Part 2

I have always considered many forms of music to be a form of poetry as well. Where do you personally see similarities? What can music express which may be out of reach for poetry?

I think similar to what I just touched on in the last question. Music adds a second component to the expression. We are listening to/reading the words in front of us, we are processing what they are saying and forming our own connections and responses. But then along with that music adds a second emotional response elicited by the musical elements. This can come in multiple tiers:

Harmonic and melodic choices that reflect the emotion that’s meant to be conveyed. A major triad is happy, a major triad with a major 7 on top feels happy and also a little adventurous sometimes sensual. Add a 9 to that and it feels hopeful, beautiful, in love. This idea and harmonic analysis can be taken with every possible harmonic choice and it’s all on a scale from augmented (transitory, questioning, hopeful) major (happy) to minor (sad) to diminished (angry, painful, transitory) . This is all in relation to harmony vs dissonance and how we interpret those sounds based on the harmonic series.

The chord choices contextually in relation to each other and in relation to the story and it’s flow. Chords can harmonically tell you their own story, tell you what’s about to happen next and where they go in relation to each other is a whole other layer of added feeling.

Nostalgia. There’s a reason we all love those same three chords so much. Harmonically they make us feel good because they’re all diatonic and they resonate perfectly together. But also, this feeling is familiar, it’s in all the songs we’ve loved for generations and centuries starting with the beginnings of music with Gregorian chant and later on Bach: Prelude and Fugue in C major by Bach.

Our parents listened to "Paradise" by John Prine, "Helpless" by Neil Young, "Don’t Stop Believing" by Journey, "Living on a Prayer" by Bon Jovi, "I Will Always Love you" by Whitney Houston/Dolly Parton, the list goes on.



It’s generational, its the same sounds used over and over again in a way that’s unique to the song but still the same harmony that gives us that familiar feeling that we’ve had over our entire time on this earth with music.

On the basis of a piece off your most recent release, tell me about how the lyrics grew into their final form and what points of consideration were.

“Wasted” was a song I wanted to write to let people know that they weren’t alone by fleshing out a feeling it seemed we had all been dealing with in the current social climate.



It came from the idea of how our society operates especially in the western world through capitalism, materialism and consumerism. How those environments aren’t conducive to the one thing we know we need emotionally as humans which is: connection and care to ourselves and others. It came from my own struggles with hustle culture, the anxiety we now feel when we try to rest. The thought that rest is not productive.

The lyrics start by describing my own experience, where I’m very much in these emotions and paralyzed in this state of anxiety. The chorus goes on to a more comforting, logical voice that states more generally “all we are, arcane hearts, trying to fill a room with conversation, lost in love, uneven.” which gives you a feeling of how we’re all lost trying to make our way in a world that we created but that doesn’t seem to suit us.

The second verse goes on to describe a moment in love and how even there we would never want to waste this person’s time. How time has become currency, where in reality time can’t really be wasted. Every moment means something to the next.

The bridge describes the bustle of the city running to the next task to stay ahead, stay current, stay afloat, until you’ve run your whole life away. Then goes on to say at the summers end I better move on, touching on an artists lifestyle of constant movement and instability while also drawing parallels between that change of season and having to constantly stay busy to keep up with the anxiety that you’re not doing enough.

I'd love to know how you think the meaning or effect of an individual song is enhanced, clarified or possibly contradicted by the EPs, or albums it is part of. Does the song, for example, need to be consistent with the larger whole?

I think “Reel Me” In is the biggest departure on the album. It’s a song I wrote when I was younger about being groomed by older men in the music community.



I felt it should be released as young women have told me that they connect to it and they can use it as a way to release their own rage or trauma. Production wise, we made sure that it still fit it’s way into the vibe of the EP. But it was written about 9 years ago now.

I think it’s important that an album have some cohesiveness to it unless it’s very intentionally not cohesive at all. But I also like to play many different genres so that often leads to fusion of genres and new ideas, I try to let the vibe come about naturally instead of intentionally putting myself in a box and setting out to keep the vibe consistent.

I think often an artist's direction just comes from practice and natural tendencies as opposed to a decision to go in a specific direction.

When you're writing song lyrics, do you sense or see a connection between your voice and the text? Does it need to feel and sound “good” or “right” to sing certain words? What's your perspective in this regard of singing someone else's songs versus your own?

My voice is almost always the speaker in my lyrics. It results in the performance of my songs being often very cathartic and emotional for me as I re-process the emotions I’ve written about. I hold a lot of grief and that is a part of me that will always be there. So performing my songs often gives it the attention and release it needs to help me move forward in my life.

Singing someone else’s lyrics I love as well in a different way. The nostalgia element comes in for me, memories of whatever that song connects to in my life, what the lyrics mean to me, and the person that wrote them and my love of them as an artist. It can also be a way to let go and have fun by playing a song that I actually don’t connect to emotionally but that is fun to play and that people love.

As an example I used to play “Highway to Hell” by ACDC. That in turn creates a different kind of emotional experience, it feels good because everyone in the room is currently having fun with you, everyone knows the words and has their own emotional attachment to it. And it’s just downright silly.



I would love to know a little about the feedback you've received from listeners or critics about what they thought some of your songs are about – have there been “misunderstandings” or did you perhaps even gain new “insights?”

I haven’t received much feedback regarding misinterpretations of my lyrics as I think they are pretty straightforward if you spend some time with them. But I have had people ask me about the story behind “Alder” a lot.

Also, my friend thought I was saying “otter” which I thought was great. I wonder what would happen if you were to follow an otter home.



Creativity can reach many different corners of our lives. Do you feel as though writing song lyrics or poetry is inherently different from something like making a great cup of coffee? What do you express through music that you couldn't or wouldn't in more 'mundane' tasks?

I think it’s different in that it’s more of a release. Making a great cup of coffee feels good, you’ve completed a task, check, you’ve made something, check, you’re being an adult and making a choice to sustain yourself, check.

But writing is a different kind of success and release because of how personal it is. Making coffee is a surface kind of success and accomplishment, you probably aren’t emotionally attached to it. But writing on the surface you are: doing a task, check, working, check, being productive check.

But you are also processing really heavy emotions, connecting to your true self and doing the laborious task of sorting out who you are and what you want from life.