Answers to a questionnaire about my music

[jwgh]

I got booked to be a featured act at the Mediator Stage open mike, and the host sent me a questionnaire to fill out that he will use to promote the show. I thought it was worth posting here.
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1. How old were you when you first started playing music?

 

I started playing saxophone in elementary school, piano in high school, and guitar in college.

 

2. When did you write your first song?

 

I think around 2004. Poking through my emails, I see that I wrote 'No Naked Babies' in February of 2005, after I went to a Superchief Trio show, but I think I wrote a few songs before that.

 

3. Who influenced you most musically? 

 

My guitar is mostly taken from my dad's fingerpicking style, my piano playing is influenced heavily by Jimmy Yancey (especially his later recordings), and my stage manner I think has a big debt to Peter Schickele (of PDQ Bach fame). 

 

It's trickier to decide on a primary influence for my songwriting, but I remember listening to a Jim Kweskin Jug Band album incessantly when I was growing up, and I think the sensibility of those songs made a big impression.

 

4. Where were you born? 

 

Fayetteville, Arkansas, but we moved to central Massachusetts when I was two or three.

 

5. Are you classically trained, self-taught, or somewhere in the middle? 

 

I learned blues piano from some instructional audio tapes from Homespun Records. For guitar I mostly just learned a bunch of chords from a book and took it from there.

 

6. What does The Mediator Stage mean to you?

 

I've gotten to know a lot of people through the Mediator who I've gone on to be friends with. It's a great place to meet other musicians.

 

7. What advice would you give to a younger person starting out in the art of performance, singing and songwriting? 

 

I think people generally have to find their own way, so I'm reluctant to be too prescriptive. When I was starting out at open mikes, my strategy was to try to play whatever song I had that was as different as possible from what the person who came before me had played. I felt like, even if I wasn't as good as the other performers, that people would appreciate having some variety.

 

8. Did you ever have stage fright? And if so, how did you overcome it?

 

I didn't often have stage fright, but sometimes it would sneak up on me. It wasn't predictable. I was fortunate that I was always able to muscle through it, and found that, at low levels, it could even add a nervous energy to a performance that can be helpful. As I've become more experienced, it has become much less common.

 

I know that for some people it can be debilitating, or is extreme enough to just make performing no fun. I have friends whose have been prescribed anti-anxiety medications that they find very helpful. Even if you don't take them before every show, just knowing you have the option might help.

 

Alternatively, I feel like you can be a singer/songwriter or musician and find your following without performing publicly: You can record at home and publish songs on Bandcamp or Youtube, or play your music live to an online audience using something like Twitch, if that is more enjoyable. Try out different options and see what works best for you!

 

9. Do you have a “Signature Song” (an original tune that you and your supporters can identify you with most)? 

 

At this point I've written enough songs that people like, that I don't feel like there's a particular song that I absolutely need to play every show or people will be disappointed. With that said, I feel like '(Whenever I'm Sad, I Do A Web-Search For Pictures Of) Adorable Kittens)', and its dark mirror, 'Watching Killer Robots Eat Your Head', are two early songs that people associate with me. Of more recent songs, 'Totally Awkward' (which will be the title song of my next album) seems to resonate with a lot of people.

 

10. What is your Current Best Song, original or cover? The one you enjoy playing most right now? 

 

'Totally Awkward' is a fun one! For covers, I've been working on a song I learned from that Jim Kweskin album I mentioned earlier, 'The Blues My Naughty Sweetie Gives To Me'. It's played very quickly, and the lyrics are a bit of a tongue twister, so there's only about a 50% chance I'll make it through it without a major screwup, but that's part of the fun!

 

11. What’s your favorite Song Of Love?

 

'A Sinful Life' by Timbuk3.

 

12. What’s your favorite Song Of Hate?

 

Hmm, I guess 'One More Minute' by Weird Al Yankovic.