Tag: interview (Page 6 of 8)

Interview: Natasha Agrama

January 11, 2013 / aftertheshow

I recently talked to LA based singer Natasha Agrama about what makes a good jazz club, her upcoming debut record, and how the recent death of close friend and collaborator Austin Peralta has shifted her philosophy on life.

After The Show: What is it about jazz as a genre that appeals to you?

Natasha Agrama: I grew up in jazz. My stepdad is Stanley Clarke, legendary jazz bassist, one of the trailblazers of fusion in the early 1970s. With Chick Corea he was in a band called Return to Forever, and growing up, he was always shoving Ella Fitzgerald under my nose.

I went to art school. I studied painting and performance art and video production. I spent a lot of time not studying music, loving jazz the whole time — it’s the family business.

I loved singing — it was my favorite thing to do ever since I was a little kid. It’s what I need to do on this planet, and a lot of people need to hear…That’s the situation I find myself in, in this body, in this lifetime. It’s about jazz music for me, there’s nothing that I love more.

Also, I’m half Egyptian and half Chilean/Argentinian. I’m first generation American on both sides of my family. I felt totally ostracized…I’ve always felt displaced, both of my parents are transplants, my parents are not normal. I just never had a place, and in jazz, I have a place. I have a home, and I’ve been accepted. And the music accepts me. That’s my art form and it’s American — jazz music being the great American art form — and it’s built by people who never felt that they had a place. I feel a really deep connection to the music and the history of the music.

You’ve played at clubs like Blue Whale in LA and Blue Note in New York. What makes a venue good to perform in and do you have a favorite?

Actually it’s my dream to have my own venue. So I will be researching this question more and more in my life. And I’m just now starting to ask people and to formulate my own opinions. Stanley always makes fun of me because if you were to talk to him, he’d tell you that for the last 3 years of my life, I go to jazz clubs every single night of the week. That’s not true all the time, but it certainly is true a lot of the time.

Every time I go to New York…7 days a week. I’m at Smalls, I’m at Blue Note, Village Vanguard, the Jazz Standard.

And in Paris, I love all of the underground jazz clubs, like Le Caveau des Oubliettes which means ‘the cave of the forgotten ones.’ They have an old, functioning guillotine and carvings on the wall of people that were in there being tortured and suffering God knows when.

The first place I ever got on stage repeatedly was this place called Caveau De La Huchette. In World War II it was a bomb bunker! And then I love how Blue Whale is quiet and like an art gallery for jazz.

You have to have good sound and it should be affordable so that people can access it. People should come to the music. A good jazz club nurtures the music and makes it available to people. It should have beautiful drinks, and food probably, although I don’t think that food is necessary. Personally I can’t eat and listen to music at the same time, it’s like eating and crying — I just don’t want to do it at the same time.

Lighting is something I want to explore more, visuals with jazz music – no one’s going there. They’re so compartmentalized – it’s like Art. Jazz. Dance. Cooking. It’s all different worlds, and I’m kind of a jack-of-all-trades with a deep passion for singing, so I want to bring it all together…that’s my destiny. I have to, to be fulfilled in this life.

The last show that Austin Peralta played was with you (November 20th, 2012)…how are you processing his death?

It was my second show at Blue Whale, and it’s a show that will go down in history. People came up to me that night that I had never met, and I got messages from people like this German guy who had already gone back to Germany, who told me he couldn’t get this show out of his mind…it’s the best show he’s ever been to.

It was a magical show and it’s because I was so hyper aware that playing with Austin was my dream come true. I’m so glad I was present enough to get that and to not let it pass me by without really taking stock…it’s a huge gift.

Let’s talk about how you arrange. It seems like there’s almost an infinite amount of possibilities and directions you could take in making a song your own.

For me, arranging is really a team effort – it depends who I’m playing with, what their vibe is. My foundation is in performance art, where anything can happen. You have a concept and then you bring it to the world, and you put it out in the vacuum of the world, in the elements and it weathers your idea, breaks it down, smashes it or it picks it up in a whirlwind and takes it and it touches someone…you never know.

I like to let things come up organically…I heard the other day, Miles Davis never told anyone what to do — he just picked the right players. And this is in a live setting of course.

Normally I have a feeling of how I want it to go, and it either happens that way or it doesn’t. I never really tweak what people are doing. I’ll set the tempo with my body because I dance too. When you set up a song it’s a theatrical thing.

Like the last night at the Blue Whale, we did this song called “Goodbye Pork Pie Hat” and it changed my life…I’m a different person after singing that song and playing it with Austin. We play one of these songs that everybody has done, it’s a classic Duke Ellington song, in my favorite key F, and it’s “Solitude.”

So I said “Solitude,” and Austin said “can you give me the quarter.” And it came in and it was EXACTLY what I wanted, deeply what I wanted. I say darken it up a bit, and he adds this tension…and the perfect arrangement came out. I just sang the whole form through twice and it got so dark, so heavy, it went into a shuffle feel…it was grinding. And it found its way because truth was guiding it.

What’s the breakdown between covers and originals on your record [hopefully out this spring]?

I think I’m shooting for 4 originals and 8 other songs. Out of those 8 other songs there are some jazz standards. One’s “All Matter” by Bilal. There might be Little Dragon…There’s Mingus, there’s Ellington, Joe Henderson…so not even ‘standards standards’ but songs in the jazz family.

As you know I love your song “Stand Still” ~

I was challenged to write a song about beauty. And I did it over this little loop – D minor G minor, D minor G minor, D minor G minor, F major 7, A minor 7. And that repeats. It just came out…our beauty is that we will never be/this will never be right.

What’s your philosophy on life and how does it affect your music?

I’m learning a lot about life right now. Well, we never die. I’m pretty positive about that. Every go around we have, let’s see how much weight we can lift up this time around. You get thrown in this world and all these things make you forget your purpose. Society tries to turn you into a mindless zombie slave, and there’s evil everywhere…like shallow modes, staleness, and depraved humanity on every advertisement, and it’s just the lowest vibration.

My philosophy is: I’m here to heal and I’m here to elevate, and music is the way I’m doing that today, and it’s the way I can get my voice heard, and it’s something I love.

When I first started dedicating my life to music I didn’t realize that I’d have to become a different person. My body is my instrument…I have to take on this responsibility. Austin has made my sense of purpose blossom and I know the path that I’m supposed to go down now.

On Austin Peralta ~

I know the path – I’m very lucky in that he’s showed me. I want to play with the musicians he’s played with in the same venues and cities. I can’t believe it, but I got to play his last show on earth with my idol.

The way that he lived his life, enjoying everything. He loved things so much. Everything is so much more beautiful since he died. It’s crazy that death makes me want to live more. And my dad brought this up the other day…That’s where humanity is at, that we still need people who we love to die to get it, but one day we’re not going to need that.

His death is an enlightenment and it’s changed my philosophy on life and music– I got this tattoo that says ‘the love the music forever,’ because as long as you have the love and the music, which are synonymous, then life is full of purpose and music is full of purpose.

People make music that is not full of heart, it’s full of ego. Even people whose music I enjoy…their process is squelched of passion. I never want to make music for the wrong reason, and I have, because it’s scary to put your soul out there and be vulnerable, but I really want to get into it and die every time. Then rebirth every time. Remind people without having to die for them why we’re alive.

Now I’m really serious about life. I’m not this raging soul, consuming life fast and hard. I used to be kind of like that. But I’m a nurturer. I’m serious. I’ve wasted a lot of time not taking life seriously. It’s a really dark scary place without the love and the music, and without the understanding of infinity and forever.

It’s so exciting that we exist and we can enjoy music. That’s exciting. This is a privilege and a chance and I want to uplift — I really take that very seriously these days. I’m not going to let it fade it away — I’m not going to let Austin fade away.

Thank you Natasha!

**People in LA – you can catch Natasha performing this Sunday, January 13, at Room 5.

Interview: David Penn of Hit Songs Deconstructed

December 7, 2012 / aftertheshow

David Penn is the founder and editor-in-chief of Hit Songs Deconstructed, which gives in-depth analysis and commentary of hit songs and trends in pop music.

After The Show: How did you decide to start Hit Songs Deconstructed? 

David Penn: The idea came about while I was attending a music conference in Los Angeles. During one of the panels, the moderator asked “how many of you study the hits that are currently topping the charts?” No one, including myself, raised their hands. It then occurred to me that if I really wanted to get to the root of what makes hit songs successful, I should start analyzing them to their core to see what makes them tick.

As soon as I began “deconstructing” the songs, I started to see immediate results with my own songwriting. I was learning things that I never would have realized without doing the exercise. Equally as important, it was keeping me current with what was going on in the mainstream. It was then that I realized that this could be a really valuable tool for other songwriters and producers. Soon after, we officially launched Hit Songs Deconstructed.

How do you compile the research that goes into your reports? 

I developed a methodology for evaluating hit songs which allows us to track “like” elements and see how hit songwriting may be changing over time and across various genres. It’s all done manually, centered on LOTS of listening!

Are there noticeable cultural differences that change what kinds of songs are popular in different countries? On a micro-level within each song, are there commonalities between a hit song in Korea vs. Mexico vs. Australia, for example? 

Culture does play a role in what types of songs are most popular in different countries. For example, lots of the songs that top the charts in Brazil have a distinctive native Brazilian vibe and are performed by Brazilian artists. In Japan, the charts are currently dominated by native boy bands and girl groups like AKB48 and Kis-My-F12, all of which have a sound and vibe that’s distinctly J-Pop. In both these cases the native artists and songs don’t really translate into other cultures (markets).

That being said, many songs do cross over and top the charts outside of their native countries. This is especially the case with “phenomenons” such as “We Found Love,” “Gangnam Style” and “Somebody That I Used To Know,” for example.

On a micro level there are hit songwriting commonalities that traverse all cultures throughout the world. The songs might be sung in a different language, utilize different instrumentation and possess a unique vibe that’s indigenous to a specific country, but at their core they all utilize the same effective craft fundamentals that enables them to connect with the largest possible audience and resonate. This includes lyrical themes (i.e. love/relationships), simplicity, repetition, short intros, choruses hitting early within the song, amongst many others.

How do you account for the inexplicable element in something as creative and emotional as music? Does applying mathematical, rational criteria to a song’s components sometimes not fully explain why listeners connect viscerally to a song?

Both craft and the “inexplicable element” are equally important. The craft is the vehicle for delivering the “soul” of a song so that it connects and resonates on the deepest level possible. There needs to be a perfect balance between the two.

Has the importance of hit songs changed over the last few decades? Are they less valuable to artists now since major labels are putting less resources into an artist’s career longevity, just pursuing the latest hit? Rebecca Black’s “Friday” was a hit song, but that story ended so quickly. 

Rebecca Black’s “Friday” was a “hit” for all the wrong reasons, and her 15 minutes of fame came and went in a blink of an eye because there was no substance behind it. Remember, people love to see train wrecks and much as they love amazing talent. It’s all about the entertainment value.

I would say that hit songs are even MORE important now than ever before. Why? First and foremost it’s a singles driven business. The song can’t rely on an album to carry it – it needs to stand on its own.

Additionally, if you want any chance of getting a deal with a publisher or a label and securing longevity for yourself, you need to be writing songs that are undeniable hits – the best of the best – pure and simple. If you’re delivering, and they’re selling, publishers and labels would be more than happy to keep you in their ranks. That’s for sure.

It’s interesting that most hits today have some synth incorporated into other instrumentation. What’s your view on the staying power of EDM? 

All “fads” come and go. Disco, 80’s New Wave, Hair Metal and Grunge all had their day, but they never fully disappear. It will be the same with EDM. Electronic Dance Music is always going to be around in one manifestation or another, but it’s prominence in the mainstream will vary with the times.

What’s the role of individual, subjective musical taste in what makes a song a hit song? How important is timing and context (what other songs are on the charts at any given moment)? 

Musical taste is 100% subjective. The listener either connects with a song or they don’t – it’s that black and white. As for timing, it obviously helps. For example, if the Pop scene was completely being dominated by songs possessing an Electro Pop, Hip Hop/Rap influence, and that’s what was being pushed and marketed, then songs of that ilk will definitely have the best chance to succeed at that point in time.

Another good example is the grunge scene in the 90’s. Every label was scrambling to sign grunge bands. The ones that were the best (and most commercial) hit it big. But #1’s are a different kind on animal. They might be in-line with what’s going on within a particular scene, or they might go against the grain (i.e. Adele, Gotye, Fun, PSY). It usually comes down to the combination of the song plus external factors such as the video and dance associated with “Gangnam Style.” Or Fun’s “We Are Young” being featured on Glee and in a Super Bowl commercial.

Can it impede an artist’s natural creative process if labels, publishers, or managers tell artists and producers what kind of song to compose, based on your reports/what’s popular right now?

All songwriting and inspiration is “unique and creative” at its core. However, in the mainstream, producers, labels, songwriting teams, artists and others all have input into WHAT types of songs should be recorded and HOW they should be written. Remember – these songs need to be methodically structured to succeed with their intended audience on a mass level. That being said, the songwriters involved will always bring their “unique creative process” to the table each and every time they write. Sometimes there’s flexibility to push the envelope, and sometimes there’s not.

Where’s the line between trying to stay ahead of the curve and just writing in search of the next hit?

It all depends on what you want to do as an artist. Are you looking for mainstream success in Pop? If so, you should be paying attention to what’s going on within your core genre and thinking about ways that you can push the envelope to stand out from the pack and get noticed. You want stay ahead of the curve BECAUSE you’re in search of the next hit. They work hand in hand.

You’ve rolled out auxiliary products like the Song & Artist Development program. What do you envision for the future of Hit Songs Deconstructed?

We have a lot of new and exciting things planned that will really benefit both songwriters and the industry alike. We’ll keep you posted!

Check out Hit Songs Deconstructed

Like Hit Songs Deconstructed on Facebook

Interview: Drummer Nicole Childrey

September 24, 2012 / aftertheshow

Nicole “Nico” Childrey is a drummer (The Mynabirds) and writer (for publications like SPIN, CMJ, Rolling Stone, Billboard, USA Today, Modern Drummer, and Nylon).

After The Show: When and how did you know that you wanted to play drums professionally?

Nicole Childrey: I started drumming a little later than most, I think — around 18 or 19 — but I got drawn into playing music at 14. A friend had an old, out of tune acoustic guitar in her bedroom, and I picked it up and started poking around, eventually finding a melody. The thrill of creating music out of nothing — even just a weird bleating melody on a beat-up out-of-tune guitar — was all it took to keep me permanently stuck on it.

And I think you have to be that ridiculously, illogically glued to the pursuit of that feeling to keep doing it nowadays, when it’s certainly not getting any easier to keep doing it.

How do you balance drumming and writing? Is there enough down time on tour to write and run your website East Nashville, With Love?

For about five years, I kept a full-time writing job while I was touring, with a band called Cassino, then with Destry, then with The Mynabirds. I’m really appreciative that that’s even possible — I had a broadband aircard, and worked eight-hour days from the hotel, van, club, etc., and it made me able to pay my bills and still tour, even if we weren’t making much money.

My intent when I started East Nashville, With Love was to work from the road, too. I started the site while our singer, Laura, was touring as part of Bright Eyes, so we had a long stretch of downtime. But once we started touring heavily, things didn’t work out exactly as I planned, mostly just because of the cost of keeping an aircard. But I do freelance work from tour, usually just four or five assignments a tour, and I work late at night or on off days. I’m really thankful to be able to do it; having a second job that can be done from anywhere is pretty ideal, and it’s helping me be able to keep touring, which is all I’ve ever wanted to be doing.

Creating a website that focuses on a very specific locale seems like a reaction against the more peripatetic lifestyle of touring. Have your feelings about touring vs. staying in one place changed over the years?

I get really fidgety when I stay in one place for a while, which is probably part of why touring appeals to me as much as it does. I think most of what led me to creating East Nashville, With Love boils down to East Nashville itself — it’s a really unique community, with a really unique culture, and most folks who live here have a really unique sense of pride about it. People in Nashville kinda pick on how self-obsessed East Nashville is, which I’ll admit is true (and funny). But there’s this great focus on entrepreneurship, support of local mom-and-pop businesses, overall creativity and creative culture, and the community’s really diverse and devoted.

I never get bored in East Nashville, and when I get home from moving around so much, I’m really glad to have that. So starting a website about the neighborhood was largely just a response to that, and an opportunity to love on a place that’s really given me a lot.

You’ve played with The Mynabirds, Brendan Benson, Destry… Do you alter your setup when you tour with different musicians? How does your drum set-up differ for live shows versus recording in a studio?

I wouldn’t say I alter my set-up too much, but there’s definitely a different approach in general with different people. A lot of the early Destry stuff was Americana-based, so I was playing a lot of country-rooted stuff; Brendan has some incredible, explosive rock songs that come from a totally different angle. It’s really fun to get to play with different moods. And The Mynabirds I think has become really broad these days when it comes to mood — we play stuff that’s rhythmically rooted in soul, rock, hip-hop, dance music.

It makes things really challenging and interesting. I don’t change the set-up much between shows and studio, but the mental/emotional challenge of recording is definitely a different animal, for me. It’s the challenge of trying to be precise and controlled, but retaining the energy and looseness that comes through at shows.

What do you do to keep your playing fresh and continue to grow and challenge yourself as a drummer?

Playing for a lot of different people has been the most helpful and challenging for me — just learning songs, playing with rhythms that’ve come out of drummers who play completely different from me. It’s kind of … constantly being taken out of your comfort zone, and I think that resets you in a really good way.

Nashville’s also a great place to constantly get inspired by players. Some of my favorite current drummers live here, like Patrick Keeler, who has this incredibly inspiring fluidity, and Rollum Haas from the Features, who has this perfect balance of explosiveness, feel and precision. The person who gets me the most inspired about drumming, though, is Levon Helm — I think he’ll always be the most perfect image of a gut-forward drummer, and all I’ll ever really strive for as a drummer is to be as in the moment as he always seemed to be.

How do the music scenes in New York and Nashville compare? When you first moved to Nashville from New York, were you concerned about the preconception that Nashville is all/just country music?

I’d spent a fair bit of time in Nashville before I moved, so I was aware of how great the music scene is, and how broad it was. I feel like there are a million different experiences of the music scene in New York. Mine was a struggle, which probably had more to do with me than New York — but it was so hard to afford a practice space, to always have to rent vans to tour since I was largely living month-to-month, everything else that goes along with trying to do something that’s financially challenging in an expensive city.

Nashville’s much more affordable, and that makes playing music more doable. That there are so many incredible players here is a great bonus, too. In the nine years I’ve been in Nashville, the rock scene’s become a lot more fractured, I think, but also really fertile. There’s a lot to get excited about across a ton of different aesthetics. I was born in New York, and I’ll always love it, but Nashville’s really become home.

Are you discouraged or encouraged by how the business of music has changed? What’s your view of new models for artists to finance record releases (sites like Kickstarter and Pledgemusic)?

To be completely honest, I’m still just confused. I can’t figure out whether I’m more encouraged or more scared about where we’re at and where we might be going. I’m excited that there are other viable ways to finance the creation of music, but I don’t know how sustainable that is, and I don’t know if we’re moving toward a point where new ways of bringing money toward musicians are offsetting all the places where musicians aren’t making money anymore. Ultimately I just hope as a culture that we’ll all put energy toward supporting musicians we believe in by sending money their way, in whatever form that might take.

Check out Nicole Childrey’s twitter.

Interview with Hope For Agoldensummer

August 23, 2012 / aftertheshow

I spoke to Claire of Hope For Agoldensummer, a three-piece band led by sisters Claire and Page Campbell from Athens, Georgia.

After The Show: Starting mid-September, you’ll not only open for Patterson Hood but you’ll also sit in with his band during their sets. How are you preparing for that?

Claire Campbell: I actually just texted Patterson yesterday because we haven’t had any rehearsals since last time we played a show together, so as of now we haven’t started preparing yet. What happens is we have marathon rehearsals at Drive-By Truckers practice space. Sometime after dinner we’ll rehearse, rehearse, rehearse until we can rehearse no more.

With his sets, there is no set list – he just works off a giant list of songs we know, so we have a huge catalogue of songs that have to be ready at all times for whatever he decides he wants to play. The other thing about Patterson is that he doesn’t always call out songs, so sometimes he’ll just start a song and we’ll have to figure out which song it is in the first few bars. I’ll be playing banjo and realize I have to quickly change instruments!

When you’re playing shows in the south or in cities in the northeast, have you noticed differences in how audiences react to your music?

At first it seems like more of a novelty thing to people who aren’t from the south or from the southeast. But we win them over with our terrible jokes and stage banter. I feel like we get a pretty good reception across the board. Some places take longer to warm up.

What was your experience using Indiegogo to fund your fourth album, and why did you choose it over KickStarter?

We chose Indiegogo because we had a rather lofty financial goal of what we wanted to raise. If you don’t meet your goal with Kickstarter, you lose everything. In our case, the album was mostly in the can when we started fundraising. We were raising to cover the material cost of making the physical album and then to hire a publicist for the album – those things are the expensive things, and why we wanted to pre-sell it and do the fundraising campaign.

Even if we didn’t meet our goal we’d still get to keep the money we raised on IndieGoGo. The album was going to come out regardless of how much money we raised.

You play with some really interesting, unusual instruments like banjo, singing saw, and even a cheese grater. What’s your favorite and/or most unusual instrument you play?

My favorite is just the guitar; it’s the most fun. That’s what I write most of my songs on. I don’t tour with it, but I have a tiny old nylon string guitar from Vietnam and that’s what I mainly just sit at home & play – it’s effortless.

The weirdest thing I play is the singing saw. It’s a beautiful sound, in small amounts…it can definitely be overused. I can get tired of hearing it sometimes. We try to use it very sparingly, whenever we do use it. I don’t release a lot of raging singing saw solos in our folk songs. For Page, her current favorite weird thing is probably an Echoplex tape machine. We don’t tour with it and rarely use it.

I love the line “Mr. Bloom / I’ve made some room / in my mind / for thoughts of you.” Do you want to discuss the meaning and evolution of the song “Daniel Bloom”?

It’s kind of a long story. Daniel Bloom is a really good friend of mine who lives in Athens. When I first moved to Athens in ‘98, he was the first or second person I met. I was studying religion and he was studying philosophy so we had a lot to talk about. We had been talking about bugs…I said you can eat cockroaches – they would be protein & safe to eat, but it turns out after research that you can’t eat them because they carry terrible diseases. We made a bet that whoever was wrong had to write a song about the other person & perform it in public. The song slowly evolved to involve what I had written about him for that bet, but also parts of a love letter from someone else.

Hopefully that song will have a music video to go along with it – our plan is to do a motorcycling music video where I drive and Page stands on the foot peg mouthing the words to the song. We’d then have different members of a motorcycle gang chase us…we’ll see what happens.

What aspects of the business of music do you like and not like?

I don’t like hardly any aspects of it. I’ve been in it for so long that I’ve gotten really weary of it. I don’t really like booking shows anymore, and I don’t really like publicizing my shows. We hired a publicist for this album and tour, but I honestly feel like we could have probably pulled most of it off ourselves & gotten the same results, for the most part.

I got sort of disenchanted with the whole rat race and competition, and my ideas and priorities changed as far as how much time I wanted to devote to music & how much time I wanted to devote to all the other things in my life. At this point, I try to keep my nose out of the business of music as much as possible, and it’s probably to the detriment of our band.

Page is a graphic designer now & I’m a doula – we have other passions that have come to the surface. They haven’t overtaken music at all but are definitely of equal importance as music.

You’ve said that music isn’t how you make money; it’s how you spend money. That’s such a powerful, succinct statement about the current state of music and the struggle of the majority of bands.

Yes. For most people it’s an expensive hobby…I hate to say the word hobby, but is money the determining factor? Probably not. Our band breaks even, although we have massive amounts of credit card debt after the last tour. Except if you started actually figuring in the man and woman hours, we definitely would be in the red. None of us are pulling remotely a fair wage from being in this band, but we love it & we do get fulfillment from the other ways we make a living, so I think that’s okay.

I am happy where we are, for sure, right now. I’m not unsatisfied & I don’t look back at decisions we’ve made & have massive amounts of regret. I feel like we are successful whether or not we earn our living from music. I waver back and forth – on the business of music. I know it’s frustrating for everybody. This town [Athens] is great for being a musician because people are used to hiring people who go on tour, but most people here are not making a living wage.

You do great covers like “Time After Time” and even an Aaliyah song. Are there any covers people can expect on your upcoming tour?

Well actually I was just thinking of pitching some Elvis songs to Page. We do a lot of old R&B from Georgia like James Brown and Little Richard, but I was thinking like an Elvis song maybe…and Chuck Berry. Then there’s this really weird song about “why would you wanna break up.” Do you know that song?

No…

It has really strange timing – the rhythm is weird and the chorus is amazing – sorry I don’t know who it’s by. Patterson’s band is going to be our backup band so we’re trying to keep things simple, and we’ll probably be playing the exact same set every night because we’ll have to teach people our songs. I have pieces of songs but nothing new. We might do a new song of Page’s. But Page is insanely prolific, which is good when I have writer’s block.

*Thank you Hope For Agoldensummer — catch the band on tour — list of shows here

Interview with Farmer Dave

August 22, 2012 / aftertheshow

I caught up with musician Dave Scher, better known by his nickname Farmer Dave.

Farmer Dave has done studio and production work, been a touring musician with Jenny Lewis, Interpol, Elvis Costello, Johnathan Rice and Vetiver, and Jenny & Johnny even refer to him in their song “New Yorker Cartoon” as “my best friend Farmer Dave.”

After The Show: What’s one of your favorite lyrics that you’ve ever written?

Farmer Dave: “And you came on from so far away
Miss Carolina 3AM
I send a bottle with your name
Floating down along the Seine
You burn in me while I’m gone
But the day’s gonna come
I’m gonna be by your side
From the daylight till the dawn
And we could go on”

How do you stay connected to the musicians you’re playing with onstage and not feel isolated when you’re sitting down stationary and everyone else (except the drummer) is standing up and moving around?

I stand up more these days
But sitting doesn’t make a difference
The connection is still there

Do you prefer playing guitar on faster or slower songs? Does tempo deeply influence the way you feel as you play a song?

a variety of tempos is the ideal
I want to experience
All the colors of the tempo rainbow

Your bands Beachwood Sparks and All Night Radio were on Sub Pop. What do you see as the future role of record labels in an age where albums are rarely purchased anymore?

I would like the labels to have more interest in artistic development
Like Motown, Old Hollywood,
or David Geffen’s Asylum label

Nature and California/the ocean seem to be big themes in your music. How do nature and music connect for you?

They are one and the same
I hear the best things in nature and out in the world
For me the human recordings, performances, and compositions we all listen to will always play second fiddle

You played lap steel on one of my favorite albums – Are You Thinking What I’m Thinking by The Like. How did that come about?

My girlfriend at the time managed The Like…I really loved them like family, and am happy to’ve known them and spent time with them…We had the best adventure, me driving them in a van across the country opening for Kings of Leon … it was rad.

Whose idea was it to do the “Ask Farmer Dave” advice column on Jenny Lewis’ website?

Probably J Lew.

Your song “By Your Side” was in the movie Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World nine years after the song was released, and you did the music for a Tokyo Cyder commercial. What’s your view on music licensing?

Licensing I don’t have much philosophy on.
I love music in movies and have always loved commercial compositions as music just like other kinds.
We have some real classic jingles growing up in the Southland.

I saw you playing a few July 4th’s back at Battery Park. What did you do for July 4th in 2012?

I went up to Pt Dume in Malibu and had a fire with friends. You could see the fireworks for each city all the way along the bay to Palos Verdes.

Thanks, Farmer Dave

Interview with Elliot Jacobson

May 11, 2012 / aftertheshow

Elliot Jacobson is the drummer for Ingrid Michaelson and Jenny Owen Youngs. He was voted the #1 Up and Coming Drummer in Modern Drummer Magazine in 2010.

Elliot has drummed on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, Late Night with Conan O’Brien, Good Morning America, Late Night with Jimmy Fallon, and Live with Regis and Kelly amongst others.

After The Show: You’re currently on a US tour with Ingrid Michaelson. Any memorable shows or experiences on this run?

Elliot Jacobson: I think we all agree that Austin was hands down the best show so far. The audience was huge, loud and fun, but also respectful. It’s rare to have that balance. We played really well and connected with the audience in a very special way.

You’ve talked about Evans drumheads. How does your drum set-up differ for live shows versus recording in a studio? Do you alter your set at all when you tour with different musicians who play different styles of music?

You’re referring to a testimonial video I did for Evans about the heads that I use. My set up changes from tour to tour, artist to artist, session to session. I bring what’s necessary for the music. I’m using the biggest set up I’ve ever used on the current tour. I’m also running tracks with my laptop and Abelton Live for any parts on the new record that the six of us can’t cover.

I think on the surface, a basic drum beat is really simple, but there are so many styles and complex techniques too – there’s always more to learn. What do you do to keep your playing fresh and continue to grow and challenge yourself as a drummer?

There are endless ways to play a single beat, you’re exactly right. To do my job, I have to always play the right feel for the song, even if the beat itself is the same. I am always working on expanding my knowledge of the shuffle or swing that happens between hits. I also make sure I’m bringing the right touch to the drums for the song, artist and musical environment. My session work has made me very detail oriented. But I am always trying to play faster, like any drummer out there!

What inspired you to start your blog, The Healthy Musician? Is there a city or state that you’ve found the most challenging to stay healthy while traveling through?

I started the blog because I wish I had something like that to help me. I was on tour at the time, and had lost a bunch of weight prior to the tour. It’s a struggle to maintain any sort of balance on the road, let alone maintaining a healthy diet and workout routine. So I started posting information based on my own experiences. The smaller towns are always the most difficult because there are not as many options for gyms and food. But even in the bigger cities, the abundance of food makes it difficult to resist temptation.

When and how did you know that you wanted to make a career out of playing drums?

I had been drumming on the side for a long time before I made the leap and chose to make a career out of it. I was more of a music business guy, interning at labels, working at a music publishing company straight out of college. But when we started playing sold out shows with Ingrid, I saw an opportunity in performing for a living, and I made the leap. It was around the time “Breakable” was placed in an episode of Grey’s Anatomy. I wanted to take the risk and leave the full time job rather than pass up what would prove to be an opportunity of a lifetime. Not an easy decision at the time, but I’m happy with my choice.

Why do you think the number of female drummers is so small compared to the number of male drummers?

I think there are two reasons. Firstly, it’s because girls don’t have a lot of iconic female drummers to look up to in the way that men do. Sure, they’re out there. I could name about 30 right now without looking up any names. But to the common music lover, they know Travis Barker, Tommy Lee, Carter Beauford, and see a bunch of sweaty dudes in the background making ugly faces and beating the crap out of drums. Not very appealing to the majority of young aspiring female musicians when they see beautiful, powerful women commanding the stage. The other reason is that there is sexism in the drumming world. It’s generally a surprise to other drummers and musicians (male and female) when a female drummer can play well. And that’s a huge problem. I always encourage the female artists I work with to expand their knowledge of drums and to play them as well. I have taught a number of young females to play. Why can’t a female singer songwriter play guitar, sing and play drums very well too? I know a lot of guys who do it. We need more role models and more ladies seeking out those role models to move away from this stereotype.

The majority of touring musicians aren’t blogging about their travels, active on Twitter, posting behind the scenes videos on YouTube, and sharing their perspective and experiences being a musician. Where does your ambition/drive come from?

I just love what I do, I’m very busy and I love connecting with other musicians and fans by sharing my work and experiences. I find the social networking experience very rewarding.

Do you write your own music? What are your professional goals for the next several years?

I don’t write, but I’m starting to get back into producing again. I want to begin doing remixes this year and continue making good music with good people.

Check out Elliot’s site for his latest news, photos, and videos.