Songwriters in Seattle

Author: Char Seawell

  • SiS Featured Artist: Laura Berman

    “Do one thing each day that scares you” – Eleanor Roosevelt

    For Pacific Northwest songwriter Laura Berman, this quote embodies her approach to her music and her life. While she acknowledges that there are scary things that should be avoided, many of our scary things are self-created. “Your instincts are smart and generally on-point, so listen. But sending an email about booking, or writing a bridge, or reaching out to a friend who is hurting? When you drop into it, those are not the things that are doing the ‘scaring’ – there is something underneath. Once you get okay with that scary underneath part, you live your life in a deeper sense of freedom.”

    Her own journey into that freedom arose from the structure of piano and violin lessons in elementary school and orchestra, choir, music summer camps, county and state choirs, and voice lessons throughout junior and senior high school. Berman recalled, “Music always made me feel good. From an early age, I knew it must be a part of my life. Whether it was joining choir in junior high school, joining bands, or writing songs and playing out, I just put one foot in front of the other and did the next right thing that felt good to me.”

    Berman began to approach songwriting with greater intent after a move to the “Big Apple”. She remembered, “I had written songs here and there but didn’t start songwriting more seriously until I lived in NYC in my twenties; I was doing quite a bit of singing in cover bands and being introduced to lots of different songwriting styles, musically and lyrically.”

    Inspired by the exposure to a wide variety of styles, Berman began to follow her own muse. “One day, I sat down at my keyboard and started writing, and it just became part of who I was. I bought a cheapie acoustic guitar later on and started writing just by ear on guitar, too. I played lots of gigs in NYC and at the beginning was still very green, but I just threw myself in. It was scary, but exciting!” She faced her fears and found, “The best approach for me has been to think less, and do more.”

    Berman again followed the advice of Eleanor Roosevelt and dove into her creative “scary things” as she continued her career. Berman shared, “I’d been afraid to perform on acoustic guitar because I’m a pianist. But I started bringing my guitar with me to gigs and sharing a song or two. What was the worst thing that could happen? Why would I care what anyone thinks? Sure, I played wrong notes and, sure, I didn’t have the facility on guitar yet, and yes, it was scary to be that vulnerable, but I was compelled to not let my monkey-mind negative thinking prevent me from growing.”

    Opportunities to perform and grow abounded during her time living in New York City. “There were fewer Indie singer/songwriters and artists than there are out there today, so there was definitely less competition for those slots at the clubs. Gigs were pretty easy to book. Back then, there wasn’t social networking, Facebook, etc., so promotion was basically making phone calls and handing out postcards – old school! But it was always a thrill to see your name and gig listed in the Village Voice.”

    As she has continued on her songwriting journey, Berman’s process is as diverse as her life experiences. “I generally have a melodic hook singing itself over and over in my mind, and then I pick up the guitar, or sit at the keyboard, and find the best chords to fit with that melodic hook. Sometimes I’ll adjust the melody if there’s a better chord choice… I can sing the whole song with a hum, or a ‘la la’. It’s fun to sing! No one would have an idea what I’m talking about because it’s just gibberish instead of lyrics. The lyrical ideas take a while because lyrics don’t always come so easily to me that way.”

    However, her lyrical approach does have times when inspiration strikes and the process becomes more fluid. “Sometimes, if I have an interesting song title that pops into my head, I’ll go ahead and create a Word doc with that title and lyrics come out pretty easily. Something about being at the computer, in an ‘office’ type setting uses a different part of my brain. The writer in me loves that approach. I go ahead and print it out and it signifies to me a new songwriting start. I’ll edit the lyrics when I’m finding chords and melodies, but it feels so good to have a printout as a starting point.”

    For songwriters who are starting out, Berman offers up her advice for how to become a better writer. “Listen to really well written songs! And songs that are in different genres of music, even genres you don’t gravitate towards. Listen to the Top 20 Countdowns in Pop, Folk, Country, R&B. Read stories of how good songwriters came to become really good songwriters. And be open to having those who are better than you listen to your songs and critique them. Surround yourself with those at your level or higher – that’s how we grow!”

    Not just one to give advice, Berman shared how she made use of experts to help improve her writing. “The representatives at BMI were always really open to meeting with me when I’d travel to Nashville. I got some really great feedback on some of my songs when I was there and was grateful for the time they took to sit down with me. Also, whenever I find an artist I like, I listen to their music online (and buy it, important!).”

    But improving as a writer is only part of the equation. Berman additionally seeks to widen her community of musical inspirations. When she encounters a new favorite artist, “I always like to read their bio, and if they have a blog, I read that too. I also like to see who they write and perform with and how they all influence and inspire each other. All of this has helped me to not feel so alone – we are all in it together.” She adds her own advice hoping to inspire other writers, “Don’t stay too attached to your songs, or what others think: write it, listen to it, let it make you smile – then let it go. You’ve got more in you to write!”

    In reflecting on her own journey stepping through her fears, Berman offers additional advice for aspiring singer-songwriters. “Do that one thing you’ve waited on, one thing you’ve been delaying, something as seemingly small as writing just one line in Verse 2, or sending an email to thank someone, or sending a check to an organization that inspires you. As we practice doing this one scary thing, the fears of doing it wrong, or not seeing where it’s leading, etc. sort of lose the charge, the energy of fear.”

    Berman does not consider herself a ‘prolific writer’. She explained, “It takes me a long time to finish my songs, and when I’m in the thick of finishing my songs, I forget that it’s my process and that is okay. Each artist has his/her own process and timeline.”

    A part of life that impacts her process is stress. “The stress of having to make your living as a full-time musician can often have a negative effect on your mental wellness, and especially your creativity. Stress of any kind, at least for me, can stifle my creativity. It’s all about balance – creating a balanced life system that supports you. What works for another may or may not work for you. Life has to feel good!”

    Her own sense of balance as a working musician has developed over time. “I’ve gone through stages of my life where I’ve been doing music full-time, touring, etc., and it’s really hard on me, being away from home for so long, and it can be taxing on my body… so I’ve created a balance for myself where I pick up side projects here and there inbetween music-making, things that have nothing to do with music. This helps clear my mind, and I can make some consistent money for a while.”

    This approach allows for Berman to take the time to let the process of living life become an inspiration. “I’m inspired by people and good things happening in the world. As I’ve gotten older, it happens less and less where I think I’m supposed to be ‘doing’ music and songwriting – I’m more focused now on doing/being happy, healthy, and balanced, and not letting any one thing define me. It’s not the thing you do, it’s who you are being! Creating opportunities to stretch and grow is what brings me to life.”

    As she begins recording her new record in January of 2018, Berman reflected, “It often feels daunting to know what you want to do, what you want to pursue, how you want to live and be in the world, but not know which direction to take, where to plant your first step. And the energy underneath all of that is often fear of not succeeding, fear of making a mistake or a misstep, or turning down the wrong road.”

    Pushing aside all the worldly expectations and fears of writers, Berman shared about her new album, “I’m really excited about this one – writing these new songs for me, with no expectations for any further success or visibility – just for me. It feels so good.”

    In the final analysis, Berman shared that becoming self-aware is an important key to personal discovery as a writer. She challenges writers to, “Be aware of why you do or don’t do the things you do. Is it a scary thing that is covering up some old patterns? Does it feel scary because you’re stretching and growing? Does it feel scary because it’s frightening and not something you’ll ever do?” But she added as an encouraging note, “Whatever and however, enjoy the process. One day you wake up and you realize it’s you that’s standing in your way. And you will breathe in deeply and feel relieved because you are free.”

    Berman is standing in her own freedom now, arms open wide and, if there are scary things ahead, she is unafraid to face them head on and continue the journey.

  • SiS Featured Songwriter: Michael Ashe

    TV commercial jingles… 60-70’s rock… folk… heavy metal… punk rock: if musical influences were a sandwich, for singer-songwriter Michael Ash, these styles would be the listed ingredients. And he would, as his favorite quote by Warren Zevon states, “Enjoy every sandwich.”

    Unlike modern times, where listeners enjoy a myriad of choices when it comes to media, Michael Ashe grew up in a simpler time when stations and styles were limited. “Growing up we had music in the house and radio in the car. I can remember sitting in the back seat of my Mom and Dad’s Olds listening to 60-70’s rock on the radio while driving to antique shops in rural parts of Illinois with my Mom and Grandmother. There was not a ton of variety in the songs the stations played, so I was able to memorize lyrics, or some warped childhood form of what I thought the lyrics were, then repeat them over and over again each hour as they came on. I can remember singing those songs, and identifying with the ‘hook’ of each song.”

    When not listening to the radio, a limited number of TV stations were likewise available. Ashe remembered, “I watched quite a bit of television growing up as well, so the jingles from those commercials were swimming around in my head a lot. To this day I still find myself singing the jingles from toy commercials from the 70’s and early 80’s; whether it was a commercial advertising a cowboy action doll – Dusty, Dusty, Dusty.. riding Nugget, Nugget, Nugget… they’re riding East, riding West, now it’s time to take a rest – or from Empire Carpet- which at the time was only a Chicagoland company.. 588-2300 Empi-i-i-i-ire. Those songs and lyrics were sticky; I still remember them today, so they clearly had an impact.”

    Ashe’s extended family also were an influence in the development of his style. “My Uncle Curt was a powerful force in my creative life. He was an amazing artist and painter who introduced me to the Beat poets, R. Crumb, and some incredible songwriters: Bob Dylan, Leonard Cohen, Neil Young, J. J. Cale, and Dave Van Ronk just to name a few. Curt had an amazing record collection, painted all his life, and created an amazing body of work throughout his career. I was very close to Curt. He taught me many things in life.”

    Having parents who loved music added another layer to the musical influences and choices of Ashe. “I remember at a very young age dancing to Fleetwood Mac and the Eagles, Doobie Brothers and Allman Brothers with my Mom on the white shag carpet in our living room. I was 6 or 7 and remember being moved by the music such that I would dance around and play air guitar for hours.”

    The most logical instrument to learn would have been the one already in his house: a piano. “My mom had a piano, and my Dad played acoustic guitar. I showed an interest and an ear for hammering on some chords on the piano around this time, so my Mother got piano lessons for me. I took piano lessons, but hated it. I always had a love for the guitar, so on my 9th birthday my Dad bought my brother and I a 1966 Fender Musicmaster II which I still have today.”

    Ashe also recalled how his family musical experiences shaped him as a writer. “My Dad played folks songs on the guitar and was one of ten kids, so during family gatherings the guitar would come out, and we would sit around and sing, laugh, and tell jokes. I liked the stories that those songs told whether it was Stewball, the Racehorse or Charlie, on the M.T.A. I listened closely to those lyrics and felt them. I knew that music had power to move people, and I understood that at an early age.”

    With such an auspicious start, one might imagine that Ashe’s formative years were spent impressing his friends with his musical prowess, but in elementary school, he took a different road. “I started probably by being the class clown in school, making up funny lyrics to popular songs to get my friends to crack-up. This was something I liked to do even as a 4th and 5th grader.” He also added, “I did like to sing in the choir at school and had a music teacher that was really cool. She was ‘hippy-cool’ and had long-haired friends that would play at our seasonal concerts. She took music seriously, was a solid piano player, and wrote original songs that we performed – which I thought was really cool.”

    Later, Ashe’s influences broadened to include the music of the changing times. “When I moved to Issaquah, in high school, in the mid 80’s, my brother and I both played guitar and listened to hard rock and metal. I met Blake and Chad Cook who played music and liked metal and punk rock. Chad and I played freshman high school football together, and we both loved the Ramones and became friends. Blake was a hyperactive kid that could play the drums like Animal from the Muppets, so naturally we started a garage band called BOT.”

    Using the skills acquired in his early years, Ashe began to compose. “I wrote simple rock riffs and started writing songs at 15. Chad played bass. We had our first performance at a grange hall in Kirkland, where barbershop quartets used to practice and perform, called Skippers (now condos). That was our/my first performance on stage with a band doing our own music.

    BOT had some early success and we were industrious kids, making our own tapes, creating the artwork, and selling them at Fallout Records in Seattle. I was DIY in the punk rock spirit. We were written up in Maximum Rock and Roll magazine and were featured on a Northwest Hardcore Compilation album that included the Melvins. That was a really cool thing for a bunch of kids from Issaquah. It really motivated us to perform and write more. The band performed and stayed together through the 90’s even when each of us attended separate colleges. I went to Western Washington University, Chad went to Central, and Blake, Evergreen. When we as a band weren’t able to perform, I started playing open mics with an acoustic guitar and writing songs solo.”

    As a writer now performing as a solo act, Ashe’s writing process has developed. “It’s certainly changed over the years, but much like the circular themes from those TV commercials, it often starts with a phrase. This can be a musical phrase, a little riff/run on the guitar that I scat nonsense to until words start forming, or a quote or soundbite I hear on NPR in the morning that gets me thinking. I have notebooks, old envelopes, and scraps of paper that I scribble lyrics on. These ideas or themes sometimes go nowhere, they sometimes take months to develop, or in those great flashes, come together while I have my guitar in hand.”

    Within that process, though, a thread continues to be woven that part of the fabric of his early years: storytelling. “I try to convey the story and feeling in the song with simplicity in mind. I’m typically sharing my music in small places, so there should be an intimacy to the music. I will try to write from an honest place, a feeling, or a landscape that conveys an emotion or strikes a memory.”

    Like many artists, Ashe pulls inspiration often from his own life, in difficult times as well as times of beauty. “There was a time when I didn’t write, or hardly wrote at all. When I got divorced and really went through difficult times, I relied on my music and writing to help me heal, mourn, and push through. This pain and loss is something that we all feel, as are the lessons and insight we gain from living through those experiences. Learning, growth, new beginnings, joy, and loss are part of the human experience. Good honest music and songs are able to get at those themes and draw people in. I try to do that with lyrical phrasing and with melody in my writing.”

    But it is not just the painful experiences of life that inspire Ashe. “I’m inspired by lots of things – the beauty of the natural world especially here in the Northwest. I, like many, am disgusted with the direction that our country is headed and the complete insanity of our leadership. I’m inspired by stories of justice being served, and believe deeply in honor, compassion, and equality. I’m inspired by the common, and oftentimes painful, experience of being human, by love and friendship.”

    Like his father before him, Ashe has also had an influence on his own son, who inspires him as well. “I’m certainly inspired by my son Rowan who is an incredible musician, writer, and producer. He is 17 and is already a heavyweight. Everyone should check out Rowan Skye on YouTube.”

    Self-reflective and transparent about his own challenges, Ashe’s struggles are mostly internal. “I’m impatient and I’m my own worst critic. I think most human beings are, by the way, but as a writer I found that forcing an idea usually results in a throw-away song. It’s challenging when you want to produce and feel like the content is missing. Learning to be patient as a writer is a big challenge.” He has found somewhat of a fix for this, however. “When I hit those writing blocks I will typically learn someone else’s song or push myself to learn a new chord progression. I listen to more music when I’m blocked as well.”

    Beyond the writing process, Michael Ashe expressed some instrumental hurdles as well. “I’ve never considered myself to be a great guitar player. I’m a good rhythm guy, and I think I have a style or sound that is mine, which is great – but I strive to understand the instrument better. Perhaps one day I’ll be able to play Eruption like Eddie Van Halen.”

    While Ashe’s youth was spent in a simpler time, the current times have changed to the extent that, “As an unsigned musician, it’s a challenge to play places around Seattle. In the 90’s we (BOT) played all the time in Seattle because there were live music venues that offered places to play. You even got paid in those days! Although I’m not playing hard rock/grunge or punk anymore, it’s a challenge to find places to play outside of open mics. I think that’s a function of the times and the internet pulling on people’s attention span. Additionally, there is just a lot of music out there. It’s very difficult to cut through the clutter and/or even be heard.”

    Songwriters who are just starting out, however, will find that the advice Ashe gives is the same as what he himself practices: “Keep it simple, keep it honest. There is beauty in simplicity. Nobody has ever hummed an Yngwie Malmsteen song. Write as much as you can, and hone your craft. I’d also suggest playing out as much as possible.”

    Ashe has also found that Songwriters in Seattle has also been a major factor in his development as an artist. “I’ve found the community of SiS to be inspiring and welcoming in so many ways. There have been events in people’s homes – casual meet-ups where folks can share ideas and songs. It’s been a great experience, and I’ve met some really great, talented people. Had it not been for SiS, I may well have only been playing music to the spiders in my basement.”

    Though the current times are rife with digital production options for artists, Ashe’s next project will harken back to the sounds of his youth. “I’m really interested in the idea of a seven-inch. Vinyl is popular again, and I love the old punk rock seven-inch with four songs on it and plenty of room for artwork. I’ve struck up a friendship with Michael Connolly who owns Empty Sea Studios here in Seattle. Michael is just a great person, with an excellent ear and is a multi-instrumentalist and producer. I recorded a record, Autumn Road, there in 2015 and had a really great experience with Michael. That’s next.”

    Like one of his favorite writers, Ashe has been “enjoying every sandwich” along his musical journey and evolution. Ashe remembered, “I loved Warren Zevon’s sense of humor and irony. I wasn’t really familiar with Warren Zevon’s work outside of ‘Werewolves of London’ until I met Jill Gross, my partner-in-crime and fantastic singer who sings with me on Autumn Road. I watched a documentary years ago of the making of his last album while he was in the last stages of battling cancer and heard this quote during a late interview on Letterman.”

    For singer-songwriter Michael Ashe, that “Enjoy every sandwich” philosophy of Zevon permeates his lyrics and music. “As I get older, I think it’s important to feel those moments and understand where you are, who you are with, and what you are experiencing, and enjoy them. I don’t think I appreciated them as much as I do now.” Now, with the soul of a poet and a guitar to express the words, he is sharing those moments with the Pacific Northwest Community so we too can enjoy every musical meal.

    https://www.facebook.com/michaelashemusic/
    http://www.michaelashemusic.com

  • SiS Featured Songwriter: Steve Church

    What motivates songwriters varies widely from artist to artist. But whatever the motivation for starting a songwriting journey, time and experience often transform an initial vision to meet the needs of the writer and the culture. For songwriter Steven Church, the journey started with a desire to impress the world and ended with a desire to change it.

    “I wanted to impress,” Church recalled. “I think that was my earliest motivation – impress my mom, my teachers, impress my friends and mostly, impress girls. Learning songs that I heard on the radio was an early focus for me – singing them and eventually learning the chord changes for guitar. I had a good ear and I could recreate a song after just a couple listenings.”

    The ability to quickly learn cover songs was helpful in Church’s initial performance outings. “I played in high school at a couple talent shows, covering Billy Joel’s ‘You May Be Right’ among others, and then a song or two of my own.”

    Starting to writing his own music and adding it to his performances was inspired by one of his teachers. “My HS art teacher was a fan of the singer-songwriter genre, so (again) wanting to impress him with my prowess, I penned a few originals. Later in college I got shows in the student unions and cafeterias, trying out a mix of originals and covers for bored students on their lunch breaks.”

    Church continued, “In Austin, where I sometimes went to college, there was (and is) a vibrant live music scene, so I played out wherever there were willing sets of ears. Did a lot of living-room shows for stoned kids…”

    Now fully immersed in writing his own music, Church is an artist who is inspired first by the music and then by the lyric. “I almost always begin with a series of chord progressions and let the song determine whether it’ll be AABA, or AAA or something else. I get the skeleton of the song down – fit it all together like, ‘Okay, here’s the first verse and here’s the build-up to the chorus. The 2nd verse will have this variation on the 1st, and then here comes what might be a solo’, or something like that. Once I have all the parts, I’ll then choose a lyrical ‘feel’ for the piece, a theme or a story-line, etc.”

    Church’s lyrical inspiration comes from different sources. “As with most writer/musicians, I’ve been inspired by a variety of life events – forming an identity in adolescence, dealing with the (sometimes hilarious) complexities of personal relationships, witnessing social injustice, seeing other performers truly connect with audiences, and also when I became a father.”

    Connection is a theme that is woven throughout Church’s songwriting and performance, and helped him discover that songwriting was what he was supposed to be doing. “Writing and performing was (and is) an outlet and a way to connect with total strangers. And others telling me ‘Hey, that’s a fabulous song’ or ‘You really nailed it with that verse’ prompted me to tell myself ‘Well, let’s do this as more than just a hobby.’ That’s when I knew.”

    Church’s journey has not been without struggles, and he states, “For myself – and I’m fully aware that my ordeal isn’t unique – the most challenging aspect of creating a life around this artistry is money. How do I make a livable wage doing what I love full-time? I’ve been unwilling to make the sacrifices – giving up the luxuries and niceties that come with a full-time wage – in order to devote my energies entirely to this craft – and that makes me sad. I wish we lived in a society that rewarded our efforts as musical poets more.”

    For young songwriters beginning their own journey, Steve Church has some advice to help start them on the right path from his own experience. “Songwriting and performing is part soul-baring and part entertainment. Write and perform what is honestly you, but also what you would want to hear/see from the audience perspective.” Reflecting on how an audience might receive a song is important because, “If it’s boring and too self-reflective, they’ll probably tell their friends – and if it stirs their senses and truly entertains, they’ll tell their friends not to miss this performer next time he/she’s in town.”

    He added, “But if you just want to write songs ‘cause it’s what you need to do, then that’s totally alright too!”

    One might think a working songwriter would encourage young writers to explore their instrument or only study other songwriters, but Church offers different counsel. “A few things: read the classics and the Great Poets, mingling that with other writers. Then mimic some of your favorite songsters (YouTube) and have a good rhyming dictionary. There are an infinite number of resources online, of course, too.”

    In addition to continuing to write songs, Church has a full music business schedule looming as well. He notes that he will, “Get my website up and running again, gig more, plan another tour (Winter 2017) and finally get into a studio (it’s been 5 years!).”

    In the midst of all the writing and organizational tasks that musicians face, Church offers one other insight for our current political and social times. As writers experience the effects of events around them, he encourages them to, “Write songs about how you feel about the events, then get out and play the songs often. Connect with your audiences by observing their responses.”

    A further step Church promotes is to “Organize showcases that have themes (race relations, the problems of corporate hegemony, the environment and sustainability, education reform, immigration and basic human rights, etc.), and invite like-minded and passionate writers/performers.”

    Finally, Church adds that writers can use their creativity for specific causes that are near and dear to their hearts. “Performing songwriters make great activists – find an organization aligned with your position(s) and write material collaboratively (or on your own) for them.”

    Whether he is writing, performing, or working on the business side of his creative life, Steve Church has moved from being an artist who wanted to impress the world to being a writer who wants to use his art to change it. And no matter what he is doing, the words of David Lee Roth continue to inspire.

    There are two rules in the music industry.
    Rule Number One: If it sounds good, it is good.
    Rule Number Two: (see rule number one) – David Lee Roth

  • SiS Featured Songwriter: Erin Jordan

    “Playing a real song is like keeping a wild animal for a pet: gorgeous and terrifying, it lives in your house, but it is never really yours…” Kristen Hersh – Rat Girl.

    Pacific Northwest singer/songwriter Erin Jordan, inspired by this favorite quote, has sought that “real song” through the eyes of a poet first and then tamed the words with piano and guitar. Jordan remembered, “When I was in high school the two things I really liked to do and felt I was good at were singing and writing poetry and short stories.” But even before then, Erin was drawn into her own musical world by songs of mystery. “I remember being very affected by music during my childhood. One of my first memories of really liking a song was hearing “Rhiannon” by Fleetwood Mac in the car when I was six or seven and imagining that the song was being sung by a witch. I had no idea what Stevie Nicks really looked like! I also remember hearing “50 Ways to Leave Your Lover” by Paul Simon when I was nine and having the song stuck in my head for weeks. I thought it was super creepy!”

    Like many other songwriters, family influence was instrumental in her development as a writer. “My dad listened to a lot of music I still really like – Cat Stevens, Van Morrison, Tom Waits, The Doors, and a lot of classical music. I was also involved in school musicals and community theatre starting at an early age and loved show-tunes, so I would say I had a lot of positive early life experiences that helped me form the relationship I have with music today. As a result, she reflected, “I realized I really wanted to write my own songs when I was a senior in high school.”

    This writing muse, however, was blocked by the lack of an instrument. “I had a strong desire to write my own songs, but my earlier stints with piano lessons and flute had not worked out so well. I really wanted to learn to play guitar. There was a guitar class at my school, but all the ‘punk rock guys’ took it, and my silly high school self was too intimidated to take it. I was very shy and really lacked self-confidence. I knew I would figure the whole ‘how to become a singer-songwriter’ thing out when I went to college.”

    In what would become a self-fulling prophecy, Jordan did in fact begin her songwriting career in college as her dreams of playing guitar came to fruition. “I met a kindred spirit a week into my freshman year who helped me pick out my first guitar at the local pawn shop and taught me how to play it. Playing guitar came very naturally to me, and I soon started writing my first songs and playing them at open mics in my college town.”

    Surprisingly, her new skills on guitar positively affected her previous lack of success on piano. “I majored in Music Education, and passing a piano proficiency exam was a graduation requirement. So I had to learn piano whether I liked it or not! Learning piano the second time around was much easier since I understood how chord structure worked from playing guitar and taking some music theory classes.”

    Erin’s shyness and lack of self-confidence that hampered her high school experience were challenged head-on after her graduation from college. Armed with her newfound instrumental and songwriting skills, she began performing seriously in Chicago. “I played a lot of open mics – which was great for getting over stage-fright and meeting other musicians to play with. I started playing at bars and coffee shops in Chicago, solo and as part of a duo.”

    Deepening her skills as a performer, she expanded into becoming an open mic host at “a dive bar called The Inner Town Pub. Having to perform an opening set every week and run the PA for everyone really helped to boost my confidence as performer and member of my music community. On the weekends, I went and played in other towns in the Midwest. I played at a lot at Border’s Books. I have since dropped almost all of those songs from my repertoire, but those early days of ‘being a musician’ were a really magical and exciting time.”

    Now fully immersed in her career as a music educator, songwriter, and mother to two children, Jordan’s songwriting process has evolved from those early times of magic and mystery. “My writing pace is very slow these days because I have two young children. I try to go out to my practice space in the garage and work a few nights a week after they go to sleep, but if I don’t it is not a big deal. I never force a song or try to write when I am uninspired.”

    Though Erin’s love of words is expressed in her passion for poetry, instrumentation has moved to the front stage of the writing process. “My songs generally start with music first. I write an instrumental part on guitar or piano. Sometimes lyrics come right away and sometimes I have to put the instrumental part on the back burner to simmer until I am inspired to write the lyrics that are a match for that song. I try to always carry my journal with me so that when the muse visits at an inconvenient time, I can at least write down my ideas. I also have a mental list of topics or characters I want to explore.”

    Like many creatives, Jordan shares a love of creating but not so much a love for the business end of the music industry. “I am naturally an introvert, so dealing with the business end – booking shows, promoting the shows, selling merch, collecting the money, asking people to sign my email list – has always been hard for me.”

    In addition, because Erin is a storyteller, finding venues that encourage listening from the audience is a struggle. “I am really into lyrics and love the storytelling aspect of songwriting. That said, not everyone wants to hear your story. Some people at the bar want to drink and talk to their friends. Some people at the coffee shop want to do whatever they are doing on their laptop. I have always found it to be challenging to keep on playing and trying to make the connection with people under all circumstances. I guess that’s why I’ve learned a lot of covers to slip in. Lure them back in with “Wild Horses”… I know I am going in the right direction when I looked out and see people who are engaged and talk to them after the show.”

    Other personal challenges affect her songwriting life as well. “Right now, having a family, being a music teacher, and still writing and playing shows is definitely a balancing act, but I make it work.” And there is an upside to being a mom and a working songwriter. Jordan reflected, “I know I am doing something right when my six-year-old requests a song and then interrogates me about what the lyrics mean for 15 minutes. Kids are always honest.”

    As life has changed for her personally, Jordan has also evolved as a songwriter. Initially, Erin’s songs were more personal. “I used to write more based on personal experience, but I have to say, I’ve gotten bored with myself over the years! I really like writing from the perspective of a character. Of course, there is always a piece of me in that character – a big piece of me.”

    Now she is inspired by characters in history. “I love infamous characters, because there is a little piece of them in all of us. Some people I’ve written songs about have been Tonya Harding and Joan Vollmer, the wife of William S. Burroughs who died in a tragic game of William Tell. I am also inspired by mythology and novels I’ve read.”

    As for her future endeavors, “For the past six years I have been working on a song cycle based on Greek Mythology. I would like to finish that and record it. I have also been working on writing a musical based on the story of Echo and Narcissus that contains some of the songs in the song cycle. I am a music teacher with Seattle Public Schools, so it would be great to workshop it at a local high school since it is such a teenage story.”

    As a songwriter and as someone who works with young musicians as a career, Jordan’s advice to would be songwriters is simple and straightforward. “Write what you want to – develop your own style by doing what seems right to you. Songwriting is a great break from having to follow rules all day!”

    But that process does not happen in a vacuum. Erin has found that her best resource is “going to open mics and meeting other musicians. There are plenty of people in every local music community who are great resources on performing, booking shows, touring… anything you’d want to know. There are lots of people in Songwriters in Seattle who could tell you anything you want to know!”

    Whether tackling poetry, a song, a musical, or any project that comes her way, Jordan has not let the second half of her favorite quote from Rat Girl deter her from her vision. It reads, “It is an honor to stand next to this Beast, and at the same time, you know it can kill you.” Jordan has stared down that Beast, and she is still standing, fearless and prolific, drawn to the mystery, the myth, and the poetry of the human experience.

  • SiS Member Larry Murante Chosen to Perform for Official 2017 FAR-West Showcase in Bellevue

    Imagine two floors of a major hotel reverberating with a variety of “unplugged” music flowing out of rooms and down the hallways in an ever-shifting scene until the wee hours of the morning. Then imagine a hotel conference room turned into a first class performance venue with artists chosen from a pool of some of the best local and national, and in some cases, international artists. In October, this is what will transpire at the Hyatt Regency in Bellevue at the 2017 FAR-West Folk Alliance Conference, and on that Official Showcase stage will be a longtime member of SiS and the Pacific Northwest songwriting community: Larry Murante.

    According to Bill Lippe, a member of the FAR-West selection team, “Each applicant for an Official Showcase submitted three videos of live performances that were evaluated by judges from a variety of backgrounds, including folk DJs, house concert presenters, venue bookers, seasoned musicians, and music aficionados. Artists were rated for musicianship, vocal ability, song choice, performance quality, and audience rapport. Larry, one of the most respected singer-songwriters in the Pacific Northwest, is one of twelve acts chosen for an Official Showcase from a large pool of talented applicants.”

    Murante, who had previously been chosen for FAR-West official showcases both nationally and internationally, is well aware of the benefits of being chosen. “Getting an official showcase gives one an opportunity to get in front of a lot of regional folks who might not ever get a chance to see you up close and personal through a large PA system on a large stage.”

    Long known for his songwriting craft and performance skills, it is his storytelling that captures listeners. In his biography it is noted that, “Though his songs are cleanly structured, he rarely writes himself into a tight formal box, and you can feel his narrator’s eye moving across the landscape like a great, kind-hearted novelist who stops to probe gently into each of his characters and their desires (sometimes his own) before moving on to the next scene.”

    This love of storytelling began with his exposure to an emerging genre in music: the singer-songwriter. “I was in high school in the early ’70’s when the singer songwriter genre first got started with James Taylor, CSNY, Jackson Browne, Bonnie Raitt, Elton John and Bernie Taupin, The Eagles, John Prine, and others who were writing songs about their personal experiences in a very profound way.”

    He reflected, “My writing today is still very influenced by that period. I really didn’t start writing my own songs until about a decade later when I first starting following artists like Shawn Colvin, Greg Browne, John Gorka, and David Wilcox. To see them carry an audience all by themselves with just their voice and their guitar was pure poetry to me and made me want to be a better writer, a better player, and a better entertainer. This new form of performance was sort of like a cross between comedy, acting, and musicianship all wrapped up into one neat little package. I was hooked…”

    As a writer, Murante’s songwriting process borders on a spiritual experience. “Writing songs is always a cathartic journey for me, because I tend to write about personal experiences, or people I know. Songwriting forces me to think deeply about what I’m writing about and puts a laser focus onto things. I learn a great deal while I am writing because I am often times researching a topic, or a person as I’m writing. Songwriting is as close to mediation as I get and it’s a very ‘Zen’ sort of thing for me to do.”

    The influences of other art forms are ever present in the songs stylings of Murante. “Other writers inspire me as well and not just songwriters, but prose writers and poets, even painters, sculptors, playwrights, and especially nature. Visiting Pennsylvania where I grew up and lived up to 1982 and seeing my family and friends there have also inspired many a song.”

    A lifelong love of observation and learning is evident when listening to Murante’s music, but his listeners are also drawn to his stage presence. Perhaps that is because Murante works on his performance skills as passionately as his songwriting. “As a performer, I’m constantly learning the nuances of performing, using dynamics, using silence, telling a succinct story in my introductions, reading the crowd, relaxing on stage and having fun. Like learning guitar, there is no end to the learning curve of performing and songwriting.”

    With the FAR-West Conference so close to home, Pacific Northwest songwriters have a unique opportunity to perhaps attend for the first time, and Murante has some advice for those who are thinking about attending. “The conference is a challenge in many ways, especially if this is your first one. It takes some preparation getting your promotional materials ready, deciding what kind of advertising you will do, how many showcases you will partake in, etc.”

    However, self-promotion is not the goal of the FAR-West experience. Murante added, “It’s good to be prepared, but don’t spend all your time and energy promoting yourself. The best advice I’ve ever been given concerning the conference is to make as many connections as possible with people, not only venues, but with other musicians and vendors of all stripes. These connections have served me well over the years and just knowing someone in another state where you are planning a tour could make all the difference in the world.”

    Private Guerilla Showcase Rooms are another essential part of the FAR-West experience, which happen from 10:30 p.m. to 2:00 p.m. every night in a variety of rooms throughout the two floors. Murante advises, “There is lots to be learned from watching other acts perform and talking with elder music industry folks who’ve been at it much longer than you. Don’t get discouraged if you don’t have a large audience at your gorilla showcase.”

    Murante speaks from his own experience, “Some of the best connections I’ve made at FAR-West were with that one person who popped into my empty showcase room and stayed for the duration. I once did a showcase where Rosalie Sorrels and Cloud Moss (Producer of the Kate Wolf Festival) were the only people in the audience. Yes, I was nervous!”

    Larry Murante is an artist whose music has resonated with listeners around the globe. According to a Victory Music Review, he has “…a beautiful, smoky, full-bodied voice, and he’s known everywhere he goes for his vocal command and soulful, expressive delivery.” This October, that voice and those compelling performance skills will be deservedly featured on the mainstage at FAR-West. It is a performance you will not want to miss.

     

    Learn more about Larry Murante:

    Grand Prize Winner – John Lennon Songwriting Contest
    Winner – West Coast Songwriters Song Contest
    Two-time Newfolk Finalist – Kerrville Folk Festival
    …and 25 more regional, national, and international awards for songwriting and performance

    Larry Murante’s Official Website
    Larry Murante on Facebook
    Larry Murante on Reverbnation
    Larry Murante on Twitter
    Larry Murante on Youtube

     

    Learn more about FAR-West Folk Alliance:

    This regional conference offers an affordable, intimate, and interactive way for acoustic artists and presenters to focus on the folk community in the western region of the US and Canada. We welcome a wide variety of styles, levels, and disciplines, encouraging musical and cultural diversity and excellence.

    Sign up:
    http://www.far-west.org/far-west-2017.html

     

  • SiS Featured Songwriter: Jim Hanna

    The childhood home of singer/songwriter Jim Hanna was one infused with the sounds of Americana. “There was always music in the house. Dad played several instruments including tenor guitar, tenor banjo, mandolin, piano, and the occasional ocarina/kazoo/harmonica. Dad’s siblings all enjoyed playing as well, so there would be music whenever they got together – which was fairly often.”

    Outside of the home, church added to that soundscape with mom’s influence. “Mom didn’t play any instruments, but she made us get up and dressed every Sunday and headed us off to church where there were plenty of hymns sung,” he reflected. Though his siblings played piano and sang, Jim’s contributions in church were only vocal. “I sang in the church youth choir, but (stupidly) refused to take piano lessons when I was young because ‘that was a girl thing’ – three older sisters made it seem that way to a young boy.”

    Though Jim did not start writing songs until later in life, he did catch the performing bug in elementary school. “The 5th grade talent show was a very tenuous thing for me. I was so nervous I could hardly play guitar or sing, but somehow my two buddies and I made it through Evening of the Day (Rolling Stones).” Perhaps because of working through that nervousness, he continued to perform in occasional bands throughout junior high and high school.

    When college beckoned, Jim put off any regular performing and earned a degree in physics before moving to Southern California. Once there, he began to explore open mics. “The Banjo Cafe in Santa Monica was walking distance from my house, and I could not resist music and beer! The Banjo Cafe had a Monday night open mic, and I decided to try it out. That’s where I met my friend and guitar player extraordinaire, Gene Williams, and we started playing music together – first as a duo, then a trio, and finally a 5-piece country rock band. We had some great times playing the California beach bars.” He added, “During that time I wrote a few songs; however, I really did not know how to structure songs or what it meant to write good lyrics.”

    A wife and raising children filled up his life after a move to Washington State where he focused on his career as an aerospace engineer. But as his children grew older, Jim was able to return to his ‘other life’ as a musician. “I once again got the performance bug and started searching out open mics near our home in Maple Valley, but there were no open mics close to home. The closest at the time was in Kent, at Titusville Station, and I frequented it for a while.”

    Since necessity is the mother of invention, for Jim Hanna, the lack of a local performance space was the catalyst for creating a space for him and other artists to fill the void. “I complained about that void to friends and family until one day an artist friend told me there was a new space in town, and they wanted to do an open mic. I took on the challenge and started running one – with no idea what I was doing. That blind attempt turned into seven years of great fun and wonderful performances.”

    Though now a veteran performer, Jim Hanna still experiences challenges. “As a performer my biggest struggle was, and sometimes still is, confidence. It took a lot of years to gain what confidence I have. I remember pretty well when I got over that hump.” He went on to explain, “Sometime around the fourth or fifth year, I was on stage and realized that the people in the audience were actually enjoying what I was doing. I knew then and there that if I could do something I loved and make other people happy doing it, I was there!”

    The transition from performer to songwriter took some additional time. “While I feebly attempted writing songs when I was in late high school and college, I did not start writing seriously until I was in my 50’s, “ he explained. “Somewhere in that time period I decided that I could probably write songs – I had a decent vocabulary, could make simple rhymes, and could play guitar a little. Like any other activity it took quite a few attempts to get something that I was not embarrassed to play for other folks.”

    While Jim’s career was aided by his study of physics in college, this knowledge and skill set did not necessarily cross over into his new focus on songwriting. “I earned a physics degree and was an aerospace engineer for my working career. When you write as an engineer it is point 1, point 2… without room for metaphors or insinuation. I am often challenged with keeping my lyrics on subject without being overly straight forward. Now,” he elaborated, “I try to employ lyrics that can be interpreted in different ways by different listeners.”

    Contrary to Edison’s belief that success is 90% perspiration and 10% inspiration, Bill stated that he, “tend[s] to be more of an ‘inspiration’ writer than a ‘perspiration’ writer. By that I mean that once in a while I will hear a phrase or stumble upon a guitar part that inspires a song. I am about equal on starting with lyrics or music.”

    That is not to suggest that he does not work at his craft. He went on to say, “I have written towards a particular subject (for me that equals perspiration) with limited success. I have penned a few numbers for bands that I have been in, and they are passable but not of the quality of some of my inspired songs, in my opinion.”

    While Hanna’s career may not have helped his songwriting skills, there were other beneficial aspects. “Having never had to rely on music to survive allowed me to approach it casually. I am not sure if that is a good thing or a bad thing. I have never seen music as a chore. It has always been a fun thing to do. Being generally lazy, I never had to push myself hard, and so I didn’t. Consequently, I don’t read music and have a limited but working knowledge of the fretboard and music theory.”

    That is one thing that Jim would change if he could defy the physics of time and space. “If I were to go back in time, I would definitely learn keyboard/piano and at least some music theory. It’s not that I am unhappy where I am musically; I would just have that many more tools at my disposal and more ways to get my music out there.”

    Songwriters just beginning their careers might do well to heed this advice to acquire every tool possible, but for Jim Hanna, his greatest resource was actually provided in community. “Music is meant to be shared. It should be shared with an audience, with other musicians in a band situation, or with friends and family just sitting around. But, it should definitely be shared.”

    “I learned most of what I know from other musicians – stealing guitar licks, learning new styles, and trying new instruments.” He reflected, “When Chet Atkins was asked if he stole guitar licks he said, (and I paraphrase) ‘I really just borrow them but sometimes forget where I got them.’”

    He added, “By far the best situation is to play with other musicians who are slightly better than you are and have them pull you up to their level. There is a fine line where they are so much better than you that it’s uncomfortable or even embarrassing, but if you are able to find that sweet spot where it all works, it’s amazing.” Hanna has had ample opportunity to find that sweet spot as he plays with other musicians in a variety of settings. Though he is mainly an acoustic guitar player and does most of his composing on guitar, he also plays a little electric guitar, electric bass, mandolin, piano, and harmonica.

    For Jim Hanna and his new career in music, the business world’s model of “continuous improvement” still applies. He reflected, “There is always room to improve. I am fortunate to have recently retired and can spend more time learning, writing, and performing. My latest adventure is to try and learn to make quality recordings at home. Books, an online class, and several software programs later, I understand more than I did a year or two ago, and my recordings sound better. I feel like I am on the verge of getting it!”

    Hanna’s excitement about this new phase of his songwriting career is tangible. “I have plenty of material for a new CD and just need to get it produced. I am trying to finish before I have enough songs for yet another CD. It’s a race to the finish.” Unbound from the time constraints of his former career, now retired and with ample time on his hands, Jim Hanna’s home now reflects the same soundscape found in the home of his childhood where a father and his family filled the air with music. But now the music is his.

  • SiS Featured Songwriter: Val D’Alessio

    Ask a songwriter when their writing journey began and you will usually find memories tied to a certain age or a certain musical experience. But for Pacific Northwest singer-songwriter Val D’Alessio, the writing muse is inextricably woven into a specific place – one whose unromantic nickname belies its effect on her songwriting career: a group of cabins affectionately known as ‘the Lumpy Dumps’.

    “I remember exactly how I started writing songs. I had been playing and performing music since the age of 10 but I had never been able to write my own songs until I reached the ripe old age of 33. I was living in a group of cabins affectionately known as ‘the Lumpy Dumps’ in Bellingham, where a lot of creative crazies lived. It was the perfect setting for me to discover the joys and success of songwriting for the first time. I sat down with my guitar and started noodling and didn’t stop until I came up with something! Low and behold, I was visited by the muse right there in Lumpy Dump #11, where I wrote all the songs on my first CD, in a relatively short period of time.”

    Val recalled that she, “felt like the Grandma Moses of songwriters at that time because I was around a lot of musicians who were quite a bit younger than me, and they were already boldly writing and performing their own songs. I was determined to write some songs, and I wasn’t going to let my inner critic prevent me from moving forward with that intention anymore.”

    Though she started writing later than some, Val’s passion for music began in childhood. After an early start where she “taught herself to play Beatle songs at age 10, sitting in her room in Winthrop, Maine,” Val moved on with her brother to form a classic-rock band and then to acoustic music when the band broke up. After this time, she explored the guitar stylings of James Taylor, Mississippi John Hurt, and other blues artists, as well as the tunings of Joni Mitchell.

    Val, according to her bio, “moved across the country, covering songs in various music configurations including solos, duos, and bluegrass bands, finally playing lead guitar and singing harmony vocals for Bellingham, Washington-based acoustic-pop band ‘Men Without Pants’. She loved the band’s name and their catchy songwriting. However, she still found herself playing the same support role as she had in most of the bands she had been in before. She passionately wanted to develop her own musical voice and songwriting. And it was at the Lumpy Dumps that her passions became a reality.

    Val admitted that her writing process now differs from her early process in Bellingham. “Probably like most writers, my process varies. Typically, I noodle around on the guitar waiting for a riff and chord progression to find me. This immediately gives me the feeling or mood of the song. I then start singing a melody over the chords and let dummy lyrics, or a stream-of-consciousness with words flow, until I find out what the song is about. Once I get a sense of what the song is about and get on a creative flow with lyrics, everything else seems to fall into place for me.”

    Though this is her “typical songwriting process”, she also explores other avenues for coming up with a song. “I enjoy having a song topic or title come to me in the form of a complete idea. For example, my song ‘I Hope I Screw This Up’ was a title I saw and lifted from a T-shirt someone was wearing. Less often a melody comes to me first in either a complete form or in pieces. I love it when that happens. I love a great melody! It brings me into a song and great lyrics keep me there.”

    Oftentimes, writers comment that their ‘zone moments’ come when they are least conscious of a process. Val herself commented that, “The best ever is when a song comes more through me than to me. It comes almost in complete form with melody and lyrics. This doesn’t happen very often but when it does I am always very pleased with the song.”

    A career as a performing singer-songwriter, while rewarding, is also fraught with challenges. For Val, “My greatest challenge as a writer is to relax and allow creative flow to happen without pushing or struggling. It is a challenge of focus and intention, in which I allow the muse in without letting the distraction of negativity prevent the creative process.

    “My challenges as a performing songwriter are similar: It is to relax and go with the organic flow of the evening. I want to allow myself to ‘screw up’ and recover without losing my focus or allowing negativity to distract me from my intention of connecting with an audience. My desire is to be fully present with the music and let it flow with the intention of connecting with those who are receptive to my music. I want to stay in an attitude of gratitude of appreciation for my audience and the opportunity to perform, without being distracted or derailed by negative thoughts. I like to imagine that I am in my living room, after I have just finished writing a song, as I am performing for an audience. I love that feeling of being on fire with a creation, when the self-doubt goes away and I am most present and connected to the music.”

    As a musician trying to make a living, the struggles are not tied to the externals of money but rather to internal dialogues. Val explained, “The greatest challenge… is to value and honor my dream of making an abundant living as a singer-songwriter without allowing the mind-clouds of negativity to distract me, mainly self-doubt. The challenge is to be happy with where I am as a performing songwriter and excited about where I am going at the same time. When I am able to hold that focus, everything about making a life as a musician seems to fall into place.”

    In the songwriting journey, writers often seek inspiration from the world around them, and for Val D’Alessio, that inspiration comes from community, which she says is, “an absolute source of inspiration for me as a creative person. I adore the SiS organization and all the people who contribute their time and talent in this community.”

    Another part of her community that inspires Val is children. “Children are such natural ‘allowers’ and generators of creativity. They naturally understand the value of their creations and can offer them freely to others. The ‘young songwriters’ in my life, children who have come to me through my music teaching practice, have been my greatest teachers. They often model how to allow creativity to flow in a much easier way than adults. They are my teachers by example, and they hold a wavelength of purity and love like animals do. In fact,” she added, “I think of my cat, ‘Little Cat Stevens’, as my spiritual advisor.”

    Because Val is inspired by the spontaneity of children, she advises adults who want to write to do what children instinctually know how to do: “Relax and allow yourself to feel the joy of the journey with songwriting. Know that your creative expression matters and you have something to express in a way that only you can. At the same time, let yourself be light with the process. If you set out to write songs because it’s fun, you can take the pressure off yourself and allow creativity to flow. You don’t need to worry about writing a ‘great’ song or even a ‘good’ song when you’re starting; just get it out. You just have to remember how you would do it when you were a kid.”

    For adults, she also cautioned, “Don’t engage with those nasty, negative, critical voices that say, ‘this song sucks’ as you’re writing it, or even after you’ve written it. Love yourself and get over yourself at the same time. You don’t need to carry the burden of profundity with your lyrics or try to be dazzlingly original with your melodies. If you allow yourself to be who you naturally are in your creative expression, you can’t help but be original.”

    She went on to explain, “I believe you learn to write songs by writing songs. You will discover how to edit and craft your songs as you go along. Trust that your songwriting process will develop over time but that the main thing is to get in there and mingle with the muse. Find out what you have to say and have fun with the creative process. That’s where the magic begins in songwriting.”

    Once the song is finished, then the ‘how-to’ of performing becomes a next-logical-step. In Val’s own journey, “When I first started writing music, I played at Victory Music open mics, sometimes three times a week, because I knew they were a very supportive, inclusive songwriting community. I also had the advantage of performing my songs for some very developed performing songwriters who were my friends when I first came out as a songwriter. I knew they would give me insightful feedback and would be encouraging as well.”

    For writers who are first testing the waters of performing, Val suggests what worked for her: “Play for people who you think will be supportive and encouraging of your growth as a songwriter… you have to get out there and play your songs for others in order to learn how to perform.” One question that looms for many is to puzzle out where the best places to play would be. Val advises, “First ask yourself WHY you would like to perform your music for others. I find that when I perform my music with the intention of connecting with others because it is fun and I believe I have something to offer and receive from them, I have much more fun, and I feel successful in the process. Feeling appreciation for my audience and the opportunity to perform frees me up to let my creativity flow in performance. It also allows me to be receptive to the gifts of my audiences, and there are so many! Performing is a very co-creative, organic process for me.”

    Val utilized the resources of place and community to help her develop, but she credits her best career and life resource as, ‘the Source’, or what some people refer to as God or a Divine Presence.” She continues to rely on this source as she begins the next step in her career – one that also involves place and community. “I am in the process of connecting with a musical partner(s) with the intention of traveling around the US and eventually other countries, as we perform our music to receptive audiences, while making an abundant living from it. Right now I make the bulk of my living from my music teaching practice. I am excited to have it be the other way around at some point. I want to be traveling and touring frequently with my music and continuing to assist others with their creative expression in some capacity.”

    Val D’Alessio is the living embodiment of one of her favorite Carlos Santana quotes: “If you stay in your heart you will always be inspired. If you are inspired, you will always be enthusiastic. There is nothing more contagious on this planet than enthusiasm. The songs become incidental. What the people receive is your joy!”

    Val’s joy, this following of her heart, led her to a place where she could truly say she was centered in her calling. “Later on in life, when I began playing my songs out, I was more certain about the rightness of my decision to become a performing songwriter. It is an amazing feeling to feel like you have connected with people in a meaningful way with the songs you write.”

    Though now fully immersed in songwriting, which she describes as both good and addictive, Val D’Alessio still gives a nod to that birthplace of her songwriting muse in Bellingham, Washington. “The belief that I was doing what I was ‘supposed’ to be doing by becoming a songwriter came gradually. I think I subconsciously knew it immediately in Lumpy Dump #11, where I first began to experience success at getting my music out of me.”

  • SiS Featured Songwriter: Nate Manuel

    Playing to sold out stadiums, having #1 hits on the Billboard Charts, climbing the stairs at the Grammys to receive accolades… these are often daydreams that enter the thoughts of up-and-coming artists. But for Pacific Northwest singer-songwriter Nate Manuel, his dreams come true not with notoriety but in a kind of anonymity where the music makes the listener feel something deeply even if the writer is unknown. His vision of success is simply “to play smaller more intimate venues every now and then and have my music played in movies” because, as Nate explained, “ hearing music during movies always leaves a lasting impression… all the emotion can be captured and bottled in a short scene.”

    Nate’s early exposure to music created a varied soundscape that suits his aspirations to capture the wide range of human emotion through a backdrop of music. “My earliest experiences in music involved a lot of The Beatles and Simon & Garfunkel from my Dad, and Iron Butterfly and Black Sabbath from my Mom. Led Zeppelin was also a favorite of hers along with Aerosmith. My dad was a softie, while my mom was more into the heavier rock at the time.” He went on to say, “Mom tells me she got this from when she grew up in the Philippines. She and my brothers lived down the street from a bar where lot of sailors would be singing Karaoke.”

    Unlike writers who knew from an early age that writing or music was a passion, Nate reflected, “To be honest, I never once dreamed about writing music when I was little. The only singing I’d done was at church and during the Karaoke gatherings my parents would have from time to time.”

    Though Nate started writing music in high school while playing bass for a band, he offered, “I never really shared any of my music at the time because it was too personal, and I didn’t want to get shunned for my style of music when the popular music at the time was Punk and Indie rock. I kept all these pent-up songs in secret for over six years, never sharing anything publicly, until the girl I was with encouraged me to do an open mic show at the local Edmond’s Tunes. There I was given 20 minutes to showcase my songs and got a really good response from the listeners.”

    Now an active performer and honing his own songwriting craft, Nate says he, “writes songs as a vent for emotions and to cope with the daily struggles of life and love. My inspiration comes from my unsaid emotions. I tend to be passive-aggressive in a lot of situations and never express emotion in a healthy way other than through music. It’s a very obvious cliché, but music has helped me get through a lot in life.”

    One of his favorite examples, “Ode to My New Low” is one Nate says he, “can always relate to… it has to do with the songwriting process in general because I’m usually in a state of darkness when I’m writing, and instead of shunning it and treating it as taboo, I’ve learned that sometimes the writing is welcome to help cope with my emotions.”

    Nate went on to explain, though, that music has also, “taken a lot from me because I usually write during a low time of my life… revisiting a memory or still handling a current one. So it takes a lot out of me because it’s like putting all my problems on a kitchen table and forcing myself to eat them and enjoy it.”

    As Nate works through those complex emotions musically, his writing process is both instrumental and experiential. “I usually start my writing process from either just messing around on the guitar, or trying to figure out other songs for the most part. Sometimes I’ll hear or say something that I like out of the blue, or out of hearing a conversation, and try to sing it into any sort of melody.”

    Though Nate continues to grow as a performer and songwriter, like most artists, self-doubt looms in the background. “My greatest challenge as a writer is accepting my music without over criticizing it. I feel like I’m constantly looking for acceptance whether it’s from me or from the audience. As a performer, I never know what to say or how to say things given the pressure of performing and entertaining the public. Trying to make music my life will always be a challenge because there’s so many other great musicians I feel deserve a spotlight, and I never want to take it away from them.”

    Nate encourages other writers wishing to grow to follow a simple piece of advice that he applies to his own writing. “I would suggest to never be satisfied easily with your songs. Try to hone your best lyrics and melodies and don’t be afraid to return to them if they’re not exactly what you want them to be. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve rewritten songs because of this, but I am happy with the end result.”

    Another resource he found helpful was Songwriters in Seattle. He explained, “I’m not trying to brown-nose, but this group has helped me hone my performance skills at the open mics and showcases. I’ve gotten to collaborate with other musicians and listen in on other musicians who have helped me with my own songs. It’s also been a comfortable group of people who are very supportive during your sets, building your confidence and giving you positive feedback when it comes to your own songs.”

    Looking to his future, Nate sees, “more recording and also hoping to help inspire other musicians to keep doing what they love even if they aren’t selling out shows or playing in front of millions of people. I haven’t done any of that but am very satisfied just playing in front of supportive people and also being supportive.”

    That desire to be in a supporting role will serve songwriter Nate Manuel well as he continues to seek ways to become the subtle musical soundscape for the complex emotions of characters and conflict in the cinematic genre. And as to how that will unfold, as Nate expresses through his own favorite Mill Davis quote, “If you understood everything I say, you’d be me.”

  • SIS Featured Songwriter: Tobias the Owl

    The owl, in ancient traditions, is symbolic of wisdom…a guide to see beyond the obscuring veil of deception and illusion. The spirit of the owl is associated with an ability to see beyond what is hidden to most. And thus, it comes as no surprise that the journey of Seattle songwriter Tobias the Owl is one filled with deep revelation and insight, both personally and musically.

    “I often wonder what makes music such an inherent part of the human experience,” he mused. “Songs become the soundtracks of our hearts and minds, and our brains feel sort of ‘hard-wired’ to resonate with music. Alongside the earliest cave paintings of humanity, there are patterns of attrition and attenuation on stalagmites, suggesting that tens of thousands of years ago, early humans may have been rhythmically beating on these structures in patterns creating early expressions of music.”

    Tobias the Owl’s own expressions of music began in early childhood. “I’ve always had melodies and songs in my head as long as I can remember. I remember being a toddler, watching other children play, and writing melodies in my head. Music has always felt like it’s in my nature, as a listener and as a musician,” he noted.

    That early love of music did not correlate with an early start as a performing musician however. “As a teenager,” he stated, “I was always working. I never had the time or resources to focus on making music. I paid my own way through school without taking any loans. As a student, I grew to love physics and the sciences. There really was never time to pursue music in any serious way. I was also very transient in my youth, and I never kept a musical instrument. It wasn’t until my twenties that I really had my own guitar.”

    A health crisis a few years later became a catalyst to bring that guitar to the forefront of his life. “I was diagnosed with cancer. I wanted to play some of my songs before I underwent chemotherapy. The show that I played was with Jonah Tolchin, who started covering one of my songs. After I convalesced, Jonah had become very successful, and my song was on his album. I’ve always felt tremendous gratitude to Jonah and other folks who have spread my music,” he reflected. “It was really because of Jonah’s success with my song that I had the motivation and momentum to pursue music in a more serious way.”

    That pursuit led to a writing process that is liquid. “Sometimes a melody is really compelling. Sometimes a phrase is really resonant. So my writing process is a little different for each song. Some of my songs are built around a lyrical idea or theme. Other songs are built around a skeleton of a melody. Some songs are finished within minutes. Others take months to evolve.”

    “The only consistent aspect of my writing process,” he commented, “is that I record songs as soon as the inspiration hits me. I write down any lyrical notes right away. I try to at least make some recording of each musical idea immediately as well. I think capturing inspiration in some recorded way as soon as it hits is immensely valuable.”

    Since his first shared show, Tobias the Owl has experienced the blessings of working in community. “Music is a very communal form of artistic expression,” he said. “My songs may start in my head, but each of us has a musical journey that I think is meant to be shared with others. I was also very motivated by hip hop artists. There’s a really strong sense of collaboration in the hip hop community on regional and national levels. I’ve felt like inviting others to participate in my musical expression has been a huge part of the process of finding a home for my music.”

    Though he is well accepted and appreciated by his fellow songwriters across many genres, Tobias the Owl shares the challenges many creatives face. He reflected, “I’m sure every artist has paroxysms of intense self-doubt. For me, those moments of insecurity and doubt have been really acute and very frequent. I think that I would have pursued music more seriously and sooner, if I weren’t so frequently petrified by such intense self-doubt.”

    Outside of the writing process, performing his music also comes at a steep cost. “As a performer, some of my insecurities manifest as really intense anxiety whenever I perform. In fact, I used to throw up before almost every performance. I would often avoid any meals on the day of a show so that I didn’t vomit. I now take beta blockers in order to dull the anxiety that I feel before performing,” he elaborated.

    With such a high personal price to pay for persevering as a singer-songwriter, Tobias the Owl identified the factors that keep him moving forward in his creative endeavors. “Although I’ve found that the pursuit of music is really rewarding, it’s also been really arduous. People have often asked me what my goals are in pursuing music, and for a long time, I didn’t really have an adequate answer. The answer finally came to me in an email that I received from a fan in Germany—someone that I’ve never met,” Tobias explained. “He told me that he was going through a difficult time and that my music really helped him in facing his challenges. Because there have been times that I’ve heard a song that seems to ‘fit’ in my mind like a key in a keyhole, knowing there is someone in the world who will have that feeling with my songs keeps me motivated when the journey gets difficult.” He further elaborated, “I’ve come to realize that there are a lot of measures of success that are really elusive, but I’ve found my purpose in knowing that my music fits in the soundtrack of someone’s life somewhere. For me, having a sense of purpose has sustained me through some of the moments of self-doubt that I’ve had.”

    In his own life, Tobias the Owl has a “soundtrack in my mind is a really dynamic landscape,” and “maybe the song ‘Murmurs’ is particularly poignant to the themes that I try to focus on. I write a lot of songs about what it means to be human in a universe that seems to overwhelmingly dwarf the scope of our existence, and ‘Murmurs’ is a nice encapsulation of that sentiment. It’s a song about feeling overwhelmed by the vastness of the universe, and feeling anchored by human connection.”

    Tobias the Owl is reluctant to offer any advice to other writers because of the uniqueness of each writer’s journey. But he did offer that, “One important thing is to capture every moment of inspiration. Find some way, as portably and as easily as possible, to record every idea that you have.” Additionally, he stated, “I think it’s really important to figure out what you want to express with your musical voice. What is the unique lesson that you want to teach the world? What is the unique aspect of your experience that you want to communicate? I think, for each of us, honing our unique perspective on our place in the world is an important part of developing our voice.”

    Using his own background as an example, Tobias stated, “I try to write a lot of songs that are born out of my passion for the sciences. We’re lucky to be living in a period of prolific discovery. We’re uncovering so many more dimensions and parameters of the universe that previous generations of humanity never could have imagined. I feel like my voice as a musician is in delving into the spiritual and philosophical ramifications of our expanding view of the universe.”

    Building on his own rich experience with collaboration, Tobias the Owl reiterated its importance. “I would encourage young artists to build relationships with other musicians and friends. Don’t let your bedroom or recording studio become a dungeon of solitary confinement. Figure out ways you can evolve and grow in a community, and figure out what you can do to help your community evolve into a fertile soil for other artists.”

    His advice is rooted again in his experience. “There are a ton of people that have connected to my music and have helped with the journey,” he said. “My co-artists, colleagues, listeners, and friends have been the most helpful, most rewarding part of my life as a musician. I often try to reflect on the fact that every note is a wave, and a wave has to be fixed at two points or nodes in order to oscillate. Music has to flow from a creator to a listener, and no song is finished until it’s been shared with someone else.”

    Tobias the Owl’s latest release, “Every Eye is a Universe” has now become part of that wave of creativity flowing to the listener. He considers this album, “the best composition that I’ve produced.” But the universe continues to flow, and so does his creativity. “I’m writing new songs, and we’d like to make one more album. But at the moment, I still feel like our new album is very fresh. We did an initial tour in support of the album, but since its release, we’ve made a lot of new fans around the world. In the coming months, I’m hoping to do some further touring to some of the communities that have really embraced our new album.”

    Steeped in his early love of the sciences and ever searching for wisdom and insight, Tobias the Owl finds himself musing on a quote from Georg Cantor: “The least particle ought to be considered as a world full of infinity of different creatures.” And now that ‘least particle’ is being examined with the eye, the mind, and the spirit of the one creature whose wisdom has been noted from ancient times to the present: Tobias the Owl.

  • SiS Featured Songwriter: Paula Boggs

    “Seattle-Brewed Soulgrass”

    A long way from the rainy Pacific Northwest, a budding guitar player from Virginia sat in front of a TV set watching “Here Comes the Brides” which is set in old Seattle. In watching the interplay of two characters, Candy and Jeremy, young Paula Boggs, “found her first songwriting muse at a time when I had little sense Seattle was even a real place,” and ended up writing a song from the boyfriend’s perspective with “maybe 2 or 3 chords.”  Today, living in the city she once only imagined and touring with her band and a new album, singer-songwriter Paula Boggs credits the start of her musical journey to her parents.

     
    “My parents insisted their kids learn to play music, starting with piano.” she explained. “Those lessons began for me at 6, and I learned to loathe the piano though I now know it was much more teacher than instrument. I then begged my folks to let me drop it for clarinet — I can’t even tell you why clarinet. They bought one and that lasted 6 months.”

     
    Inspiration for the next musical path came with the arrival of the Folk Mass. “I was in Catholic school when the Folk Mass was coming of age and was so inspired, I wanted to take up guitar. When I then asked if I could take guitar lessons instead, they’d already bought a piano and clarinet, and so would only let me rent a guitar,” she recalled.

     
    With the help of her first muse from a TV show, Boggs began writing songs at the age of ten, and, “in time helped pay for a guitar my mom and I found in a pawn shop.”  She added, “The first time I remember performing was at my mom’s church, around age 12, though folks from elementary school say they remember me slugging around my guitar.”

     
    She continued to slug that guitar and write songs until her 20’s before moving on to other endeavors. A look at her curriculum vitae reveals a rich and varied job history from decorated paratrooper, to working with some of America’s top corporations as a lawyer, and appointments to high level government positions. Through it all, songwriting remained only a memory.

     
    However, a personal tragedy involving the death of her sister-in-law in a car crash led her back to songwriting 12 years ago, “… initially as a way to grieve. Once I was back at it, step-by-step, there was no turning back,” she said. Instrumental in her return to music were two things:  a year-long songwriting course through University of Washington, “caused me to be part of a songwriters’ community, and showing up regularly to open mics became a great way to hone my craft and get supportive but constructive feedback,” she reflected.

     
    Initially drawn to songwriting as part of her grieving process, Boggs is now inspired by, “Seattle sunrises and sunsets, my spouse and kid, the resilience of the human spirit… my list has no limits.”  She draws inspiration from those, “moments of ‘ah-hah’ …riding in a van with my mates from Chicago to Saint Louis listening to and singing all the words to songs of the 1960s, having folks dance to our closing song in Spokane, encores, having someone listen to one of our songs and write about how it touched her, having it hit me while on a walk.”

     
    Because all of life seems to provide inspiration, Boggs’s writing process is as varied as what inspires her. “I’m not that disciplined a songwriter in the sense of carving out a set amount of time daily or weekly to write,” she said, “Rather, themes come to me while walking, reading the newspaper, or ‘quiet time.’ I’ve written music both ways — starting with melody and with lyrics — though more of the songs I write begin with words.”

     
    One area in which she is disciplined, however, is in her commitment to being real in her writing. “As a writer, my biggest challenges are authenticity and accessibility. It’s easier for me to wear a mask. It’s one thing if I’m doing that deliberately, wearing the skin of a character. It’s quite another if I’m not being honest with myself,” she said.

     
     As a performer, Boggs, who fronts the Paula Boggs Band, has two additional challenges: “I’m a member of a band and so strive to do my part to make us ‘one.’ It’s also our job to ‘deliver’ to the audience no matter its size. It’s a great night when you see folks groove, laugh, and/or cry from the stage. We get energy from that too.”

     
    She and her band will get many opportunities to tackle both of these challenges as they continue to tour. “We didn’t start really touring until after 2015 album ‘Carnival of Miracles,’ though we’d played some cities beyond the Pacific Northwest, like Philadelphia, before that release. Those first trips were often connected with my speaking at a college or elsewhere in the same city,” she explained.

     
    Now with an album of “Seattle-Brewed Soulgrass” receiving critical acclaim, her band tours as part of their marketing plan. “By so doing,” she elaborated, “we’ve been better exposed to an international audience, grown the fan base, sometimes earned more money, and become a much tighter performing machine.”  There are drawbacks, though, to a life on the road marketing an album. “Touring costs money though: vans, lodging, rented instruments, and time away from home,” she added. “Sometimes, the local band doesn’t deliver its promised fan base and sometimes you’re competing against insurmountable odds, like when our Bend, Oregon show was booked the same night as Willie Nelson and Alison Krauss. I think we had five folks at our show.”

     
    In between tour dates, The Paula Boggs Band is putting the final touches on the album art for a third studio album, “Elixir, The Soulgrass Sessions,” and will offer it in vinyl when it is released later this year. And in between her own creative projects, she will continue to listen to and support her favorite millennial/GenX songwriters Conor Oberst, Kendrick Lamar, and Courtney Barnett. “Each artist is an amazingly brilliant lyricist with something to say — sometimes provocative, sometimes ironic, always worth my investment of time, ears, head, and heart. They are the Leonard Cohens, Paul Simons, Joni Mitchells and Curtis Mayfields of that generation,” she explained.

     
    That young girl in Virginia who once sat in front of the TV set for inspiration ended up serving her country as a soldier, as a corporate leader, and as an avid community supporter. With self-confidence as a resource, Paula Boggs tackled a life’s work in the “real world” that was all encompassing. Through it all her inspiration to live by was a Lewis Carroll quote from Alice in Wonderland: “I can’t go back to yesterday because I was a different person then.” But in the midst of that work, she was called back, through life’s painful circumstances, to songwriting.

     
    In retrospect, Paula Boggs has gone back to yesterday … to “the passion and craft I knew as a child and young adult” … to the young woman singing in the church choir … to the soul of the young girl who first translated the world into song at age 10. Perhaps now, as writer George Moore declared, Paula Boggs is actually a woman who has travelled “the world over in search of what (s)he needs and returns home to find it.”