Posts in Americana
Marissa Nadler (2011)
Marissa Nadler (2011)

It's easy to see how Marissa Nadler's experience as a songwriter is informed by her extensive experience as  a visual artist.  She studied illustration at the Rhode Island School of Design, where she received both her undergraduate and graduate degree.  In fact, she started as a visual artist before becoming a songwriter. The intensity and honesty she exhibits as a visual artist manifest themselves in her songwriting, as you'll read, though poetry also influences how she writes.  Songwriting and illustration, she says, is about "trying to find the beauty or ugliness" in a subject, using the artist's ability to approach that subject from a unique point of view.  It's also about "compressing life into a couple of lines," as a good poet does. 

Read More
Americana, Folk Rock, Indie, Indie Folk, Sacred Bones RecordsBen Opiparimarissa nadler Comment
Joe Michelini, River City Extension
Joe Michelini, River City Extension

Joe Michelini of River City Extension isn't the first songwriter to tell me that he uses cooking as part of his songwriting process.  But he might be the first one to tell me that he uses it almost as a source of self-flagellation: when he gets writer's block, he eats and eats. Just gorges himself.  Then, when he feels sufficiently terrible about doing nothing but staying inside and eating all day, he ventures out. And when he does, he sees the world in an entirely new way. Everything looks fresh, like seeing the world for the first time.

Read More
Americana, Singer/SongwriterBen Opiparijoe michelini, river city extension, the unmistakeable manComment
Ryan Sollee, The Builders and the Butchers
Ryan Sollee, The Builders and the Butchers

The Builders and the Butchers' third full-length LP, Dead Reckoning, contains lots of talk of physical calamities and destruction by wind, water, and fire.  There's not much optimism in Ryan Sollee's storytelling as he explores the darker side of human nature.  He explores these themes while he's fishing around the beautiful city of Portland, where he lives.   The solitary act of fishing begs for solemn contemplation (at least it does for me, since I never catch anything).  Sollee doesn't do any writing here; it's where the well of inspiration fills as he sits quietly.  The writing comes later in a process that he calls "subconscious." It's also worth noting that Sollee used to be a biologist, and the creative process often had its genesis during his many walks in the woods.

Read More
Alt Country, Folk Rock, Indie Folk, AmericanaBen Opiparidead reckoning, ryan sollee, the builders and the butchersComment
Dave Hause
Dave Hause

It's not often that I get to exchange bedtime routines with a songwriter.  But that's what Dave Hause and I did at the end of our interview.  We had been talking for about 50 minutes and established that we had a great deal in common, so it's probably little surprise that it came to this point.  We both read a lot of magazines.  Too many, really, to keep up with.  So they just pile up next to our beds, waiting to be read. The second we finish one, two more arrive.

Hause's songwriting process and reading material reflect his high level of engagement with his environment. And this level of engagement makes for one thing: Hause is a smart and introspective man.  He doesn't just give me answers, he tells me why he does what he does.  And he's able to do this because he's constantly thinking about his place in the world.  He reads Rolling Stone for the political articles and GQ for the non-fiction.  He's constantly picking up auditory and visual cues for song ideas, and he has an endless supply of notebooks and Blackberry files to show for it.

Read More
Punk, Americana, Folk Rock, Singer/SongwriterBen Opiparidave hause, resolutions- build and burn, the loved onesComment
Nicole Atkins
Nicole Atkins

After high school, Nicole Atkins moved to North Carolina to study illustration in college.  This means, of course, that she has the mind not just of a songwriter but of a visual artist. This puts her at an advantage when it comes to songwriting.  As she explained to me, her creative process is a visual one.  For instance, she sees songs in colors: there's a lot of green songs on her new release Mondo Amore. And when she's in the middle of writing a song, she visualizes its landscape.  Actually, she doesn't just visualize it: she inhabits it, from gauging the temperature to feeling the ground. As you'll read in this interview, Atkins discussion of songwriting is at times interchangeable with her discussion of visual art.

Read More
Americana, Singer/Songwriter, Psych RockBen Opiparimondo amore, nicole adkins, nicole atkins, vulturesComment
Joy Williams and John Paul White, The Civil Wars
Joy Williams and John Paul White, The Civil Wars

One of the reasons why The Civil Wars work so well is the effortless collaboration between its two members, Joy Williams and John Paul White.  And it had better work well: they travel without a band, playing their music with just guitar and piano.  Plus two beautiful voices.

What I found most unique about their creative process is its genesis.  Most artists start with the music, and the words flow from that.  A few, but not many, start with the words.  The Civil Wars begin with both: when Williams and White get together (both are veteran songwriters and are not married to each other),  White "noodles" on the guitar as they talk about what's going on in each of their lives. It's that combination of noodling and conversation that leads to the ideas for their songs.  (Of course, I'd also argue that prolific output like this is due to their love of William Faulkner and Flannery OConnor, but that's another story.)

Read More
Singer/Songwriter, Americana, Grammy Winner, Folk Rock, FolkBen Opiparibarton hollow, john paul white, joy williams, sensibility music, the civil warsComment
Nathaniel Rateliff
Nathaniel Rateliff

Ah, the solitary life of the singer/songwriter.  Crafting songs in isolation, writing about deep introspective topics like love, loss, and life's meaning. We imagine them toiling away at their craft, going it alone until they get the song just right.

Nathaniel Rateliff does all these things.  And he certainly goes it alone; after all, he does a lot of his writing in the bathroom. To be precise, he does a lot of his best work "on the shitter." And while he might write songs that make people cry when performed live, he'll talk about fried chicken between those melancholy tunes. It's hard to capture the mood of my interview with Rateliff; we spent a good deal of the time laughing. But when the guy tells me that he needs "a clean house, lots of sex, and no dogs" for a productive writing session, or that sometimes he's too lazy to finish a song in the studio, it's easy to laugh.

Read More
Americana, Folk RockBen Opipariin memory of loss, nathaniel rateliff, paste, wheelComment