Interviews

Posts in Folk Rock

Cory Branan

Next time you pass through a food court at your local mall, look around for the guy in the video below. He's probably got his head down, scrawling on a piece of paper or maybe even a sketch pad. He likes the energy of the people there, as long as it doesn't distract him. Don't be surprised if it's Cory Branan; after all, the food court at the Oak Court Mall in Memphis is where he wrote his first two albums.

Rolling Stone named Branan one of the "10 New Artists You Need to Know in 2014" for his terrific new release The No Hit Wonder on Bloodshot Records. Branan's music has been described by critics as a mixture of country, punk, and rock n roll. But he's also a fantastic storyteller who takes great care to craft his lyrics. He's one of the few songwriters I've interviewed who starts with the lyrics rather than the music, and by his own admission his process involves "tons of overwriting coupled with merciless editing." What's important to Branan more than the content of the words is the cadence and the rhythm of the lyrics. It's something he's always thinking about: in fact, the voice memo on his phone is so filled with lines and lyrics that he can no longer use it to play music at parties. If he does, and it's on shuffle, you're liable to hear a voice memo of Cory reciting song ideas in between songs.

Bloodshot Records, Alt Country, Folk Rock, RockBen OpipariJanuary 26, 2015Comment

Amanda Shires

In the nearly 150 interviews I've done for this site, one thing stands out: songwriters are voracious readers, much more so that the general public. They read all the time. They read novels, they read short stories, they read non-fiction. But curiously, not nearly as many read poetry as I would expect. That surprises me, given the similarities between song lyrics and poetry.

Amanda Shires is the exception. She reads poetry with a passion. But she's taken it one step further: Shires is pursuing her MFA in poetry from Sewanee, and she's almost finished. It's no surprise that her coursework has had a tremendous impact on her songwriting, since she's learning about the craft of poetry But it hasn't been without its challenges. While it's easy for Shires to share her songs with an audience, sharing her poetry is a different experience.

Americana, Folk Rock, Country Folk, Alt CountryBen OpipariMay 14, 2014amanda shires, jason isbell, AmericanaComment

Matt Nathanson

You may not know that Matt Nathanson has a writing partner. The problem, though, is that Nathanson doesn't want this guy around. In fact, Nathanson told me, he'd love to "tape his mouth shut and stuff him in a trunk." And even worse: this guy is an assassin.

This assassin is in Nathanson's mind. It's the part of him that tells him not to write certain words or ideas. The assassin is there to kill Nathanson's words by telling him that what he's writing is "dumb." And Nathanson hates the assassin, because when he's around, creativity suffers. Nathanson does his best to keep the assassin at bay so that he can write from the most honest and unselfconscious perspective he knows.

Read my interview with Matt Nathanson about his songwriting process. We talk about the assassin, morning puking, and shitting songs. It's long, sure, but worth every word. Of the 160 interviews I've done, this ranks as one of my favorites because Nathanson is so introspective. He doesn't just tell me about his process, he reflects on it and talks about what it says about him as a person.

Folk Rock, Pop, RockBen OpipariJanuary 23, 2014matt nathanson, come on get higher, singer songwriterComment

Sara Watkins, Nickel Creek

Much of Sara Watkins' songwriting process involves not writing songs. Her routine is filled with creative exercises that don't produce lyrics but still make her a better songwriter. Some of these exercises are, in her words, "silly and pointless," like when she creates Christmas cards or arts and crafts projects. Sometimes she sketches. Other times, her song lyrics start as long journal entries, and it's not until the last line of the entry that she hits on a lyric or the focus of the song.

All these activities make her a better songwriter because they strengthen the creative side of her brain. This idea holds true for most of the songwriters I've interviewed for this site: the most prolific, by far, are those who engage in other creative outlets or who read voraciously. By contrast, the worldview of a one-dimensional artist is pretty limited. I was intrigued by one exercise Watkins gives herself that has nothing to do with songwriting: she takes a few items lying around the house (maybe a piece of paper, a bobby pin, and a rubber band) and creates something with it. The fewer items she uses, the better the product.

Nonesuch Records, Singer/Songwriter, Folk Rock, CountryBen OpipariJuly 25, 2013midnight sun, nickel creek, sara watkinsComment

Tim Kasher, Cursive

Tim Kasher of Cursive is a multidisciplinary writer: he writes songs, but he also writes screenplays and short stories. It's no surprise that the process of songwriting and the process of writing long form pieces influence each other. What does surprise me, though, is that the process of the former has made him more disciplined when it comes to the latter: Kasher has long been able to sit for long stretches and write songs, something that's more common to fiction writers. Then again, Kasher's songwriting process is somewhat unconventional: this a guy whose ideas come best in the morning after a good night's sleep. That's rare among the 120+ songwriters I've interviewed, most of whom say they work best in the late hours of the night. The phrase "in the morning after a good night's sleep" is not often associated with indie songwriters.

Alternative, Folk Rock, Indie Rock, Saddle Creek RecordsBen OpipariJune 14, 2012cursive, i am gemini, saddle creek, tim kasherComment

Chuck Ragan

Man would I love to take a look inside Chuck Ragan's piano bench. Songwriting for Ragan is an intensely personal act, a type of therapy. It's something he has to do, and he really doesn't care whether anyone sees or hears what he writes. The last thing he's thinking of is turning a piece of writing into a song. That's why, according to his estimate, probably three quarters of the stuff he's written you'll never see.

And this is where the piano bench comes into play. Ragan is always writing down ideas and thoughts everywhere he goes, usually on a notepad he stuffs in his back pocket. Then when he gets home, he opens up the bench and adds those scraps of paper to the growing pile already there. Some of those scraps have been there for over five years. And that's where a lot of his song ideas originate.

Folk Rock, Punk, Rock, SideOneDummy RecordsBen OpipariOctober 19, 2011chuck ragan, covering ground, nomad by fate, sideonedummy Comment

Laura Stevenson, Laura Stevenson and the Cans

After close to 100 interviews for this site, artists have given me a variety of answers as to why they write songs. Some just enjoy playing music, a pleasurable experience as an end in itself. For others, it was probably rooted in those Suzuki method piano lessons that their parents made them take. And, of course, for still others music is an emotional outlet, as it is for Laura Stevenson, of Laura Stevenson and the Cans. Music has helped Stevenson through some dark times, times so dark that she did nothing: her phone went unanswered, her bills went unpaid. But songwriting is a cathartic process for her; she expresses topics that she hasn't even told her therapist. I don't think writer's block will ever be an issue for Stevenson, since, in her words, she has "decades" of material from which to draw.

Folk Rock, Indie Rock, Don Giovanni Records, Singer/SongwriterBen OpipariJune 15, 2011laura stevenson, laura stevenson and the cans, sit resist Comment

Taylor Goldsmith, Dawes

In at least one high school English class this year, Taylor Goldsmith's writing has been taught alongside the classics. It's a tribute to Goldsmith's songwriting and storytelling that one English teacher discovered that the themes of Dawes' debut North Hills mirror the themes in F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby. After talking to Goldsmith, none of this really surprises me. He's ridiculously well-read, devouring the classics (I have a PhD in English, and I admit that I haven't touched some of the authors he's read). His method of songwriting is unorthodox, at least among the 90+ songwriters I've interviewed: he often starts the songwriting process with the title, he doesn't like to use nonsense syllables as placeholders when he starts crafting the lyrics, and he writes each song with a fixed topic in mind. All of this is what makes him a great storyteller and what draws comparisons to the Laurel Canyon scene.

Folk Rock, Singer/Songwriter, ATO Records, Indie FolkBen OpipariJune 2, 2011dawes, north hills, nothing is wrong, taylor goldsmith Comments

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.

Americana, Folk Rock, Indie, Indie Folk, Sacred Bones RecordsBen OpipariMay 11, 2011marissa nadler Comment

Heather Robb, The Spring Standards

It took only a few minutes of seeing The Spring Standards in concert before I knew that this was one creative trio. I caught them here in DC at the Red Palace when they played with Ha Ha Tonka. It wasn't just the fact that Heather Robb, James Smith, and James Cleare all played every instrument at some point. It wasn't the fantastic voices or the terrific songs. It was that, as I told Robb, their set was so theatrical. It was a stage show: the way they played, the way they bantered with each other, the way they bantered with the audience.

It was like a stage show, as it turns out, for good reason: Robb is an actor by training who still is involved in theatre in New York City. She attended Syracuse University, where she majored in theatre. (In a true small world coincidence, we were both there in the Department of Drama at the same time: I as a professor and she as a student, though we did not know each other.) Robb claims to be somewhat of an introvert, something not readily apparent in her charismatic stage presence.

Folk Rock, Indie, Indie FolkBen OpipariApril 29, 2011heather robb, spring standards, would things be different Comment

Thao Nguyen, Thao & the Get Down Stay Down

Earlier this week I posted my interview with Mirah, and today it's Thao's turn (of Thao and Mirah, as well as Thao and the Get Down Stay Down). Thao and Mirah begin touring in May to support their album that comes out April 26 on killrockstars. I've interviewed over 80 songwriters for this site, and few (probably enough to count on one hand) mention exercise as an aid and a regular part of their writing process. But both Thao and Mirah exercise regularly and use it as a way to boost creativity. Which makes me think that if they haven't already, the should run together if they decide to write and record again. Maybe train for a 10k together.

Folk Rock, Indie Folk, Indie, Indie RockBen OpipariApril 21, 2011thao and mirah, thao, thao nguyenComment

Jonathan Meiburg, Shearwater

It's a telling indication of the depth of Jonathan Meiburg's experience that if you Google his name and search for images, you'll see a lot of birds. As any professional writer will tell you, what makes for powerful writing is engagement with the world. Good writers engage with their environment and seek out novel ways to interact with it. Of course, mere interaction with the environment isn't necessarily an indicator that you'll write well about it; to do so, you have to engage and reflect on that engagement. Ernest Hemingway experienced a couple of wars and lots of bullfighting, but it's how he wrote about those experiences that made him great.

All this is to say that this is why Meiburg, the Shearwater singer and songwriter, writes such quality music. His experience is vast: he's been to the Falkland Islands, Tierra del Fuego, an Aboriginal settlement in Australia, the Chatham Islands of New Zealand, and Baffin Island in Canada. His masters degree is in geography, and his thesis (which I am reading now) is entitled The Biogeography of Striated Caracaras (Phalcoboenus australis). Not surprisingly, Meiburg is an avid birder. As you'll read below, he spends a considerable amount of time not only writing about the natural environment but thinking about his place in it with keen metacognition.

Read my interview with Jonathan Meiburg after the video. A special thanks to Jenn Wasner of Wye Oak, who introduced me to Jonathan and affectiontely told us two "nerds" to go at it.

Matador Records, Sub Pop Records, Indie Rock, Indie Folk, Folk RockBen OpipariApril 13, 2011jenn wasner, jonathan meiburg, okkervil river, shearwater, wye oakComment

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