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Garrison Starr


A Conversation with Garrison Starr  (continued)

PM: So when we talked briefly yesterday, you mentioned a side project you were getting into with Mack Starks.

GS: Yeah. We're calling it Starkey. I have to tell you, Mack Starks is one of the most overlooked songwriters that's out there, period--but especially in Nashville.

PM: We think he's fantastic. [Here is our review of Mack's album Elsewhere.]

GS: What are people thinking? I mean, he's like fantastic. And it's great, because Mack--I'm enjoying working with him too much because he's just--first of all, he's just a great person.

PM: He's a super guy.

GS: His energy is wonderful, and he's smart. And also, I love his melodic and lyrical sensibilities, they're wonderful. And we work really well together. We write really fast together, too, which is cool. And one thing that I love about Mack is that he's very abstract, and it helps me to feel free to just--it pushes me in a different direction. I mean, a lot of times we'll just sit around and write down phrases of popular culture. But it's kind of awesome to see what kind of comes out. So we wrote two songs last night, which was really fun. And we both have a lot of ideas sitting around, unrealized. Kind of the way it's working is that I'll write on my--I have a '74 Tele custom, it's like the greatest guitar on the planet, my black Tele, it's like a frickin' ridiculous guitar.

PM: Wow.

GS: I plug it into an amp, and I just start coming up with guitar riffs, which is something that I love to do. And that's pretty much what I do if I'm sitting around the house playing guitar, that's what I'm doing is just coming up with guitar riffs, because that's just what I like do. So I'll come up with a guitar riff, and then we'll sit there and we'll just go back and forth. He'll pick up his acoustic and we just start sitting there, and then I'll come up with a melody or he'll come up with something. It's easy and it's fun. I'll tell you what's really cool, too, is he's got--there's a pretty old--it's a place where there's a lot of artist lofts. You can't live there. But oh, what did he tell me--it's an old factory. It's over there on Clinton. If you take 12th and you go through the Gulch, you know?

PM: Right.

GS: And then you kind of stay on 12th, and like instead of taking that left--

PM: Right, you go straight.

GS: You go straight, and it's 11th. And then if you go over Charlotte, and you pass Joe Johnson, Clinton automatically makes a 90 degree turn to the left. Then there's an old factory. I'll tell you exactly--it's where the Yazoo Brewing Company is. This factory where all these artist lofts are, it's not up to codes, and you can't live there because they don't have a sprinkler system in the building, but it's amazing. So Mack shares a loft with Freedy Johnston.

PM: Really? I heard Freedy moved to town.

GS: He did. And they share a loft together. And it is like the greatest vibe. It's old, it's been there since the '40s. And it's got these really tall ceilings, and there's a loft upstairs where Freedy is going to build a studio. It's amazing. It's such a cool, cool space. So we've been writing over there. We get some beer and just sit around and hang out and write songs.

PM: Wow.

GS: And actually, when we were there last night, we got this call from Sharal. She was like, "Hey, Ralph Lauren is doing a new campaign with JC Penny, and they need songs." They sent us some videos, so we put some music to this video. And it ended up being a song for us, but also something that we submitted to the campaign. So it's a good thing.

I just realized that one thing I have found very good for my soul is just to keep being creative. And this co-writing thing is great because it takes you out of yourself, and it keeps you busy. And if you find someone who inspires you--there's so many people around here who do--if you can just keep that going, it's a good way to make you forget that everything is not going exactly the way you wanted to in your own career.

PM: What a shock.

GS: Exactly.

[laughter]

GS: That's life, right?

PM: Right. So was Freedy in on the tune last night, or were you writing just with Mack?

GS: No, it was just with Mack. Freedy wasn't there. And he doesn't usually stay around when we start working. But I've never really been in a serious side project band. And we don't know what it's going to be--my guess is it will probably just be me and Mack, and then we'll hire people to play with us. We haven't really talked about the ins and outs. But I'm pretty excited. He's fantastic. Like in the last few years, it's intriguing, the idea of being in a band. And actually, I had thought about doing The Girl That Killed September as a band project. But Neilson really kind of discouraged me from that, because he was like just, "Look, you don't have do that. You do have a fan base, and you are still good with your fans." He's like, "I think people would enjoy seeing another record from you." I don't know, there's a part of me that thinks, a band seems brand new. Do you know what I'm saying?

PM: Like Strays Don't Sleep.

GS: Yeah, exactly. I mean, if you're a singer/songwriter and you're continually putting out records, it's just--I mean, press-wise, it's hard for people to pay attention, there's just so much music out there, and you're not new anymore.

PM: Right.

GS: You're an old singer/songwriter who never made it.

PM: Yeah, you're supposedly a known quantity--

GS: Exactly.

PM: --regardless of how you may be reinventing yourself.

[And we got off on a tangent about a young artist, a new face who's attracting a little psychological bidding war because she's pretty dang good and she's 21. And how what it takes is for someone to really get behind somebody, with conviction, to create any momentum, or even a buzz.]

GS: Take Alanis Morissette, whom I was never a huge fan ofI never thought she could sing, and I don't really love her songs. But somebody saw that it was time for that artist, and somebody took a chance on her. They did it. They went for it. They didn't wait around. And I mean, I know that's not the greatest example to use, but it is an example of how somebody takes a chance on somebody because they believe in it and they go forward. And that's how great artists are made--I mean, that's how huge artists are made. And I just think that's interesting, because that's so the way this business is. Everybody is a coward and a follower. There are just not that many people who are going to stand up for something because they believe in it.

PM: It goes back to two things: Goes back to you've got to have somebody that's excited about your music, or you're screwed.

GS: Yeah, exactly. I love it. Can I please use that quote?

PM: [laughs] Yes.

GS: That would be good.

PM: And also that people like to hear people resurface as bands, because it's the unique thing, it's a chemical thing, two people got together and did something, just like you're going to get together with Mack and do a side project, and then it's a different energy, because it's a chemical thing.

GS: Totally, I agree. And again, even not from the industry standpoint, like I said, it's just having this really neat thing, just sort of doing something different. It helps you--and Courtney Jaye and I talked about this at lunch the other day, it kind of helps you to get out of your own bubble for a minute.

PM: Yeah, you got to get out of your bag, for sure.

GS: And it makes you excited about something, and it gets you inspired again, and then there's space for your own career to sort of take shape again, because you get so bogged down in not happening that you're like, "Oh, nobody cares about me, and blah blah blah." And nothing productive comes out of that space. Nothing.

PM: What's the thing that Courtney was doing with Thad Cockrell? Is that happening?

GS: I don't know. We didn't talk about that. She just finished a record that was mixed by Joe Pisapia.

[Joe Pisapia of Guster, and of PM fave Joe, Marc's Brother. And then we went on inevitably about Joe, Marc's Brother, an amazing band that only plays now and then because Joe's now with Guster and Marc and Hags are with Josh Rouse. G was talking about an impromptu show they just did at The Basement.]

GS: And there was this guy down there--have you heard of a guy from Belgium that sings inside the snow globe?

PM: No.

GS: I mean, it's the craziest thing. He wears one of those fuzzy Daniel Boone caps, and like a coat--he must have been burning up. I mean, I think he was about to pass out. But they blow up this giant snow globe, and he zips it up, and then blows it up. And then there's like cut-up paper and stuff that he uses as snow. And he sings Christmas songs.

PM: [laughs]

GS: He sang like six Christmas songs. It was the weirdest beautiful thing I've ever seen.

PM: So I want to get back to the way you use the vocals for percussive tracks. In particular, it was very brainy the way you used the male voice sighing as the percussive track in "Stay Home Tonight." Is that Neilson?

GS: That was Neilson. I mean, all that stuff was his vision. We kind of knew going in that he wanted to do that. And I was all for it. It was great. I love it.

PM: Have you heard that before? I don't recall--maybe a little.

GS: Both he and I are huge fans of Björk, and Björk does that on her stuff a lot. On that Vespertine record, she uses a lot of like a guy walking in a box of sand. I saw Björk at the Hollywood Bowl playing that Vespertine record when I lived in L.A. And there was a guy on stage in a box of sand, miked.

PM: Wow.

GS: And so Neilson is a huge fan of hers, as I am. I don't know if that's what part of the catalyst was, but he just had this vision going in. He was like, "Here's what we're going to do, and I think this will be a fun way to come up with some loops, but they won't be traditional loops."

PM: Right. So you don't know what program they came from, and all that, right?

GS: Yeah, exactly. That was his brainchild. And it was really fun, I got to say.

PM: Oh, speaking of programs, do you know how Neilson lined that drum track up on "Understood"? What is that crazy--what was he using, do you know? There's a crazy like snare sound that's going wssh! or something. I don't know what it is.

GS: I'm pretty sure that we did--I mean, I think that "Understood" was the one that we did--that's actually--well the loop is all voices.

PM: Oh, my God! The drum loop is all voices?

GS: Yeah. The snare is me standing around going "Gah! Gah!" So it's, "Boom, gah! Boom gah!" Like that's how it started.

PM: So the snare sound may be somebody going wssh! or something like that.

GS: It might be.

PM: I've got to listen closer to it now that you say it's that.

GS: Yeah, you should ask him, because you're not the first person who's asked me. And I'm pretty sure that's what it was.

PM: Wow. And then it's vocals for percussion again on "Gold Rush Heart," I mean, that's really amazing stuff. Now, are those percussive vocals ever part of the live arrangement, or that's just the record?

GS: Well, I mean, it's just for the record for now. When we played at The Basement last Friday, Neilson played with me, we did the vocal stuff on "Stay Home Tonight," which was fun. But it's hard to replicate that with only a three-piece, and with not having the same band all the time. If we can get this to a level where I'm constantly touring with a band, then that would be the time to work out a lot of that stuff. But it's just not always the same, and without Neilson, the person who was part of the process, it's a little harder to do that. And plus, it takes a certain type of--I mean, like Marco, he's been playing drums with me lately, Marco would probably be up for that.

PM: I've heard about this guy. Jack Irwin told me about this guy Marco. He's great, huh?

GS: Yeah, he's amazing. He's just real interesting. He's very nontraditional, and uses a lot of interesting sounds. He's very percussive. I like him. He's good for the new project, the new songs, because he uses so much percussion in his playing.

PM: Let's talk a little bit about that great song that just kills me, "Little Lonely Girl." Who's on the strings?

GS: Oh, that's Eamon McLoughlin, who is in the Greencards. Yeah, Neilson and Eamon are friends.

PM: Oh, yeah, I think I met him with Neilson one day at Bongo East, right. He's a funny dude.

GS: Yeah, he's totally a funny guy.

PM: It's a beautiful quatrain that the record ends on, in "Brightest Star": "Whenever you're lonely I'll be the wind blowing by, and whenever you need me I'll be the brightest star in the sky." When and how did that chorus get written?

GS: We were at Kristen's house in Atlanta, probably like four or five years ago now. Neilson and I had gone down there to write with Kristen and stay the weekend. Kristen and I drank, and Neilson sat around with us and we wrote songs.

PM: [laughs]

GS: And I remember it was like I had come up with the "I'll be the brightest star in the sky" part. And Kristen had come up with, "I'll be the great north wind blowing by." And so I was like, well, what if it was just like, "I'll be the wind blowing by"? I didn't really like the great north wind part. I just thought maybe it could be simpler. So we sat around and we were just down there writing.

PM: That's beautiful.

GS: Neilson came up with the verse, I remember, "Maybe today, maybe tomorrow, the sun will come out in the rain and shine on your face." And Kristen and I sort of came up with the chorus lyrics. And then the three of us all harmonized on the "na-na's." It was pretty magical. We were all harmonizing. It was really fun. It was really fun. We want to do it again, it's just we're all--that was a magical time and space. It's just that we've all gotten so busy now it's hard to get together like that.

PM: So what kind of a year do you think 2008 is going to be, and what do you want out of it?

GS: Gosh, man, I feel like 2008 is going to be an exciting year. I do. I feel like 2008 is going to be a year of people taking their power back, especially for me, because I feel like 2007 has been a year of realizing--at least in my own life--of realizing that I have choices, and that I have the power to make the choices to make my life better. So I am looking at 2008 for a lot of new and exciting opportunities that I think will come my way because I'm manifesting them, and I'm excited about them. One of my goals this year is to just make more of a presence as a songwriter, do a lot more co-writing, and get myself out there in more ways than just, "Hey, I'm Garrison Starr, and I make records, and come see me play." I want to continue to be inspired by other people and get my songs in different places. So I'm looking forward to making some money in 2008. That is my goal, to make more money, and keep rolling.

PM: As always, my friend, a pleasure to speak with you.

GS: Same here, Frank. Let's get in touch after the holidays. Thanks a lot.

The Girl That Killed September

listen to clips from The Girl That Killed September     

print interview (pdf)       garrisonstarr.com

garrison's myspace        our previous interview with G.S.

photo thanks: Jen Rosenstein     Jeremy Cowart     

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