Artist Interview: Trouble No More for Corinne West

After more than a decade of touring the globe, California songwriter Corinne West put her guitar down, moved to Austria, and spent more than a year working on visual art. Instead of taking her away from music, the break served to bring her deeper into the creative territory she's mined on four well-received collections of original music. In 2013, she returned to the Bay Area, making a seemingly effortless transition back to where she left off: forming new collaborations with top players, showcasing at the recent FAR-West Conference, and writing a new batch of songs for what will be her fifth recording, TROUBLE NO MORE. Amidst a crowd-funding campaign to support the new work, Corinne discussed her time away from, and joyful return to, a life immersed in making music. 

Q:  After a long run of touring and living abroad, you're back living and creating in the Bay Area. How is it to be back and how is it shaping your current work?

CW: I am quite happy to be back in California, (although I do miss Austria.) My current body of songs have been deeply influenced by the year I spent in the Alpine mountains, and my experiences leading up to that time. Returning to America provided distance and space to reflect on what it meant in my life to be away from home, and what it means to have a true home away from home… which lead to the fertile ground of contemplating the meaning of home in the first place. 

Q: Tell me about your break? Did you plan it consciously or did it just evolve?

CW: In 2011, after 10 years of full-time touring, and on the back-end of a two-year duo project, I took a sabbatical from music completely and lived in a village in the Alpine mountains in Austria for 13 months. I had been moving at such a fast clip that I began to lack a connection to what I was doing and saying and feeling during performances. All the pieces were moving, yet somehow on a soul level, I wasn’t there. It was time to recalibrate and figure out what held meaning for me, and the only way to really address this was to flip the switch, and pull the entire plug out of the wall. When I stepped away from my identity as a musician it got very very quiet. In the middle of that silence I had the powerful and often difficult experience of looking myself in the eye and asking myself what it means to me to create for a living, why am I doing this - and what am I doing. 

Q: You practice multiple art forms (visual media, etc). Is there a typical rhythm to your days creating? 

CW: I am finally at a place in my life where the mediums I work in are all informing one another. If I am working on mono prints, I am infusing the work with the music I am listening to or writing. In making the new record TROUBLE NO MORE, I will be creating the artwork for the CD lending a visual reference for some of the sonic landscapes in the music. It’s all one energy with different outlets or manifestations. So to answer your question, every day holds one facet or another of creation, and the rhythm of the day is a blend of letting it unfold, and keeping in time with the tasks at hand. 

Q How was writing this collection different (or similar) to your past projects? Do you have an idea of what the songs will be about/what rhythms, etc, when you start or are you a fairly organic writer? Why did you choose Redwood Canyon to write this collection?

CW TROUBLE NO MORE has her own character for certain. Some of her songs were written in 2011 as co-writes. Then there was a huge sabbatical from music and a 13-month life in a foreign land. Then a return to music, and a return to songs that have been existing in limbo for a year. In addition, there are pieces that were written very recently, so there is an arc to the record, of time, and change. I would say this is the most intimate and directly autobiographical record I will have offered. At the same time there is a mythic cycle underneath the pieces —  the vulnerability of unity, the pain of leaving familiar ground and love, the loneliness of a desolate heart, and the diamonds gathered (for the sharing) for taking a journey into the unknown. Universal principals through one person’s experiences. It’s everywhere… I just happen to be someone who writes and sings about it. 

The songs were written in the redwoods in Marin county. This California canyon is majestic, and has an abundant history of songwriting and music, a bit like Laurel Canyon. It just seems to be in the air — when one sits to listen and write it out. 

I would have to say, yes, I am a fairly organic writer in that I don’t have a formal process at all. Being quiet and undistracted is vital. I feel the creative process once “in” it, is quite hypnotic and trance-like. I am also a hypnotherapist, and I use self-hypnosis to inform my writing. I like to go deep inside and see what can be brought to the outside. 

Q:Tell us more about what you have planned for the recording. Are dates set, studios booked? Where do you see yourself a year from now?

CW: TROUBLE NO MORE will be recorded in Berkeley. It is my hope that the recording will be wrapped by the end of December. There are some wonderful players lined up for the tunes. This is my 5th studio record, and I have never embarked on crowd-funding, but this time, it’s needed. We have been focused on the campaign so that we can get in the studio and get these songs out into the world. 

Where do I see myself a year from now? Shoot… hopefully smiling at the day with my hands deep in the next batch of fresh music. 
For more information visit http://www.corinnewest.com/

Thoughts on Yoga & Music

Illustration by Boonchu http://www.alliscoming.com

I play music. I practice (and teach some) yoga. But I don't play music when I practice. And I don't make 'yoga music' as an artist. That said, I think yoga and music are exceedingly complimentary, if not the same in many ways.
On an experiential level,  I often find that the act and results of a 'good' yoga practice and a 'successful' session are really the same. To make music with others takes both listening well and holding your own line to play your part well to create something larger than all involved.   Practicing yoga is similar, especially in a Mysore room where everyone is following their own breath, playing the parts (in this case doing the postures) while building a larger energy field than most mortals can do alone.  And if I'm lucky, I leave a performance (or rehearsal or jam) feeling the same as I often feel when leaving a Mysore room: clear, calm, inspired and connected.
Sometimes the progress of my yoga practice suffers from the time spent playing music; oftentimes the early morning practice schedule runs at odds with the 'typical' late musician night (napping is key). But diving into a week of yoga after a three-gig weekend provides a much-needed reset button. And I know my yoga practice informs my writing and playing on every level, from helping to keep my mind clear to feeding my muse.

Artist Interview: Oakland Musician Blood & Dust

Blood & Dust, aka Oakland-based artist Doug Tiemann, first came to my attention through the Balanced Breakfast East Bay music meet-ups. A hard-working and well-respected artist, the Midwest native has been tearing up the Bay Area circuit, garnering raves for his brand of acoustic soul. Leading up to our shared gig at The Monkey House in Berkeley this Saturday, September 27, Blood & Dust kindly answered my questions about his musical path.
 
 Q: How did you first start singing and writing songs?

BD: I actually started writing songs pretty late in the game.  I spent many years playing drums and percussion and picked up the guitar in college.  It wasn't until grad school that I got the gumption to write a song.  Life had changed a lot and I had my first quarter life crisis, so I decided to write about it.

Q:  Who were some of your earliest influences?

BD: I have an interesting mix of influences.  My father grew up in the 50's and 60's so naturally there is a lot of early rock n' roll and Motown in my influences.  I still draw a lot of inspiration from early soul singers like Al Green, Marvin Gaye, and Otis Redding.   My mother brought to the table a lot of songwriters from the 60's and 70's like Simon & Garfunkel and John Prine.  I can't help but acknowledge these influences mix in the way that I approach my singing and writing. Today I find a lot of inspiration from songwriters like David Ramirez and Amos Lee among many others.

Q: Blood and Dust. Great name. What led to it?

BD: Blood & Dust came out of needing a name.  Doug Tiemann isn't a bad name, but it's not a great stage name either.  It pretentious to me to change my name to something cool so I thought that I would choose a name that could work whether I was playing solo or if I had a whole band behind me.  I wanted something gritty and earthy, something that when you heard my music, it made sense with the name.  Blood & Dust was where I landed, I figured that it's either a great name for an Americana band or perhaps some sort of death metal band.  It seemed to make sense to me so there I landed.

Q  What/who led you to California? Can you say anything in respect to how the Bay Area music scene is influencing you in contrast to/or similarly to your experience as a musician in the Midwest and South?

BD: I originally came to bay area to attend graduate school.  I'm a Midwest boy, so you can imagine that the Bay Area changed my life a bit.  I even moved away for a short while but I couldn't stand NOT to live here so I moved back. The Bay Area has been a huge part of my influence as a songwriter.  I've been a musician in the south and the Midwest and while there are definitely scenes, the Bay Area music community inspired me to write, to build community, and to try to be part of something bigger than myself.  While every music scene is competitive, the Bay Area scene has a sense of camaraderie that, I believe, has allowed me to pursue music and grow in my craft.

Q4: What are you working on now? Any new projects or recordings shaping up?

BD:  I've been working on a new block of songs since my first album.  Sophomore albums are definitely a challenge across the board, but I'm excited to explore new sounds. My first album ended up sounding a little more like a rock album, but I'm excited about the using roots instruments and what that will bring to the mix.  Revisiting old songs with new instrumentation has been really refreshing as well.

Q: You host a music series—what's it like for you being on the other side of putting on a show? Any rewards, pitfalls, or recommendations to share with us? 

BD: I was doing a concert series called "An Evening in DogTown."  While it's currently on hiatus, the experience there has been invaluable to me.  I think what made our concert series so valuable to those who participated was that we kept our focus on the most important thing: the music and the people making it.  When you abandon that for just trying to get people in the door you lose something.  I would say that there are too many venues that are only concerned about making a quick buck.  It's a business, and to be successful money has to be made, but you have to care about the product you put out.  I think this is why so many of my fellow Bay Area musicians are seeking out more house show gigs.  I would encourage anyone that wants to pursue putting on house shows to clearly define their reasons for doing so — that's a good start. 
Blood & Dust appears live at The Monkey House Theater in Berkeley, Saturday, September 27, 2014 7:30pm. Tickets & more information: http://monkeyhousetheater.com/ 

Maurice Tani/77 El Deora @ The Freight & Salvage Sunday 8/18/13

If you're wondering what to do with your upcoming Sunday night, do as I am and get yourself, and any self-respecting music-loving friends you have, tickets to Maurice Tani & 77 El Deora at The Freight & Salvage. Maurice is one of those Bay Area treasures who the whole world should really know about (and probably will soon). He writes great songs, he has a killer voice and he knows how to wield a guitar to best effect, whether the song is a rocking honky-tonk number or sensitive ballad. He also is a rare combination of great artist and nice person. Yes, I'm a big fan (Click here to read the interview I did with him three year ago.)

This year, he released not only one, but two, new excellent CDs, Blue Line and Two Stroke. Sunday's show at The Freight (the optimal place in the East Bay to hear this music) is the official release party for those projects. Be there if you can.

From the Press Release:

Wry-to-Romantic American Songwriter Maurice Tani Releases Two New CDs and Plays Freight & Salvage Sunday August 18 @ 8:00 p.m.

DOUBLE CD RELEASE SHOWSan Francisco veteran singer-songwriter Maurice Tani and Freight & Salvage in Berkeley announce a double CD release show on SUNDAY AUGUST 18 at 8:00pm. This show celebrates the simultaneous release of Tani's fourth and fifth albums: a new studio album, “Blue Line”, and “Two Stroke”, an album of acoustic duos and trios with bassist Mike Anderson and a variety of others. 
Sunday, August 18 

Doors 7:00. Concert 8:00.

Freight & Salvage 2020 Addison Street, Berkeley, CA 510 644 2020 

$16.50 advance/ $18.50 door. 

Advance tickets available online or from the Freight & Salvage Box OfficeOr online from ticketfly http://www.ticketfly.com/purchase/event/323347

Artist Interview: The Pete Ahonen Experience

Energetic, funny and passionate about making music, Oakland songwriter Pete Ahonen has been captivating audiences throughout the San Francisco Bay Area with his own brand of outlaw country/folk rock. Upon the completion his debut CD “In the Blood” (Lost Monkey Records), the East Bay native is poised to take his music to a wider audience. Ahonen recently answered a few questions about his influences, writing process and the making of “In the Blood.”

Q Who do you count as major influences?

PA: Mason Jennings, Tom Waits, Townes Van Zandt, [and] Shane Macgowen.

Q When did you write your first song? What's your writing process like?

PA: I learned to play guitar when I was 10. My neighbor was a church music leader and he taught me some stuff. Before I knew it, I was just spending a lot of time sitting in my room alone playing guitar and messing around with stuff to see what I could do. Around the age of 13, my musical cherry got popped, I guess you could say. I started listening to Freddy King and got really into it. I ended up writing a little blues shuffle about a girl who didn’t exist — and that was it.  I was hooked.  I was pretty self conscious about my voice at first, and then one day someone showed me Jimmy Hendrix. I learned that he was self conscious about his voice too, but I was so blown away, not only by his guitar playing — he was a killer songwriter, too.

Pete Ahonen and bassist Andrew Gibson.

I always enjoyed being creative and writing short stories and stuff. I could play guitar pretty well so I started turning those short stories into little ditties. My writing process is kind of like... I sit down, try and cultivate a mood... I’ll pull out a snippet of a line I wrote down while I was walking around somewhere, and try to channel a vibe or a feeling about it. If I sit down with the intention of writing a song, it’s bullshit. Nothing comes out. My muse is really about keeping myself fed with information and experience in order for something to come out. I spend a lot of time just sitting on my porch, and my neighborhood is kind of crazy so I get a lot of inspiration just from that. It could be a couple having a fight, or a drunk guy having a good ol time, or this a lady whose always looking for change in the gutters. At that point I’ll kind of hear the guitar or notes in my head, so I’ll try to hum a line and then it just sort of happens from there. And then other times, I’ll be trying to write a song for like two years and I just can’t get it.  It never gets finished. You kind of just have to let it come naturally.

Q How did you go about selecting the songs for this CD?

PA: Kind of like the song writing process, it’s in the song itself. The song will tell me that it’s the one for the album. Before going into the studio, I had a lot of songs in the hole, or at least parts of songs. And I think a theme kind of presented itself during the recording process. We recorded the first song, for example, and we were all like, wow,  this is a really special tune. And going in... I had no idea it would turn out like that.  I really think the musicians I play with are a huge part of that too. Every song we recorded had a different theme and the content wasn’t really the same, but in the end the ones we picked felt like they were from the same tribe and they were meant to be together on the album.

Q Describe the recording process for you? Did songs take on different directions in the studio?

PA: I think the songs took on a bit of a different direction, especially musically. The lyrics, and the tone was basically pretty dialed in already, but musically we would sharpen different things to kind of add to that mood. But I think that’s what happens when you work on something creative, everyone has an idea of what something should look like in their head...and your songs can be shitty if you go into it with that approach. You have a general idea, but it doesn’t mean anything until you put your hands on it and start working on it, and the smallest thing can change everything. You have to be flexible and open to where it can take you. I think it depends on what you value, and what you’re after. When you’re singing with intent and emotion and you say ‘I want to play my song well’, and you do it with feeling - maybe there’s a squeak, or something’s out of tune, but it doesn’t really matter. To me, songs are more about the experience and not about it being perfect.

To buy "In the Blood" and find out about Ahonen's upcoming live shows, visit: http://peteahonen.com/

Artist Interview: Roberta Donnay's Got Sugar

I met jazz singer Roberta Donnay more than 10 years ago through West Coast Songwriters, discovering one of the Bay Area's most multi-talented singers, songwriters and producers in the process.  Soon after meeting, I sought out the Washington, DC native's help producing an EP and received an education in musicianship, studio work and Buddhism as well as a finished project. Having written for film, TV and the UN, Roberta has an abundance of songwriting and vocal chops, working as a music supervisor for film and singing with Dan Hicks and the Hot Licks when she's not fronting her Prohibition Mob Band. However, Roberta's first musical love was jazz, and for the past five years she's been focusing her energies on the genre. On November 13, Motéma Music officially releases her latest CD, "A Little Sugar," a showcase of vintage jazz, blues and swing. Roberta discussed her latest project as she got ready for her CD release and tour with her Prohibition Mob Band.
Q How was the process of making your new CD different from your other productions? What can listeners expect?
RD: "A Little Sugar " is meant to transport the listener back in time, to educate, to inspire. Back to a time in music which is the roots of almost all of what we now listen to.  Born out of the blues, this was the music of the people, reflecting a time of great creativity, new inventions, the breaking away from stagnant thoughts and rituals of the past, the beginning of a certain freedom for women... and, of course, a time of great struggle, not unlike now.

Q What led to your decision to go back to focusing on jazz? How did your Prohibition Mob Band come together?  

RD: I grew up listening to Louis Armstrong, George Gershwin and Broadway shows as a young child.  But when I discovered Billie Holiday and the early women of jazz, this had my full and complete attention.  I've based my own sound and my own place of study on this era of music since the beginning of my musical life. I was always a huge jazz fan.  I was singing and studying jazz when I first moved out west.  My goal was always to become a great jazz musician.

My vision with this band came together organically. This music just made me feel happy. And I wanted to work with my friends, and with those whose style and ideas I admired.  I searched high and low to find some songs which weren't as well known, and picked the songs on this record from that perspective.  But the band itself was years in the making.  We experimented with the music in our live shows for two years before recording anything, and I based much of what we ended up recording on the reactions of the audience.  This project was literally focused on our audience more than anything else.  And being able to create a project with a great musical partner and bassist Sam Bevan, well, that made the whole thing easy.

Q How do approach balancing life touring with Dan Hicks and Hot Licks with doing your own material and shows?

RD: Carefully.  And I work long hours!

Q You’ve truly spent a life in music. Who and what keeps you inspired?

RD: Studying Buddhism, philosophy, history, the writings of Nichiren Daishonin (a 13th century monk) and the writings of Daisaku Ikeda has been a major inspiration for me for many many years.  I have always had a seeking spirit to discover the truth.  I would not have lasted this long in music if I hadn't found a way to grow as a human being and to be able to focus on the inside as my primary goal. 

To raise my life condition and to become the person I wanted to become and fulfill my true potential, well, that is a struggle against my weaknesses, my doubts, my fears, and the eternal struggle of good against evil.  I finally found that I had all this unlimited potential but when my major focus was on external things, I grew more dissatisfied with my life.

I believe that when we grow closer to our core existence, when we focus our energies on this relationship first, then the superficial existences have a tendency to melt away and what we find is an energy of pure light which is at the core of our being. If I feel joyful, hopeful and inspired, then maybe I can help another just by being there, to help make this feeling possible for another person.  But one has to be willing to dig deep, to throw off the transient outer layer of ego, and focus on (possibly) a higher purpose and create who we truly want to be.

If one can do this, then that is absolute freedom.  And so that is my goal for myself and others.  I wish  freedom for every living being equally in this world.  

Music which saved my life and inspired me to go forward.  Other great musicians inspire me and I'm thankful to all of them...  I believe that my musical ancestors—Billie, Ma Rainey, Bessie, Louis, etc —  are the ones who truly raised me, [and] I feel I owe a huge debt of gratitude to them.   

The great, great musicians who I've had the honor of working with, cause me to listen, [and] add to the joy I already feel.  Imagine being able to perform in an environment such as this!  I am very grateful for this life in music.  I actually can't imagine a more wondrous existence here on planet earth.  And, of course, having a wonderful partner to share this life with, that makes everything a million times sweeter.  

For more information about Roberta and "A Little Sugar" go to http://robertadonnay.com/