December 7, 2011

Interview: Paul Steel

Psychedelic pop/rock songwriter • producer • arranger • guitarist • vocalist • keyboardist

Many songwriters draw a distinction between consciously and unconsciously writing songs. How do you do it?

For me, the initial idea, whether it’s a melody or a lyric or bunch of chords usually seemingly comes from nowhere. I find when I sit down and say to myself “Sit down and write a song. So.. Brain… What have we got?” I tend to force it too much and you can always hear that in the final track. I think once the initial idea’s become something real then I very consciously have to make certain things work. A lot of the time I write in quite a chronological way starting from the beginning of the song and by the time I’m at the end of the first chorus or whatever I’m in a different key or tempo to where I started, so if I want to come back to the original verse key I have to think about it a bit a more. I think the trick is to not let it sound too laboured.

How autobiographical are your songs?

Not very autobiographical at all when it comes to subject matter (with a few exceptions). I fear my life and most intimate thoughts are either too dull or too intense to write about directly. However, even with my more surreal or fictitious songs I try to put as much of my personality in them as possible so certain lyrics here and there might reflect some of my thoughts and opinions at the time.

Who are some of your musical/personal heroes?

I’ve always been a massive fan of ambitious melodic pop by people like XTC, The Beach Boys, Zombies and Beatles etc but more recently (mainly out of necessity) I’ve been observing slightly more experimental acts focusing on production. Todd Rundgren is a bit of a hero of mine not only for his musical achievements but also his attitude towards music and the music industry. He was so prolific, always stuck to his guns and always looked for ways to innovate in the studio. Also a great influence are the early electronic music pioneers like Joe Meek and Delia Derbyshire who were just fearless when it came to mangling sounds and opening up doors for the way pop music has been produced for the last 40/50 years.

Tell me about your featured song.

‘Saturday Night In Alcatraz’ is the second track from my new project LL COSMONAUT. It’s basically meant to paint a picture of 1930s San Francisco but in an alternate reality. All the inmates at are looking to escape but not before they rock the rock one last time. Though it’s hard to have sympathy with cold blooded killers and gangsters I still get excited by mass rebellion against a powerful authority and musically I tried to represent that adrenaline rush. The instrumental section is supposed to be the hopes and memories of the outside world. Really, in all the films and documentaries I’ve seen about Alcatraz it’s always felt suitably drab and grey but I really wanted to bring it to life in technicolor. I think it would make a great theme tune for ‘Muppets in Alcatraz’

Listen to the featured song!

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Purchase Moon Rock here!

Artist web site

December 5, 2011

Interview: Hilary Grist

Art-pop-torch-folk songwriter • producer • guitarist • vocalist • keyboardist

Tell me about a “happy accident” in one of your productions.

We recorded a couple of the songs for my most recent album, Imaginings, in our apartment. On the song, “Better” you can actually hear the sound of cars driving by outside the window on the wet, rainy pavement. That was definitely a “happy accident” because in one part of the lyrics it talks about hearing the cars driving outside my window as they go back and forth to work each day.

How autobiographical are your songs?

Almost always! My songs are usually about an experience I’ve been through or an emotion I’ve felt, but once in a while, I’m inspired to write a song about something a friend or family member has been through too. I’ve also written a couple of imagined ‘fictitious’ songs like “Horizon” just for fun. Often my songs sort of drop out of thin air though too, out of my subconscious I guess, and then I realize what they’re about later. It can be really interesting… ;)

What comes first, the words or the music?

For me, it’s mostly the music that comes first. I think that’s because I learned music first as a piano player and the first songs I made up as a kid were instrumentals. It all starts with an emotion or energy and and from there I usually get a piano figure or motive that comes married to a melody that I sing wordlessly out loud. My job after that is to catch the words I connect to as they fall out, and that’s usually when I discover what the song is about or at least what the theme is going to be. Often I’m inspired to write an entire lyric out of just one word, or phrase that speaks to me. It makes me feel like a star catcher. ;) Once in a while though, I get the words for part of a song first and I’m inspired to write the music from there. My songs “Save You For Last” and “Back in Town” happened like that.

How often do you write songs?

Not often enough! It really depends on if you mean finished songs or ideas. I’m always coming up with ideas or ‘bits’ as I like to call them. ;) It’s a real ebb and flow. I go through times where I’m completing lots of songs and times where I’m just coming up with lots of bits, and other times where I don’t write much at all because I’m busy with other music related stuff. I try and make it a goal to do a little bit of writing everyday when I’m home because some of my songs come fast and furiously, while others need to be stoked for a long time before they’re ready to come out and show their faces. Every song has it’s own process, it’s own unique character coming to life. I think that’s why I love songwriting so much though, it’s very mysterious.

Tell me how you wrote your featured song.

“Tall Buildings” came to me very intuitively. I came up with the piano pattern first. I was just sitting at the piano one day and the pattern appeared under my fingers and I got hooked to it right away. I have a mini recording setup at home, so I immediately started layering some claps and snaps. If you listen really close you can also hear some faint panting sounds, which I had added right away in the original demo as well, which really invoke the rat race of the city. I live in Vancouver, and I had been thinking a lot about and questioning the pressure to get a corporate job, get a fancy house and get in huge debt, so that’s where the lyrics come from I think – a cheeky skepticism of the urban way of life. ;)

You can see the music video we made for “Tall Buildings” here. We created and filmed the crazy cardboard piano city ourselves, with the help of our friends over two months in our apartment. :)

Listen to the featured song!

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Purchase Imaginings here!

Artist web site

December 1, 2011

Trick #52: You are an onion

“The writing has been an exercise [in] trying to work my way toward clarity. Get out the pen, and face the beast yourself. And what’s bothering you. And write. Well, that’s not exactly it. Y’know, OK, let’s go a little bit deeper. Well, that’s not exactly it. [It's] very hard peeling the layers off your own onion. When you get to the truth, y’know, do I want to say that in public?” -Joni Mitchell

November 29, 2011

Trick #51: Is it true?

So much of creating is doing something with the critical mind turned off, then checking the next morning and asking yourself, “is it true?”

“True” means, is there a basic human truth that’s being communicated somewhere in the work?

Not, “did this situation really happen?”

And not “is this historically accurate?”

You can play fast and loose with the facts, if you’re basing the work on something that happened to you.

The real test is to ask yourself if you’re communicating something that rings true with what you know about people, about the world, about the way you view things.

People love to see themselves in other peoples’ art. They love to experience things that resonate as “true” to them. It’s the nature of how our brains function.

If you aren’t communicating a human truth on some level, you may find it difficult to find humans who are interested in your work.

November 26, 2011

Trick #49: Editing demos for maximum progressive rock-ness

Progressive rock trick: the band Yes used to edit together their demos and learn the songs that way. Then they would record it for real.

November 25, 2011

Interview: Nadia Ackerman

Pop songwriter • vocalist • keyboardist

What’s the best advice you’ve ever received?

The best advice I ever received was to never give up and to never expect anyone to do anything for you. EVER!!

Were either of your parents musical?

Both of my parents were musical. My father was extremely gifted with an incredible ear for harmony. He had music coming out of his pores. He was the kind of person who could pick up any instrument and just play it. He passed away 19 years ago.

My mother was a singer. A soprano opera singer. She has not opened her mouth for many, many years but I believe it is still in there somewhere!

Do you have to force yourself to write songs — that is, do you have to schedule a time to write, or do you wait for inspiration?

Luckily, I do not have to force myself to write. I go through different phases. More often than not there is a song a day just waiting to come out. Other times a week or two might go by with nothing but silence (what is actually happening though, is I am writing in my head). There is always something kicking around and it can get quite annoying! :)

Tell me about the track that’s featured.

The featured track is called “Mary Jane” and it is the first single off my new record “The Ocean Master” which will be released worldwide through Spectra Records March 6th, 2012. Without giving too much away, Mary Jane is actually a nursery rhyme I made up in kindergarten on my own that came back to me last year!

Listen to the featured song!

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Purchase The Circus is Back in Town here!

Artist web site

November 23, 2011

Interview: Michael Kentoff from The Caribbean

Pop songwriter • producer • engineer • guitarist • vocalist

What’s your favorite food?

Savory and sweet, alternating.

How much of your songs pull from your life, and how much of it is fictional?

Very little of the content in Caribbean songs is autobiographical. It seems enough to live my life; I don’t feel the need to exact it on our sweet listeners. Most of what happens in Caribbean songs involves intrigue, duplicity, and 1/4″ audio tape.

Do you have any advice for those who are just starting out with recording?

Less is more in every respect. One area this is important is gear. Buy a piece you’ll always use and don’t be afraid to blow your whole budget on it (within reason, of course). Better to have one mic or pre-amp you’ll use for twenty years from the start than four you’ll outgrow, have to sell at a loss, and upgrade later. Two benefits: one, your recordings won’t sound naff from the start and, two, you’ll get to know your equipment really well.

Where did you come up with the idea for your featured song, “The 65 Cent Dinner?”

A few years ago I read some of poetry by Weldon Kees and was somewhat stunned that, in the 40s and 50s, he was writing in a rhythm and style that seems like it could be happening now. Or tomorrow. And that he died in the mid-fifties, probably because it wasn’t now or tomorrow yet. With so much promise comes the potential for the Big Letdown.

Listen to the featured song!

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Purchase Make the Day Out of Range here!

Artist web site

(Photo: Dakota Fine)

November 22, 2011

Trick #47: Be clueless

Find an instrument you that have no idea how to play.

Try writing a song on it.

November 17, 2011

Trick #44: Just finish it

How many times have you been 99% done with a song (writing, recording, or mixing) and find yourself subconsciously stalling to finish?

A song can be anything when you’re starting. It can fulfill whatever amazing, fantastic vision you can imagine.

But as you’re headed toward finishing, it’s no longer full of possibilities. It’s a tangible, real, flawed thing where specific choices had to be made to the exclusion of others.

The song is what it is, and it’ll soon be in the rear view mirror while the rest of the world adores it, hates it, or is indifferent to it.

Slowing down your process at the end is the subconscious saying, “No, wait, I could’ve done this one thing in the song better.”

And you know what?

Your subconscious is probably right.

That’s why you should finish this song and get started on the next one.

November 16, 2011

Interview: Helen Austin

Singer-songwriter songwriter • producer • multi-instrumentalist

What’s the one thing you’ll never understand?

sooooo many things :)

Don’t hate me for saying this… I don’t understand jazz. I mean I studied it, but don’t get it.

The Mama Mia Mania… I mean, I love ABBA but…

Celery.

My 9 year old son… his brain works in interesting and mysterious ways.

People who are not kind. I don’t understand it and don’t like it.

What do you look for when you’re writing lyrics?

I tend to just see what comes out of my mouth and brain while writing lyrics. They have to scan well with the melody which is why I tend to write that first and then hopefully the lyrics will flow. It’s sometimes surprising what I don’t know I’m thinking about.

I do like lyrics that sound like conversation and try not to write anything that I would speak, so to avoid too many cliches.

Are there any songs you regret releasing?

I don’t regret releasing anything because they have all brought me to the point where i am today and I love what I get to do everyday. It is a privilege to write and record for a living.

Saying that… my 2 older albums really don’t represent who I am today so, despite having boxes of those CDs in a cupboard, I would rather not sell them now. Is there a CD graveyard anywhere? :)

Can you explain the process you went through to create your featured song?

I was playing around on my ukelele after a long day in front of the computer and looking after kids and started singing ‘Take Me Away’ while strumming. This lead to a song about wanting a day to just do nothing. I think it applies to many mothers who rarely get time just to be themselves. We all love out kids, but the song is about it being ok to want your own time.

I quickly recorded it and had fun adding the percussion and all the other bells and whistles, especially the horns and the lalala-ing. It was fun to write and record.

Listen to the featured song!

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Purchase Song of the Week 2 here!

Artist web site

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