A Conversation with Steve Forbert – HuffPost 9.17.12

Mike Ragogna: It’s always a pleasure talking with you, Steve. How are you today?

Steve Forbert: I’m great, Mike.

MR: Terrific. Can you talk to us a little bit about the genesis of your new album, Over With You?

SF: Well, for me, it’s always just writing songs. I am under new management and we have a new record company. There was a lot of serious talk about putting together an album, and it’d been about three years since The Place And The Time, the last album we did. There wasn’t anything particularly different about the making of this album. I’m sure I did it much the same as Richard Thompson or Sean Colvin put together their records. When you write songs all the time, at some point, you should, hopefully, make some sort of cohesive picture of those songs as a group. I did this record with Chris Goldsmith, the producer, and I sent him about 15 songs. One of the songs I sent was very topical and it’s been on my website for quite some time. It’s called “Set The World Ablaze.” Another was about my daughter when she was fifteen. Chris Goldsmith elected to make this an album of relationship songs, which I thought was fine, though I don’t know how long a song about the Wall Street crisis would actually pass for a relationship song. It’s topical as it can be, but it’s still relevant. I mean, I’ve had it up for a year or so, maybe longer. Chris thought it would be best if we left that song off the album because he really wanted to make this album about relationships, which meant that some songs fell by the wayside. But all of that turned into this new album, which we had to record in just three days.

MR: And you recorded this album in Silver Lake, right?

SF: Right. And all of that is really thanks to Ben Harper. He had locked up that studio, but didn’t really need all of the time he reserved. Chris Goldsmith was in contact with him and, apparently, Ben offered for us to take about a week of time when he wasn’t going to be around, and so we said yes.

MR: He also appears on a few tracks on the album as well.

SF: Yeah, he came by on the third day. Sounds like the title of an E.L.O. album, doesn’t it? (laughs) He came by on a Thursday and played on a few things. There were some really nice touches that he added. We were pretty sparse, so there was plenty of room for him to add something, and he went with some slide guitar that was atmospheric.

MR: You also had an up-and-coming artist by the name of Ben Sollee with you on this project. Was he someone you were familiar with or did Chris recommend him?

SF: In this case, my manager had been telling me about Ben for weeks and saying that he thought he should be on the record. This was just such a whirlwind anyway that I found myself saying yes to everything. It turned out, though, that my manager was right. I think Ben is only about 28, but he’s a virtuoso cellist and he works with a lot of Americana artists. So he came out and played some bass for us, and I thought he was an excellent bass player. I actually did a show in Memphis with him back in June as well.

MR: Personally, my favorite track on the album is “Don’t Look Down, Pollyanna,” which Ben also plays on. Can you tell us about that song?

SF: Well, the background on that song is two-fold. As I mentioned, I’ve had a song up on my website that is sort of a critique on some of the mechanics and shenanigans of the Wall Street crisis. In the time after that meltdown, in the Fall of 2008 and 2009, I wound up writing this song. It borrows from the movie Pollyanna, when she’s sneaking out the window against her aunt’s wishes to go to the town bazar. Somehow, in my mind, that made a connection to someone who is being evicted from their home and is kind of walking on a wire, if you will. The rest is hopefully clear in the lyrics.

MR: The way that I related to the song is in the sense of having a particularly positive orPollyanna-esque outlook on the world, which I do, and then being nailed for it. In today’s society, It is often equated with being naive, and can be viewed as a negative trait in people.

SF: Well, that’s too bad, because I think that’s wrong. The movie is actually a lot better than people think it is. And people may think I’m crazy sitting here talking about a Walt Disney movie from the mid-’60s, but who cares. It’s a really good movie. One of the things in it is the lesson that if you look for the bad in people, you’re sure to find it.

MR: Can you tell us about the song “Baby I Know”? My favorite line in that song is, “How many times can a person say sorry for doing the same damn thing.”

SF: (laughs) Well, I guess the answer to that is as many times as they can get away with it.

MR: (laughs) Steve, this album does seem to have a particular focus on the theme of relationships which is, I believe, a reflection on some of what I know you’ve recently experienced. Can you tell us which of these songs, if any, are more personal to you and your personal journey?

SF: Probably the title song, “Over With You.” This relationship is back in tact, and I’ll just say something very little and cliché — relationships can be difficult. I don’t think any of them are easy. What is easy? But to further answer your question, “Over With You” is probably the most personally revealing song on this album.

MR: Another song from this project is called “Sugar Cane Plum Fairy,” can you tell us about that one?

SF: That song is kind of a scenario that popped out of my right brain. I have a very popular song that I’ve played through the years called “Goin’ Down To Laurel,” and that new track, “Sugar Cane Plum Fairy,” for some reason, reminds me of the other, as if I had revisited that first track a year later and everything had soured. It’s a bit like going to a Mad Tea Party and not being completely comfortable with where you are.

MR: Nice. Just curious, do you recall giving me a shout out in the program for your concert at The Getty Museum?

SF: I sure do.

MR: That was great, thank you so much for that. We also worked together on a compilation album of the music you recorded while you were still with Geffen, do you remember?

SF: Of course. I thank you for helping me with that project. It’s safe to say that it wouldn’t have happened without you.

MR: Anything for you, sir. Steve, do you have any advice that you would give to someone pursuing a career in music?

SF: What I’ve always said remains true. I look at all of this organically, and I’m probably a little out of date here. My priority doesn’t lie with the whole website and Facebook and such. I’m still walking down the road in a pair of real shoes. You need to just play as much as you can. Get in front of people, as I’ve always said. It doesn’t matter if it’s ten people at an open mic or opening a show for someone. Play all the time. I wound up singing on the streets when I got to New York City and it didn’t hurt me a bit, it was a good challenge. I still believe in that. You also have to be honest with yourself. If something doesn’t work, you have to admit it. Always try to find what’s going right and what’s going wrong with your music. If you can, pool your resources and record yourself, do that frequently. I’m still very down to earth about the whole business. I don’t have any networking advice.

MR: How old were you when you went to New York?

SF: I was 21.

MR: And it wasn’t long before you were discovered, was it?

SF: Well, I believe it went really well. I had a record contract within a year and a half. But that seems about right to me. Things were moving fast, I was moving fast, and I had a lot I wanted to accomplish. But I started playing in bands when I was still too young to even play at some of the gigs we booked out of town. We had to get people to drive us back and forth, so I must have been around fourteen years old. By the time I got to New York City to start solo, I had already done a lot of playing, writing, and travelling. Hayley Mills may have been an overnight success, but that doesn’t happen often. (laughs)

MR: When you look back at yourself when you first started and where you are today, do you see a big contrast between the two?

SF: I’m grappling with that right now. It’s a difficult question, and I’m sorry to sound vague, but the changes have been in the subject matter because I’m a singer-songwriter and a lot of the material comes from the situations that I’m currently living in. That has been the major change, the music hasn’t changed much. I didn’t go from being the rock kid that I was when I was young to having the guitar skills of David Lindley. (laughs) What’s changed for me has really been the experiences. I am, however, doing a bit of a re-assessment of my career, asking myself why I’m still doing it.

MR: Oh, don’t you even think about stopping, mister! Are your sons Sam and David following in their father’s footsteps?

SF: No, and they never really were. Although, they did start a thrash-metal group. I heard some of the groups that they liked and were influenced by, and I think they sounded just as good as most of them. They even did a tour of 60 cities about two years ago. But it is kind of like me getting signed after a year and a half in New York — if it doesn’t happen in the first year and a half, will you give it two years? Three years? They had that period of time trying to keep a band together, which is hard with a bunch of young men. They gave it a pretty solid shot, though. They saw the USA in their Chevrolet and had a pretty good time.

MR: (laughs) Nice. Do you have a favorite song that is particularly special to you when you play it?

SF: No, I really don’t. But I can say that although “Going Down To Laurel” was the very first track on my very first album, I still don’t have a problem delivering it at almost every show. Sometimes, I will give It a few weeks to rest, but I still sing it with ease. The lyrics are still conversational to me, even today. That is one song in particular that has definitely been a part of me all this time.

MR: Wonderful. Steve, you are and will continue to be one of my favorite artists and people on the planet. Thank you so much for coming by and chatting with us.

SF: Thank you, Mike. It was great talking with you again.

Transcribed by Evan Martin