Could you share the story behind your latest song and what inspired its creation?
“Rocket Rider” is a fun, funky tune about a one-night stand. We were finishing it up in the studio and I said something like, “What this song needs is a harmonica thing like that guy John Popper from Blues Traveler.” Somebody in the studio said, “Well, why don’t you just get John Popper?” So we did! And he did great job. The current single is the live version of that song, from my new live album. It’s from a show we did in Union Square in New York City.
How do you approach the process of songwriting, and are there any specific themes or emotions you tend to explore in your music?
Believe it or not, I actually try NOT to write songs! When “the muse” strikes, I try to resist it, and only if an idea really seems so good that it overwhelms me and will not be denied, then I’ll give it a chance and follow it through. It sounds like a pessimistic approach, but it’s my attempt at quality control. I don’t want to have a hundred songs with only ten of them being any good. If it ain’t gonna be the best I can do, you ain’t ever gonna hear it!
As far as themes or emotions, as long as it if affects and motivates me, I’ll see it through, whatever the emotion or mood or theme is.
As an indie musician, how do you navigate the balance between creative freedom and commercial appeal?
Musically I’ve recently begun living in two different worlds. First, there’s the music I’ll officially release, then there’s a whole other batch of music I’ll be working on for film and TV that’s totally different. I used to just take my existing songs and try to find film and TV licensing opportunities for them. I still do that, but if you want to be successful at the licensing game, you have to offer a lot of different things for whatever the situation calls for. My brand of music isn’t always what those folks are looking for in their projects, so I spend a lot of time producing tracks that you would never imagine me doing, stylistically and sonically.
In many cases, I also have alternate versions of the same song, one for each “world.” It was a bit of a schizophrenic existence at first, but I find it liberating now; you don’t have to force your song into being something it doesn’t want to be just to work in some other context. Creating a variant of it lets you just leave “your” version of it the way it is. You can have it both ways. And then live, of course, you can do anything you want. Sometimes the live version will be a combination of the two that’s more suited to getting people off who came to see a show.
What do you find most challenging about being an independent artist in today’s music industry?
More than ever, this is a branding game. People only like what they know, and for decades, multi-national conglomerates have basically spent tons of money buying hits. That’s a really diplomatic and polite way of saying “payola”, which may be an antiquated term, but it’s certainly not obsolete. The delivery platforms may have changed, and some of the paradigms have shifted, but there is still no escaping the simple laws of supply and demand. The corporations that are tacitly deciding what you’ll hear the most on streaming playlists this week are pretty much the same ones who were stuffing cash into record sleeves fifty and sixty years ago.
As far as I’m concerned, there are really only two types of music; that which is promoted, and that which isn’t. As an independent with limited means and minimal exposure, you can have the greatest song in the world, but even the few people who might actually hear it will not take you as seriously as they would someone who’s “famous.” It’s a perception thing. You can read about how the small independent labels were complaining about this in the 1960s and the 1970s, and it really hasn’t changed. As an independent, how can you compete with that?
Can you talk about your experiences collaborating with other artists or musicians? How does it influence your creative process?
The most recent collaboration I did was with John Popper of Blues Traveler, on the “Rocket Rider” single, which we already talked about. Right now I’m re-mixing a track I cut a while ago with one of my favorite singers and songwriters, Juliana Riccardi. She lives in Los Angeles now, but I met her and started working with her when we were both living in New York City. Her regular guitar player couldn’t do a gig and referred me to fill in at the last minute; she came over and we met and hastily prepared a set of her songs the day before the gig.
She wanted to do one cover tune; Tim Hardin‘s “If I Were A Carpenter” – a song that goes all the way back to the sixties. She picked the key and the tempo and the overall vibe, and it felt so good and went over so well, I suggested we record it as a duet. That track has been laying around for a while, but friends who’ve heard it have called me an idiot for not releasing it, so I’m going to include it on a new album this summer.
What role does technology and social media play in promoting your music and connecting with your audience?
I tend to focus more on the live front there, promoting shows and special events. I’ll tell you one thing I DON’T do (that you’re supposed to do) – I do NOT post something ten frigging times a day just to feed the social media beast.
I see people – in many cases, very talented people whom I respect – doing that all the time, and I know the game; they post things constantly for the sake of “triggering the algorithm” or whatever. I don’t work for “the algorithm.” I don’t work for Zuckerberg or anybody else, either. If I’m losing out on market share with the six-second-attention-span crowd, so be it. Some of those talented folks I mentioned, yeah, you’re great, but I just don’t wanna hear it anymore. More is STILL less, man.
Are there any particular artists or genres that have had a significant impact on your musical style?
Wow, too many to list! I come from a musical family and was exposed to all kinds of music. I also got started real early, and learned a lot of different instruments. So because of all that, I would say I’ve been influenced to some degree by virtually everything I’ve ever encountered.
The earliest stuff I heard was vintage country music, and I can personally still hear that in everything I do. But I’m a real chameleon; I’ll go through phases and be really into old R&B for a while, and then spend a few dys with my head in hard rock, then hip-hop and pop…I think I’ve developed a pretty serious multi-personality disorder, which has been a hindrance at times. When you can’t decide what you want to do or be because you like everything, that might make you versatile, but it also makes you a marketing and branding nightmare.
Indie musicians often have a close relationship with their fanbase. How do you engage with your fans and build a dedicated community around your music?
I think it’s what I don’t do – offer up the same thing to every audience. Sure, there are standard parameters to anybody’s show, but I see a lot of musicians just going out there and doing a cookie-cutter set, the same thing every night. I really try to be aware of who’s in the audience and I try to pick up on their vibe and read them, and I’ve gotten pretty good at cultivating a unique experience each night based on that. Often, I’ll even do some “reverse heckling”, like a comedian would do with someone out front. It’s almost like you’re an emcee in addition to being a performer. I think people are looking for that.
They’ll leave those clues for you, you just have to pay attention and pick up on them. Just last week I had one guy come see me three nights in a row in South Carolina and Georgia, and he said he enjoyed the fact that he didn’t see the same show twice. Every gig is an opportunity to create something unique with the audience.
Could you describe a memorable live performance experience or tour that has had a lasting impact on you and your music?
I have a great self-deprecating one for you…I was playing on this big stage by the ocean in front of a large audience. It was a solo show in a setting that was probably better suited to a full-band thing, a real party vibe, but I was holding my own. I was starting to sweat a little, like maybe I wasn’t going over that well. Then, all of a sudden, the crowd roared to life and started cheering. I thought to myself “Yeah, that’s right, people, you know I got it goin’ on.”
Then I turned around and saw that this huge yacht was docking behind me. The cast of one of those “Housewives Of Wherever” TV shows, all clad in bikinis with their entourage of rappers and hard-partying hangers-on came down the ramp. One of their handlers yelled in my ear that the star of the show (I don’t remember her name, I’ve never seen those shows) wanted to sing a duet with me. I said “sure.”
I just went with it. I don’t even remember what we sang together, but the whole thing was so bizarre and surreal that I couldn’t stop laughing – especially at myself. I guess the lesson is, every time you start thinking you’re Mr. Big Thing, life will find a way to suggest otherwise and humble you.
In an era of streaming platforms, how do you feel about the changing landscape of music consumption and its impact on independent musicians?
All the social media and streaming stuff works if you use it right. They are supposed to be discovery platforms. Learn how to make them work for you. If you decide they don’t work for you at all, then don’t use them. But if you just hand over all your work to them for free and then bitch about how you’re supposedly being “ripped off”, that’s your fault, not Spotify’s. And if people claim to be your “fans” but don’t respect your work enough to pay for it, that’s their fault, not Google’s.
Everyone says, “No one buys music anymore.” That’s actually not true. What is true, sadly, is that most musicians don’t SELL it anymore. That’s the real problem. I use social media and streaming to sell my music on my own platform (my website) and at shows. Yeah, there’ll be some free stuff and some giveaways, but that’s in a limited promotional capacity.
There seems to be a lot of passivity and helplessness and group-think out there. The whole recorded music market just collapsed so quickly that I guess musicians just don’t really know what to do once they’ve created something, what the next step is, and I understand that. They just want to be liked. But man, being liked and having your work respected are two completely different things. If someone doesn’t want to pay for your music, well OK. But once YOU set the price at zero, there’s no going back. The price is always going to be…zero.