: “A tale as old as time — loving and wanting something ya know damn well ain’t good for ya. When there’s more than enough signs and scars staring at you in the face but they get blurred by all the feel good moments. Like when ya eat too much ice cream before bed, in the moment that pint of Ben and Jerry’s ‘Half Baked’ tastes so good there’s no way I can feel bad after this … but every time, I fall asleep feeling like shit … knowin’ better.

“I hope this album makes people want to move around a dance floor with a cold beverage, sing at the top of their lungs with the windows down, and keep moving forward with whatever they’re looking for in life. Most of all I hope it reminds everyone that they’re not alone and we’re all a little crazy — so let’s all grow together and do it with style.” — Erin Viancourt

Photo Credit: Justin Cook

BGS 5+5: Cut Worms

Posted on by Editor

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

Which artist has influenced you the most … and how?

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

What’s your favorite memory from being on stage?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Photo credit: Caroline Gohlke

BGS 5+5: Joshua Radin

Posted on by Editor

Artist: Joshua Radin
Hometown: Cleveland, Ohio
Latest albums: Here, Right Now (LP) and Acoustic From Sunset Sound (EP)

Which artist has influenced you the most … and how?

I have no idea how to answer that. There are way too many to choose, and not just musicians. But to name a few, Bob Dylan, Paul Simon, Tom Petty, Elliott Smith, Nick Drake, Paul Cezanne, Henry Miller, J.D. Salinger, Dostoyevsky, Hesse, Picasso, Tolstoy …

What’s your favorite memory from being on stage?

The first time I headlined and sold out the Bowery Ballroom in New York City. I had lived in NY for years and that was my favorite spot to see music. So when I finally decided, later in life, to start playing and writing music, being on the other side of that stage was magical.

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

Hmm, that’s a good question. I’d have to say that this happens very frequently. And nine times out of ten, I’ll end up scrapping the song because if it seems like too much effort, I always feel like it wasn’t meant to be written.

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

I have so many on tour. And at home. But on tour, I wake up on the bus, Google “best coffee near me” and start my day from there. Then I’ll usually walk around the city snapping photos, stumbling down streets without a plan. Everything on tour is planned out once I’m at soundcheck that day, so before that, I like to experience as much spontaneity as I can.

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

Another great question! Especially because when I’m out on the road, ninety percent of what I think about is where I’m going to eat my next meal… tough to decide but maybe — eating Prince St. Pizza in New York on a stoop, while Bob Dylan busks on the street for change with an open guitar case on the sidewalk.

Photo credit: Shervin Lainez

LISTEN: Devil Doll, “It’s Only Make Believe”

Posted on by Editor

Artist: Devil Doll
Hometown: Cleveland, Ohio
Song: “It’s Only Make Believe”
Album: Lover & A Fighter
Release Date: May 1, 2020

In Their Words: “I remember the first time I heard ‘It’s Only Make Believe’ and I was frozen in the vulnerable conviction of Conway Twitty’s words and the swerve with which he delivered them. He had this way of fearlessly putting his heart on his sleeve with such a confidence that blurred the memory of any lover that may have come before him. He embodied the things dreams are made of. He made commitment and the idea of growing old with someone sexy. Recording this song has been on my bucket list for years and I wanted to make it special, so I gave it a little Devil Doll flair and even recorded it in French (to be released later this year), which has never been done before. Imagine one of the sexiest songs ever written being sung in one of the sexiest languages in the world. I did. I hope he’s smiling.” — Devil Doll (Colleen Duffy)

Photo credit: Tim Sutton