In July 2010, CHAPMAN began his weekly live acoustic YouTube show, The Bare Bones Sessions. Two years later, having gone monthly, CHAPMAN has been using each session to showcase a new song, written that month, and then records a full studio version of the track available for download after the show.
What are some of your influences, musical or otherwise?
I usually say that most of the people that influence my music are either dead or reclusive! Jim Croce, David Ackles, Harry Nilsson, Nick Drake and Scott Walker are either dead or reclusive! I also have the word ‘FUNK' tattooed on my right arm and ‘SOUL’ on my left arm so that gives you another clue to where my other influences come from.
What are the Bare Bones Sessions and how did they come about?
The Bare Bones Sessions are me getting up in front of the cameras and performing my latest song live and acoustically in a ‘Bare Bones’ style and putting it up on my Bare Bones Sessions YouTube channel. At the time of writing, August 3rd will see Bare Bones Session #70.
I started the sessions because as well as being a singer/songwriter, I’m also a proud Dad. My daughter was born in 2007, and I didn’t want to miss a second of her growing up – so instead of touring, I started the sessions to showcase my work live to a global audience. She starts school in September so things may change for me.
How difficult was it to write one song per week?
It’s a bit like going to the gym! Songwriting is like a muscle; the more you do it the easier it gets. It was a great discipline for me because you have a deadline and you have to write and be able to play the song in a week. I got a lot of great ideas from the Songwriting Shortcutsbooks by Robin Frederick.
What song has received the biggest reception?
I wrote a song called "Butterfly" about my sister-in-law who was critically ill at the time. She died a few days after I performed the song on the session and people really connected with it. Since the sessions have gone monthly I’ve had two new songs "Human Sea" and "Yes I Do" that have racked up a lot of views and iTunes sales! I’m hoping that August’s track "Over My Head" will get a good reception.
Do you ever work with a full band?
I had a record deal with my band MacArthur a few years back. We were signed to a label owned by Dave Stewart from Eurythmics. He was a creative guy and it was nice to have a lot of money spent on photos, recording an album and making a video but ultimately the financial backing melted away and the label collapsed. We had a great album, but we didn’t own it and it took 3 years of legal battles to get the rights back but by the time that happened the moment had passed for us. That’s what caused me to go solo and start my own label and publishing company, Prosperous Hooks.
I can produce a full band sound in my studio, which is all I need at the moment…plus no waiting around for people to turn up for rehearsal and no musical differences!
What’s next musically?
I’m honest about the fact that my main aim is to write songs that can be licensed for TV and Film. In the changing musical world we need to make a living from everywhere we can. So I’m always working towards my next song, hoping people connect with it and trying to get it sync’d for the screen.
The great thing is that I never know what’s coming next, releasing a single every month keeps me pretty busy. That’s how most people buy their music now, track by track; I don’t feel under pressure to make a traditional album even though I’m producing enough tracks for one, after all in 2010 I released three albums in one day! But that’s for another question…
It's a simple question, really. But it all depends on what constitutes a rock and roll lifestyle. For some it's sex, drugs, rock and roll and a "bad Moto Guzzi." For others, it's diapers, Desitin, Enfamil and strollers. It doesn't get more rock and roll than that!
This is just one of several questions Cake's singer/leader John McCrea asks throughout the four minute song:
"How much did you spend on your black leather jacket?" "How much did you pay for your rock 'n' roll t-shirt?" "How much did you pay for your bad Moto Guzzi?"
So many questions. Is this a test? Are they simply rhetorical or does Mr. McCrea want me to answer them all? I'll give it a shot:
a) I don't own a black leather jacket, and I've never purchased one in my life. b) I have purchased concert t-shirts, but I don't usually pay more than $25 for one. There are two in my closet right now. c) I don't know. I'll get back to you on that one.
Did I pass?
Does Mr. McCrea want me to reflect on my chosen lifestyle, which is anything but rock 'n' roll? Is he trying to teach me something about economics? Why all the questions?
Do you detect sarcasm here?
Why is Mr. McCrea singling me out? I didn't even know what a Moto Guzzi was until I looked it up just now. (It's an Italian motorcycle, by the way.)
Or is he targeting you?
When Cake released their first studio album, Motorcade of Generosity, I was one of the first to buy a slice of "cake." Did I buy the record just "to prove that I heard of them first"? Looking back, was that wrong? Because according to McCrea, "I was just drinking what they're selling." But I like Cake, still do. Does that mean I'm a sell-out?
Like me, other consumers must have loved the postmodern, ironic "Rock 'n' Roll Lifestyle," that we had to own a copy of it. We must have loved Cake's lo-fi charm and McCrea's deadpan delivery. We must have loved the white-boy funk that reminded us of Soul Coughing. In fact, we loved it so much that the song climbed the charts to #35 and the video was featured on MTV's 120 Minutes. That's how much we loved it.
To be honest, Mr. McCrea, my cd collection is shiny and costly, but I've never purchased a chunk of a rock star's guitar. How much does something like that go for anyway? I guess it depends on the guitarist. Pete Townshend might fetch a few quid more than the anonymous guitarist who smashed his Flying V at the end of the Brooklyn Bowl gig.
Oh, and thanks Mr. McCrea for the philosophical aphorism (despite the poor grammar): "Excess ain't rebellion." I'll be sure to keep that in mind the next time Cake releases an album. And why do you think buying music is self-destructive anyway? Funny, I never thought of it that way. I guess it all depends on the band.
I apologize for beating you up, John McCrea. I really like Cake. I really like you. And I really like your songs, particularly "Rock 'n' Roll Lifestyle"?
For every UK band that has found success in America - The Beatles, Rolling Stones, The Who, Oasis - there are thousands of bands like Snow Patrol, Slade, Manic Street Preacher, and Stereophonics. Conquering America is no easy feat. Even classic English bands like The Kinks, who eventually found an audience, struggled for many years in the U.S.
Here are the top 5 UK bands that have failed to find superstardom across The Pond (for one reason or another). The following bands might have been admired in America, but their popularity in no way compared to the popularity they had back in the motherland.
Buzzcocks
In the summer of 1977, the British punk scene exploded. Record companies were scrambling to discover the next Sex Pistols.
The Buzzcocks signed a record deal with United Artists on August 16, 1977, the day that Elvis Presley died. Perhaps The King's death was a foreshadow of things to come for Pete Shelley, Steve Diggle and company.
The Buzzcocks didn't reach The States until the fall of 1979. They were promoting their American release, a collection of singles along with B-sides, Singles Going Steady, which was the first official Buzzcocks' album to be released in America, though they had already released two studio albums in the UK.
By the time they released their third studio album A Different Kind of Tension, also in the fall of ’79, the band was ready to implode. Pete Shelley said: "By the time we came over to America, I was already dead, emotionally scarred by the way the band had been eaten up and absorbed by drugs."
The Americans embraced the Buzzcocks. Shelley remembered the band's U.S. tour: "We had a great reception in America. We hit the East and the West Coast and a few cities across the top. I’m sure there were great places in the middle, but we didn’t get to go there." The band broke up just two years later in 1981.
The Buzzcocks' legacy is unquestionable. They were a vital influence on the Manchester scene, indie rock, power pop, pop punk and punk rock scene.
Pulp
Throughout the 1980s, Pulp struggled to find success in Great Britain. It wasn't until the mid-1990s with the release of His 'n' Hers (1994) and Different Class (1995), which reached #1 on the UK Albums Charts, that the band established a following. Different Class generated four top ten singles, including "Common People," but be honest now...how many of you know the song? I thought so...
The Libertines
When a band has been given the label "has potential," that usually means they're underachievers, perhaps insufferable addicts prone to chaos, who will eventually fail to reach such projected heights. The Libertines are that band.
Formed in 1997 and led by dual frontmen Pete Doherty (guitar/vocals) and Carl Barat (guitar/vocals), The Libertines' style is a mix between indie rock, garage rock and the first wave of British punk circa 1977.
Inspired by such stalwart UK bands as The Jam, Sex Pistols, The Smiths, The Kinks and The Clash, The Libertines fully embraced their English heritage. Like David Bowie and Ray Davies before them, as the band's primary songwriters, Doherty and Barat incorporated English/cockney slang and often sang in a distinctly British accent, which occasionally sounds like a drunken slur.
They released two studio albums, both produced by Mick Jones of The Clash, but in 2003 Pete Doherty's heroin and crack cocaine addictions and tension between Doherty and Barat were too much for the band to overcome. Disappearing from a European tour, breaking into Barat's house and stealing valuable items does not a good band member make. Doherty was simply out of control.
The Libertines split up in 2004, and while they've reunited several times for festivals, there isn't any news regarding an album of new material.
Blur
When Blur emerged in the late 80s, they were a psychedelic group in the vein of the Stone Roses. The group had moderate success, so in the mid-90s, they reinvented themselves, and along with their rivals Oasis had become the most popular band in the U.K.
With Blur's fifth album, Blur(1997), singer Damon Albarn publicly rejected British music and embraced American indie rock. The UK audience wasn't too keen on the band's new sound, but the Americans dug it. Blur received good reviews and had a reasonable hit with the single "Song 2."
Blur's legacy will remain in Great Britain, however, where they helped revitalize guitar pop by mastering the British pop tradition, and along with Oasis had become the leading exporters or Brit Pop.
The Jam
The first wave of British punk in 1977 included The Sex Pistols, The Clash, the Buzzcocks andThe Jam; The Jam (Paul Weller, Bruce Foxton and Rick Buckler) had the most significant impact on British popular music. While they were superstars in their homeland, they were virtually unknown in America.
From 1977 to 1982, The Jam had eighteen consecutive Top 40 singles in the United Kingdom, including four #1 hits. Not one of their songs entered the top 40 in the United States.
There is a recurring theme that appears to run throughout all five bands. Perhaps the reason they didn't find comparable success in the United States is because they were all "too British." Do you agree with that particular assessment?
Leave a comment below, telling us what other UK bands couldn't match the same success in America.
It’s as much a part of a successful band’s story as the substance abuse and rehab stints. I'm talking about the solo album.
At some point, someone is going solo. Now, sometimes the first solo album isn't very good (Mick Jagger’sShe’s The Boss) and sometimes it's downright abysmal (Peter Criss’Peter Criss), but every now and then, someone manages to release a truly great first solo record - Sting, Stevie Nicks, Donald Fagen and Eric Clapton- that rivals the work of the artist’s own band.
Here are five great first solo albums:
Paul Westerberg's 14 Songs
With a title referencing the J.D. Salinger collection Nine Stories, former Replacements' frontman Paul Westerberg released his first solo album in 1993. 14 Songs led to his work being featured on such early '90s TV staples as Friends and Melrose Place, catapulting his solo career that followed The Replacements’ 1990 break-up.
Tom Petty's Full Moon Fever
Following his stint in the Traveling Wilburys, Tom Petty started work on his first solo album, which contains some of his biggest hits, including “Free Fallin,” “I Won’t Back Down” and "Runnin' Down a Dream." It’s hard to consider 1989’s Full Moon Fever a solo album - every member of The Heartbreakers (except for drummer Stan Lynch) contributed to it - but despite that T.P. and producer Jeff Lynne wrote, produced and recorded what some consider to be Petty's masterpiece.
Jack White's Blunderbuss
Named after a type of muzzle loading firearm (because, why not?), Jack White's first solo album debuted earlier this year, earning the rocker his first number one. After fronting the White Stripes and The Raconteurs, working with everyone from Loretta Lynn to Tom Jones, and operating Third Man, his label and studio in Nashville, Jack Whitefinally got around to recording a solo album.
White is touring behind the record with two backing bands, one all male and one all female. He recently said in an interview with The Guardian: "I don't like to take the easy way out on anything I do."
Neko Case's The Virginian
Neko Case got her start as a drummer for various bands around Vancouver but soon found fame as the singer of the indie rock group The New Pornographers. Trading in her power pop sound for country, she released her first solo album The Virginian in 1997, featuring covers of Loretta Lynn and The Everly Brothers' songs. The Virginian was the first in a series of very successful solo albums for Case.
George Harrison's All Things Must Pass
Not only is All Things Must PassGeorge Harrison's first solo album, but it is also the first solo album by a former Beatle. The triple album was a massive success and considered by most to be Harrison’s best work. Featuring songs like “Isn’t It A Pity,” "What is Life," and “My Sweet Lord," it rivals his songs with The Beatles and just might be the finest of all the Fab Four solo albums.
In our Writers and Music series, authors discuss the music that has either been included in their most recent novel/play/poems or the influence music has had on their work overall.
Holly Anderson has written lyrics and adapted her poems for the likes of indie rock pioneers Mission of Burma, Rhys Chatham, Jonathan Kane, Peg Simone and Lisa B. Burns. She thinks a song is the perfect container for a poem: mobile, repeatable, soft or loud, in a crowd or solo, and simple to share.
The Night She Slept With A Bear (May 2012) is a collection of flash fiction and mesostics shipping with an original soundtrack by Chris Brokaw.
The formative music events that shaped some of The Night She Slept With A Bear are all over the map geographically, emotionally, time and genre-wise, too.
Here in no particular order:
Driving solo from upstate New York to Los Angeles with the original cast recording of The Gospel at Colonus cranked full-blast in western Nebraska as a towering blueblack storm piles up and rolls towards me from 50 miles away across the wildly waving plains.
Seeing Patti Smith on her first tour in support of Horses at The Guthrie Theatre in Minneapolis and then running home - hard - through falling snow in a rapture under a vaulted star-spitting sky.
Delibes’ Lakme – loud real loud – on my Walkman on a Turkish bus speeding across the Anatolian plain after bathing in the calcium springs at Pamukkale. The entire day like a citronella-scented acid trip.
Hearing Steve Reich’sMusic for 18 Musicians for the very first time and immediately laying down flat on the floor to keep from rising straight up out of my body in a grimy studio in the North End of Boston.
Copland’sNonet for 3 violins, 3 violas and 3 cellos on a no-name cassette rewound again and again. Driving through the green clefts and curtains of trees, corn and cows in the Catskills while trying to hash out a poem that just wouldn’t come. And it never did.
Rhys Chatham’s 100 Guitar Orchestra playing An Angel Moves Too Fast To See outdoors on a cloudless night in late June at Teatro di Verdura in Palermo, Sicily while my soon-to-be two year old daughter sits absolutely motionless in my lap, transfixed for an hour watching her father, Jonathan Kane, play the drums.
Dancing non-stop at a 4-hour King Sunny Adé show until sweat filled up my little red heels and they slid right off.
The Melodic Version of The Second Dream of the High-Tension Line Stepdown Transformer by La Monte Young. The piece: 4 notes, played on 8 muted trumpets at Merkin Concert Hall and the baby - in utero, 7 months - is rolling, spinning and thumping against my rib cage.
Neil Young’s 1971 Journey Through the Past solo tour date in Minneapolis when I was a wee hippie, a stripling in the 10th grade. The same sets were bootlegged later that winter at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion show in LA, and I soon wore that double album out.
Chris Brokaw’s solo instrumental Red Cities. I was writing lyrics for Clint Conley’s fierce but short-lived band Consonant. Chris let his songs breathe and always held back the right amount. No pyro, no bombast, just beautiful guitar playing and real clear thinking. Some years later when he said he’d love to score my collection of flash fiction and mesostics I was very happy to say ‘yesyesyes’.
(Holly Anderson has been anthologized in Up is Up, But So Is Down: New York's Downtown Literary Scene, 1974-1992, The Unbearables & The Unbearables Big Book of Sex, and First Person Intense. Her limited edition books Lily Lou and Sheherezadeare in library collections including MOMA, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Victoria & Albert Museum, Brooklyn Museum, The Downtown Collection at Fales Library, NYU, and the Harry Ransom Center at UT, Austin.)
Describing themselves as a “dark cabaret,” Birdeatsbaby incorporates both classical and punk into something strange, haunting, and very catchy. Currently touring behind their acclaimed February release Feast Of Hammersand racking up YouTube hits with their horror-inspired music videos,Birdeatsbaby is building a diehard following.
Okay, the question I’m sure you’re tired of answering: How did you come up with your name?
Unfortunately it’s not a very exciting story…I think we tried to sum up something dark and morbid that suited the music we were making, and that combination of words popped out of Mishkin’s head one day. It sounds like a dodgy newspaper headline…but it definitely sticks in your head!
How did Birdeatsbaby get started?
Through the desire to create something totally original and exciting. We were all quite bored with the current music scene at the time, and all from different backgrounds so the unusual sound that is Birdeatsbaby sort of happened naturally.
We’ve gone through some big changes since the early days, but we still play the very first song we wrote.
Your music definitely has an eerie vibe to it. Is that something you set out to do?
Yes. Dark and eerie music is always more fun to play. Plus, I don’t think Mishkin is capable of writing anything else!
What are some of your influences, musical or otherwise?
Classical Music, Musical Theatre, Punk Rock, Heavy Metal and VODKA. The two bands we probably listen to the most of tour are Muse and Queen.
How much of your songwriting is based on personal experiences?
Hmmm… a little too much to mention I guess! The first album was written almost entirely by Mishkin, so a lot of those songs were based on her personal experiences; it was quite a cathartic record.
On the second album we combined forces lyrically on a few occasions so the lyrics are a bit mysterious and sometimes just plain random! We wanted this album to be less introverted and more for everyone to interpret as they wished…whether we’ve achieved this is another story!
You guys have a pretty unique sound. How would you describe it? Did you have a difficult time finding venues to play early on?
We STILL have difficulty finding venues! And other bands to share the stage with! We’re too heavy for folk, acoustic, piano-rock music and too light for punk, heavy metal or emo bands…trying to find something in the middle that sounds anything like us is so hard. We pretty much organize our own shows now for that reason, and we find the bands we’d like to play with. For example, Marcella and The Forget Me Nots are fantastic to play with. Our music matches perfectly but is not too similar either.
If you have any other suggestions please let us know!
I would describe our sound as ‘alternative classical punk rock’, but that’s a bit of a mouthful, and I still don’t think it sums us up!
How has the reception been for Feast of Hammers?
Good! Well our last album was in 2009 so three years is a long time to make our fans wait…we wanted to get it right! I think people have enjoyed it, and we’ll see what happens as we tour the record. We’re definitely not going to wait that long to put out album number three though!
Are you working on new material? What’s next musically?
Of course! We have about 4 new songs for the next record written, and will be aiming for a 10 track album with some b-sides very soon, but it’s still in early stages. 2013 we’ll have another record out.
Mishkin also has a solo record coming out later this year so if you can’t wait for the next BEB one, that’ll be out soon.
Apart from that, we’re touring the USA and Europe during June/July so see you on the road! All tour-dates are up here: www.birdeatsbaby.co.uk/tour-dates.
Our regular feature Songwriting 101 is devoted solely to the craft of songwriting. So whether you're a seasoned pro or just starting out or simply interested in hearing songwriters talk about their creative process then we hope you'll enjoy the series.
Three weeks ago we posted a candid two-part interview with Glen Phillips of Toad the Wet Sprocket. Other songwriters have included: Mason Jennings, Mark Doyon of Waterslide and Brooklyn indie songwriter Alina Simone, among many others. Each songwriter has explored his/her influences and the manner in which he/she "makes music." Some even offer friendly advice to aspiring songwriters.
Today, we'll be chatting with New York indie singer-songwriter Bri Arden, who will discuss her musical influences, love of melody, writing more honestly, and juggling a music career while studying Women's and Gender Studies at Columbia University.
Read on...and enjoy!
What was the first piece of music you heard that made you want to make music of your own?
Annie Lennox’s "Little Bird." My mother played her album Diva in the car for about a year. Although I didn’t understand all the lyrics, I memorized them phonetically. There was something about the melody and construction of that song that made it a staple in my childhood.
What was the first song you wrote that you were proud of?
"Taste of Tears." I wrote it the first night I moved back into the city. My apartment was completely empty except for my piano. The song came out in about 20 minutes.
How has your songwriting evolved on your most recent EP “Awake”?
I’ve become less afraid to write honestly. It’s one thing to seem honest, it’s another to do it and risk it all. Nevertheless, once you have done it, there is no going back.
You cite Janis Joplin, Carole King, Annie Lennox, Bonnie Raitt and Sheryl Crow as some of the songwriters you have learned from. What have they taught you about the craft?
The most important thing they’ve taught me is not to try to imitate THEM. Everyone writes differently and has a unique way of telling their story. They each do it brilliantly in every aspect of the song. I look at the song, together and in pieces, and try to see it from different perspectives; yet, the best that can be drawn from another writer's work are the life lessons you can derive as a listener.
What’s your favorite lyric on Awake?
"Scars do fade, you forget how they were made, you’re free to move along and life goes on…'cause scars do fade."
How important is melody?
Well, I’ve never walked off the stage and said to a bandmate, “Whoops! Forgot the melody on the second verse of 'Aha Moment'!” We connect with each other on one level through lyrics, and we can intellectualize them and understand, to some degree, why they touch us, but our shared experience with melody is formed through an entirely different process.
In some way, the music reaches us at our core, somewhere beyond intellect or the rational. That's its power. I don’t want to say one aspect of the song is more important than another, but a good melody makes a song resonate as lyrics alone may not.
What’s your favorite melody on Awake?
I love many of them but I get very giddy every time I hear the bass line melody in "Scars Do Fade." I remember Danny Miranda playing it for the first time and flipping out.
Aside from pursuing a music career, you’re also a student at Columbia University. When do you find the time to write songs?
The schedule definitely fills up quickly but, unless it’s a co-write, I don’t schedule time for myself to write music. I usually have a song stirring around in my head for a few days, with no clear direction, and then, at some very random moment, I’ll hear the song as a whole, and I will need to find a guitar or piano and “finish it,” or rather “start and finish it.”
What advice would you give to an aspiring songwriter?
Write as much as you possibly can. Always ask yourself what and who you are writing for, why you are writing and what YOUR definition of good music is. Listen to the advice of people you respect, learn from as many people as you can, but then make your own decisions. Believe in yourself, respect your talent and trust that no matter what happens, you will be successful.
Are you working on new material? What’s next musically?
YES! I am working on a new album! I have a PLEDGE Campaign about to launch! Please check it out!
Things are moving fast for singer/songwriter Jem Warren.
Warren's EP Lifeblood To My Soulwas released last spring to acclaim for his unique Americana sound, an acoustic blend of country and folk that ruminates on everything from religion to lost love, while his ballad “Jim Jones," based on the infamous 1978 Jonestown mass suicide, was featured on the The Confession, a Hulu exclusive web series starring John Hurt and Keifer Sutherland.
The singer released his debut album Heart Knows How on May 18.
What was the first piece of music that made you want to make music of your own?
“Every Breath You Take” by The Police. There was something very seductive about the sound. I was quite young, but I felt very connected to the sound and remember wanting to recreate it.
What particular song has had an impact on your songwriting?
There have been so many. To name a few: “Come As You Are," “Fast Car,” and “It’s Alright Ma, (I'm Only Bleeding)." There’s a primal quality to these songs that I try to capture. I always gravitated towards the tortured variety of artist.
What was the first song you wrote that you were proud of?
“September Breeze." It's on my first demo from 2003. I don’t really play that anymore, but I remember thinking it was really good.
What was it like getting your start as a musician in New York?
It was rough; there are a lot of great musicians out there and it can be overwhelming and intimidating. But it can also be very inspiring and forces you to up your game.
How was “Jim Jones” chosen for The Confession?
It was a contest by OurStage, and “Jim Jones” was selected from 1,700 entries.
What’s the reception been like for Heart Knows How?
I feel like it’s too early to tell if people will like it better or less than my EP; they are two very different albums. But so far the response to the live performances has been very positive.
Did you set out to bring a more country vibe to your new album?
In the beginning it just happened organically, but towards the album’s completion it became more deliberate.
What advice would you give to an aspiring songwriter?
Stay true to what really moves you, and know what you want to say.
What’s next musically?
I don’t want it to be more of the same; I always want to be evolving. As cliché as that sounds, it’s important for an artist to keep moving forward. Let’s just say the next album will most likely be a different vibe.
Our regular feature Songwriting 101 is devoted solely to the craft of songwriting. So whether you're a seasoned pro or just starting out or simply interested in hearing songwriters talk about their creative process then we hope you'll enjoy the series.
Two weeks ago we posted a candid two-part interview with Glen Phillips of Toad the Wet Sprocket. Other songwriters have included: Mason Jennings, Mark Doyon of Waterslide and New York indie songwriter Alina Simone, among many others. Each songwriter has explored his/her influences and the manner in which he/she "makes music." Some even offer friendly advice to aspiring songwriters.
Today, we'll be chatting with a good friend of ours, Martin Rivas, about his latest record, Reliquary, which will be released on July 10. We've featured Martin several times. In fact, we published his journal entries for the making of the new album.
In this special interview, Martin will discuss an array of subjects ranging from the writing and recording of Reliquaryto New York radio DJ's, his second chance at life, stealing from the Clash, Police and Pretenders, channeling Sister Rosetta Tharpe, and wishing he had written Todd Rundgren's "Hello, It's Me." Read on...and enjoy!
On “Drum Set, AM Radio and Tears,” you sing about being confined to your room as a kid (I assume). What was the first piece of music you heard that made you want to make music of your own?
I was spending a lot of time in my room at home in the afterglow of the dissolution of my parents' relationship. I had a radio with one speaker and a cassette recorder built-in. One of the ways I occupied myself was by pressing record and twisting the dial at random times. I loved the sound between stations. I still do.
When I decided to see what that little "FM" toggle would do, it was like stepping through a dimensional doorway. I was constantly recording songs off of WNEW and WPIX. I fell in love with Rock & Roll, and I'm still in love. Songs like "Hello, It's Me," "Born to Run," "Bohemian Rhapsody," "Sir Duke," "Roxanne," "I Want You to Want Me," "Got to Get You Into My Life,"…I recorded all of those on cheap cassettes from Radio Shack, and the DJ's banter would be part of the intro or outro of every recording: Scott Muni, Frankie Crocker, Carol Miller. I can still clearly imagine Pat St. John talking at the end of "Hello, It's Me" every time it plays on my iPod. That might've been the song that first made me say, "I wish I wrote that." It happens plenty nowadays, but I think that was the very first time. I still wish I wrote it.
What was the first song you wrote that you were proud of?
I think I was more proud of being able to figure out how to play parts of songs on records than I was of writing. Writing came around as a byproduct of figuring out how to play. I'd be playing parts of Clash and Police and Pretenders songs over and over and over and eventually it'd morph into something that I guess was pretty much mine.
I've always been drawn more to sounds than to lyrics, so I had a lot of "songs" that were more advanced sonically than they were lyrically. I think that's why I like bands like Can and Liquid Liquid as much as I do. The voice serves as an additional instrument.
Early R.E.M. always sounded that way to me. Stipe's voice was mixed so far down that you couldn't figure out what he was saying. I'm not sure that I had a song that I was really proud of until this song called "The Difference," when I was 18 or so.
I’ve never heard you more exasperated than you are on “C’mon While We’re Young.” What was the source of your irritation?
What's funny is that I perceive it as determination with a pinch of elation. That song was the first to come to me for this album. It speaks of getting back to living, being alive and reveling in it, after nearly being irretrievably lost. Getting a second chance, and wanting to see and do everything with full knowledge that there's only so much time to do it. I wanted to start the album with it to close the "convalescence" chapter of my life, and leap back into living again.
Alex Wong’s production is flawless. Can you discuss the collaborative process?
Alex and I had been talking about doing an album together since I released Sea of Clouds in 2009. I had a couple of medical complications get in the way between then and now, but I can't complain as I got an EP's worth of songs out of the medical stuff. Alex's contribution to this record is so gigantic. I was trying to keep my demos as minimal as possible, knowing that these songs were going to have the opportunity to be filtered through Alex's mojo.
Rather than going into pre-production and saying, "OK, here's what the bass will play, here's what the drums will play," we started with voice and either guitar or piano, and then let the songs dictate to us what they wanted in them. I can't overstate how critical Alex was to the feel of this record.
I just found out that the studio that we tracked Reliquary at, Angelhouse in Williamsburg, is going to be demolished this autumn. Lots of great albums made there. I'll miss not being able to go back.
Whose idea was it to include a theremin on “Meet Your Father”?
I intentionally didn't demo "Meet Your Father" past vocals and guitar. Alex had some great ideas for adding color to it without pushing it into the traditional full-band realm. Alex found Rob Schwimmer, who came in on a Sunday morning in desperate need of coffee. We all needed coffee actually! He nailed the part within two hours. Look up Simon & Garfunkel's "The Boxer" live on YouTube. You'll see Rob playing the horn solo for them on theremin. He kicks that solo's ass too.
I’ve never heard you raunchier than you are on “Drum Set, AM Radio and Tears.” Who or what were you channeling?
That song channels so many feelings and places for me, but on the recording we imagined it being played by a pissed-off Sister Rosetta Tharpe on a back porch somewhere in 1949. The main guitar on that song is a red Gretsch Wild West Sweethearts acoustic guitar that I brought along to the sessions without expecting to use it much. It ended up being the most heard instrument on the album other than my voice.
We mic'd it up close with an SM57, from afar with a Neumann M49 (I think it's an M49), and we duct-taped a contact mic to it and ran that into a Fender Champ. The three blended tones created one of the absolute most raunchy guitar sounds I've ever heard. The best part about that guitar is that it belongs to my wife. Her guitar is all over this album. I gotta ask her if I can borrow it for the tour in September.
There is quite a bit of reflection on this album. Can you talk about that?
I really am a little afraid of how much of myself is in this batch of songs, but I can't bring myself to do it any other way. As long as I've been writing songs, they've been my little therapy sessions, but the combination of my last EP and this album are one massive bout of healing for me. I'm ready for another batch to find their way to me…maybe these'll be a bit less intense or something. Give a fella a break. I'm just really glad that I can account for every moment that happens on this album. The last couple, actually. I'll get into a fistfight for this record.
What’s the significance of the album’s title, Reliquary?
I was on tour in the UK last summer, and after playing at Glastonbury with Chrissi Poland, I had a day or two off before resuming the tour. I had seen ads for an exhibit at the British Museum about religious relics. So I went. There were these artifacts and the beautiful containers constructed to contain them.
We are essentially reliquaries of each other. We all carry a bit of each other within us. When we’re gone, the memories that live on in those we leave behind serve as the perfect relics. That sentiment opened the spigot that brought forth nearly all of the songs on this album.
Are you working on new material? What’s next musically?
The material on this album still feels so new to me that I'm still getting to know it. Melodies and ideas and stuff are always smashing into the side of my head, and I'm jotting down or recording those little bits into my notebook or voice memo thingy, but I'm not in full-on songwriting mode at the moment.
I've still got to get the rest of the Kickstarter duets album out to fans, and then post it at Bandcamp. The album comes out officially on July 10, then I'm staying close to home for the summer with a couple of local shows sprinkled in.
I head out in September for a couple of weeks in the southeast and midwest doing a double-bill tour with Bri Arden (who will be featured next week (7/5) in Songwriting 101). There may be a west coast run in October, and maybe even another UK run over the winter. I'm just really enjoying how I feel at the moment.
In our Writers and Music series, authors discuss the music that has either been included in their most recent novel/play or the influence music has had on their work overall. We've talked to dozens of novelists, playwrights, and poets and discovered amazing stories of the unhinged live performances or forgotten B-sides that have inspired their work and kept them writing.
Jason Grote is the author of the plays 1001, Civilization (all you can eat), and Maria/Stuart, among others. He has written for film and TV, including season one of "Smash," and co-hosted The Acousmatic Theater Hour on WFMU in 2008-09. Visit him at jasongrote.com.
Has a specific song ever influenced one of your scripts?
Much of the time, yes. The most obvious example would be my play 1001, which actually calls for music in the script; when I started writing the play, I was listening to Push The Button, a Chemical Brothers' album, especially the song "Galvanize," which featured rapping by Q-Tip. I think the play was influenced by that song, which featured Muslim chanting, Middle Eastern violins, and a powerful, vaguely revolutionary message.
I also listened to a lot of electronic and hip-hop music coming out of the Middle East in the 90s and 00s, and raï music, which was a kind of Algerian rock-pop (mostly Rachid Taha). Right now I'm writing a play about Shostakovich, so obviously I'm using a lot of that music.
You were a writer for the first season of Smash. What was the biggest challenge writing for a musical series?
TV writing is a whole different animal, but one of the biggest challenges with the show was the contemporary numbers, because you would write something into the script - this wasn't a pitch but an actual finished draft - and then the music people would come back with a different number, based on their expertise, or what they could obtain the rights to, or maybe what they thought they could sell as iTunes downloads.
In and of itself this wasn't such a bad thing, because I have a really spotty knowledge of current Top 40 music and it wouldn't have been so great to have me dropping in, say, Guided by Voices or Clash songs, but it would have been better to have integrated the songs more organically into the scripts. I'm not on Season Two; maybe they'll have changed this by then.
You’ve done a lot of work and fundraising for WFMU. What drew you to that station?
I briefly worked at the Montclair Book Center in 1990, where they played the station all the time. It was a great job, except I was paid less than minimum wage, and I usually took that in used books instead of money so I couldn't pay my rent. For years after that, I would strain to get a signal and listened to it here and there whenever I could, usually in a car, but at some point in the late 1990s I started listening online. It's the best radio station in the world and everyone should listen to it at WFMU.org.
You wrote and produced WFMU’s Acousmatic Theatre Hour.
I loved going down to the station once a week to be on the radio, but honestly I just remembered it being a lot of work. It was hard coming up with something interesting to play on the radio every week (it was a radio play show, and contemporary, interesting radio plays are next to impossible to come by and extremely time-consuming to make), so we'd often play archival material from UbuWeb, PennSound, or the WFMU record library.
It was an important life lesson: I could love WFMU as a listener and volunteer, but I didn't necessarily have to go on the air. But I'm glad I got it out of my system.
What was your best and worst live music experiences?
Hmmmm...best would be tough - I saw Fishbone at City Gardens in Trenton, NJ, in 1987 in a small crowd, and it was pretty incredible, just fantastic, fun energy. My other favorites are all fairly recent: Patti Smith at the Bowery Ballroom on New Years' Eve 2006, Ted Leo & The Pharmacists at McCarren Park Pool in 2007, The Dirtbombs at Southpaw in 2008.
My least favorite included a truly frightening Cro-Mags/Mentors show at City Gardens, also in 1987 (though it was also really memorable), and Porno for Pyros at Roseland Ballroom in 1993. That last one ruined Perry Farrell for me - the crowd was full of moshing jocks (one of the worst things about the 1990s). The band played for 35 minutes, and Farrell ended the show by asking the audience, "How does it feel to be a bunch of cunts?"
In fact, the 1990s was kind of a lost decade for me, musically - I just saw tons of big festival shows like Lollapalooza, and then the Grateful Dead and jam bands. Though I still like The Dead and make no apologies for it.
Your play 1001, a modern retelling of Arabian Nights, has been receiving a steady stream of praise and productions since its 2007 premiere. Why do you think this play has resonated with audiences?
Who knows? I think theaters like that it's epic and ambitious, but maybe it's had a life because it's hopeful in the face of tragedies like 9/11 and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Civilization has been well-received by theaters because it's my most similarly epic play in years, but it's much more bleak, and it's an explicit criticism of capitalism, which seems to touch a nerve - in DC in particular. The Washington Post loved it, but all these 24-year-old bloggers hated it, like viciously hated it with an unusual level of vitriol. I can only imagine it was because it makes desperate, ambitious people look like assholes. And who's more desperate and ambitious than a 24-year-old blogger in DC?
1001 also went after a much easier target, the neocons who were waging war against the Arab world, even though it felt much riskier at the time. When a liberal Democrat is in power, theater audiences don't want to hear criticisms of power quite so much. It's actually more of a taboo. Though I hear they loved Civilization in Germany!
Is there a musical act you think is criminally underrated?
Love, definitely - Arthur Lee was insane, but they were way better than The Doors, CSN, or any number of other L.A. acts at the time.
I also think there's a huge garage/psych/punk scene that's been going on since the 1980s and is still going strong today, and which deserves attention above and beyond Jack White (though I like Jack White): Dan Melchior, Billy Childish, Holly Golightly, The Dirtbombs, New Bomb Turks, Redd Kross, The Black Hollies, The Ettes, Jay Reatard, Gentleman Jesse, King Khan & The Shrines, Davila 666, The Cynics, Black Lips, Thee Oh Sees...I could keep this up forever. There were some great Boston bands from the 1980s waiting to be rediscovered, like Big Dipper and Volcano Suns.
There's some really fantastic electro/pop/punk coming from Brazil right now, and the internet has allowed for there to be literally thousands of compilations of great forgotten music from every contentent except Antarctica, though there's probably a Love Peace & Poetry: Antarctica compilation in the works that I don't know about.
Do you have any new work coming up?
I'll be reading my short story from the Significant Objects anthology, from Fantagraphics Books, at The Strand on July 10. That's going to be a pretty cool event, not because of me, but the other authors: Luc Sante, Ben Greenman, Shelley Jackson, Annie Nocenti, who wrote the best run on Daredevil in that comic's history (and yes, I'm including Frank Miller).
I just finished the program note for The Wooster Group/Royal Shakespeare Company production of Troilus & Cressida at The Globe in Stratford-upon-Avon and London, and I'm very proud of that, even though it's just a program note. Civilization should be coming to Chicago in 2013. I'm developing some original ideas for TV and film that I can't talk about just yet.
(Elford Alley has had plays produced and read across the United States and his sketch comedy featured in several shows in Chicago. His articles have appeared in cracked.com. He currently resides in Dallas with his wife and daughter.)
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