buhdge

21 questions for... seth swirsky

 

1. When you started writing for this album, did you have a certain feeling in mind? Were you trying to write to a certain type of mood?

No. I just write a number of songs over a two-year period, then I see which ones I really want to record. After a few are recorded, then the project starts to take a “shape.” Of course, I didn’t set out to record 19 songs for Watercolor Day. But, towards the end of the project, I noticed that bits of songs that I liked fit in as “connecting” pieces. Thus, while I started the record as a normal-sized “painting,” it ended up on a much larger canvas, if you will. I allowed that because it all seemed to naturally fit. It’s still under 43 minutes.

2. Did the mood you decided upon dictate the instrumentation you used?

Very much so. One night I was in the studio on a rainy night. The upbeat song I wanted to record was just not happening. So, I went to the piano and asked the engineer to set up a mic. I started playing the chords to what became “4 O’clock Sun.” It was a moody piece. I then went to the drums, bass guitar, guitars, etc. on a night where I thought nothing would get done, (and) a song sprang out of the natural mood of the evening.

3. Talk about the use of pedal steel on the album. I find the instrument to be very three-dimensional. It tends to draw out unique DNA from songs when it's used sparingly, as it is on this album.

Rick Gallego, who co-produced the album with me, is a multi-instrumentalist who played the pedal steel on the songs “Watercolor Day” and “Amen” (the first and last songs). It was his idea to put that instrument on and he played it brilliantly. Rick is excellent at finding the right “color” for a certain section.

4. There are obvious allusions to Brian Wilson and the Beach Boys on this album. Was this deliberate, and did you find yourself toning down any of them for fear of the songs being too Beach Boys?

One of the last songs to be recorded for the album is called “She’s Doing Fine.” There are three separate sections in it. One of those pieces is the trumpet solo played by the brilliant Probyn Gregory. I had that melody in my head and he played it perfectly. After he recorded it and had a chance to take the entire song in, he said he really enjoyed the song. I said to him, “Does it sound too ‘Brian'?, referring to Brian Wilson, whose band Probyn has played in for many years. Probyn said, “Absolutely not –this completely stands on its own.” If that came from him, I accept it! Nevertheless, I never attempt to sound like another artist. I’m an amalgam of all of my influences. Happily so.

5. Your love of Harry Nilsson is also obvious. I feel the same way you do. I'm a big Harry fan. Talk about the writing of "(I Never Knew You) Harry." How did you put the song together? How did you know how many Harry-isms to put in without it being too much?

I had the opportunity to watch David Leaf’s as–yet-unreleased-to-the-public documentary on Harry and went immediately to the piano and knocked out this song.

6. Now that you've done your Harry song, I can hear his influence on you. What do you think you take from him while you're writing your own songs?

Hopefully, his honesty. I see his songs as honest reflections of who he was and I try to emulate that in my own music. Same with Lennon and in part, it explains their great friendship: What you saw is what you got – what you heard is what they felt!

7. I love the short songs on Watercolor Sky. I love the idea of putting them on there to mix with the more fully-formed tunes. Do you look at these songs, like "Big Mistake," as fully-functioning pieces or are they buffers?

I thought that the song “Movie Set” would be stronger as a shorter song. So, I approached it by trying to make it like the four-song endpiece on McCartney’s Red Rose Speedway (“Hold Me Tight”/”Lazy Dynamite”, etc.). So, I wrote a few short pieces to go at the end of a shorter “Movie Set.” “Matchbook Cover” was one of them. So was “Big Mistake.” At the end of the day, I reverted back to “Movie Set” as a whole song, extended “Matchbook Cover” into a whole song and let “Big Mistake be what it was – a short song with a simple message. They all found their proper places on the record, but were all borne from “Movie Set.” Funny how that happens sometimes.

8. Now that I've heard "Sand Dollar," I can definitely see a Seth Swirsky children's album coming. Have you written songs for kids before, and please talk about them, if so. "Sand Dollar" is really a meeting of the minds between a straight-ahead pop song for adults and a kids song. Do you see it this way?

I wrote the verse of “Sand Dollar” on Nantucket surrounded by my kids. I found them singing it weeks later back home in LA. I added the 2nd section –the Donovan-y, dreamy ‘walking in a field of flowers’ bit soon after. I felt it fit but made it a bit more adult. The second section is what won the day for me in its inclusion on the record.

I do have many ‘children’s bits’ laying around. But I have no desire to write a children’s record. I’d like to think that I write songs that adults and children can sing without having to categorize the project as a “children’s album” per se.

9. The album's sound really fills the room. It's a very wide, separated stereo image. How did you go about designing this? Also talk about the depth of the sound, which relates to the instrumentation for the songs.

I don’t think too hard about what instruments should go on any particular song. I just mix a song as I go to hear what is displeasing me. I add things like guitar leads, bass parts, etc., and the song takes a natural “shape.” It’s a very simple and organic process for me.

10. How do you know how long an album should be? You clock in at a hair under 43 minutes with Watercolor Day. Was there a temptation to put more songs on, or even take some off? How did you know when you had enough songs?

I took two songs off the record. Songs I really liked but by taking them off, it made the rest of the album better –more focused. It would be easy to pile on every song I recorded over the two years it took to make “Watercolor Day.” But that wouldn’t make for the best record as a total piece. I felt less guilty about putting that number of songs on there when I saw the running time was less than most records with 11 songs. I try and make songs that give you the candy of melody, enough so you’re satiated, and then get out.

11. Similarly, how did you know when each song was done, as far as instrumentation, number of verses and choruses, middle-eights, etc. were concerned? Talk about any songs that were even more elaborate before being stripped down or even layered further.

Best answer is from question number 7.

12. The harmonies on this album are very close and rich. How did you go about constructing the harmonies? How long did you spend constructing them? How do you go about designing background harmonies for songs? I imagine it must be a very intricate process.

I love singing harmonies. It’s one of my favorite parts of recording an album. When I got a basic track together, I would go to the mic and just lay down a harmony I liked, double it, triple it sometimes and then do a harmony to those harmonies. I would listen along the way to see what pleased me. There was never a plan for the harmonies –they just occurred, organically. While I did the bulk of the harmony singing, it was always enjoyable when Rick (Gallego) joined in –to have both our voices on the backgrounds. That gave it a different feel.

 

13. How do you decide which guitar, which piano, etc. to use on a song? I realize the tone of a guitar can vary, but how do you know the Gibson is right for a song versus a Rickenbacker? A grand piano versus an upright? Obviously the sound, but please talk about how you choose.

I’m not one of these guys who talks about the year, make and model of a guitar and says “We have to use that on this song.” I literally pick up the guitar or bass that’s closest to me at the moment (the same with piano and drums). I don’t like talking in the studio very much –it gets in the way of my ideas. I want to get my musical ideas down quickly before I lose them. I played all the lead guitar parts on the album and I could not tell you what guitar I used on any of them – it was about the lead part I heard and the desire to get it down on tape immediately without talking about the treble setting on the ’67 Epiphone…blah, blah. Just give me a guitar and let me play it. I leave it to the engineers to make it sound good.

14. Please talk about keys used. Obviously, you sing in keys you're comfortable using, but would you go higher if the song demanded it? Or record in one key and speed up the recording a half step or a full step?

I never sped up my pitch. I sang in keys that felt comfortable to sing in. No reason to push it into a territory where it sounds like the singer is uncomfortable. The goal is to make the song come to life in the most organic, honest way possible.

15. How do you approach songs you write for yourself versus songs you've written for other artists? How is the process different, or is it the same?

The process is completely different. When I wrote for Celine Dion or any number of artists, I was thinking about their styles first. With my own stuff, my mood dictates the song (at first). With an outside recording artist, I never started with “mood.” It was almost always an upbeat song that tried to find original ways of saying “I love you!”.

16. Apart from a producer, who do you use for a sounding board when you've written a song? And how much input do you need to tell you a song is worthy of recording?

My wife was a great sounding board as was my Red Button partner, Mike Ruekberg, who is a fan of “solo Seth” as he calls me. But, for Watercolor Day, far and away the best sounding board was my co-producer Rick Gallego who never ceased being completely honest with me about what he liked and what he didn’t. And it really helped. Moreover, he is not only a very classy person, and his songwriting, singing and playing are top notch, but he’s a very patient person who understands artists –and how not to rush them.  Rick was quite integral to the making of this record.

17. Talk about producing this record with Rick. You have very similar styles; it seems to be a perfect fit. How did you go about choosing him? Did you know him already? What was your co-process recording the album?

When the Red Button record (She’s About to Cross My Mind) came out, it was reviewed online somewhere. The article mentioned another artist, Cloud Eleven, which I then looked up. I heard a bunch of songs on iTunes and really dug them. Out of the blue, I wrote Rick an email (I didn’t know him) and he responded quickly. We both had heard of each other. We had sushi one day, traded records and became true fans of each other's music. I really love his stuff. Then, I asked him if he’d like to co-produce Watercolor Day. It was very natural. He said "Yes" and the first session we recorded “Watercolor Day,” “Summer in Her Hair,” and “Distracted.” The acoustic guitar on “Distracted” was from the scratch, original track. It just had a nice feel so we kept it.

18. You write books, as well as songs. Talk about the differences in the processes for each.

The processes are similar: slow and steady wins the race. Bit by bit a book gets finished. The process can be slow but if you’re having fun, which I was with all three of my books, then the book is fun. Same with making records. Sure, there are tedious moments and things I like doing better than others (I don’t like doing basic acoustic guitar tracks but I love playing bass and drums and lead guitar!).

19. Do you put deadlines on yourself when working on a record, or even on individual songs, or do you just let the flow go where it may?

I never put deadlines on a song or an album. Even in the studio –if I have 8-12  booked but I’m "feeling it," I go longer. Is it more expensive? Yes. But what price can you put on a fully realized song?

20. Who is your ultimate musical collaborator, someone you've never worked with before, and why?

I’d like to write a song or four with Paul McCartney because I think they’d be good. Ha!

21. Describe the perfect day for yourself.

Waking up. Reading the news of the world with a cup of coffee at Starbucks. Recording a new song into my 4-track cassette tape machine. Overdubbing drums and bass (oh, how I luv that!). sitting in the sun for 10 minutes. Finishing the song and playing 112 times in my headphones.

And then, whatever happens…i just love living!

Alan Haber
June 19, 2010