Sounding Out: Laura Gibson

"I read this quote by a poet that said ‘all poetry is a love act.’ I really think that so much of what I do really comes from that space. I feel most able to write from this place of caring."

Many years before Laura Gibson was a songwriter and musician, she was a young girl living in the small isolated logging town of Coquille, Oregon. In this town, folks moved to the same rhythm, at least while the mills were running. When the whistles blew everyone knew what time it was. Time to work, time to break, time to go home. Laura wrote poetry, she participated in math competitions, and she sat beside her father with her mother and others from hospice when he was sick and dying from cancer.

While Laura has been shaped by her childhood, to say that it is the case is difficult without sounding cliché. We are all shaped by our pasts. But it would be wrong not to start with Laura’s past when talking about her music and writing. Working hard, grieving, feelings of isolation, sharing intimate moments, feeling the rhythms of the world around her, these are all things that Laura not only embraces but also explores in her music.  

Laura came to music later in her life. She actually did not pick up the guitar or start writing songs until she was half way through college.  Laura said that she started playing as a means to put words together in a different kind of a way.

“College is a place where I was first starting to look at and explore my place in the world. It was a time when I discovered that songwriting was a way to understand myself and understand the world. It was a revelation for me. And so I really had to catch up on guitar in order to get out these songs that I had in me. It was really a means of making songs.”

As a child, Laura had a love of putting words together and poetry helped Laura set her foundation for expressing all the thoughts and feelings running through her head. I asked Laura if she always wanted to share her thoughts and words with others or if this came later.

“I think that a part of it was there. I remember the first poem that I ever wrote. Everyone was writing letters to this little boy from my Sunday school class who was sick in the hospital with cancer. I wrote this this short little poem to him. His parents really loved the poem and they published it in a magazine and a newsletter. I just remember this feeling……that this was important to someone and that this had meaning outside of my own head. That really impacted me. I was somewhere around the age of 8.”

As Laura started writing songs in college, she said that there was a desire to share them with others as well. “Your putting words to something and putting music to something that you just can’t quite say in a normal communication. When I first started writing songs I dreamed about there being a listener because it is a way of saying what you can’t say. “

When Laura did finally begin share her songs with others, she did not choose to perform them in coffee shops or clubs. Instead she volunteered her time to sing and play at Our House Of Portland, a community that supports people with advanced HIV/AIDS. For Laura, she remembered all of the support that she and her mom received when her dad was so sick and she felt that this is where her time and music belonged.

“I read this quote by a poet that said ‘all poetry is a love act.’ I really think that so much of what I do really comes from that space and I feel most able to write from this place of caring. It may come in the form of grief, or in a form of frustration with injustice. But I think that there is a string of affection even when I am really not writing traditional love songs. I think of them as love songs, but not romantic in nature.”

That figurative space led Laura back home to an actual space, her childhood home, where she spent a month reading through love letters that her grandparents had written back and forth to one another. She had never met them, but during this quiet and isolated time with those letters, she felt that she grew to know her grandparents in an intimate way. These letters, her connection to them and to her grandparents, and the connection between her grandparents inspired her first album If You Come To Greet Me, which was released in 2006.

“When people ask me what I tend to feel inspired by, what I write about, human connection is always one of the themes of what I do.”

On her second album, Beasts Of Seasons, and on her new album La Grande, Laura’s songs continue to explore themes of caring and love, loss and grief, time and space. But a noticeable difference between the albums is the evolution and expansion of Laura’s sound.

With Beasts of Seasons, Laura’s intention was to ensure that her compositions remained delicate and personal. She said that she “wanted them to feel fleshed out but still feel true to the fact that you’re singing a song on an acoustic guitar.”

Now, on her third album, rhythm and volume play a larger role in helping deliver her stories. I told Laura that one could hear a bit of this evolution on the song Spirited from the Beasts Of Seasons album. I asked her how conscious she was in wanting to have this evolution. She said that Spirited was a really good song to bring up.

“When I first started to write that song I almost felt like it was so poppy and that it could not possibly be meaningful. I did not even think that it fit within the themes of the record, so I was hesitant to include that song initially.” But she said she realized that it was one of the most meaningful songs on that record.

“I learned from Spirited that I can still focus on the craft of writing and have meaning within the more upbeat moments. So this time around I really wanted to let go of that limitation that I had chosen for myself. What moves me in making and listening to music is that intimacy and vulnerability that happens. I got really interested in this kind of experiment of whether or not I could achieve that by exploring and indulging with my songwriting.”

Laura said that she has found that there is more than one way of achieving intimacy with a listener. In some respects, Laura felt that she was able to give more of herself and be even more vulnerable within her new songs even though it does not seem like a more vulnerable record.

No longer armed with simply an acoustic guitar, Laura approached her new album differently, working and writing from day one with two drummers as well as herself. Rhythm became the backbone of La Grande.

“Rhythm always had a place in my music. A lot of times songs would start with me and a guitar and I would let that set the rhythm. I am definitely not one to keep or require perfect time on my records. There are a lot of ebbs and flows as far as speed and rhythm. There is almost a breathing thing as far as how I approach how songs flow. This time around I was excited about percussion and having this real heart beat behind everything. Something that is a bit more driving to set the pace for what I do.”

Rhythm became so important to this album, that she even sings about the idea of rhythm in the opening song. “In the line of the song I was imagining this train coming through and rattling by and all of these whispered conversations being turned into music by the train coming by. I like thinking about this in the context of my own understanding of rhythm.”

Laura first started working on the new batch of songs for the album when she was visiting the Eastern Oregon Community of La Grande. She said that the town's geography, and history of wagons, courage, and moving forward resonated with her own sense of moving forward and asserting her being into the word. “I became really interested in the history of the La Grande area. It is a place that represents both the triumphs and tragedies of the American West.” She said the town and history helped give her clarity and confidence in terms of where she wants to go musically.

“So many times I have been to a place where I have felt the landscape and the culture was giving shape to something that I was feeling or wanting to understand. Going out to that place whose identity is very much about the idea of moving forward both in the positive transcendent ways and tragedy and grief that comes with moving forward really did that for me on this trip. I almost feel like I have these feelings welling up inside of me about where I wanted to go and what kind of musician I wanted to become.” La Grande, she said, gave her the images that she needed to help explain where she wanted to go.

I asked Laura what she meant when she talked about the tragedy and grief that comes with moving forward. She said that specifically, historically in the west there is a lot of tragedy with the native American population, including some specific to the areas in and around La Grande. 

"There was and is much to be grieved about that movement forward.  In my own life I feel like one of my gifts in a sense is to be a griever. I think that connects to the choices that I have made in my life and the songs that I write. I feel like that is a gift. But I was also interested in what does it mean to move forward and not be bound by grief, to try and transcend it in a way.”

With La Grande, Laura has arrived at a new musical level and space. Yet the essence of what makes her so special as an artist has not changed; her ability as a songwriter to share with you the world, as she experiences it, through her open heart and eyes. La Grande, with its heartbeat like rhythms and beautiful musical texturing, elevates this experience for the listener, creating imagery behind the words. This imagery not only enhances her stories, but works to draw the listener in closer. And in doing so, she continues to create the intimacy with her music that she will always seek out.

Laura is out touring in support of her album now. You can check out her tour dates here.

Sounding Out: Deep Dark Robot

When I was putting together Scattered's list of the best albums for first half of the year, I knew that Deep Dark Robot’s 8 Songs About A Girl had to be on it. It’s flat out a killer album. I also knew that I needed to track down Linda Perry, the driving force behind the band and talk to her about it.

I have been an admirer of Perry's for many years. While she found early success with the band 4 Non Blondes, it was her first solo album, In Flight that first drew me to her as an artist. Unfortunately for me, and others, Perry turned her attention away from writing and performing for herself and focused on the other side of the music industry, writing and producing for others. As I have come to understand through my interview with her, Linda is not good at doing two things at once, and made a conscious choice to hang up being a performing artist.

Now, after many years, Linda says that she has something to say and her gut told her it was time to get out from behind the studio walls and perform her new material. On the new album, 8 Songs About A Girl, Linda puts her raw emotions from a failed relationship on full display. It is a very powerful and personal album for Linda and a testament to artists who put every part of themselves out there for all the world to see.

Linda has written so many wonderful songs over the years. Even with the songs written for other artists, I assumed that some songs originate from her own emotions and experiences. I asked her if she found it harder to write songs with her own stories or emotions when she knows that she is going to be the performing artist vs. having someone else sing them? Linda told me that this sounded like a complicated thought.

“I just write songs. Whatever comes out comes out. Every song that I write is about me. If anybody came to me and said they want me to write a song about a little old lady crossing the street, I would say go find someone else because that is not my style. I deal with the here and now, real emotions. I don’t know that way of writing.”

In a recent Rolling Stone interview, Linda talked about becoming really bored with writing for others. She said, "If I hear another label tell me that they need a song for the radio I'm going to poke out their eyeballs with a fork.” I asked Linda how much of the tone and feel of the album was driven by the pure emotions that she felt from her break up and how much might have been a response to how she felt about the music industry and the type of music that labels want to put on the radio. She said that when the record was happening, she did not really know that it was happening.

“I was just writing these songs. I called Tony (Tornay, the other other half of the band) and said let’s record. I just dialed in a drum sound that I liked, I grabbed a guitar and an amp that I liked, I put up a vocal mic and sound for me that I liked, I hit record…....and all I could do was cross my fingers that the sound was good enough.”

Linda said that the record was actually a demo that she was putting together. When it was done, her intention was to have ‘real’ players come in (besides Tony, she clarified), and overdub the base and guitar and all that other tracks. But then the two of them realized that they just loved what it sounded like.

“I wrote the songs based on the emotion as it happened right then and there. I recorded the emotion that day. It Fucking Hurts. When I found out that this girl was dating this guy, I wrote the song that day and we recorded it that day. The emotion was fresh and in real fucking time. There was a lot of frustration. There was a lot of anger at times. I was pathetic. I was obsessed. So the feelings were happening. When we listened back to it, we knew this was the record. This is it. Those are one-take vocals. Me, Tony, guitar, drums, and vocals were all done live. Then, because it was just me and him, I went back and played everything else…..bass, keyboards, and the other stuff…..afterwords."

I told Linda, that if they had gone back and redone the songs, they might have ruined what they had created because it would not have had the same raw power and energy.

“I totally would have fucked it up. That is what I love about the album. It is so raw. It is so not perfect. It’s just eight songs linked up together expressing raw emotion.”

I asked Linda if she ever stopped while making this album and wondered how folks would receive her story about a failed relationship with another woman.

“I am just me and I happened to like girls and that is as far as it goes. It is equivalent to Bret Michaels singing to a girl and saying she’s my woman or whatever. It is the same thing. He is not stopping and sitting there and thinking ‘well I wonder how people are going to perceive this.’ I am just Linda and these are my experiences...and oh yeah, I happen to be gay. So I am not purposely trying to set any kind of standard or break any kind of rule. It is just who I am. I am a songwriter expressing my emotions. So I don’t give a shit how anything is perceived. These are just my emotions.”

More frustrated by my question than caring how others would respond to her story, Linda questioned whether or not I would ask Bret Michaels the same question.

“Would you ask any straight person that question? No you won’t, so why are you asking me? I am not mad or annoyed; I just find it surprising every single time I come across a question like that, like really? Are we still here? Are we not in 2011? It seems like we have traveled far, but really we haven’t at all. And we are still coming across certain little questions. I am a girl who likes women. It should be no different than any guy singing......Maybe it is really intriguing that this is happening. But the fact that it is still intriguing is still the shocker to me.”

I told Linda that my question was less about content and more about intent, but I acknowledged that my question was off-putting. In another interview, Linda had talked about mentoring young artists. She said, “Everyone’s afraid of losing something. They don’t think about the gifts that they have been given or the things that they can gain by believing in their gut and believing in themselves.” I told Linda that they are afraid of not having an audience. From my perspective, there are a lot of bands and artists that are very cautious and conscious about what they are doing in order to find an audience for their music. Wasn’t this the same for her music?

“For me, I feel like, since I am also a producer and songwriter, I am dealing with these people that want to just get their song on the radio. I’m like really? Are you kidding me? Do you want to be on the radio? Really, have you heard the stuff on the radio? It is not even good. It’s like…instead of wanting to pee on a mountain, you think that peeing on a curb is great. I would rather pee on a mountain instead of a curb. Our standards are so fucking low that a curb actually looks more appealing than a beautiful gold mountain. That is where we are at musically.”

Linda said that what she wants to convey to an artist is that nobody knows what is going to happen. It is impossible. She said that the people who last are those who do what they want to do and do it from their heart. Their intention, she said, is to make music.

“The people who are doing things just for brand and commercialism and to make money…we're not going to remember them. We are not going to look back at......Lady Gaga for instance......I think that she is awesome…..But are we really going to look back at her music as something that we can say ‘gosh this is amazing?’ We are going to look back at her in pop culture as a personality, her visual. Her music is invisible to me. It could be any body. And it is any body. But her personality, the way she looks, the way she dresses, she is a performance artist. Lady Gaga is the Andy Warhol of 2011. We will remember her for that but not for her music.”

The music business, Linda said, is being divided up between people who are trying to make music, which she believes are very few, and the people who are becoming personalities. "It really should be divided now. There should be personality stars and rock stars. We would definitely know right then and there what we are dealing with because right now people are trying to mix in the personality with the rock stars and it doesn’t work. It is fucking up the rock stars.”

I told Linda that I thought singing shows like American Idol contribute to this trend in some respects. Rhetorically, I asked her if these individuals were singers or personalities?

“They’re neither! There just normal everyday people coming out of the woodwork that are getting an opportunity, which is amazing. But honestly, I believe in the rock star. I don’t believe that any Joe Schmo should get up on stage and play. There is a reason why David Bowie is David Bowie. There is reason why Madonna is Madonna. There is a reason why Mick Jagger is Mick Jagger. These are fucking rock stars! They walk the talk, they dress the talk, and they live the fucking life from the moment they wake up to the moment they go to sleep. And that is what I believe in. I don’t believe in soccer mom by day and fucking rock star diva by night. I don’t believe in skater boy, scooting around during the daytime and then puts on a leather jacket and all of the sudden is a rock star. These people are not living the life."

As an art form, Linda has a lot of respect for music and she said that she just wants to focus on making great music. “Right now music does not really sell. But I don’t care. I am going to make music until people want to hear music again and believe in the rock star. I’m just going to do it and if it is successful, awesome! Do I want to have that success? Of course I do. I would be a fucking moron and a liar if I said that I was not interested in that, but I am not going to sell myself out or sacrifice anything that I believe in to do so.”

“I love when people do what they want to do, so my advice is do what you got to do. Do what you want to do. The format is dead so do what makes you happy, because if you start following the game plan and the rules of what is going on....you are going to go nowhere."

In a 2003 interview Linda was asked if she could ever see herself pursuing a solo career again in the future. She said ‘no’ and added that this was a choice she made the day she was looking at the labels and Pink. She said, “I made a conscious decision right then and there that that part of my life was over. So when I need to perform, I'll play my piano by myself.” I asked Linda if she was being a bit naïve back then given the fact that she is now back out on stage with Deep Dark Robot. She said that she made exactly the right decision. She wanted to focus on working with other artists at the time and could not do both.

“I can’t do two things. I wasn’t that person back then that I am now. I know more about me, as a human being, my likes and dislikes, and I am a stronger individual. I fell on my gut and my gut told me this is what I was supposed to do…what I have been doing. Now that gut is telling me to go back out there now and I just follow my gut, that’s all that I do. I was not naïve. If anything it took balls to make that decision."

With Deep Dark Robot, Linda and Tony are really starting out like any new band trying to find a place for itself in the listening world and find an audience. I asked Linda what it was like starting out from scratch all over again?

“The first week of our tour there were maybe five people in the audience, and it was like ‘Ok. I got this. I can do this. I get it. I have to start all over again!’ The last time that I was on tour, I was playing to anywhere from twenty to forty thousand people with 4 Non Blondes." 

Linda said that regardless of the size of the audience, She and Tony had fun and made every show a show because they did not have to try so hard. 

"I wasn’t trying to impress anybody. When we got on stage, we had a really fucking good time. I loved it. And if there were five people out there, they would get a fucking stadium show no matter what. I learned a lot. I loosened up a lot. I cherished it. It was just fun and I can’t wait to go out there and do it again. And I really don’t care how many people get there because I know that if I keep doing it long enough they will just keep showing up. That is the name of the game and I am willing to go through that and I am really excited about it."

Linda added that she she is really proud of 8 Songs About A Girl and loves that the album has been so warmly received by others. "It means the world to me. To create something that you believe in and to have other people, even if it is just five other people that believe in it too, that’s where it starts. I am loving every moment of it."

I told Linda that what I really appreciate about her as an artist and as musician is that she does not compromise her craft, her convictions, or herself.

"I do the best that I can. I am a little salty sometimes. That is because I am an Aries. I can be overly confident and I can be overly insecure as well. It depends on what day you catch me on of how my attitude is going to be. There is really not a lot for me to do to control that. I just kind of am what I am. I try to do the best that I can out here in the world and I think that being a producer and a songwriter, I’ve been locked behind these studio walls for 14 years and now I am out and I do have something to say and I have an attitude to convey. And that’s it."

Sounding Out: Bahamas

“I try not to get my ideas too set in stone because I really believe that leaving room for mistakes and leaving room for spontaneity is the most important part about life. And I definitely don’t want to limit my mind in any way.”

Afie Jurvanen is a well-seasoned musician who has spent many years playing guitar and piano in support of other musicians such as Feist. In 2009, he released his first solo album in his home country of Canada under the moniker Bahamas. The album was very well received and was ultimately nominated for a 2010 Juno award for Best Roots & Traditional Album of the Year. In May of this year, the album, Pink Strat, was finally released here in the US.

Pink Strat is a wonderful album, showcasing Jurvanen's fine songwriting and exceptionally warm and breezy songs. Out touring the US now in support of the album, I had an opportunity to talk with him about his songs, his songwriting, and stepping out on his own.

Having recorded Pink Strat in 2008, releasing it in 2009, and touring in support of it in 2010, I was curious if Afie is experiencing a bit of déjà vu with the recent US release. He said that it’s inevitable, but that he has a different kind of band on this tour and is just thrilled to be able to play in America.

“It’s a big deal if you’re a musician living in Canada. There are just so few gigs when you live in Canada. In California alone there are twice as many people. It opens up a whole other world of opportunities to get up there and play and do what I like to do. I’m just really very grateful.”

In a few interviews, Afie has mentioned using the ‘60’s as one of his musical reference points. I wondered what it was about that decade that was significant to him in terms of musical influences. Afie said that he has many reference points and the ‘60’s reference has been interpreted in various interview to be a bit more significant than it has been at times. Having said this, Afie added that it was the simplicity of the production aesthetics and approach that is so appealing to him. A lot of that simplicity came from the limitations of the technology.

“The way that people were creative was much more different. There was no such thing as a remix or computers or any of this kind of stuff that takes advantage and assumes that this is just the way things are done. There is just some romantic notion that I carry about the idea of the album as a complete unit and the idea of the live performance being actually live and not edited together from a million different takes. I subscribe to a lot of those ideals when I am recording. If things are a little bit fucked up, I would like to celebrate those things rather than try to hide them or fix them or use computes to make them better.”

Pink Strat

Afie had talked about not ‘tinkering with things’ in another interview and said that redoing a solo or vocals rarely ends up solving anything. I told him that I thought that there is perfection in imperfection in certain respects.

“Yeah, well, it is never ending. It is never ending. It’s like, it can be anything that you want it to be, and I guess for me I’m not very good at multitasking. Some people are and some really have a lot of patience for going in there and really, really, cleaning things up. Then you end up sounding like Steely Dan. That is just not my intention.”

For Afie the quality of the song is the most important thing. “The lyrics and the melody.....I just sit down and play them on the guitar or the piano or just sing it…will they translate? It’s just falling in line with how I think about songs and artists that appeal to me. Of course there are other bands that are able to assemble things in the studio from little bits and pieces and make just amazing things on a completely different musical level.  For me it begins and ends with the song…always.”

I asked Afie if he considers himself a writer away from music. He said that he really has not done any writing outside of songwriting, but his focus on the lyrics has changed over time.

“When I was younger I did not pay too much attention to the lyrics. Slowly it became the most important thing and that is probably because when you go on tour and you have to sing these songs night after night after night…..for me it makes a big difference if they actually mean something. If you can even reinvent the words on a nightly basis too, the meanings change. I think about some of my favorite songs, they take on their own meanings. I can’t get into Willie Nelson’s head and figure out where he was at when he had written a certain song, but I create my own imagery and create my own history. It is really important to me as a listener and a writer to be able to do that.”

I agree with Afie. I told him about my interview with Rami Vierula of Delay Trees and the discussion we had regarding why people go back to movies or albums or books or paintings over and over again. They go back because there is space in that art for the audience to experience and interpret it differently each time they visit it.

“And you contribute to it too as the reader or the watcher of that film or the listener of that record. At a live show too…..that is the most important thing for me…interacting with the crowd. And that doesn’t always mean talking with them. Musically, they are listening and you’re performing and that’s a relationship that is very complex and can change. It is very malleable. The audience is contributing to the experience too. It’s not just all on me. I think that records are the same way, and books, and movies, and life in general.”

In thinking about this complex relationship, and knowing that others are paying close attention to his lyrics, I wanted to know how much of what Afie writes is autobiographical, and much are just observations and things that he sees in his everyday life.

“For me there is no hard and fast rule. I let the idea dictate how I am going to writing the song. In some cases, it is extremely autobiographical and I try to not get in the way of that. If there is an idea coming and words fit together in a nice way, I am not going to spend much energy trying to mask or hide them. It is just not really in my demeanor to do that. On the other hand there are times when you come up with the lyrics or an idea like ‘hockey teeth’ where there is just something about those two words next to each other that almost inspire a song. On a song like that, there is definitely stuff from my own life in my mind, but the words, which are so playful, just allow the imagination to run wild a little bit.”

There are lots of phenomenal musicians that spend their entire lives playing in support of other musicians. I asked him if he always had a sense in the back of his head that he wanted to pursue his own solo work. Afie said absolutely. “Songwriting has always been present. The number one thing has been time. I am not very good at organizing my time properly and multitasking.”

In making his decision to focus on his own music, Afie leaves behind playing in support of others. He is grateful for all of the touring and playing experiences that he has had and admits that it is a bit scary to say ‘no’ to gigs and just focus on his own music. But he is happy to be out on the road and playing his own music. It is a comfortable spot for him to be in right now.

“For my own musical mind it is really exciting. I can do whatever the heck I want to do. Musically, there are a lot of things that I would like to do. There is a lot of different songwriting that I am interested in, and it is constantly changing and evolving."

"As I think with anyone, and not just in music, the mind is always wondering about other ways to do things. Even if you are just cooking a meal, what is it going to be like if I use fresh cilantro instead of basil? I try not to get my ideas too set in stone because I really believe that leaving room for mistake and leaving room for spontaneity is the most important part about life. And I definitely don’t want to limit my mind in any way. And as a writer, you definitely don’t want to repeat yourself. So finding other ways to sing about those themes that remain close to you are really important. It is nice to be at the helm of that."

Working with Afie on Pink Strat was Robbie Lackritz, a long time friend, engineer and producer. Given their long term friendship as well as the professional relationship that they have forged, I was curious how Lackritz has influenced the direction of Afie's solo project. Is it as simple as recording and mixing his songs, or has he played a more collaborative role in developing what he is doing musically in general?

“When it comes to recording, he spends a lot of time worrying about what the snare drum will sound like or the guitar sound or what microphone should be used on the piano and all this kind of stuff. This stuff sucks all the fun out of it for me. At some point I realized that I don’t care about that stuff. I don’t care about the details. Some guys really get off on all that. I like gear as much as the next guy, but when it comes to making music, I don’t need to get into it at nausum. I sort of subscribe to more of the Bob Dylan or Neil Young approach where you walk in and you start playing and you don’t talk about it a whole lot."

Lackritz, Afie said is the opposite of him. "I was really, really grateful when I started working with Robby because he gets that. He is obsessed with the microphones and he loves choosing the right place to put the guitar and all this kind of stuff. So our working relationship has meant a lot for me because in a way it frees me up to be more creative. I spend more energy thinking about the songs and how am I going to sing them and how am I really going to hear my own voice with different songs. I will let him worry about the microphones! I hope that our relationship grows like any other and we get to do a lot of cool things together, and I am sure that we will.”

After years of watching the careers unfold of the musicians that Afie supported, I was wondering if he has a conscious approach for his own path. Filled with humility, I really liked Afie's answer and thought that it would be a fitting way to end this Sounding Out session as he continues down the road touring.

“I try not to spend a whole lot of time thinking about it because it is so not in my control at all. Honestly, some days I wake up and I am just so grateful to be busy and be doing something that is very close to me and meaningful. I guess if I can just continue doing it, I really can’t picture what I would want outside of it. It is very satisfying to get the chance. A lot of people want to do that and can’t. I am very grateful.”

Sounding Out: The Leisure Society

The Leisure Society, from Brighton, England, released their second album, Into The Murky Water this past month. There is this wonderful, whimsical quality and nature to these songs and the overall tone of the album. It has fast become one of my favorites of the year, so far.

Nick Hemming, the driving force behind the band said that there wasn't a specific idea in his head from which these songs were born. Songs usually appear when he least expects them; He could be watching a film or cycling to the shop.

“One of the songs, The Hungry Years, was actually inspired by Burt Bacharach’s score for Butch Cassidy & The Sundance Kid. I was watching the film and two beautiful chords appeared, I dashed to the spare room and started writing the song. As a result there’s now a song credited to Hemming/Bacharach, which is quite a thrill, despite the fact that I’ve never actually met him.”

You can hear lots of different influences within these songs. Nick has mentioned bands such as The Beach Boys, Simon and Garfunkel, and The Beatles as bands that he loves. I was curious about the artists that have had an impact on everyone else in the band.

Sitting in a dressing room at King Tut’s Wah Wah Hut, some of Nick's bandmates shared their own influential artists. Christian Hardy, who shares vocals with Nick and plays multiple instruments mentioned Joni Mitchell, Nick Drake, Grizzly Bear, and Radiohead. Daz said Jack Bruce. Sebastian Hankins, who plays drums, said The Band. And Helen Whitaker, who plays flute and sings had three with Bjork, Belle & Sebastian, and Mum.

While the band’s music may be inspired and influenced by many different artists, the lyrics seem to stem from a more focused place. I told Nick that it seems to me that lyrically, this album originates from a very different place than The Sleeper, their last album. He agreed.

“Yeah, definitely. Writing The Sleeper was a very cathartic process. I was thoroughly miserable at the time and found it comforting to write the songs. With this album I was in a much more hopeful state of mind, but musing on the more difficult times. I also realized that all the “wasted days” made me the musician I am today. There’s a song Although We All Are Lost which best sums up the way I was feeling whilst writing.“

With eight people in the band, I asked Nick how much collaboration takes place in the writing process. “I generally write alone and I don’t feel comfortable playing a new song to anyone until I’m sure it’s finished. Nick said that he has hundreds of rough song ideas that will never see the light of day. “I think it’s best to edit myself before inflicting my songs on the outside world! With this album, I made rough demos of most of the songs for the rest of the band.”

Nick added that once they started working together everyone had their own ideas to bring to the arrangements. For example, Mike Siddell, their violin player, scored the string arrangements for a few of the songs.

For a number of years, Nick and the other members of The Leisure Society have been involved with the Willkommen Collective, a community of musicians, promoters and artists, based in Brighton. Given their participation, I was curious if playing with the myriad of musicians that participate in the collective has impacted the direction of the band's sound. Almost apologetically, Nick said that he hasn’t seen much the Willkommeners since staring the new album.

“Into The Murky Water was a completely obsessive pursuit, so I couldn’t really concentrate on anything else. However, without Tom from Willkommen, I never would have met Mike, Will, or Helen, and without them, The Leisure Society would be a very different prospect indeed! Since I started recording under the Leisure Society name, I’ve been collecting different sounds - the first recording had saxophone, tuba and double bass. Being lucky enough to work with such talented musicians now hugely elevates the songs.”

I told Nick that I love the harmonizing that takes place throughout this collection of songs. Nick said that the harmonizing comes quite naturally most of the time. “I know nothing about harmony theory, but I think that years of listening to The Beach Boys has imbued me with a limited, but instinctive knowledge of harmony.” On the album, Nick and Christian sing most of the harmonies. “Our voices blend nicely – he takes the high road and I take the low road.”

There is this great neo-folk / folk-rock music revival taking place in the states and it is being embraced on quite a large scale by listeners…in a way that I don't think has been seen in years if not decades. From what I can see, to some extent, this is happening in Britain as well. Many who have written about The Leisure Society have categorized their music in this genre. I asked Nick if he saw the band’s music as being a part of this genre and movement.

“To be honest I don’t see The Leisure Society as folky at all! I can see why other people do though. I guess it’s the use of acoustic instruments. I think of us more as a pop band, albeit one who obsess over lyrics and arrangements and use 18th century harpsichords and church organs on our recordings.”

So what is drawing so many folks into this neo-folk music? “I haven’t a clue why this new “folk” boom is happening,” Nick said. “I actually toured with Mumford & Sons just as they were about to go stellar. It was interesting seeing hordes of teenage girls going wild for a banjo player!”

In this digital age of music, the album jacket or cover has seen to have lost its importance. The cover for both The Sleeper and Into The Murky Water are both quite quirky, distinctive, and fun, in very retro kind of a way. I asked Nick who was responsible for creating the concept and feel of the covers and what was the idea behind it?

The design concept was by a guy called Julian Austin. I’m a glutton for nostalgia and I wanted something that reminded me of the old Jules Verne novel illustrations and Jacques Cousteau documentaries. I actually found some artwork from an old B Movie called “Around The World Under The Sea”, by an amazing artist called Frank McCarthy. We managed to track his widow down in the Arizona desert and she gave her permission to use the artwork, unfortunately Warner Pictures weren’t interested in helping out so we had to commission our own painting at the last minute. Julian came up with the whole die-cut diver concept – we really wanted to make the packaging special, something as detailed and thought out as the music inside."

After the critical success of The Sleeper, I was curious how much pressure Nick felt to avoid the clichéd, Sophomore slump, that seems to be tattooed on bands that have had especially successful and unique debut albums.

“We definitely felt pressure to try and improve on The Sleeper. Whilst recording the first album we were just making music for ourselves, but this time around we knew we had an audience.”

Nick said that he had many sleepless nights obsessing over lyrics, arrangements and marimba sounds. “We always felt we were making something special, but by the time everything had been recorded, I’d lost all my objectivity, it was nice to hand the reins over to Christian so he could make sense of the madness.”

On the band's website, Christian is quoted as saying "On this album, he's (Nick) immersed himself in all the things he was looking at. It's more colourful and vibrant, and it's full of happiness and terror. He's the guy poised to dive on the cover. He's heading into the murky water."

Nick may have dived into murky waters, but he, Christian, and the rest of the band are swimming in crystal clear waters with this collection of songs. Into The Murky Water is simply terrific and one of the year's best albums. 

Sounding Out: Delay Trees

Back in September of 2010, Delay Trees released their self-title album in their home country of Finland. In the months that followed, the album gained attention outside of Finland and the band saw the album get released in other countries. This past month, American label Friendly Fire Recordings, released the album here in the states.

When I spoke with Rami Vierula, the lead singer, guitarist, and primary songwriter for the band, he said with the release, Delay Trees have realized a dream that they would not have thought possible a few years back.

“It has been so exciting just the fact that Friendly Fire wanted to release our album in the States….It is a big thing for a Finnish band to get a release in the US. Most of the artists and popular culture that we lived with growing up came from America. And America holds a special place in our hearts, that is also why I am singing about dreams of America on Cassette 2012.”

I had read in another interview Rami describe the band’s music as ‘a quiet melancholic city with a strong Edward Hopperian mood around it.’ I asked him what it was about Edward Hopper’s works that inspired him. He said that the first time he saw an Edward Hopper painting, he was drawn in.

“It struck me as a very pretty and very serene picture, but it also had this weird melancholy around it. I think that his painting speaks the same language as some of our music in that it's minimalistic and it is very concentrated on the mood and the atmosphere in the picture, and there are very small, tiny, spaces that can take the picture into another sphere.”

Rami said that while the world of painting art inspires him, the cinematic art form is closer to his heart. “Sometimes I watch a movie and it leaves a feeling or mood inside me that I just want to somehow use. When I was a teenager, I went to see Mulholland Drive by David Lynch. It left this weird mood in my head and it forced me to create something.”

Rami also pointed to the Italian filmmaker Michelangelo Antonioni as another filmmaker that has had a dramatic impact on him as an artist and musician. “I never got into Antonioni’s movies, story-wise, but his imagery really affected me. He has this style that is very, very slow…..slow takes and big, almost panoramic images. I remember when I was writing the closing track of the album 4:45am….it is about an auto-biographical situation or happening that I lived through….I sort of wanted to think about it as an Antonioni movie, so the sounds are sort of static all the time and there is this mellow dreamy canvas that the melody and lyrics fall on.” Musically, his hope is that songs, like this one, create many images in the listener’s head.

4:45am   

There is definitely a story being told in the dynamics of the music. Quiet tender moments give way to walls of sound that crescendo and then fall back down. These changing dynamics are all intended to help create a cinematic feel to the songs, says Rami.

Rami said that the downside of Delay Trees’ music, like the slower art cinema movies that he loves, is that it really requires a commitment of time to fully let it create an atmosphere for someone to go inside. Rami said that for this reason he is jealous for bands like The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart who can make wonderful pop songs that are instantly understood. “Our music is very different. But we have to do our music this way even though it may not be the wisest thing to do.” He laughed. “It is definitely not the most popular.”

One of the things that I appreciated about this album stylistically is the clarity and crispness of the vocals. They are placed right there on top and they are not buried in a wall of sound. I find it to be refreshing and I like the juxtaposition it creates between the vocals and the sound and texture that is taking place in the background.

“We love the dream pop style, and bands liked The Cocteau Twins or Slowdive, especially Slowdive. I really like that their lyrics and vocals had this clarity. On this album, we were aiming for something for people to be able to approach and grasp onto a little bit more easily than just a wall of sound in the vocals.”

Rami said that when the vocal are clearer it can definitely give the straight emotion from the singer to the listener. “I am not really sure if our album or my vocal performance does it,” he laughed, “but at it’s best it can do that.” He said that they wanted to maintain the vocal clarity for the lyrics as well.

Lyrically, I told Rami that the main character or protagonist in these songs seems to be really struggling to make sense of his world and find any happiness. I asked if there was hopefulness for this person or these people.

Rami said that he does not like to explain lyrics too much. Leaving open spaces for people to interpret the lyrics is important to him. It is what keeps people coming back to books or music or film over time. “I do think that is why people listen to albums over and over again or go see movies that they have already seen..they want to make sense of it and dwell in the mood that the movie or music creates. And that is what I have wanted to do with my lyrics.”

When I pushed him, Rami did talk a little bit more about his lyrics. Some of the songs he said are about the depression that the everyday life creates because of the unemployment in the country or just the long winters.

Photo By Aapo Huhta

I joked with him that it is warm and sunny out now and reason to be happy. “Well, yeah, and I love the weather now, and I’m quite a happy guy, but during the summer time I usually don’t write very much. It happens during autumn and when it starts to get darker and colder. Now it is full of light and it is warm and it will be this way for the next four months, but when it is six months of darkness and coldness it can get in your head.”

“I don’t know if it is part of being Finnish….we are quite a melancholy people. In America, you do have a much more optimistic way of dealing with life and futures. I do think that it can be quite hard for people to listen to our music, but we don’t want to make it hard. It is just my feelings and stories that I, or people around me have gone through." In Finland, he said, many find his lyrics melancholy, but hopeful.

I asked Rami specifically about the song About Brothers, which is a wonderful song and a band favorite. “This is really about my feelings about ending a relationship with a friend of mine. I don’t have biological brothers, but I do feel that he is a brother of mine. When you come to the point of people having kids and moving to other towns because of their jobs or lives, it feels like the old friends that you had are not the same anymore because of what life makes them.”

About Brothers   

With the album having been out now for nine months, I asked Rami if the band has started working on new songs.

“We actually booked a studio weekend a month or so ago and recorded an EP. It was exciting to go and do something without any pressure or goals.”

Rami said that it has been hard to write new material. I asked if it was harder stepping away from the older material or finding a new space in which to be creative? Rami said that it was a bit of both, but he was not sure which was harder.

“In Europe the record was very well received critically. It creates a pressure for making new music. Should we follow the same pattern with new songs or not? I think that we are over it now. We want to be pressure free and keep things fresh for us as well. I am not sure which one is harder, the space for creating new music or clinging on to the old music."

Without sounding patronizing, Delay Trees feel a bit like ‘the little Finnish band that could.’ They are a band with a lot of passion, a lot of talent, a great debut album, and a humble and hopeful way about viewing their future. With the American release of their album, they hope to find a wider audience to help propel them into the future, but they know that the future is ultimately what they make of it.

“We really do love being in the band. We have a good time together and there is such a passion for all of us. If it does not happen, and I am pretty sure that it doesn’t, you keep going on and keep hoping that good things will happen elsewhere. Sometimes it is a slower path that you have to take, especially when you are a dream pop band from Finland!”

Sounding Out: Exray's

I was really intrigued listening to Exray’s self-titled release. Jon Bernson & Michael Falsetto-Mapp, the duo behind Exray’s, are boundary-pushing musicians who are not afraid to challenge themselves and listeners regarding what constitutes aesthetically pleasing music. On their new album, the two use hi-fi and lo-fi instruments and electronics to take a collection of new songs, with catchy pop frameworks, and transform them into sonically off-kilter soundscapes.

What I appreciate about Exray’s, is that there are so many layers to pull back as you dig into this collection of songs. Thematically, they are quite diverse and deciphering what was intended with each song can be a bit challenging. Jon has said that he creates songs in groups that are supposed to reflect off of one another. Given this, I was curious about his approach to this collection.

“Michael and I have made a lot of records and done a lot of recording, but these two albums are the first for Exray's. We're into a lot of different music, so we experimented a lot, and tried many different ways of putting the songs together. We brought in a bunch of friends to contribute on various tracks on the record, and none of them come from one particular genre or scene, so I guess that accounts for the diversity of the songs and sounds.”

Hesitation   

I love the idea of approaching music as an experiment. I asked Jon if there is a conscious starting point from which he and Michael work to form songs.

“Most of the time, I have the songs written before we start recording, so the basic form is already in place. That said, we approach the recording process with open minds and allow the songs to change as we track and arrange them. We like to experiment and push songs ‘til we've gone too far and then pull back, kind of young soul type of stuff, you don't know your limits, or your place in the world, so push until something pushes back.”

While the music is quite diverse and boundary pushing, Jon said the there is a common thread running through the lyrics to these songs. “They are based on my personal life. I wrote a play that strings the characters and events in the songs together, but decided not to release the writing because I felt it would distract me and the listeners from the music. I'm still happy with that decision, just keeping it surreal.”

In an interview, Jon had said that John Coltrane’s ‘A Love Supreme’ was the most influential album in his life. He had said, "It is so immediate, emotive, challenging and endless. The album longs for a world far beyond the world of music." I asked Jon if there were albums in other genres that have had a similar impact on him and his music? And if so, was it for the same reasons or something else?

“Probably every album I've heard has an influence. Sometimes the ones I hate have as much sway as the ones I love.” He said that it's nice to have something to strive for and something to strive against. “Erik Satie's Gymnopedies, and Steve Reich's 'Different Trains' are two records that I'll probably listen to for the rest of my life. Obviously Exray's music doesn't bear any resemblance, but I think at this point, I'm just making music that I'm capable of making with the inspiration and tools on hand. My influences may sound kind of high brow, but the reality of how I make music is really just practical in a way."

You Forgot   

Exray's is a second run of sorts for Jon and Michael. Previously, they recorded under the name Ray's Vast Basement. I asked Jon why they stopped recording under Ray’s Vast Basement. "I kicked myself out of the band and then Michael's contract was up so we started a new band with a different vibe. Everyone's on better terms this way," he said.

Beyond Exray's Jon is a very busy man. Besides being a founder of Howells Transmitter, a record label and arts collaborative, Jon runs the Urban Music Program in San Fransisco. The program is a non-profit that is dedicated to teaching music to kids in the Sunset Neighborhood community of the city.

Given the many hats that Jon wears, I ask him what expectations he and Michael have for Exray's, long term. He joked that he is investing in software that will continue to make the music he would have made after he's gone. "In order for this to work, I'll need to provide my imaginary staff with a decent catalogue so they have enough work to receive benefits. As for shorter long term, we plan on making about 33 more records, including another EP this year followed by our follow up LP."

While Jon's answer was not serious, I thought that it was the perfect ending to our conversation. Exray's will continue to push on what is possible until they can't.