Rachael Sage
10th Annual Story Song Nominee
10th Annual Artist / Band Publicity Photography Nominee
(Photographer: John Mazlish)
8th Annual Song Used in Film/TV/Multimedia Nominee
6th Annual Band/Venue Poster Winner
4th Annual Folk/Singer-Songwriter Song Winner
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Story Song
Artist / Band Publicity Photography
Record Label: MPress Records
www.rachaelsage.com
HOME BASE: New York, NY
GENRE: I call it “art-pop”, because even though it’s very eclectic musically – containing elements of pop, folk, jazz and classical – the common thread throughout is that I’m trying to create something artful and expressive, that’s as inspiring as it is catchy! I’m also a visual artist, and that side of me definitely influences my sensibility as a musician as well.
CATEGORIES ENTERED: Folk/Songer-Songwriter Album, Pop/Rock Album, Album Packaging Design, Artist/Band Publicity Photography, Band Venue Poster, Adult Contemporary Song, Folk/Singer-Songwriter Song, Indie/Alt./Hard Rock Song, Pop/Rock Song, Love Song, Story Song, Song Used in Film/TV/Multimedia, Cover Song, Short Form Music Video
WORK SUBMITTED: “Delancey Street”; “Big Star”; “There is Passion”; “Meet Me In Vegas”; “Wasn’t It You”; “Everything Was Red”; “Brave Mistake”; “Hope’s Outpost”; “What If”; “Bravedancing”; “Rich Girl”; “Fame; Design, Album Packaging “Delancey Street” by Chris Kornmann; Artist/Band Publicity Photography “Delancey St UK” by John Mazlish; Design, Band Venue Poster “Stop Me If I’m Kvetching…”
ARTISTS FEATURED: Chris Kornmann (Designer), John Mazlish (Photographer),Tom (Director)
LABEL: MPress Records
INFLUENCES: Elvis Costello, David Bowie, The Beatles, Carole King, Indigo Girls, Laura Nyro, Marc Cohn, John Lee Hooker, Eric Burdon, Judy Collins, King Crimson, Meshell Ndegeocello, The Doors, Buddy Holly, George & Ira Gershwin, Hall & Oates, Marianne Faithful, Patti Smith, Elton John, David Bowie and many more!
DESCRIBE YOUR NOMINATED WORK: The song “Brave Mistake” is about that mystical moment when two complete strangers find each other, in a crowded room. I wanted to write a romantic song about opposites attracting, but also about how the leap to enter into any relationship, even when it might not last forever, requires a beautiful kind of courage that epitomizes what it means to be human. I suppose this song also reflects my general belief that everyone has several soul-mates. I’ve been very fortunate to have been madly in love several times, and even when it didn’t “work out” I’ve never looked back with regret, but only with gratitude that I was compelled to take those risks, emotionally.
The photo is the album image from the UK version of my current album, “Delancey Street”, and we took it very spontaneously as it was just starting to rain, and the sun was setting on the Lower East Side, the neighborhood to which I’d just moved.
WHY DID YOU CHOOSE TO SUBMIT THIS WORK TO THE 10TH IMA’S? The song “Brave Mistake”, I submitted it because I think it best represents the storytelling aspect of my songwriting, plus it’s my favorite arrangement/production on the album. I think it’s also a bit more Americana/rock than most of my material which tends more toward jazz and classical piano motifs; but when I wrote this tune – and because I was in Los Angeles when inspiration struck – I tried to imagine how Tom Petty or Aimee Mann might describe this situation and also how they might produce the song, and I think that’s how it ended up being more direct than I usually am, lyrically as well as arrangement-wise.
I submitted the image because I think it’s a very different kind of photo for me, but it’s really gotten a lot of positive feedback, as it’s much more natural and spontaneous than I’ve been captured in the past. I love that it feels so New York, that we kept shooting in the rain, and that (photographer) John Mazlish caught the lights in the background so beautifully. I love the colors and just think he really distilled a moment of hopeful abandon, which was the goal of the shoot.
DID YOU USE ANY UNUSUAL EFFECTS OR INSTRUMENTS IN THIS RECORDING? Yes! We used a “cocktail” drumkit, which is basically a kit where the kick and snare are one drum, it’s pretty unique and has a very earthy, loopy sound to it. I also put my Wurlitzer through a leslie cabinet, which makes it sound a bit more like an organ.
WERE THERE ANY HAPPY ACCIDENTS WHILE IN THE STUDIO, OR DID EVERYTHING GO AS PLANNED? Well, I never really “plan” much in the studio, at least when I’m tracking the basics, so I’d say most of what you hear is a bunch of happy accidents, yes! I tracked the Wurlitzer and vocals with my drummer Quinn, and then produced various overdubs as the ideas sprang to mind, throughout the album recording process. One thing that was definitely not planned was the melody for the “ahhh-haaaah”’s, in the chorus; I originally intended that to be a string part and to leap between two octaves, and was just tracking the vocal there as a guide for my cellist. But when we listened to the rough, we got to be pretty attached to it, so it became the hook of the song…
DID FANS HELP YOU FUND THIS PROJECT? No
WHO’S SITTING IN YOUR AUDIENCE? It really varies night-to-night, especially as I tour so many different regions. But if I had to make a list: art students, musicians, folk and jazz fans of all ages, feminists, AAA radio listeners of all ages, LGBT music enthusiasts, hippies, suits, Beatles fans and “misfits” drawn to music that celebrates not quite fitting in. I hope that includes just about everyone!
WHAT MAKES YOUR FANS UNIQUE? I think they appreciate theatricality, improvisation, and quirky humor more; they’d better, or they’ll be pretty disappointed in me! I also think they’re generally very sensitive, empathetic individuals, which is inspiring and part of why I love touring so much and meeting the people who support my work.
ARE THERE ANY SONGS YOU WISH YOU WROTE? Of course! At the top of my list is “American Pie”. To me, everything about It is perfect: it’s poetic, it’s got a great melody, everyone can remember the words even though it tells a story and has unusual imagery, and it captured a historical moment in such a creative, powerful way. I also wish I’d written “Silver Thuderbird” -Marc Cohn, “Innocent Man” -Billy Joel, “Sarah’s Smile” -Hall & Oates, “I Feel The Earth Move” -Carole King, “Every Day” -Buddy Holly, and “Allison” -Elvis Costello. And just about everything by The Beatles…
WHAT ARTISTS ARE YOU LISTENING TO THAT WOULD SURPRISE YOUR FANS? I listen to a lot of John Prine, which people might not expect. I also really love Martina McBride, I just love her voice. Sometime I listen to the Scissor Sisters, and the UK artist Mika, who I think is a pop genius. But I mostly listen to indie artists I hear along our tours or that comes into my record label, MPress Records. And a lot of that material ends up on our compilations we release annually, “New Arrivals”.
WHAT IS YOUR DREAM SHOW LINEUP? Marc Cohn, Elvis Costello, Meshell Ndegeocello, Billy Joel, Glen Hansard & Carole King (in-the-round or Festival-style!)
WHAT IS YOUR GUILTY PLEASURE ON THE ROAD? Cracker Barrel (I like the tchatchke-shopping which I do while waiting for the food to come, and the eggs-over-easy aren’t bad); I also really need my Starbucks soy chai latté especially on an early morning drive. You can see how rock ‘n roll I am, haha…
ANY CLOSE CALLS OR MISHAPS WHILE ON TOUR? A few years back I was touring with an amazing guitarist named Walter Parks. We were on our way to upstate NY to open for Melissa Ferrick (who is now signed to MPress), and Walter realized he’d left my suitcase – with all my clothes, etc – in the hotel parking lot in the previous city, while packing the van. Unfortunately, there was no time to go back and retrieve it so it’s probably the only gig I ever played in my entire life in jeans and a T-shirt, which is absolutely atypical for me! Her crowd didn’t seem to mind, especially as most of them were wearing the same exact thing…and the hotel was kind enough to retrieve the bag and have it there waiting for us on our way back.
Another incident I remember vividly was when we our rental van broke down, in Germany. The van had been rented in Czech Republic, so needless to say, it was an adventure getting that resolved. It was also the middle of the night, so that added to the “excitement”…and the garage we took it to to assess the damage and try to get it fixed definitely had a “Criminal Minds” sort of energy to it; I didn’t tell my mother about that one!
DO YOU HAVE ANY RITUALS BEFORE YOU GO ON STAGE? I have a few, under the best of circumstances, but I don’t always have the luxury to do them depending on the environment. At minimum, I like to do my makeup and hair in a public bathroom at the venue. I enjoy seeing how people react, it tells me a lot about whom I’ll be playing for, and I make a lot of friends in ladie’s rooms donning glitter and sequins. I also do some vocal warm-ups and stretch, ideally, for at least 20-30 mins. But sometimes there’s just no time for that, if we’re also doing radio or squeezing in a meal before a show so I try to make sure I hum enough to myself during the day so that my voice is always fairly warmed-up.
SHOULD MUSIC BE FREE? Music is free, in the broadest sense; so is food, if you want to go into the woods and pick berries or be a farmer and grow it yourself, and if you have that education/skill. But if you don’t, then you have to pay for it, it a store or at a farmer’s market. I’m a traditionalist; I think people should be paid for their hard work if you’re consuming their creations, and musicians and artists are no exception. Otherwise the chain will stop, and the best music – or at least the best recordings – won’t get made because the artists can’t afford to do so; it’s pretty cut/dry to me, as both an artist and a label-owner. You would never think about going into a restaurant and asking them to serve you lunch for free, or going to the ballet without a ticket or going into a furniture store and stealing a couch. What’s the difference? We need music to feel inspired and energized to live the rest of our lives; of course, that doesn’t mean that free samples aren’t a welcome way to bring in new fans, but that applies to virtually all arts and to business across the board. I do think subscription models are also interesting, but as a consumer myself, I think I’ll always prefer to hold a cd in my hands, read the liner notes, and have that sensory experience. I love great artwork and great musical equally though, so I’m biased!
HOW HAS DIGITAL AFFECTED YOUR CAREER? We hardly ever send physical product anymore to talent-buyers or media, which is obviously much more green, and plus it saves a lot of $. Those are both positives. It’s also enabled me to pursue a career much more easily overseas in Europe, to avoid sending packages – which was incredibly time-consuming – and to level the playing-field, in effect; I focus more on making sure my website and social networks are reflective of me as an artist, that the content is updated, and that the music can be sampled easily and intuitively; in short, I think it’s allowed the music to speak for itself a lot more, since the advent of “digital”, because sending a link is so easy and requires so little of someone on the other end to check out.
On the flipside, it’s obviously adversely affected the physical side of the retail business, and with stores like Tower Records and Borders going under, there are fewer places where the kind of fans my music attracts can walk into a store and purchase the music, and also see me performing live at an in-store. I used to play in-stores constantly along the tours, to support each release; that’s become a thing of the past, with rare exception. And for an artist like me, who thrives in a live-performance setting, that’s definitely an unfortunate result of digital.
ARE DIGITAL SINGLES VS. FULL ALBUMS THE FUTURE OF MUSIC? I hope not, but probably…and to some extent, they are already the present – depending on your music genre. I’ll still keep making full albums though, I imagine. It’s a format that inherently challenges and intrigues me artistically, and I don’t think I’ve scratched the surface yet of my potential to create better records, in terms of mood, theme and an overall experience that transports the listener – not for 3 minutes, but for at least 30-40; I have very little interest in paying for a 3 minute massage, and I think there are still a lot of people out there – albeit over 25 – who enjoy a deeper kind of musical experience, something that leaves them in a genuinely altered state.
FINISH THIS SENTENCE: THE MUSIC INDUSTRY IS… challenging and never boring!
WHERE CAN FANS FOLLOW YOU
URLs:
http://www.rachaelsage.com
http://www.facebook.com/rachaelsagepage
http://www.twitter.com/rachaelsage
http://www.myspace.com/rachaelsage