Alyson Greenfield is a multi-instrumentalist and singer-songwriter. Originally from Ohio, she is also the founder of the Tinderbox Music Festival. Recent response to an edition of the “Girls Rock” series was enough to encourage the publication of a complete interview with Greenfield. Here then, is the complete, unedited interview:
Phoenix: Hi Alyson. Thanks for spending time with me and my readers. I promise to make this as painless as possible. First I simply have to confess that lately I’ve been listening to a lot of material by some great ladies for my “Girls Rock” series. I also have to say though that I’ve heard a lot of dark, sad and slightly negative material. Now you take certain attitudes about things and dredge up some less than shining memories too but you seem to manage to sound like you’re having fun—at times—in the middle of that kind of song. Am I crazy or what? What do you think?
Greenfield: I don't think you are crazy at all! I think you are right on target with what I'm doing. As you mentioned I do address some dark topics but I also try to have fun with it. I think that's a huge part of my songwriting process and personality-- experimenting and having fun, even with topics or memories that hurt.
Phoenix: OK. Let’s start at the beginning. Let’s get the basics covered first. How did you get started? What is your musical background?
Greenfield:: When I was six I wrote in my first grade journal "I am going to take piano lessons." I drew rainbow lines on that page with crayons. The truth was I was not going to start taking piano lessons.
I actually had to continuously ask my parents if I could take piano lessons for 3 years before they finally relented, bought a used upright piano, and allowed me to play an instrument I so desperately wanted to play. I took piano lessons for a couple of years, and I was so excited to be playing the piano, but I was less excited by the theory and practicing. I quit piano lessons after a couple of years and began writing my own songs, which I practiced only for myself. I also played by ear.
I played all the time. When I was in middle school I started taking guitar lessons and I did that for about a year. With all the other instruments I play I just started picking them up and experimenting with them. I consistently just wrote songs and played by ear on piano and guitar for most of my life and then when I moved to New York a couple years ago and decided to finally focus more on music I started experimenting with all sorts of new instruments and now I'll pretty much pick up and try to play anything that's around.
I'm not saying I'll produce beautiful music on it, but I find as a composer each instrument really inspires me in its own way. When I moved to New York instruments kept being almost magically given to me, and it allowed me to experiment more. Since moving here I have been given a chord organ, a snare drum, a floor tom, a melodica, three glockenspiels, a toy piano, a kalimba, a synthesizer, and an electric guitar and a looper (both on indefinite loans from friends).
Phoenix: Who inspires you?
Greenfield:Musically I have been incredibly inspired by Tori Amos, Peter Gabriel, Kate Bush, Bjork, and Radiohead. There have been many more, but I have been consistently inspired by these artists throughout the years.
Phoenix: I’ve read what other music journalists and what advertisers call your music. If you had to label your music what would you call it?
Greenfield: Oh gosh! What a question. Lately when people ask me about my music I say it is folk electro hip hop. Yep. That's not really a label, but that's what it is. What I do is definitely rooted in folk storytelling but it has expanded to have more of both a dreamy electronic quality as well as a hard hitting hip hop percussive quality with my vocals/rapping and beats (beatboxers, floor toms, etc.)! Maybe it's just experimental?
Phoenix: What do you consider your best song (which album is it on) and WHY?
Greenfield: "Understand the Sky" because of the reaction it has had and the place it takes me to when I play it. It's consistently a song that people ask for at live shows and people talk to me about. As well, more things have happened with it since I recorded it. Future Rock did a remix of it that was released on their Live in Wicker Park album and it recently got placed in an incredible independent film Conception written and directed by Josh Stolberg (Pirhana 3D, Good Luck Chuck, Kids in America).
Phoenix:Tell me a secret. Tell me something you have never revealed to any other interviewer?
Greenfield: I can't think of one.
Phoenix: What do you like best about being a solo artist?
Greenfield: I don't have to confer with many other people about rehearsals, and show schedules.
Phoenix: What do you like the least?
Greenfield: Sometimes it is lonely and there is only 1 person to promote each show.
Phoenix: All right. Now I have to ask a few oddball questions. I have heard a very quick “hotel room” description about that Ray Charles-“Young Girl In The Music World” I’ve also listened to the song several times What’s the real story there?
Greenfield: Basically I was at a music club, and met a guy who had toured with Ray Charles (at the time I hadn't met hardly any musicians who had toured with big name artists). We were talking about him performing on my upcoming album and we were definitely connecting musically-- having a great conversation about music and we even jammed out on some of my songs together. When we said good-bye after meeting, he just went in for the kiss and I didn't even know how he had gotten so close to me.
He was a lot older than me and I thought it was clear that we were connecting as musicians, and not as anything else. It can be disappointing because in those situations you don't know if the person is actually taking you seriously as a musician. Since then I have worked with a lot more people and I have realized it is definitely possible for people to take you seriously as a musician and not let other things come into play. This experience just had a big impact on me at the time and so a song came out of it.
Phoenix: Does it STILL surprise you when get hit on? I mean some of us have self-esteem issues but after studying your pictures to create the slideshows I have to ask do you not see that people can easily find you cute or attractive?
Greenfield: It's just that sometimes there is a lack or respect or good communication involved and that is usually what I'm singing about when addressing these situations in songs.
Phoenix: Well, ya gotta know sometimes we (men) have no clue, OK? (Smiling) OK. So what’s the deal with the whole “glockenspiel” thing? You have a song; you sing about them, you play them . . . Why?
Greenfield: Truthfully, when I wrote "Glockenspiel" which is on "Tuscaloosa" I just liked how the word sounded and it just came to me. That song isn't so much about a glockenspiel as much as it is trying to talk about a human possibly being an inanimate thing, which could be a glockenspiel. However, when I moved to New York I was given a very special rainbow glockenspiel that has traveled all over with me in my backpack.
I even once played it on a plane for some new friends I met! It's been a magical little instrument in my life. It was my friend's from when she was a child and she kindly gave it to me one day. It started really becoming a "signature" of mine when I started covering Coolio's "Gangsta's Paradise" on it. Then, even if people didn't know my name, they started talking about "that girl who does 'Gangsta's Paradise' on the glockenspiel." And it's easy to see at a gig.
Lots of indie bands have glockenspiels these days, but I don't see too many of the little rainbow glockenspiel "toy" instruments that I play running around. Plus it's a fun word to say. People love to say that word and are just fascinated and intrigued by the instrument. I know why, but I'm just going to keep going with it!
Phoenix: I really didn’t say much about the soap in your profile just as I didn’t go into all of your previous jobs. Still, I have to say the soap does smell good. I must say I used the sample and women generally like the way your soap smells on my naked body. So it’s a good product but why are YOU into the soap business in the first place?
Greenfield: Well I am not in the soap business; my friends at The Left Hand Soap Co. (http://www.thelefthand.net/) are in the soap business. They make amazing all natural soaps, salves, balms, and more. They also name certain bars after friends or bands they like! I'm honored to have an "Alyson Greenfield" soap bar. The "Alyson Greenfield" bar is rosemary mint soap and it rocks. (And can be ordered at The Left Hand's website)!
Phoenix: OK. So it’s like delis naming sandwiches after famous actors! Got it! All right then, well, what’s next for you? Specifically, beyond what I’ve already covered in your profile what is beyond that?
Greenfield: Well, I'm really excited to finally release my covers album, "Rock Out With Your Glockenspiel Out" in July! It was a really fun album to work on and I hope people will enjoy it. I worked on it with engineer Matt Gill and it is being distributed by Roc-Elle Records here in New York. It's my first time working with a label in any way, so that's an exciting new thing. Next on the horizon is working on an electronic album!
I've been playing some of these new dancey/electronic creations live at shows, but I'm excited to work on some of them in the studio and give people some new Alyson Greenfield music they can dance to. I'm also working really hard on the festival I founded (www.tinderboxmusicfestival.com). This year will be the 2nd year, and it's already starting to grow a lot!
Phoenix: I've read in the press that your music contains all these feminist themes! Personally, i see it as more of just a reflection of how your life is and perhaps a result of your involvement with NOW. What do you think? Do you intentionally go for the feminist themes or do they just come out on their own?
Greenfield: I do consider myself a feminist and I think the feminist themes come out in my writing, but I agree with you in the fact that I'm not always trying to have a feminist agenda as much as just writing from my own perspective as a woman about things that are important to me. In a song like "Chiapas" for instance, I address the idea of patriarchy as well as bringing up how it is hard to be a sensitive man. I think it is hard to be both a man and a woman (and anything in between) in our society. As much as I write from a woman's perspective, I also try a lot of times to write songs from the perspective of just being a human, regardless of gender. I find that being a human is strange and exciting and frustrating and interesting and I feel like I am continuously trying to understand it through song.
Phoenix: Any closing remarks? Anything you’d like to see in print we’ve not covered?
No! You've covered a lot of ground! Thanks!
Phoenix: Thanks again for spending some time with me and my readers!
There you have it, boys and girls. That’s the complete interview with Alyson Greenfield. Her new project sounds like it’s going to be really interesting!
My name is Phoenix and . . . that’s the bottom line.
Comments