Dad's Album of the Week is back. This is the series where I briefly review my late father's vinyl.
The Brecker Brothers Band - Back to Back
You're not supposed to judge an album by the cover or inside artwork... but I totally did that here. Ok, so there is the cover above, and here is a picture of the inside of the jacket once you fold it open. (The below picture looks much better because I took it with my phone instead of finding an image on the Internet.)
Look at those guys. They look like an out-of-uniform college marching band. I see a trumpet and saxophone, and from reading the liner notes, I see they are heavy on the woodwinds. Ok, this is going to sound like that easy listening smooth jazz stuff that I can't stomach.
Well, no, all of this album doesn't sound like that. The first two songs are a lot funkier than you would expect from such un-melanated musicians. More careful reading of the liner notes is required, and look here, Luther Vandross arranged the background vocals for this album and also sang on it. (Is that him on the front cover drinking a beer/soda?) The third song is exactly the kind of content I was dreading... and then it moved on to pretty straight-forward jazz, very heavy on the saxophone solos and jamming that isn't going anywhere. I am intrigued by the synth sounds I hear on this, as I'm curious what kind of gear they were using. Full disclosure, I am not generally into this genre unless I am seeing it live.
It turns out that the songs on this album that I actually like were NOT written by the Breckers. No, the ones I like were written or co-written by the other folks in the band. My favorite member of this band I just discovered -which should not come as a surprise to anyone who knows me - is bassist and lead singer Will Lee (the FAQ on his site is great). Check out his work on the song "I Love Wastin' Time With You".
My summary: The songs aren't great - especially the slow ones - but this genre is apparently not about songcraft. The musical performances are fine, and if you're into jazz or saxophone solos, you'll probably dig this.
Let's start by making sure we all pronounce Jenee's name correctly... it rhymes with the French name Renée. Ok, there you go. Jenee Halstead is a songwriter that comes to us from Massachusetts, and her new album Disposable Love will be released THIS WEEK, on Friday the 22nd. I very much dig it, and I think you will, too... when you listen to these songs, you can tell that she feels every word she sings. After the photo, an interview with Jenee Halstead.
1. Let's hear the elevator pitch for your skill set and genre.
Skill set - I have no way or reason to give a skill set. Not sure how to even answer this question. I guess I would call myself an artist. Not considering a skill or ability. I play guitar, I sing my own songs, I seem to get better with each album. It's all about expression. I try to be pure in my expression. Not sure how that relates to my abilities. That is for others to judge I guess.
As far a genre goes I guess I am just a singer-songwriter. I am not glossy enough to be pop, not americana. You could call it indie pop or indie soul. The album is really all over the map. So I think singer-songwriter is the best answer.
2. You've travelled with a choir that performed Gregorian chant music. (I know this because I read your bio.) Are there parts of that experience that filter into your songwriting and performing today? How so?
I guess the Gregorian choir just seeps in as far as purity and sacredness of music. I always want to hear a purity of intention and intentionality if you will in all music. It doesn't matter the genre. If it feels like it is sacred to the person: expressed, meaningful, passionate. Then for me that counts as pure intention. I think there is just a level of sacredness and appreciation in music that I like to hear and experience and witness from whomever I am listening to. If that is not there, it will in no way interest me.
3. What was the first album you can remember buying with your own money?
Maybe Eazy E. I think it was the Eazy E cassette Eazy-Duz-It.. I was a huge hip hop, rap and R&B fan and still am. Oh boy I knew every word to that cassette. Can you imagine a skinny, awkward 12 year old girl from Spokane spitting Easy E on the way to junior high school? Yep. I loved it.
4. Tell me about the last concert you saw.
The last concert I saw: live or online?
I can't even remember. Maybe Lucinda Williams at The Paradise in Boston for the 20th Anniversary of Car Wheels on a Gravel Road. It was great. She was funny. Telling stories of what inspired the songs in between playing. Her stories were mostly about a failed love affair during tour and living on the road. So good. I had accidentally seen her twice that year within a three month span. I think friends offered a ticket each time. So good. She is just amazing when she is sober. I think she has been sober for a while. Three months prior I saw her outdoors at the Blue Pavilion (I think that is the name) in Boston and a fricken fireworks show went off over the water during one of her songs. Amazing.
5. What artists do you consider to be your biggest influences?
My biggest influences? I am going to say Kate Bush. Although my music sounds nothing like hers. It's just her. She is a Master of the highest degree. A sorceress. Her music, expression, songwriting, vocal range, vocal color, vocal ability, all of it is just crazy. I think what I love the most about her is she is working with the elements and mastering the sonic space and alchemizing the planet with her voice, with her lyrics. I can't explain it. Just listen to "Love and Anger" off The Sensual World. I guess she just inspires me in her purity, her intentionality and her ability to heal the world with her music, with the mastery in which she turns a phrase with her voice.
Watch the video here:
Second would be Joni Mitchell. For all the same reasons. The ability to speak and sing of her emotions in a way this is still unrivaled. Her poetry, her insane and gorgeous musical compositions.
Third would be Nick Cave. He is like my soul. He sings and expresses my soul in masculine form.
6. How has the ongoing pandemic affected your music career?
The ongoing pandemic has changed things a lot. It pushed the album release back 8 months. I hadn't really booked a lot of live shows for the release, so that wasn't an issue. I guess for me it was just hard to make the transition online. I didn't want to play online at first. I was focusing on getting singles out from the album, so I didn't have to worry too much about being in the studio or anything. I am finally getting around to playing online and doing a Variety Show through Stream Yard. I just love the live show with people in the room. I work with the energy in the room from people. It felt so strange at first when I was trying to play online in early March. You don't get that energetic interaction. I guess I should have viewed it early on more like a service. Service to others. That may have helped me get over the fear of online playing. I guess it's also devastating seeing some of my favorite stages shutting down. I don't know what to think about a lot of it right now. There is just now way to know how things will be when all of this is said and done.
7. You sound just a little bit different on each release, and it's interesting to me to notice an artist's progress like that. On Disposable Love you seem to have embraced some surprising changes of feel and instrumentation within the same song ("I'll Be Your Man"), showing off influences from blues and gospel at times ("In the Seams"), and even a song that feels like it's a country song except for the really interesting bass line ("Solitary People"). When you started putting this album together, did you plan to cover that much different musical ground, or did it just kind of happen?
When we started this album I don't think we planned on covering this much ground. I have always dappled in several "genres" as a writer. In previous albums I have married folk with Americana, a little bit of Country or Alt-Country, electronic beats and having the album musicians run roots instrumentation through pedals and amps. This was my work with producer Evan Brubaker on my first two full length albums. I knew on this album I wanted to cover more soul and pop sounds. I was clear on that. I was writing songs that sounded more pop influenced and my co-writes with Berklee Songwriting professor Susan Cattaneo (who is a good friend) were each much more soul and pop driven. We co-wrote "In the Seams," "Mother" and "Disposable Love." She also co-wrote the lyrics on "Skin," which to me is truly pop all the way. I think Dave Brophy, my producer, is comfortable bridging all these worlds and in such a unique and masterful way. That was why I was excited to work with him. On any given day he will be working on a Jewish Klezmer album, a soul album, a straight up country Americana album and a high level jazz album. He is a jack of all trades, multi-instrumentalist and he is comfortable swimming in many ponds. We both love Spaghetti Western and noir sounding music and I think that informed and was a thread through a lot of the music...but it also has a fresher pop approach to it.
8. The COVID-19 vaccine is slowly trickling out, which means that maybe - just maybe - touring could be back this year. If we get live shows back, do you plan to go on the road with the album? If we don't get live shows back, what are your next steps?
I honestly am not sure and haven't given this much thought yet. The continual on and off lock downs and insecurity around this whole thing has me table everything for now. If venues start to open in the next six months I may decide to book some shows. I am hoping to at least do one big celebratory show in Boston sometime in the next year (fingers crossed). I just don't think we are going to know for a while how all of this will ramp down (unfortunately) and it's better for my mental health to look at the long game and not get my hopes up too high.
***
Trust me on this, you want to listen to Jenee's new album, Disposable Love, and I'd like to remind you that you can do so this Friday. I linked her official website above, but just in case you missed it, click here to visit Jenee Halstead on the Internet. You can also find Jenee on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.
Dad's Album of the Week is back. This is the series where I briefly review my late father's vinyl.
Mandrill - Mandrill Is
If this were released today, we'd call it fusion. I don't think that term was used for music back in 1972, which is when Mandrill Is was released.
Mandrill was founded by Panamanians who grew up in Brooklyn. That explains the Latin influences heard on this album, as well as the prevalence of the horns. (The founding brothers play trombone, saxophone, and trumpet.) There is also funk and soul here, as well as a track or two that sound like they have been lifted right out of a blaxploitation film... the album is certainly a product of the time, and of the experiences of the musicians.
I think I might adopt the song "I Refuse To Smile" as a personal credo, but my favorite song on this album is "Here Today Gone Tomorrow", which just plain rocks. Go listen to that one.
Welcome to the first installment of a new series over here on my blog. It's called Dad's Album of the Week, to be commonly abbreviated as DAOTW. My dad died a couple of years ago, and I am now in possession of a bunch of his vinyl. I haven't listened to most of it. Telling myself to write about the music will be an incentive to listen to all of it. (Well, I won't listen to any of the Chicago albums. See, that was his favorite band, and I heard them all way too many times growing up.) This series will run on Thursdays, and will generally be brief.
Parliament - Mothership Connection
Even those who have never heard this album have absolutely heard this album, if they have listened to rap or hip hop over the last 30 years. The music here is often sampled, and the vocabulary here is often imitated. (Might "gangster lean" and "the bomb" have originated from this album?)
What we have here is legendary music from a legendary crew (including fellow Ohioan Bootsy Collins), and music that will make you move, all the way from 1975.
Sing it with me now: we need the funk, we gotta have that funk
You might remember that Burst, the debut album from Columbus, Ohio's Snarls, was one of my favorite albums of 2020. Let me give you just a little background on how I discovered this band.
Snarls opened for Sleater-Kinney in fall 2019 at Newport Music Hall on High Street. Since the Southgate House down in Kentucky is no more, the Newport is my favorite concert venue. It's exactly the kind of place that I would love to play, and I've seen plenty of outstanding shows there. Sadly, there are plenty of people that don't pay attention to the opening act at rock shows, or don't even bother to arrive early enough to see them. That's not me, I'll gladly take all of the rock you'll give me at a concert, thank you very much. Snarls did not disappoint. They did seem a little nervous, but I think playing a legendary venue in one's hometown for the first time is a reasonable thing to get nervous about. The songs were good, the performance was good, and everyone in the band looked like they were enjoying themselves.
After the show, Misty and I headed to talk to the band and buy an album, but they didn't have one out yet. We got to meet three of the four band members. (We met everyone but Max, and I'd like to assure everyone that we are not biased against drummers.) So, I've been going to shows at this venue since before some of these kids were born. Misty and I are totally old enough to be their parents. Suffice it to say that we are neither cool nor interesting, so Chlo & Mick & Riley (alphabetically) didn't have any reason to be nice to us, but they were. Yeah, I'm not cool, but I am a musician, and they put up with me asking a couple of nerdy musician-type questions. They're lovely individuals... so consider it a bonus that they also made a solid record.
Usually, when bands do press, the lead singer and/or lead guitarist end up doing most of the interviews. For Snarls, that's Chlo and Mick. They are the most visible part of the band, while the rhythm section labors in relative obscurity to drive the bus. I mean no slight to the guitar players in this band (Mick actually did the artwork for my singles "Anecdote" and "Promise"), but I like to show special love to bass players.
After the picture, I amplify the voice of Riley Hall, who plays bass and sings in Snarls.
1. Let's hear the elevator pitch for your skill set and genre.
I don’t know if I have any technical musical skills but I guess my skills include creating music that is true to my heart. That happens to be alternative emo rock.
2. When did you start playing music? Why did you decide to play bass? Do you play any other instruments?
So the first time I picked up an acoustic guitar was when I was 10 years old and taught myself through grade school more as a hobby. I learned through YouTube tutorials of Taylor Swift songs (haha a simpler time). I picked up bass for a class in high school called band lab. The students formed bands and wrote songs the whole year. The band I was in was actually with Chlo and a different classmate from then named Austin. That was me and Chlo’s first live band experience and it was kind of spur of the moment that I decided to play bass. It’s funny actually I had never even touched a bass before but it came quite naturally since I had played guitar for about 6 years already. There was a time where I took piano lessons but that was only for about a year when I was 16 and I haven't practiced since.
3. What was the first album you can remember buying with your own money?
I’m not sure if this is considered my own money, but I did buy Taylor Swift’s album Fearless on iTunes with a Christmas gift card when I was like 11.
4. Tell me about the last concert you saw.
I went and saw CAAMP with my mom at legend valley back in October. It was a drive in concert so it was nice to have the luxury of live music while also being COVID conscious. A little breath of fresh air in this day and age.
5. What artists do you consider to be your biggest influences? A brief follow-up, making this a 2 for 1: Which bass players do you consider to be influences?
I love this question. There’s so many artists that I have admired over the years but there is a handful that stick out. John Mayer for one. I was 14 when I started diving into his music and really becoming inspired by him to expand my guitar skills. This is when I started learning his cool plucking and strumming technique like in “Stop This Train” and his cover of Tom Petty’s “Free Falling”. I definitely immersed myself in my acoustic guitar and as I learned more I started to recognize and acknowledge my growth as a musician for the first time. It really started to click in my head that maybe I should be chasing my dreams, or rather that they weren't just “dreams”. I can’t say that I have ever payed attention to bass players specifically since I didn’t start playing until I was 16. Even still I have never viewed music like that. Looking for the best guitarist, drummer, bassist etc. I look for music that makes me feel. Music that reminds me that other people feel too.
6. The pandemic did not treat you all kindly. You had a tour cancelled right out from under you, and while I know you would have loved to go on the road because you love to play, it's also work, so that cost you financially as well. How are you personally dealing with this lengthy disruption?
Obviously it was very upsetting to first hear that all of our tours were cancelled but I never took it very personally just because I realized that it was all out of our control. I will say that I personally am very blessed, especially during lockdown, because I don’t pay rent (thanks mom!) and have very little monthly expenses. Given that, it has been really easy for me to just take everything day by day. There hasn't been any doubt thanks to all of our sweet fans that have been showing us so much love and support from the start of this whole mess. Also the Spotify recap thing was really comforting to see for Snarls and a really great reminder that we still have listeners from all around the world that are dying to see us play.
7. My favorite song on your band's album is "Burst", because, well, I'm also a bass player, and that should be obvious. A sneaky second is "Concrete", I enjoy your work in that one. What's your favorite song to play live and why?
Thank you! “Concrete” was one of the first more intricate bass lines that I wrote so I appreciate that coming from a fellow player! I think my favorite song to play live is “Walk in the Woods” just because of how energetic we can get with it. My favorite thing about playing live shows is seeing everyone dance and let loose while they listen to us and that's very easy to do with that song.
8. How do you intend to keep growing as a musician and writer?
I guess I just want to make sure that I continue to be as genuine to my emotions as possible. My biggest fear as a writer is making something just to stay relevant or to make money so pushing myself to make my music mean something in turn inspires me to discover everything that I possibly can about my own experience and emotions. I want to make sure what I express is real and not fabricated solely for the pleasure of others.
***
I strongly recommend the Snarls performance in Chicago at Audiotree. This is it:
You can find Snarls all over the Internet, and listen to their debut album over on their Bandcamp page. (Bandcamp Friday will resume in February, so if you are thinking of buying some Snarls merch, that would be a wonderful day to do so.)
I released an album in 2020, and of course, have listened to it way more than anyone else has. That's kind of how it works for songwriters, you spend so much time listening and critiquing your own art. I feel obligated to mention that release, because I'd really like you to listen to it if you haven't done so yet.
Curious about some of the other things I listened to in 2020? Be assured, I spent time with music that wasn't actually my own music, and there was certainly no shortage of albums released. Did you know that Pearl Jam put out an album this year? It's true. Guided By Voices put out three albums this year, because of course they did. Some artists who released albums I enjoyed this year are Lesley Barth (Big Time Baby), Lydia Loveless (Daughter), Nick Kizirnis (The Distance), and Local H (Lifers). However, here are my favorites, in no particular order, except for perhaps this first one:
HUM - Inlet
HUM dropped this on the world as a complete surprise. In unison, music blogs everywhere reviewed Inlet with collective awe and near-universal approval. If you’re a music fan who reads about music, and younger than my generation, I’m sure you didn’t understand it. "Why are there suddenly all of these articles about a band I’ve never heard of"? That’s what you surely asked yourself.
HUM hail from Champaign, Illinois, and had a moderate hit song on their third album in the 90s. From the first time I heard that song, I knew this was exactly the kind of band I would love to play in and the kind of band I would love to see. Riff-tastic. Layered. Like shoegaze, but with more driving drums, very subtle harmonies, and some separation in the guitars. A little bit like metal, but not quite as angry or as fast. (Let's take a moment to appreciate some things about that excellent song I linked to that would be generally be castigated today by people in the music business.... introduction of 33 seconds, complete sonic deviation from introduction to the body of the song, all of the instruments are real, the vocals are not pitch corrected, vocals not sitting right on top of the mix, almost two minutes go by before the chorus shows up, total run time is five minutes.)
HUM disappear for 22 years, then drop an album out of nowhere that sounds like they had never left. It is glorious, and is my favorite album of the year. The guitar tones and feel of the songs remind me of my youth, but the vocals are on occasion just a touch more prominent in the mix now than they were a couple of decades ago. There are still lyrics about space and relationships, and there is still all sorts of rock being brought to the table.
Favorite songs: “Waves”, “Step Into You”, “Cloud City”
Punch The Sun -Brevity
If you read my blog, you might remember that I’ve mentioned this album before, when I posted an interview with Shannon Söderlund. Well, here we are near the end of the year, and Brevity remains one of my favorite albums, and I have listened to it over and over and over again. That sweet 90s rock sound will probably always be a soft spot for me, and this album has plenty of it, but also plenty of vocal harmonies and clever lyrics. Go listen to it immediately, leave your ammunition in the junk drawer, and don’t be like Steve.
Favorite songs: “Ammunition", Hey Steve”, “11 Until 2”
Snarls -Burst
I am pretty sure that everyone in Snarls is too young to remember anything about the 90s, but here again, the rock sound from that time period shows up on a 2020 album. These folks are fellow Ohioans, hailing from Columbus. They've had a good year... they've gotten plenty of press from the prestigious and coveted media outlets who we all wish were listening to our music, they signed to a record label, and they released Burst, their debut. Sure, the pandemic nixed their touring plans, and I'm sure that caused them to lose their collective marbles, but as soon as its possible, I think they'll head out on the road in search of world domination. I'd really love to put together a show and play with them in Dayton, but that is probably not enough profile for them.
The songs here are good. A lyric on the album that really resonates with me goes "twenty seems further than it ought to be", which I find to be amusing because there is no way this was written from my point of view. You'll be learning more about a specific member of this band later. (That is what they call "a tease".) For now, let's say that this is another album that lands squarely on some of my favorite sounds... two guitar attack, vocal harmonies, hooks aplenty.
Favorite songs: "Hair", "Concrete", "Burst"
Radkey -Green Room
I discovered this band early in 2020, via their 2019 album No Strange Cats. That’s an outstanding, punchy, punk-influenced bundle of rock. I remember checking the touring schedule to see if Radkey were going to make it to Ohio, and then… well, we all know what happened in the spring, and what that did to touring bands.
Radkey clearly got to work during the months of isolation, and dropped a new album this year. It picked up right where their previous one left off… I mean, check out this video for the lead single:
You’ll be nodding along to everything on this album, and the interpretation of a Bill Withers classic at the end is a nice cherry on top of a tasty rock and roll sundae.
Favorite Songs: “Two-Face”, “Judy”, “Stains”
TINO -Past Due
You know, in my youth, I listened to a lot more hip hop and rap than I do now. Don’t get me wrong, I still very much respect the art form, but as I get older, I find that this genre has stopped resonating with me. Well, TINO is here to bring it all back.
He grew up in Cleveland, but he calls Dayton home these days, and music in the Gem City is better off for it. You can learn more about him in an interview he did earlier on my blog. With TINO, you shall find high energy delivery, intelligent lyrics, and rhymes that you probably didn’t expect. There is plenty of truth spoken on this album, about the 1995 Cleveland Baseball Club (whatever happened to them at the end of the season?), and about the government.
This gentleman takes his art seriously, and he’s got more on the way. If you know of more hip hop like this, point me in that direction.
Favorite Songs: “95 Tribe”, “Gov’t”
The Lees of Memory -Moon Shot
John Davis does it again. You might remember him from previous bands, such as Superdrag, and previous blog entries, such as this one right here. Davis grabbed Brandon Fisher and Nick Slack, and dropped this album in July.
A funk song isn’t the sort of thing you would ever expect here, but you get one on the last song of the album. Other than that, this sounds like a natural continuation of the sounds we have gotten on this band’s first three albums.
If you don’t listen to the lyrics, you might think this is a happy album. It’s not, and really, given what most of us have collectively experienced this year, that’s not a surprise. The lyrics on the album express plenty of problems, but they also comment on something that many of us do to deal with it all. My favorite lyric on the record is from “Crocodile Tears”, and it goes: the radio might help when you feel blue / that’s what rock and roll’s supposed to do / records lift me up when I can’t move / that’s what rock and roll’s supposed to prove.
I thank NPR and their Tiny Desk series for introducing me to Lianne La Havas a few years ago. If you have a few minutes, I cannot strongly enough recommend her enthralling performance from 2015. Here it is:
Two of those songs are from her second album Blood, and the other one is from her debut Is Your Love Big Enough?... but that’s a good sample to show you what she is about as an artist. Lianne writes beautiful songs, and has a strong, otherworldly beautiful voice.
I find the song “Green Papaya” particularly interesting. There isn’t any percussion, so the guitar gives you the rhythm. If you’re thinking that’s the bass player’s job, well, the bass here is sparse, and serves as more of an accent that occasionally moves the feeling along, it’s not actually doing rhythm work. (I happen to very much LOVE what the bass is bringing here.) There is a time signature change at the chorus, but without a steady percussion instrument, I keep having a hard time finding the downbeat, and that really holds my interest.
Lianne has been covering “Weird Fishes” live with her band for years now, so it’s pretty cool to see it show up on this album, and a very interesting choice to cover. Here’s their official video of it, and something that keeps bringing me back to this is seeing the drummer start with the exact beat from the original song, and then change it. Lianne makes this song her own. Also, the a capella bit gives me chills.
Oceanator is the project name for one Elise Okusami… a band and a person from New York City. This is the Oceanator debut album, full of fuzzy guitars for body and catchy lead licks that you might end up humming. Right around the time of release, this album got all kinds of press from just about every corner of the world of online indie rock commentary. (Well, at least I noticed this in the corners of that world that I happen to visit.) I don’t think I can say anything that hasn’t been said already by a ton of writers who are more professional than me. If you want more details, definitely go check out some reviews.
I’ll sum up this way: I dig this album.
Favorite songs: "Hide Away", "Walk With You", "The Sky Is Falling"
Sault -UNTITLED (Rise)
Sault released two albums this year. Many of their song lyrics directly reflect very relatable thoughts and feelings, and are expressed as direct observations or true-to-life quotes. For an example, they have a lyric that goes like this: don’t shoot, guns down racist policeman, don’t shoot, I’m innocent
That particular lyric isn’t on this album, it’s on the other one they released this year. Both of them are certainly worthy of your attention, but this is the one that makes my list of favorites from the year. The percussion sometimes sounds like it comes from some genre of EDM, whereas other times I get a very Afro-Caribbean feel from it. The music over the percussion is a mash-up of r & B, funk, soul, and gospel. I don’t even know what to call it… Up tempo soul? Disco revival? Maybe we should eschew categorization here and just say that many of the tracks here will make you want to move.
The bass groove on “I Just Want to Dance” is great, and I think I’ll spend some time learning that one for the fun of it. The bass on “The Beginning & the End” is also awesome, and I might mess around with that as well.
Favorite songs: “Free”, “You Know It Ain’t”, “Uncomfortable”
Phoebe Bridgers -Punisher
I didn't want to like this album. It has been written about everywhere, and Bridgers has been making so many appearances that I don't know if we can refer to her as "indie" anymore. Being ubiquitous makes you mainstream, doesn't it? She even got nominated for a Grammy this year. (An aside, her nomination is in the Best New Artist category, but she's not exactly a new artist. The lesson here, as always, is that the Grammys are clueless.) So yeah, I didn't want to like this album, and I didn't want to write about it, as I am not generally in the habit of listening to or writing about pop stars.
Here's the thing though... Punisher is every bit as good as people say it is. The pop sheen on the production is a bit much for me, but the songs are strong. Phoebe Bridgers is brilliant, and listening to her songs makes me want to work on my craft.
Way back in April 2020, I began an interview series here on the blog. I call it "Amplified" because my intent is to make the voices of artists louder. We musician types desperately wish to be heard, and although I don't exactly have a mammoth readership, I figured I'd try to get some additional ears to the work of folks I respect. After all, I'd love for someone to do that for me, and am grateful for every single listener. Here's a brief summary of a very diverse group of people who agreed to participate this year:
Lauren Light - pop/soul singer/songwriter, podcaster, owner of a licensing company
Nina Pelligra - a capella looper artist, songwriter, engineer
OriSoaring - multi-instrumentalist classically trained on saxophone, songwriter
If you missed any of these, I encourage you to revisit the interviews at the links. Listen to the music, look at the artwork, connect with the artists on social media.
If you don't feel like reading the story, but are curious to hear the song, please scroll WAY down to the end of this entry, and there will be a link for you.
The Who & Why & What
Some very dear friends were going to move away. This wasn't the kind of move where the prospect of never seeing them for the rest of my life was a possibility (although in the midst of a pandemic now, who knows), but this move was far enough away that visits would be few and far between. So, as one does, I was considering a gift. Here's the problem... gift giving is hard for me, more so in a situation where distance is involved. Food/drink gifts, while delicious, don't last very long. I don't have the wherewithal to come up with practical household gifts, and besides, they were already settled in a home, they were just going to a different home and ostensibly bringing their stuff with them. Not being able to turn my brain off at night is a nearly quotidian issue for me, and many nights the question of what kind of gift to give was the source of my insomnia. What could I - a generally useless and insignificant being - possibly give someone without it being hackneyed or trite? Hey, I write songs. How about a bespoke song? That's unique and that's sincere, which means the proper sentiment gets across no matter how awful it ends up being. Ok, problem solved, now to work...
The Where
I knew the destination of the move. That being the case, I did more reading about the location than I'd like to admit, looking for extra details that I might be able to shoehorn into a song. Relevant lyrics from the song:
Say hello to the Badlands Prairie dogs and Minuteman Needles in the Black Hills Porcupines with their quills
Say hello to the Big Bird
I'm not going to spell the place out to you, I'm going to depend on your profound knowledge of geography and history - or conversely, your Google skills - to tell you The Where.
The How
Brainstorming sessions. Writing text. Editing text into lyrics.
Deciding on a mood. Well, it's somewhat melancholy, but hey, they're not dying - at least not any faster than the rest of us are - and we very well might cross paths again. Ok then, minor key for the verse, then have a pre-chorus that modulates from minor to major, then major key in the chorus in order to give that optimistic and hopeful feeling. Settled. Pick the chords. No, not that one. Yes, that one. Ok. Chords.... find a melody. Agonize over the piano at finding a melody. Have a look at those lyrics. Oh, that's not good enough, and that won't work with the melody. Edit the lyrics again. Gently massage the lyrics and the melody until they are able to combine.
Back to the lyrics. How do I say "I love you and I will miss you" without explicitly saying those words? We're writing songs here, need to be artistic and just a tiny bit oblique. Ok, well, the general purpose of the song is as a goodbye present, how about making that the theme? Enter my interest in etymology. (If you think that word should contain an "n", well, that really bugs me.) The word "Goodbye" literally means "God be with you"... over the centuries English has shortened that four word farewell into one seven letter word. Ok now I have my chorus hook.
Goodbye means God be with you God be with you as you go Goodbye is temporary Just until the next hello
The When
There is more than one When.
The first... well, there was a moving day. I wanted to have the song finished, recorded, and gifted by moving day. I finished the song probably a week before the departure, as far as the final first draft.... then spent time messing around with the arrangement or the lyrics, not liking the edits, revising back to the original idea, pruning here and there again... yeah, it's a process. By no means am I an engineer, but I recorded the song at home the way I do all of my demos... I even threw on some vocal harmonies. I bounced it to mp3, and emailed it to my friends on the day they left. Mission accomplished.
The other When.
I was putting songs together to take to Patrick Himes at Reel Love Recording Company in February 2019, in preparation for tracking on my second solo album. "Goodbye", well, I didn't hate it. It kept growing on me. I thought it had potential given the right instrumentation and production. I brought it with me, along with a bunch of other songs on pre-production day. It survived the initial cut down... and as tracking started on a few songs and an album began to take shape, I ended up thinking that this one absolutely HAD to be on it.
There were obstacles. I wrote this song on piano, but I do not have the piano chops to do it justice. Patrick plays piano - because Patrick plays everything - but he had done that previously on "Convalesce" (from Defacing the Moon), was already playing acoustic guitar and pump organ on this one, and I wanted the chance to work with another talented musician who I admire. I decided to ask Nathan Peters. You might know him from such bands as Vinyl Dies, Lioness, TV Queens, and the legendary Captain Of Industry. Nathan so kindly said yes, and between the chord chart and my very very low quality home recording, was able to figure out what the song needed from the piano part.
Ah, the bass part. Well, I wrote the song on piano, and was unable to come up with an accompanying bass part that I thought was good enough. I reached out to Eric Cassidy for ideas. He had a great idea, and was kind enough to record a video of himself playing the idea slowly enough that I could learn it. One problem, it involved a quick note change that required holding a chord shape for the change... this type of thing is baby easy for guitarists - and for bass players that are much more talented than me - but I don't often play chords, and when I do, I certainly don't slide around from chord to chord. Great idea, how to execute cleanly? It turns out that I couldn't execute it cleanly. Every time I would play it, I'd either mess up the chord shape on the slide, or make too much fret noise, or not have all of the notes held well enough so that one of them wouldn't sound muddy. Here's where the studio magic comes in... I played the root note of the chords, then we used overdubs for the harmony notes. I'm not ashamed to admit it, I'm just not good enough to do it another way, it is what it is. We got the sound we needed to get.
The vocals. Take after take after take. When flat, try again. When sharp, try again. My verse harmonies worked out ok. Patrick had a fantastic idea for an additional harmony in the verse that I hadn't considered... after he sang it for me a few times so I could get it, I went and recorded that as well. What we have now are really nice harmonies in the verse with three parts, and all of the parts are me.
(I feel I should mention and thank community drummer Brian Hoeflich here, but make clear that there was no obstacle whatsoever as far as his part is concerned. He did - as per usual - excellent work.)
The Summary
"Goodbye" is track 3 on Anxious Inventions & Fictions. (If you have the Deluxe Version on CD, it is track 11.) I am proud of it. I said what I needed to say, which is the main point of writing songs. The recording sounds clean, and makes me seem like a much more talented musician than I actually am. Sure, I didn't actually HAVE to professionally record this song... but I thought the song was good enough to deserve it, and the folks I gifted it to deserve to hear it at its full potential instead of only the horrible version I did at home.
I've probably mentioned this before, but I write music first for myself... it's a way to deal with life and emotions and thoughts and such. Sure, if I write something that feels decent enough to share, I absolutely want to share it, but my songs are usually for me first. Music... this cathartic, moving, crushing, heartbreaking thing. As I write, I sometime think to myself that I would like to evoke the same emotions in a listener that Cari Clara's songs evoke in me. If you don't know this artist, let me introduce you.
Cincinnati's Eric Diedrichs is responsible for Cari Clara. He was previously the lead singer of power pop specialists, Simpletons. (An aside: I can't find my copies of the two Simpletons albums. If anyone has them, please reach out. Seriously.) I remember talking to Eric at a show when he had announced that Simpletons was not going to be a thing much longer, and I was somewhat dismayed at losing such great songs and solid performances. He told me that I would definitely not be disappointed in his next project. He was not lying.
Eric Diedrichs kept the poignant lyrics, the pop songwriting sensibilities, the great hooks, and added a triple shot of melancholy, yearning, wistfulness, and occasionally slightly overwrought singing, then started making records all by himself. The first few Cari Clara albums don't have the slick production and sonic sheen that the songs deserve, but the songs are all so good that it doesn't matter. Here is an example from the 2004 album Miniature American Model Society.
Maybe you're wondering what Cari Clara was like when they played live. They were outstanding. This was the first band I had ever seen that had two drummers - something that Radiohead has been doing a lot of the last decade plus - and that really amped up the sonic texture of their shows. Layered guitars, multiple vocalists, and keyboards. Eric made the albums on his own for the most part, but they really came alive on stage with an ensemble of performers.
The last Cari Clara album is Midnight March, and I think it's the best of them. The songs are great, which is standard, but the production is kicked up a few notches. I have very fond memories of heading down to Cincinnati to be there for the release show. My favorite song from the album is this one:
On the Bandcamp page for this album, you'll find the statement "Eric Diedrichs should be famous". I find nothing to disagree with here. As a songwriter, arranger, and lyricist, his work has always spoken to me, and although you probably can't hear it in my music, I consider him to be a strong influence on my sound. This is a talented gentleman with plenty of things to say, and if he's done making music, well, Ohio and the world are both worse off for it.
Normally I schedule my blog post topics a few weeks out, and even write them as far in advance as I can... but that didn't work out recently. My mental health issues - which I have written about before - are giving me quite the pummeling recently, and my ability to be focused and remotely organized is suffering. Here are some current random thoughts.
I'm watching baseball tonight. My favorite baseball team is in the National League Championship Series for the first time in a long time. The last time they actually won a World Series was my senior year of high school. Yes, I'm that old. The responsibility for my love of just about every single possible sport belongs squarely to my late father, though, with the exception of Ohio State, I was never a fan of his favorite teams. (This is a good thing, because he was a lifelong Browns fan, and that's a thing that brought him no small amount of anguish over the years.) Baseball has a special place in my heart, and is my favorite sport to watch in person.\
Not sleeping well is causing me to be in a near-constant state of exhaustion, which is surely leading me to an early death. Last night, I turned in at a very reasonable hour, and actually fell asleep... only to wake up after a couple of hours. By the time I managed to look at the clock, it was around 1:40, but my wife says she noticed me being awake and disturbed around 12:30. I was awake most of the rest of the night, which was no good, because I had a morning online training session for my corporate job (indie rock does not pay the bills), and I kind of needed to be able to think clearly and focus for that. No bueno. If there is any bright side here, I managed to write a song between the hours of 3 and 4 in the morning, and I don't hate it yet.
I might write a series of musings on love at some point, much like I did this year with a series on dreams. I tend to develop a certain amount of affection for anyone with whom I have ever had a particularly meaning conversation, and for the people I have known the longest, that tends to run deeper. Of course, there are people who one loves because one decides to, and people who one no longer loves because one decides not to, but for me, most of all that isn't very voluntary. I've been thinking about this more recently because some of my classmates from way way back in my youth have been dealing with assorted types of life adversity, and one of the decent things about social media is the ability for us to know some of these things. I've recently been feeling a mix of being heartbroken for them while also in awe of their resilient spirit and perseverance.
