Tag: interview (Page 3 of 7)

Interview: Rathborne

September 26, 2014 / aftertheshow

Read on for our interview with Luke Rathborne about his most recent album Soft, his upcoming cassette imprint, and being a minimalist.

Photo by Aaron Stern

After The Show: Can you describe the recording process you used to achieve the crisp yet slightly fuzzy guitar sound on “Wanna Be You”?

Well, I use a fender deluxe amplifier. I recently heard Johnny Marr talking about the amp. It breaks up in a beautiful way. Not too fuzzy, just a little bit of what you’re talking about. If it’s good enough for Johnny Marr.. A certified genius..

So you run your True Believer label, with distribution through French Kiss. As an indie label, how important or necessary is that distribution for you?

Right now the future of True Believer is changing. Were taking on a heavier load of records, and putting out artists we love in the next few years from all varieties of genres. I’m also starting a cassette imprint called, ‘ARE YOU PUNK!’ which is releasing different artists doing punk material whom you wouldn’t expect to be doing that kind of material. Basically it’s saying we are all, and we are all not, in fact punk. That’s cool to be doing new things, and the distribution will probably change.

A lot of people get stuck on a certain sound or way of doing things. How did you get the courage to move forward from your quieter solo songs to the louder, faster Rathborne sound?

Well I met this kid who played the drums in a way that gave me a heart attack. It was something I wanted to do, become out of control. I’m really glad things exploded, it was hard at first, for sure. But you should make a sound in this world, whatever is inside you, and put it out there. At that time it was just coming out loud.

“Pantomine Fear” was on After Dark, and you recorded it again in a real studio for the Dog Years EP. What do you like or dislike about each version of the song?

I don’t like the Dog Years EP version of ‘Pantomime Fear’. Think I got that right when I was 16. That being said, I like the horns arrangement I wrote for that. That was fun!

I like the things on After Dark because they inevitably teach me about myself before anyone believed in anything. I was just 16 and operating on what little self belief I could muster, and that’s special to think about in terms of courage.

How disappointed were you when Kenny’s Castaways closed?

It’s funny, I never went inside Kenny’s. I do remember a story from years ago. A friend had gotten in touch with the booker at Kenny’s Castaways and went through the routine booking questions. He promised to get, ‘over a 100 people through the door.’

Cut to the scene of them showing up to an empty bar on the night of the gig, the Kenny’s guy is refusing to let them in, ‘where are all the people!?’ Them: ‘I guess they didn’t show!’ And back and forth. The stand off ended with them looking inside the dead bar and saying, ‘so what? You’d rather just have nothing playing?’ Eventually they convinced the guy to let them play to a few people standing at the bar.

How’d you get into running the venue Live at the Pyramids in Williamsburg? What did you learn from that experience?

I learned never to do that again. What a nightmare! We got out of that business right before everyone went to jail.

In retrospect, which of the following was best for getting the most exposure and reaching a new, receptive audience?

a. Recording a Buzzsession for The Wild Honey Pie
b. Being Vogue’s artist of the week last year
c. Opening for The Strokes at SXSW 2011
d. Being a guest on Boy Crazy Radio

I think everything should add up to something fun you’re proud of. Press is always a great way to communicate, but nothing beats playing in front of living, breathing bodies. That is truly where there is magic.

Do you consider yourself a minimalist?
I have a certain resentment for possessions. When I was living at Live at the Pyramids, I became surrounded by things. I didn’t like that feeling. I think I respond best to removing those elements from my life.

When you’re with someone you love and they start using your phone or watching TV, it’s fine, but sometimes I feel like I’m losing time with them. Too many things crowding around can do that too.

Thanks Luke! Check out Rathborne on Facebook + Bandcamp

Interview: Des Ark

July 18, 2014 / aftertheshow

I spoke to Aimée Argote of Des Ark yesterday about her new record Everything Dies, knowing when a song is done, and touring as a vegan.

People in Los Angeles, catch Des Ark play next week (7/24) at Origami Vinyl in Echo Park.

After The Show: Your lyrics seem carefully constructed, like the alliteration in “My Saddle Is Waitin.” How much of a drawn out/thoughtful process is songwriting for you vs. just capturing the words as they freely flow out?

Des Ark: I didn’t actually know there was any alliteration in that song – I never really thought about it, so not very much [laughs]. The songs I try to write, I always end up throwing them away…unlike the ones where I wake up in the middle of the night, or I’m at a dinner party & I tell people “I got a call, my cat’s sick” but really I run home and write it and it’s done. Maybe it takes me a couple of weeks to write it but I don’t remember. Songs that like that one I just remember being there and waiting to come.

You’ve lived and recorded music in a bunch of places like Durham, Philadelphia, and Austin…Do you mentally differentiate your songs based on geography?

Yeah definitely. I grew up in Durham — it’s where the band started/the first 5 years of the band, so the first record we put out reminds me of Durham so much…I always loved Philadelphia so I moved there and stopped writing music because I didn’t understand city life. I enjoyed living there but realized that the things I write about in my music have to do about kind of how I was raised, which was in the woods, or in a really small town, and about the dynamic that exists between communities when those communities are really small.

And something I experienced a lot in Philadelphia is when someone messes up they just disappear and find a different community to be a part of. In the south that’s impossible because people really keep up with each other. After two years of being gone it was interesting to come back home. The environment inspired me to express things that I saw and understood. I did understand Philly in a lifestyle kind of way, but I didn’t identify with it personally.

With the new record Everything Dies, you created a quieter sound to be more conducive to touring outside the constraints of a full band. But doesn’t approaching the creative process with future logistics in mind hold you back or change the actual music you’re creating?

As an accidental habit the quiet songs that I record in the studio are, across the board, impossible to pull off live. I actually don’t think about that at all…I think what I meant is the challenge of figuring out how to do that is really fun. The songs all start as tiny little acoustic things on a guitar, then I go to the studio and build on that with 20 vocal layers or 18 guitars and that’s what’s interesting…to go on tour and say ‘how are we going to pull this off’?

Then it’s really fun again because that’s your challenge, that’s your project. With this band what I’ve realized over the years is I’ll always be on the tour…Recording is a very different thing than touring – on a stage it’s a physical thing. I need to feel like my body is really engaged rather than my intellect.

You’ve got a booking agent but you’re DIY and do pretty much everything else. How do you balance the artistic act of creating with the process of promoting the product of that creation?

I don’t – [laughs] I don’t promote it! It was funny when we got the booking agent, he said “you’d be really surprised -for as long as you’ve been [touring] how not many people know who you are.” The one thing I’ve always done is be on tour. I sort of refuse to do anything aside from that…like I don’t need to actively use my gender to get a magazine cover. I’m just not interested in doing that for myself…and it hasn’t really made sense to do that with the band. I’m not that person – it’s not in my nature to do that.

I hate playing local shows, I just don’t want to know anybody. I always want it to feel like it’s an accident when anyone shows up because when I think about that stuff I get really nervous and start picking the songs apart, and if I know that anyone else is paying attention I stop doing it.

You said that while recording you struggle with second guessing things – how do you finally figure out when a song is done or when to change some lyrics or add a guitar part?

I drive people nuts with that so I think that’s why I ended up playing so many of the instruments myself…The songs just let you know when they’re done. Until they’re done you’re miserable and it’s awful and you feel like a terrible person and then something clicks and it’s a relief that it’s all over, it’s all done.

Is there a connection for you between being a musician and living a vegan, simple, minimalist, health-oriented life?

Huh…yeah I think to some degree. I’m mostly raw vegan – the connection is that I want to play music forever and want to figure out how to be on tour without it killing me. I think it’s totally possible and I’m on the verge of figuring it out. We go to co-ops every single day on tour in Des Ark. We wake up, we go to the co-op, that’s just how we operate.

For the new record are you staying consistent with not playing any guitars in standard tuning?

Let me think….yes!

Thanks for sharing Aimée! Catch Des Ark on tour in July, August, and September (dates below):

7/23 PHOENIX AZ @ YUCCA TAPROOM

7/24 LOS ANGELES CA @ ORIGAMI VINYL *6PM*

7/27 SANTA ROSA CA @ THE FRONTIER ROOM

7/28 SANTA BARBARA CA @ BIKO INFOSHOP

7/29 SAN DIEGO CA @ SODA BAR

7/31 TUCSON AZ @ HOTEL CONGRESS *7 PM*

8/01 ALBUQUERQUE NM @ THE TANNEX

8/02 AMARILLO TX @ THE 806

8/03 AUSTIN TX @ UNICORNICOPIA

9/19 CHAPEL HILL NC @ LOCAL 506

9/20 ATLANTA GA @ MAMMAL GALLERY

9/21 JACKSONVILLE FL @ 1904 MUSIC HALL

9/22 TALLAHASSEE FL @ CLUB DOWNUNDER

9/23 ORLANDO FL @ BACKBOOTH

9/24 TAMPA FL @ EPIC PROBLEM

9/25 SAVANNAH GA @ GRAVEFACE RECORDS

9/26 COLUMBIA SC @ TBA

9/27 ASHEVILLE NC @ ODDITORIUM

Interview: Palomar

May 28, 2014 / aftertheshow

Rachel Warren of Palomar gives some thoughtful, revealing answers to our questions ahead of Palomar’s show on Friday May 30th.

Palomar will play (in the band’s original lineup) at The Bell House in Brooklyn.

After The Show: How has your approach to the songwriting process changed over the years? The music is slower, but what about lyrically?

Rachel/Palomar: I think when we first started out we just wanted to play a lot of the songs super fast–even ones that really would be better slower–because we thought it was way more exciting for us and the audience. I wrote a lot of ballady type things even back then, but when you play a ballad at 180 on the metronome, then you have….an early Palomar song. So the biggest change musically probably happened when we got Dale as a drummer, because he’s much more laid back than Matt Houser is.

Lyrically, I definitely swear way less now than I did…but the basic content is the same–introspective, egocentric–typical indie rock words about love, failed and successful. I did write a few songs for the last album about the fear of having kids and how that would change our lives. Boy was I right!

Sonically, “Infinite Variation” seems like the quintessential Palomar song. Care to share what the song is about/what inspired it?

I took the title from the Bach Goldberg variations actually–the concept that much can be done with little–so it’s really cool that you call this out as quintessential Palomar. When we started playing, many years ago, I wrote lots of songs that had the same couple of chords but in tons of different voicings–because I’d just started playing guitar, so I didn’t realize that they were the same notes. As far as the lyrics–that song was written when I first met my now-husband, Charles Bissell, from the Wrens. He was dating someone else and it’s written to the person he was dating at the time…long story short…Charles and I got married and the rest is history.

Have there been any unexpected benefits of being a mom and a musician? And how do you balance your time between your career, running a household/family, and music?

Unexpected benefits…hm…the kids are not big enough to be roadies yet so that’s not one… I think everyone who has kids struggles with the lack-of-time thing. It’s also true that when you have kids you become way less egocentric. If you’re a band that writes songs that’re largely introspective as we are, it’s hard to make the shift from what you do all day–work at your job where you’re thinking about trying to make a profit for someone else, then going home and being with the kids and thinking about their needs, to then writing lyrics that’re about the 1% of yourself that’s left to think about what your own interests/hopes/thoughts about the world are. So while there are many, many benefits to having kids, I think it’d be hard to find anyone who said that having kids benefitted their music. Though some people might lie.

Overall your songwriting seems abstract, in the sense that most songs are not entire narratives. You don’t supply the listener with the entire context, which makes it interesting trying to figure out what the songs are about. How did you come up with lines like “Boy is it hard being smarter than everyone” and “You must feel pretty safe with all your records around you”?

Hm, that’s a hard question. I think I used to think I knew what people around me were thinking, and what their motivations were and that made it easier to pronounce, articulate, and pass judgment lyrically. Another interesting phenomenon of getting older and having kids is that you lose some of the certainty you had when you knew way less about the world. Decisiveness is for the young, and possibly older drunk people. I also think that something that good lyric-writers (and I’m not talking about myself here, but in general) is make understated metaphors that are unique and true. Songwriters have the chance to let others see a little bit of their world, which is the cool thing about music in general.

How do you decide which songs (like “I’ll Come Running” and “You’re Keeping Us Up”) will feature male/female vocal interplay?

Well, when Matt Houser was our drummer, he had an awesome voice that really blended with mine so we did that way more. When we took on Dale (Matt didn’t want to tour. It gets pretty rough out there on the road with three women!) he was less of a singer and had a different style of drumming. The male/female vocal thing is something that we sort of tried to keep up, but that got harder when we had a drummer that didn’t sing at all. At that point Christina, who has an awesome voice, started singing a bit more which was also good. And there are many great things about Dale–he is a real rock drummer who can support the bigger and rock-er songs we started doing. But as he says, he has a Sears and Roebuck singing voice.

In retrospect, why do you think Palomar hasn’t reached a bigger audience? Perhaps timing or genre trends? I think your music is too thoughtful/smart for mainstream indie (an oxymoron, but I think you know what I mean)?

Well, that may be so, though it’s pretty flattering. We also all seem to have jobs that came first, so it was always sort of a hobby for us…we have been friends for so long–Christina and Brockett and I, that at this point picking up our guitars is just another variation of what we do together…so we’re more friends who decided to play together and did this thing for a long time, than a professional rock band who tried to ‘make it’ or whatever. I think we all always thought we’d just do it as long as it was fun. I also think we could have been more sucessful if we’d played up the fact that we were girls (we could have called ourselves the Palomarettes, maybe.)

Palomar III: Revenge of Palomar was originally titled Lift / Drag — What happened behind the scenes in the band when Kindercore Records folded?

We loved the Kindercore people–they were super nice and smart. We were surprised that the label folded, but ultimately it turned out fine. We got a free record out of it, and putting out an indie record to a small group of fans is not that hard to do, really. I wish I had a more exciting story to tell, with people crying and screaming and contracts being ripped up and set on fire, but it was kind of not a big deal.

Applying “Work Is A State Function” to your life today, how do you get inspired when you have a career in scientific publishing, a field removed from music? Do you feel like “half your life’s the same,” or are you actually satisfied the way it turned out?

Well, I think science publishing is sort of similar to music. They say there are all sorts of connections between math/science and music…but that’s neither here nor there…. I recently had a conversation with another parent as we watched our youngsters play together and I mentioned the band, and he was asking if we ever ‘made it’ because that’s a normal question for a non-band person to ask. I think I’m perfectly happy with what Palomar has done. In a way I think it’s much cooler to be a band that just a couple of people know about, but I’m not sure why… I think because then I feel like the people who like the band are in a secret club together–and clearly that club is smarter and cooler than the rest of the world. Haha.

Thank you Rachel! For updates from the band, head over to the official Palomar Facebook page.

Interview: Daryl Berg

February 7, 2014 / aftertheshow

Daryl Berg is a music executive and founder of Sound Canyon, which specializes in supervision and licensing, music publishing management, and creative development. He shares insights into his current supervision work, having a law degree, and the sync placements on HBO’s Girls.

After The Show: What made you want to start Sound Canyon?

Daryl Berg: It was just time for me to do my own thing…As much as I love music supervision, it’s also fun to do things outside of that…there’s entrepreneurial strategy. We work in supervision because we want to love what we do everyday. I took what I did running music [for the TV production studio] and cornered it to an independent model. Smaller companies are going to need services and can’t always bring in an in-house person.

What type of personality or skills would make someone excel at what you do?

The first thing is to be patient. At the end of the day, budget wise, music is somewhere near craft services: ‘People have to eat, and we’ll figure out the music later.’ That’s not to say you won’t work on exceptional projects like Glee where music is up front, but you understand that if you go over budget, music is one of the first things that will get cut.

So you have to be patient but also persistent and know your role. You have to be really honest – one thing you don’t want to do is over-promise. Be able to find small gems and get things done, and you have to give them a time frame and manage expectations.

What did you take away from serving as Director of Business Development for EMI Music and as VP of Strategic Planning for The Orchard – did the major company vs indie make much difference?

Having an expense account is nice [laughs]. It’s just a different mindset. Even though I’ve been at big companies, I’ve been at entrepreneurial positions at those companies. You’re hired for a certain skillset and then you think outside the box and grow your job description. At a major company, travel isn’t an issue — you no longer have to share a room on the road. But there are people in those jobs who are very settled because there’s a comfort to having all that.

How much has your law degree helped you…was it valuable in terms of the work you do today?

I think the law degree lends a spirit of gravitas to your authority. [The JD] helps me read licenses and paperwork, but it really helped me to think. When you’re a law student and lawyer, you deconstruct things – look at how to address the issues and break it down. You have to look at the big picture then break everything down in supervision, and the same with strategy for businesses. For better or worse, it’s a way of thinking.

Would you recommend that young people interested in following in your steps go to law school in today’s world?

Music lawyers – there’s not as much work for them these days. The deals aren’t there; the big money’s not there. There’s simply less work. My advice may be take a few years and work for someone you respect, get some world experience first. Law school is a very intense experience. Only go to law school if you really, really want to be a lawyer.

What would you say is the most frustrating thing about your job?

Budgets. Everybody wants more money to license more songs, to hire a better composer, but at the end of the day we get to work in music for a living. So if the worst part of my day is that I can only afford X band instead of David Bowie…I’m living a really good life. And when you’re an entrepreneur, you don’t have that comfort level [of a consistent salary].

What areas do you see in the music industry where there’s some unmet need or problem that still needs to be solved?

There’s a ton of issues. How to break a record in this marketplace is really hard…how to get something into the public consciousness. How to monetize internet success when people aren’t buying anything. People tend to focus on the problems instead of offering solutions.

You wrote about the efficacy of “Dancing On My Own” on Girls – I liked that sync, as well as “Same Mistakes” by The Echo Friendly in the end credits. Given shows where music is important and the soundtrack is popular, I was interested to hear about your goal to create profit from your music budget, treating music as an investment rather than a budget limitation or a necessary evil.

“Dancing On My Own” was a perfect use and perfect moment. A composer isn’t going to compose something as evocative. It’s about looking at your money and asking where you want to invest it. Do we want to invest it in hiring a composer (and then making money on the back-end) or in licensing a song to make that big moment? Does the song advance the storyline?

You (precisely and succinctly) said “The disintermediation of music has led to some mediocrity.” There’s so much music coming at us and pitched from all directions — will we reach a critical mass?

I think we already have. If you’re making something that’s not great and putting something out for the sake of putting something out…you have to think about that. If you’re an artist, [ask yourself] is this the best thing I’ve put out? We also have to think about how we release music. Will you get the most attention by putting out one song on a blog each month, or then releasing an album as a whole body of work? There’s so much hype on everything because it’s easy to hype things.

Thanks Daryl! Be sure to read his (very frequently updated) Sound Canyon Blog and Twitter @darylberg.

Teeth & Tongue: Interview + GRIDS

February 4, 2014 / aftertheshow

Melbourne-based musician Jess Cornelius generously answered some questions about what’s next for Teeth & Tongue (the upcoming album, GRIDS, will be released in early April 2014, and new single “Newborn” comes out later this month):

After The Show: I really like the complex rhythms and lo-fi guitars on older songs like “Vaseline on the Lens” and “Unfamiliar Skirts.” How does GRIDS sound compared to your past work?

Jess Cornelius: Thanks! There are definitely some similarities, but with this album I was experimenting a lot more with layered vocals and harmonies, and using the voice a lot more for rhythm and texture. We’ve also used synths a bit more, and retained the not-so-subtle ‘fake’ drum machine sounds rather than opting for ‘live’ sounds. I also found myself choosing this really harsh, digitally-processed fuzz guitar sound for a couple of the tracks, which I hadn’t felt comfortable with before, but it’s used sparingly!

What is “Good Man” about?

It’s kind of about making poor decisions! And the difficulty of trusting your own instincts when there are so many distractive influences. I didn’t set out to write the album this way, but it seems like a lot of the songs on it follow this theme of being happy with what you’ve got, knowing when to accept things, or when to change things, and when you’re just asking way too much. I guess it’s about finding satisfaction, and not always searching for something better.

How does that song fit into the rest of GRIDS, sonically?

Sonically it’s not quite as integrated in the album as a whole. There are certainly other tracks on the record that use a similar percussive vocal layering, but there are a lot more guitars on the rest of it I think. “Good Man” was one of the most simple songs in terms of arrangement, and I wrote it for a solo US tour because I was quite restricted in what I could perform on my own. Sometimes restrictions really are the best.

That’s cool that you also work as a copywriter & editor, but (ideally) someone of your musical caliber should have the freedom to focus on music full-time. How do you balance the two? Are you more encouraged or discouraged by the music industry today?

I just think the world is different. It used to bother me that some of the great (and relatively successful) musicians around me weren’t able to make a living from music, but I’ve increasingly found it sort of liberating. I really enjoy the work I do and I only do it part time so I’m lucky.

It means that when I make decisions about music—whether it’s creative decisions about the music itself, or management or touring decisions —I don’t have to make choices based on what might be popular or commercially viable. It becomes more about doing what you love rather than turning it all into a business enterprise. Of course, it still is a business in a way, and there’s still lots of boring decisions to make, but I’m not writing songs that I think will end up on a soft drink ad just so I can pay the rent. I’ve also found it really valuable to have interests and occupations other than music to act as a bit of a counter balance. Putting yourself out there all the time, in a fairly fickle industry, can be hard on the psyche.

Travelling to the US (and then touring from state to state) is a big investment…do you have plans to play in LA or NYC in 2014?

It is a big investment and the first time I did it solo because of that. It was quite hard the second time (for CMJ) with the whole band, but it was fun, and we got some financial help from the arts funding bodies here too. I would love to come back and play in New York, LA, San Francisco and even Austin again, but we’ll have to wait and see! It’s always a good time.

Keep an eye on TeethandTongue.com + (fyi) “Family Home” will be the last song on GRIDS.

Interview: Mally Harpaz

November 16, 2013 / aftertheshow

Yesterday in Hollywood I had a nice chat with Mally Harpaz, the London-based multi-instrumentalist who plays with Anna Calvi. The band has a few upcoming shows in the US (LA + SF) before heading back to Europe.

Photo Credit: Rolf Neugebauer

After The Show: Now that you’re playing as a 4-piece rather than a 3-piece band, how has the dynamic changed?

Mally Harpaz: Adding keyboards makes the sound a lot bigger and fuller, so that feels really great and fits the new record better. It gives more room for dynamics, for the sound to grow really big and to get really small.

Are you not using the bass pedals on your harmonium anymore?

No, we’ve got a new guy, the keyboard player, to play the bass lines.

You play a lot more shows in Europe than the US…

It’s a harder tour to come to the US because everything is so far. France is really, really amazing for us as a market and it’s really nice to play. It’s harder here technically, geographically…But we always really love coming here.

You play drums, percussion, guitar, bass, piano…but what instruments that you haven’t played in this band yet could you imagine serving the music well, in terms of sound or texture?

We just started on this record using the hammered dulcimer, which is a really cinematic sound, and I think we’ll probably use more of that in the future. Tuned percussion sounds really fit the music. We might use more stuff like organs in the future.

What appeals to you about the songs on One Breath?

They’re really expressive and honest about emotions. I like the soundscape a lot. And the dynamics…It really carries you to different moods. There’s a good balance with really good songwriting and lyrics but also the music carries it, which for me is really important.

The live version of “Love Won’t Be Leaving” builds quite nicely – how much room for improvisation do you generally build into the songs?

That song particularly has a lot of room for it – the whole middle section is improvised. There are elements that come back when we play, but it’s quite free which is what’s great about the song…for all of us, it’s a lot of fun, that moment.

Can you talk about your creative process of recording instruments in the studio?

The first record and the second record were quite different in the way we approached recording them. We had like three years to record the first record, and then a lot shorter span of time [for One Breath], so it was quite different in terms of how we worked on arrangements and recordings.

A lot of the parts I actually used the piano to work out the part, but then I’d transfer it to the instrument that we chose. Some of the tuned percussion instruments, I found it easier to work out those parts on the piano and then transfer them. Some decisions were spur of the moment in the studio, some of the stuff we worked on beforehand before going to the studio. Which was really nice about this record, there were a lot of last minute studio spontaneous decisions.

I think details like hitting a drum with a timpani mallet versus a drumstick, for example, can make a big difference in the overall sound. You’ve been playing with Anna for many years…who makes those little instrumental decisions & how much collaboration is there in the band?

Anna does the writing of the music, but we do work on some arrangements together, and ideas. We get in the studio and try different things and we all suggest ideas and make decisions.

Anna Calvi’s Band: Alex, Anna, Mally, & Glenn

The shaker you play in “Blackout” is so important because it really drives the song forward – do you ever play to a metronome at all?

Live, we never use click tracks. Some songs work better recorded to click track, but we try to keep it organic. It’s whatever fits the song best, but I think we quite prefer it without click tracks.

You were the drummer of Lunatic Crash — how did that band come together?

I started it with a really good friend of mine who’s a great musician, Eran, in London and we had different lineups over the years.

Was that band the first time that you and Anna collaborated?

Yeah, she was in that band for a short while. We used to play a lot together…we had different projects, we used to always jam a lot, she’s an amazing musician and I feel like we really connect.

What attributes make someone a good backup or session musician?

I think being a really good listener and being intuitive of what fits the music best, and being free and passionate about it. I always tend to be part of bands rather than play sessions, per se. Play music you can connect to rather than do it as a job…be creative and imaginative about whatever project you do.

How do you continue to grow and challenge yourself as a musician?

I just play all the time, when we’re not on tour usually that’s how I spend my time at home. I try to listen to more music and learn more music. I try always to push myself in different ways in terms of playing, in terms of musicality as well.

Looking ahead, like in 5 or 10 years, do you see yourself still living this touring lifestyle?

Definitely. Music is what I love…it’s my biggest passion, so I can’t really see myself doing anything else. It’s my lifestyle.

Thanks Mally! Anna Calvi plays tomorrow (Saturday November 16) at Royce Hall with Chelsea Wolfe — ticket info here.