“A kind of communal voice for the people of native cultures being ignored into oblivion by those with influence in modern America… [a celebration of] the people who are under-represented in US entertainment”

We are saving our review for nearer to the July release date but in the mean time we were lucky enough to get a chance to speak with Crain and delve into her writing process and influences.

Jon: I was writing about an album called Grow/Decompose by Young Jesus which seemed to be somewhere between the traditional album and narrative-driven concept album, and it struck me that this seems not only clever and enjoyable but also a very modern way of writing. That is, fragmented and but cohesive on a wider scale. Under Branch & Thorn & Tree (not to mention your previous albums) strikes me as much the same, a collection of songs that are loosely related but without a single clear narrative. Do you feel the same way? Is each song a separate story, so to speak?

Samantha: Each step of the process involved in making an album is very focused for me, in that, it happens in bursts. I usually write most of the songs in a concentrated amount of time, then completely fixate on the arrangements of those songs for a time, then move to recording and production ideas, and then on to the packaging and art and media surrounding the album. So yes, it makes sense that most of my albums including this one have a theme running throughout them because of the manner in which I work on them. I remain largely the same person throughout the process of the album because it moves very quickly. My creativity comes in bursts, as I said. In the case of this one, Under Branch & Thorn & Tree, I was focused on the importance of painting women as multi-dimensional people in a working class, blue collar world. It moves outside of that small focused area at times to include underdogs of all types, any set of marginalized people. After writing “Kid Face”, my last album, I felt I had really dried up my well of personal experiences because that album was so autobiographical. So I needed to look around me for inspiration. But, back to the songs relating to each other, yes, they all do relate to each other because I wrote them with a target in mind. Each song is its own instance though and exists encompassing the bulls-eye.

You told Stereogum that you “don’t write protest songs in the traditional sense, but I’m always listening to the voices of people around me.” I recently read an article by Alynda Segarra (of Hurray For The Riff Raff) where she calls on folk musicians to ‘fall in love with justice’. Do you feel that folk still has the influence and reach to have a positive impact on societal matters?

I definitely think music still has the power to influence politically and socially, it is just a matter of bringing it back into the popular mainstream. I would love to see a time when art does not just imitate life, but art creates the kind of life it imagines. I think this has manifested before in the 60s folk scene, punk in the 70s, a lot of Mento and Reggae, I could go on…. Music has the power to change minds and to nudge humanity down a different path but for the most part I feel like most music just wants to follow the mass around asking what they like and what they want from them. There are bigger things going on, music and art needs to direct attention towards those injustices. Its a good challenge too, to try to do that in a creative way, not just a blatant, literal way.

To return to that Stereogum piece, you said that the songs are written from the perspective of the underdog, “the 99% of us that are working people.” Do you feel that folk (or at least the semi-mainstream line) has been somewhat taken from the working class? Would you lay the blame with the deluge of super-popular middle-class banjo strummers that have flooded the airwaves over the past few years? Or do you think true folk continues independent of popular trends?

The music of the people will exist regardless of what is going is on in the mainstream, there has always been an underground and there will continue to be because zeal and passion will always remain. However, I do think that the music successfully reaching our ears is based on the interests and experiences of a Lilliputian and privileged party. As controversial as the idea may be, coarseness and affliction have been the backdrops for the most moving art, and, yes, the fading recognition of a passionate 99% in favor of a white and heterosexual deep pocket has made music and art quite insipid.

On the note of folk being taken away from the people, the Segarra piece I mentioned earlier focusses on how folk music is has become something made by and for white heterosexual men, something which I think could be applied to art (or rather: Art, the important capitalised sort) in general. I’ve read a few similar pieces recently: Mitski said she feels she has to be “150 percent and better than everybody in the room to be considered competent,” author Claire Vaye Watkins recently had an epiphany via Twitter where she realised she had been writing to impress white males, and Anwen Crawford wrote about how female music critics aren’t taken seriously. Do you agree that the whole idea of approval/praise in Art is geared towards what men want to consume? Do you feel you have ever put out something which went against your artistic instincts in order to gain patriarchal approval/validation? What needs to change to ensure people have creative freedom in the future?

I do know this is something that happens, artists, especially female artists, feeling they must pander to men in order to be successful, but I’m much too obstinate to let anyone have much influence over what I put out into the world. Not everyone has the same disposition though so the main thing here that we need to work towards imparting is gender and race equality, I’m not talking about legally (although that is a huge first step), I mean really injecting those principles into the framework of society. The more widespread and standard those principles become, the closer we get to a place where artists create freely, and, even more importantly, where people live freely.
I read that you once studied Creative Writing to some extent in college? Do songs blossom from your story writing, or vice versa? Or are they separate endeavours without much crossover?

My “extent” of college lasted just under 2 semesters, so like 8 months. I hated college and I got out of there as soon as I saw another option. Anything I learned about writing, I learned from just reading a lot. I used to write short stories as a kid and into my teenage years but the minute I started writing songs, that all went out the window, I had found the most fitting form of writing for myself. So songwriting is all there is now. I’ve dabbled with the idea of play writing and maybe getting back into short story writing but I’d need to really switch gears to fully focus on and learn that discipline.

Does literature have a big influence on your music? [if so] Who would you say are the writers who have had the biggest impact on your work?

Yes, most of the words that inspire me most weren’t set to music. D.H. Lawrence, Breece D’J Pancake, Dylan Thomas, Edna St. Vincent Millay, Louise Bogan, Flannery O’Connor.I know it’s kind of par for the course of a musician but is it ever a struggle releasing new music? I’ve always wondered how artists feel when complete strangers at their shows know all the words and cherish the songs as something personal to them. Is it difficult to hand over the songs to the listeners after expending so much energy and emotion?

I don’t find it difficult. For me, by the time the album is coming out, by the time the songs are reaching a public, my energy has already cleared the intensity of the connection with the songs. I can still speak about them and sing them with fervor and dedication because they are mine, but the hypersensitivity has mellowed, a bit like “I can see clearly now the rain is gone”.

Finally, could you share four or five of the acts you are listening to at the moment. They can new or old, popular or obscure, whatever you find yourself returning to.

Favorite music right now: Frazey Ford, Chad VanGaalen, Eef Barzelay, Chopin Nocturnes, and Sibylle Baier.

Samantha Crain’s new album, Under Branch & Thorn & Tree, is out on the 17th July. You can pre-order it now from her official website or Full Time Hobby, and if you sign-up to the mailing list then you can get ‘Outside The Pale’ as a free download right now. The impatient among you should head over to the store and delve into her back-catalogue. Crain is also touring extensively this summer, including some UK dates (see below). A full list can be found here.

31^st July : Perth – Southern Fried Roots Festival

1^st Aug: Perth – Southern Fried Roots Festival

2^nd Aug: Glasgow – Broadcast

3^rd Aug: Leeds – Brudenell Social Club

4^th Aug: Manchester – Gullivers

5^th Aug: Bristol – The Louisiana

6^th Aug: London – Sebright Arms

7^th Aug: Brighton – Hope and Ruin

The post Interview: Samantha Crain appeared first on Various Small Flames.

First up, we were lucky enough to speak to Alynda Lee Segarra from Hurray For The Riff Raff, fresh from an appearance in The Sunday Times, who’s (lovely) album Look Out Mama is out today (review here).

One of the themes that strike me on Look Out Mama is the idea that loneliness can be escaped by moving somewhere fresh. Much has been made of your travels down through America. Obviously the type of music is (at least in part) determined by your experiences with other musicians but how much did the journey influence the stories and ideas on the album? Could you have written these narratives in The Bronx?

Loneliness cannot be escaped simply by heading somewhere new, although everyone has their knee-jerk reactions to feelings of isolation and sadness.  Leaving town is most definitely mine. I think loneliness is only cured by a sense of community, by love and understanding with those around you.

Sometimes when I travel I interact with someone I never would have met had I stayed at home and done “the right thing” and that person will illuminate my mind to what it means to be truly happy. That is a precious moment, but it’s something you gotta take with you and put into motion. A big lesson i’ve learned is if I want to feel really satisfied I need my community of artists. I need people that I respect artistically around me to feed off of and learn from. To show new songs to and get feedback from. These people are what has really inspired my music, the idea that we can create our own lives and build something together. When I reached New Orleans I found my second family. So, it’s thanks to that great city.

For me, the album harks back to an expansive old country that is exciting and welcoming. Here, sitting at my computer (as someone whose experience of the US is limited to the ‘big’ cities), the idea of the ‘old America’ seems very distant yet very alluring. Is the traditional sense of adventure still available if you look for it?

Adventure is everywhere, but you do have to work harder at finding it. There’s a lot of forces today that are trying to sell you a packaged version of life. If you want to break out of that then kudos to you, you’re making the world an interesting place to live! You got to take risks, you’ve got to find your passion and follow it.

I reluctantly used the term ‘Country’ to describe your music in the review. The demographic has a rather bad rep (especially here in the UK – I can’t really think of any respected British Country acts). Do you see yourself as a Country musician? I see the big Country ‘stars’ in the US and can’t help but feel there is a rather large disparity between them and what you are trying to do.

That term should be reclaimed. I want to take a lot of things back, music in general! The Carter Family is who I think of when I think of Country music, Hank Williams Sr and all of those incredibly talented musicians that I’ve learned from on records.

Now, a lot of people may say that since I’m from the Bronx, the term “country” does not belong to me.  Everyone is entitled to their opinion, but I feel that music, and that has to do with feeling someone’s soul on a record, not just where they came from in the world.

So I’m gonna do my best to do it right and do it from the heart. I’m also gonna do it the way I am, and that is not with the goal to make a million dollars, or to spread some message of war or bigotry. My point is, I know there is a huge history of country music from the past that I would love to be categorized with, and my goal is to remind people of that music. There’s also a lot of folks today who are with me on this, and we get the privilege of touring with them!

A question I always want to ask musicians – removing the aforementioned personal experiences and any musical influences, what else shapes your songs? Are there are writers or other artists which you would say have a large impact on your thinking?

Frida Kahlo, Angela Davis, Audre Lorde, and of course friends and family. I am very influenced by feminist thinkers and artists, lately my major inspiration has been Sampat Pal of the Gulabi Gang in India. She is the leader of a group of lower caste women who stand up for each other in times of domestic violence.

Finally, could you suggest 4 or 5 bands or musicians that you are currently enjoying? They could have formed yesterday or died fifty years ago, be known to three people or playing on MTV, any artist that is catching your attention at the moment.

I love this question! Shovels and Rope, Sam Doores and the Tumbleweeds, Morgan O’Kane, Spirit Family Reunion, Clear Plastic Masks, Feral Foster, and the Alabama Shakes. These are musicians of today making me proud to be alive in these times. My dream is that we all play a festival together someday.

Thanks to the good folks over at Loose Music for putting us in touch and to Alynda for answering our questions (in super-quick time too!). We appreciate it!

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