Interviews

Tim Kasher, Cursive

Tim Kasher of Cursive is a multidisciplinary writer: he writes songs, but he also writes screenplays and short stories. It's no surprise that the process of songwriting and the process of writing long form pieces influence each other. What does surprise me, though, is that the process of the former has made him more disciplined when it comes to the latter: Kasher has long been able to sit for long stretches and write songs, something that's more common to fiction writers. Then again, Kasher's songwriting process is somewhat unconventional: this a guy whose ideas come best in the morning after a good night's sleep. That's rare among the 120+ songwriters I've interviewed, most of whom say they work best in the late hours of the night. The phrase "in the morning after a good night's sleep" is not often associated with indie songwriters.

Alternative, Folk Rock, Indie Rock, Saddle Creek RecordsBen OpipariJune 14, 2012cursive, i am gemini, saddle creek, tim kasherComment

Derek Miller, Sleigh Bells

"You asked me how I was doing at the beginning of the interview and I said I was good, so can I retract that and say that I'm well?" asked Derek Miller of Sleigh Bells when I told him that I used to be an English professor. He explained that his 7th grade English teacher told his class that if anyone said, "I did good," he'd make them write "I did well" hundreds of times. On one hand, that's a horrible teaching technique. But let's look on the bright side: it was good practice for Miller, who creates all the time, everywhere, wherever he can.

My interest in interviewing Miller was piqued after reading the recent Sleigh Bells cover story in Spin magazine. He touched on his creative process a bit there, but I was taken by the intensity with which he approaches it. And when he told me that he's an enormous Henry Miller fan, I was not surprised; Derek's music and Henry's writing are both intense sensory experiences.

Indie, Indie Rock, Noise Pop, Mom + Pop RecordsBen OpipariMay 8, 2012alexis, alexis krauss, allison krauss, crush, derek miller, kraus, reign of terror, sleigh bells, treatsComment

Catherine Pierce, The Pierces

The sisters Catherine and Allison Pierce make up The Pierces. With a musician for a father and a painter for a mother, they've been around some form of art all their lives, so it's no surprise that Catherine has always been creative. She writes songs, she loves to paint, she's an accomplished ballerina, and she's even a creative writer. When it comes to inspiration, she takes the active route; in her words, she's "always looking for the muse." As a result, the initial inspiration for a song doesn't come from a melody; instead, it usually comes from a random line that pops into her head. The inspiration for their song "Secrets," for example, came from a Ben Franklin quote that she saw on a t-shirt in a restaurant.

Psych Rock, Pop, AlternativeBen OpipariApril 19, 2012allison pierce, birmingham, catherine pierce, coldplay, secrets, the pierces Comments

Ben Kweller

Ben Kweller is a busy man. When we talked, he'd just gotten off the road; like the good husband and father that he is, Kweller was cleaning his closets when the phone rang. Since Kweller has two young kids, he's usually up early, which was why our interview was at the ungodly-for-touring-musicians hour of 10am. But this is Kweller's personality, and it's this limitless energy that makes him such a great songwriter. He finds creative inspiration in everything from hiking to taking his kids to the park to visiting art galleries. (Although, as you'll read, he writes best in Australian hotel rooms.)

ATO Records, Indie Folk, Indie, Indie RockBen OpipariApril 10, 2012Ben Kweller, Go Fly A KiteComment

Kurt Wagner, Lambchop

Salon magazine recently called Kurt Wagner of Lambchop the "greatest working American songwriter." But Wagner is not only a terrific songwriter, he's also one hell of a painter who has received considerable notice for his talents as a visual artist. In fact, Wagner was a painter before he was ever a songwriter (he has both an undergraduate degree and a graduate degree in sculpture). And these two creative endeavors constantly inform the other: not only do their processes overlap, but a visit to an art gallery might inspire Wagner to write a song. In that sense, then, this is not just an interview with songwriter. It's an interview with an artist.

Alt Country, Merge Records, InfluencersBen OpipariMarch 1, 2012kurt wagner, lambchop, merge records, mr- mComment

Adam Thompson, We Were Promised Jetpacks

We Were Promised Jetpacks' second album In the Pit of the Stomachrepresented a bit of a departure for the band's songwriter, Adam Thompson. He wrote their first album These Four Walls in a rather spontaneous fashion: not paying too much attention to the lyrics, just playing the music and, in his words, sometimes "mumbling anything to get the song done." The lyrics were almost an afterthought.

But that changed with Pit, because with this second album came expectations from the music world that were absent from their debut. After all, you don't get that "it's time to make another album" feeling before you've ever done anything. So Thompson's lyrical process, and in turn its content, became more deliberate: though he still never sits down with the express idea of writing a song, on Pit Thompson tried to string together themes across the songs while spending more time on his laptop crafting the words (and drinking some good rum, I might add).

Fat Cat Records, Post Punk, Indie Rock, IndieBen OpipariJanuary 11, 2012adam thomspon, in the pit of the stomach, we were promised jetpacks, wwpjComment

Adam Granduciel, The War on Drugs

After talking to Adam Granduciel from The War on Drugs, I want to thank his utility company for still sending him a paper bill each month. You see, Granduciel eschews the traditional notebook favored by most songwriters as the place to write his lyrics. Instead, he uses scraps of any paper lying around, which oftens happens to be the back of retail receipts, parking tickets, and electric bills. He piles these scraps into a heap on the table in his studio (and warns his girlfriend that it isn't trash), where they form the basis for his songwriting.

What I found most interesting about Granduciel's process is that he favors imperfection. As a teenager, he was immersed in photography and painting, and just as he does in those creative endeavors, he finds that the "unintentional little mistakes" that emerge from the creative process of songwriting often produce the best work. Those scraps of paper I mentioned above only contain lyrical ideas, because Granduciel tends to hold lyrics in his head and "write" them in that space until he's ready to sing them. He doesn't do much revising: much of what you hear in his recordings is a first take improvisation after the lyrics have stewed in his head. With "Brothers," for example, eighty percent of the lyrics were improvised; it went, in his words, "from nothing to something in six minutes."

Indie Rock, Indie, Psych Rock, Americana, Secretly CanadianBen OpipariDecember 16, 2011adam granduciel, kurt vile, slave ambient, the war on drugsComment

Nils Lofgren, Bruce Springsteen's E Street Band

When talking about his songwriting process, Nils Lofgren, guitarist for Bruce Springsteen's E Street Band, espouses a view shared by successful long-form writers. To many of them, writer's block is merely a failure of courage: it happens when writers expect perfection whenever they put pen to paper. They're afraid to write badly. But any good writer will tell you that you cannot be afraid to write badly, because writing badly makes you better. Some writing is better than no writing, and with work you can turn bad writing into better writing. If you wait for perfection, you won't get much accomplished.

Rock n Roll Hall of Fame, Influencers, Roots RockBen OpipariDecember 8, 2011 Comments

Meshell Ndegeocello

What do John Bonham and Meshell Ndegeocello have in common? They've both used hotel rooms for creative expression through some unique rearranging of the furniture. Ok, so there is a bit of a difference. Bonham and the rest of Led Zeppelin trashed their rooms in the name of hedonism. But Ndegeocello tastefully moves the furniture in her hotel room to reclaim the space as her own. By doing so, she's able to create her ideal writing environment, an environment that often gets its best use at 3am. To craft her song lyrics, Ndegeocello draws on what she calls the constantly moving "image factory" in her mind.

The ten-time Grammy nominee has a new album, released November 8, called Weather. She's on tour now supporting it. Ndegeocello's creative output is staggering in its excellence, and the critical acclaim throughout her career is universal in its praise. Read my interview with Ndegeocello after the video.

Funk, Hip Hop, Jazz, InfluencersBen OpipariNovember 12, 2011meshell ndegeocello, weather Comment

Juliette Commagere

If you happen to be eating in a restaurant and see Juliette Commagere suddenly get up from her table, notebook or iPhone in hand, and rush to the bathroom, don't be alarmed. She's in the middle of her writing process. And if you are a fan of Commagere's music, you'd be wise not to follow her in. Because she writes best when she's alone.

According to Commagere, a major shift in the inspiration phase of her writing process took place a few years ago, when she became more open to observing everything around her, not just certain things. In short, she became hypersensitive to her surroundings. That means, then, that if she hears or sees something in a restaurant that might serve as a catalyst to a song, she's going to get up and go to the bathroom to either scribble down some lyrics or sing into her iPhone.

Ben OpipariOctober 20, 2011hello stranger, juliette commagere Comment

Chuck Ragan

Man would I love to take a look inside Chuck Ragan's piano bench. Songwriting for Ragan is an intensely personal act, a type of therapy. It's something he has to do, and he really doesn't care whether anyone sees or hears what he writes. The last thing he's thinking of is turning a piece of writing into a song. That's why, according to his estimate, probably three quarters of the stuff he's written you'll never see.

And this is where the piano bench comes into play. Ragan is always writing down ideas and thoughts everywhere he goes, usually on a notepad he stuffs in his back pocket. Then when he gets home, he opens up the bench and adds those scraps of paper to the growing pile already there. Some of those scraps have been there for over five years. And that's where a lot of his song ideas originate.

Folk Rock, Punk, Rock, SideOneDummy RecordsBen OpipariOctober 19, 2011chuck ragan, covering ground, nomad by fate, sideonedummy Comment

Franz Nicolay

After reading this interview with Franz Nicolay, you'll want to do two things: brush up on your classic works of literature and practice your detective skills. Because according to Nicolay, his songs are like puzzles: he fills them with literary references waiting to be discovered and word games waiting to be solved. Nicolay is a voracious reader, so it comes as no surprise that his lyrics contain many references to works of literature, and he's constantly mining those works for a line or a reference he can stick in a song. Given the methodical nature and intensity with which he approaches his songwriting, the depth of his lyrics comes as no surprise.

Indie Rock, PunkBen OpipariOctober 5, 2011craig finn, franz nicolay, luck and courage, the hold steadyComment

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