City Winery

City Winery NYC

May 4, 2012

Interview for City Winery by Sofia Pasternack

You started out as a radio DJ in Tampa, FL at the age of seven, garnering the nickname “The Littlest DJ.” Tell us about that experience. What was it like being such a small fish?

It was an awesome learning experience to sort through the Top 40 records of the moment and pick ones to play on the air. It made me focus on what makes a record a hit…what makes it interesting to me but, more importantly for radio, what makes it interesting to a large audience. I didn’t feel much like a “small fish” at all, actually. I just knew I had a job to do! The fact that I was seven years old didn’t really factor into it for me. That was more for the public and the radio station to find entertaining or amusing. For me, I just had a blast playing records and talking on the air!

Over the course of your career you’ve collaborated with artists in many musical genres, namely Liza Minnelli, Moby, Lou Reed, and Pete Seeger. Do you have any good stories from your time with them?

The stories of working with great artists, of which you’ve named just a few, are far too numerous to recount here. Starting with Tiny Tim, I’ve been fortunate and honored to work with some of the greatest personalities of our pop culture. That was one of the driving factors in writing my first book “Frontman: Surviving the Rock Star Myth,” to gather some of these experiences in one place and share them with interested readers. Each of the artists you mention has left a lasting impression on my heart and mind, and those impressions inspire and influence what I do onstage and in the studio.

This is the 25th anniversary of the release of your first solo album, Cool Blue Halo.How have you changed and grown as a musician since?

Ha! Well, I can only hope I’ve grown at least slightly in the past 25 years! I’m not sure if I’ve ever actually stopped to analyze in what ways I’ve changed, because like everyone else I am a work in progress. Change happens every second. But, in general, musically, I suppose I can safely say I have learned more and more the value of listening while performing, in the way that an actor must truly listen to his acting partners on stage, so reactions (musical and theatrical) are real. This is something I teach in my Stage Presence class at NYU’s Clive Davis Institute of Recorded Music. I try to bring something musically new to the table at every performance, and a lot of it has to do with the musicians I choose to work with, and the chemistry between us.

And what would you say has stayed the same (performance style, writing style, etc.)?

No matter how lost into the music I get (and I do get lost in the music), I try to be aware of the audience, and how what I am doing is affecting and engaging them. I’m not up there just for myself. The essence of a performance is a shared experience. That aspect of going on stage has never changed for me.

You currently live here in the Village, correct? What is your favorite place to go in the neighborhood?

Silly question: City Winery, of course (although I believe technically it is in SoHo). I find myself there often, whether performing in yet another amazing event or benefit concert, or watching one of my favorite artists who play there. It’s a perfect venue.

Do you have a favorite wine?

At the moment, my favorite wine, obviously, is Richard Barone “Cool Blue Halo” 25th Anniversary wine. And, you know where to get it!

City Winery NYC

April 20, 2012

Interview for City Winery by Sofia Pasternack

In your perception, how is the British music industry different from the US music industry?

I have no idea, right now. I haven’t been to England for so long. I avoid it like the plague. In three years I want to retire in England where they have a sane healthcare system. Not a good one, but a sane one. So I have no idea what the industry standard was. When I started in 1975, I think it was the same kind of deal. If you were a new artist, and lucky enough, you would get a record deal with a major label, or one of the few indies, and they signed you for four albums and they stuck with you for four albums, unless you died. And I would think that America and England are probably exactly the same now, where most people start out putting a record out themselves. I don’t there’s much difference, everything’s online. There is a big vinyl cult in England; some of the big bands sell more vinyl than actual CDs. And vinyl’s big here too; if you print up 1000 you move them.

Have you seen the music industry change at all over the course of your career?

Well what it is now is completely different. You don’t get record deals that last long with majors. With major labels it’s more about an American Idol level of pop and very new trendy bands. Many people who are good and have the press behind them and are catching on just decide not to go that way anyway and do it all on their own internet platforms. That’s completely different from when I started. It’s better in some ways, but it’s worse in others because you used to have all that support and money. But unless you made it big, you could be back at the checkout counter pretty quickly. Whereas now you can perhaps have a sustainable career that’s small-time but you get your own niche. It wasn’t a niche back then, you had to kind of “make it” to a certain extent or you just didn’t. You could play the pubs or the bars for a certain number of years and then go back to a day job. A lot of things are better now with the internet. Back in the ‘70s and ‘80s, people could miss a gig in their town because they didn’t pick up the daily paper. That’s all they had to do to not see their favorite artist in their town. And now, you can have Google alerts and everything. It’s way different.

Has your songwriting style changed at all since you started? How about your performance style?

I basically have a number of styles that I use that I’ve used since the early days. It’s a variety of what I call “multi-influenced pop music.” It’s a variety of influences, much of it is soul-oriented with some much more complicated lyrics, because Dylan was a bit of an influence, and Van Morrison was an influence. But a lot of the driving force for me is soul music with reggae and stuff like that because when I was 15 or 16 that was the “underground” music in England, and it grabbed me very hard. Sometimes I say I write the same album every time. It’s not really true, but it’s one way of putting it. But I don’t suddenly go Brazilian on your ass. It’s a certain format of songs.

I sing much better now. When I started off I was unschooled and I screamed, and I’d lose my voice all the time. Now I’ve learned how to sing so that I can preserve myself better, and I’ve got more nuance and more color in my voice. A great singer once said to me that your voice gets better with age. I was about thirty-something at the time and I didn’t believe her. When you’re young you have the feeling that everyone that’s older is crap. But then I realized that the guys I used to love were 70-year-old black American blues musicians. They weren’t crap, they were better than ever. It’s craft: you learn it, and if you’ve got the soul in the first place you don’t have to worry about that, it’ll come through. But you learn the craft and add layers to everything. That’s what’s changed for me. There were sweet, soft numbers on my first album, but nobody noticed them because all they noticed was my attacking vocal that was punk before punk. People didn’t think of me as a melodic writer, and now people talk much more about the melodic structures.

You’re going to be in Judd Apatow’s upcoming sequel to Knocked Up, called This Is 40, correct? Tell us about that experience.

It’s not really a sequel, but it takes Paul Rudd and Leslie Mann’s characters and follows their story. Paul Rudd’s character, Pete, now has an independent record label and he signs me, the real me. So I’m acting as me. I spent a lot of last summer and fall going back and forth to Los Angeles doing acting. I reformed my original band to do a record, nothing to do with the movie, I’d already done it. And when I met Judd Apatow I told him I’d just reformed my original band The Rumour and we hadn’t played together for 31 years. And he called me back a week later and said, Ok we’re going to fly you and The Rumour to LA and do a 2-day shoot with you. Probably cost a million dollars for a 2-day shoot, and it’ll be a blink and you’ll miss it. They’re on stage for a second. That’s coming out in December, so we delayed the album until September or October so that we can ride with it. We want to get some mileage from it. It’s been a really busy and interesting time.

Was it hard to “act” as yourself?

Well you don’t act as yourself, that’s bullshit. I just did some kind of distillation of all the British comedians I’ve ever liked. And a lot of my dad got in there as well. He was a funny guy. I had a lot of stuff to draw on.

When you’re here in New York City what is your favorite thing to do or place to go?

I used to live in Manhattan, on 18th Street actually. I’ve also got a place in London, but I’m based in upstate New York. I have all this acreage around me, that’s what I like. I like nature and I don’t need the city anymore. Just to enter the city I like people to pay me. It’s that bad, I’ve had it with it. I’m 61, I don’t need this. If I lived here again by some circumstance, I’d get into it because I know it’s great and it’s fun. I usually am here for music or a business meeting, not for social enjoyment these days though.

If you could drink wine anywhere in the world, where would you go?

I’ve been to a few places and drank wine where I wanted to go: France and Italy. I don’t think I can beat those. I’ve drank wine in Greece and Spain, so I don’t think I can answer that question. I’ve done it. France and Italy is good enough.

What’s in store for 2012 besides the new album release?

It’s basically that. I’ve got a few gigs here and there, mainly solo. I’m going to Texas to do a few. And then me and The Rumour will have to do some kind of tour, just before the movie comes and around when the record comes out. A month or so, major cities. And that’s all I’ve got planned. Depending on whether we get a bump from this movie for the album, we’ll see what 2013 has in store.

City Winery NYC

Apr 15, 2012

Interview for City Winery by Sofia Pasternack

You’ve collaborated with some great musicians during your career, including Joan Jett. What was it like working with her?

Joan Jett is a golden human. I was a huge fan and was introduced to her by a friend who was

doing IG publicity (Lisa Markowitz at Epic). Joan was one of those famous people you meet who really lives up to your expectations.  She’s tough and sweet at the same time.

She came to a tiny little studio in Brooklyn, NY to sing and play guitar on one of my solo punk songs called “Hey Castrator.” It was late at night, she was just getting out of rehearsals for something she was doing on Broadway….I can’t remember what it was-Rocky Horror or something. Anyway, she rolled out of the car, came into the studio, and just lit the song on fire.

We jammed at an apartment in Union Square that Kate Schellenbach from Luscious Jackson lived in. At the time, I remember being struck by what a truly great rhythm guitar player Joan is-totally unique, totally powerful. It inspired me to look at rhythm a different way, to see it as something that could really be a centerpiece of a song-like a riff. Joan sat in with the IG’s at Madison Square Garden at a radio promo show we got to play. It was huge.

I mean, can you imagine singing Crimson and Clover with her? Crazy. I almost feel like I am making this up…..I’ll always give her props for her garage rock pop sensibilities and what

that did for Rock and Roll.

How is playing solo different for you than playing with your band, The Indigo Girls?

Everything is different. I play with a band-3 of the members from the iconic punk band

The Butchies and a keys player whose main gig is Ke$ha right now. It’s a full on rock show, with a couple of breaks to do country or Appalachian songs. My band’s influences are all over the place, so I feel like we just have fun being musical and playing with what rock is about.

We travel in my van with a trailer and share in all the tasks. So unlike the IG’s I am driving, loading, fixing, tuning, stringing, and accounting for the tour. It’s a nice change of pace for me, energizes me and makes me feel really in touch with the process.

We play small sweaty rock clubs most of the time. It’s about a tenth of the audience size that the  IG’s have, which makes it totally intimate and fun, but also a challenge to make it sustainable.

And how is your writing process different when you’re writing on your own?

Emily and I don’t write together as Indigo Girls. We have always written separately.

So my process is the same. I know as soon as I start a song whether it will be for a solo project or Indigo Girls. After 4 solo records, I can just feel which arena the song belongs in.

My IG songs have a real emphasis on the duo format-the harmonies, the guitar chord voicings,

the arrangement process-it all resonates in a different way for IG songs.

When I write a solo song, I can tell I want to color it differently.

You also run a non-profit record label, Daemon Records. What inspired you to start an independent label?

I started Daemon Records in 1989 after Emily and I got signed to Epic. I felt like I wanted

to keep a foot in the indie world because it was a world I loved and understood. I had a lot of friends in bands at the time who needed resources and an infrastructure to get their music out there. I had money for the first time and just wanted to give back to the community that spawned me. It was a no brainer for me. We started small and worked as a co-op and all the money went back into projects. We have released 60 records and have done a lot of activism around the community and the music scene.  At its height, the label had 4 of us working records.

The music environment has totally changed now, so the trick is to figure out what an indie label can do for an artist that the artist can’t do for itself. In all honesty, what a band really needs now is a good booking agent. If I had the time and funds, that’s the direction I would go.

What are your plans for 2012?

I’ll be touring with my solo band through the end of May and then jump on the road for a comprehensive Indigo Girls US tour in June and July as well as September and October. On the summer tour we’ll be touring with a full band (The Shadowboxers) and we’re also doing several concerts backed by symphonies (Chattanooga, TN, Seattle, WA, Birmingham, AL, Buffalo, NY,  Portland, OR).

City Winery NYC

Apr 13, 2012

Interview for City Winery by Sofia Pasternack

Tell us about your experience playing music in the Israeli army. What did you learn and how did it shape your future in music?

Serving in the Israeli army is a mandatory service, so we have to serve the country. Of course, I love to serve the country. You don’t serve the government but you serve the country, which is a big difference. In America it would be like paying taxes; it’s how you give back to the country. I was lucky to serve as a musician in the Israeli army, and it was my first time playing almost every night for an extremely honest audience (the most honest audience after kids), because when you play for soldiers you’ll waist their rest time if you’re not great. For me it was a great opportunity to experience more and more styles and to get more experience playing live.

Your music is a blend of Middle Eastern, African, and Eastern European traditions. Who and what are your musical influences and how would you define your sound?

Mostly Israeli music, but also folk music in general. I think that the most supreme form of music the folk songs, the songs that became the soundtrack of each nation. It will sound silly, but a song like “Happy Birthday” is still a song. It’s not a hit, a pop hit, but it became the soundtrack of our lives. So if we compare it to song, this is the most supreme form of music, it’s just the soundtrack of your life. It’s not like a good chef, or your taste, it’s just the food, the essence. It became the sugar and the salt, the basic ingredients of our lives. I think contemporary composers that are becoming the soundtrack of our time are doing it in the same way, because I do think 800 years from now kids will sing “Let It Be” in churches. Maybe they’ll forget who John Lennon was, or maybe they won’t know, but they will sing “Let It Be.” And I think that’s the beauty of folk music, and why I see folk music as my biggest inspiration and as the most supreme form of music. It becomes a part of you.

What was the origin of the Touré-Raichel Collective? How did you meet and how did the creative process start?

When I was in high school I asked one of the greatest bassists in Israel, Yossi Fine, how I could find my own truth in playing music, and in being a musician. And he told me to just play along with my piano and with CDs that I love, even if they don’t have piano, and to have my own voice. I used to play sometimes with African village recordings, just to play piano. It could even be an acapella of a priest from the Phillipines, I’d just accompany him. I used to play a lot just to find my own voice in every situation. That’s why I also after many years of being on the road with my band The Idan Raichel Project, we actually performed here at City Winery a few times), I suddenly felt that I wanted to experience different forms. And when Vieux Farka Touré played at the Israeli opera house in Tel Aviv it was a great opportunity for us just to go for a jam session. Lucky for us, we recorded it, which became our album The Tel Aviv Session because it was something very spiritual, very honest in the way that we play.

How would you describe the new album The Tel Aviv Session? Was it mostly improvised?

Yes it was improvised. But I wouldn’t title it more than “The Touré-Raichel Collective, The Tel Aviv Session.” Because that’s what it is. Maybe when we play another night it will sound totally different. So I don’t know if we created a sound, but it is what it is without a definition.

Do you have a favorite wine?

I don’t drink alcohol, so I hope you have good water backstage! But my friends love your wine! Last time we performed here we had a wine with our label, special for The Idan Raichel Project on that day. And people kept asking when I was performing again at City Winery so they could get that wine again.

If you could eat any meal, what would it be?

My mother’s home food, which is very basic and very good. It’s comforting. If folk music is the soundtrack of our lives, her food was the taste of my childhood.

City Winery NYC

Mar 29, 2012

Interview for City Winery by Sofia Pasternack

You were born in Hawaii and your music has appeared in the surf film Shelter. Do you surf yourself?

No, I don’t surf. Not much opportunity at home in Minnesota. I relate to the culture’s focus on simplicity and closeness with nature, though.

At a young age, your family moved to Pittsburgh and you began playing music. What was/is the music scene like in Pittsburgh?

I am not sure. I moved away at 19 before I ever got involved with a scene there. I came to Minneapolis following bands I loved like The Replacements, The Jayhawks and Prince. 

You dropped out of school to move to Minneapolis to pursue your music career. What drew you there?

The bands I just mentioned. And I felt instantly at home in the landscape. I find the seasons intense and beautiful. I’m never in traffic. And there’s great public radio up there. 

Your newest album is entitled Minnesota. Is this and ode, of sorts, to your home?

Sure. The theme is probably home but the most similar thing to Minnesota is how much variety there is on the record. The record feels like a collage to me, hence the cover art, and Minnesota has such contrasts as a place too. Freezing winters, hot summers, water and land, art world and back-woodsmandry.  

Many of your songs are about love. In fact, on your website your new albumMinnesota is described as “a collage of love trying to survive the transition into being a grown-up in a complex world”.  What appeals to you about the subject?

Not sure any song about any subject is any good if it’s not about love. Or a longing. All longing seems to be about love in the end. 

And how have your ideas about love changed and grown over the course of your songwriting career?

Oh, I’m just more open and hopefully more aware now. I love more deeply now. Being a parent there is much more at risk.

City Winery NYC

Mar 23, 2012

Interview for City Winery by Sofia Pasternack

Outside of your solo career you are the lead singer and guitarist for the Texas-based “alternative-country” band Old 97s. How is playing with them different from playing solo?

Playing with the band has the upside of volume. Lots of volume. And that can also be a down-side. So when I go do my solo stuff I really appreciate the freedom and the space. There’s a lot more room to work in, whereas with the band I always feel like I can’t deviate from what we’re supposed to do or everything gets thrown off track. Especially here at City Winery! I always end up telling stories; in the middle of a song I can tell a five-minute long story, and then finish the song, and nobody freaks out.

How is the Texas (Dallas/Austin) music scene different from that of New York?

I grew up longing for the big city, so New York was always my destination. But Texas is a lot less obviously supportive of the arts. There is a lot of rock and roll to be found, and a lot of art, but in Dallas specifically it’s more about commerce. I feel like New York is artistic to its core, even though a lot of people are here to make money and there are a lot of business people in the city.

You started a record label, Maximum Sunshine Records. What inspired you to move to your own label?

Because I can! I was tired of other companies being in charge of my records, and other people announcing that my record was dead or alive. I decided I should be the one who got to announce that. Total control. And so far, so good!

Where’s your favorite place to go while you’re in New York City?

I really like the Noho Star, as far as just getting an omelet for breakfast. Obviously, City Winery is one of my favorites. I love seeing shows here, it’s such a great listening room. I used to love The Fez back in the day, there was a place called Fez Under Time Café, but it’s sadly closed down.

This is City Winery after all…do you have a favorite wine?

There was a Rhett Miller Shiraz that was released at one of my gigs recently that I really liked. I try not to drink the Rhett Miller bottles, but I always get this combination of curiosity and necessity. But it’s a little weird, I feel like I’m drinking myself.

What are your plans for 2012?

In June my next solo record, The Dreamer, comes out. And then I’m just touring through the end of the year.

Mar 12, 2012

Interviews for City Winery by Sofia Pasternack

Steve Earle:

You’re not only a songwriter, you also write prose in the form of short stories and novels. Was it an easy transition or did you have to change your writing process dramatically?

Well, you do have to keep your butt in the seat for a lot longer. Most songs get written in a day or less, but there are exceptions. It requires more discipline, I think. A lot of people who’ve written prose all their lives can’t imagine how songwriters get as much into three minutes as they do in like 50 or 60 words. But I’ve always done that, so that’s the easy thing for me. I did an event at the New York Public Library with a couple of other guys that were songwriters that had turned to writing prose, and they both felt like, when they got to writing prose, it was like a dog turned loose on the beach. But I didn’t see it that way. I saw it as really hard work. I was so used to telling a story quickly, that I had to learn to hold back. And that was really hard, and not what I was used to doing. I had to learn a different kind of writing. But I’ve written a couple of plays, too, and that’s sort of an intermediate thing. It’s longer, but they’re both one-acts (a 90-minute one-act is 50 pages). And my full-length novel took me eight years to write, although it won’t take me that long to write the next one. But it’s not my day job; I had to go out and work, too!

Jackie Greene:

You came out of the northern California music scene. How do you think it is different from the NYC music scene?

I was born in Salinas, but I grew up in Sacramento. The scene there is a lot smaller, for one thing. New York is so packed, so densely populated and you have all kinds of music. And to be quite honest, when I was growing up there wasn’t much of a music scene in Sacramento. There’s a little more now, but you really had to go somewhere else. It’s growing a little more now; the city itself is growing, and when the population grows in a city the music scene grows along with it.

Taj Mahal:

Last week you were with us playing Robert Johnson, now you’re here playing the Rolling Stones. Is your approach to the Stones any different?

I know the music, and it’s interesting that all of this stuff is coming around now. Because I was there even before it started! I was there probably 25 years before they started up, and then it had its arch, and now here we are and there are people coming and asking what I think of this stuff. And it’s all still with me. All the music I’ve ever heard in my life is still with me. And I don’t understand the disconnect from one generation to the next. But I just get up and do it, I’m always ready to go. I’ve never toured under 125 days in a year since 1967. No years off. I haven’t stopped playing live music.

Juliette Lewis:

As well as being a musician, you are an Emmy-winning, and Academy Award & Golden Globe-nominated actress. Are you a triple threat? How are your dancing skills? (or, which do you prefer?)

How is my dancing? It should be more “how’s my cavorting!” because when I’m on stage I’m firing on all cylinders. All pistons are burning. In my live shows I physicalize the drums and the rhythm, so I wouldn’t call it dancing but I would definitely call it a manifesting of drum beats. “Manifesting.” I’m a Manifester. But am I a triple threat? I’m a few threats, let’s put it that way.

What other threats are you?

Just a writer, really. I don’t want to be a filmmaker, though, oddly enough. I do not want to direct movies, it’s too hard. I do want to write movies, but I’m also going to write my next record and I cannot wait because each record is a new place in time. It’s whatever you’re digging at that moment. But I don’t think I have any more threats.

And I have to say, and I don’t mean for this to sound trite and bullshit, but I was fucking absolutely floored and honored that they included me with this level of musicianship. Lenny Kaye is a hero of mine, Rickie Lee Jones, Marianne Faithfull, and then of course Peaches! We were on the same tour cycles several years ago when she was first coming out, so I’m just over the moon to sit back and enjoy the night.

Peaches:

How did you pick the stage name Peaches?

It’s from a Nina Simone song called “Four Women.” At the end of the song she says that the last name of the woman is Peaches, and she sings it so passionately that I wanted her to be singing it to me. And I knew she wasn’t going to change it to Merrill, so I changed my name.

John Darnielle of The Mountain Goats:

You started The Mountain Goats in Claremont, CA then moved to Durham, NC.

With a lot of stops in between! We went to Chicago, I lived in Iowa for about 10 years.

What brought you to each of those cities?

My wife to Iowa and then to Chicago, and then Durham because we liked it there.

Is Durham an up-and-coming music city?

Durham is just a great town. You don’t want to get me started; I’m the world’s number one fan of the city! I mean it’s got a lot of good music in it, and there’s so much to recommend that people can’t believe when they come visit. Its whole downtown died a decade or so ago and it’s been very slowly coming back. Right now it’s basically all privately owned businesses, my friends own half of them, it’s just amazing. It’s a little tiny jewel. It’s the best.

SOUL SALVATION TOUR

City Winery NYC

Mar 9, 2012 

Interviews for City Winery by Sofia Pasternack

Paul Thorn:

You were a professional boxer before you became a professional musician. What spurred the change?

I didn’t really change to music because music’s what I’ve always done. My dad’s a Pentecostal minister so I grew up singing in church, so that’s really what I’m good at. I was fairly good at boxing, but I wasn’t good enough to be a world champion. And I had my last fight in 1989. In a sport like that if you’re not the absolute best there isn’t really a point of staying in it because you can really get hurt. I got out with most of my faculties.

Music was where your heart was?

Yeah. Everybody’s good at something, and I believe is great at something. I don’t know if I’m good or great at this, but I’m one or the other. The fans will have to make that call!

You’ve toured with some pretty big-name acts, like Sting, Mark Knopfler, Bonnie Raitt, Toby Keith, and Jeff Beck. Do you have a favorite tour or artist you’ve performed with?

I’ve played a lot of these larger venues in town like the Beacon Theater and the Roseland Ballroom, not as a headliner but with those other, more established artists. You give the illusion of success. But that’s a hard question. There are so many classy people I’ve gotten to meet and work with, and I hate to say one is better than the other. I wouldn’t say the ones I didn’t like, there’s definitely a few I didn’t like. But I’ll tell you the ones I like: I really enjoyed touring with Sting, Mark Knopfler, Jeff Beck, those people you mentioned. They’re all super nice and really nice to me, even though they didn’t have to be. I’ve had a blessed run so far.

So you’ve played in New York a lot?

A have in the last few years. It’s very exciting because little by little there are more and more people that come to the shows. In this town it’s hard to get anybody to go anywhere unless you’re a household name. We’re playing here at City Winery tonight and it’s very close to being a sold out show. In a town like New York where there’s so much going on I feel like that’s a good accomplishment.

What inspired this tour with Ruthie Foster?

For one thing, Ruthie and I are managed by the same management company. And also stylistically and background-wise we fit really well because she grew up singing in church, too. So even though she’s not really a gospel singer, there’s so much gospel influence in her music that she and I are very compatible. Our music has the same spirit, it’s like two boxes of cereal sitting in the cabinet that both taste good. Of the people that come to our shows, a lot of her fans have never heard of me, and my fans have never heard of her. But, we’re walking away with each other’s fans. It’s fan-swapping.

Ruthie Foster:

You come from a family steeped in the gospel tradition. How has that influenced your music and how have you separated yourself from other gospel singers to create your own sound?

You have your own tastes even when you have a background in a particular genre. So my interests were not just gospel, but they went into folk music and blues. I grew up in the 70s when music on the radio was mostly just country or Top 40 fm radio, and they played everything. And I think that has a lot to do with what I do right now: I kind of play a little bit of everything and mix it up in my set. But I’ll never lose the gospel feel for how I project a song.

On that record, as well as your originals, you do an incredibly diverse array of covers, from Pete Seeger to Adele to Los Lobos to the Black Keys, and more. What drew you to these songs?

John Chelew, my producer, had a lot to do with bringing those songs to me. I’d been sitting on my version of “Ring of Fire” for a while because, again, my background is a little of everything: I’ve sung big band to folk music. We really wanted to put a project together that pulled a little from the past but still connects to contemporary music, which would explain Adele. And I had no idea about “Everlasting Light” by the Black Keys. When he had me listen to that stuff I thought it was great, so I had him send me more! He really opened me up to a lot of that.

What was it like to work on your most recent album, Let It Burn at the great Piety Studios in New Orleans?

I was going to say, John’s still there. He never left New Orleans! It says a lot about how much he loves the place. Piety is a historic place; they still have Stevie Wonder’s Songs in the Key of Life on the wall, it was mastered there. It was pretty cool being down in the Bywater district. It’s always cool being anywhere in New Orleans that’s historic, and there isn’t a square inch of New Orleans that isn’t historic. You feel the history of the place, and there are so many folks there that have a diverse, rich background in funk and the New Orleans step they do. You feel it when you walk into that place. And it was great because I took my family with me. During the day we would record and at night I’d have some time to decompress from the studio and just walk around and sample some of the food and music. We found a place that had great fried chicken and I got to introduce my baby to a lot of cool stuff.

And you worked with George Porter, Jr. and William Bell?

Yeah, William came down from Atlanta and our project kind of started with George Porter. We wanted to see if he was even interested because he was pretty much the base where we started from and kind of branched out. He brought in Russell Batiste, Jr. on drums and whenever we wanted to get someone else we could drop his name on the phone call and they’d say yes. So it was pretty great that he said yes; that was a really good day when I saw him say yes on the email about this project.

City Winery NYC

Mar 2, 2012

Interview for City Winery by Sofia Pasternack

You have been a producer and an engineer as well as a performer. Do you prefer one to the other?

No, it would be boring if you only did one thing. It keeps it more interesting, and keeps you working with other players. You always meet new people when you’re doing the productions, and an opportunity to play with a band is always fun. When I go out with Ringo, that’s even more fun because I have no responsibility! But, the performing usually entails travelling as well, and I can only handle so much of that before I have to rest up for a while.

As a producer and engineer, what was your favorite band to work with?

I had a lot of favorite artists that I’ve worked with. I always had a lot of fun with Cheap Trick, and Grand Funk Railroad was fun.

As an artist and performer, do you have a favorite producer you’ve worked with?

I’ve never worked with another producer; I’ve always produced my own records. I think if I can produce other people’s records I should be able to figure out my own.

What’s your favorite thing to do when you’re in New York City?

My friends and I like to eat a lot around town, and our favorite late-night hang is a place called Decibel, it’s a sake bar over on 9th St. We go and pretend we’re in Japan.

Any big plans for 2012?

My year is chock-a-block with stuff! When I finish here I have about 2 weeks off before I go out on the road again, touring from St. Louis through the Southwest and ending up in Southern California. Then I get a couple months off to start a record, and then do another brief tour before I start with Ringo, notably 2 nights with the Rockford Symphony Orchestra. Then I go out with Ringo, including rehearsal, for about 7 weeks. And I have a little summer camp up in Big Indian in the last week of July. Then I get a little more time off to continue working on my record, and I may go back to Europe in September. And in October I go out with ETHEL string quartet and tour the US with them. And who knows, maybe something will happen at the end of the year, too.

City Winery NYC

Feb 25, 2012

Interview for City Winery by Sofia Pasternack

Your music career took off when you were really young, 14 years old. Was age ever a problem for you? Were you at all overwhelmed?

Well, at the time I just desperately wanted to get out of school and the regular, mundane teenage life. But now, in retrospect, I think I was on the younger side to deal with some of emotional issues: the criticism and other pressures. But, everyone’s life has different challenges, so that’s where I dealt with a lot of stuff.

Were you ever turned away or not able to do something because you were too young?

Sometimes when I’d play in a pub I’d have to go in and out the back door, I wouldn’t be able to hang out in the dressing room at all. And there were some gigs with bands like Pavement in the 90s when I was so excited about the gig but I wasn’t aloud to watch them after we played. It’s kind of silly.

You got your start with the band Noise Addict. How did your ­­­­­experience with them affect and/or help shape your solo career?

I’ve never really separated the two. Making music, and just being a human being, it’s a daily learning experience. There’s definitely been a continuum, where each project and each experience has led to an appreciation or internal ripening that’s led me to the next thing. I’ve never felt like anything was wasted.

You grew up in Australia but you now live in LA. Do you consider yourself an Australian artist or an American artist?

I’ve always been more interested in boundlessness. I’ve never been a nationalist person, I’m more interested in experience, and connection, and emotion. So that’s not really a big question for me. People are obsessed with where you live and where you’re from. But, I could easily move somewhere else!

What’s your favorite song to play live?

It changes a lot, but the song we sound checked with today, “No Right Angles,” I always enjoy. There’s a song off the new record called “Lean Into It” that I also really enjoy.

Do you have a song that you always connect with, even if the crowd isn’t into it?

Yeah, all of them. I always cynically assume no one’s going to be into it, and I always try and connect with it on my own. There are a few, like “Catch My Disease,” that I do every night because it’s expected by the audience. So for those it’s sometimes a little harder to connect with emotionally because the rebellious side of me says, “Ugh, I don’t want to do something just because it’s expected. “

You put out a new album this past October, Deeper into Dream. It was a concept album of sorts, right? What inspired that idea?

For almost the last ten years, my central interest in my records and my music is consciousness, and different ways of interacting with it, and creativity and connection. And dreams come from the same place, where the psychological, spiritual, creative surges of inspiration come from. So for me it was just another way or examining what it is that’s making the motor run in this whole thing. I did a few years of dream analysis, and that really opened me up to looking at dreams as a portal into the unconscious. I always right what I’m interested in. I used them as a jumping off point to explore what we don’t know about ourselves.

Any big plans for 2012?

At the moment, I’m working on a musical of the book B is for Beer by Tom Robbins. And my new album’s almost finished, it’s called Ayahuasca: Welcome to the Work, which will hopefully be out sometime around September.

Answer the following questions and then send your COMPLETED CONTEST SUBMISSION to interncw@gmail.com

Good luck!

1) Wyclef’s impressive resume includes “politician.” Tell us why.

2) What does “Sak Pase” mean and what language is it?

3) Name all the member of the Fugees.

4) Give us your favorite Fugees or Wyclef (solo) song.

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Feb 10, 2012

Interview by Sofia Pasternack

SP: When you were 18 you decided not to go to college, but to move from your hometown of Chicago to New York to pursue your musical career. What inspired the change?

LK: I met a guy who loved my singing and we formed a duo. I was 17, I was in high school and he had finished college, he was 5 years older than me. So he wanted to move to New York. And the other thing that happened was there was a huge article in the New York Times about a folk revival in Greenwich Village, this was 1977, and that’s really what propelled us to New York. The place was Folk City, which is no longer there. So I was 18 when we moved, and my parents were freaked out I wasn’t going to college, but they let me go.

SP: But it felt like the right thing to do at the time?

LK: I guess at the time it was the right thing to do. I’ve made a lot of mistakes in my life, but somehow I ended up OK and it all kind of worked out. 

SP: What made you then decide to pursue a Ph.D. in psychology?

LK: That’s a long story, but I’ll try and make it short. So, I came to New York to be a singer and it was actually going really well. And when I was 21 I got a really, really good write-up in the New York Times. I could have really pursued it but I was too neurotic and too conflicted and decided I didn’t want to do music, and at 22 I quit and decided to go and become a therapist. I went back to college at NYU and ended up deciding to become a clinical psychologist because I thought therapy was interesting. I did that for a few years, got my doctorate, and then started therapy with a really, really good therapist and realized that I was running away from what I really wanted, which was to be a singer. And that’s when I came back. That was 1993 or so.

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