I am very pleased to announce the return of “9 Questions to Newport” here on Red Line Roots to get you all excited about this July at the Fort. I am also very excited that Leif Vollebekk was the first gent to be highlighted. I got to sit and chat on the phone with Leif for about a half hour and we talked all sorts of things (not all contained here). What I got was a songwriter very much like myself. Someone who just loves music, loves to make music with other folks, and take in everything around him. Make sure you catch him this summer in Newport. He will not disappoint, I promise you that.
1. For the fine folks who may not be as familiar with your work, how would you sum up your sound?
LV: I usually try not to, unless it’s a conversation that is not going to last more than a minute. You know? I understand there is a difference between “Oh I do hip hop or I do country music”. I guess its kind of folk, or Americana but its not really either. I just usually will say what I listen to, because you know you kind of excrete what you eat. So I usually say, well I listen to “these things” and people usually will know what you like and you usually play similar music to what you like.
2.What projects are you currently working on or have you recently released?
I don’t know how timelines for that work. Time has been so weird, especially in the last few years. I’m working on new songs, but they are kind of taking their time to fully form. I am trying to record in the fall or at least start to record. I put out this last record this year in the States and it came out last year in Canada, so I should be playing all new songs in my mind but I am kind of slow and precious about the way to play it and arrangements. The tempo and the key I really want to hone in on before I start playing them live. It’s this weird thing where I wait until something amazing happens, but you can’t leave it on the pot too long or you won’t have much left.
3.Newport Folk is celebrated for its collaborations, community and bringing folks together for a weekend where they may not see each other otherwise. How do you feel about that preservation of unity and family sentiment in the folk music community? How does it play into your own music and where you come from? Is there a “scene” or community that you feel especially attached to?
LV: I feel like here, musically there is a lot of moving around. In Montreal there is the music scene, the Quebec /French music and then the English music scene which is really small, so you end up meeting everybody and playing with everybody. I am going to play with this guy, Patrick Watson. He is amazing. He is kind of a huge fixture in the Montreal scene and all of his musicians are fantastic. We are going to do a little show in June. A bunch of musicians are going to get together and just play Tom Waits songs…I don’t even know if that’s announced yet. There’s a lot of trading of drummers and guitar players. There’s folk I share rehearsal space with and I will play song ideas off of. It’s nice to kind of have that. People are really open to playing with one another and the city is small so you play a lot of the same clubs and with the same musicians. The community is stronger more musically than in songwriting, but I’d like to be more immersed in people writing songs together. That’s what I am more interested in and I have a few friends that I end up talking about songs with. It’s more of a musical sharing type of thing. It makes things really open and really fluid.
4.Do you have any standout moments from your time as a musician. A truly special show, a record you are particularly pleased with?
LV: Well, it seems like I have been having a lot of really good luck with shows this year. Most of them have not been letdowns, they have been pretty fun. I played a show in my hometown in Ottawa where I was born and raised. I did two nights at this church with a friend of mine in a band called The Acorn who was putting on shows in Ottawa too at those type places, not just bars and stuff. And he packed the place both nights, it was just really fun and validating and the sound was pristine and there was local beer. I was just like “oh this is amazing”. But then I am used to doing a lot of opening gigs and you are just trying to win people over. When its my own gig, even if its sold out or something, in my mind I tell myself, I need to get out on the stage so the headliner can get on…then I’m like shit, what do they want? I’ve been working on how to “sell”. Its hard to know that difference and I can tell myself I can just do my thing. Like they bought the ticket to come and listen and I can just do my thing and play.
5.If you could collaborate with anyone (dead or alive) musically, who would it be?
LV: I don’t know, that’s tricky. I kind of feel like I would just like to play on other peoples records. Play piano or play guitar. Have them tell me what to do, that is my ideal situation. I just want to play with people…it’s kind of like everybody and nobody at the same time. I really would only want to collaborate if it made sense and we were on the same page.
6.1 record that shaped you when you first started playing and 1 record or artists that you are now/are listening to now that you think folks really need to hear about?
LV: When I started, the stuff I was really into when I was a lot younger, I just listened to like The Beatles and Radiohead (laughs). But when I started writing songs, you know I listened to “Blood on the Tracks” and I still listen to it a lot. For a while I almost only listened to that, for 3 years or something (talk about Dylan tribute I was playing that night for a while). I feel like a lot folks known about him, but not a lot of the folks I know know about him. I am really into this guy Aaron Embry, he plays with the Magnetic Zeros a little bit. He actually plays on a lot of stuff, he is just this wonderful piano player. I feel like a lot of people in Montreal don’t know who he is, so it’s enough to warrant talking about him. Great piano player, great tenor guitar player, great harmonica player, great songwriter, he just sounds fantastic. I also listen to a lot of Gillian Welch, but obviously a lot of people know her. I was a little slow to catch on to her. I feel like she is kind of just doing the duo thing with David Rawlings and absorbing a bunch of amazing songs from the past and making them work today, adding the right twist. I feel that they are really writing actually, crazy amazing, perfect songs. Aaron Embry has some of that, musically, I just think he is fantastic.
7.So, why is creating music important to you? Why do you hit the stage night after night, pull out the old song notebook every day, or whatever else you do to let loose your creativity?
LV: Sometimes it’s a release and sometimes its not a release, because the writing is the pain. Like I just want to write this f’ing song, but I can’t! Its not like pure “everything is great” when I write songs, but I would do it anyway. I was always thinking like I need to tour and make records, but sometimes think it doesn’t have to be that way. I can write songs, and then play them, and then get some shows and I play those shows. I just don’t really want to do anything else. I just kind of do it…and keep doing it. I am really lucky I have people to help me book shows and stuff.
8.Aside from music, do you have any other pastimes? What would you want people to know about you aside from your musical endeavors?
LV: Oh yeah! I try to do stuff, so it helps me write music. (laughs). You know, theres nothing better than going for a swim and having a beer, because you know its helps me not think about music…then I can come back from it and write better! I used to play ultimate Frisbee in high school and started doing that again…people are like “what a loser”, but its so much fun (laughs). Mostly I just like to save up money and buy old instruments. I just bought this old drum in Cincinatti on my way home and I don’t even play drums. I decided I want to assemble a perfect vintage drum kit so when I practice it sounds good and I don’t get disheartened like when I had a shitty drum set when I was a kid. I thought I was worse than I was. I just want to play all the time. I feel like the tragedy is that being a solo artist and not in a band people are never like “oh just come on and play with me” because they think I am doing my own stuff. I’ll play guitar, I’ll play piano. The more I can play the happier I am. Touring has been fun, it’s not as fatiguing as it used to be. I just get way too antsy when I don’t get to play for a while.
9.Anything else you want to plug or we should know?
LV: I am going to Europe, then I come back and go to LA. I am going to play with William Fitzsimmons, open for him solo. Then all the way across to Las Vegas, Phoenix, Dallas, Austin, Buffalo, Chicago, Boston on the 15th of June (Cambridge at The Sinclair!).
For more information, tour dates, and music from Leif check out his website: http://leifvollebekk.com/