An Interview with Katie Herzig (Part 2)

This is the second in a three-part interview with singer/songwriter Katie Herzig. You can read part one here.

During all this you were still living in Colorado. What prompted you to move to Nashville?

I had taken trips out to Nashville to do some songwriting, and the band had recorded our last record there, so I had some history with the city and knew a handful of people. I had gotten to know some artists with whom I really connected.  I think I wanted to be part of a community of other artists making art that I really respected.  It had nothing to do with Colorado – I miss it a lot. But for someone who wants to make their living in music, Nashville provided a community and unique opportunities for collaboration in writing and touring, as well as access to the business. There are plenty of artists in Colorado who are doing their thing and doing a great job of it, but I had a great connection with what was going on in Nashville.

For a musician, community is a particular problem, because they need to play and record with other musicians to make it work.  It sounds like you had a good base to be able to move out there and start life in a new city.  How did you foster those relationships?  How do musicians find each other in a city like Nashville?

Once you’re there, you realize that it’s not that hard to find others, since you’re in music venues and at shows and hanging out with other artists who know other people.  At first, I went to so many shows, and I tried to meet a lot of people. I would look for music that I liked and try to meet those people, for no other reason than to be friends with them and hear how they do it.  But the Internet also helps, because you can see who knows who in different networks. Performing also provided a way for other people to see what I could do, and that helped me meet a lot of people.

Was there a particular venue or a songwriters night or something where a lot of those people you’ve really gravitated towards all gathered?

Not necessarily. In Nashville, there’s a handful of great venues. When I first moved to town, I participated in “Eight off 8th”, an evening in which eight artists each play three songs at the Mercy Lounge. They’re free shows, so people just go hang out there too.  There was one particularly “Eight off 8th” to which I can trace several opportunities and relationships, and that’s a part of being in a town where your primary audience is other musicians.

It’s funny how life gives you little things you can look back on and see precise turning points.

It gives you hope, too. Anything can happen any day, depending on who you meet.

You had a new album, “Apple Tree,” come out this spring.  If “Weightless” was a breakup album for your old band, where did the songs on “Apple Tree” come from?

In the aftermath of the band’s breakup, I discovered something new and fresh; so many of the songs on “Weightless” came right before everything changed, and a lot of the songs on “Apple Tree” came from after that. The production was symbolic – I didn’t hold it as close. I included other people as co-producers as well – Cason Cooley for five of the songs, Aaron Johnson for one, and I did the rest. It was hard to invite other people into the process for what I knew would be my next record, but as it progressed, I appreciated having help from someone else who cared about the record just as much as me, while I was still ultimately in charge of what was happening. It wasn’t as though I was giving anything up, but rather allowing people to add what I couldn’t.

Why did you decide to go that route this time?

I wanted to grow a bit. A friend recommended Cason – I knew who he was, but my friend was sure we’d work well together. So we met one night, and we decided to try and couple songs, and we did. I think the risk is that you create something you like and you actually decide to put it on a record.

Being in this town, I’ve developed an appreciation for the players, producers, and musicians that are really good, and there are some people making a living on just producing or being a session player. While my instincts are pretty good – I can usually come close to playing what I want to hear, because I’m drawn to fairly simple parts – I also want to let go a little and realize that others have a lot to offer. I also love supporting what they do. I think it was a healthy decision to have more involvement and interaction with other people.

Your music has a playful nature about it, so it seems to make sense you would enjoy playing with others in the studio as you record those songs.  You talked a little bit about working with Cason.  How did Cason and Aaron’s strengths as producers compliment what you were already doing in the studio?

I think Cason approaches production with a sensitivity to who he’s working with. He’s not overbearing, which is good, since I have a strong sense of what I like, but he’s great at being excited about a song and trying a lot of things. He has an incredible ear and builds a track based on a respect for not doing things just for the sake of doing them. We got along well, which removes some of the pressure – some of what’s hard in making a record is finishing. The initial excitement for me comes from getting ideas down, but then actually getting in the studio, making sure you have the best version, and editing and listening is difficult. You have to be patient and see something to the end. Cason was really, really helpful in that.

Aaron and I worked on the song “Hologram”. We had talked about doing something for years, because he’d produced a couple Newcomers Home tracks that never ended up on anything, and since then he’d worked with The Fray and become a successful producer. He came to one of my shows in New York, and afterward he said he really liked what I was doing, but missed how much louder I’d sung with the band.

I’d started softening up, probably because I recorded “Weightless” in my house and had to be quiet. After he made that comment, I went away and wrote “Hologram”, so I always wanted him to help produce that song, since it was a somewhat intentional effort to do that again. He has great pop sensibilities, and it’s written in that vein, so I thought he’d be a great one to work with.

It must be exhausting to come back to something much louder.

It’s funny – “Hologram” is the most exhausting song I’ve written. When I sing it live every night, I feel like I just ran sprints.  It’s brutally honest in pointing out things you don’t usually talk about, and at the same time, I’m belting that stuff out.

Our interview with Katie Herzig will conclude next Friday.