A CONVERSATION WITH LOUISE TAYLOR (continued)

PM: Really crucial to this record are two relationships that have everything to do with Velvet Town, with your longtime percussionist, Dean Sharp, and with your soul sister, Annie Gallup.

LT: Right.

PM: So let's talk a little about each of them. Let's talk about Dean first, because I know he had everything to do with preproduction and bringing some things to your ears that made a difference, etc.

LT: That's right. He started feeding me music, actually, a couple years ago, just giving me compilation tapes of things to listen to, to give me ideas. He suggested that my music wasn't just folk, that other influences were present. And I also toured with him for those couple of years after recording Written in Red. He was always telling me I was more like Cassandra Wilson, and that I should just let myself do what I do, and explore those things.

He also is such a phenomenal player that I really wanted to keep him interested, and write music that he would be interested in playing. He also found players for me. He introduced me to Ken McGloin and Ira Coleman, who both play on the record. So we put together this band first. And although I wasn't able to afford to take them out very often, we did a few things together, and, they, in my mind, were my band [laughs] even though in reality I couldn't afford to have them with me all the time. So I did a lot of shows, though, with just Dean and I as a duo, which is a really effective show, I think.

PM: When you and Dean go out as a duo, what does he show up with?

LT: Well, a full but small set, more like a jazz kit.

PM: A jazz kit, and also some hand drums?

LT: Lots of hand drums, yeah, a cajon. And it's changed over the years as the material has changed too.

PM: Djembe or bongos or--

LT: No. I think on the record he plays some of those things, but in concert he will keep it somewhat simpler than that. The cajon covers a lot of those bases. The cajon is expressive, it has a very big bass sound and also a very high bongo-y sound. And he plays a lot of the kit with his hands, and then he'll have a lot of percussion instruments and toys.

PM: He's an awfully musical musician. Is he a songwriter as well?

LT: He's done some songwriting, but I don't think that he has really explored it. I think he could be a really good songwriter. And he helped me out early on with some of the songs, like suggesting ways that they could be fleshed out a little better. He is extremely musical, and he plays very orchestrally. He's really behind me in a very interesting way. And he actually loves playing bass parts with bass drums.

PM: Yeah, he's a fantastic player. And he's what you'd have to call the preproducer of the record, is he not?

LT: He is, yeah. He really is. He did a lot. He found the players. He'd also worked in the studio that we wound up using in Rhinebeck, New York, and was really in love with the studio. So he really did a lot of the legwork in finding all the elements for the sessions.

PM: Because that was, in this album, very important.

LT: Yes, it was.

PM: But on the subject of co-production, I think that brings us to Annie Gallup's role on this record, which we need to understand.

LT: Annie Gallup has been a friend and supporter of my music and I of hers. And I've always really admired her dedication to the art of it. Her vision with art is so individual. And to me, she is just one of the best out there. She's such a talent, her own musicality, her own lyrical genius. [see our interview with Annie]

And I'm very comfortable with her. I really wanted to have a producer there, someone I could trust so that I could really be myself, and someone who I knew would stand up for the important issues in a record, which would be keeping it true to its vision. And she was all those things. As it was, I was already running these songs by her as I wrote them.

So Annie helped me with the initial editing of the songs, and then with all the other preproduction work, which had to do with determining who was going to play what instrument on what day in the studio and getting it all really organized, working on the arrangements, and honing the words, making sure all the lyrics were really there.

PM: She has a tireless attention to detail.

LT: Yes, she does. And that's what I was really looking for. And then when it came time to work in the studio, there was that comfort and freedom, so that the three days when we tracked-- the initial three days when we did the major tracking for the record--went smoothly. By the way, we tracked live. I recorded guitar and vocals simultaneously.

PM: Oh, really?

LT: Yeah. I don't overdub vocals, I always just do it with the band.

PM: So how do you separate your guitar from your voice adequately? I like to track that way, too. How do you separate?

LT: Well, it's always a problem. You have to give up a little bit of vocal quality and guitar quality for that.

PM: You have to let it bleed.

LT: It does bleed, sure, because they're both in the same room. In this particular studio, he had a really good technique, and he used just one--I don't know what you call it, but where the microphone didn't have a big span around it.

PM: Yeah, a close pattern.

LT: A close pattern mic for the guitar towards the back of the guitar, and then I had my guitar amp in the closet. I have an acoustic guitar amp that's very good sounding.

PM: Oh, that's right, you're a Daedalus person. [great speaker cabinets from Upper NY state specially made by Lou Hinkley]

LT: Yes.  continue

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