ON ROTATION

Fink, Perfect Darkness
Perfect Darkness, a mostly acoustic endeavor, is filled with perfectly dark, moody, sparse, and tension filled songs. This may not sound like a recipe for a satisfying listen, but it is and then some. As a singer, songwriter, DJ, producer, and guitarist, Fin Greenall, the driving force behind Fink, is a serious minded guy who uses a less is more approach to allow this collection of songs to breath. This approach, coupled with crisp production, allows you to hear every little sound created on each song. This add some great texture to these songs which plays nicely against Fink's subtle vocals and dark lyrics. Fink has a winning recipe with Perfect Darkness.
Warm Shadow   

Gillian Welch, The Harrow & The Harvest
I have been a big fan of Gillian Welch since she first arrived on the folk music scene back in 1996 with her debut album Revival. Now, after an Eight year hiatus, since the release of her last album, Welch and her long time musical collaborator, David Rawlings are back with The Harrow & The Harvest. What I have always loved about Welch is her ability to reach back in time, grab onto the wonderful folk, bluegrass, and country music that is such an important part of our country's musical heritage, and bring it back to us in her own voice. This collection of original songs is exceptional and I would ask Welch to take another eight years off if it is going to produce another magnificent album like The Harrow & The Harvest (but really I want more now!).
                                                        The Way It Goes  

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."

ON ROTATION

King Creosote & Jon Hopkins, Diamond Mine
Scottish singer-songwriter, Kenny Anderson, who records under the name King Creosote has a long and impressive body of work. Add Diamond Mine, his phenomenal new collaboration with English electronic composer and producer Jon Hopkins, to his collection. This absolutely beautiful album exemplifies what is possible when two artists can marry two very different musical reference points in a cohesive and near perfect way. Anderson and Hopkins have created a magnificent and timeless musical space where their quiet and soulful songs radiate earth and warmth and richness. This is a very special album.
Bubble   

Washed Out, Within And Without
On the chill side of an ambient 80's electronic, synth-pop sound lies Washed Out. Born in 1983, Ernest Greene would have been too young to have been aware of the music that was being created in the time of his youth, yet here he is finding inspiration in it. Sounding fresh and retro at the same time, this album mesmerized me. Greene has such a great touch and feel for creating mood and atmosphere. Lush textures, pulsating heartbeat-like bass lines and rhythms, and floating vocals combination to fill up every corner of his slow burning songs making Within And Without a particularly cool late night listen.  
Amor Fati  

Old 97's, The Grand Theatre Vol. 2
It seems like Old 97's The Grand Theatre Vol. 1 was just released, though it was eight months ago. Back with the sharper Vol. 2, Old 97's once again display what they do so well...but even better here. With a more refined sound than on the rougher sounding Vol. 1, the band's alt-country songs shine with crisp songwriting and storytelling. It is just great to see a band, that has been together for seventeen years, still be at the top of their creative game on album number nine. Old 97's remind us that consistently great songs, songwriting, and rock solid playing trumps music trends of the moment and the 'it' bands that come and go.
Brown Haired Daughter  

ON ROTATION

Bon Iver, Bon Iver
I think that I am one of the few people who did not immediately pay attention to Bon Iver's self-titled album when it was released last month. Having absored myself in it for the past two weeks, I must say that it is truly one of the most amazing listening experience that I have had this year. If this makes any sense, on Bon Iver, Justin Vernon, who is more or less the band, takes us deeper into an emotional place and space than on his debut album by expanding the band's sound. With richly textured and sonically beautiful songs, Vernon, creates a musical landscape that can be explored over and over again, and still feel new and authentic with each listen. Plug yourself into this album with some good headphones and allow yourself to be taken away by
                                                        this one.
                                                        Calgary   

Admiral Fallow, Boots Met My Face
Glasgow is one of my favorite cities and I have always been impressed with the city's vibrant music scene. Admiral Fallow, who hail from this great city have just release their debut album, Boots Met My Face. Putting aside the fact that I am a sucker for a Glaswegian accent, I love what Admiral Fallow is doing on this album. With a kind of rough folk-rock sound, the band beautifully balances the warmth of so much of the Scottish folk music that I love with a more contemporary sound. I hope that Admiral Fallow's album helps this Scottish sound find a wider audience like Mumford and Sons' album Signs No More did for the English equivalent. 
Squealing Pigs   

Bobby, Bobby
Colleges can serve as great incubators for young bands. This has certainly been the case for the band Bobby. What started off as an academic musical project at Bennington College, evolved into something much more. On their debut album, the seven members of Bobby have created an impressive, sprawling twelve song listening journey. I really like the confidence that the band shows in taking its time with these sophisticated, psychedelic, folk-dream pop like songs.
Sore Spores   

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.”

ARCTIC MONKEYS, SUCK IT AND SEE

The Arctic Monkeys are one of my favorite bands and I have a tough time being objective about anything that they release. Fortunately, I can say without feeling sheepish that Suck It And See is another very strong album by the band. While I so loved the raw energy and power of their first two albums, I appreciate the maturing sound and style that the band shows on their fourth album. Lyrically, the rough and tumble nature of the working class characters in their songs continue to be front and center, which is a big relief. The Arctic Monkeys are at their best when shining a light on the lives of everyday people who have not been handed life's best hand.
Reckless Serenade