A Singer Of Songs - Maps and whispers

At the start, it was all about whispers. The caress of a voice, the shadow of a guitar. Then, slowly, new colours and new travelling companions began to appear along Lieven Scheerlinck's path. On the occasion of the release of his fourth album under the name A Singer Of Songs, “From Hello To Goodbye”, the Belgian-born songwriter (now based in Barcelona) agreed to map out for us the journey that has brought him here.

By now you're an old acquaintance to OndaRock readers, going back to your appearance on the first volume of our OndaDrops. But for those who don't know you yet, could you tell us how the A Singer Of Songs project came about?

About seven years ago I was going through a pretty rough patch in my life. I'd split up with my girlfriend, suddenly found myself without a place to live, and felt dissatisfied with everything I was doing. The only way to fight off the sadness was to write songs. Although maybe they were more confessions than songs, really intimate, personal and stripped-back. I wrote and recorded them all in a single session. I'd never intended to share them with anyone. They were songs written for myself, in the hope that they'd help me feel better.

But then a friend heard those songs and pushed me to open a MySpace page to share them. I hesitated for a couple of weeks, but then one evening I took his advice. Around that time I was listening non-stop to a fantastic Johnny Cash song, so I borrowed the title of the track as a name... A Singer Of Songs was born.

A Singer Of Songs is now a proper band. How did the group's current line-up come together?

I met Laura Räsänen on tour. She'd come to one of my shows in Galicia two years ago. We had some mutual friends and started talking after the concert. She told me she played violin. So we met up for a little jam and it was perfect. From the very start I loved singing alongside her.

Then, after last year's tour as a duo, we felt the need for someone strong to have behind us. So we got in touch with José Rosselló, who had played drums in some really good bands. José added a lot of subtle energy to our music.

As for Germán Gadea, I met him through my girlfriend. For my birthday she'd given me a truly fantastic gift: trumpet lessons. Ever since I was a kid I'd wanted to learn to play the trumpet. She found a brilliant teacher: Germán came to my house, gave me three lessons, and a couple of weeks later he was already playing with us at a show.

Your previous album, “There Is A Home For You”, had a lot to do with memory. Which experiences from your past have most shaped your musical path?

I think the most intense experiences that have shaped me came through listening to music. I've always been a fanatical music lover. I remember spending whole days listening to Tom Waits' “Small Change” on repeat. Reading the lyrics, studying the arrangements, applying the words to my own life. Elliott Smith's “Either/Or”, Sparklehorse's “Vivadixiesubmarinetransmissionplot”... Those albums made me who I am. I've spent more hours with them than with any person I know.

And then, of course, moving from Belgium to Barcelona was also very important. From being a small-town kid with a well-defined future, I became a stranger in a big city, where the only certainty was daily confusion. Confusion is great for making music.

Could you tell us something about the recording and production of your new album, “From Hello To Goodbye”?

For the first time I felt like I wasn't alone. I wrote the songs knowing I'd be able to ask Laura, José and Germán to play certain parts. So maybe I wrote them on a slightly bigger scale, with the arrangements already in mind.

I recorded the skeleton of the songs in my home studio, then invited them to add their contributions. Each of us worked on our own, in our own homes. It's very important to me to preserve the intimacy of the music. Especially now that I'm no longer alone.

There are gentler shades in the musical palette of the new songs. What difference do you think there is compared to your previous albums?

I think it all comes down to what I was saying before. This time there's a band, more instruments, and the songs were written with the others in mind. I also think I've gotten a bit better at recording. I still only use one microphone to record everything, but I feel like by now I should have learned where to place it to get a better sound.

Most of the songs on your previous records were recorded right after they were written. Do you still use this method in your songwriting process?

Yes, although it doesn't happen in a single day anymore. I always start recording right after I've finished writing the song. But now it takes me more than a day or a night to record a track. Years ago there were only vocals and guitar, and maybe a few harmonies to record. But now there's bass, drums, violin, trumpet... It takes a bit more time to get everything in its right place.

Also, I've more or less learned to love the idea of a recording that grows slowly, over the course of a couple of days. Little by little the song moves from being in your head to being on tape. It's like watching it grow in slow motion. I think that's my favorite part of making music. Being alone in the studio, trying to record a song the way it needs to be recorded. And then, when I feel I've captured the essence of the song on tape... that's the best thing that can happen.

"From Hello To Goodbye" is a kind of travel diary. What have you learned from travelling?

Everything and nothing. It never stops amazing me how you can end up going to a place you know nothing about, maybe not even the name of its capital. And then, after a week or so, you go back home and there are so many things you've learned. Places, people, languages, situations, emotions... Travelling is learning in fast motion. But then you go back home thinking you've become incredibly smart, and you look at a map of the world and realize there are still so many places you know nothing about. The more you learn, the more you realize how little you know.

What's the relationship, for you, between the idea of travel and the idea of home?

I've come to realize that "home" is a state of mind rather than an actual place. I've felt at home in many places, and I've felt like a stranger in my own home many times.

Every time I thought I had a home, a place where I could stay for a long time, something happened that pushed me back onto the road, looking for a new place to call home. Until one day I realized I wasn't looking for a physical place anymore, but rather for a state of mind. To me, being home means feeling at ease with myself, with what I do, and with the people around me. That's why you can feel at home even on a plane headed to a country you've never been to. And any place can potentially become home.

Do you think the places you've been to have an influence on your music?

Absolutely. I've written a lot of songs based on images I saw while travelling. Or on people I've met.

For example, I wrote "Map Of Lost Places" starting from an image I came across while travelling with a friend across the United States. We saw an abandoned house along the road and decided to take a look. We both love empty, abandoned places, so we wandered through the remains of what had once been a home. We tried to imagine who had lived there, what had made them happy and sad, and why they had decided to leave that place. And then, years later, this song came out of my guitar, and suddenly that whole experience resurfaced and merged with the melody. These things happen to me all the time. Travelling is the perfect fuel for songwriting.

"Happiness will make me fat and bald", you sing in "The Question Is The Answer". What's your relationship with the idea of settling down?

I'm scared to death of the idea of settling down, I always have been. I've seen so many people dissolve into their own happiness. I think happiness has to do with this: being so relaxed that you start caring less about certain things. That's why I get restless when I'm too relaxed. I need some chaos to keep the flame burning. But I've learned this over the years. I no longer make stupid decisions just to keep the chaos alive. I want to be happy now. And I've come to the conclusion that happiness is something that makes you fairly confused, so that's fine by me.

Lucía Mussini created a very special artwork for "From Hello To Goodbye". How did the idea take shape?

A couple of years ago, some friends came to visit me in Barcelona. They didn't have a map of the city, so I gave them the one I used when I was still new in town. Before handing it over, I took a look at it. It was covered in things written and underlined in pencil and highlighter. It was like going back in time. The bar where I'd had my first job interview. The corner where I'd had my first date in Barcelona. The cinema where I used to watch films that weren't dubbed into Spanish. The house where I'd been invited for the first time to a party, with the owner's name jotted down beside it. Through that map I could relive my first years in the city. It was such a beautiful, nostalgic experience. So when we started talking about the artwork with Mabel (Alonso, ed.) and Lucía, the word "map" came up pretty quickly. Mabel had the brilliant idea of creating a personal map of the world of A Singer Of Songs, and Lucía turned that vague idea into an amazing piece of art.

You've said that the first time you played live your hands were shaking so hard you could barely hold the guitar... How has your relationship with live performance changed over time?

I think learning to play live on my own was one of the hardest things I've ever had to do. You can feel pretty lonely up on stage. But then, little by little, you get used to it. You realize people aren't your enemy, they just want to be entertained. They want to like you, at least in most cases. The audience always has a lot of love to give. And once you realize that, everything gets easier.

I like being close to the audience. Talking to them, feeling how they react... I love it when I go to a concert and afterwards I feel like I know the singer a little better, not just as a singer, but as a person too. That's what I try to achieve at every show.

Last year you were in Italy for a few shows. How was the reception from the Italian audience? Is there any anecdote you'd like to share with us?

I love Italy. Two of my best friends are Italian, so I've always felt very close to your country. And then those shows last year... There's really a special connection with you.

One of the places we played is a record shop in Milan, "Dischivolanti". It's a small shop, a bit like John Cusack's in "High Fidelity". The owner, Ferruccio, is a huge fan of mine, and last year he managed to make my album one of the best-sellers in his shop. It's incredible how many records I sold there, and the orders keep coming in. So last year, when we were in Italy, we went to his shop for a short acoustic set. And it was amazing to see how excited people were to see us play there. As if we were some big band that had just landed from a world tour.

So yes, Italy is written in big letters on all the blackboards around here. And we'll be back for a longer tour next spring.

You started your career in the MySpace era. Now you've founded a new record label, Son Canciones, together with Mabel Alonso. What do you think about the opportunities the digital era offers artists to promote their music? How do you think the music market has changed in recent years?

There have never been more chances for music to get noticed, and at the same time there have never been fewer. There's so much music out there these days that sometimes you end up buried under it. All those releases, those blogs, all those great anonymous artists... I know it might sound contradictory coming from someone who's just started a record label. But we feel there's a lack of real contact between musician and listener. Everything has become so cold, even our laughter has gone digital through emoticons. It only takes one click to make a song disappear forever without a trace. There are few second chances on the internet.

That's why we want to combine the possibilities of the digital market with concrete reality. Handmade artwork, vinyl records, small gigs in unusual places, an intimate bond between musician and listener, applying copyleft to all our releases so that the music can flow freely... Getting back to the real world. Maybe even getting a stomach ache from laughing too hard.

You've collaborated with many other artists throughout your career (from Tiny Ruins to Craven Canary, from Ana Franco to Benjamin Shaw). What do you think is the key to a fruitful collaboration?

Patience, blind trust and joy. Without any one of the three, a good collaboration is impossible. Playing with other people, letting them interpret my songs, has been one of the best things that ever happened to me. It's a strange form of friendship over the wire.

If your label could release the next album by any artist, who would you choose (and why)?

Man, there are so many, new and old... I'd love to put Paul Simon in a little shack somewhere in the woods with Rick Rubin, or any other producer who knows how to keep things simple when they need to be. Just him, a guitar, a piano and those great songs of his...

We asked Lieven Scheerlick for a little gift for OndaRock readers. And he decided to offer us his cover of “Barcelona” by Will Oldham. A very special song for an adoptive Catalan like him.

I've always been a huge Will Oldham fan, ever since the days of his Palace Brothers, but I'd never heard this song until a couple of years ago. I was walking around Barcelona with headphones on when I heard it. It tells the strange love story of a couple in Barcelona. So over the top that it becomes sad in a way. And Oldham is right: Barcelona really can mess with your ideas about love. We've played it live often, and always had a blast doing it. So when we were asked to record a cover of Bonnie “Prince” Billy for a project by the blog “Slowcoustic”, we felt it was the best song to record.

A Singer Of Songs – Barcelona (Will Oldham)

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