Part 2

When you're in the studio to record a piece, how important is the actual performance and the moment of performing the song still in an age where so much can be “done and fixed in post?“
 
It’s the only thing of any importance to me at all. It’s so intimate and undeniable. It’s the difference between truth and utter BS. It’s sharing time versus wasting time.

So yes, so much can be done in post (and I’ve been know to go down the Photoshop rabbit hole as a graphic designer so I get that); but done to what? Fixing what? The “what” still has to be there … It’s the entire point, at least for me!

So if it’s just not happening, I’m the first to admit it, take a step back or say “let’s try this again tomorrow.” Not every day is going to be the day you hit your personal best but that’s perfectly ok - because we’re always learning.

Plus, how else can we gauge when we’ve really left it all out there?

Once a piece is finished, how important is it for you to let it lie and evaluate it later on? How much improvement and refinement do you personally allow until you're satisfied with a piece? What does this process look like in practise?
 
It completely varies. Sometimes you know it’s just “there” and you should leave it alone before you ruin it by overthinking or diluting your original intention. But other pieces have taken me literally since I was a teenager to evolve and complete. Whatever it takes!

You know when it’s complete and it’s more than a gut feeling; it’s the impulse to step back and not just put the paintbrush down, but to actually wash it off - because you know know you’ve said it how you want to. Art is after all a conversation.

You can still improve and refine a song in live performance but a recording is ultimately a snapshot of it captured in time. It’s ok for them to be different and for the energy to change. I just put a song on my new record - "Deepest Dark" - that I wrote when I was 14. But it just didn’t make sense to me emotionally until last year when I binge-watched “Stranger Things”.



Sometimes we have to step back from something we create before we fully understand it. Thankfully songs don’t expire. ;)

Even recording a solo song is usually a collaborative process. Tell me about the importance of trust between the participants, personal relationships between musicians and engineers and the freedom to perform and try things – rather than gear, technique or “chops” - for creating a great song.
 
I love recording in the studio because there’s a very different kind of electric energy that happens when you’re playing with bandmates live I but also have the safety of knowing you can do another take.

I love how one person might make a mistake technically and think they might have messed up ... but when you listen to it as a whole there’s a vibe, a feeling that everyone was cued into the same overall feeling or just very attuned to the dynamics of the song.

The studio is a microcosm for society in many ways - but most enjoyable for me is the way that we all have to give and take and let each other step out, have moments to be heard and to shine, while also serving a common good, ideally. You try things, you experiment, you have rules but you also have freedom.

Trust and relationships are crucial and thankfully I play with my best friends so I’m very very lucky!

What's your take on the role and importance of production, including mixing and mastering for you personally? In terms of what they contribute to a song, what is the balance between the composition and the arrangement (performance)?  
 
I love this question because I am a producer and have been most of my life so again for me it’s a language unto itself.

I think production is best when it serves the material. But that said there are infinite ways you can produce any given track so then it becomes a question of personal taste and for me that’s what’s so exciting. Just like no one else has the same voice as I do, no one has the same vision either.

A vision can be strict or lose, highly individual or extremely collaborative. But ultimately it is what gives the composition its frame. Some frames are simple and plain and others are ornate and as detailed as the composition. The range of understanding how production can help or hinder and navigating that gracefully is an artful I absolutely love exploring and constantly learning more about.

I have a tendency to always want to add more but on a good day I’m able to admit when something needs to be stripped away for the benefit of the song. I’ve had some great mentors - Grammy-winning producer / engineers like Kevin Killen and Andy Zulla - and for that I’m very grateful!

After finishing a piece or album and releasing something into the world, there can be a sense of emptiness. Can you relate to this – and how do you return to the state of creativity after experiencing it?
 
I usually feel a sense of urgency to get back to creating after completing a big project.

But touring is something I also love to do so thankfully it forces me to “smell the roses”, connect with actual human beings who have their own anecdotes and stories to share with me after the shows, and generally force me to strike a balance between hibernating and actually connecting. Some people are fine to only do the former but for me I love the balance and fully trust that when I need to, I’ll write and compose again.

It can be scary if months go by without any new songs percolating - you start to wonder if you’ve forgotten how - but as they say, “a watched pot never boils”. Life has to be lived as well as chronicled, and it’s for me personally, it’s from the doing that creative reflection and distillation comes.