Inkwell: Authors and Artists

    
>I find it so fascinating to delve into that process, the writing of
the album, the recording, the release, and its life after release. 

And I'm finding it fascinating how you are publishing a new edition
every few days! I'd like to learn more about your workflow; do you
have several editions in process at a time, mixing and matching
subjects to give each release a unified thematic or genre alignment?
Having gone though the process with you with Pub Fare, I know
there's a fair amount of time between you reaching out and it
appearing in print.

>it tells a story, even when it is not a concept album

It certainly should, I think. My technique for sequencing a live set
(or an album) is to use Joseph Campbell's "Hero's Journey" rubric as
a sort of template. I identify which of the 12 stages in the
journey's itinerary (Call to Adventure > Refusal of Call > Meeting
the Mentor > Crossing the Threshold, etc.) a song most closely
aligns with, and then arrange the tunes in that order. It doesn't
exactly tell a story, but when its over, the listener should feel
like they've gone on a magical adventure and returned subtly
changed.

When I play a two hour show, I typically program two dozen songs, so
there are two tunes for each step of the Journey. I take the set
break right after "Approaching the Inmost Cave" (cliffhanger, no?),
and kick off the second set with The Ordeal > The Reward.

>we delved deep

We did! It was what made me suspect you'd be a good guest for this
interview.
  

    
I've also been working in 3-song setlets. I do a trilogy of cover
tunes to kick off the second set: Thunder Road (Bruce Springsteen) >
Turn Off The News (Lukas Nelson) > Gulf Coast Highway (Nancy
Griffith). Each is a love story in and of itself, but taken together
as a suite, they tell the life story of a working American family. I
play them in the same key, so it works as a medley.

I also finish the set with a 3-song suite: Love at the Five and Dime
(Nancy Griffith), T-Bone Steak and Spanish Wine (Tom Russell) >
Closing Time (Lyle Lovett). The connection there is that the phrase
"closing time" is found in each of them, and that's what's coming up
when the show is over. Puts their feet safely back on home turf.
  

    
Re: "… earliest music memories, can you pinpoint anything
specifically?"

Oh yes! At the risk of boring those who've heard my oft told tale
- I vividly recall a moment when I was a round 4years old, 1957 -
laying on the enourmous back ledge of my dad's '51 Hudson Hornet
and being entranced bt Walter Houston's version of Kurt Weil's
"September Song"
I just couldn't get enough, it was so beautiful - I found a lot of
music beautiful, but then the transition from the bridge back to the
verse "…September, NoVEMber - and these few precious days…"
flat seven on the VEM of November- it's just a b7, all over
American pop in 1938, or 1957 - but the way Weill uses it there, and
how Huston sang it… ACH!

Back to the early-mid 21st Century - another strong vote for
bandcamp - it's where all my compatriots are releasing their music
- and to the tiny extent I do, me too - well designed for discovery
as well.
  

    
Amazing musical ear for a 4-year-old! I was probably into Three
Blind Mice and the alphabet song.
  

    
Well i had no idea what the interval was - all I know was when
Walter Huston sang "No-VEMber" it tickled something in my soul
and i wanted more! I had plenty of age appropriate faves as well,
like The Piggie Polka and "The Music goes round and round"
  

    

Phil Lesh told me that when he was aroudn five years old he heard a Brahms
symphone on the radio. I don't have the transcript handy, but he described it
has a life-changing moment.

For me, it was seeing "The Jolson Story" when I was little. Next thing you
know I was lip-synching to his records for my family.

(Amusingly, when I interviewed David Lee Roth circa 1983, I learned that he
was also fired up by Jolson - possible the same Million Dollar Movie showings
I enjoyed on Channel 9 in LA. He, of course, became a vastly more flamboyant
entertainer than I!)
  

    
I remember the first time I heard the Beatles "I Want to Hold Your
Hand" - I would have been about 7.  I knew immediately that this was
something different from anything else I'd ever heard and went and
asked my parents to buy me the record.  And... they said no.

I had ears. ;-)

A few years later, we were of course all listening to the Beatles.
  

    
I was 10 when the Beatles hit, but we (I'm the middle of three) were already
listening to pop radio - which in those days included (in retrospect) an
amazing variety of musical styles.

The Beatles made us all want to play instruments. I crashed my classmates'
band practice with my clarinet one day. It did not go well.
  

    
I endured piano lessons. I didn't like the material.  Then I heard
some Albert Ammons and Pete Johnson.  I immediately flashed on it
and told my parents that's what I wanted to learn.

Nope.

So I just quit and haven't touched an instrument since.  Which is
too bad.  When I had a kid I kept an ear open for anything she might
be interested in, but she genuinely did not have an interest in
playing so I honored that.

When she was in grade school and they asked all the kids what
instrument they would like to play in the school band I told her to
say "a tuba."  But sadly, she was already wise to me...
  

    
I took piano as a kid and hated it. Wanted to quit. My father sat me
down and said, "If you quit now, you'll regret it the rest of your
life." I guit it and I regretted it. 
  

    
I got the same lecture and I have never regretted it. But I still
wish I knew how to play stride!
  

    
I took acoustic guitar lessons for a few years and tearfully told my
mom I wanted to quit at 12. But the guitar stayed in my room and as a
teen I got an electric guitar and took more lessons, and then in my 20s
I discovered electric bass and played in various rock and pop efforts,
never very serious. At 50 I bought a double bass and soon after discovered
the bluegrass community in the Bay Area, and since I retired a year ago
I've never played so much. In the next week I will play three gigs with
three different bands, as well as attend an weekly old-time music jam,
a weekly bluegrass jam, have a "new acoustic music" rehearsal with new
trio, and then I will spend next weekend at a rented house with a bunch
of friends/bandmates playing bluegrass all night.

Appropos the current conversation, the bluegrass community here and I
suspect across the country is a wonderful thing to discover, especially
as a new musician. There is a long tradition of playing with new learners
and you only need to overcome your own fears and doubts to participate. I
play bass well enough but I have recently started playing guitar again,
and I have started singing! I am not a good singer, but I'm good enough to
carry a song that people can join with, and that's really all that counts.
  

    
So, I think with each individual artist, the experience probably
changes. I am a one-man operation, so there are a lot of variables,
for example, in the last two weeks, my two-year-old twins have
diverted attention away from AB Records as they have had chickenpox,
whooping cough, and finishing off with a virus where they were
struggling to breath!

On a good day or good week, my workflow looks a bit like this...
starting off the day with the emails and messages, then onto the
social media, I will then see if there is anything I have ready to
release on Bandcamp, I then work on typing up an e-zine, then
publish that if is ready to go. After that, I will look at compiling
some info for the 'special features' in the future, such as the
'Most Influential' record lists that we publish. Then it is over to
Bandcamp to write out to some new artists and then at the end of the
day, I will send out some new questions to artists. 

I made the decision in the last few years to do AB Records
full-time. I think promoting music that is underappreciated is what
I want to do with my life! It is very modest financially, but
regardless, I try to treat it as a full working day and full working
week. So, that certainly helps with the prolific workflow!

Thank you for sharing about the 'Hero's Journey', Axon, that is a
fascinating way to look at it, for sure!
  

    
Thank you, David, for sharing that amazing memory. I am so
fascinated by those early glimpses of music, and how it is radically
different for everyone. I actually had vivid memories of really
disliking my dad's records, specifically The Beatles and The Byrds,
when I was very young, before the age of ten. 

When I was about ten, I discovered a band called Glasvegas and they
really turned me onto music. Since then, I have became a fan of a
lot of things, The Beatles and The Byrds included!
  

    
Just reading through a few more responses, and I really do find it
fascinating. As I say, music is a part of EVERYONE's life, it is
everywhere, whether we intentionally put a record on, or we hear it
while doing the weekly shop, it is linked to all our memories. And
thinking about pinpointing that initial interaction with music is
such an interesting and revealing task.

I always start interviews with this question. It is actually
something I 'stole' from Jools Holland. He said he would always kick
interviews off with the 'early memories' question, it is relatable,
puts people at ease, delving into the innocence of childhood goes
past the typical 'journalist' that just wants a scoop about the new
record or whatever.  It creates a good foundation for the rest of
the interview. 
  

    
Do you just poke around Bandcamp looking for stuff you might like, or do you
have an organized approach?
  

    
I'm sorry to see that BNDCMPR (bndcmpr.co) seems to have died. BNDCMPR
was a Bandcamp tool for making playlists with an embedded player. One
of the bands I follow (SUSS) made several playlists of other adjacent
groups and friends and I found a number of new artists that way.
  

    
Tom, you said you're in Scotland. As a tried and true indie popper,
do you have any connection to the Scotland sound? The Postcard
bands, Pastels, etc... In my mind, everyone knows everyone.
  

    
My approach on Bandcamp can be pretty random, yes. As I said, my
tastes are quite eclectic, and that probably reflects that. It tends
to be whatever I feel like discovering on any given day, so the
'tags' that I often search for would be Americana, indie rock, folk,
alternative rock, soul, blues, indie pop, some more niche things
like surf rock, garage rock, the list goes on! And then Bandcamp
lets me know the most recent releases in those genres, a really
interesting, exciting, refreshing way to discover music!

I am not sure I ever heard of BNDCMPR. Bandcamp did recently
introduce a new playlist feature though. One of AB Records'
followers has actually put together a 'Best Of' for our recent
output...

https://bandcamp.com/carsten/playlist/aldora-britain-2026-vol-2

I am so very passionate about Scotland's music scene and musical
history. I wouldn't say I have a personal connection, but I am
definitely a fan of Postcard and definitely the Pastels. I am 29 so
those glory days of indie pop were slightly before me, but I have
enjoyed discovering them retroactively.

Not indie pop, but the two most exciting up-and-comers out of
Scotland just now, I would say are Rianne Downey, a
singer-songwriter with rootsy influences, and Brogeal, a folk-punk
band, perhaps Scotland's belated answer to The Pogues! Also Last
Night from Glasgow is an exciting indie record label. 
  

    
I am currently listening to the Cords, a Scotish teenage sister band
that is heavily influenced by the C86 scene and are being championed
by the Teenage Fanclub/Boy Hairdresser/BMX Bandits crew. They are
adorable. 
  

    
I was just listening to the Cords this morning! 
  

    
I have heard of The Cords, good stuff! BMX Bandits are another
seriously underrated band. Still releasing top-notch album, under
the radar, long after their indie heyday.

More connected to the Britpop scene of the 1990s, but The
Supernaturals are another Scottish indie band that are still doing
amazing things, totally independently. 

I also went to a gig on Saturday evening, and saw a band called The
Missprint, a teenage band out of Glasgow. No releases out in the
world yet, but that is always exciting to see a band at that stage
of their 'career'.

The power of live music is certainly something to behold!
  

    
I'm late to the conversation, wanted to chime in about music
discovery. This conversation got me thinking about ways I've found
music over my long life, starting with my parents' and my brothers'
45s and 78s in the fifties, and the televised "Your Hit Parade." And
various other television appearances, especially by jazz players.
Then we had top 40 radio, including late-night listening to KOMA
from Oklahoma and Wolfman Jack (apparently) from across the border.
Then vinyl albums - we had a store in my hometown that bought at
least one of every album released, and was a treasure trove for
collectors when the owners left the business and sold off their
stock. Then there were mentions and reviews in magazines - first
"Hit Parader," later "Crawdaddy!" and "Rolling Stone." More recently
"Mojo" and "Uncut." I've used Bandcamp as well, but it's been one of
many sources. Just yesterday I was finding new music via playlists
on the great Internet radio system SOMA FM. All these many sources
have fed into an eclectic mix of music over the decades. And just
thought of one other: record clubs, e.g. the Columbia Record Club,
back in the 60s. I bought my first jazz recordings from that
particular club. And these days my listening is semi-curated by
Apple Music.

I wonder how people just getting into listening to music today are
finding stuff that excites them? I think it's more challenging than
ever, with so much music and so many genres.
  

    
I have an interest in that question, too, being a musician who is looking for
ways to be heard!
  

    
This is a good summary of a (bloodless) Bain survey about music
discovery services from the lovely team at Hypebot. I've been
working on this for most of my career in music and I can tell you
that it's never been easy but the fragmentation means there is no
single answer.

https://www.hypebot.com/problems-with-music-discovery-and-what-artists-can-do