A Conversation with Amanda Kravat – HuffPost 10.6.14
Mike Ragogna: Amanda, your AK EP showcases quite a few, I’m assuming, influences or artists whose music meant something to you. Is that the case and who are some of your favorites?
Amanda Kravat: Music seeps in and becomes embedded in our DNA, definitely into mine. I always say if I write something nearly great, it’s probably because somebody else wrote it first, whether it’s a Stravinsky bit, or a great jazz change. There are only so many notes and the ones in between. As for the songs on AK–yes–so many influences are in here. There’s that John Lennon nod, it’s a minor/major chord thing in the verse to “I Could Tell You I Don’t Love You”; one of the first bands I ever saw was Cheap Trick, and “Not Myself Today” is certainly in that 1970s, I’m winking at you’ mode–“Saturday was Klonopin,” etc. Also I really dig New Pornographers, love how they can make pop songs really rock. I hear a little Neil Finn in “Wouldn’t Be This.” Also I always wanted to throw in a little octave singing, I loved that about Squeeze, and that’s in “Wouldn’t Be This” too. TV On The Radio…archetypal indie rock. Chrissie Hynde/The Pretenders. The clenched-fist drama of “I’ll Stand By You.” Ahh, and the strings on “I Could Tell You I Don’t Love You” thanks to Patrick Warren. The strings were producer Max Coyne’s suggestion. Remember INXS and those cellos? Not sure if that was Chris Thomas or INXS’ idea. I’ve always wanted to have a ballad with just the right amount of strings on it. I think we got it just right on this one. So, yeah, if these songs are any good, it’s because I let my heroes sneak into the studio…
MR: You raised a couple of kids over the last few years, which put your recording career on hiatus. What motivated you to return to the studio and how did it feel to be back?
AK: My motivation to get my ass in gear was the sudden onset of debilitating, infuriating panic attacks. Diagnosis? A blocked musical artery. I literally felt like I was choking, couldn’t leave my apartment. Then I started singing and writing and was revived. Working with a band and being back in the studio felt like diving into the ocean–after escaping a burning building. Being a wife and a mother was and is fulfilling and delicious. But it has nothing to do with standing in front of a kick drum and belting it out. Dancers need to dance, and I guess Amanda needs to sing. Pardon the cliché, but I actually feel “whole” again. So, I really do see this as the beginning of my “second chance” as they say. But from a more substantive starting point–I’ve lived a fuller life.
MR: If you compare your last album with this one, what would you say are the ways your music has changed or evolved?
AK: These songs flow more easily, at least to me. I don’t hear myself “trying” when I listen to them, they just get to the point. Now that I’m an adult–at least chronologically! And not wrapped up in trying to be “clever” or “sound articulate,” I feel an ease, a fluency I never had. That old paralyzing need to please everyone, whether it was radio promoters, A&R people, management, publishers, even family members, became a prison. I like that I can keep it simple, when it works.
MR: How did it come together, the writing and recording, creatively?
AK: “Somebody Else Is Driving”: This one was written a while back with Richie Supa. I always liked it and it’s fun to play live. So every time I performed it–now and then I’d play a song or two at a songwriter’s showcase for BMI, etc.–people kept asking me when I was going to record it, and so we finally did it for AK. And the lyrics certainly describe the way I feel about life today.
“Not Myself Today”: My husband was out-of-town for a night and I “took to bed,” which is what I call sleeping with my guitar. I used to love that about being on the road and dreadful motel rooms; the only vibrations in the room came from me, the human, the leaky faucet or (ideally) from a guitar string. The bridge to “Not Myself Today” came in the middle of that night, and the next day the rest of the song fell together, kind of as I was playing it for my husband. There’s a herky-jerky thing going on in that song that sort of feels like a panic attack, if you know what I mean.
MR: Did any of these recordings invent itself, the recording and writing process almost coming too smoothly?
AK: The lyric “Calibrate The Universe” fell into my mind one night while reading a book to my kids, and the song, “I Could Tell You I Don’t Love You,” came together the next morning at the piano. Then I met with Max and played it for him, and we added it to the list of songs to track that week. But it usually makes me nervous, if something’s “too easy.” Ha–I worry that if something sounds really good, with no bells and whistles, with just a vocal and an instrument, that then I’ll try too hard, and I’ll blow it in the studio. Do you get the feeling I’m a little anxious? The caliber of musicians and producers I get to work with now, I pinch myself, they’re monsters with no egos. They keep me in check. No way my band or my producer would let me over-record or over-embellish things these days. We’ve all done it, and hopefully come out the other side. You know, the best musicians know how to play “space”–meaning nothing. That’s the hard part. Any idiot can play too much, it takes a class act to let a pause breathe or expand. Same with singers, I think.
MR: Any problem children on the EP that eventually got sorted out?
AK: I had such trouble with “Not Myself Today,” which is an ode to my bout with panic attacks and taking medication, etc. “Saturday was Klonopin, it didn’t work like vodka did,” was a joke I threw in, like a rough draft. Well, it was true. But I didn’t think you could actually say that in a song. Then I remembered that this is me, Amanda Kravat 2.0 and I actually can say that if I want to, so I just said it.
MR: What are you looking at music career-wise from this point on?
AK: The Amanda goal? Make music, make music, make music. Knock your socks off, then make some more music. I get the feeling Viper wants to do it the old-fashioned way: develop artists–slow and steady. And so I finally have a real partnership with a label, and that’s a new experience for me that I want to cultivate in a meaningful way. I really believe everyone deserves the “second chance” I mentioned earlier, and I aim to work my tail off to see this through. My goal is to make another EP or a full-length album in 2015, get back in front of live audiences, respect the process, and stay on budget. We run a tight ship and we put the money into the music, not into wining and dining. Not yet, at least.
MR: What advice do you have for new artists?
AK: One of the worst things we can do, as humans I think, is bore each other. Happens when you spend too much time staring in the mirror. So why not work with people you can learn from? Listen to Mozart and Prince. Then read other people’s gorgeous words, for me, Ondaatje or Colum McCann. Anything really. Just don’t let your own voice be the loudest one in your head. And then write a song.
MR: Is there any advice you should have or maybe did follow when you started out?
AK: I finally understand the bit about the journey, not the destination. I blew off my chance to see Nirvana play in New York because I had a photo shoot the next day and I didn’t want to be criticized for looking tired. I was lucky enough to be in Paris four times yet I never insisted that we make time to visit the Louvre. Fear stopped me from enjoying so much of the ridiculously wonderful trip I’ve been on. I should have done more. As long as drugs and alcohol aren’t leading the charge, hell, sleep when you’re dead.
MR: Do you feel like a new artist yourself with AK?
AK: Ha! Great question. I feel like a new everything. Yes. I’m back to thinking of music as music, not “product.” If someone buys it, spectacular! If they don’t? Well, it’s only rock ‘n roll.
MR: What are the plans for the foreseeable future?
AK: Write, write, write, record, record, record, play, play, play. Upside down and sideways too.