"I'm doing well, I'm on the road coming back from a Songwriting for Soldiers session in Jane, Missouri; I'm maybe a third of the way back to Nashville," said an up beat Maia Sharp as she discussed her new album, "Tomboy" and the effect her decision to move to Nashville has had on her career.
Los Angeles, California born and raised, Sharp made the decision to relocate to Music City because after many years of working visits, she knew the time was, "Right."
"I moved to Nashville in the beginning of '19. I'd been looking at moving there for a little while but I think, finally, all of the stars aligned; I needed a fresh start. I definitely started over with my personal life. My marriage of 21 years ended in Los Angeles and it just also felt like there was more of a pull now in Nashville; either in how the community has shifted or that I finally educated myself to see what was really there and it just finally felt like such a right fit and it was just time to make the move. I'm really glad that I did, it has proven to be where I am supposed to be."
Yes, the allure of the latest, "If you want to make it in the music biz, you must move to Nashville" scenario has grown by leaps and bounds; no longer are L.A and New York the places to be and those "Brights lights of Broadway" are shining a bit further east and south but Sharp isn't some new talent chasing a dream in Tennessee, she's a veteran who has written songs for Keb' Mo', Taj Mahal, Cher, Bonnie Raitt, Trisha Yearwood, Art Garfunkel and more. So, what are her thoughts on heading to Nashville to further one's music career?
"A big part of the L.A. scene, a lot of New Yorkers, a handful of Chicago, a handful of New Orleans has chosen to go to Nashville," she began cautiously. "I guess, part of what finally lured me out there is that Music Row is not the only way to make a living there now. I think it was, at least for somebody who is trying to do what I'm doing, that it was for a while. I liked to drop in on that, I had a publishing deal there from 2000 to 2004 where I liked being their writer who lived in Los Angeles who came to town to write four or five times a year. It wasn't until I discovered and I'm not sure when this actually happened in the city but I'm guessing it was probably 10 years ago-ish that there are so many other sects, so many other hamlets around the row where you can do your thing. You can find a community that will probably lead you to where you are and where you can thrive around those folks; that's what I saw. I started my career in Los Angeles, that was the only way I would know to start a career. I can't speak as to what it would be like to be a 23 year old now who is going to Nashville now to start everything up, I don't know what that would look like. I rolled in as a 48 year old who had already gotten footing there because I had been going there for 20 years to write songs and I had started building a community there; a few of them actually, like Americana, commercial Country, edgy live band coutures, writing for the artists. I had already started to build at least the possibilities of something happening on a number of fronts and that's why, for me, I felt it was OK to move out there. I don't know what it's like to try and start there now, you'd probably have to deal with the same kind of white noise that you'd have to deal with in L.A. or New York at this point; fortunately, I had laid a lot of the groundwork before I moved there."
Some of that "Groundwork" has now developed and on September 12, her latest effort, "Tomboy" will sprout and for Sharp, this album's process was very different.
"Tomboy," for this album, I gave myself an assignment that I've never given myself before. I was about two songs into it, "Tomboy" and "Counterintuition," those were the first two songs that I started to produce out where I thought, OK, I think these are gonna be on my next album. I don't always sit down and do it like that, I usually look back on the songs I've written over the past couple of years or at a couple of older songs that have been stuck in my mind and I look at them and think, OK, which songs feel like they reflect being an artist and which songs feel like they might work together as an album. So, "Tomboy" and "Counterintuition" kind of started that feeling and the production on those two, I wanted it to be extra percussive, rhythm forward and playful regardless of the lyrics. Although, there is a little bit of acknowledging the angst there but I think, the overall message of "Tomboy" is that of a celebration, a looking back on me as a little kid who felt awkward, who felt like I was on the outside looking in but looking back at that little kid like, you were a little bad-ass for knowing who you were then even though there weren't really very many samples in society of that. So, that one is a celebration, "Counterintuition" is mostly angst but still, production wise, I wanted it to be rhythmic and playful. So, I let that form me for the other eight songs, I wanted this thing to be very percussive but I don't want a traditional and I'm sorry to tell this to a drummer; I don't want a drum set on it (Laughs). I wanted it to move, I wanted it to drive but I wanted the sound to be unusual. I don't want you to immediately be able to identify what that pulse is or what that little shake is or that shimmer or rattle is; I just want it to move. So, I gave myself that assignment about two songs in and I managed to stick to it. I framed out all of the songs and I have played percussive elements on it, many of which are either from my little synth. I have an OP1 Field Mini that I love and a lot of the cuts are out of that and then there is me hitting the front of the guitar, me slapping the back of a book, me thumping on a bass, it's not a note, it's just a thump, little things like that. So, I framed out where I wanted each percussive element, where the accents are, a bunch of guitars, some synth, a guide vocal; I call it a guide vocal but half of the time it ends up being so in the moment that I don't want to re-sing it so it ends up being the final vocal. So, I sent all of that framework out to a percussionist named Eric Darken and Eric is masterful and I told him, I don't want it to sound like a drum set, I want unusual sounds and he said, "I'm your man." He has a loft full of percussion instruments from all over the world and he sent anywhere from 10 to 20 tracks back with things called "Rattle Broom," "Coffee Bag" and "Hubcap" and all of this great stuff. I think, receiving those tracks from Eric is when I thought, oh man, this is the coolest assignment that I have ever given myself, this right. I had played synth bass on three songs but the other seven still needed bass so I called Will Honaker over; Will played bass on my last two albums. So, I called Will over and he put the bass tracks down and so now I've got what I would've gotten from an old school tracking session. I've got the drum element, the percussion element and I've got the bass; now what do I want to add to it? So, I responded to that with more keyboards, more guitars, more vocals; I've got a bunch of guests on there. I feature a different friend on the last half of the album. Song six features Terri Clark on a song we wrote together, song seven Matthew Jones on a song we wrote together, song eight. I have my friends Fancy Hagood and Emily West, song nine, I have my friends Shannon LaBrie and Sarah Holbrook and they have a duo called Sarah & Shannon that I produced so I know that they work so well together and that's a song that we all wrote together and then Garrison Starr who is one of my oldest friends is featured on the very last cut on the record which is the only cover I've ever recorded, which is, "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For." So, each step kind of formed the next one and of all of the records that I've ever made, this is the one that I've spent the most time alone with. It was just me framing it out, I did not have a tracking session in any other studio, I was a mad scientist in the cave for many, many hours."
When told that one can't help but hear the enthusiasm and excitement in her voice, she was quick to respond in the affirmative.
"I am!" She said confidently. "The first three singles have been received well and I'm really looking forward to the whole thing finally getting out there. I didn't have a sense of urgency about it, I am the label so I don't have any pressure like that from anybody. I really believe in taking as much time as a project or a song needs to make it the best that it can be. I really enjoyed this, all those hours in the cave alone looking for a synth sound or looking for another percussive element, editing the percussion or the bass that I got, playing the guitar or adding in solos or something; I had a lot of fun looking for those things and performing those things and I think it shows in the songs and hopefully people will hear how much fun I had making it."
September 12 is "Release day" and Maia is thrilled to get it out to the masses but she is also looking at this record and its future through a different lens but she does have plans to tour extensively at first to further its promotion.
"We are starting our tour on September 12 in my hometown of Los Angeles at Hotel Cafe` and then I'm staying on the West Coast playing The Americana Song Academy in Sisters, Oregon and there is a festival at the end of it called The Sisters Folk Festival. So, I'll be up there and then back over to the Southeast for a bunch of shows; my only full band, leave it all out on the field, pull out all the stops show is gonna be at home in Nashville at Third & Lindsley on October 5; the rest of it I'll be mostly solo. Then I'm coming up to the Northeast as well, I don't have a New Jersey gig booked right now but probably in November but starting on release day I'm going to be playing shows through September and October to get the word out. There are three singles out now, "Tomboy," "Only Lucky" and "What Love Does" are already out there and from what I've seen, they're being received very well. I'm getting a lot of good feedback on those and I've gotten a couple of cool features on them and I've made a couple of videos; it has been fun. Also, I think part of why this has been more fun is, I'm not 25 anymore so I don't have those early fears or perfectionist issues; it's funny, when I let go of the thought of it being perfectly polished, it's actually better (Laughs). I mean, it's close to being perfectly polished but I'm not so worried about that; what is that (Laughs)? Obviously I care a lot but I'm not looking at it with anxiety filled eyes. I'm looking at it like, let's make this playful and energetic and something that other people will feel and I'm glad that I've found that place.I've always had a little bit of that along the way but on this one, I just let it rip. There are a lot of tracks on this that went down as I was feeling it and I thought they were just gonna be a guide for later and I'd listen back and I was like; you know what? That's the theme and I'd just leave it and then I'd play around it and maybe somebody doubles it and it just solidifies and it becomes what it always was and I just let it be; God, it's so liberating."
"Tomboy" will be out officially on September 12 and can be found, along with everything else Maia Sharp at https://www.maiasharp.com/
That's it for this week! Please continue to support live and original music and until next week....ROCK ON!
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