Posts in Vagrant Records
Eric Earley, Blitzen Trapper
Eric Earley, Blitzen Trapper

Wanna be a writer? Easy: read and write. All the time. You can't be a good writer if you don't read. Most songwriters I interview are voracious readers, but I don't know anyone I've interviewed who fits that idea more than Blitzen Trapper's Eric Earley. 

When I asked Earley if he was a disciplined writer, if he was able to sit down and make himself write for a stretch, he told me no. That's a common response to this question, and it's mostly framed as a wistful But I really wish I had that discipline. Earley's reason is different: he doesn't have discipline because he doesn't need it. He writes all the time. He never sees writing as someone that he should do. Instead, it's something he loves to do. In fact, his problem now is that his love for writing may occupy too much of his time. "It's more about scaling back and finding times to do other things," he told me. To wit: Earley has written five novels that he has no plans to publish. And he's always reading. When we talked, he was reading three books at the same time. The result? A songwriter who loves to tell stories, and whose process seems, from an outsider's perspective, to come pretty easily. But that's my point: when Earley isn't writing songs, words consume his life in some other fashion.

Read More
Vagrant Records, Sub Pop Records, Alt CountryBen OpipariComment
Dallas Green, City and Colour
Dallas Green, City and Colour

Many people believe that words flow effortlessly from the pens of great writers. These writers, people think, can just sit down and churn out page after page of prose, poetry, or whatever it is they are writing. But this is fantasy. Good writing is hard. Heck, if it were easy, the world would be filled with great writers.

For most of us, writing can be a struggle. Dallas Green, who writes and records under the name City and Colour, told me that since his last album If I Should Go Before You in 2015, he's only written a handful of songs, an unusually low number for him. Green is, by his own admission, a slow writer anyway, due to partly to fear. "I've always had this fear that I'm so scared to write the wrong thing down, even though the only way to get to the right thing is to first write the wrong thing down.  And it's a real problem because I keep everything up in my head until I feel like I've got it. It's almost like I'm afraid to force it, so I never force it. That really slows my process," he told me when we talked. But while he thinks often about why the words have been slow in coming, I didn't get the sense that he's too concerned. He recently took two months off from music, and while he imagined that he'd writing something during that time, he didn't. "I'm comfortable not feeling the need to get in the studio," he said. 

Read More
Alternative, Folk Rock, Dine Alone Records, Vagrant RecordsBen OpipariComment
Adam Turla, Murder By Death (2011)
Adam Turla, Murder By Death (2011)

If you go back to the first interview on this site back in June 2010, it was with Adam Turla of Murder By Death.  We talked backstage at Lincoln Hall in Chicago as he lay on a couch in the green room, the victim of a pinched nerve in his back (though you never would have known it a couple hours later watching him play).

I am an unabashed Murder By Death fan.  Turla writes some of the best lyrics around, and the band's music sounds like no one else (Turla describes them as "a rock and roll band with a little bit of country.  There’s a cello, a guy with a low voice, and some piano.  It’s music that can exist at any time. And we tell great stories.”).  I have enormous respect for the reverence with which he treats his creative process. Here's a look into that process after the video as he talks about writing for the upcoming album.

Read More
Indie Rock, Indie Folk, Indie, Vagrant Records, Bloodshot RecordsBen Opipariadam turla, magpie, murder by death Comment
Craig Finn, The Hold Steady
Craig Finn, The Hold Steady

The Hold Steady will begin writing material for their sixth album over the next few months. But Craig Finn, the band's lyricist, has probably been writing that material for a long time.  As any good writer knows, the key to become a good writer is daily practice, just like the key to being good at anything is practice.  So Finn makes a point to write every day in his journals.  Though he tries to write a song each day, a lot of what he writes is reflection: what he did that day, his thoughts on the movie he saw, or what he thinks about the book he just read. When he does write a song, he does what good writers do: he lets it sit for a while, untouched, then comes back to it later when he has a new perspective.

Read More
Vagrant Records, Alternative, Indie Rock, Post Punk, Partisan Records, InfluencersBen Opiparicrag finn, the hold steadyComment
James Vincent McMorrow
James Vincent McMorrow

James Vincent McMorrow is nothing if not patient and methodical.  A lesser songwriter might be driven crazy by the snail's pace of his writing process: it took McMorrow nearly six months to write his debut Early in the Morning (Vagrant Records).  Some days he wrote only a few sentences; on others, just a few words.  It would be easy to call this writer's block; after all, if you sit for a whole day and only write five or six sentences, surely your creative spigot is closed.

But this is all part of McMorrow's process, and here's the difference.  Any good writer will tell you that their writing process never stops.  It's happening when they eat, sleep, talk, stare, read, whatever.  The actual pen-to-paper part, the end product, is only a small part of that process. Sure, it's the most gratifying, but it's only one part of many. So it's not that McMorrow writes slowly. (Well, he might, since I've haven't seen the speed of his penmanship.)  Instead, he writes deliberately. And he's fine with that. 

Read More
Singer/Songwriter, Folk, Alternative, Vagrant RecordsBen Opipariearly in the morning, james vincent mcmorrowComment
Pete Yorn
Pete Yorn

It's not that often that a songwriter says that majoring in the humanities was the perfect preparation for being a singer/songwriter.  But that's what happened for Pete Yorn.  He was a speech communications major at Syracuse University  (it's now called "communication and rhetorical studies" there).  He had planned on going to law school and figured that a major emphasizing public speaking was good preparation.  Yorn was "petrified" of getting in front of a group, so the major helped him work through that fear and become comfortable with public performances. 

Yorn's college experience honed his songwriting skills in another way.  If you've ever spent any time near Syracuse, one image comes to mind: snow.  The area is closing in on 200 inches of snow this winter. I spent four years living in the Syracuse area. The cold and snowy winters there are soul-crushing.  But ask Yorn about his time as an undergrad at SU, and he'll tell you that if it weren't for all that snow, he might never have become a songwriter.  What others might see as limiting--the fact that you can't really go outside--Yorn saw as the perfect opportunity to stay inside and do some writing.  "I credit those winters," he says, "as a catalyst to my songwriting."

Read More
Alternative, Indie, Indie Folk, Indie Rock, Vagrant Records, Singer/SongwriterBen Opipariblack album, pete yorn, vagrant Comment
Matt Pryor, The Get Up Kids
Matt Pryor, The Get Up Kids

The Get Up Kids formed in 1995 in Kansas and were a major player in the second wave of emo. They enjoyed considerable success, both in worldwide touring and record sales, before disbanding in 2005. Relatively speaking, back then life was pretty uncomplicated for singer and guitarist Matt Pryor.  Sure, he was busy touring the world and writing music.  But at least he didn’t have kids.

The Get Up Kids have reunited for a new tour and record.  And now, Pryor is the married father of three kids ages eight and under.  His family informs—in a good way—everything he does now as a songwriter.  He is a devoted family man.  He takes the kids to school in the morning and writes when they are gone.  He puts them to bed and writes when they are asleep.  His band schedule revolves around his wife's graduate school schedule.  He’s even written two children’s records.  As the father of three kids ages seven and under, I can appreciate Pryor's life.  But as Pryor told me, people ask him, “Well why can’t you just find time to write?” To which he responds, "Unless you have kids, you just don’t understand.”

Read More
Alternative, Indie Rock, Indie, Vagrant Records, InfluencersBen Opipariemo, family, get up kids, kansas, matt pryor, the get up kids, there are rules, vagrant records Comments
Adam Turla, Murder By Death (2010)
Adam Turla, Murder By Death (2010)

We'll get the obvious out of the way.  Murder by Death is not a metal band. Not even close. In the words of songwriter/singer/guitarist Adam Turla, it's "a rock and roll band with a little bit of country.  There’s a cello, a guy with a low voice, and some piano.  It’s music that can exist at any time. And we tell great stories.”

There you have it.  Murder By Death—named after the 1976 Neil Simon movie—is a rock n’ roll band.  And a damn good one. Turla and his bandmates met at Indiana University.  A religious studies and English major, Turla has been obsessed with the craft of writing since his college days, when he started writing poetry.  A self-professed lover of the classics, Turla can dish about everyone from Hemingway to Gabriel Garcia Marquez with the best of ‘em.

Read More
Bloodshot Records, Vagrant Records, Indie, Indie Folk, Indie RockBen Opipariadam turla, bloomington, cello, dagan thogerson, matt armstrong, mbd, murder by death, sarah balliet, turla, vagrant, vagrant recordsComment