Tag: Stephen Kellogg

LISTEN: Stephen Kellogg, “I’ve Had Enough”

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Artist: Stephen Kellogg
Hometown: Connecticut
Song: “I’ve Had Enough ”
Album: I’ve Had Enough
Release Date: December 18, 2020

In Their Words: “I’ve always been in theory, and actuality, an optimistic person. This year has tested that. 2020 has been scary and exhausting in myriad ways. Can we agree on that? No? Of course, we can’t. Because that’s what it’s like when you are homeschooling four kids through a pandemic while trying to knock out a living and swallow the bitter injustice of a morally bankrupt president who would rather take down a great nation than admit legitimate defeat.” — Stephen Kellogg

Photo credit: Jeff Fasano

BGS 5+5: Stephen Kellogg

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Artist: Stephen Kellogg
Hometown: Formerly of Northampton, Massachusetts – now in Connecticut
Latest album: Objects in the Mirror
Personal nickname: Skunk

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

I love books. Dickens writes with his heart–very inspiring. Also movies. I like those art forms because my brain never tries to deconstruct what I’m experiencing in quite the same way as it does when I hear a good song. So it can be the emotion without the intellect jumping in there. For years it would bother me because certain music that was widely accepted as great would mean nothing to me, and other stuff I loved would fall under the ‘cheesy’ moniker. Then one day I realized that it was all about the lyrics for me. If the worldview was something that resonated authentically I didn’t care about the production. The same was true in reverse, cool production isn’t really enough for me to dig something. Once I learned that about myself, I was able to apply it to the other art forms. If I feel what’s being said or commented on with piece of art, there’s a good chance I can get inspired by it.

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

I once heard a quote from Tom Petty that was something to the effect of “When the muse comes to visit, if you don’t write it down that’s just ruuuude.” I think of that every time I get an idea in the middle of the night and have to wake up to jot it down in my journal. Lots of ideas come at really inconvenient times when you aren’t looking for them. When my mother-in-law passed away, her song came to me. The problem was, that I was just so sad I didn’t want to deal with it even though I knew I very much had to get it written down. I knew the moment the first line came to me that I would be singing it at her funeral a few days later, but even trying to write the song would bring me to tears. So I’d say “Ingrid’s Song” was the toughest because even though the words and chords came with some fluidity, it was a rough time to pull it out and do what needed doing. I’m glad I did though. She deserved that tribute.

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

I like this question a lot. It strikes me as very important to understand one’s purpose in all this. It can really sustain you when there are bumps in the road. For me, I don’t play music because I love playing guitar or singing. I play because I love the human connection. In recent years I’ve been doing more speaking and writing of other kinds. I have my first full length book out in March 2019 and I feel a similar rush from those experiences too. My mantra that I keep around some of my social media outlets says ‘using words and intention in the hopes of a positive legacy for my family.’ I’d say that’s the mission.

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

It occurs to me that maybe this question is simply one of picking an artist paired with the correct meal (like Sam Cooke with linguine and clams or something). I’m going to answer it though as it first occurred to me, as in who would you like to break bread with and what would you eat? There’s nothing like meeting up with an interesting person in a place where you can actually talk and kick around ideas. I do find that to be one of the great perks of the job. I always remember the anecdote that Dylan recounts of Bono swinging by his house with a case of Guinness. That sounds like a fun evening. As much as I’d love to have dinner with Tom Petty or Taylor Swift, I feel like the most thrilling connection usually occurs when you aren’t too star-struck and I wouldn’t trust myself with either of them. Also important to me in a hang is that folks have a good sense of humor. So I’d lean towards a night of steaks on the grill with Dave Grohl. I like his vibe.

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

Rarely. Probably to a fault, I need to identify with a character if I’m going to sing it. It makes it increasingly hard for me to even perform certain songs from earlier in my career because I don’t identify with the wisdom being expressed or the aims of the character. I have a ballad called “Such a Way” that I wrote when I was in my mid-twenties. I sing about “the woman down the street with a daughter twenty years.” This made lots of sense when I was 24. Now that I’m in my 40s it feels a bit lecherous when I sing that line if I think too much about it. I mean I can get back to the sentiment of young love sure, but I also have a teenage daughter myself now and it just doesn’t feel as true to me to narrate; although I’ll sing it at shows, it’s hard for me to have an emotional experience with that song sometimes. No judgment because how else can Robert Plant sing “Whole Lotta Love” or Foreigner do “Hot Blooded” without feeling ridiculous? For me, though, if I don’t relate it’s kind of like acting instead of music.

 

The Producers: Jamie Mefford

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Producer and sound engineer Jamie Mefford sort of fell into this whole music thing. Recording friends' bands for free ended up snowballing into a fully fledged career. Aside from having produced a handful of excellent records — notably Gregory Alan Isakov's This Empty Northern Hemisphere and Nathaniel Rateliff's Falling Faster Than You Can Run — he also hits the road with many a touring band, offering an expert touch to the house boards of rock halls across America. 

One of the reasons I'm enjoying writing this series on producers that I secretly want to be Quincy Jones. What producer would you secretly like be?

I’m a big fan of Daniel Lanois and Ethan Johns. There are a lot of them, actually, but those are the first two who come to mind.

What is it about their work that impresses and inspires you?

They seem to have a sound that’s theirs, especially Daniel Lanois. It’s a sound I recognize and appreciate. He has an ethereal quality to his work, especially the stuff with Brian Eno. I’ve always enjoyed that.

Is there an album he did you’re particularly fond of?

Some of the U2 stuff. The Dylan record [No Mercy] that he did. Emmylou Harris’s Wrecking Ball is a record I love.

Those are the three I would pick, too. They’re his iconic records. And Ethan Johns did Ryan Adams’ Gold album, right?

Yeah, and the one I really gravitate toward is Heartbreaker. It’s an album I always reference when I’m working. I really love the sounds on it.

Give me a short bio on Jamie Mefford, starting with the first song or album you remember hearing as a kid.

[Laughs] I don’t know. I grew up with two older brothers and they listened to a lot of harder rock and metal — weirdly. That’s what I grew up on: AC/DC … stuff like that … Pink Floyd. Heavier stuff than I would listen to now.

Did you play in a band? Was “rock star” at the top of your career list or did you always want to be a producer?

When my first band went into the studio, it just fascinated me — the whole process. I wanted to learn how to do it myself because I thought I could do it better. So slowly, over time, I just kept learning and learning. I’ve gotten good enough at it now that people call me to do it for them.

It’s been a slow process, really, of me just learning sound, learning how to record things, how other people made things, trying how things fit together, listening to other people’s records. It took me a while to figure it out.

Every producer I talk to says almost the same thing: "I was fascinated when I went into the studio and I’m always trying to figure out how things are done.” Seems to be universal.

Yeah, I hear other people’s records and I think, "Man, how did that happen? What is it about this that I really love? What draws me in?" And then I try to pinpoint it. I feel like I never get there — like everyone else’s work is always better. I’m always trying to translate that emotional quality into the recordings.

When I talked to Steve Berlin, we referenced Arif Mardin’s production on Hall & Oates’s Abandoned Luncheonette. He said the same thing: "I’m always trying to reach that level of work." How did you win your first job?

I started recording friends for free, just to learn. It kept snowballing. I owned a studio, at one point, worked as just an engineer for a long time. There was really not one moment where I was, like, "Oh, this is it." It just evolved into this thing and became a full-time gig. When I look back, I guess that was the moment where I thought, “Wow, I’m doing this.” I didn’t have another job. [Laughs]

That seems to the qualifier — when I didn’t have to do anything else to make a living. Let's talk about a couple of your productions, starting with the “West” portion of Stephen Kellogg's new album. I like to learn about the process behind the production.

I co-produced it with my friend Gregory Alan Isakov. It was the two of us, working together and separately. Stephen basically showed up with nothing; he didn’t even bring a guitar. We just worked on the songs first. Gregory worked with him on lyrics; we found tempos, we found sounds, figured out where we wanted to go sonically with it. Then he picked up a guitar and we built the record up from just guitar and vocal tracks, mainly with Gregory and me playing the other stuff. At the very end, we brought some friends in to sing and play some extra things we couldn’t do. It was a thoughtful record in that we didn’t record it live with a band. It was about what works — what we wanted, how we wanted to build it up.

I assume that having an artist show up at the studio without a guitar is somewhat unusual.

[Laughs] Yeah. That’s the first time that ever happened. I think it was because he was on tour at the time and his guitar was on a tour bus. It wasn’t an intentional thing. He also knew we had a lot of great, old, vintage guitars that he could play.

This morning, taking my kid to school, we were listening to Gregory Alan Isakov's The Weatherman record. He actually had his earbuds in listening to something else, then he said, "Hey, wait, that’s Weatherman, isn’t it?" So that record appeals to 15-year-olds and 50-year-olds equally.

I’ve actually been out of the road with a few of the bands I’ve worked with in the studio, just doing live sound, just to get out of the studio a little bit. It’s been interesting to see the fan base because I get locked away in the studio. I make these records and move on to the next one and never see what they do. Then I go out with these artists in the real world and think, "Oh, people really like this work." It kind of hits me in a really interesting way.

And that record specifically … it’s kind of a slow, thoughtful record, and I really loved it. But it wasn’t until I went out with him and saw the reactions to the songs, that I realized how good it is. For that one, we went into a studio in the mountains of Colorado — just the two of us — and worked really hard on it, off and on, for about a year. It was kind of the same process as with Stephen. We started with acoustic guitars and vocals and were really thoughtful about how we wanted to build the songs. Some of them we recorded 10, 12, 14 times to really get them right. We weren’t afraid to throw anything out. We actually threw out an entire record we made at the same time, just as part of the process of searching for the right songs.

Besides the symphonic album I know you’re producing with Gregory, what else is coming up for you?

That’s the main thing on my schedule right now. I have a few other things in the works, but nothing that’s super-solid. And right now, I’m out on the road with another friend of mine, Nathaniel Rateliff, doing live sound for him. Then I’m heading back to finish Gregory's record.

Photos courtesy of Jamie Mefford

Gig Bag: Stephen Kellogg

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Welcome to Gig Bag, a BGS feature that peeks into the touring essentials of some of our favorite artists. This time around, we look at what Stephen Kellogg has to have handy when he's out on the road.

When singer/songwriter Stephen Kellogg, a Massachusetts musician also known for his work with the Sixers, set out to make his latest solo album, he didn't want to do your run of the mill LP. Instead, he hit every corner of the United States, recording a 20-song double album — appropriately titled South, West, East, North — that draws inspiration from each of the four major regions of the country. 

"The idea was to record each part of the record in a different section of the country with different co-producers and different groups of musicians," Kellogg says. "To engage with the different genres that I like to operate in: folk, rock, country, pop. The regions ended up being a bit less important than the process of making each part of the record, but seeing that many different ways to make a record in such a short span of time was a tremendous and wonderful learning experience."

Though the regions played less of a role in the final product than did the folks who worked on it, Kellogg still found himself drawn a little closer to some regions of America more than others.

"Each of the processes were incredibly distinct and had both challenges and benefits," he explains. "I think, at the end of it all, I was slightly more drawn to the West and North processes. In both of these cases, there were fewer folks in the studio and the recordings tended to start with me and go from there. For that reason — win, lose, or draw — they feel a bit more true to what I think my distinct 'sound' is. I didn't know that was as important to me as it was, until after I made the whole thing though."

Kellogg says translating these new songs to the stage has been an organic process — that he's been "playing the ball as it lies." A longtime touring musician, hitting the road is one of Kellogg's favorite parts of his job, despite "next to no sleep, tons of vocal demands, changing weather, and a series of questionable eating decisions."

"My favorite part of touring is when all the tickets have sold, the band is firing on all pistons and has the routine kind of down," he says. "The sweet spot before burn-out sets in, but after things have kind of been 'sorted,' so to speak. The waking up in the morning and thinking, 'What songs do I feel like singing tonight?' The fun of anticipating the possibility of that miracle that is a 'great show.'"

Look for Kellogg out on tour here, and pick up your own copy of South, West, East, North here. Check out his Gig Bag picks below.


Red Daily Planner: I pretty much live and die by the daily lists in this planner. I've been using it for two decades now, and something about the fact that it requires no batteries or technological prowess speaks to my soul.

Journal: The act of writing in my journals on a daily basis has helped my state of mind much more than I can ever convey — so much so that we started printing our own journals. On tour, there is frequently little privacy and plenty of tired vocal chords, so the opportunity for a "brain dump'"can be few and far between. Enter my friend and yours … the journal. A non-judgmental third party to listen to all the craziness.

Sleep Machine: Originally, I got this white noise machine when my daughters were born, but I recently grabbed it for tour, and it's been a life saver. I had to laugh when I was watching that great History of the Eagles documentary one night on the road and Don Henley says, "Back then we had to SHARE rooms," as though that was the absolute roughest thing in the world for anybody to do. My touring roommate and I looked at each other and started cracking up, but it's probably because we have the sleep machine to keep us from driving each other crazy.

A Photo of the Family: iPhones are great, but I still need an actual picture I can hold in my hand of the people I love the most. It's important to remember on tour that whether you crush it or struggle, that these people's love won't change. Having their photo ever present keeps that idea front and center.

Abe Lincoln Belt Buckle: The beacon of integrity. I feel a little extra rush when I get dressed after a (way too short) night's sleep. It's one of a handful of material items in my life that I really value.

Photos by Stephen Kellogg. Lede photo by Will Byington, courtesy of the artist.

LISTEN: Stephen Kellogg, ‘We Say Goodbye’

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Artist: Stephen Kellogg
Hometown: Southern, CT
Song: "We Say Goodbye"
Album: South, West, North, East
Release Date: February 12
Label: Fat Sam Music

In Their Words: "Sometimes, no matter how much we love someone, it's just not enough to make it work. And, sometimes, when you're faced with that sad reality, it's too overwhelming and you act badly." — Stephen Kellogg

Photo credit: Will Byington