Radio Crystal Blue interviews...
Laura Tsaggaris

interviewed completed and first posted 9/29/05

Going track-by-track here I wanted to offer some thoughts and musings on each song and get your comments.

"hard":  I like how you intone with full breath on this one.   How did you get the strings recorded?

We had four folks come in from the Raleigh Symphony one day...They worked off of the charts that were developed through Jim Crew and Phil Carluzzo’s work. They all sat in the big room in Studio 1 (2 violins, 1 viola, and a cello), did a couple of takes for each song, and that was it.

 "proof": Nice combo of piano, drums, rhythm guitar...this could serve as your signature/best tune....how was the piano mixed?

Yeah, a lot of people tell me that if there was one song they’d play for someone who asked what my music was like, they’d play “proof”. Ths song was a great example of teamwork in the studio which was a direct result of the atmosphere Ian sort of let play out between everyone. It led to extending the ending considerably and really piecing together how to effectively bring out the climax of the song.  We brought in a huge concert piano and an awesome piano player. I had a good idea of what I wanted from the piano so we kind of asked him to play a couple of things and got exactly what we wanted.

"halloween": What are the sounds in the beginning of this track?   There's a strong 'pop' feel here, recalling Alanis Morrisette in your voice.

Acoustic guitar leading into some shaker and tambourine, yeah, this song definitely needs an edge to the vocal for it to really work, and that was something I’d never really challenged myself to do or feel comfortable with. Ian really helped me with that and coached me through getting the most out of my voice.  It was a fun song to work on.

"firefly": I enjoyed hearing the ebow on this one....with a strong instrumentation after the sparse opener.

After I heard how the ebow was used in a song by The Damnwells, I always kind of heard ebow opening this song on the album...just to give it that sort of ethereal quality. Everything just really came together on this song in the way I’d hoped it would. I think this song is the one I am most proud of from a production standpoint and the ideas I brought into the studio, as well as the work I put in while originally writing the song.

"i just can't share": This makes for a nice change of pace....a blues waltz on piano...the programming here is memorable, with the piano and your vox filling up every single space.

Yeah, the piano really adds something special to this song.  We used some of Chris Isaak’s ballads off of “Heart Shaped World” as a guide for the soft, easy feel of the rhythm section and everything kind of followed suit. The stand-up bass and Matt’s memorable intro really make the song.

 "letters": This is probably the song you worked hardest on...there's such precision in the percussion and a slowly evolving 2nd melody throughout. The song you referenced "Most Of The Time", which comes from Bob Dylan’s Daniel Lanois-produced album "Oh Mercy" has a particular maturing presence.  Dylan is heard looking at middle-aged life, much as he did in his previous 'comeback' album "Blood On The Tracks". Here you seem to take a different spin, providing a 2nd person account of a death of an ex in your life.  I'm curious as to how you added this song to the album.

Also: In the guitar chord progression in the first 2 choruses....You play this neat chord on rhythm guitar (downbeat in E-F-G in 7/8 I think)..I feel like it comes from an old rock tune, but I'm not sure.

It’s funny you say that about this song because it did take up the most hours. It seemed like it was going to be the most straightforward of the songs, but when we went into mixing there was just something missing. Finally after a lot of head-scratching, playing the chords on an old electric Ian had in the studio proved to really pull the song together.  

As for the Dylan reference, yeah, that is a song I have admired for a long time. A friend of mine had a recording of Ani DiFranco covering it, and I just thought it was such a moving, clever song.  I kind of have always had it in the back of my mind as a song to emulate at some point. So, it was fun to refer to it in “letters”. 

"birthday": There's elements of some well-known performers in the songs....once again Alanis, but also I hear Dire Straits, Smashing Pumpkins. Is it in your nature to be this exacting with the layering of sounds?

This song was just so fun to work on because it had so many possibilities. The chord structures (which were developed with the help of friend and co-writer Phil Carluzzo) really leave it open to several interpretations. Every time we would open this one up to work on we’d laugh because it seemed to be taking on a different feel since last we’d worked on it, and we were kind of excited to see what the final product would sound like...Ian had a vision from the beginning for this song, but as we went along I think we found it was fun to sort of throw up our hands and see what we could get out of these great players. Stephen started things with a great beat, Jim amazed us with the stuff he put down on piano, and John added some layered guitar tracks that really accentuated the choruses and gave the song some structure.  

"permanent": How different was the feel of the strings on this track at Bias Studios as opposed to Osceola? Hearing them on this one, the strings seem a few notches above the other.

Well actually, all the strings were recorded at Osceola, there’s a misprint in the credits on that...but yeah, the strings play a more central role on this song than on any of the others, I think. I’ve been surprised by how many people tell me this is their favorite on the album. I’m glad people seem to connect with it.

"a matter of time': This song seems to bookend "hard" in its verses and structure, though of course the point of view is directed not on a future warning, but more of an impending embrace. I'd like your take on this song.

There are times when I feel this song is pessimistic and carries a lonely and foreboding message...but then there are other times that it seems to be looking forward to something positive. I guess it depends on the day I’m having.

Not to give anything away to those who haven't heard the CD, but there is a hidden outtake, which seems like a great exclamation point (pun intended), as if you needed to exhale after all those intense songs, reaching for one more chord. Would that be accurate?

Yes, that’s a great point. I thought it provided a nice view of another side of me...showing that I’m not so intense and serious all the time...and just, yeah, served as an exhalation of sorts. Also I think it was a great way of having a reminder for me of how much fun it was to make this album and work with the great people I met.  That can get lost in the incredible anxiety you can encounter when taking on a project like this.

A lot I'm sure has to be credited to Osceola Studios. Ian Schreier, who actually does a lot of the work on CD, also worked with Joe Henry...and that experience seems to have worked in your favor.  How did you happen to link with Ian and Dick Hodgsin?  What was the experience of of digital recording via analog like for you?

I had met Ian at a music conference in the summer of 2001. I was just starting to write and perform and he had given me some advice on what my strengths were as an artist and what I should try to concentrate on moving forward. I kept his card and knew at some point, when I had progressed enough as a songwriter, he would be a great contact to consult and possibly work with. I had started trying to do this album on my own in late 2003, early 2004, and I was getting frustrated with the process. I stepped away from the project for a couple of months and decided to give Ian a call. We talked a number of times and I really got a good feeling from our conversations.  He got an amazing group on talent on board and helped fine-tune some of the songs.   We developed a great working relationship which is something I’m really proud of.  It was a necessary part of trying to put something great together.

Dick was always at the studio and we chatted quite a bit about his experiences and an artist manager and producer...and I learned a lot just about every day I walked into Osceola. It was a really chill environment and very comfortable for me. I could feel that the second I walked in to talk to Ian about possibly working together. 

On the technical side, what where the high points of recording there? Looking at Studio A (assuming you've recorded there)..they have huge spaces for big bands.  Is that where you recorded?

Technically, recording there was great.  I think Ian and I sort of tacitly bonded over a shared perfectionist quality, and that really showed in the precision and detail of his engineering and mixing work. It was so nice to be able to depend on his prowess with that because it just made it seem like anything was possible and took the pressure off of me a bit. Studio A is where we did all of our work (aside from a little pre-production in Studio B) and it was great.  The ‘control room’ was really comfortable and had a couch I was very familiar with by the end of the process. The size of the studio made it possible to bring in the piano and add that essential element. 

One of the most fun nights for me was having Stephen bring all of his instruments over to the studio and watching him lay down the percussion tracks.  It was fun to have the big room for that. 

Mike Fisher did the work for a few tracks at Bias in VA. Was that mainly for the ProTools experience, or was there another reason you used that studio?

I went to Bias because they had a good reputation in the area and I felt pretty comfortable there when I went to meet Mike. We actually weren’t using the ProTools setup at that point...we were mostly doing stuff in Studio B on Digital Performer.

You've fallen into amazing, top-flight, Grammy-winning company, between the above-mentioned folks, and just about every performer on the CD. It also looks like they're all based in the Triangle as well.  How did this all begin? What was the big break for you?

Well, obviously a big part of it was meeting Ian a couple of years ago...but, more than that, it was just having confidence in myself, my songs and my ability to articulate what I wanted. I knew I wanted to make a great piece of art, and I was steadfast in keeping that as the main goal. I interviewed a couple of producers who I thought had  the tools to really help me, and Ian just impressed me with his professionalism and the questions he asked me. It wasn’t about who he could shop the record to or who he’d worked with previously. It was about the fact that I felt like he respected me as an artist...and that was really important to me. He really proved to me that it was the right decision to work with him. So, I don’t know...I don’t think there’s ever a big break with anything...just a lot of hard work and decisions that hopefully pay off in some way at some point.

What makes up the tan-brown background inside the CD? I'm guessing that's from one of the studios.

All of the photos that comprise the artwork were taken in and around the apartment I was living in DC at the time.  It was an old building and captured a lot of the sentiment that ran through these songs...both in its appearance and in the fact that I’d lived there for four years and had experienced a lot in my life during that time.

What is in Overtime Records' future? Will it be the results of your own creative output or will you also be taking others under your wing?

I think it’s a great goal to want to give back to the music community in some way, and maybe at some point I will be established enough to provide some support to up-and-coming artists. However, I have a long way to go before I have enough of a financial base and reputation as a musician and performer to be putting out other people’s records. So, we’ll see what happens.

One more: One pic of you on the website has a Frampton "2" jersey. What's the story behind that?

That’s just a Little League t-shirt I found at this thrift store in Pittsburgh, and I wear it all the time. I always thought it was funny to be wearing some little kid’s last name around--for some reason it was even funnier that the name was Frampton.

And so it is.  The making of “proof”, a stellar CD.  Do a Google search on my main page, and type in ‘interviews’ to read other interviews I’ve conducted previously.