November 21, 2011

Interview: Linus Dotson from Linus of Hollywood

Pop songwriter • producer • multi-instrumentalist

Do you do anything special with how you voice your chords?

As a big Brian Wilson fan, I always loved how the bass notes on his piano parts would seldom be the root note of the chord. It was almost like the left hand was creating the melody and the right hand was just static chords. So when I play piano, I do that a lot. When I play guitar, I use my thumb a lot to reach over and play bass notes. When I was a kid, I was always yelled at by my guitar teacher for having my thumb hanging over, but I’m glad I didn’t listen to him because I use it all the time!

What do you think is one of your strongest productions, and why?

As far as my solo records, go, I always think the latest stuff is the best. I think sonically and production-wise, “Triangle” is my best record, but that was almost 6 years ago, so I’m very excited to do a new record this year and top it. As far as my productions for other artists, I’m very fond of the recent Bowling For Soup records I did, as well as the Palmdale EPs I did with Kay.

How did you learn to produce music?

It was an accident! I did my first solo album on an 8-track and didn’t expect anyone to like it. I self-released it on my own label (Franklin Castle) and all of the sudden I was getting overseas licensing deals and outselling my previous major label release (with Size 14). So after that, I was like “I need to make records for my friends!” So I produced a record for Kim Fox, who had just gotten dropped from Dreamworks, and made a fun record (Mello Cads) with some of the guys in Brian Wilson’s band and next thing you know, I’m getting calls from labels asking me to help develop their artists. I just learned by doing…and by listening to my favorite records with an analytical ear and trying to figure out how they did everything.

Where did you come up with the idea for your featured song, “A Girl that I Like?”

It’s a really simple love song that I wrote for my girlfriend when we first started falling in love. She texted me and asked “what are you doing?”…I responded “I’m texting with a girl that I like”…I thought that made a good song title so I wrote it in about 15 minutes and then played it for her when she arrived. It’s a super simple song, but one of my favorites. It just really captured a moment and a feeling.

Listen to the featured song!

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Purchase Reheat and Serve here!

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September 28, 2011

Interview: Adam Sanders from Adam and Darcie

Alternative folk songwriter • arranger • multi-instrumentalist

Are you writing more about a character or about yourself?

All of our songs pull from our lives in some way, though not always literally. Our album ‘California Trail’ as an example, dealt a lot with ideas of home, identity, priorities, and a longing that we were experiencing… the settings and subjects however were largely biographical, historical, or fictional.

Do more songs come from sitting down and working out your craft or from a flash of inspiration?

The latter, or at least those are the most enjoyable for me. I can go fairly long periods of time without writing much and then all of a sudden a heap of songs all rush out at once. Of course life experience affects this. I feel like some of my favorite songs are the ones that seemed to happen very naturally and almost on their own. it’s often in retrospect that the meaning or context of a song makes more sense to me. And for what its worth I find many of my favorite songs come first thing in the morning or late in the evening.

Where did you learn to arrange music?

I’m probably not unique in saying through the imitation (or attempt at least) of many great artists like Brian Wilson, John Lennon, Andy Partridge, or Jeff Buckley. Other times my arrangements are simply a rejection of how I’ve been comfortable doing things previously.

I really love the process of layering musical ideas to see how they grow as they build upon each other. The tricky part for me sometimes is not over-doing it or over-complicating things, especially at the expense of the lyric, melody, or concept of the song.

Tell me about your featured song.

We wrote “Aotearoa” as part of an Indiecater compilation that coincided with the 2010 World Cup. It was fun to be given a topic to write about, almost like an exercise. It was privilidge to write our song about New Zealand and the Maori culture, which we chose because Darcie is polynesian. I ended up showing little restraint with the layers, but it was a lot fun creating a wave-like wall of guitars that swells throughout the song.

Listen to the featured song!

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Purchase Early in the Morning here!

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September 23, 2011

Interview: Daniel Hirst from The Man From Another Place

Moody lounge soundtrack songwriter • producer • engineer • arranger • multi-instrumentalist

Tell me a little bit about how you got started, where you’re headed, what the deal is.

I’ve always been passionate about music, even when I was a young teenager I had a strange fascination with My Bloody Valentine and would spend hours trying to re-create their guitar sound with my cheap, low quality guitar and amp. I would record loops and alter the speed of them on an old fashioned tape deck. It wasn’t really music, just strange noises. I got started properly when I bought myself some second hand gear from eBay (drum machine/sampler and an analogue synth). Then I would sample bits of old records and make Daft Punk style tracks. After a while I got bored of that and taught myself to play piano by ear. I developed a passion for writing chord sequences and adding melodies to try to create ‘moods’. These ‘moods’ were of course influenced by all my favourite bands and composers (The Beach Boys, Burt Bacharach, The High Llamas, Ennio Morricone, Angelo Badalamenti, Bernard Herrmann, Daft Punk, Squarepusher etc.) Ideally I’m heading into writing music for Film and TV, the older I get the more this interests me. Lots of people have commented that my music is very cinematic so I guess it’s a natural progression.

What would you consider a defining moment for you, musically?

From a listening point of view, the defining moment for me was when I first heard the Beach Boys ‘Pet Sounds’ LP. Before that I had been listening to lots of guitar bands and when I first heard ‘Pet Sounds’ it completely floored me. Such amazing music, it was almost like some kind of weird semi-religious experience. I became completely obsessed with Brian Wilson’s music for a period in my life (and still am a bit).

From a creating music point of view, one of my defining moments was when I completed the rough mix for the song ‘Where Have You Gone’ (which you can hear below). I knew it was definitely a step up from what I had done before.

Is there a connection between when you feel more or less creative to what’s going on in your life?

Yes I think there is a connection between what’s going on in my life with how creative I feel. Although it’s probably hard to describe exactly what that connection is. Sometimes when you have had a bad day and you sit down and write some music it can make you feel a whole lot better about things. I love being creative and I get bored very easily if I can’t be creative with something.

Where did you come up with the idea for your featured song?

The song was partly inspired by a video made for one of my earlier tracks (thanks to Justin Hannah) and stuff going on in my life. I think I came up with the idea while lying in bed. You know when you are just starting to fall asleep and you are half awake / half asleep and your mind starts to wonder (although it’s probably not the same for robots?). I come up with lots of great ideas then, most of which I forget. :) Although I should also mention the Danish band, the Surf School Dropouts who co-wrote this track with me and performed the vocals. It wouldn’t have happened without their excellent talents. The track is going to be the closing track on my debut album which should be out sometime soon… hopefully!

Listen to the featured song!

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Purchase The Loneliest Cowboy EP here!

Artist web site