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05/11/2024
03/06/2024
Cyrille Aimée - à Fleur de Peau
We Heart Music had the opportunity to chat with Cyrille Aimée as she embarks on a world tour to promote her latest album à Fleur de Peau out on Via Recordings March 8th with a stop at the Dakota on March 19th. Born and raised in the town of Samois-sur-Seine just outside of Paris, Aimée’s love of music began early for two prescient reasons: Her mother who is from the Dominican Republic filled the household with the music of salsa, merengue and bachata. Also, Samois-sur-Seine is the hometown of legendary gypsy jazz guitarist Django Reinhardt. And as a young teenager, Aimée would sneak out of the house to spend time with the performers when they arrived for the annual Reinhardt music festival. I asked Aimée if she would have any time to get back home during her Paris show, but she said there was no time in the schedule. I then asked if there was a music venue where she felt at home and most connected to the audience. She didn’t want to play favorites but did mention the Birdland in New York City for “New Yorkers have high standards.” It was in NYC that a young Aimée studied Jazz at SUNY Purchase and quickly lined up gigs, even recording before graduating in 2009. Aimée lived in New York for ten years, but eventually moved to New Orleans. I said I saw her videos on Instagram dancing in the streets during Mardi Gras recently and asked if she was having as much fun as it looked.
“Second Line dancing is my most favorite thing,” she responded. She then told me that Second Line dancing isn’t just reserved for Mardi Gras but happens every Sunday (except during the heat of Summer). What’s not to love in a place that lets you dance in the middle of the street once a week? Listening to Aimée, you could tell she has a deep love of New Orleans. “Not the hustle of New York… Neighbors that are my best friends… Lots of support and love.” She even captures these scenes on her new single “Beautiful Way”. What I gathered chatting with Aimée, listening to her music and watching her YouTube channel is crystalized by Stephen Holden of the New York Times when he described her musical style as: “Everything is connected and integrated into an internationalist concept of jazz that has no stylistic hierarchy.” Aimée is a bright star and wonderful singer, but she doesn’t let it override the music. She is part of the band, and the band is there for the music. I told Aimée that I really enjoyed her bouncy cover of "La Vie en Rose" with the Emmet Cohen Trio, a song performed in the comforts of Cohen’s Harlem living room. I asked her how much preparation went into playing an iconic song in such a different vein. “I told the band Second Line,” she replied. And away they went with Aimée dancing
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01/16/2024
We Were Young
James Converse revives us with his new project We Were Young, taking us all the way back to the eternal nostalgia we never knew we needed. Heavy in synth and California roots, his sound is sure to awaken listeners to a new wave of expansion.
Once in awhile an artist comes along and their music makes you reminisce about a love lost, or gives you a feeling of wanderlust, or reminds you of the giddiness of childlike wonder. They help you remember that your life is not yet paved…that things are possible and there’s another vortex that remains unseen. And perhaps that vortex is a whole lot of fun. These are feelings that come to mind when I discovered the music of James Converse, aka We Were Young. The L.A. based artist has come a long way from his DJing days, and with his new single ‘Devil is a Juno’ dropping this Friday, I was delighted to get the opportunity to sit down with We Were Young and get the scoop of all things life and music. Explain to us at We♥Music a little of who you are as an artist. I grew up listening to all sorts of music and watching many VHS tapes, even making my own cassette mixtapes and burning CDs. My mom owned a few video stores, so I had access to promotional movies, music, video games, etc. After high school, I veered off into underground music culture: House, Punk, and hip-hop; an odd combination, but it was mood-based. I went to school in Boulder, after snow-bumming around Breckenridge Colorado for a winter. It was there I learned to DJ; it was all vinyl back then. I moved to the bay area in my 20’s and worked at record shop, so I got to listen to a ton of eclectic music. Somehow I found myself in the tech wold, and was immersed in that for a long time. During the pandemic, I had a spiritual awakening and got back into music. I was learning guitar and keys while singing and writing my own songs. It started out as a kind of EDM, but has since evolved into more indie pop/dance tunes. Today, I just like to sing and write my own songs. I think music production is a lot of indoor hours behind a desk, which I can honestly do without. Right now I’m focused on the creative flow. What do you want people to feel when they listen to your music? Do you have any specific message you want to share with your listeners? I want people to remember the past, and feel how they were when they were young and carefree. I want people to think about the lyrics, but not too seriously because some of my songs are meant to be fun and that’s it. I want people to remember life before the internet, you know? Before smartphones. I wanna bring the energy of being able to disconnect and be in the moment- not think of the world’s problems or the things weighing them down. How long did this new project take? What inspired your lyrics?
I’ll have you know this first title, ‘The Devil is a Juno’, is literally about a synth; a Juno-60. I just like the way it sounds, and I can’t resist putting it in almost every song! Some of my other songs have much more meaning to them, but this track was more of a writing exercise, using metaphors. I think it’s a fun and campy song. It makes me laugh and it’s got some groove to it. How long did it take? In some sense, maybe my whole life, but the actual world, this one came together so fast, like one day. I was just sitting outside watching a volleyball game, and it came to me, randomly. How do you approach the storytelling aspect of your videos? Talk about what visual elements appeal to you. I use this showing vs. telling approach. Showing is to describe the who, what, where and when, as well as describing your senses. Telling is how it made you feel. Showing helps paint a picture, and telling is from your perspective. It's quite difficult to write while using metaphors and alliteration, while still having a deeper meaning. It’s important to not be too specific sometimes, too. Let the listeners get their own message from the song. Who would be your dream musician to collaborate with? Wow yeah, Jose Gonzales. This guy has an incredible perspective on life and music, and his guitar skills are amazing…seemingly flawless. He is certainly amazing. Who’s a band or artist that knocked your socks off when you saw them live? I don’t even remember all the shows I’ve been to, but the first one that came to mind was Rob Zombie, who opened for Korn, but outclassed them. How do you navigate authenticity and the business side of the industry? I try to not participate in the business side of the industry. My day job allows me some freedoms that most artists don’t have. One label asked me to change something one time. They said if I did, then “maybe.” What kind of BS is that?
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11/02/2023
We♥Music Interview: Josh Berwanger of Gemini Parks
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Josh Berwanger is a man of many musical ideas--
In the late 1990’s, his indie emo band The Anniversary made significant local waves and a national impact before breaking up, with Berwanger next pivoting to a more alt-country sound with band The Only Children. He followed that with acclaimed solo albums and now, a new multi-genre project (a la Odelay-era Beck) called Gemini Parks.
Debuting last year, they released singles “Up All Night” “Price You Pay”, “Animals” and “Flat Champagne” ahead of their debut full-length,”Why is everyones a Hoe?” with producer Jarod Evans.
We sat down with the singer-songwriter, ahead of a pair of recent weekend gigs (a local record release and a slot at a MF Doom Tribute show) to look back, look ahead, and everything in-between.
WEHEARTMUSIC: I think most people know you from The Anniversary, with some solo work in-between. And that all began in like, 1997-98 ish…?
JOSH BERWANGER: Yeah, like,‘98-99 and then we put out the first record in 2000. And then the second one in 2002, and then broke up in 2003. So it's very short lived, you know.
WHM: I'm sure you remember, there was a bit of a little musical renaissance in the mid-90s when everybody tried to make Lawrence the next Seattle. So there were bands like Paw, Kill Whitey and Stick....Any kind of lesson that you took from that movement before you guys hit the scene?
JB: I don't know if there was a lesson just because we were starting to figure it out, and I think you sort of have to figure it out on your own. Everyone wants to tell you how to do it and what to do these days and that's fine. But I think it was more. Those bands were more influential to us moving towards her, because Justin was a huge Kill Creek fan. We were all huge Vitreous Humor fans, we’ve all been huge Butterglory fans, and they were all from here. So that's kind of why we gravitated to Lawrence. So, they were more influential, not like showing us how to do it. But it’s why we came here, and that style of music influenced what we were writing.
WHM: When you guys got here, how did you interpret the scene? Was it what you thought?
JB: Yeah, I mean, like, you know, I think they called us little brats. Because we were just like, in everyone's business and we're like Fuller (McCallister) from “Home Alone”, the one that eats the cheese pizza. I think we were kind of little annoying, scenester kids - we'd show up to parties and those places, and they’d kick us out. And we’d get kicked out of the Replay (Lounge) a lot, all in good spirit for the most part. So, to answer the question, yeah, that's what we kind of expected, and tried our best to play as many Bottlenecks and Replay shows and hop on bills, and just be present. And work hard.
I think one time we played one time we played a show, and it was opening for one of the local bands. I forgot which one, and then it said “...and Local Pests”.
WHM: So after The Anniversary broke up, was it a couple of solo records after that, or was that the more country inspired band?
JB: The Only Children was forming out of the out of towards the end of The Anniversary and I already had a record deal and I was going to do that regardless of knowing what was happening with The Anniversary, so then we broke up and then went straight to Colorado to record “Change of Living” by The Only Children which is Country or Rock and Roll influenced by kind of the Country Stones era-influenced..
WHM: Like “Wild Horses”, songs like that?
JB: Yeah, Neil Young, and then Tom Petty and just trying to put my own thing to it. And that was cool. We did some really good tours opening for some pretty big bands, but it was also sort of, I don't know… social media was kind of really starting to take off. I didn't piggyback off The Anniversary breaking up. I wanted it to be its own thing, which in hindsight, I probably should have done that.
Anniversary fans were like, “Oh, F**k, no”, I mean, even I think Anniversary fans with Gemini Parks are going on right now, “Oh, F**k no” because it's much different than the last, but it's like, you're in or you're not. If you're In, you get it, and I want you to. If you don't, that's great, too.
WHM: Do you feel it’s important to change up your style of music like, and to keep re-inventing yourself?
JB: I think it's important. Only if it's natural. That's the only way I can answer it. It's natural.
Just kind of do what I feel. And also, it doesn't have to be doing something different, doesn't have to be a complete genre change. Also, I think I could do like when the Stones reinvented themselves all the time, you know, The Beatles. I think all those bands find a way to do it., even though they bring in new genres and make it their own. That's what I'm always trying to do.
WHM: It seems like some of the press outlets are admiring your work after the fact, saying you were just a couple of years ahead of the scale on things. How does that make you feel when older albums are described later as ‘criminally underrated’?
JB: I feel The Anniversary was that, especially the second record, we were going, "so it's not?" I would rather at least be recognized for that, than not ever at all, for any of it. I could be like, Oh, bummer, because, "Where were you?" but thank you for at least acknowledging it.
I just did this poster for this Blues documentary that's coming out. And it really touches on how the Stones took from this. And these guys, Jerry Lee Lewis never got credit. You know, those guys never got credit. They never saw a dime until they're dead. So, it's an actually an interesting question. I've thought about a bit lately, where it's like, would you just have rather never known, then be dead, and then become famous? Or would you rather know that 'oh, I recognize that', right? It's like, well, how about you recognize this next one?
Without early Blues and all, I don't know what it would be actually- it's like two sides of the coin. It could be no one says anything at all. You’re just like a welcome mat, walking into a restaurant.
WHM: So last thing about The Anniversary, was that someone in the press called it a “Fleetwood Mac-like” breakup?
JB: Well, they're wrong. We didn't have that kind of money, or success, or drugs (laughing). So that's where they're wrong. It was just an implosion of ‘too much too soon’, maybe. And there was a lot of personality in that band with each member. There wasn't just like, oh, that's the lead singer, and then that's the goofy so-and-so, and other guitar player. Each individual really was 20% of that band. And with that, sometimes, it just doesn't work, because of that reason. So, it just was an implosion. Some elements make sense with the “Fleetwood Mac comparison”, and some of them don't.
WHM: You guys didn't walk away forever; you did come back together...
JB: We're not looking to make new music. Honestly, at this point, it's like you realize that there's a very small window to go back to it, 20 years later. And if we're going to do it, the time will be right now. Which is why we're doing a few shows, here and there. Because in ten more years, I just don't want to be “that age” doing it. And honestly, the biggest reason is that's our way to see each other and hang out. If we didn't do that, we would never see each other, and that's the most fun part of it all.
WHM: Let's talk about the present. The new project- GEMINI PARKS. A lot of publications are describing it as funk punk. That kind of shoehorns it a bit. Different sounds are all over the record, is there a central vision in the sound? How would you describe it?
JB: I would just say it's a genre blend of music. And that's really what it is. It plays more kind of like a playlist. Okay, we're also in a time of people who don't listen to full albums. It's a challenge for me in a way- I have a positive challenge to make an album where this plays more like a playlist in a sense. And I think that it's a kind of fun playlist- the sounds.
I think the next record is going to be a lot in the “Rick James wheelhouse”, like strict, not bringing in some of the disco or not bringing in some of the more, you know, elements, I just kind of want to make it as straight “Rick James” as possible.
WHM: Is that a result of recently getting into him?
No, I've always been- if you look at like one of the first Anniversary photos ever, I'm holding a Rick James record, he's always been one of my absolute favorites. But I just think it'd be fun to make a record that's just like a party kind of funk record...
WHM: Didn’t he do that with Eddie Murphy- “Party all the Time”...
JB: Look at the “Up All Night” video- that's typically completely ripped off from that video. The video concept. Yeah, love that song, have it on 45. It's such a good song. And it's also funny because you're like, Eddie Murphy is a really good singer. And he is, but then also Rick James comes on in the video and you're like, ‘Ahhhh, Rick James’.
That's kind of what I want it to be- all 120 BPM on the next record, just the whole thing from front to finish. So, yeah, that's what I want to happen, but it probably won't end up that way.
WHM: The new record is just quite a mixed bag of sounds and that was on purpose, obviously. First, let's get to its title...
JB: Yeah- “Mom, Why is everyones a Hoe?” I was gonna call the record “Sounds of Music”. And partly because it's a bunch of different sounds of the full piece. And people are like, what kind of style is this music, I don't know. But then another part is that both my grandparents had just passed and that was one of their favorite movies, The Sound of Music. So, I was thinking about it. And I kind of got burned from a couple people while making this record, who were gonna help, and they didn't.
I was doing this music video for Eva Gardner she used to, she sometimes still plays in The Mars Volta, and she plays with P!nk now. And we made it in this old grimy, total graffiti place and on the wall, it said, ‘Why is Everyone's Mom a Hoe in Here?’ I took a photo of that, and then I just kind of rearranged the words.
And I was like, this makes more sense for what I'm going through. I went through making this, like, why the problem is everyone, including myself, so I'm not like saying everyone has been made. But you know, if you think about it, why there are those people that are just f**king hoes, you know, you're like, there can be good hoes. But mostly, you know, why is everyone a hoe? So that's kind of the thinking, without getting too personal into it.
WHM: And then the artwork, I assume that’s your own?
JB: Yeah, I did the artwork myself. This is the first record that I didn't send any labels. I just paid for everything myself and so I just wanted to do it all myself. And it's been the most rewarding. Not that it hasn't been rewarding on other levels, but this has been more rewarding because of that, you know. Everything, I've done- I don't have to like second guess anything. I don't have to ask someone's permission. I just do it, which is sometimes tough. Because you don't have anyone else to ask, ‘Is this actually smart?’
I'm in a group thread with a few friends who are musicians. I was like, I think I will call it “Mom, Why is everyones a Hoe?”, what do you think of that? And they said something like, yeah, well, I think like ‘Sh*t Can Diaries’ is a good name, and I was like, I'm not going to the meaning of this. I felt like, you know, and at the end of the day you sleep on it.
That was also making the record. I was like, let's make it in Norman, OK. And I’d record for a week, and then I'd drive home with the songs from the board. And there's no one in the band, it's just me and my friend Jarod (Evans, who’s also worked with The Flaming Lips, Sufjan Stevens, and others) who produced it. He's in Norman. So I'm driving home alone, and no one's here, then I’ll send it to a friend who doesn't listen to the style of music I'm making and I’ll say, “Is this good?” And they're like, “So... what are you up to lately?” (laughing)
I'm very proud of it. I really like it. It's one of the few records that I can actually listen to of mine. I'm like, Hell Yeah. You know, I could listen to other ones, every once in a while, a song here, there. But this one, I'm like, “F**k Yeah!” I'll crank it and drive down the street, and I'm like, this is great.
WHM: It is a mixed bag of different sounds, different influences, and whatnot. But it's held all together- you’ve got an introduction, and it flows from beginning to end. Hearing the album, somehow the dots are connected.
JB: Yeah, I think lyrically. It stays through some central themes, and the lyrics are very dark, even if the music is very poppy. I think that might be a thing that helps the listeners hold it together throughout - It ends up going to a hip-hop song or kind of like a quick rock and roll song, then back to like, you know, Euro disco funk.
WHM: I gotta ask you about “Snake Charmer” (which features J. Arrr (Wilson, NC) and Backwood Sweetie (DMV). It's the middle of the album and all of a sudden, you’ve got a couple of guest rappers on there. Talk about how that came together and how that fits what you're trying to do.
JB: I love all music, almost all music. And so the producer and I were talking, there's so much different hip hop, a lot of it is samples, what we're doing on the whole record, there's very little live drums. And so, we took our time on it, we'd come up with, ‘What if there was a MC on this?’, so we started like talking more about like lyrics for hip hop.
And I think it's the greatest thing around because you can just do- there's no rules, really with hip hop versus other genres of music. There's 'this verse has to tie into this verse', or else, it doesn't work. In hip hop, this doesn't really even have to tie into that at all. It does though, most of the time, but sometimes it's just ‘Wait, why was this not okay?’, but it works.
I was a fan of J. Arrr out of NC, and I was a fan of Christina (Backwood Sweetie) out of Baltimore / DC and I was sending her a few tracks. I was just thinking she was gonna do a couple songs. And then it wasn't working exactly like what we're doing. Then “Snake Charmer” came up, and I was, 'what about this?', and she was like, yeah, this one. And then J. Arrr, I reached out to him and he hooked up those first two verses on, and since then, I've been really wanting to do like a hip hop record and just do the music. And so, with Christina, I've been kind of going back and forth on hopefully doing something in the future, I’m sending her some new tracks. She's just so great, I think she's phenomenal lyricist.
WHM: When you first envisioned the song, you weren't thinking guest rappers, you were just trying to compose?
JB: Yeah, a lot of that stuff, even like “Flat Champagne”. That was the first thing we started working on and then the last thing we ended up finishing, just because we couldn't figure it out. Jared would have a beat and then we would have this, sort of music to it. And then we'd be like, oh, there's some 90s How do we get away from that, but then keep it there. But also, you know, make it work.
With “Snake Charmer”, we had the chorus and the beats and stuff. And I was like, this is the track if we did it, and it worked out like that. Some of the songs were 'we had it, it was there', but other ones... we took a long time making the record. It was a lot of me going back and forth to Norman (OK).
WHM: Gotta ask you about the video for “Animals”- filmed here in the KU Museum of Natural History. It seems like an obvious idea, but were there a lot of hoops to jump through to get permission?
JB: Not really, it was way easier than I thought it was gonna be- we did it up at that place on campus. So I was talking to someone and they were like, “Oh, I know the curator” And then I was like, Hey, can I do this? And he was awesome. But my original idea was to do it in the main room where it kind of makes us sort of like half circle and there's just hundreds of animals in there. I wanted us to be playing in there and people would be coming and looking at the animals and looking at us, and not liking what we were doing.
So we showed up and I was ‘So how do we get in there? ‘ And he was like, ‘Oh no, you're not going in.’ This is the day of the video – we had tons of extras coming. He says, ‘If someone goes in there, they have to have a hazmat suit on, because of all the chemicals for the animals are so intense’.
Shawn Brackbill, who lives in town, he and I made the video together, he’s director of photography. And I just came up with, ‘Okay, this is what's gonna happen. I'll be walking through the halls’, so we had to change the idea.
WHM: You've done a handful of shows, this spring in Midwest- Chicago, Minneapolis. How's the vibe been? How do you see yourself as an artist, presenting yourself now in this new project?
JB: Yeah, I love it. Because for many reasons, we've played with almost every style of band, and we fit in. The first shows we played with some pop artists, and we went to Chicago and played with a total punk show. And then we played with rock bands, and we played with pop bands, and it just works. And the fans dig it, because it's different enough to just not be the average opening band.
And the punk rock kids like it because we just look like freaks, for the most part. And I really like that, That's exactly what I want to be involved with.
And, also, it's kind of cool, because the highest percentage of my friends, of all the stuff I've done, this is the thing they've liked the least, it seems, and I like it. But I think maybe like two of them do. You know, whatever. And I like that, in a sense, because it's very honest about it but also, they don't come to the local shows. So it kind of is cool. It's also cool to see like people there who want to be there. And I would rather have that than anything else.
This is a project where if you want to be here, great, if you don't, great. I'd rather play to five people want to be there than 50 people don't want to be there. And the first release show in KC, I didn't know anyone there, and it was awesome.
That's what I want with this, it's not part of any scene, I don't really want to be part of any scene. I just want it to be its own thing. Don't come if you don’t dig it, if you don't, I still like you.
Those are the two things- It can fit in with just about any style and come if you like it.
| John C ([email protected]) ♥ weheartmusic.com ♥ twitter.com |
08/07/2023
We♥Music Interview: Will Dailey
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Ten Dollar Song Tour 8/6- Morristown, NJ- Mayo Performing Arts Center
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Prolific and musically active over the last two decades, acclaimed Boston indie singer-songwriter Will Dailey can still find a way to hide in plain sight.
Maybe not in the New England area, where he’s still based and has ‘local hero’ status (and where he’s earned eight Boston Music Awards and counting, plus has a #1 album [2018’s Golden Walker] on Billboard’s Northeast Heatseekers under his belt), but in other parts of the country, where his music has been heard, without maybe the realization of who it was.
From his 13 million+ Spotify streams, enough songs featured on TV’s “NCIS” to have them considered a recurring guest star, and even appearing on camera to sing on “CSI-NY” and the soap opera “As the World Turns.”
His folk-rock sound can lean toward a nostalgic vibe, while still staying musically current, and can sonically range from a laid-back intimate hush to a larger, widescreen sound, sometimes within the very same song.
The musical troubadour is on the road again, on the second leg of his “Ten Dollar Song Tour”, in support of The Wallflowers for this run, stopping by The Uptown Theater in Kansas City on Wednesday, August 17.
The tour name springs from Dailey’s latest innovative idea and a brand-new song, inspired by the vinyl artwork and song “Clouds” by Joni Mitchell, and is a seven-minute love letter of admiration to Mitchell, only available to be heard at the merch table at Dailey’s shows.
Fans pay what they like to listen to the song on a (we’re not calling it ‘antique’ because that shows our age) Sony Discman, before or after the show. Accompanying it is a journal with artwork, lyrics, and credits, and listeners are invited to leave their name, date, place, any reactions, doodles, and random thoughts. Dailey developed the DIY post-pandemic idea as a project to better connect with each listener, instead of randomly releasing the song into the digital abyss.
Through the magic of the interwebs, we had the opportunity to ask Dailey a few questions ahead of his KC appearance and were pleasantly surprised to find his answers as well-thought out and as revelatory as the care and effort he puts into his own songwriting.
WHM: Tell us about your newest song, "Cover of Clouds" and how Joni Mitchell has been an influence in your own songwriting?
WD: It’s not uncommon for Joni Mitchell to be an influence on a songwriter – I am always pulling from her, especially when I need to check for a healthy level of irreverence to any kind of process.
This song “Cover of Clouds” came literally from the painting that she did for her album Clouds, which I wasn't aware that she did the painting for the cover. Though the album was a part of my life since childhood as it was bestowed upon me by loving adults as an important piece of art. And those moments are really important in someone's upbringing, certainly for someone who ends up doing music for their life.
Somewhere in all that this song poured out, and I ended up using it as a personal check point during the pandemic. Once we could be in the same room with masks and recording studio I got myself, Dave Brophy, Jon Evans, who is the bass player for Tori Amos for a long time, at Jon’s studio on Cape Cod. It was the first time people could be in that kind creative space with masks on, and I just thought this is a healthy song to dive back in after such a challenging period for everyone. And I approached it as if I was just recording a song for my own mental health and greasing my own wheels with no intention of ever releasing on my mind.
$10 Dollar Song is described as a project created with the intention of prioritizing human connection over algorithms and analytics- How do you think Artificial Intelligence and related, will affect Art in general, and songwriting/music specifically?
Art has been interrupted since the beginning of time. We sang around the fire and used animal bones for drumsticks. And then someone maybe carved a drumstick out of wood. And someone strung a piece of intestine as a string to another stick and started the first upright bass. And everyone who played the bones was really upset. It disrupted everything. And my job is not to chase the disruption or be the disruption. For me personally, it's to instill that ancient role of connection and honesty through art. That is how I think of “the job”.
And it can be in the smallest way, and it can be in the grandest way. I've hit a point in my life and career where I cannot measure the difference between one person and 10,000. A million spins, to one person having a sincere emotional reaction to a performance or a song. And AI is going to do more than we imagined and less than we imagined. It's gonna have negative consequences. And it's gonna possibly have some positive results. Maybe it will free us up – we don't belong on a factory line, sitting all day. We don't belong staring at a screen all day.
If we are freed up, maybe we can return to that fire, and we gather around a little bit more in the fields and maybe to our Earth. So, I can't answer, I don't know or worry myself too much about all those questions. Because I'm focused on what my job is. And that will never really change. And if robots take over, and they all look like Arnold Schwarzenegger, we're still going to need artists in the bunker. To sing at the end of the day after we killed a bunch of Arnold Schwarzeneggers.
You've shared the stage/studio with numerous legends- John Mellencamp, Roger McGuinn, Willie Nelson, Steve Earle, and even Stephen King- does any one story or lesson learned, stick out over others?
I think my experience with Eddie Vedder definitely sticks out more than any other cause it's based exclusively on music and seeped in a person I looked up to probably the most. Not only their music, but their ethics. And upon meeting him, I was playing on stage playing music with him within 15 minutes. It instilled confidence in my musical judgment and in who I have looked to for guidance. Which is a lot of what “Cover of Clouds” is about.
I think that people who do this, especially now when we're in this tyranny of content, and we really don't need new songs delivered to us –100,000 songs come out a day, humanity doesn't need new songs coming at them.
So, you can end up kind of questioning what the hell you're doing with your life, right? So, for this really natural experience to happen, and upon working with this artist and meeting them in person – to immediately take off in a musical direction that was very natural instilled a sense of confidence in my choices and my judgment.
I've kind of existed outside the industry of music, and there's no reason for some of these people you mentioned to work with me. I'm not coming up the charts or anything, I'm not a household name. And so, I’ll always be grateful to someone like Eddie Vedder or Mellencamp, and McGuinn, Tanya Donelly, Steve Earle, Stephen King for all these moments that elevated my artistic experience
What's the best thing about Boston (other than the Food- fresh seafood, great Italian)?
I think the people that I look up to here musically just communicate so much authenticity because if you're called to this path to make it the output of your life, I believe everyone has a song in them but people who have multiple songs in them have some lovely wires crossed, and to operate that calling out of Boston communicates a sincerity that I hear in other non-music biz cities too, but it’s something you have to sometimes hunt for it the Nashville's and LA's and New York's.
If you meet a lifer from Boston, whether it be Duke Levine, who's an amazing guitarist and out with Bonnie Raitt right now or Kevin Barry who is out with Jackson Browne, friends like Tonya Donelly, the hip hop community here, with Latrell James, Oompa and STL GLD, it just feels you know what's going on in Boston and you get to some real soil. It's so so rich, and way more interesting and dynamic than seafood or sports.
You're currently touring with The Wallflowers- have you known Jakob Dylan previously, and what can audiences look forward to?
Jakob is just one of those guys who's been amazing to me. And, like I said I have a scrappy, independent career, and add him to that list of monumental people that I have these opportunities with. I've been doing this a long time, I've never even had an agent, and I kind of love that. That's another very Boston thing to survive that way.
I'm heavily influenced by Jakob, he’s just such an amazing songwriter. The band is ridiculous, his new album is one of his best. I love this audience. I've done a couple of rounds with them; this will be my third.
If I’m out with them in New England or the East Coast a good portion of the audience might know me, but in the mid-west- I don't know how many of those audience members will know me. But I know I'm walking out to a room of people who love songs. They're not expecting, “A show” they want songs to come off that stage. That sounds like an obvious statement, but with so many concerts with backing tracks, lights and a social media element… I don’t know that it is that obvious. And one of my favorite feelings is walking out into a full room that doesn’t really know who I am yet and then I get to play that first song to introduce myself.
Music can do so many powerful things. I just have songs. That audience is looking forward to songs in the songwriter. We do have a culture where a lot of tracks are being made by a wonderful collection of people. And you'll see this big hit with 31 writers, it's not a bad piece of music at all. I’ve listened to some people lament the amount of writers but that fire that we talked about, might have had 31 writers around it, all hitting bones on a piece of animal skin. And then once that wound down, one person got up and maybe did something before in the middle of that. All these practices are ancient, none of it is a new thing. We are just new people experiencing it through each other. And that Wallfowers audience is always waiting for those moments.
Thanks to Will Dailey for taking the time to answer our questions so perceptively and catch him on his 10 Dollar Song Tour, including Aug 17 in Kansas City with The Wallflowers.
Also check out just-released Season Two episodes of the iHeart Podcast he hosts, Sound of Our Town, which is a travel series that happens to feature the music of a spotlighted city and its influence in defining that area’s culture.
All Photos by Pat Piasecki
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| John C ([email protected]) ♥ weheartmusic.com ♥ twitter.com |
02/11/2023
David Lowery at Lawrence Arts Center, Lawrence KS (2023-02-09)
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DAVID LOWERY Poster
DAVID LOWERY Setlist
DAVID LOWERY Tour Dates
March 9 40 Watt Club, Athens, GA
March 10 40 Watt Club, Athens, GA March 11 40 Watt Club, Athens, GA June 17 The Acorn Festival The Acorn Three Oaks, MI Read More
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“Enjoy it while you can, it don’t last long” -
David Lowery, singer-songwriter of legendary alt-rock bands Cracker and Camper Van Beethoven sings this on the first track of his most recent full-length, Vending Machine, but there’s those that would disagree, evidenced by Lowery’s over four-decade career in music.
Lowery discussed his career in music and musician rights activism, and then performed a short but intimate acoustic set as part of Lawrence Public Library’s annual 780s Series- (named after the music section of the Dewey Decimal system in libraries) a once-a-year event that celebrates a notable life in music and the stories behind their songs.
Made possible through a private donation from the Harrison Family Fund of the Douglas County Community Foundation, and in partnership with The Lawrence Public Library Foundation, the series has brought formidable talent to town in previous installments including Mavis Staples, Rakim, Jimmy Webb, Kim Gordon of Sonic Youth, and Booker T. Jones of Booker T. and the MG’s.
Brad Allen, Executive Director of Lawrence Public Library sat down with Lowery at the Lawrence Arts Center (an ideal venue) for conversation, with some audience questions, and a brief performance following. David Lowery is a mathematician, writer, musician, producer, college lecturer, and entrepreneur based mostly in Georgia.
Lowery would unknowingly become a godfather of what we now identify as indie rock while studying math and computers at UC- Santa Cruz, co-founding early band Sitting Ducks in the early 1980’s, which distinguished themselves by playing a punk, acid rock version of "fake Russian-sounding music." That band would evolve into Camper Van Beethoven and associated label, Pitch-a-Tent Records was brought to life along the way.
That band would break up, with Lowery and guitarist friend Johnny Hickman, with bassist Davey Faragher next forming Cracker, whose sound was more traditional, country-tinged roots-rock, that struck more of a mainstream chord with radio hits like 1992’s "Teen Angst (What the World Needs Now)" and 1993’s "Low".
Lowery eventually went solo and along the way co-founded a studio, created commercial tracks, produced numerous notable artists, and earned an Ed.D. from the University of Georgia in 2018, to add to his math degree.
With the rise of streaming and digital platforms of music, Lowery also found himself a music activist, involved in class-action lawsuits against the likes of Pandora and Spotify, who to this day, still only pay most artists a fraction of a cent, per-play.
Lowery also kept a keen eye on evolving technology as well, advising on the early version of Groupon and was a seed investor in music gear website Reverb.com.
In 2016 Lowery released Conquistador as a dramatic-musical work of a 1000-copy limited edition and because of this designation, all public performances, including streaming, webcasting, and radio broadcast required written permission from the author, meaning seemingly random sources like a German classical station would directly pay Lowery a one-time broadcast fee.
Lowery is still notably very much an advocate of the CD format (of which he described his signed limited run on a social post as “analog NFTs”, confusing many in the younger generation), preferring its sound, the ownership of a physical product, and because it allows more direct royalties to the artist.
While Lowery said he also enjoys the resurgence of vinyl, he mentioned the high prices, lead times, and a licensing structure, as potential barriers in allowing the re-release of his other older band releases for the moment.
Asked about major artists selling their music catalogs of late, Lowery understands the impetus to do so, and explained that the trend made his own song catalog's value multiply 3-4x as a ripple effect. Lowery explained the importance of describing a location in many of his songs, as another important paintbrush in his composing palette and how personal his latest songs are, dedicating many to his siblings and own children.
Following a short break, Lowery returned for a short eight-song acoustic set, mostly culled from his recent works, beginning with “Frozen Sea, 1963” about his childhood and his serviceman father. 2019’s “Plaza de Toros, 1967” was about witnessing bullfighting while the family lived in Spain and 2021’s "Leaving Key Member Clause” was his all-too-true story about assuming a band’s name, rights, and obligations (including all debts).
The lone older track was saved for last, one he composed as a teen that Camper Van Beethoven would perform in the mid-80s, called “(I Don't Wanna Go to the) Lincoln Shrine” about an inevitable grade school trip most classes in Redlands, CA took, to visit a local tourist attraction and museum.
“It’s timing and it’s luck” David Lowery admits on 2023’s “It Doesn’t Last Long” but while his musical career may have started out with the help of such; his surviving and thriving over the last forty years, has shown that talent, persistence, and a musical uniqueness were the true characteristics that paved his way. The 780s Series of conversation and performance proved a worthy and entertaining (did we mention free as well?) evening of showcasing the insight into an influential musician and their songs, and any future installments shouldn't be missed.
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| john c ([email protected]) ♥ weheartmusic.com ♥ twitter.com |
08/12/2018
Minnesota Fan Fusion: Double-Sized Podcast Edition
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The latest W♥M #277, we interviewed:
Interestingly enough, everyone had very unique music tastes: Actress Danielle Panabaker is in a Beach Boys summertime mood, artist Gordon Purcell loves Bruce Springsteen, while Greg Land’s favorite music act is Kiss. Finally, Howard Chaykin is very passionate about his love for jazz music, highly recommending Jazz at Massey Hall (15 May 1953) and featured the greats: Dizzy Gillespie, Charlie Parker, Bud Powell, Charles Mingus, and Max Roach. It was the only time that the five men recorded together as “The Quintet”.
In W♥M #276, Vu and John talks about MNFF and what we’ve seen. Everything was twice as big, with panels quadrupled. Securities weren’t as strict (so no more wand metal detectors). There were some challenges, of course, with a few cancellations (Frank Cho and Manu Bennett ) and the Kellogg Blvd under constructions.
Here is a full listing of Comics & Artists guests:
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)11/10/2017
Introducing: Billy Cave
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Billy’s success is matched by his label, Broad St., who has also had a successful year. From what I understand Broad St. is more of an aesthetic collective than a label, as they tackle many areas from music creation and creating their own clothing to performance booking and video production. All members of the collective are providing quality content that matches the collective’s aesthetic as well as their own. When he is not working on improving Broad St, he is working on his own music. WIFI-FEELS is the title of his next project, and is rumored to feature music at a much calmer pace than Billy’s usual tempo.
Billy has worked with many different sounds in the industry - including hip hop. I learned he has a lot of music currently in the works with respectable hip hop artists, using artists such as A$AP Rocky and Travis Scott as his inspiration in this field. Billy’s hip hop sound can clearly be seen when he is working with Zach Taylor, a rapper in Broad St, and has also been noticed by other big names in the industry. By “other big names” I am speaking of artists such as Chancellor Warhol and Felly, the latter of which performed with Billy side by side at a recent show.
If you don’t already know, Billy’s music is raw emotion. Whether the job is to perform at a rager or produce a soundtrack for a movie about meditation, he can do it. His music can take different form for many different occasions, but it always has the ability to relate to its listeners. You can see the man behind these texts in our recap video below. You can also hear a bit of his music in the background, but you can find much more of it here. You can also find the Broad St. website here to find about more about the collective.
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07/30/2017
W♥M267: Sleeper
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Topics:
Song of the show: Sleeper’s ‘What Do I Do Now?’.
Sleeper is currently on tour:
05/08/2017 - O2 Forum Kentish Town, London*
12/08/2017 - O2 ABC Glasgow, Glasgow*
19/08/2017 - O2 Ritz Manchester, Manchester*
02/12/2017 - O2 Shepherd's Bush Empire, London
* Star Shaped Festival: Sleeper with The Bluetones, Space, Dodgy, My Life Story, and Salad
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W♥M Radio is available on iTunes, please subscribe!
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Archive of this show at archive.org. More information on podomatic.com. Recording of this podcast was made possible by Skype, MP3 Skype Recorder, and Audacity.
09/12/2016
W♥M260: Murder Shoes
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In Murder Shoes’ last ever interview, we briefly talked about:
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W♥M Radio is available on iTunes, please subscribe!
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Archive of this show at archive.org. More information on podomatic.com. Recording of this podcast was made possible by Skype, CallGraph, and Audacity.
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Murder Shoes at Fine Line Music Cafe, Minneapolis (11 September 2016) |
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