Singer-songwriter Avery Quinn's music is simply beautiful, wonderfully produced and ethereal in quality. Avery shares her process and discusses the origins of the music she writes. Emmy nominated music producer, Josh Arreguin, talks a bit about producing Avery's music and how he enhances her natural sound on each track. Producer comments and additional notes are available only in transcripts form.
Singer-songwriter Avery Quinn's music is simply beautiful, wonderfully produced and ethereal in quality. Avery shares her process and discusses the origins of the music she writes. Emmy nominated music producer, Josh Arreguin, talks a bit about producing Avery's music and how he enhances her natural sound on each track. Producer comments and additional notes are available only in transcripts form.
You are listening to the Crazy Brave Songwriter Podcast. This is a podcast about the magic of making music one song at a time. My name is Lisa Gui. I'm happy to be your host for today I chose the music of singer songwriter Avery Quinn. Simply because her music touches me so much, I find her to be a consummate storyteller with deep personal lyrics, music production that highlights the soft quality of her vocals that are moody and memorable. Emmy Award nominated producer Josh a again joins us to talk a little about the production process too. Today we are highlighting two songs. The first is the Song Hazel that tells a simple story of a person who has a crush on another. And then there is the beautiful ethereal song October, A deeply moving idea about what you might say to the month of October if you were to write her a letter directly. Enjoy this episode and I'll see you on the other side. Check
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One, two, check one, two, testing, testing.
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So I, I've been making up songs since I was like two. I've just always been like making up weird little jingles and stuff since I was a kid. And so I had all these like poems written. I started taking voice lessons and that's when I started to like turn them into songs. My vocal coach was like, Have you ever written any songs like of your own? And I was like, Yeah, but I've never played them for anybody. I played her like one of them and she's like, You should start doing that a little more seriously because I think that was really good and that was like the only positive feedback I've ever heard from like my own songs. And so that gave me some confidence to start like pursuing songwriting. I always hesitate to call my songwriting process like a process cuz it's kind of all over the place. But usually songs just come to me like all at once. Like it's not like the lyrics first or the melody first. It's like if I'm writing lyrics I can also hear the melody in my head and if I'm thinking of a melody I can kind of hear words. To me It's been really cool to work with the producer because before when I was trying to just do stuff on my own I could hear it but it's just, it's just my voice. And like piano, like I could hear the songs potential but no one else could really understand like what I was trying to make it. I'll play it for Josh, just like the plain simple version that I have of like just me singing and then like piano or something and then I'll tell him all these like weird ideas that I have. Like this is what I think the song kind of sounds like. It's kind of this kind of vibe. Sometimes I'll like play other songs, I feel like kind of capture the sound that I'm going for, hoping that he'll get the idea. And then sometimes it ends up being something completely different and it sounds way better than what I thought. So that to me is the best part where was like, oh that's not what I was thinking, but it's a better idea.<laugh>? Well on my album it's called Half Truth and half of the songs are like about me. They're just like completely autobiographical songs. And then half of them are stories that I made up. One of the songs Hazel, it's just a story that I made up in my head about a kid who has a crush on a girl named Hazel.
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Hazel Friend was
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I found that piano is actually easier for me to write even though I feel like I play guitar better and more comfortable with guitar, I try to write something every day. I have like a little poetry journal and that's usually like where it'll start or sometimes I'm like recording a voice memo in my car of just like sounds, but I can think what the lyrics will probably be in my head. So October is another one of my songs that started out as a poem. It's the earliest song that I wrote. Whenever the seasons change, I start to have like existential crisis and I start to think about like my own mortality and stuff, which is really dramatic and weird. But I'd just gone through like a lot of major life transitions and I was like this, it just feels like everything's changing all around me and I just really want things to change for the better this time. And I sat down under a tree and I just started writing this poem that was like a letter to the month of October. Just imagining like what it would be like if things changed the way I'd hope them to.
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October. The color sky is getting colder.
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I'm not very good with like expressing my emotions to other people and even to myself. And I think that writing is my way of just like getting that out of my system and looking at it and being like, oh that's something that a lot of people feel. And when you turn that into a song, sometimes it's scary for me to like share my raw feelings like that. And so when I hear other people respond to it like oh I really connected with that song, it makes me realize like, oh I'm not actually alone in what I was feeling. Like it's a very universal thing. Who told you that I'm some heartless loner? Don't you know that depends on you.
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October, I think you something. I watch you Tuesday. I'll meet you at the place we first met Tuesday. Who told you that I'm some heartless lone owner. Don't you know, that depends on you.
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So that, that's actually my favorite part in this song. It's me also talking to this imaginary person in my head. Like, I think you have something I want you to say. I was imagining this person like confessing their feelings to me having something I want them to say, Who told you I was some heartless loner? Don't you know that depends on you. October. Um, just feeling like that was the impression I had of myself at that time in my life. I was just like this kind of cold person with no friends,
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Love a poet and a page and queen and you'll be every star inside a galaxy. She know you like nobody
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Knows the lyric. That lyric and the bridge is really funny. The, you could love a poet and a pageant queen. I definitely don't think of myself as a pageant queen. I just really like how it rhymed with galaxy<laugh> honestly. And I like the alliteration with poet and then another word that started with P. So yeah, that wasn't meant to be an expression of vanity at all. My biggest tip for any songwriter, musician, anyone in that field is just don't stop. I try to write something every day. Is it good every day? Absolutely not. I'd say maybe 5% of the songs I write end up getting recorded and end up being like good songs. But in order to get those 5%, I have to write that other 95% cuz like you're not gonna write a hit song every single time you write something.
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And now for your listening pleasure, the song October in its entirety
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October, the color sky is getting cold. My heart is getting, getting feeling faces. What? Don't just, He's so like a candle that I wanna burn and don't you know why we could never be friends? I know you like nobody, you'll know you like this, you sweater and October when we were only strangers in September, if you would've told me, I would've said never. The feelings change. We could then what the, And now I I think you something. I want you Tuesday. I'll meet you at the place we first met Tuesday. Who told you that I'm some heartless lone owner? Don't you know? That depends on you. October, just think how it, if you poet ended every star inside her gala. That precisely. What s you, uh, to No, no.
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This is Lisa again and I wanna take this moment to applaud the team at love and laughter music group.com. A safe, knowledgeable spot for musicians who wish to learn more about writing songs and recording great music. This episode is a product of living Crazy brave.com, another hub where musicians can cultivate new awareness about what it takes to honor the sacred art of making honest music. The stories we think about are like spiritual connection between ourselves and the universe. We accomplish this in three ways. We write songs for ourselves as we seek to make sense of the emotional and situational experiences we live through. We write songs to others as a prayer that our songs will uplift and heal and we write songs with others to remind ourselves that we are not alone and that there are other storytellers out there just like us.