By Zac Taylor
Managing Editor

Power-Pop-Punk Quintet Westland has been trailblazing all across the west coast and elsewhere, making a name for themselves on the national scene. How did they make the leap from jamming in high school and meeting at Berklee to getting some notable sponsorship deals and slots at major festivals? Hard-hitting drummer and Berklee alumnus Carlo Ribaux brings The Groove up to speed. Read the full story

By Ann Driscoll
Associate Editor

Ashley Root and Evelyn Brown are best friends, musical soul mates, and self-described “sisters.” It’s not hard to hear why these two young musicians and Berklee alums (both ’09 grads) have clicked so well. Both play acoustic guitar, have an angelic twang-inflected timbre to their voices, and are influenced by a wide range of musical genres yet naturally write country songs.

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By Zac Taylor
Editor-in-Chief

Liz Davis Maxfield has hit the proverbial jackpot. The versatile cellist graduates this semester, and will be heading to the University of Limerick in Ireland to receive her Master’s degree in Traditional Irish Music Performance. The cello, however, is not a traditional instrument in this genre; herein lies the ace up her sleeve. She submitted a proposal to pen the first-ever cello method book exclusively for traditional Irish music, and received the Fulbright Scholarship, a highly competitive program sponsored by the U.S. Department of State that is on par with the Rhodes Scholarship. Her tuition, housing, and research expenses are all covered.

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By Zac Taylor & Ann Driscoll

On April 13, Annie Clark, a.k.a. St. Vincent, played a private, intimate show at Café 939 to a seated audience. Business Professor Jeff Dorenfeld was responsible for the invited guest list, among which was Newbury Comics CCO Duncan Browne. The nimble Clark strolled onto the stage and said, “Thanks for coming to the open mic,” with a sly grin before tearing into her first number. Banging away on a Fender Jaguar with an army of loopers, stompboxes, and an auxiliary vocal mic for distorted phrases, the chanteuse created sparkling, verb-drenched tapestries that elevated her songs to sonic compositions.

A former sidekick for The Polyphonic Spree and Sufjan Stevens, as a well as a Berklee alumna, the multi-instrumentalist songstress has got the magical ‘it.’ She occasionally set the guitar down and played some ballads on piano, like the title track off of her 2007 LP Marry Me, riffing with the crowd with an unabashed, unflinching stage presence between, and even during songs. She closed the set with a tune off of her new record Actor called “Marrow,” which had everyone humming afterwards.

The full band version of St. Vincent will be performing at the Somerville Theater May 19. After doing some meet and greets with some important music business clientele in the audience, Annie Clark was kind enough to chat with The Groove.

Zac Taylor: You made a few Berklee cracks during your set—that was cute.

Annie Clark: I did. You got to represent.

ZT: How long were you here?

AC: Three years.

ZT: Did you feel well-prepared?

AC: I think it’s good to learn as much as you can, then get out and unlearn as much as you can.

ZT: What would you have done differently on your first EP Ratsliveonnoevilstar? Were you still at Berklee when you made it?

AC: It was horrible. I did that my sophomore year or something. I haven’t listened to that in a really long time. I would say I should have put a little more Bill Callahan and a little less Herbie Hancock in it.

ZT: Did you really come to Berklee with 2s [for your ratings] and leave with 2s?

AC: Totally. I wasn’t a very good student. What’s the magic secret? Oh— Practicing.

ZT: I think tighter jeans and cigarettes works better than practicing around here. And blogging a lot.

AC: Really? Everybody blogs?

Ann Driscoll: And Twitters. Are you into twittering?

AC: I have to be honest—I started twittering, and I feel very uncomfortable about it. No one cares if I’m like, “Woke up. Ate a bagel.” My life is very boring. I would never want people to know how boring it is.

ZT: Did you go straight to Brooklyn from Berklee?

AC: I did. Then I ran out of money and moved back to Texas. It’s really expensive.

ZT: A lot of kids here are planning to make the move to New York to pursue music. What are some tricks of the trade on how to survive?

AC: I’m the worst person to ask, because I didn’t survive. I ran out of money. Sold a guitar to pay rent, which was way dumb. And then moved back to Texas. I only moved back to Brooklyn a year and a half ago, when I could afford to live there and not have to sell guitars. I’m not like a high roller or something. So I have no idea, because I tried and failed. So I wouldn’t ask me.

ZT: So you moved back to Texas, saved some money, and recorded some stuff?

AC: Yeah. I joined this band the Polyphonic Spree and finished the Marry Me record, and toured a bunch, then wrote with Sufjan, and then blah blah blah. And then started touring with my own St. Vincent thing a whole lot starting in 2007.

AD: So it’s really not that important to move to New York or LA, you can do it from Texas or a variety of locations.

AC: Yeah. I certainly know a lot of musicians in New York now, but I feel like I kind of know them because we’re on the same label, not because I necessarily know them as organically as I would have if I was like, “Oh yeah—I saw you at the open mic.” I know that people can do that and totally make it work, but I have no idea how to do that.

ZT: How’d you hook up with Sufjan Stevens?

AC: I had done about half of the Marry Me record, and he had heard it and liked it, and I had just agreed to work with Billions Corporation, which is his agency, and so many other bands. I kind of sought out the Billions Corporation, because I looked at their roster—Antony [and the Johnsons], Joanna Newsom, and Sufjan. It was like all my favorite artists ever.

ZT: Working with Producer John Congleton on Actor—

AC: Johnny C. We’re getting married. Could you start spreading that rumor?

ZT: We’ll tweet it for you. But you seem to be quite a savvy sound technician yourself. What was it like working with him? Did you reach a happy medium? Was he the boss or were you the boss?

AC: I think any good producer-artist/co-producer relationship has nothing to do with someone assholishly asserting their ego. It’s all about a common goal. We can sometimes disagree about what it would take to get there, but there’s no throwing your weight around. That’s a weird thing to put into a communicative situation. You both want the ship to sail. You just resolve to both commit to that, and not have an ego about it.

ZT: How much of the production and the arrangement is preplanned and how much do you experiment?

AC: All of the clarinet stuff, and all of the orchestral parts I arranged before recording. They were all put together, I knew what I was doing with those.

AD: What do you use to demo your ideas?

AC: I use Garageband and Logic. I wrote a lot of the music for the record in Logic. Technology. Awesome.

AD: How many pedals do you have?

AC: Too many. The pedals that I’m using right now are a fraction of what I own. Which is disgusting. It’s totally unnecessary. But it’s like Tourette’s or something. I can’t stop.

ZT: What year Jaguar do you have?

AC: That’s a weird Frankenstein Jaguar that I found at this place in Tuscon. I managed to find that guitar for like $200, and I think it’s Japanese, which is probably a rip-off. It’s kind of a monster of a guitar. Somebody did this really wonky job putting in new pickups. So some of the wiring and knobs don’t even work. It’s a guitar I don’t mind abusing, or being really brutal with. Not because I didn’t pay a lot for it, that’s the nature of that guitar. It just wants to be beat up.

ZT: Kurt Cobain would have been proud.

AC: It wants to be abused, and it has a whammy bar. Which is necessary.

ZT: Coming out of the gate of Berklee, what’s some general advice you have as far as the craft of songwriting? Did you scribble in a notebook for hours? Were you out gigging? What was your priority?

AC: Well, I knew I wanted to make an album, and release an album. I didn’t have any idea if anyone would hear it or any sense of that. But part of life is being moderately prepared at the right time at the right place. But I would say there’s not like a theorem or a formula or anything, except to just do what you really love to do, and follow that. Whatever makes you feel really awesome about yourself, about life—do that. And keep doing that. And keep doing that. And the other stuff, the ephemeral, and the things that are out of your control, will remain out of your control. Always. So focus on the things you can control. Make music that you love and believe in it. I know it sounds cheesy, but there’s not a shortcut in that regard. And in the process of doing that, you typically attract like-minded people.

AD: What’s your take on the music industry? How’s it treating you? Do you think it will recover? Is it possible to really be successful?

AC: Totally. There are so many tools at your disposal. Maybe the idea of the big father record company whose going to roll up, pork barrel, and there going to be tons of money flowing like wine—that’s not happening, because that’s not a very successful business model. But there are still labels that are thriving, and still booking agencies that are thriving. Because a $12 ticket—people can prioritize that if they want some escape. I think it’s changing but there will always be a supply and a demand.

AD: Well that’s encouraging.

AC: Totally. It’s not like the 80s. The idea of the ‘rock star’ I don’t think really exists anymore. Maybe Nickelback. Maybe that’s something.

ZT: The music video you made for “Actor out of Work” is really cool.  But music videos aren’t really commercials for records anymore. So you have a beautiful video and website, and an excellent internet presence. What excites you the most about the way this industry’s changing? How are you capitalizing on that the best?

AC: I’m with a label called 4AD, who I really like, and everyone there is good at their job, and smart, and totally capable—and I kind of let them think about that. I used to do a blog, which was kind of okay, and I twitter, so I try to keep current, but I’m in my late-mid twenties, so things are changing and I feel like I’m older. I guess it means more access for people. There are a lot ways to get your thing out there. And I twitter. Usually about the bagel.

By Zac Taylor
Editor-in-Chief

The 51st Annual Grammy Awards was a star-studded, long-winded, genre-bending night of backing tracks and bizarre collaborations. Justin Timberlake and Kanye West were rarely off camera, and the curly haired Jonas Brother fudged the words to “Superstition” during his performance with Stevie Wonder. M.I.A. was due to give birth earlier that day, but instead performed quite energetically and gracefully for a being nine months pregnant.

While the telecast was indeed long, it did flow better than in recent years, and many Grammys went to some excellent and deserving artists. Adele beat out the Jonas Brothers and Duffy for Best New Artist, and Robert Plant and Alison Krauss cleaned up with five awards, including Album of the Year and Record of the Year. “I’m bewildered. In the old days we would have called this selling out, but it’s a good way to spend a Sunday,” said Plant.

Coldplay were also big winners, snagging the coveted Song of the Year award for “Viva La Vida.” Drummer Will Champion said, “Thank you and sorry to Sir Paul McCartney for blatantly recycling the Sgt. Pepper’s uniforms,” referring to the band’s colorfully choreographed wardrobe. McCartney lit the stage up featuring Dave Grohl on drums on the Beatles’ classic “I Saw Her Standing There.”

Not unlike the Superbowl, there was an abundance of ‘help’ for much of the live performance, including Estelle and Kanye’s duet on “American Boy” (On Estelle’s chorus, not on Kanye’s hair, where it was needed). Some help wouldn’t have hurt Taylor Swift and Miley Cyrus’ duet on the Swift-penned “Fifteen,” in which Swift was much more in tune than her Saturday Night Live performance, which isn’t saying much.

 

Some collaborations were better than others. Jamie Foxx and Smokey Robinson led a quartet for a medley of Four Tops songs, which was uplifting and reverent. Kanye West, T.I., Jay-Z, and Lil’ Wayne dubbed themselves “the Rap Pack,” and performed after a tribute to Dean Martin, who received a lifetime achievement award.

One of the most engaging performances of the night was Katy Perry, who sang her hit “I Kissed a Girl” with a giant strawberry and banana set design behind her. A team of white-clad dancers backed up Perry, who had the stride of a 1950s beauty queen. Radiohead performed with a marching band, after which a gracious Thom Yorke smiled and bowed to the crowd. Their record In Rainbows received awards for Best Alternative Album and Best Boxed or Special Edition Album. BB King, Buddy Guy, John Mayer, and Keith Urban all traded licks to pay tribute to the late great Bo Diddley, during which a slideshow of the innovative bluesman played on the screens behind them.

There were 22 Berklee alumni and one faculty member nominated for Grammys, and many of whom won:

John Mayer ‘98 Best Male Pop Performance “Say”; Best Solo Rock Vocal Performance “Gravity”.

Gavin Lurssen ’91, Mastering/Engineering on Robert Plant and Alison Krauss’ Raising Sand (Five Awards).

Andrew Dawson ’01 Engineer/Mixer for Lil’ Wayne’s Tha Carter III Best Rap Album

Thomas Pridgen ’03 Drummer for Mars Volta drummer Wax Simulacra Best Hard Rock Performance

Gary Burton ‘62 & Chick Corea, soloists, Best Jazz Instrumental Album, Individual or Group The New Crystal Silence

Joe Travers ‘91 Best Rock Instrumental Performance Peaches En Regalia Zappa Plays Zappa

Alex Lacamoire ‘95 Producer Best Musical Show Album In The Heights

For more, visit Grammy.com

By Zac Taylor
Editor-in-Chief

A few weeks ago, President Roger Brown got a midnight text message from a former Berklee student. This particular student wanted to come back to the college and get reconnected with some young musicians; Brown said OK, but made him agree to give a clinic for the students. This student, Brown said to a packed out Berklee Performance Center, has the best chance of being our generation’s Paul Simon, or Sting. After reading a few snippets of his favorite lyrics, Brown welcomed John Mayer out onto the stage to a roar of exuberant applause. In a black hooded sweatshirt, white sneakers and jeans, Mayer spoke from both the heart and gut to a crowd of 1,200 pairs of attentive ears and eyes, some of which belonged to people who had been waiting in line since 5 A.M., for the clinic on the afternoon of October 8.

Getting practical advice from arguably the biggest pop star in the industry is a rare treat for Berklee students. He talked about how he spent his time at Berklee (roughly two semesters), and the kind of mindset current students should have. “The number one piece of information,” he said, “Is to define your expectations.” Giving a brief synopsis of his rise to stardom, he talked about how he set small, attainable goals for himself with regards to writing and performing, and recommended that young musicians do the same, as to not fall prey to unreachable, overly ambitious facades of success.

Illustrating a number of points about writing, guitar playing, and composition, Mayer performed his tune “Stop This Train,” in which there was a whistle solo, as well as a brief segue into Simon & Garfunkel’s “Homeward Bound.” “If the chords aren’t right, it’s not going to come alive,” Mayer said. He illustrated this point further by playing the first verse of Pearl Jam’s “Better Man,” highlighting the signature acoustic guitar riff, and then playing it again by just strumming a plain D chord. “I can’t stress enough— you have to have compositions that are inherently interesting.”

“The public is always smarter than you,” he told the crowd. Admitting to “playing the game” in the industry, Mayer was pleased with the show of hands of people who claimed they would make some compromises to certain aspects of their music for success. “At the end of the day, I wanted to be listenable,” he said. “Songwriting is a tricky thing. But what you can do is inform your inspiration with information,” he said in reference to what he dubbed the ‘Information/Inspiration Clinic.’

Showing off both his sensitive-singer-songwriter guise as well as that of an accomplished bluesman, Mayer performed a handful of songs on both acoustic and electric guitar, including a scathing version of “Who Did You Think I Was?” and “Waiting on the World to Change.” “When I wrote ‘Waiting on the World to Change,’ I said, ‘You’re going to go out there, little song, and you’re going to sell this record,’” he said of Continuum’s first single. He invited Berklee guitar guru Tomo Fujita onstage to outline some soloing dynamics over a basic blues progression— a former student-teacher relationship turned into a couple Strat guys cutting loose. A sultry rendition of “Gravity” closed out the afternoon, just before the multi Grammy award winner signed what must have been hundreds of autographs.

The clinic was not the main focus of Mayer’s weeklong visit to Berklee. He met with about a dozen songwriters selected by the faculty, and gave them insight on their tunes. “He made incredibly incisive, right-on-the-money comments about their songs. He’s such a smart songwriter,” Professor Pat Pattison said, who had Mayer as a student in the spring of ’98. “He was incredibly generous with the students,” Pattison added.

Three songwriters were selected to have a song produced from the ground up by Mayer: Michael Aljadeff, Jonathan Carr, and Keppie Coutts. The faculty wanted to give him a diverse sampling of promising students, as well as recent graduate Coutts, to show him a finished product of the curriculum. “It was a very imperfect process,” Pattison said of the selection process. “We had literally three days to do it.”

The three students worked with Producer Mayer from preproduction all the way through tracking and mixing. “He’s incredible. During preproduction, he was completely present in the room, completely committed,” Coutts said. Songwriting Department Chair Jack Perricone composed and conducted a string arrangement for Coutts’ song “Waiting for the Avalanche.” “It was one of the smoothest, hassle-free, to the point, snag-less recordings I’ve ever done,” Coutts said.

Mix One Studios hosted the project all day Thursday and Friday of “Mayer Week.” The control room of Studio A was electric with hushed exhilaration. Engineer Ted Paduck oversaw the sessions. Mayer was at the board in a t-shirt, turning knobs and discussing creative options with the students. “He was giving me suggestions on my song, referencing changes he made to his songs, which were some of my favorite songs,” Aljadeff said. “He was gracious enough to actually lend his guitar and voice for these tracks, but made sure everything he did was in the service of the song, and not just sort of a ‘Ladies and gentlemen: John Mayer!’ kind of moment.”

Given his status as a pop icon and A-list celebrity, it’s rare that John Mayer gets a day off, let alone a whole week. The fact that he chose to spend his time graciously with Berklee students speaks highly of him, but also of the people that haul around guitars and saxophones across Mass Ave and Boylston week in and week out. Set small goals. Write great songs. Luck might not too have much to do with it.