“I wanted to give myself the agency to distort all truths to see what jumped out to me as truthful in a reactive, and sometimes illusionary or misleading, sense–in all of this faulty rawness,” the San Francisco-based artist explains of the release. “I was really drawn to sounds and images that felt satisfyingly ‘false’–I was drawn to Cecil Taylor’s Unit Structures, my favorite drag queens in Los Angeles who magically bombed every Monday, Ryan Trecartin’s A Family Finds Entertainment, Sunik Kim’s Potential, and so much more. I wanted frenzy that felt disembodying–so disembodying that this time of my life could conjure a laugh.”

With the album’s release quickly approaching, Lucy Liyou has returned with brand new single ‘Crisis (Identity)’. One of several hinge points within the MR COBRA narrative, the song confuses the line between crisis and epiphany, its protagonist Babygirl coming to embrace the dualism or chimeric tendencies of their character. Not quite grasping whether the admission is an exercise in masochism, liberation or both simultaneously. We follow the track from the initial clarity (such an identity is unruly, shameful, an act of performance or else a plain crisis) into something far more nuanced and interesting. That is, the realisation that perhaps any one person’s identity is too large to fully capture with any blanket label. That parts of us will always clash with others, and that contradiction is not an aberration but an inherent feature. Which means that MR COBRA does not represent the classic, affirming arc so familiar in artistic identity quests, but instead something more difficult, messy and real.

The post Lucy Liyou – Crisis (Identity) appeared first on Various Small Flames.

Minneapolis has a rich heritage in energetic indie rock, so its great to see bands like The Dead Century carrying the flame onwards. First drafted during the pandemic but now equally relevant in light of the city’s occupation, latest single ‘Been Better’ wears its influences proudly, taking the raucousness of The Replacements and some of The Hold Steady‘s buoyant positivity and applying them to the less than positive present. The result, essentially a dispatch from a profoundly difficult time, is propulsive, impassioned and ultimately affirming in spite of everything. One, much like the people on the ground of its home city, willing to confront the gravity of the moment and fight for something better regardless of how far away that might seem.

‘Been Better’ is out now and available from the usual places.

figure eight – hummingbird

Back in 2024 we featured Bay Area outfit figure eight, describing how the project has evolved from the experimental noise project of duo Nash Rood and Abby Goeser into something far more developed, with single ‘1999 (cherry)’ from their self-titled EP highlighting the nuance and balance of the sound. “Twin threads of lightness and weight weave across the track into what appears to be the spirit of this new version of figure eight,” we wrote, “a band aware of the transcendent power available at both ends of the spectrum.” Now they are back with until the sun swallows the earth / hummingbird, a double single on Cherub Dream Records, and you only have to contrast the titles tracks to see the balance between heft and elegance remains. After the slow-burn expanse of ‘until the sun swallows the earth’, ‘hummingbird’ offers something more gauzy and restrained, the sound muted though no less full of atmosphere, and ultimately fulfilling its promise to spill over into something thunderous.

Griffin Brown – DRAW

“I need a hint, like a task, to check off and put behind me,” sings New York‘s Griffin Brown on ‘DRAW’, the first glimpse of his forthcoming album Begriffin. “But I don’t quite know what my success would guarantee.” This marbling of assurance and doubt not only runs through the lyrical aspect of the track, but the woozy sound itself. Brown evokes the feeling of starting something without knowing how it will end with a propulsive chorus that never seems to quite reach its natural conclusion. A joint release between Spread Way Out and Better Company Records, Begriffin itself progresses in such a manner.It is undeniably confident and marked by forward motion, yet unsure of its final destination. As though Brown knows what he needs to do and how to do it, just not what the end result might be.

Watch the video by Brown below:

Begriffen will be released on the 8th May via Spread Way Out and Better Company Records. Get it from Bandcamp.

Little Lungs – Dragonfruit

“Songs personal, compassionate and often affirming, driven by equal parts warmth and energy.” That’s how we described the work of Baltimore folk rock outfit Little Lungs back in February, single ‘The Heat’ introducing the band’s forthcoming album of the same name. “A typically emotive track build around [lead Leena] Rhodes’s vocals,” we wrote, “and the braid of tenderness and strength they are able to evoke.” With The Heat coming later this week, Little Lungs have shared new track ‘Dragonfruit’. An example of the more electronic dimension which exists on the record, the song opens like the soundtrack to long lost videogame but soon blossoms into something charged and sweeping, and again Rhodes’s delivery is placed centre stage. “Standing outside, the middle of fall / Dragonfruit vodka clenched in your palm,” she sings in a verse indicative of the striking image-led style of the track. “You met my eyes / I knew that you changed / I hated you then but I couldn’t escape.”

Watch the visualiser by Zack Willis with clips from Leena Rhodes below [WARNING: contains flashing, high-contrast imagery that may triggering to individuals with photosensitivity or epilepsy]:

The Heat will be released on 12th March. Get a copy from the Little Lungs Bandcamp page.

Lucy Liyou – Babygirl

“Possess[es] both a fragile minimalism and lush melodrama […] The sensation of watching a fond memory fade at the edges as the desire to return to its smallest details only grows.” So we wrote of Lucy Liyou‘s debut Every Video Without Your Face, Every Sound Without Your Name back in 2025, an album that was both an exercise in musical invention and most personal of documents, a description that more than holds true for Liyou forthcoming new album, MR COBRA. A release described by label Orange Milk Records as “a semi-autobiographical solo theater-music piece […] that combines free-jazz, Korean folk opera, musique-concrète, 2000s era pop, text-to-speech recordings, film, comedy, and drag-inspired performance,” the record sees fury, frustration, love and yearning all swirl together with the extravagance and grace of the best stage show, allowing Liyou to explore ideas of transition and identity in ways otherwise out of reach. “I was really inspired by sounds and images that felt satisfyingly ‘false’ or “unclarifyingly” true, whatever that means,” she expands. “I was drawn to Cecil Taylor’s Unit Structures, my favorite drag queens in Los Angeles, who magically bombed every Monday, Ryan Trecartin’s A Family Finds Entertainment, Sunik Kim’s Potential, and so much more. I wanted frenzy that felt disembodying, so disembodying that this time of my life could conjure a laugh.” Check out single ‘Babygirl’ below:

Primula – Cobblestone

Do not be fooled by the title, Primula‘s latest EP Nothing New signals a fresh chapter for the Malmö/Stockholm-based outfit. Having made a name across the Swedish scene with a jazz-inflected sound, the new release sees the band bend more towards folk sensibilities, though without sacrificing the sense of collaboration and invention which made their earlier work so special. Single ‘Cobblestone’ serves as the ideal introduction. It’s a track daring enough to eschew the conventional structures of indie music in order to create a dynamic sound that evokes the nuances of being alive. “‘Cobblestone’ is about the difficult yet comforting realization that you’re just a small piece in a much bigger world,” the band explain. “There’s a freedom in not having to be so significant on your own. Even if you feel insignificant by yourself, you’re still an essential part of making something whole.”

Nothing New will be released later this year.

Stephen Becker – Bad Idea

Back in 2024, Stephen Becker released Middle Child Syndrome, an album we described as “an effort, at least in part, to rise above the mundane present, as though to be trapped within conventions is to be restricted by the same inability to communicate effectively that haunts our everyday lives.” Now Becker is set to return with new full-length Gravity Blanket, and the record is no less thoughtful or ambitious. It sees him sift through the ostensibly banal details of memories in order to excavate a deeper human meaning with an otherwise unsatisfying present. As with Middle Child Syndrome, the result is forthright and unguarded, willing to open itself up to vulnerability in order to make progress, as highlighted by opener and lead single ‘Bad Idea’. “‘Bad Idea’ is about a breakup I went through after seeing the ballet,” as Becker explains. “The haunting feeling of the dancers’ movements lingering in my mind, the sad-sweet taste of spiked lemonade on the train ride home. I was thinking about, and trying to manifest, change with a newfound determination to break free from unhealthy routines and patterns in life and in love.”

Watch the video directed by Haoyan of America below:

Gravity Blanket will be released on the 24th April and you can pre-order it now.

True Green – Bindi Sue

True Green, the project of Minneapolis songwriter Dan Hornsby, is named after “medieval nun Hildegard of Bingen’s idea of viriditas, and also a lawn care company.” This combination goes some way towards capturing the project’s style, which uses a laidback, often irreverent tone to tell stories with real feeling. Later this month, True Green will release sophomore album Hail Disaster, a record which, as its title suggests, explores “tragedies real and imagined”. New single ‘Bindi Sue’ is one last glimpse before the big day. A tribute to everyone’s favourite Aussie naturalist Steve Irwin, the song is wryly funny and genuinely poignant. It evokes both the loss felt by an entire generation following Irwin’s untimely death, and the joy of his good-natured relationship with the natural world. “He didn’t hunt them,” as the song begins, “they were his friends”.

Where’s Beth – Ache Is A Cricket In The Night

‘Ache Is A Cricket In The Night’ is the title track from the new record by Where’s Beth, the recording project of Seattle-based Sarabeth Weszely. The follow up to 2024 debut Bone Broth, the album “draw[s] on apparently mundane moments from every day life,” as we put it previously, “to chart the universal experiences of love, grief and longing,” building upon the style of its predecessor in the process. The album is now out, and the title track is an ideal entry point for those unfamiliar with the Where’s Beth project, looking for a place to dive in. “I can feel your heart beat like a candleflame / Fingers stretching out, flicker in the rain,” Weszely sings in the opening lines, immediately evoking the intimacy and compassion of the record. “Wind blows, I want to tell you it’s okay / To let in.” The rest of the track unfolds within the warmth of this beginning, a safe harbour from the outside world and its accumulation of difficulties, but importantly not a total escape. For, as the title suggests, Where’s Beth is not interested in blocking out sadness or suffering but rather creating enough distance that we might examine them in the context of everything else.

The post Weekly Listening: March 2026 #2 appeared first on Various Small Flames.

Liyou has described wanting to make the album since college, though only now possesses the skills to do the idea justice. The upshot of this is a strange duality within the songs. Liyou at 19, longing for parental acceptance as a closested trans person, and Liyou seven years later, wishing a romantic relationship might extend beyond its apparent end. “I feel really affected by this parallel between the love in wanting my parents to accept me for who I am and the love in wanting my partner to stay with me regardless of our circumstances,” they explain. “I always assumed that these two loves were separate but I think recognizing that (for trans people like me, or maybe just for me specifically) these loves have overlap has been simultaneously distressing and comforting.”

With the album’s release fast approaching on Orange Milk Records, Lucy Liyou has shared new single and opener, ’16/8′. A track which introduces both the record’s nuanced pop style and its thematic intention. To document a moment in time in all of its conflicted emotion and tactile experience. “While writing ’16/8′, I remember asking myself what does waiting for someone you love sound like, feel like?” Liyou explains:

Having played classical piano for so long, I couldn’t help but compare this feeling to rests in music—the anticipation building in the silences between notes, phrases, and ideas. I thought about the way some musicians like myself count during rests (e.g., the lyrics: “a kiss and click of the tongue”). I thought about how the growing anticipation in the rests make these silences feel substantive and material (e.g., the lyrics: “metal sheen of 16th’s and 8th’s, plexiglass and gold quarter shapes). And then it’s suddenly my turn to play. And I play what I have practiced for so long:

“please stay.
please stay.
I have so much love to give, please stay.”

The post Lucy Liyou – 16/8 appeared first on Various Small Flames.

The recording project of Texas musician Daniel Bryson (who also plays drums in Skirts), A.L. West is an outlet for lo-fi bedroom pop meets indie rock. He recently released a new double single, Nothing At All / Rabbitbrush 2, which is the perfect introduction for newcomers. ‘Nothing At All’ is a lovely patient indie pop song, but it’s ‘Rabbitbrush 2’ that sees things kicked into another gear. As its name suggests, the track is something of a sequel to one from 2023 A.L. West album The Store, but whereas the original was a gentle folk-inflected bedroom pop song, ‘Rabbitbrush 2’ is thick with a heavy fuzz, building from lulls of plodding percussion and Bryson’s draw out vocals into peaks of triumphant noise.

Watch the video by Alex Montenegro below:

Nothing At All / Rabbitbrush 2 is out now via the A.L. West Bandcamp page.

Casper Skulls – Roddy Piper

Turning the page onto a new chapter for the Sudbury/Toronto indie rock outfit, new album Kit-Cat promises to see Casper Skulls push themselves to new heights. Single ‘Spindletop‘ introduced this refreshed sound, drawing on There Will Be Blood to create a moody, ominous atmosphere, and now ‘Roddy Piper’ introduces a more energetic and soaring dimension. Drawing on the titular figure, the track uses a wrestling analogy to explore confrontation within a relationship, the combination of upbeat rhythm and fuzzy weight evoking the dramatic ups and downs of a choreographed bout. Watch the Mortal Kombat-inspired video, directed by Curtis Carriere and Jordan Vandenberg (of Goodscreen Media) along with the band themselves, below:

Kit-Cat will be released on the 11th April via Next Door Records and you can pre-order it now.

Celeste Madden – Lapdog

Having signed with Sad Club Records, recent months have seen Celeste Madden unveil a handful of singles, with tracks like ‘Joan of Arc‘ and ‘Fever Dream‘ embodying the London-based songwriter’s singular style. Songs both unashamedly melodramatic and undeniably strange, drawing the listener directly into Madden’s psyche so that we too might experience the diverse range of moods and feelings therein. Having announced that EP Is It Really Goodnight? will be released next month, Madden has now returned with new single ‘Lapdog’. Another dreamlike folk song where placid surfaces hide a roiling depth beneath, reflecting on difficult experiences in order to exorcise the hold of the past.

‘Lapdog’ is out now and available via the Celeste Madden Bandcamp page. Is It Really Goodnight? will be released on the 27th March via Sad Club Records.

Craig Finn – People of Substance

Anyone who caught Craig Finn on his This Is What It Looks Like tour last autumn will be champing at the bit for a new album, Finn using the solo sets to introduce a number of new narrative-driven songs full of the detail, emotion and empathy which has so long marked his work. The record, it turns out, is called Always Been, and will be released this spring. A fitting addition to Finn’s oeuvre in the year The Hold Steady‘s Separation Sunday celebrates its twentieth anniversary, the album traces the arc of a protagonist through a rise and fall and eventual redemption, the character committing the life of a priest despite his lack of faith. A whole cast of characters pass into the frame within the telling of this story, but for now we have single ‘People of Substance’ as a glimpse at the world within.

Watch the visualizer by David Kelling below:

Always Been is out on the 4th April and you can pre-order it now.

Dead Bandit – Pink

“Something of a landscape,” was how we described Dead Bandit‘s self-titled album, coming soon on Quindi Records, in a preview back in January. “One rural in tone which seems at once physical and emotional. Often stark and severe in its loneliness, a kind of haunted prairie or steppe, yet often possessing some kind of yearning fondness for the wide open space.” New single ‘Pink’ furthers the style. A cryptic, slow-building number which possesses a kind of shadowed mystery, the layered guitar and creeping beats never puncturing the understated air, as though the truth of the track is always drifting just out of view.

Jacob Faurholt – I Will Hold You

We’ve featured the prolific Danish songwriter Jacob Faurholt multiple times in recent years, an outsider artist in the vein of Daniel Johnston and co. who looks to explore existential themes via lo-fi, idiosyncratic combination of folk, rock and pop. Recorded in the room beneath his children’s bedroom while they were asleep, the most recent release of Faurholt’s we covered embraced a hushed style, but new single ‘I Will Hold You’ pivots away from this entirely. It was written in the aftermath of a Dinosaur Jr. gig, post-show tinnitus still ringing, which anchors its poignant emotion and melodies with a dense undercurrent of noise.

‘I Will Hold You’ is out now and available from the usual places.

Léna Bartels – January is the Loneliest Month

It’s Gonna be a Wonderful New Year, a split between NYC’s Léna Bartels and Nico Hedley, is the first release on new label Rock For Sale Records who release music on cassette tapes and not streaming services. Bartels and Hedley have collaborated across a range of projects (both realised and not quite), and this EP is from the intimate end of the spectrum. The pair describe it as a collection of “songs from winter. Songs for the new year. Songs to get by by,” and if lead single, Bartels’s ‘January is the Loneliest Month’ is anything to go by, it makes good on the promise of its admirably optimistic title. Though not with saccharine cheerfulness but a quiet persistence and steady belief in new beginnings.

Lucy Liyou – Arrested

‘Arrested’ is the lead single from Every Video Without Your Face, Every Sound Without Your Name, the new record from Lucy Liyou. Released next month via Orange Milk Records, the album promises to be the Los Angeles musician’s most pop-oriented to date, but anyone expecting a collection of up-tempo dancefloor fillers might be disappointed. As ‘Arrested’ attests, Liyou’s distinctive style is far more complex than that, possessing both a fragile minimalism and lush melodrama, the understated ethereality of the sound and poignant longing of the vocals combining into a reflective and melancholic mood. The sensation of watching a fond memory fade at the edges as the desire to return to its smallest details only grows.

Watch the video shot and directed by Park Seung Won below:

Every Video Without Your Face, Every Sound Without Your Name is out on the 21st March via Orange Milk Records and you can pre-order it now.

Mumu The Free Diver – Blossoms

The project of Raleigh, NC-based singer-songwriter Aki Laakso, Mumu The Free Diver offers an evocative brand of indie folk which embraces the authenticity of the DIY aesthetic. Recorded at home with what Laakso describes as “a cheap mic, an old guitar and a bargain-bin audio interface,” new song ‘Blossoms’ swaps out technical polish for a sense of immediacy, sounding like a direct communication from within a moment of grief-stricken vulnerability. But don’t let the description fool you, for though the arrangement is based around acoustic guitar and humble, near-spoken vocals, the track possesses a real sense of richness too. As though through its unguarded nature flows a certain intensity, be it born of compassion, panic, plain hard longing, or indeed a combination of all three.

Penny Loafer – Fridge

Consisting of Emma Barnes (vocals, guitar, keys) and Seth Parker (drums, percussion), Penny Loafer make self-described “post-college rock” which draws from nineties heavyweights like Fugazi and Sonic Youth to offer songs about everyday life which nevertheless possess real weight and bite. With debut EP Daily Deal set for release via Indecent Artistry next month, the Athens, GA-duo have shared single ‘Fridge’. It’s an example of all the ingredients which make the Penny Loafer sound so enticing, with deadpan observation and wry humour meeting tangible heft, all strung together by a chugging momentum which pulls the audience along for the ride. A little bit salty, a little bit sweet and with a noticeable acidic edge.

Tractor Beam – SHOW YOU

“Draws from across the ages in their work, owing as much to 00s indie as 60s folk, and all wrapped up the the contemporary DIY aesthetic, leading to a sound both emotionally immediate and tangibly nostalgic.” So we wrote of Toronto-born, Vancouver-based artist Tractor Beam back in 2023. Now Sasha Balazic and co. are set to return with Monoliths & The Early Reflection, and latest single ‘SHOW YOU’ sees the outfit combine their usual freak folk sensibilities and a more chaotic noise pop style within a single track. The result feels like witnessing a band solidify their ambitions in real time, expanding the possibilities of the Tractor Beam project and pushing closer to their final form. Watch the video directed by Aiden Millroy below:

Monoliths & The Early Reflection is out on the 19th February via Good Stones // Calm Water.

The post Weekly Listening: February 2025 #1 appeared first on Various Small Flames.

First up is a brand new single from John Statz. ‘World of War’ is taken from 12 August, an upcoming album of duets that Statz recorded with fellow folk singer Josh Harty. The album is due for release on the 18^th of February via Money Wolf Music, and we hope to write more about it closer to the date. Also, if you happen to find yourself in Kansas City, Missouri on the 18th of Feb then get down to the Czar Bar for the release show (which also features Zachary Lucky!!).

Stampede Road – Old Town

Stampede Road is Graeme Duncan and his Edinburgh based band. Their new single ‘Old Town’ starts off as a ruminative acoustic ramble before blooming with drums and electric guitars at the close. It’s really good and I certainly want to hear more from them.

Jess Williamson

Just a quick reminder that Jess Williamson’s brilliant Native State (which we first mentioned during our Advent calendar series) has just been released and is available to order as a digital download or on “Texas Flag tri-colour vinyl” (which sounds really cool).

Copper River – To the Grave

I can’t find much info on Copper River, except that he’s a man from Seattle, WA who makes great folk music. Check out his newest release, the single To the Grave, above. He also has several other EPs/demos/covers on his Bandcamp page which are definitely worth checking out.

Old Man Canyon – Phantoms & Friends EP

Phantoms & Friends is a five song EP from Vancouver’s Old Man Canyon. The EP can be aptly described as folk-rock (a good comparison is fellow Vancouver residents Wake Owl). My current favourite is the title track, with its catchy sing-a-long chorus. Listen above and then buy the EP, it’s worth it for that artwork alone.

Brian Payne – Brian Payne

Colorado-based singer/songwriter Brian Payne has just released a self-titled EP and I like it a lot. Stream my current favourite track, ‘Where the Good Folks Shine’ below, and then head over to Bandcamp and get the EP for just $4.

Wes Tirey – Home Recording

Last but not least is a new release from Wes Tirey (who we spoke to back in August). Home Recordings is an album of solo, improvised, experimental guitar stuff (and some super-weird noise stuff – see ‘Her Name Was Jackie’). It was released by Orange Milk Records and available as a digital download or on cassette tape via Bandcamp.

The post Feet On The Ground: Vol 5 appeared first on Various Small Flames.

Hi Wes, I hope all is well with you? How is life in North Carolina this time of year?

Hey Jon! Thank you for inviting me for a Q&A. All is pretty well here in North Carolina. Summer’s coming to a close, and I’m getting ready for my final semester. I’m going camping with my best friend next weekend for a booze filled last hurrah –– then I’ll have my nose stuck in a book for 4 months.

You self-released your new EP, I Stood Among Trees, last February. How exactly did it come about?

Before going into the studio to record I Stood Among Trees I had a couple of years where I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do with my music. I wasn’t playing out much, and I was struggling with writing lyrics (though I was writing a lot of instrumental pieces, most of which will be on an upcoming release with Orange Milk Records). Finally I realized that it was taking a huge toll on me and forced myself to get one new song I was satisfied with –– so I wrote “The Time Leaves So Soon” over a couple of days. Not too long after that I wrote “Wild Beasts.” I talked to a buddy of mine who worked at Echo Mountain Recording in Asheville about getting in for a couple of sessions and he hooked me up with a deal. We busted out the EP in two marathon sessions. (In fact, I went in to record two EP’s, but ended up scrapping everything but “When Your Eyes See The Valley,” which eventually ended up on I Stood Among Trees.) Being in the studio is always stressful, mostly because of money, but Echo Mountain is an incredible studio, so it was definitely worth it. I was also writing my thesis at the time. (I should mention that the EP will be re-released in the near future on the German label Dying for Bad Music. It’ll contain some bonus home demo tracks, as well.)

In my review of the EP I mentioned a fantastic piece on Hearth Music, where you write about a few of the songs (and answered a lot of the questions I would have otherwise asked). For ‘Final Resting Place’ you explained that you half-wrote a song while driving home and that news of the market crashing upon your return caused you to sit down and finish it off with this new event in mind. This may be an internal, unexplainable feeling, but how do you decide to change a song rather than write a new one? Can a song that was drastically altered due to some mood or occurrence ever revert to its original form when you play live?

Well, until a song is actually finished it’s always a work in progress. I had the apocalyptic motif in mind as I was writing “Final Resting Place” in my head, and the market crash of 08 was just a continuation of that. For me, songs either come really fast –– done in 20, 30 minutes –– or over the course of a couple days, sometimes a week or two if I’m really patient with it.

The song will be done in that the lyrics and the chords are complete, but a song always changes a bit every time you play it. I’ve never tried revising a song before. I’ve thought about trying it, though, just to see what would happen.

But when a song comes, I always recognize where it’s coming from. Sometimes a new song will pop up in the midst of writing one song, but I never think about mixing them –– even if they’re from a similar place, they’re still not from the exact same place.

You also mentioned in that Hearth Music piece that the track ‘Wild Beasts’ was inspired partly by Cormac McCarthy’s Blood Meridian. I hadn’t really heard the song in that way, but now going back and listening with a context (if that makes sense), the imagery seems obvious. Does literature have a great influence on your writing in general, or just on certain songs?

and…

What else influences your music? I guess other songwriters play a big part? Is there anything else you would cite as a big part of your sound?

Literature’s certainly a big influence. Sometime’s a particular text informs part of a song, sometimes all of it. Sometimes I seek out a text just because I think it’ll inspire a song. I’ll be releasing a new EP soon titled “False Idols” that has a couple songs that I wrote after reading biblical texts: The Book of Ezekiel and The Gospel of Judas. I just thought I’d like to write about them –– so I read them for the sole purpose of writing about them. But almost every text I read I try to keep in mind how I can appropriate something for a song.

The songs I’m writing currently for a future full-length are literary in that they have a bit of a consistent fictional narrative, though it’s all completely real and factual.

The philosophy influence comes out a little differently. I tend to have an environmental bent to my lyrics, and that comes from really thinking about radical perception and awareness. Even the most minute perception can spark a song. I try to develop every song in it’s only locale or geography, it’s own place, so that I can step into it. I know some songwriters like to keep themselves outside of their own songs; I can’t do that. I have to be in it entirely, otherwise I don’t see the point.

Certain painters or paintings aren’t a huge influence, but they’re influential, as well. I love Jackson Pollock and Andrew Wyeth. Most people would deem them radically different painters, but I think they wade in the same waters. Sometimes I think “how do I write a song like ‘Christina’s World?’” and try to figure it out.

One line of the Hearth Music piece which really stood out was that ‘Finally Resting Place’ (which is probably my favourite, for what it’s worth) nearly missed the cut for the EP as you weren’t convinced with your vocal performance. Is the vocal side of things the part you find most difficult? You study philosophy, read fiction, work at a writing centre on campus and the instrumental pieces show that you can obviously play. Is your voice where you suffer a lack of confidence? Does singing come naturally to you? Or is it a forced, necessary evil to bind together your music and your writing? And I don’t mean this in terms of vocal talent (I don’t think there are people who can or cannot sing), but rather do you feel a compulsion to sing in the way you do to play and write?

I first started out as a guitar player, and then when I started writing songs, singing just became part of the job. I had never really sang before, but I had the words, so I had to sing them. (Listening to some of those old songs is torture, though.) I don’t think it’s a matter of confidence for me (though I by no means have much of a range) –– whenever I perform live I settle into everything pretty comfortably. Plus I like to sing.

In the tradition I come out of, though, none of the greats are much of a singer anyways –– it’s more of an emotive quality, which is what I’m after, anyways. I heard an interview with Leonard Cohen where he said that he told his manager before going on stage for his first show that he had no clue what he was doing. His manager told him that they were all terrible singers. That made me happy to hear that.

The vocal performance is always in service of the lyrics. The lyrics are the most important part of the song, so I just want the vocals to fit with them. But I’m not really bothered at all that my songs aren’t that melodious. I write songs not melodies.

You put up the lyrics for the EP on your Bandcamp page. This is something that I like as I feel it lets me look closer at a song and find deeper meanings (be they intentional on your part or not). However I recently saw another musician (I can’t find the quote now) say that he didn’t really like sharing the lyrics as he felt they prevented the listener from developing their own ideas about the song, which is pretty much the flipside of my opinion to reach the same end. Do you make a considered decision to let us listeners read your words as well as hear them? Do you want the songs to be writing too? Or is it more a case of the option is there so you copy them in without much deliberation?

I don’t understand why a songwriter wouldn’t want to share their lyrics. That’s odd –– but to each their own. The lyrics are so essential to the song, and there is indeed a definite meaning or story behind each song, otherwise I wouldn’t write them (even if the listener walks away with a different meaning), so I feel like I have to present the lyrics. Again, that’s where the most thought goes into the songwriting process. Of course I think about the guitar and vocals, but it’s all in service of the lyrics. In the end, the complete song is a mixture of all these different things that form a whole, but it’s all born out of a line or two of lyrics.

With the help of your fans (via an Indiegogo campaign), you hope to tour Italy next winter. Can you elaborate on your plans? What do you plan to do there? Why exactly Italy?

April Wolfe of Common Folk Music does my PR, and she got the EP a review on the blog The Mad Mackerel soon after it was released. Giuseppe Marmina, who does a hundred different things in the music scene in Italy read the review, bought the EP, and offered to do some PR help in Italy. Next thing I know, I’m getting radio play and the EP’s getting reviewed on some popular blogs and webzines. The response was so well that I thought it’d be smart to go over and play some shows. I got in touch with some folks and eventually Alessio Pomponi of Unplugged in Monti put together a weeklong tour for January 2014. Alessio and the venues have been so incredibly kind with helping put the tour together –– it’s really something else.

Philosophy student/writing center tutor/songwriter doesn’t exactly equal financial stability, so I’m seeking some help for the airfare. People can check out the campaign to see what perks they get for contributing. I’m beyond grateful and thankful for any and all contributions.

Finally, could you name 4-5 artists that you are enjoying at the moment?

I’ve been listening to Michael Hurley, Bill Callahan, and Mickey Newbury religiously the last few weeks. Mickey Newbury is especially blowing my mind –- his songs are so heartbreaking. Other than that, I’ve been listening to a lot of Roscoe Holcomb and Elizabeth Cotten; some sacred harp here and there, plus an Orange Milk Records release called “Engines of Joy” by Maharadja Sweets –– good lord will that blow your mind. There’s also a song on a Dust-to-Digital collection I listen to over and over called “I’m Dying, Mother” than just kills me every time I listen to it. It damn near brings me to tears.

Jon: Make sure you check out the EP and keep an eye out on Dying For Bad Music for the re-release. If you have a bit of spare change then why not help Wes go to Italy in exchange for nice gifts? Also, you may be interested in this DIYtrotter session from HI54LOFI.

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