Alisha Zalkin

Had the chance to talk with Alisha Zalkin about her newly released On This Road EP and how she uses yoga and meditation in creating her music. 

E: Which artists or albums have inspired you, musically or otherwise?

Alisha Zalkin: I would say the biggest album and artist that has inspired me is Carole King and her album Tapestry. It's one of my all time favorite records: I literally know every song. Her musical style, everything she writes about - well, like, her co-writers, but she wrote as well - just, her songs were so influential at that time and they made a difference for women and it's just an incredible record and she's just my idol. The first track off the record is a Carole King cover.  

E: "Fearless" is so powerful; what was the meaning or inspiration behind it?

AZ: The inspiration behind that song was.. a friend of mine, a childhood friend, was diagnosed with cancer and it was the first person who was my age I knew who was diagnosed with cancer. It just really just hit me hard and I couldn't help but think about, you know, when we were all in kindergarten, if we had known one of us was going to get cancer in our twenties, how would we have lived our lives differently? So I walked into a writing session with a friend of mine, my co-writer, Mary Ruth Schuler, and we were talking for hours, sharing stories about people that we know who've had cancer and, sort of, how we would live our lives; what would we do differently, that kind of thing. We just thought, why do we wait for that point to really live fearlessly? It really should be something that we do every day, all day, because there's no difference between someone who is suffering from a disease and someone who isn't. Tomorrow isn't a promise for anybody.

E: You've put out two EPs now, are there any plans for a full length album?

AZ: Yeah, that's the goal, the next step. This one just came out so I'll probably be performing for a bit but, all the while, writing and creating a full length.

E: Which track from On This Road means the most to you? Which of the tracks can you not stop listening to?

AZ: Definitely "Fearless". That was just an emotional song, for so many different reasons, and it forced me to take risks, as an artist, and be totally authentic and honest with myself; it's been a big game changer for me. That's one where it's just so meaningful and, you know, everyone knows someone who has been ill with cancer and so every time I perform it I can feel, just, that attention I have from the audience and it's a really special song. I love doing that one live.

E: What do you mean when you say it forced you to take risks, exactly?

AZ: I just meant, like, all around. As an artist, I'm putting out this song that's, hopefully, inspiring people to be fearless and it kind of holds me accountable for being fearless too. It's kind of like 'practice what you preach' in a way, even though I don't want to say that I'm preaching it, it's.. I can't authentically perform that song, in the studio or for an audience, unless that's the way that I am constantly living my life and challenging myself to live that way.

E: Where do you see your music going in the future?

AZ: I really hope to do a tour. I would really love to tour the states, tour out of the states, and just constantly create music that empowers and inspires people; I really just feel like that's the point of music, so I wanna give back in that way. I feel like I've been given music for a reason and I want to make sure that I get to people.

E: Other than music, what most interests you; were you not pursuing music, what would you be doing?

AZ: I am very into yoga and meditation and I do transcendental meditation twice a day: I practice yoga regularly; I actually did get my $500 yoga certification. If I weren't doing music I'd probably do something in that realm of meditation/yoga/ayurvedic medicine, something along those lines.

E: If you could see one artist/band in concert this summer, who would it be?

AZ: Ooh, that's a really hard question.. There's so many.. You know, one I've really been wanting to see live is Jason Mraz. I would definitely want to see Jason Mraz live but I've also been wanting to see Allen Stone live; I don't know if he's on tour, but if we were talking concerts, I would definitely go with Jason Mraz.

E: Are there any concerts/festivals you aspire to play at?

AZ: Hmm, I would love to do Bonnaroo, OutsideLands.. I would love to do yoga festivals; they often have music so that would be cool. Lightning in a Bottle is also a very, like, conscious space music festival.

E: What do you want listeners to take away from your music?

AZ: I just want them to feel empowered by the music and I want them to feel, sort of, rejuvenated. I want them to feel as though whatever stress they're dealing with or whatever, whatever's in their way of just fully accepting themselves and being truly authentic, I hope that the music inspires them to be that way, to let go of whatever's holding them back.

E: How do you transpose your love of yoga and meditation and, all of that, and put it into your tracks?

AZ: Well, you know, yoga and meditation are all about self discovery and it's really like being truthful with yourself and honest with yourself; making the choice to live with integrity. So, I try to write about my own experiences with that and I happen to work with an incredible producer named Steve Greenwell who does not let a beat go by that isn't truly authentic. He doesn't allow any music in there that is just there for the sake of being there. I mean, it was all so honest and pure so that really supported the lyrics and the melody and the message of the songs. I think, you know, I think that really [helps to] translate the stuff that I learn while I do yoga and meditation into my music. I tell people I did my $500 yoga certification but yoga isn't just the physical practice and I teach yoga through my music so, yeah, I think that's how I see the two co-exist for me.

E: Is there anything you want to say to your fans?

AZ: Just to spread the word. If they love it, share it with their friends and just, listen to the music. 

Get her newly released On This Road EP now and listen to the gorgeous single "Fearless"

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Okapi Sun

Check the interview to see what Leo and Dallas of Okapi Sun had to say about making their debut album.

E: This is your debut album?

Leo: Yeah, this is our very first album. We just started the band in 2013, so this has been going on for pretty much a year and a half now so, yeah, it's the debut album of Okapi Sun. It was exciting; it was a long process but it's cool to have all the music out there finally. It kind of starts to free you up to write new music too because we've just been focusing on all the songs we wrote at the beginning of the project and then you obviously want to record the album so you're just concentrating on those songs and it's nice to have that done so we can actually start thinking of new songs. 

E: How did you two meet? When did you decide you wanted to form a band together?

Leo: We just met in the club in Europe and I saw her there and then we started talking and we became friends. Then I was going over her and I called her up and was like "I'm coming over!" and that's pretty much how we met.

Dallas: I don't think that we ever - well, I don't know; maybe we were like "we should start a band" - I can't remember, but I do remember us just kind of.. I think we said "let's get together and just kind of play some music" and that was really the situation so we got to a room together and we brought all the instruments that either of us knew how to play and we just kind of started experimenting and messing around. Then, when we actually started writing songs we were like "oh, okay, this doesn't sound too bad" so then that's kind of when we started to think 'maybe we should develop this more and turn it into a real band'. That was in October of 2012 so from October to December we were just kind of messing around and meeting up and playing music for fun and then, by January, we actually had some real songs and we started playing shows and we really took it seriously.

Leo: Yeah, I think mostly we just really wanted something as an outlet. We were working at the same job and I remember thinking like "oh, yeah, that's something fun after work" and we would just get together and play music.

E: How did you come up with the name 'Okapi Sun'?

Dallas: Okapi is one of my favorite animals: my favorite animal, growing up, was the zebra and then when I saw an okapi, which was probably in high school or something, that became my new favorite animal - even though I still liked the zebra. So, yeah, it's an animal and, when we were thinking of band names, I was like "oh, what do you think about 'Okapi'?" and she was like "oh, what's that?" and so I told her it was an animal and we looked it up and she thought it looked really cool -which it does - and so we were like 'okay, well let's think about it for a few days' and then a couple days later she came to me and she said "well, what do you think about 'Okapi Sun'?" and I was like "ooh, I kind of like that" so that's pretty much how the name came about.

Leo: Yeah, I thought that it was really cool that it was an okapi and it's like a spiritual animal, for one: I thought that it would really stick with who we are and what we represent, kind of like a mixture of all different cultures, you know? 'Cause, obviously, we don't look the same, so I thought it was really cool to have this weird animal representing us that looks like a horse, a zebra, and a giraffe in one.

E: How would you describe your style of music to someone who had never heard it before?

Dallas: Usually when we're talking to people and we're like, "oh, we're in a band," and they ask us that question, like "what does it sound like," the first thing that I usually say is that it's kinda like electronic/pop/dance music and, every now and then, we throw in some words like tribal/disco dance music. I mean, those are the words that we use to describe it. Just fun; easygoing; pure; like, four to the floor dance music, but it has a little pop flair because we try and do a lot of melody driven songs versus just reverb, you know, straightforward electronic, like EDM style of music. We kind of are a little different from that because we have more actual melodies for the songs but, yeah, I mean, it's pretty much just fun dance music... Do you want to add anything to that Leo?

Leo: You actually summed it up... It's cool; this is only us two, but I think we bring a really full sound to the table for our audiences. I think that it's pretty cool that we're playing all these instruments: I mean, one person plays synthesizers, guitar, and drums and we sing and then we have our tracks and I actually think it's really cool just to see. So, that's my two cents.

E: What part of the album making process was your favorite?

Dallas: I think I would say, probably for the both of us, one of the funnest parts was being able to work with Neal Pogue. We were able to fly out to Atlanta, Georgia which, I'd never been there, but it was just a really exciting experience. It was just exciting for us to be able to work with him and then when we got [to Atlanta] and we just had a lot of fun and we got to watch his process and kind of see him take a little, you know, put his flair on our music and so that was really a fun experience. 

Leo: Yeah, I think that was definitely one of the highlights. For me, the whole process was really exciting because, ever since we'd started this we'd just been playing with our instruments and had like the beginnings of the songs; we just had like these little bits and pieces and then later we got together and we were like "oh, this sounds cool and this sounds cool" and from there we just started layering all the instruments and developing all of our songs and it was really exciting to see the whole process of seeing the songs coming from like that instant idea to.. We write something together and then, having it sort of come to life, as a full work of art: that is just exciting to me.

E: And the most challenging part about making the album?

Leo: Pretty much, just putting what you have in your head out there and trying to get as close as it gets because, obviously, we both have a vision of how it's supposed to sound and then, actually, in the end, having it sound how we really meant it. It's always hard trying to talk when you're working with other people because we don't have the technical aspects of it so we had to compromise, but I think it came really close to how we had it in our head and I think that we did a really good job of bringing what we thought it should sound like to life, but that was definitely a challenge. What do you think Dallas?

Dallas: I agree; I totally agree with that.

E: How did the album writing process work? Did you collaborate on everything, or write on your own before coming together?

Dallas: Oh, no, we collaborate on everything we do so, pretty much, the writing process is just: we'll just go into our practice space and sit down and go through the beats that we have in our system or we'll search for new ones online or if we can't find anything that fits our mood at the moment then we'll just write something that we like. Then, after we have a beat that kind of inspires us a little, we'll turn the lights off and start jamming to it and there's really no rules to it. If both of us start playing the synthesizer, we both start playing the synthesizer; if somebody stops and decides to pick up the guitar then they pick up the guitar; if we both start singing.. We just kind of let whatever comes out come out and then as, I mean, a song is like three or four minutes, but usually we'll jam on it for ten or fifteen minutes; you just kind of play and sometimes you might hear a melody that works that might be played on guitar but then you might start singing it; you might be singing it and someone might start playing it on something else. We just kinda keep messing around with it until we start hearing something that we like and then we might stop and talk about it like "oh, that was cool; let's try it again". Then we'll mess around with it again and it starts taking an actual shape; we'll start seeing parts that we like for verses and hearing parts that we like for choruses or whatever and then we'll usually spin off one more time and kind of verbally say "well, let's play that part here and let's play that part there" and then we'll turn on the recorder and just play through it once or twice, kind of letting it come out however it comes out with the little structure we've put on it. Then we let it go and we'll move on to the next thing and do that maybe five or six times in a sitting, just that whole process, and then we'll listen back to the recording over the next couple of days. Obviously, some songs we'll be like "okay, that one was weird; drop it" but then other songs you're like "oh yeah, that kind of sounds cool" and then you kind of start messing around with it from there and actually shaping it to a real song: forming the choruses and adding words and adding layers and adding instruments; developing a song.

Leo: That was really good. I think that's it is really cool when two people actually get together like that and really are in that moment and whatever comes out, comes out. It's a really cool feeling because you're creating something from however you feel in that moment and that's kind of a nice part of making music, in general, because that's like the joy of creating music, for me. You know, some people have that idea of how it should sound on paper and that's pretty much how it's supposed to sound but, however it comes out, we'll take it and we'll mold it into a song later and that's kind of the Okapi sound.

E: Is there a track you really love performing live?

Dallas: That's a hard question; I like all of them. Really, there's not like a song that we play that is like "oh my gosh, okay, let's try and get through it to get to the next one". They're all fun and they're all different, in and of themselves, so it's just like, you know, some songs have drums and you get excited to perform that because you get to jump on drums and other songs, like, I might sing a lead in one song, she might sing the lead in another song and there's a lot of stuff going on so I don't think any one song ever gets boring and, you know, not exciting. It's just like one long..

Leo: Dance party.

Dallas: Yeah, one long dance party.

Leo: Yeah, I think it's fun because every song has different aspects and, in the end, we wanted to create something that we would want to listen to, if we had gone to a show; like, "oh, you know, this must be cool to watch, so I would want to see that song and dance". It's kind of fun; we always play a lot of instruments in the songs so it's like I'll be looking forward to the next song because there's drums and then the next song comes up and you're on guitar so it never gets boring with that.

E: What song can you not stop listening to right now?

Dallas: Ooh, Fame Riot. The Fame Riot and Ishi. Those are two bands that we play with; we played with Ishi before and we just played a show with The Fame Riot this past weekend in Seattle and we're going to play with them again down here in San Diego but those are two CDs that we always have in the car and we can't get the songs out of our head once we listen to them.

Leo: Yeah, [The Fame Riot] is from Seattle and Ishi is from Dallas, Texas.

E: Anything you want to add that I haven't covered?

Leo: We're excited to go on our first national tour coming up in a couple weeks so we're pretty much packing right now and getting that ready.

E: Is there anything you want to say to your fans?

Leo: We just want them to have a good time.

Dallas: Yeah!

Leo: We want it to be like a big dance party and everybody can just come and have some fun and there's no, like, you don't have to be cool or dress cool or whatever, it's just like, everybody comes together and has a good time and parties and that's pretty much what we're trying to do through music: bring everybody together and celebrate life.

Purchase the debut album Techno Prisoners now

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Charlie Oxford

See what Charlie Oxford had to say about working in Nashville and his self-titled debut album, available now.

E: When did you first become interested in writing your own music?

Charlie Oxford: I think I started first writing probably [around] fifteen or sixteen. It was just kind of a hobby but I didn't really start taking it seriously until college. I went to school in New Orleans at Loyola University and it kind of put me into this situation where I was surrounded by all these other musicians so it felt like it was kind of more of a natural thing for [music] to become more of a serious aspect of my life by that time.

E: You said you were influenced by your time in New Orleans, specifically during Hurricane Katrina, how did these experiences help to shape your sound?

CO: That was a rough time for everybody down there. There were a lot of students dealing with depression and who had lost a bunch of stuff during the storm [and it] just made us feel closer together. It's a pretty crazy thing to be going through.

Musically I think it made me turn to songwriting as a way to cope with all of that going on down there. Music was a pretty big crutch to lean on so I think it made me dive into it a lot more.

E: This is your debut album but it feels much fuller and more mature than a lot of artist's early work; Why do you think you were able to create that full sound?

CO: You know, I moved to Nashville probably four years ago and that was probably, for my music, I think that was the smartest decision I ever made since this is probably the best songwriting town you could probably ever move to.  Again, being brought into a situation where everybody is about the music. The music scene here is just a lot stronger than [Dallas]. I'm originally from Dallas, Texas and Dallas is great but, I mean, there's no city like Nashville when it comes to the songwriting scene. All my friends are musicians and we all write together and it's a thing that we focus on every, every single day to get better at it. So you know when I was thinking about doing the Kickstarter campaign to raise money for this I thought to myself, I'm going to take my time with this 'cause you only get one first impression: I wanted to take my time with the writing to make sure that I was, on the music side, getting as good as I possibly could before I put my first step forward.

E: You've been working in Nashville for quite some time now; are there any memorable stories from performances/working in the studio you want to share?

CO: The studio time for this record was pretty funny. We recorded it at Welcome to 1979 over in West Nashville: it's a pretty cool place; it used to be a vinyl record pressing plant and now it's a complete studio. It was just fun getting in there with the guys we had playing in the band, just 'cause you don't get to do that a lot so it was pretty fun.

I walked down - the studio's set up with two different levels and I was trying to film the entire thing - I walk down at the end of the last day: the entire band is sweating with their shirts off and I've got the video camera rolling on them. It was just pretty funny; cool scene to watch.

Yeah, it was a really cool experience. Adam Smith and I really worked well together; we co-wrote four of the songs on there. It was a really great experience for me.

E: There a lot of different influences, different genres I guess, in your music, so which genre or artist inspired this work?

CO: I don't know if there's one but, I mean, as far as like, current artists out there right now, you know, I listen to a lot of guys like James Morrison, Gary Clark Jr, Amos Lee - male singer/songwriters. I mean, the first and second songs on there are pretty blues driven and then there's "Letting Go" which is, to me, close to just a straight up pop song and then there's "You and I" on there which is more of an acoustic ballad. As far as my earlier musical influences, you know, like Sam Cooke and Stevie Ray Vaughn and guys like that... I don't think that I could boil it down to one just 'cause I'm constantly listening to as many new artists as possible just to keep it fresh.

E: You said in your bio that songwriting became a therapeutic way for you to express yourself; which of your songs has the most personal meaning?

CO: I would probably say "You and I", just because it's about my wife. Before we were even married or engaged we were driving around one day and apparently I was bugging her and she was getting a little bit annoyed with me so she dropped me off at my apartment and said "just leave me alone" and I was, I think I was like, "what the heck did I do" and I go in and I write that song and it was really about like, how do I not screw this [relationship] up? I wrote that song and then a few years later we were married so it's a constant reminder to me to be a better person, I think.

E: Both the music and lyrics for "Waiting For" are pretty emotional; what was the inspiration behind that song?

CO: You know, Adam and I wrote that song with a friend of ours and I would go over to his [Adam's] house to write a lot, 'cause he's got this big studio over there, and I walked in and he was like "well, what do you want to write about today?" and I was like "you know, we've been writing love song after love song after love song and I'm kind of so sick of it. You know, I want to write about where I'm at right now" 'cause I was just at the point where, I was in that kind of floating zone of 'we have the funding to do the record but the songs aren't quite there yet'. I kind of felt like I was stuck in a rut and it was really about, you know, what are you waiting for with your life? Get up and do something with it and turn it around for the better. To me, it's not a love song, even though it does kind of sound like that.

E: Do you have a favorite song to perform live or a song from the album you would say is your favorite?

CO: I think "Waiting For" is my favorite. That one or, I go back [and forth] between three; there's that one, "Drive Me Crazy", and "Letting Go" and I think it just kind of depends on the day and the mood I'm in.

E: A lot of your tracks have a bluesy soul or folk feel to them but you went with a different vibe for "Disappear"; why did you decide to record the song in this way?

CO: It is different and it can get a little heavy. It's just the way the song went. It was kind of that ethereal, kind of heavy rock song and, to me, for some people maybe it doesn't make sense for the record but, to me, at the time, it did 'cause I just wanted to, I made a point of wanting to put, you know, songs on there that were different from each other.

E: There's a wide variety of instrumentation on the album; did you personally write the music for each  instrument, or did you collaborate with other artists?

CO: On ["Intermission"] we collaborated with David Davidson of the National Symphony Orchestra. We were thinking of doing a string intro for "Stranger Than Fiction", which happened, and then we were in there and we were just kind of playing around and we thought, well, why don't we set up something so there's kind of a break in the middle of the album? "Disappear" is kind of a heavy song and just, you know, give your ears a rest for a second. The first half and the second half [of the album], to me, are pretty different. We hadn't really seen it [album intermission] done before and we thought it was kind of a cool idea.

I played guitars and did vocals; the drums were done by Jeremy Lutito: he's in a band called Leagues that's out of Nashville. They're good; I love those guys, they're so awesome: those guys were class A musicians so, when we were in studio days, I kind of let the reins free and just let them do what they do.. I felt like that was the best thing to do. The bass was done by Tony Lucido and the guitars were done by Court Clement - he's done a lot of work with guys like Matthew West.

Jason Reeves played a little bit of guitar on it and then Joe Pangallo played a little bit of guitar on "Stranger ThanFiction"; I kind of brought all my friends together to make as good of a project as I could.

E: "StrangerThan Fiction" feels a little different from the rest of the songs. How did you come up with that sound?

CO: That was another one that Adam and I wrote together with Joe Pangallo's help. A lot of the times I would come in with - my song writing stems off of melody - so I would come in with a basic melody that was chorded on my iPhone or singing in my head on the way over and we would just go from there. That melody, that kind of heavy, distorted bar sound, worked for that. The strings idea didn't come until much, much later; until we were sitting there and we were like well, this needs much more backing vocals, this needs way more strings: the song lends itself to that kind of thing. Each song, to me, has a way of just telling you what you need to do.

E:Which track are you most excited to share with your fans?

CO: The first single, "Waiting For", is probably the one; I'm a sucker for horn sections and the horns on here are just phenomenal. The guys that did it, they're called the Hornheads, from Minneapolis; they did the last Prince record and Chaka Khan stuff: something I just loved, so it was pretty fun to have those guys on that record. I just feel it's a fun song; it's upbeat and I'm excited for people to hear it.

E: Do you plan on bringing back any of the fifty songs you wrote in preparation for this album on any later albums or b-sides?

CO: That's a possibility. I don't know. I haven't really thought about that 'cause I've been writing new stuff for my next project so, I don't know, we'll see. I've definitely got them locked in the vault but I don't know.

Songwriting is one of those things where, for me, I have to focus on it pretty much every day. It's kind of like a muscle that you have to exercise. I've probably got ten or so songs for the next project and hopefully that will come out soon. This project took awhile to get out so hopefully the next one will not take quite as long.

I think the Kickstarter ended at the end of 2011 and I was still writing then; I think we may have possibly jumped the gun on the funding part but I'm glad we got it done when we did. I think we started recording maybe a year later and then maybe took nine more months after that to finish mixing and mastering and getting it all printed up and then me moving them around to different labels and seeing who I could team up with for the project; a lot of that stuff is the boring business side that nobody wants to talk about, but it's essential. I started working with Rock Ridge last summer and the album was completely done by then; I was looking for partners to work with to help me get it out there.

E: Is there anything you would like to say to your fans?

CO: Thank you. Thank you, thank you, thank you for sticking with me because I know it's been a long process and I can definitely see if any of them were frustrated with me if they thought I took too long to get this out but, you know, just; I'm excited for the next year, for touring and all that stuff. It should be a fun ride. 

       Get your copy of Charlie Oxford now.

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Runaway Dorothy - Dave Parnell

       In February I had the chance to speak with Runaway Dorothy's Dave Parnell ahead of the release of their latest album, The Wait. See what he had to say about his musical style, the band's second album, and performing in New York City's subways.

E: The album's sound is sparse and, while I respect that you chose to let the songs stand by themselves rather than stuffing them full of theatrics, why did you decide you wanted to make this style of music?

Dave Parnell: Stylistically, I guess, it's kind of new for me; I've always been into rock bands and full production stuff and layered [tracks] and I like the idea of that, but sometimes it can overshadow what the song is doing. I've always created with [the] unsung philosophy of simplicity upon simplicity upon simplicity: almost like a symphony kind of thing, where you have your violin in one part and your cellos in one little part but, when you start bringing it together, they complement each other. The guys I have in the band are such good musicians, if I'm just like "go, do whatever you want" they really could be so technically proficient; they're also smart enough to know that what they do helps move the song forward

   I got obsessed with a band called The Jayhawks, just with their arrangements and stuff; I was just like, that is so melodically beautiful [and] catchy, with every instrument they did. It wasn't just that the vocal melodies were so melodic, it was the guitar parts and the bass lines and anything they did with the keys; everything seemed to push the song forward.

E: So, what was the first band you played in?

DP: The first band I played in was like this U2, bad.. I mean, they were a good band, we just sounded like a bad U2 cover band.

E: You recorded Runaway Dorothy's debut album by yourself; was it important for you to see how everything came together, musically, before you brought anyone else in?

DP: I had just moved to New York from Charleston, South Carolina and written a bunch of demos and put them together in my apartment and sent them to my friend who was still living in North Carolina. He was driving around in his car one day and I get this phone call from him [saying] "what are you doing; you need to go record these immediately" and, at this point, I'd been in bands before, but I'd never been 'the guy': the guy who had to coordinate everything and who had to make all the decisions. So [my friend] was like "I'm going to call the studio now and I'm going to set it up for you. You're just going to fly out to Missouri to work with this producer I know; he's going to take care of everything and I'll come out and join you". So, like, three months later I get a call; everything's booked and I'm flying out of New York City to the middle of Missouri and I'm working with this guy I've never met before but in ten days we're going to finish this album, and that's kind of what happened. My best friend who lives in North Carolina flew out and he, Oran -the producer-, and myself kind of banged out the perfect album in about ten days.

   Now that I think about it, probably yes [it was important] because, at that point, I had been in bands and I'd had roles in bands where I was writing; there's always this camaraderie around a band of people being able to check you and [say] "that's not very good" or "let's work on that" and in this situation, even if it was bad, I could pull the trigger and say "let's do that". I went and did this and by the time I got done with it I [could] trust myself a lot more in my decision making. Then I was able to bring in the band and kind of become more of a leader, because I knew what I wanted going in: I could hear the sound, kind of in my head, and it was just learning the language of moving it from there to the recording. I think having that first album where I kind of had to do all of it, when I brought in other people I was able to communicate to them what I was looking for.

E: How did you decide who to bring into the band, aside from your brother, after completing the first album?

DP: My friend and I started the band and we started with two other guys I'd never even met. I was living in New York, he was living in North Carolina [and] whenever we toured I would just fly down to meet them and we'd rehearse for a week and then go out [and perform] and we did that for about a year, where we would go back and forth. We were doing pretty well but then I started getting more shows in the Northeast and it became more difficult for them to travel [but] I was living with my brother at the time and he's pretty much the best guitar player I've ever met so I was like "I'm going to have you fill in on these gigs for me". Then the bass player that was living in North Carolina decided to move: he graduated from college and was ready to get out of the state so he moved to New York; so then I had three fourths of the band here. I was helping a buddy of mine on a project that he was working with and I kind of stole him and, before I knew it, I had bumped into all these people that were musically on the same page as I was and [I] just kind of beg and stole them into Runaway Dorothy.

E: Was the songwriting for 'The Wait' a group effort?

DP: I still do all the songwriting. The way I kind of do it is I go off on my own, write the songs, and then I usually do a little demo in my apartment of the song, send it out to the guys early in the week, before we have rehearsal, and kind of let them get the song in their ear and then I'll call them and say "I know I want this, I know I want that, and I kind of hear this guitar part" and then I usually whistle the melody and then I give it to them and trust what they do with their instruments. I don't give them too much direction because I don't want them just to be doing exactly what I'm saying. [I] give them enough to where it kind of puts them in the direction and then just let them go do what they want; I can always say "well, no let's do it this way".

   Our new guitar player is such a great guy and great player that I don't want to hinder him in any way; like we came up with this song called "Desperation": I've had it for awhile but it never really was working and I brought it into rehearsal and he started playing this guitar part and I was like, "that's nice but I want it a little more playful. It's gotta have this kind of vibe to it" and in three seconds he knew exactly what I was talking about and [the song] took on this new life that I never expected. I kind of like to give them a little direction and then get out of their way for a little bit; let them make their own arrangements because, really, each person in the band has their biggest strong-suit and I think mine is bringing the songs to the band. Our bass player, Warren, is such a great singer: he has this ear for melody and harmony and he helps us work out everything vocally that we're doing. And my brother went to Yale for classical music; his arrangement skills are just insane. He can hear everything in small pieces and make sure no one is stepping on each other's parts.

E: You said your bass player has a great voice; does he sing on this album?

DP: He actually doesn't do any [singing] on the new album. We're working on this third album now, kind of in secret, and we kind of feature him a lot more on [the third] album. On the first album I did like ninety percent of the vocals and brought in a little bit of harmony and then we started exploring with a lot more, almost like Mumford & Sons, with lots of three and four part harmonies. Everybody in the band has to sing and I know a lot of stuff on our newest album is going to feature a lot of it too, but we let him [Warren] have his moment to shine on a lot of the stuff live because he has an incredible voice.

E: What inspired the album's lead single, "Give Me A Reason"?

DP: I was obsessed with Oasis when I was a kid: I loved the idea of having your brother in the band -I definitely hit with that- and I loved their song "Wonderwall" and I wanted to write almost like an alt-country version of "Wonderwall". A lot of songs on the album are reflections of relationships that -specifically one or two- didn't work out for some reason or another and "Give Me A Reason" is kind of this apology song. It's this guy who is dating someone who is really good for him but he's such a volatile, crazy person that, at any moment, he's just going to run out the door and it's like he's pleading with the person he's with like, "tell me to stay. Tell me a reason to stay here with you and I'll do it, otherwise I'm probably going to go and you might not ever see me again". It's kind of this weird romantic way of him trying to tell the person that "I know you're good for me and I know this is going to be great, but I have such crazy tendencies of running away that you just have to step in and put your foot down".

E: Is there a particular song from The Wait which you're most proud of?

I think one of my favorites on the album is the very last song, "The Ballad of a Dead Man". As far as story-telling quality, it's the most unlikely that I think I've written because, when I look back at writing it, it doesn't even make any sense to me like, this is not anything I would do. I was living in a friend's basement for about six weeks; we were working on some recording stuff and [the basement] got no sunlight and all he had was this massive T.V. - I mean, it was probably five feet by five feet- so that was the only light and [the T.V.] would always be left on. So I remember waking up one day and National Geographic or one of those channels was playing a serial killer documentary and I [thought] it would be interesting if I could write a song about a serial killer; I didn't want to glorify that in any way but I wanted to figure out a cool way that we could empathize with someone who had to murder somebody. I got the idea of the story and created it and, little by little, I started filling in the holes; like I would write a little bit of the first verse and then a little bit of the last verse and then it kind of met in the middle. All of the melodies - I have no idea where they came from, I was just hearing it in my head - I finished it all in a matter of minutes and I kind of put it away because I was like "it's not really catchy [or] upbeat and we're never going to play it live". I didn't think I would ever record [the track] but, when it came time to do the second album, I was like "alright, we're putting it on the album".

   I don't know that there's a special meaning behind it. Usually, whenever I play that song for friends, I give them a twenty minute introduction of what the back story of the song is; one of my goals in life is to write a novel that is the back story to that song: the last page of the novel is sort of the first note of the song. I think a lot of the themes on this album kind of deal with making tough decisions and heartbreak in a way that's not a traditional heartbreak and I think that, just the way the song parallels to my life in that I've had loss and how I'm dealing with it, and kind of how the main character feels, I guess, because the song is told from the perspective of a little boy, it fits on this album.

E: Do you have a favorite song to perform live?

DP: Right now we just brought in this song called "Desperation" which is not on the first album; not on the second; it's from the third album. The song should not be fun, it's about sad things that are hidden inside this happy, up-tempo song but, just the way everybody in the band sort of plays their parts, [this song] feels the most cohesive to the band.

E: Now that the band has been together for a while, would you say it has hit its sweet spot?

DP: I think so. I'm surprised every time I go in to do a rehearsal or to do shows [by] how comfortable everyone is on stage with each other and we can go into little tangents and everybody follows everybody else and I kind of catch myself sometimes listening to the band and being like "I would listen to this band, I really like this". It makes me happy to know that putting in that work and somehow finding the right people to be in the band has paid off.

E: Have any fun stories from performing on the subway platforms in New York City?

DP: Honestly, it's one of the most fun times I've ever had playing. When you live in New York or when you're going on tour, you're going to places and you're trying to convince people to come see you play. The long and short of it is like "I'm here; come see us play" and you almost feel like a really bad advertisement so when you go [to the show] and people show up, you're in a good mood; but when you go and people don't show up you're like "man, we just drove all this way and no one cares" so it can kind of take away from the thing you wanted to do to begin with: I just want to show up and play music.

   So we started doing this thing where we would rehearse on Friday and then, at the end of rehearsal, pack up and do the rest of our rehearsal in the subway. We were working on our harmonies and wanted to make sure what we were doing was really working. It was kind of like boot camp for our band. You have to stand really close together to hear each other and you have to be extra good when you're playing or people won't care and they won't listen.  

   We started playing the subway to see who would react to [our music] and we were doing it at rush hour on a Friday, when New Yorkers should not care, but we were finding people were stopping and listening and it wasn't just the people we thought it would be either, it was all over the board: I couldn't come up with a better demographic.

   We had this one time - this is probably the most amazing experience I ever had - this super elderly Chinese grandmother came through - she had heard the music and clearly just come from the grocery store and did not speak a word of English - she came through and gave us two of her oranges that she had just bought from the grocery. Now, that's pretty cool, because we connected even though she had no idea what we were talking about; we brought her joy with our music and it was the best kind of response that we could get.

E: You've made some mentions of your third album; have you chosen a direction for the next album?

DP: Yeah, it's more [of a] reflection of our live set: the first album was more of a singer-songwriter type album and the second was an expansion on that, but the third is what it's like here; just five guys together in a room playing off each other. It's stripped down and we're sort of following The Strokes philosophy, that you don't do anything in the song that can't be performed live, and the tracks sort of take on that live energy.

E: Is there anything you want to say to your fans about the album or your music in general?

DP: Just, thank you for listening. A lot of the songs are written for selfish reasons, like I have to get it out, but our connection to people, because of those songs, has been really great. [I] get messages from people every couple of weeks that say "thank you for writing this song; it helped me get through this", and I just think that's great because I almost didn't write the song.

       Make sure to check out the band in the links below and grab their sophomore album, The Wait, now for sweet alt-country tracks you can listen to on repeat. 

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Ashley Riley

       I had the opportunity to talk to Ashley Riley about her song- writing preferences, inspirations, and her third album, All the Pretty Things. See what she had to say below. 

E: Your vocals have had comparisons to Stevie Nicks and your music seems to emulate a lot of the strong Americana sound; which artists have most inspired you?

Ashley Riley: I think I've been most inspired by Patty Griffin and Neil Young; I really like his guitar playing even though some people say it's sloppy. I actually just discovered Lori McKenna and I think she's a really good lyric writer.

E: Where does your inspiration come from when you're putting together something new?

AR: A lot of times I'll just kind of sit down and play and sometimes I don't actually know what a song is about until I'm about halfway through it. Sometimes I actually do sit down with something in mind that I want to write about so it's kind of different every time. It's usually just [inspiration from] my life, my friends, and just everything around me.

E: When did you start actually playing and writing songs?

AR: In 2008. I think my first show was on Valentine's Day.

E: All the Pretty Things is your third album. How has your style matured since your first album's release?

AR: I would say that my first album was pretty much just me: solo acoustic. Since then, I feel like I've just kind of grown my sound each time. The second album had a full band behind it, well, actually, not a full band, just bass and drums, and this new album actually has a lot more organ and keyboard and lead guitar. I feel like I just kind of keep making it a little more sophisticated sounding.

E: What made you decide to add a band on your second and third albums after releasing a solo debut album?

AR: Well, I think just the way that I kind of got started was [as a solo artist]. I just got a guitar and started taking lessons and writing songs pretty much instantly and once I started getting more confident in that I started going out to a lot of open mics in the area and eventually became the host of one. From there I met my future band and started collaborating a little bit more. [The band were] other artists that would come to the shows and [we] just became friends and decided to play some stuff together and became a band that way.

E: Do you prefer working with a band over the solo work you used to do?

AR: I mean, I still write by myself; I still write everything and then take it to the band. We haven't collaborated yet, maybe it's something I should try, but we haven't done that yet.

E: I'm a fan of "Bulletproof"; where did the inspiration for that song come from?

AR: That song is actually kind of sad. It's about someone who OD'd on heroin actually and it's just kind of like the people around trying to help. It was a family member of a friend so I'm kind of like a third person in that story.

E: Is there a song on the album you most prefer to perform live?

AR: I think, actually, the title track, "All the Pretty Things", is the most fun to play live. It's just got a lot of dynamics with it, like it's kind of quiet but the choruses get really loud so that one's pretty fun. And people seem to really like "Love Shark"; a lot of people tell me that's their favorite one.

E: Where did the inspiration for the title track come from?

AR: That was actually a song that I was trying to write on purpose. I was trying to write more of a fun song because a lot of my music seems to be a little downbeat and kind of, I don't know, people will be like 'are you okay? Are you upset?', so I was trying to write something a little happier.

E: Does that downbeat tempo reflect the music you most enjoy or would you rather begin writing more of these upbeat tracks?

AR: It does. I kind of enjoy more mellow music or I kind of joke that my iPod is basically like Lilith Fair or something. So I do enjoy that kind of music and I think that's why I write a lot of it but it is fun to perform those upbeat songs; you can rock out and that's fun.

E: You said that your favorite track to perform live was "All the Pretty Things", but do you have a favorite track from all the songs which you have written throughout your career?

AR: Honestly, I think that my favorite is usually the song that I just wrote. It's usually the last song I wrote because you're kind of really invested in it and you're just, you know, really playing it a lot when you're trying to write a song. I usually find that when I'm writing a song it ends up being my favorite until I write a new one.

E: Is there anything else you want to say to your fans about this upcoming album or any of your music in general?

AR: I really just am proud of this album. I actually worked on it for about two years and I think that I've really just kind of found my sound through all of the songs that I've written and albums that I've done. I feel like this time around it just kind of really is what I wanted it to sound like. I think that it's more personal [than former albums]. I finally got exactly what I wanted to get across in the recordings.

       

       Make sure to purchase your copy of All the Pretty Things to hear Riley's gorgeously simple and stripped down sound. 

Ashley Riley

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