Bisker’s lyrics are just as brilliant if not just as brine. Others have called her a “dangerous femme fatale” — tender then venomous, audacious then introspective, but never apologetic. In Bisker we have an honest woman of our generation, singing lyrics that remain confident in their unwillingness to be watered down or glammed up. Bisker taps at the edges of that part of the glass ceiling reserved for rock ‘n’ roll and smiles at you while she does it.

We caught up with Sweet Soubrette to talk about the songwriting process, the recording process, and the always-entertaining ukulele.

By: Nora E. Lindner

NL: What did you grow up listening to? Do you see any connection between it and the music you play today? 
SS: My dad likes to collect old stereo equipment at garage sales. You could play music in almost every room of our house, including the kitchen and one bathroom. So I grew up steeped in my parents’ music, which they played all the time — a cocktail of Bob Dylan, the Beatles, sixties rock and roll, folk songs, and show tunes from Li’l Abner to Andrew Lloyd Webber (I strongly recommend this combination to parents wishing to raise songwriter children — it’s like pop music primordial soup). When I was in high school I got really into the bad-ass women of 90s alternative rock, like Liz Phair and PJ Harvey and the Breeders. I have been hugely influenced by all these sources. The music I write is very lyrics-oriented and I use my songs to tell stories, like the folk and show tunes. The Beatles taught me a lot about melody and harmony, and Bob Dylan is an inspiring model of songwriter as poet (Leonard Cohen too). And my songs tend to have an edge to them, and a lack of apology, that I picked up from those cool lady rockers.     

NL: When did you start playing ukulele? Formal training? First performance? 
SS: I got a ukulele as a gift from a stranger at the end of 2005 and taught myself to play by using online chord charts to learn all the Magnetic Fields songs I knew all the words to, which turned out to be a lot. My first official performance was in the spring of 2006 at Galapagos Art Space in the Bindlestiff Family Cirkus’s Winter Cabaret variety show, which was appropriate since I had been working with the Bindlestiffs behind the scenes since 2003 and they had taught me basically everything I knew at that point about performing.    

But I had an unofficial debut a couple months earlier, when I went to the now defunct CB’s Gallery for an event a friend was hosting that was supposed to include an open mic. When I showed up, the friend said, “Oh, honey, you just missed it.” I figured, oh well, and started drinking scotch and sodas. After I had had two of them in quick succession, suddenly I heard my friend announce me as a special guest act. Surprise! My memory of the performance itself is a blur of swimming faces, bad tuning, and awkward fingers. It was at least brief. Then when I went backstage to put the uke away, Nick Jones (lead singer of serialized pirate puppet show rock opera band Jollyship the Whiz-Bang, and a total hero of mine) was getting ready to go on, and he looked at me and said: “Welcome to the small-time.” I think that was the moment I started becoming a performer.

NL: Where does the name Sweet Soubrette come from? What was your original concept for the band? 
SS: A soubrette is a stock character from comic opera — it’s usually described as the flirtatious chambermaid. The word comes from a type of soprano singing voice that those characters tend to have. On the vaudeville stage, young women who played and sang were also sometimes called soubrettes. This seemed in keeping with my act when I was mostly playing solo and trying out a very theatrical, flirtatious, over-the-top stage persona. My original concept for the band was really this alter ego as a solo act, singing songs of doomed romance, but I also wanted an alter ego as a performer that could later function as a band name. When I started performing I was in grad school and couldn’t work around anyone’s schedule but my own. Since finishing my degree I’ve put together a band, which has changed the music and the presentation, making it more rock and less cabaret.  

NL: What’s your song writing process? Where do you get your inspiration? What’s your favorite song of the EP and why? 
SS: My songwriting process really varies. The quirky ones come easiest, since I’m someone who does well with an assignment. Sometimes I come up with the assignment myself, like with “Unlucky in Love,” where I decided to make a list of every unlucky thing I could think of and apply it to a bad relationship. Other times it comes from somewhere else — for instance I participate in the Bushwick Book Club, monthly songwriting series where everyone reads a book and then has to write a song inspired by it. With my more serious songs there’s more of a process of trying to figure out what I’m actually trying to get at, which is sort of like when something is bothering you but you’re not exactly sure what it is. Sometimes a line comes into my head and I’ll carry it around for a while, let it run in the background and marinate, and then when it hits a critical mass I’ll build out from it in a more focused way, make myself sit and pick away at it. I like rules and structure and rhyme. I find a rhyming dictionary helpful for clues to where the song might go next. Some songs take a long time to write. Others fall out more or less complete. The process for each one is a little different. 

NL: Have you found any significant challenges in being a young woman in the mostly male-dominated music industry?  
SS: Well, I think in some ways you can be more visible as a woman in music, in that there are fewer of us getting attention in the field so if you can stand out you stand out more (of course this is totally a back-handed advantage, if it is one at all). Being respected and taken seriously as a musician, songwriter, artist, band leader can be challenging when you’re dealing with engineers, venues, bookers, other musicians. And as a woman you run the risk of having your music pigeonholed as “chick music,” like your songs would only be interesting to female listeners. But really I think the disadvantages are not so much the obvious things and more the things you don’t even know about — where you’re not being invited to play on a bill, not being suggested for a gig, not being asked to sit in on someone else’s set. Not getting opportunities to participate on equal footing.     

NL: In your song “Homewrecker” you explain your “disrespect for domestic tranquility” and how you are “messing with the social order” — refreshingly unapologetic. Do you see your music as empowering in that sense? 
SS: Well first of all, “Homewrecker” should be taken with a huge grain of salt. It starts out very unapologetic, even bragging, but by the end I think it’s clear this character is in over her head and suffering because of it. That said, I do like to write from the bad woman’s point of view — “Siren Song,” from the (possibly deadly) mermaid’s perspective, and “Pacemaker,” from the heartbreaker’s, are two other songs in this vein. And on the second album there’s a song called “All That Glitters,” which is sung by a gold digger. It is definitely fun to write first-person songs for these characters who are usually being sung about by other people, usually men. Giving them a voice can be empowering. 

NL: Your songs seem so personal, especially about the doomed romances of your life. Is it hard to expose yourself like that? Are there some songs you wish certain people wouldn’t hear? 
SS: As a singer-songwriter you are usually singing in the first person, and people assume that the songs are all about you and that they are all true. In fact it’s more like being a novelist — you take bits and pieces from your own life, but you also take other pieces from things you read, things you hear, things your friends say, conversations that stick in your head. The distinction between those bits and pieces isn’t obvious to the listener, and it shouldn’t be if you’re telling a coherent story — the fact and the fiction are all mixed up. That’s the saving grace for me. I try not to reveal which parts are the true ones. Especially when my parents come to my shows. 

NL: You’re in the process of recording your second album, Days and Nights. Tell us more about it.  
SS: Days and Nights really expands on what the producer of Siren Song (Tim Cohan of MH Records, formerly of the indie pop band Tryst) and I were doing on the first album. Siren Song started with just me and a ukulele, and then we embellished those tracks with additional instrumentation, programming, effects, some loops and beats. Days and Nights was recorded with my band — the arrangements on most of the songs are ones we came up with together in rehearsal and refined in performance, so the core tracks that we brought into the studio were already incredibly rich.   

I’m extremely lucky in my band — they have all trained at high levels and are far better musicians than I am. Heather Cole has played classical violin since she was a 4-year-old Suzuki kid. She also plays bluegrass, klezmer and Irish fiddle and comes up with parts that are just brilliant. Bob Smith plays upright and electric bass, toured with the indie rock band Trunk Federation in the 90s, and now is the director of a public school music program. Mike Dobson went to the Hartt School and Mannes College of Music for percussion, can play anything you can hit with a stick, and works mainly symphony orchestra and professional circus music gigs when he’s not playing with me. The combination leads to some really interesting arrangements. So Days and Nights has a sound that’s more developed and more full, with more people’s ideas brought together.   

The subject matter on Days and Nights is a little wider, too — there’s a song about girls growing up together, and a whimsical lullaby in French, and a song about being childless in your 30s that’s so devastating that people laugh when we play it in concert. Fun! Doomed romance still plays a major role, but I think it’s a little more thoughtful.  
 
NL: Any other future plans? 
SS: I’m always working on something. I’m hoping to play some gigs outside of NYC this spring. I’m also planning a trip to Italy, where hopefully I’ll get to play a show or two.  An Italian fan who wrote an amazing review of Siren Song two years ago has offered a place to stay in Rome, and a musician friend of his who plays ukulele is working on setting up a couple of gigs there. The international ukulele community is amazingly, surreally generous, and I’m continually amazed and grateful. 

When thinking of some of the biggest musical disappointments of recent memory, Woods is definitely atop that list. This Brooklyn trio welcomes you in with a warm and dainty sound reminiscent of 1960s Britpop groups like Chad & Jeremy. But then, for some odd reason, they dump a big bucket of noise over their collection of folk tunes, and we’re left with a band that is trying to pull you in two different directions at the same time. To me, this analogy describes precisely how discomforting listening to Woods can be.Their newest offering, Songs of Shame (2009), opens with “To Clean,” featuring a guitar solo so agonizingly disjointed that it would make even Tom Verlaine want to jump off the Queensboro Bridge. And that’s well before the vocals kick in, which signal the true nail in the coffin for this band. A far cry from the lush falsetto of Justin Vernon, the vocal stylings of Jeremy Earle are painfully irritating and completely devoid of soul. Think of Miss Piggy if she was strung out on heroin. It’s a shame, because underneath it all, you can hear a band that is trying to pay homage to its folk forefathers. That is until they decided to be inventive. Unfortunately for us, and our ears, this band is not comprised of any world-beaters.

By Liz Levine
Rating: 5/11

A clear image comes to mind when one is presented with the band Woods: there’s their name, their label Woodsist, and the bucolic cover of their latest album Songs of Shame that features, well, woods. This all suggests to back-to-basics return to nature, which in Woods’ case translates into your classic home-recorded DIY rock. They shift between weird noise tape experiments and folky, simple-structured songs with 90’s guitar jam scratching around in the background. Singer Jeremy Earl won’t be starring on Broadway anytime soon, but his pre-pubescent squeal might appeal to those who prefer silly or strange vocals. All in all, Woods’ songs are more exciting than standard-issue pop rock, of which there is so much these days that even the well-written, well-made stuff out there can get boring quite quickly. They aren’t mind-blowing, but they will appeal to those who listen to so much music that they bore easily, or who prefer their tunes be random and heavily experimental.

Bugs In The Dark are channeling the early days of indie rock in their first EP, Shake Shake.  Remember those days?  It was back when the only person listening to indie was your best friend’s estranged older brother who played a lot of Warhammer and subsisted on a strict diet of Corn Nuts and Dr. Pepper.  The early nineties time capsule that is Shake Shake provides a little grunge relief for this digitally enhanced world we find ourselves in today, but, in the end, it stands more wholly as a reminder that we have traded our misplaced angst and open flannel shirts for something better.

These Brooklyn rockers are well tuned to their musical strengths.  The buzzing guitars create a net of distorted rhythm on top of nice, hard-hitting drums.  Problems occur when their strengths bend against their obvious weaknesses.  Karen Rockower’s vocals are perfect for every song, gently stinging each lyric with the appeal of the Pixies and the harshness of Crystal Castles, but Zach Glass’s run-of-the-mill, filter-laden, unsure in Seattle style droning vocals are an unfortunate addition to all but one track, “Silence Is A Treason.”

Another over-used resource on this EP is random amp feedback.  The squeals and squawks of angry equipment still have their place in rock-and-roll, but this album gets too much mileage from them.  Tracks “I Change” – featuring Rockower alone on vocals – a and the aforementioned “Silence Is A Treason” are the best ones to catch from this release.
 
Look for their sound to evolve in the next year or two, as long as they can tune their ears to hear when a song is too heavily layered or repetitive.  Bugs In The Dark could benefit greatly from simplicity, despite that fact that they are pretty skeletal already (two guitars and a drum set, with no digital mixing that this reviewer can hear).  Shake Shake is their earliest EP.  To see the progress they’ve already made, check out the review on their newest EP, Grand Avenue.

Grand Avenue (self-released, 2008)
By: Faetra Petillo
Rating: 8/11

Bugs In the Dark's latest release Grand Avenue is proof that the post-punk hard rock sector of the indie scene is still alive and kicking and has not been completely buried by the nu-vo electronica meets folk wave. Depending on how you feel about cold, hard, screaming vocals, killer dissonant guitars coming from every direction and drumming so hard and fast it could be heard from the grave, this could be a good or a bad thing. Either way, it’s music to be reckoned with and I, for one, am happy to still see glimpses of the rock I grew up on, the yelping girls on guitars like Karen O that got me through some hard times in high school and college.

And so I will start with making the obvious comparison: Karen Rockower sounds exactly like Karen O. Eerily so. Meaning, her vocals are calculated yet lacking in control. Emotive but technical. When you are a punk singer, it's an important balance to maintain lest your singing just starts to come off as unpleasant noise. She uses her voice as an instrument that compliments her band without being overpowered by them. Keeping with the notion of controlled chaos, Zach Glass and Zeph Courtney (guitarist and drummer) know how to let the song carry itself away without breaking the consistency and rhythm. Each song is a roller coaster and there's a lot of highs and lows, fasts and slows that need to be executed with precision without making the music sound like it's not free. And they do it beautifully, resulting in great pieces of symphonic rock, music you want to be banging your head along to in the front row but at the same time doesn't turn you aggressive and angry.

The album itself is well crafted. For the most part it is a punk album and most of the tracks, while diverse, fit into the mold. Fast and furious with a little build up here and there. What I like are tracks like "Ave M,” a song that switches the rhythm and tone around, and "Miles of Stone," a rock ballad that is as beautiful as it is painful.  When Zach lends his vocals he compliments Karen well whether it means singing along with her or providing the low to her high.

Here's to hoping the band doesn't just come off as a carbon copy of what already came. They certainly do what they do well, and their energy and talent is unmistakably through the roof. But have we moved on from this kind of music? In a scene that values innovation and is constantly changing, is a band like this even capable of being next year’s breakthrough sound? Who knows... but either way, it's good listening and if their live performances are half as energetic as Grand Avenue, watching them is bound to be a wild time.

CSC Funk Band is bringing the real dance music to Brooklyn.  Forget the Nintendo-inspired electronica.  Forget the mustachioed indie rock bands.  Forget all the DJS spinning remixes of old funk and soul songs (who decided Curtis Mayfield needed remixing, anyway?).  CSC is the real shit.

Complete with congas and horns in addition to more standard instruments, CSC adds an Afro-Latin flair and a touch of experimental jazz to their slammin’ funk.  Wandering trumpet solos, jamband style guitar riffs and booty-shakin’ drum lines take their turn sharing the lead, hearkening The Talking Heads, Phish and The JBs all at the same time.  But don’t be deterred – CSC is not a band for arm-swaying hippies only.  With members formerly of USAISAMONSTER, Talibam and even Gwar, CSC Funk Band is loaded with talented musicians who know how to tear it up.

Dance your ass off to tracks “Bad Banana Bread” and "Caneca" on their myspace page, and check out drummer/DJ Jimmy T’s new 7” inch label Electric Cowbell Records for all the funkin’ details.  Next chance to see their killer live show in action: January 11th at Zebulon with The Wowz.

It's always a drag figuring out what the hell to do on New Year's Eve.  No one really wants to battle the crowds in Times Square, but staying home with your champagne bottle(s) and a movie is lame.  Here are our top picks for ringin' in 2010:

Dead River Company (pictured right) @ Pete's Candy Store (709 Lorimer Street, Brooklyn):  First off, there's no cover.  Secondly, Pete's is giving away FREE chocolate from Sweetriot to the first 75 people.  Thirdly, Dead River Company are the funnest, silliest, most hollerin' ragtime country folk pop rock band there is.  They hit the stage at 9, followed by garage rockers The Parking Lots at 11, self-described as "the bastard lovechild of Dexter Romweber and Bob Pollard.  Loud and Proud."  Spiced rum and champagne a-flowin'.

The Woes @ Spike Hill (186 Bedford Avenue, Brooklyn): Ten bucks gets a night of music from 7 pm - 2 am, featuring a special two hour set by folky, bluesy Americana rockers The Woes from 11-1.  An empty Monday night with this 12+ piece band is a drunken, rowdy and stumbly party, so be prepared! Michael Evans opens at 7 with Beyondo Band at 8, Communication Corporation at 9, The Nightmare River Band at 10 and Peephole closing out the night with a 1 am set.

Your 33 Black Angels @ Don Pedro (90 Manhattan Avenue, Brooklyn): Your 33 Black Angels host a rockin' New Year's Eve party with their detailed yet catchy pop/punk/folky rock.  Electro soul groovers Apollo Heights will also make an appearance, along with Hoa Hoa's, Hollands, Hobson's Choice, Humboldt Fog and other guests TBA.  Also, FREE COLT 45 brewskies from 11pm to midnight! Only $8.

The So So Glos (pictured left) and Titus Andronicus @ Mercury Lounge (217 East Houston Street, New York City): This late night party kicks off at 1:30 am with a set by straight-up punk rockers The So So Glos, oft described as "wise beyond their years" but still full of in-your-face 'tude.  Titus Andronicus hits the stage at 2:30 with their indie rock rooted in punk with loads of catchy pop riffs.  Knocks is jealous of Mercury's booking agent for thinking of this lineup before us!  $15, doors at 1 am.

Hypernova @ Don Hill's (511 Greenwich Street, New York City): Theo and Michael T. host the Rated X Red and Black Panty Party Masquerade Ball. The night starts at 10:00 pm sharp with Kayvon Zand, followed by Natasha Komis at 11. Iranian rockers Hypernova take the stage at midnight, ushering in the new year with their magnetic live show. Michael T. says, "Let's rock 2010 with blood and eyeliner!"  Infamous "Hot Body Contest" at 3 am with a $100 grand prize.  Yikes!  $15 with invite, $20 without.

In yesterday's installment, Calley Bliss shared her theory on male instrumentalists and female vocalists, her endearing obsession with her band mates and her childhood memories of busting out Whitney Houston on demand in her friends’ backyards.  Now let’s get down to the nitty-gritty.  Bliss has orchestrated every aspect of her upcoming album, Pigeonholed, from writing the tunes to organizing a photo shoot (complete with hitting up all her friends for their tackiest kitchenware) to promoting in the States and various European countries.  Her path has taken her from Minnesota to Texas to New York, through an Earth, Wind and Fire cover band to a pop/rock party group to a weekly jazz series.  Now she's on the cusp of releasing her first original album and despite all the grueling work, is loving life more than ever before. 

BF: I know you're currently working on a new album, Pigeonholed, to be released next year.  First off, what has the process of making this album been like for you so far?
CB: Ummmmmm, in a word?  Supercalifragalisticexpialidocious.  It’s been a lot of work so far, as I’m self-managed, self-promoted and currently not under a label, and I’m only about halfway there.  But it’s been REALLY fun and taught me a LOT about myself and about the “business” side of music, which is something I’ve never really dealt with in this way.  I come from what I think is a bit of a different background from a lot of NYC singer/songwriters.  I was a professional vocalist in the Dallas area before I ever had an artist’s identity for myself.  Someone called needing me to sing a part in the studio or for a live performance.  Either it was standard jazz/party pop repertoire that I knew, or I learned the material.  I went and did the gig, got paid, and went home.  It was great to be able to support myself as a working musician, and it taught me how to use my voice as a malleable instrument, much like a voice actor.  The lessons I’ve learned from voice work are so valuable, and one that I think a lot of instrumentalists get but a lot of singer/songwriters miss out on.  I’m very grateful for that, but it also made it challenging for me when I moved to New York and all of a sudden had no direction.  I was so used to being TOLD what to sing and how to sound.  When it was all up to me, I didn’t really know WHAT I wanted to sound like.  Of course life plays into the artistic process as well, and that was an important integral part of it.  Adjusting to New York and its pace, finding a source of income, finding my New York family, falling in love, getting my heart broken, losing jobs, finding myself.  Life whipped me around for the better part of the first two years I was here, but it made my music richer, and prepared me for this part where I’m now ready to take my career into my own hands.  I took a step back, reassessed what I wanted and how to go about it.  I learned to ask for help.  I faced my fears and what I saw as my weaknesses, and I allowed myself to be scared and weak, and it was only after I did this that I realized how much power it gave me.  If all those things had not happened I would not be where I am now, and this album would not be underway in the way it is.  And I am SO excited to be doing this project, and to have such amazing people along for the ride.  From my band members who are giving of their time and energy and musical artistry, to the team of creatives who helped out with the photo shoot for the album artwork, to my dear friends who have come to gigs, and supported, and pushed, and taken photos, to my family who have believed in me the whole way, and have given me the loan allowing the project to be possible.  I thank the Universe for surrounding me with such amazing, giving people.  I’m learning step by step how to be an artist, composer, band manager, business manager, promoter, producer, artistic director… so many hats to wear!  But going at it like the amateur I am in many areas means I have nothing to lose and everything to learn, so it’s quite exciting!

BF: Secondly, and correct me if I'm wrong, but I understand that the title stems from the idea of not wanting to be labeled as one genre or one type of style.  Could you elaborate on this idea?
CB: You are correct.  As of this past year there is a new genre in music called “unclassifiable” and that’s what I’m going for.  When I started rolling around the idea of doing an album, people always asked, “What style?”  I had SO much trouble answering this question.  Part of the lack of an artistic identity that I was talking about before.  So I started looking at my writing and trying to look at it from an outsider’s perspective: Is it jazz?  Funk? Accoustic?  Soul?  Pop?  I realized each song could be put in a different genre.  Not unusual for established artists but being that I am starting out, I realized the dilemma it created from a marketing aspect.  But I didn’t WANT to narrow to just one genre.  That’s something I’ve always loved – being able to sing all kinds of styles.  I get bored singing the same style consistently.  So I tried to think about how I could make the non-cohesiveness work FOR me instead of against me.  So I decided to make the title a play-on-words, and the album artwork ties it all in.

BF: It seems like you are often described as a jazz singer.  Do you identify with that label?  Do you hope this album will alter that perception?
CB: I am a jazz singer.  I’m also a pop singer.  An R&B singer.  A folk singer.  Etc, etc, etc.  You get the picture.  For the last year I’ve hosted a jazz series at a bar in Williamsburg, and so I think that is what people have to attached me to.  Which is fine, but I am hoping to help spread that image to other genres with this album.  If all goes to plan, it will be effective.

BF: I definitely pick up an R&B and soul influence in your singing style, even more than jazz.  Would you agree?  What artists have influenced you the most?  What music do you listen to day-to-day?
CB: Definitely the R&B vibe.  I’m not totally sure – I think a lot of it is what I listened to as a kid.  Lots of 70’s disco stuff on the “oldies station,” 90’s female pop stars like Mariah Carey, Whitney Houston.  Then in college I sang in a cover band called Groove Academy as the lead female vocalist and covered everything from Cheryl Lynn to Stevie Wonder to Michael Jackson.  Because of this, I landed a gig in a college ensemble one semester that covered all Earth, Wind, and Fire music.  It was SO much fun!  I have always loved this style.  Now I listen to… gosh, it’s all over the place.  I’m a die-hard shameless Madonnna, Prince, and Michael Jackson fan.  I love Lizz Wright, who is kind of folk jazz.  My latest favorite is a Swedish singer/songwriter who goes by the alias Loney Dear.  I like U2, a band called Amp Fiddler, Madaline Peyroux, Brand New Heavies, Fiona Apple, local Brooklyn band My Brightest Diamond, Sigur Ros…

BF: Does gender play a role in your performance style at all?
CB: I would say it does a lot more with professional vocal work.  Especially in New York.  For the love, I’ve literally been hired because someone happened to need a white, blond singer.  Not because they heard my voice and thought I was good.  As for performing my original music, I would say I am aware of my femininity, but that’s because I’m singing from my own personal experiences, and I am a woman, with a woman’s perspective on situations.


BF: When is the album officially due out?  What are your plans once it is released?
CB: Right now I’m tentatively planning a release for March.  I want to market it all over the states and Europe, wherever I can.  I have some connections in a few markets that I plan to use.  I’d love to be able to tour it, and see if I can find any financial backers and promoters.  Right now I’m open, and just trying to learn as much as I can, so that I can take this thing as far as I can, and get my band some good paying gigs!  May the wind carry us.  ☺

Calley Bliss has a beautiful voice.  It’s clearly trained yet still full of emotion, enchanting and powerful in that Aretha Franklin kind of way, spot-on for a jazz number, an R&B groove or a mournful ballad.  Hell, she can even sing like a trombone.  From college ensembles to pop cover bands to hosting her own weekly jazz series (including organizing and leading a rotating band, working the sound board AND bartending), Bliss has experienced all ends of the musical spectrum and all sides of the music business.  Which is why her new album, Pigeonholed (due out March 2010), is exactly the opposite of its name.  Some songs hearken the high-heeled Bliss swaying her hips at big parties, wailing a Stevie Wonder tune during her Texas years.  Others bring us inside her bedroom, put us in the middle of her racing mind while she grieves over a broken relationship.  Still, other songs take us back to the 60’s, drop us inside a Harlem bar where Motown’s superstars bust out their funk.  This is only a small taste of the influences and sounds heard in her album, some tracks even combining all the above into one.  And let’s not forget her surprising wisdom, her inspiring personal reflection, her ability to put her whole self into her music without losing direction.

In short, Calley Bliss, jazz/R&B/pop/rock/funk/folk singer, can draw anyone into her web with her amazing voice.  And what a lovely, cozy web it is.

BF: When did you first start singing? 
CB: I’ve been singing since I was a kid – pretty much since I could talk.  I did all kinds of choirs and school-related activities in my primary school years.  Class and school musicals in fourth grade, regional Minneapolis choir from 5th grade to 7th, etc.

BF: How/when did you realize it was something you wanted to seriously pursue?
CB: I knew I wanted to “be a singer” when I was probably seven.  When I was nine I remember being completely in love with Whitney Houston’s version of “I Will Always Love You” that had just come out.  I could sing the whole thing from memory, to a T, and would often do so in little spontaneous concerts in the backyards of my friend’s houses, at their request.  Hahaha, oh the 90’s.  However, I didn’t start taking professional voice lessons till much later – I was seventeen.  It was around this time that I started taking it a little more seriously, knew I wanted to go to college for music, knew I needed to train my voice, etc.

BF: Who is in your band?
CB: I am so platonically in love with my band members.  Craig Akin on bass, Paul Orbell on guitar, Alastair Ottesen on Tenor (and occasionally harmonium, kazoo…), Sean Fitzpatrick on keys, and Ross Pederson on drums. 

BF: Did you put the group together? 
CB: I had help assembling all the players.  I knew Alastair from college – he actually played on my senior recital and moved to the city around the same time that I did.  He lived with Paul, whom I knew from school but had never once had a conversation with.  They recommended Craig to me.  Later when I decided I really wanted keyboard as well, they all recommended Sean.  Ross is the newest member, though he’d subbed on gigs, and I knew him personally.  Ross and I were good buddies in college.  He moved to the city after I’d been here almost two years, when I had another drummer at the time.  It’s really important to me that the band gel not only on a musical level but on a personal level as well, and I feel so so SO fortunate to have that be the case with my players.  What we do as musicians, especially when you’re playing someone’s original music, is such a personal thing.  The different personalities and musical approaches can really affect the whole vibe of the group.  I love how my guys play, how they listen, and who they are as men.  Oh the platonic love. ☺


BF: Jazz, R&B, rock and many other genres still seem to be male-dominated.  Do you feel that being female has affected your songwriting or any other aspect of your musical process? 
CB: Absolutely.  I would say more from the working and business side of things than the artistic process, though.  Working as a female in a male-dominated industry is a double-edged sword.  I will state the cold truth that it’s pretty easy to get someone to pay initial attention to you, being female.  When you put on a pair of heels, throw on some eye shadow, curl your hair and stand in a spotlight for an hour, people notice.   However, it’s another thing to earn your peers’ respect.  There is a fine line that must be walked.  Flirting is all nice and dandy as a tool to get someone’s attention, but A) is it fair? and B) if you’re not really interested in the person one of two things usually happens: they lose interest in you (and your music) as soon as they realize things are platonic, or you get a reputation as being a flirt, and a certain level of professional respect may be lost.  Not the worst title in the world, but you need to be comfortable with that title, if you’re going to play that game.

BF: Your band is all male and I see a similar arrangement in many other groups across genres: female singer, male instrumentalists.  What are your thoughts on this?
CB: Oh boy.  Are you ready for a can of worms?  I have this theory.  Of course it is a current social norm: the chick singer, and the dudes in the band.  So I'm sure that has some influence in present modern day situations.  But where did these social habits start?  It is my theory that it goes down to our very primal nature as humans: as men and women.  In our primal states, men are hunters, taking pride and enjoyment in seeking an element, and conquering it.  Women are nurturers, finding their pride and enjoyment in caring for an element; seeking to dive beneath the many complex layers it has, and care for it.  These are blanket statements, but go with me for a minute.  So think of this in terms of musical instruments.  The voice is something we use every day.  Weather or not you sing, from the time you are a baby, you are taught to use this instrument, even if it's not used in a musical sense.  We "conquer" it at a young age.  With an external instrument - guitar, bass, horn, what have you- one must take it upon themselves to even learn how to USE the instrument, the element.  You must seek the instrument out, hunt it down, learn it, and conquer it.  So a man, wanting to have that feeling of hunting something, conquering something, is more likely to choose something that is a challenge - something he must seek out and conquer.  Why would he choose his voice?  He's been using that for years, there's no hunt in it.  Meanwhile, a woman, who gets her joy from delving deeply into something, understanding it's many layers, is more likely to choose something she can delve into emotionally.  The voice is commonly accepted as the most expressive instrument.  This is not only based on the simple idea that it is an instrument of the mother nature-made human body (and do I really need to convince anyone that the human body is an incredibly complex and complicated organism?), but also if you ask anyone who knows about sound science, they will tell you that the human voice has the most complex sound waves of any instrument.  So it makes sense, according to my theory, that women would want to take this incredibly complex, expressive instrument, and attempt to care for it.

Men hunt their instrument.  Women nurture their expressive voice.  That's my theory.

Check back tomorrow for the second part of our Q&A.

Tuesday, October 20^th - Laura Marling, The Antlers, and Fanfarlo @ Music Hall of Williamsburg

Laura Marling (pictured) plays stunning folk with a voice that will both give you chills and rock you to sleep. Catch her at 9:30, followed by The Antlers’ lazy pop and Fanfarlo’s more upbeat Brit pop. Go to the Music Hall of Williamsburg’s site for tickets and more info.

Wednesday, October 21^st - Afuche and Arms @ Fontana’s

Afuche play “Instrumental odd-meter afro-cuban free-jazz noise-funk,” and their live show is something through which one simply cannot stay still. Arms bring fuzzy indie rock with lovely vocals and healthy amounts of dreaminess. AND, there will be free nachos!

Extremely close second: Cymbals Eat Guitars and Real Estate @ Santos Party House

Thursday, October 22^nd - Shilpa Ray & Her Happy Hookers @ Piano’s

The fiery singer with a commanding alto demands attention along with her merry band. Choir of Young Believers and Free Energy are also on the bill, along with a few others. Check out the Piano’s site for the full lineup.

Friday, October 23^rd - Motel Motel and Japandroids @ The Bell House

Becky put it well. Awesome venue, and reportedly awesome live performances.

Saturday, October 24^th - Au Revoir Simone @ The Bell House

The ladies of Au Revoir Simone play dreamy electronic keyboard pop that’s a perfect way to end the week as you sway softly on most likely very tired legs. They play with The Postmarks and Still Flyin’, among others, and info can be found at The Bell House’s website.