Unsigned Underground » interview

Episode 34 ~ Stefanie Jane

Darryl — Mon, 26 Apr 2010 17:00:22 +0000

I first met Stefanie Jane when she came into my studio with a few songs scratched out on pieces of paper and melodic ideas in her head. We fleshed out her songs over a period of 6 months or so and got a decent sounding demo out of it. Then she up and moved to Dallas Texas. Since she’s been in Dallas she’s been going full tilt. She has released a full blown CD entitled “See Me Change” that addresses social issues that are close to her heart. Stefanie reaches into her past to pull out songs that really rock and yet have an inner tenderness to them. We’ll be talking to Stefanie about producing her new CD, her social causes and how she finds time to write and perform while taking care of a family.

Enjoy!

ps – think about dropping a dollar or two in the donate jar to help us keep this podcast well oiled!

Episode 33 ~ Malena Zanjani

Darryl — Tue, 13 Apr 2010 01:52:46 +0000

With her roots in folk and the feel good sounds of the 60’s and 70’s, Malena Zanjani brings a freshness and modern sound to this style. Her delivery is upbeat and positive and her songs deliver those types of messages one would find in a fortune cookie. But it’s a fortune we’re happy to find and one that we might fold and keep in our wallet. We’re going to talk to Malena about being a young singer-songwriter and the challenges to writing songs that are relevant yet mainstream.

Enjoy!

ps – think about dropping a dollar or two in the donate jar to help us keep this podcast well oiled!

Episode 32 ~ Matt Powers

Darryl — Wed, 31 Mar 2010 02:28:31 +0000

Solo artists Matthew Powers is a creative enigma. What is he? A musician who plays bass as a sideman with some high profile acts? A singer-songwriter who pens some very delicious melody-driven pop songs? A composer of synth-heavy dance music? or maybe a writer of guitar how-to books and a sci-fi novel serialized on hi blog? Well we’re going to have a conversation with Matthew about his creativity and listen to a few tracks from his eclectic catalog.

Episode 31 ~ Matt Stevens

Darryl — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 14:56:37 +0000

Matt Stevens is a looper of sounds. Acoustic and sampled sounds. He’s a layerer. Musical lasagna. I’ve witnessed it on You Tube. All puns aside, the music that comes from Matt Stevens’ guitar is amazing in the simple realization that it is one man playing all of this as it happens. We’re going to be talk to this innovative guitarist and composer about the art of looping as well as the art of using the social networks to get the word out about the music he composes. Please leave a comment and then check out his video on looping:

*please note that there is a discrepancy in the episode number on the audio.

Listen to the podcast here:

Episode 30 ~ Kim Jarrett

Darryl — Sun, 07 Mar 2010 14:38:37 +0000

Toronto based singer-songwriter Kim Jarrett has a voice that fuses decades of pop music in a familiar and welcoming sound. Listening to Kim’s music takes me back to the soft FM stations of the 1970’s while still evoking the modern era and her own style. Kim Jarrett is an award winning songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and session player. We sat down to talk about the music scene in Canada, her upcoming CD and being an indie musician. Take a listen to this episode and please leave a comment – let us know what you think.

*note that there is an episode discrepancy on the audio – this is episode 30. I must have been so absorbed by Kim’s music that I forgot where I was!

Episode 29 ~ Morgen LaCivita

Darryl — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 05:16:40 +0000

When you listen to Morgen La Civita’s music the first thing you ask yourself is ‘Where is this girl coming from?’. The music is hard to pigeon-hole and presents a challenge to the listener when trying to divine the source of her inspiration. Americana? Yes. Blues? Yes. Popular song? Yes. Middle Eastern? Yes. Morgen definitely presents us with a melting pot of styles and influences nicely tied together with a sultry voice and excellent production value. In this episode of Unsigned Underground we talk about changing directions, writing contemporary songs while reaching into the past and Morgen’s upcoming CD “From the Basement”.

Episode 28 ~ Adam Stokes

Darryl — Sat, 06 Feb 2010 21:09:45 +0000

In this episode of Unsigned Underground we’ll be talking to Adam Stokes, songwriter, musician and world traveler. Adam has been all over this country spreading the word about his music and he’s been living down south – way down south as in Guatemala where he took up residence and toured Central South America while his wife worked as an archeologist. We’ll be talking about how living in another country can influence your songwriting, writing his second album and when he’s going to get back out there on the road. Listen and leave a comment!

Episode 27 ~ Miriam Jones

Darryl — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 02:39:31 +0000

I think that what I really dig about Miriam Jones is that I hear in her music a lot of artists I like: Glen Hansard, Dar Williams, Emmy Lou Harris, Shawn Colvin and even Leonard Cohen. But as with all excellent artists, Miriam takes those glancing comparisons and creates her own mosaic portrait of herself. Miriam’s lyrics are poetry and Miriam’s melodic sense is exquisite. Listen in on our conversation about 70’s pop music, gigging in the UK and songwriting and let us know what you think.

Episode 25 ~ Tim Gleeson

Darryl — Sun, 29 Nov 2009 01:59:00 +0000

Tim Gleeson’s approach to music is simple: a good story, a little love, a memorable melody and some spare change. I put Tim’s new CD “No Sad Songs” on and I felt myself relax into the comfort of the back porch in mid-July. Nothing is over done and yet the songs all feel full and ripe. Tim is no slouch when it comes to performing having toured with Sister Sledge, a career as an LA session man and opening for Jazz singer Anita Bakers’ Rapture tour. Listen to Tim andI talk about the new CD and how he’s handling being an indie musician these days. Let us know what you think.

Episode 19 ~ Interview with Coco & Lafe

Darryl — Sat, 26 Sep 2009 15:07:09 +0000

Welcome to episode 19 of Unsigned Underground. I’m very pleased to be back at it and producing this podcast. I had to take sometime off to re-evaluate what I really wanted to promote with this show and I came the conclusion that I wanted to interact more with the artists I presented on the show – so I decided that I would focus mainly on interviews and not do a radio style show. There are a lot of great indie-artists out there that need to have their music exposed, but to just roll out the tune in a radio show doesn’t seem to really be the best thing. I tune in to shows like Fresh Air and New Sounds on NPR/WNYC because I want to hear the story behind the story: why did that sing get written? what are you doing to promote yourself in this DIY wild-west and get recognized? And of course it still comes down to the Music.

So for my relaunching episode I’m going to be talking to Coco and Lafe – two very interesting people who have taken their music and put it to the forefront of their lives. They describe themselves as a couple of “empty-nester baby-boomer back-porch songwriters turned street performers turned full-time touring musicians”. The spin that they’ve put on their music business is to tour Farmer’s Markets and then to solicit house concerts from the audience when they come up to buy a CD or sign the list. They are a throw-back to the ancient minstrels who traveled from town festival to town market playing for tips. But in these days of declining record sales and questionable recording contracts, this type of tour and self-promotion seems like genius.

Take a listen and leave a comment -

Music Waiting To Be Heard!

~ Darryl