A Conversation with Chris Valan – HuffPost 7.8.11

Mike Ragogna: Chris, your new album is titled “Fables for Fighters.” Is that
 how you see this assembly of songs?

Chris Velan: I do, at least on some level. For the most part, they were written during a time when I was out on the road a lot, touring for my previous album, “Solidago.” I was solo and driving myself for long periods of time over ridiculously long distances across North America. It was both a lonely and purposeful time for me. It generated a lot reflecting about what I was doing and why. Because of that, I think there’s a big theme of struggle and a longing for transformation in these songs.

I was generally playing for the first time in a lot of these areas, so some of the shows I did were thin, to put it mildly. But at each one, I had a least one connection with someone or something that made it worthwhile. I had to find my own meaning and bits of wisdom in everything or I would have just turned around and headed home. The constant, solitary moving through new landscapes created a dreamlike, sometimes surreal backdrop for the soundtrack that was rolling in my head. I think that influenced a lot of the imagery in the lyrics as well.

MR: This batch of songs have a folk foundation, but they experiment with 
other genres as well. How would you describe the album musically?

CV: It’s always interesting to me how other people perceive what my albums sound like. I never go into recording with the intention of having an album land in one genre or another. So, when it’s completed and comes out, I have to engage in the process of describing to myself what it is that I’ve created. With “Fables,” I feel that I made a pop-rock-folk album with some African music influences that have led some to note ancestral echoes from Paul Simon. Fact is, I have a blind spot when it comes to describing my music, which is to my detriment in this day and age.

MR: [Laughs.] What’s your bigger point in “Any Number of Ways”?



CV: When I wrote it, I wasn’t tying to make any particular point as much as I was endeavoring to capture a moment and a feeling anchored in that moment. The chorus lyric came to me during a strange, northern New Year’s Eve celebration. I was overcome with a sense of hopefulness at the possibility and renewal that a new year brings. But what began as something semi-autobiographical became a more fairytale-like story of metamorphosis. I let the song follow its own course lyrically and ended up having to catch up to it to discover what it meant and why I felt compelled to write it. To me, that’s when songwriting ventures into the magical and mystical.

MR: What’s the story behind “You Don’t Know (What You’re Asking of Me)”?

CV: It was a bad year for friends’ marriages, and I found myself caught in a lot of sad and difficult conflicts, trying not to take sides. With this song, though, I ended up doing just that as I let myself stand in the shoes of one of my long-time buddies.

MR: Are there any of the more personal songs on “Fables for Fighters” whose
 stories you could share?

CV: Two stories: 1) One of my favorite moments on the album is the closing track, “Far from Here.” It’s a slow, closing-time song about life on the road. I had originally conceived of it as a much more up-tempo song but it just wasn’t working that way in rehearsals. When my drummer, Aaron Steele, finally launched into a murder-ballad waltz, it all just came together. 2) I originally wrote “You Owe Nothing” as the closing credits track for a friend’s horror movie called “The Seamstress.” I liked the song so much that I re-recorded it for “Fables.”

MR: Now, you passed the bar and easily could have been on a path to a law 
degree, so what made you turn your attention to music?

CV: I actually got the degree and did a year of student lawyering and passed the bar before finally realizing that what I really wanted to do all along was write and perform music. I’ve been playing guitar since I was 9 and writing and playing in bands since the age of 14. But I had always convinced myself that music was too hard of a row to hoe and that I could satisfy my passion for playing music by keeping it as a hobby. It took me a while to learn that my heart and soul were not at all in agreement with that assertion. I was helped along in that discovery by my experience with “Sierra Leone’s Refugee All-Stars.

”

MR: How did the opportunity to produce the documentary on “Sierra Leone’s 
Refugee All-Stars” occur?



CV: The event that put my law career on hold and helped guide me back to music came in the form of an invitation from two college buddies — Banker White and Zach Niles — to join them in making a documentary film about refugee musicians in West Africa. None of us had made a documentary before, but we all shared an interest in African music and culture, humanitarian issues and travel. So, we pooled our respective talents in music (me), concert production (Zach) and multimedia visual arts (Banker) and hopped on a plane to Guinea with video cameras and guitars to see if we could find the subjects of our film. With the help of some people in the United Nations High Commission for Refugees, we were given clearance to visit refugee camps in Guinea that at the time were filled with Sierra Leonean and Liberian refugees. The premise for the film was to shed light on the horrific rebel war in Sierra Leone and its ensuing humanitarian crisis by having musicians tell their stories of survival through the lens of music.

Somehow — probably due to our ignorance of what we were doing and what we had gotten ourselves into — we were able to operate under the radar and weave through the Guinean military checkpoints and U.N. bureaucracy to visit seven different camps. In each one, we put on impromptu music concerts in which we would invite the various camps’ artists to join us onstage in a sort of talent show. It was through that process that we met the Refugee All-Stars who at the time were rehearsing as a band using NGO-donated instruments so they could put on concerts for their fellow refugees. We made an instant connection with them and were captivated by their eloquence and courage. We spent the next month with them in the camp and then returned for two more production visits over the course of two years. I ended up producing their first album, which we recorded back in Freetown, Sierra Leone. With the album and completed film, we were able to bring some of the band over to the U.S. in 2005 to showcase at SXSW, where we also screened the film. They were a big hit and from that visit, we were able to find them management, a booking agent and a publishing deal. It was quite unheard of. The band played their first festival at Bonnaroo and got on “Oprah.” They’ve since toured the world and in fact just finished a U.S. and European tour to promote their second album, “Rise and Shine” with a third album on its way. The film itself won some prestigious awards at various international film festivals. The whole project gained this wonderful life of its own and far exceeded what we thought it could ever accomplish. It was a transformative experience for everyone involved. In my case, it helped me find my way back to making music.


MR: Your continued association with the group has resulted in the recent
charity single “Inez.” Where do the proceeds go, and who benefits from the
 recording’s sales?

CV: You can actually download the song for free at www.inez.chrisvelan.com. But in addition, there is a donation page, the proceeds from which, once we cover the recording cost, are going to WeOwnTV. It’s a great non-profit organization founded by Banker White and Zach Niles, the filmmakers behind the “Sierra Leone’s Refugee All-Stars” doc, that uses a community-engaged curriculum to teach filmmaking to Sierra Leonean youth to build a foundation for the future and help bridge cultural divides.

MR: Your association with 1% for the Planet led to your performing at the
 Sustainable Brands Conference in Monterey. What was the experience like?



CV: It was great to be involved in what I understand is one of the leading business sustainability conferences out there. I was happy to team up again with the 1% folks who I’ve worked with in the past on various tours. This particular performance was also special because I got to play with a side project called “Infidels” that I’m doing with Dan Lebowitz and Dave Brogan of ALO, who are also 1% FTP members. We act as each other’s backing band for our respective, original material. It’s a lot of fun. Unfortunately, I didn’t get the opportunity to sit in on any of the various talks because we had to be in and out for other shows in California. But I’ve been catching up on the discussions via the Sustainable Brands website.

MR: You’re also associated with a track with Patagonia music that benefits The Big Wild. Can you go into that?

CV: Patagonia has launched a music platform on its site that allows people to purchase yet-released tracks by some huge artists, the proceeds from which go to benefit environmental causes chosen by the artists. I’m donating my song “Napkin Manifesto” to the The Big Wild, which is a Canadian conservation movement, spearheaded by Mountain Equipment Co-Op (MEC) and the Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society to protect Canada’s wilderness. It’s a an important movement because less than 10 percent of Canada’s wilderness is currently protected, leaving some of the world’s last expanses of pristine landscapes open to under-regulated exploitation and harmful resource extraction.

MR: Considering all of these humanitarian associations, would you consider
 yourself socially conscious?

CV: I care a lot about issues pertaining to the environment, social justice and humanitarian aid. I just try to stay engaged and active in ways in which I’m able. I see it as a moral imperative. Music seems to be a good way to get some of those concerns across and at least raise awareness about them to whatever groups of people might be listening to.

MR: Do you perceive that more and more artists are becoming aware of bigger issues and causes?

CV: I do. It may have something to do with a greater shared awareness of the urgency of various social/environmental issues that we’re facing these days. It may also have something to do with the fact that the Internet has allowed for a radically widened middle class of artists to develop who can scrape a living together doing their art, and who collectively represent a growing demographic of people who, by nature, are idealists and sensitive to what is going on around them. Combine all of this with the fact that there are now many online ways for artists to connect directly with their fans and communities to mobilize action and carry out fundraising initiatives for the causes that inspire them. I think it all adds up to a sense that there’s some sort of growing consciousness afoot. At least I feel that’s true. I believe that many little ripples can form together to make a wave.

MR: Musically speaking, what advice do you have for new artists?

CV: Find a way to keep connected with your art, to keep challenging yourself and growing artistically, to keep looking in the mirror and smiling, to keep love in your heart and to keep hanging in there. Everything else will follow, and if it doesn’t, well, you could have done a lot worse.