Artist:The Ladles Hometown: New York, New York Song: “Pages” Album:Springville Sessions Release Date: April 16, 2021
In Their Words: “‘Pages’ talks about the experience of reading through an old journal and being confronted with your past self. In each entry, all your hopes and good intentions, your mistakes and your blind spots are laid bare in equal measure. It’s not a particularly comfortable experience, because you have the benefit of perspective and you know how it all works out. That confused and misguided relationship does fall apart. You did say the wrong thing and will have to apologize for it. However, I found that reading my own words from that time helped me to offer myself more compassion and understanding. It was a reminder that at any given moment, we only know what we know, and we’re all doing the best we can.” — Katie Martucci, The Ladles (guitar, vocals)
Artist:The Antlers Hometown: Brooklyn, New York Song: “Porchlight” Album:Green to Gold Release Date: March 26, 2021 Label: ANTI-
In Their Words: “This song is a tribute to the person that grounds me, and the power of that partnership in my life. It’s about knowing somebody so well as to recognize when they’re lost, and helping them find their way back home.” — Peter Silberman, The Antlers
Artist:Bridget Rian Hometown: Long Island, New York; currently residing in Nashville, Tennessee Song: “Trailer Park Cemetery” Album:Talking to Ghosts (EP) Release Date: July 9, 2021
In Their Words: “While driving through rural Florida on a road trip, I saw the trailer park cemetery that inspired this song. Something about how death was so close to the living was fascinating to me. At the time I was also reading a book that mentioned kids meeting in a cemetery to party and it reminded me of my reckless teenage years. ‘Trailer Park Cemetery’ is much more a commentary on life than it is death. It’s about how I want to be close to the living and don’t want to miss out on opportunities, even in death. I think I have this fear of being forgotten, of not making a difference with my life, and this song was a way to kind of express that.” — Bridget Rian
Artist:Cole Quest and The City Pickers Hometown: Brooklyn, New York Song: “The Bitcoin Gambler” Album Title:Self [En]Titled EP Release Date: April 16, 2021 Label: Omnivore
In Their Words: “As a software engineer by day, a folk musician by night, and someone who lost a chunk of money in the Bitcoin crash of 2018, I felt I had a unique connection to this modern day dilemma. I wanted to write a song that would show the parallels of this moment to the gambling sagas folks have been telling for hundreds of years. First came the melody line written on guitar, and the rest of the song wrote itself in a matter of minutes. As the band laid down the tracks, I fell in love with the ending of the recording. You can hear how each musician found their own wonderfully unique voicing to this melody. As I was writing the song, I found myself reflecting on things that are important. Surely, gambling a few dollars was nothing to worry about, especially in contrast to the problems created by an ill-equipped fool in the White House.” — Cole Quest
Artist name:The Bones of J.R. Jones Hometown: Manlius, New York Latest Album:A Celebration Personal nicknames (or rejected band names): J.R./ Jonny, Jon Jon.
What’s your favorite memory from being on stage?
My favorite memories are the unexpected ones and I mean that in the most literal sense. Most nights on tour I take the stage exhausted and it takes a song or two for me to fall in rhythm. I remember one night in while on tour in England I took the stage after a 8-hour drive, traveling across three different countries, going through customs and after getting a speeding ticket… my mood was sour, to say the least. The first song I played knocked me over. The crowd knew every word and sang as loud as my guitar was ringing. It turned out to be one of the best shows on that tour. That’s the magic of the stage, for that hour or so… reality disappears.
What other art forms — literature, film, dance, painting, etc. — inform your music?
I think I am most moved and inspired by dancing. I am always in awe of the control and discipline dancers have… something I like to strive for in my music, but feel I never truly achieve because I let my emotions take the song away from me, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but not always where I want to go with my music. The beautiful thing about art is that one discipline often informs and adds to others. I often think about this while watching a dancer and how the music chosen or written for the piece is just as important as the choreography. The same goes for film and the visual arts.
What was the first moment that you knew you wanted to be a musician?
I don’t think I knew it at the time, but I remember listening to Springsteen’s Born in the USA when I was young and feeling so completely invested and overwhelmed by the songs. It struck me deep and resonates with me till this day. The heartbreak, the hurt, the feeling like you are being left behind and the drive for recognition… all the while you are just doing the best you can with the hand you are dealt. Every time I step into a studio that album subconsciously shows up in the strangest ways in my production.
What’s the toughest time you ever had writing a song?
Every song is tough. I mean it, every damn song. I have never been fortunate enough to have a song just flow through me. And truthfully the only reason a song is ever done is because I have to record it, ha ha. I try to tell myself that a recording is a song at that one moment. That a song is a living thing and tomorrow it will change on me again and we will have to find a new balance between each other.
How often do you hide behind a character in a song or use “you” when it’s actually “me”?
Every time. I mean you have to. How else can you make anything feel relatable? You need to live it to a degree. It doesn’t need to be autobiographical, but it does need to be true.
Artists:Jimbo Mathus & Andrew Bird (former collaborators in Squirrel Nut Zippers) Song: “Sweet Oblivion” Album:These 13 Release Date: March 5, 2021 Label: Thirty Tigers
In Their Words: “Up until meeting Jimbo, all my musical heroes were dead. Jimbo was anything but and just oozed musicality of a kind I thought was extinct. Had I not met Jimbo, who knows, but I think my music would have gone on a much more cerebral, complex trajectory. He is an enigma, a walking contradiction: wild yet refined, worldly yet colloquial. He represents his own branch of the American musical tree. It’s been my dream for years now to make this record with Jimbo. Just guitar, fiddle and our very different voices. I wanted to make sure you can really hear him as if for the first time.” — Andrew Bird
“Musically speaking, Andrew challenged me early on. As I had the deep south rural musical upbringing but had yearned to know more of the Chicago and New York scenes of those early days of American popular music. Bird had schooled himself on that, absorbing the European strains of American music and theater, as well as the Chicago-based indigenous albeit transplanted African American musical heritage. It was a true mutual benefit society and we both pursued those goals to a final conclusion. At some point after Andrew had been on the road as Bowl of Fire, he began mutating his music and creating an entirely new form. In other words, he started to become the artist he needed to be at that time and so did I.” — Jimbo Mathus
Artist:Taylor Ashton (featuring Rachael Price) Hometown: Brooklyn, New York via Vancouver B.C. Song: “Alex” Album:Romanticize Release Date: February 5, 2021 Label: Signature Sounds
In Their Words: “Rachael and I traveled to On Deck Sound Studio in Connecticut to do a streaming show from their live room just after the new year, and before the show started broadcasting we filmed this stripped down version of ‘Alex,’ which is a song on my upcoming EP Romanticize (a companion to my album The Romantic which came out last year). The produced version is lush, with piano, electric guitar, drums, bass clarinet and synths, but I love the way this song feels just stripped down to the skeletal banjo part and the two voices. Rachael and I singing together has definitely been a hallmark of this quarantine time, since we would usually be too busy with our respective schedules to make it work. So the song ‘Alex’ and this stripped-down live video are a record of this time and this silver lining of an otherwise extremely weird year.” — Taylor Ashton
Artist:Taylor Ashton (Featuring Rachael Price) Hometown: Vancouver, Canada & Brooklyn, New York Song: “Alex” Album:Romanticize EP Release Date: February 5, 2021 Label: Signature Sounds
In Their Words: “’Alex’ is a duet between two people living in a house with a bunch of other housemates and a thriving backyard garden. They’re both named Alex and they haven’t admitted their feelings for each other yet, and I don’t know if they ever will. These characters came to me in a dream, although I recognize in them aspects of myself and people from my past, and I imagine their house as some combination of all the ones I’ve lived in or stayed at over the years. Each time I imagine them, things change: they age forwards and backwards, their gender identities shift, and their reasons for keeping their feelings secret change.
“It’s a treat to sing this with the great Rachael Price, who I happen to be married to — we are roommates in a sense, but we definitely don’t have the same name and our feelings for each other are not a secret.” — Taylor Ashton
Artist:Anna Rose Hometown: New York, New York Latest album:In the Flesh: Side A & Side B Personal nicknames (or rejected band names): The Electric Child, AR
Which artist has influenced you the most … and how?
It’s impossibly hard to pick just one, as so much of my love for the creation of music has to do with the understanding of its history and the shoulders I stand upon. I’ve looked a lot to The Beatles, Joni Mitchell, Tom Petty, Kurt Cobain, Warren Zevon, Sheryl Crow, Jackson Browne, and Dolly Parton as songwriters, though again I feel like it’s almost criminal to stop there. As a guitarist, I’ve idolized Jimi Hendrix, Tom Morello, Jimmy Page, Jack White, Son House, Muddy Waters, Sister Rosetta Tharpe and Bonnie Raitt. As a vocalist and as a performer, Robert Plant, Prince, Janis Joplin, Stevie Nicks & Fleetwood Mac as a whole, Alison Mosshart / The Kills, Tina Turner, Debby Harry, Stevie Wonder … again, these lists are endless and only speak to the tiniest tip of the iceberg. A mentor of mine once told me that there can never be too much good music in the world and I believe that to be true, now more than ever.
Which elements of nature do you spend the most time with and how do those impact your work?
The woods and the water — I can survive without both if I’m on the road or stuck in a city, but I think I am the best version of myself when I’m in nature. I’m a more present person when I can go for walk in the woods or sit by a river or swim in the ocean and I think that helps my writing. Taking care of animals is also a big part of my connection to the natural world, as well as riding horses.
What’s your favorite memory from being on stage?
I’ve been touring for a long time and so much of my life has been lived out on stage, the good moments, and the darker ones. I don’t often get to perform with my dad and those shows hold a special place in my heart, for sure. Many years ago, I got to open for Jackson Browne … I’ve been thinking a lot about that show lately. I was so young and completely in awe of him.
I guess recently the most precious memory I’m holding onto, though, is one from my last tour before quarantine at the beginning of March with the late, great Justin Townes Earle. Our last show of the run was in Asheville, North Carolina, at Salvage Station and Justin came out during my set, sat down on stage, and just listened to me. When I finished the song he stood up, got on the mic and said, “Girl’s got balls like church bells.” For him to come out and hype me up to the crowd like that meant a lot and I hold that tour very close to my heart. He was a truly brilliant artist and songwriter.
What other art forms — literature, film, dance, painting, etc — inform your music?
I really try to experience many different forms of art pretty often, but I find myself most inspired by dance, film, poetry, and theater. I was a professional dancer and choreographer for a long time and my mom was a dancer, as well, so if I’m writing and I can picture movement it informs the direction of a song a lot. It’s sort of ingrained in my spirit.
I also grew up around film and theater and work in those fields currently, so I find myself influenced a lot by strong, captivating characters on screen/stage and wanting to write songs for them. On the poetry front, I circle back to the beat poets all the time — Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg have always been two of my favorites.
How often do you hide behind a character in a song or use “you” when it’s actually “me”?
I think writing for a character is not hiding, first of all. Assuming a character can be a really powerful way of working and getting outside of your own perspective, or expressing certain parts that might not come out when thinking of yourself in the most habitual context. It can be like wearing a costume on Halloween. So, I guess the answer is that I write for characters all the time but those characters often have aspects of my own personality and I’m not trying to “hide” any of that. Some dream experts believe that you are everyone in your dreams and I think of it that way, sometimes.
Artist:Coco Reilly Hometown: Buffalo, New York Latest Album:Coco Reilly Personal nicknames: Coco
What other art forms — literature, film, dance, painting, etc. — inform your music?
Oh, literature definitely. I buy books way faster than I can read them. I rotate books during the week depending on my mood. I’m usually working my way through 3-5 books at any time and they’re usually a mix of psychology and science with an occasional biography sprinkled in. I know it’s not very cool to say that science informs most of my songwriting, but it does trigger a lot of the introspection and curiosity about how things work and why we do what we do. Aside from that, comedy is my go-to in second place for most inspiring. It helps balance out the heavier parts of my brain and there’s also nothing better than making fun of yourself, which, as a musician, is really easy to do. It’s healthy for the ego.
What rituals do you have, either in the studio or before a show?
I usually do some quick stream of conscious writing in the morning to clear my head. I do that every morning, but it’s extra important on show days, because I get pretty anxious about performing and have to work really hard to keep my inner critic at bay. Any other middle-aged activity such as drinking tea, exercise, or a nice walk also helps. If I’m feeling really locked in I’ll meditate and try to set an intention, remind myself to relax and enjoy the moment.
What’s the toughest time you ever had writing a song?
If a song isn’t working I usually just let it go. I don’t fight too hard for them because it takes the fun out of it. Sometimes ideas just need more time to grow so I come back and check on them later without rushing them. That being said, arranging the songs in the recording process can be really tough for me, because I like to hear a lot of options before I settle on the thing that feels best. I struggled to arrange “Oh Oh My My” and “Mirror” the most. It was hard to find the balance of organic sounds and the bigger, more cinematic parts without tipping the scale too far in one direction. I think we recorded “Mirror” four or five times with different tempos and the band almost died from boredom. It’s a very long song. They have the patience of saints.
If you had to write a mission statement for your career, what would it be?
Well, the last song on the record, “Be True,” was really written as my personal mission statement. Be true, no matter who surrounds you. Regardless of what I choose to do in my life I just want to do it authentically, and try to leave the world better than I found it.
Which elements of nature do you spend the most time with and how do those impact your work?
Water and fire. I light a candle at my desk every morning and I am lucky enough to have a view of the sea for the first time in my life from my apartment in Reykjavik. I think fire helps soothe and keep me focused. It adds a nice warmth to the work space. Water helps me think. I could sit by water for hours and never get bored. There’s always so much going on beneath the surface, especially in the ocean. I do my best thinking near water and always leave it with inspiration and new perspectives.
Photo credit: Juliette Rowland
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