Earlier this year, Sara Bareilles challenged herself to do the bravest thing she could do: go on tour completely solo. In alignment with her latest single, “Brave,” Sara is encouraging fans across the country to overcome their fears along with her. Sara is hoping that fans will share what kinds of things they are brave enough to do by filling out “I am brave enough to…” postcards at all of her shows on this tour. It’s a beautiful idea and a theme that permeated through every aspect of her show at Seattle’s Showbox at the Market on May 11th.

For those who haven’t gotten to experience this tour yet – I don’t want to ruin the surprises for you, so I won’t give away too much. Just know that you’re in for an intimate show with an artist that is not only stunningly talented, but also hilarious and incredibly engaging. I found myself taking a quiet but big breath in every time she finished a song, because I got so lost in the emotion and immaculately delivered melodies.

If Sara isn’t stopping by your city on this tour, you can still be part of it by filling out a postcard and sending it to her via her website!

“Brave” is the first single off of Sara Bareilles’ upcoming record, The Blessed Unrest, due out July 16th! Stay tuned for more information!

Her setlist in Seattle was as follows:
—
Uncharted
Love on the Rocks
Love Song
Bright Lights and Cityscapes
Let the Rain
I just want you
Come ‘Round Soon
Once Upon Another Time
Dock of the Bay
Brave
Gravity

December
Goodbye Yellow Brick Road
—

See some great photos from the show below:

Special thanks to Jason Tang! Thank you for taking these great shots for us!

It’s been a while since we’ve seen Lisa Loeb in the Seattle area – but lucky for us, she is going to be playing at the Kirkland Performance Center tomorrow night. I was lucky enough to have a fantastic chat with Lisa just a couple of days before the show, check it out! And get your tickets here! And stay tuned for photos and a review of the show!

Hi Lisa!

How long has it been since you’ve been in Seattle? We are extremely excited to have you visit us again!
I think I was at the triple door in 2011, and I’m so excited to come back! I think I was there for another concert or event more recently, because I remember walking around a cool part of town with my husband. Yes! I remember now, I bought a hat at Byrnie Utz hats from Jeremy, and played a private event at Triple Door.

How is touring different for you now than it was in the past? What has made this particular tour special?
Touring is different now that I have kids. I don’t want to be away, but I also really want to get out and play in front of people, so I need a clone.
This tour is special because a number of my shows are with my band Nine Stories, and I have been playing solo or duo shows lately, so that’s really cool.
It’s also strange playing so late- I’m usually in bed by 10pm on the West coast in preparation for the early morning with the kids.

What do you love about playing your songs live in comparison to just recording and releasing them?
I love the energy of playing live and people singing along. The live show really lives in that moment, which is really special- some people try to capture it in a recording, but really, the live show experience is best in that exact moment. I also like tour merch. Our t-shirts are super cute!!

What’s the best fan interaction you’ve had on the road?
In Jacksonville, FL, there’s a man and his daughter who came to see me in the 90′s, then later in the 90′s they showed me the photo of me with the cute little girl, only now the little girl was a teenager, and then years go by and now I just met the father again, and they showed me the photo of their daughter who I met in the 90′s with her baby!! Wow, I can’t believe how time passes.

After opening with a ukulele driven version of “Oh Dear,” Brandi and the Twins continued to showcase their beautiful chemistry through a “warm-up” that included “Save Part of Yourself” from her 2012 release, Bear Creek, and a fully unplugged version of “What Can I Say,” from her 2005 self-titled debut.  Just before the last song of the opening set, Phil and Tim left the stage leaving a solo, yodeling Brandi at the mic.  She joked,”When you open for yourself, you get to warm-up on stage!”

After a short break, Brandi and the Twins came back on stage along with the Seattle Symphony Orchestra headed by conductor Jason Weinberger.  A truly delicate chemistry must exist between a singer-songwriter and an entire symphony orchestra – as both fully depend on the impeccable timing and musical prowess of one another.  With Brandi and the Seattle Symphony Orchestra it seemed effortless.  It was a beautifully executed show – with the orchestra fully enhancing Brandi’s raw and emotive songs and booming voice.

If we’re lucky, Seattle, maybe Brandi and the Seattle Symphony Orchestra will continue sharing their magic for years to come!

Full set-list:
Oh Dear
Dying Day
Save Part of Yourself
Caroline
What Can I Say (unplugged)
You Belong to Me (solo)

Raise Hell
Dreams
Hardway Home
100
Cannonball
Keep Your Heart Young
Looking Out
Follow
Jolene
That Wasn’t Me
The Story

Nothing Compares To You
Pride and Joy
Hallelujah

In case you missed my interview with Brandi…check it out here!  Thank you for an amazing show, Brandi & SSO!

Susanna Hoffs. Credit: Rebecca Wilson.

Susanna Hoffs is heading to Seattle’s Triple Door Theater this Sunday and she’s bringing a set of brand new 60s-influenced songs to share from her latest album, Someday.  Her shows, she says, are a lot more spontaneous this time around.  ”Part of what’s really special and fun is that every show is different,” she says about this very special solo tour.  ”I get to sort of make it up on the spot.”

Part of what makes this tour so special is the addition of Los Angeles (via Nashville) musician Andrew Brassell, who co-wrote many of the songs on Someday and who Susanna describes as her “writing soulmate.”  It seems to be the perfect description, as the musical chemistry of the two brings the music to whole new level.

Someday, which was produced by Mitchell Froom, is full of light and fun melodies that don’t abandon the idea of lyrical depth and integrity.   You can listen to clips of the album and read our full conversation below!  You can also buy tickets to see Susanna this Sunday in Seattle by clicking here!  See you there, Seattle!

Findyourfav: Hi Susanna! How’s the tour going?
Susanna Hoffs: It’s going so well, it’s such a blast! It’s so fun because it’s so different every night. Playing to people who are just so enthusiastic…it’s just been kind of a love fest, I love it.

Fyf: Do you notice a difference between playing your solo shows and playing shows with The Bangles?
SH: Well, it is really different. Part of what’s really special and fun is that every show is different. I get to sort of make it up on the spot. We have a set list, but I can basically do anything in any order and in any way.  The band is set up for us to be very spontaneous. It’s not very prescribed in terms of how we do each thing and I’ve been kind of re-inventing things as we go. It makes every show feel really unique to the night and to the group of people there.  Every venue has been different.

The people at the shows have just been so kind and supportive and actually calling out requests, so we’ve been honoring those requests whenever we can and adding things and changing things.

The Bangles show tends to be sort of a fixed thing that we do and then every once and a while we change it. So, this is putting me on my toes in a way that’s good – I’m really enjoying the spontaneity.

Fyf: Well I’m really excited to talk to you because I am loving your new record!  It’s light and fresh, but it doesn’t lose its emotional quality.  Is that something you were hoping for when you recorded it?
SH: Oh, thank you! Absolutely, yeah. I got really lucky with meeting Andrew Brassell…unexpectedly meeting my writing soulmate. And then that just kicked off this flood of creativity with him. During the songwriting process, it was just about tapping into the deepest emotions and trying to craft the songs in a way that really allowed me to emote in the most real way. And then, teaming up with Mitchell Froom, we really wanted to find the style of the record that would really honor the emotion there.

The 60s had been kind of an inescapable touchstone for me – it just informed everything that I’ve ever done musically – and I think that’s because I fell in love with music as a young girl in the 60s. So, it was learning to sing by singing along to Petula Clark and Dusty Springfield and Dionne Warwick and The Supremes and Linda Ronstadt and then later Bonnie Raitt and on and on…and then Patti Smith. It was all of these female icons that I grew up with – along with The Beatles and The Byrds and The Stones – but as a singer, that’s how I learned to sing. I never had any formal training. I think all of that was pouring out of me and Mitchell saw that and said, ‘we’re obviously going to make a modern record, but let’s not be afraid to tip our hat to this arrangement style of the 60s.’

Fyf: I love that because you don’t hear many bands really tapping into that style right now.
SH: Yeah, it was really fun. We had a really nice show situation at Largo in LA in that Mitchell was available to come and play piano and keyboard. We were also able to get a horn section there, so we were able to do a lot of the arrangements from the record that you don’t get to hear at our normal show.

Fyf: What inspired you to call the record “Someday”?
SH: Well I think that it was a little bit pulled from a lyric from the song, “One Day” – but more than that it was my way of saying that this album had been this long lost dream that I was just hanging onto and wishing for and hoping for, for years, that I would have the opportunity to make a solo record like this. So it was kind of like, someday my prince will come, someday my solo record will be done and I’ll have had a chance to sing songs from my heart in this kind of way.  And I also had the photograph with the umbrella looking at the sky, so it all just tied together.

Fyf: How do you feel like your approach has changed now that you don’t have a big record label to answer to all the time?
SH: Oh, wow. Well, I love it. I love the freedom. I love the fact that every aspect of what goes into putting out a record and making a cover and artwork to go with it is sort of driven by me, in a sense. It’s a lot of work but it’s so liberating to follow my bliss, in a way and just think about what I want to say and how I want to say it. It’s really nice that I get to be energized creatively all the time because of it. I don’t have to wait around to get somebody’s permission or their opinion or anything like that. It’s very fun, actually!

Fyf: That’s how it should be, right?!
SH: Yeah!

Fyf: Well, my favorite track on Someday is “Always Enough”…  I would love to hear about the background of that song and anything that you’d be willing to share with me…
SH: Oh, thanks! Well that was the song that I wrote with Andrew Brassell that, early on, I thought, oh my gosh, we really have this ability to connect deeply with each other and in the writing. I was very lucky because Andrew was actually living in our guest room at the time. So, he was really ensconced in the household, with the family. Jay and the kids really loved having him there and we were happy to help out while he was looking for a more permanent place to live in LA.

The great thing about it was that it was really songwriting intensive. We would write every night. We were just talking about me as a mom with my kids, my relationship with my kids – who are boys – and he with his relationship with his parents. So it really tapped into this very emotional place for both of us. All of that comes through in that song. I was very touched when I heard him talking about his parents and how they guided him through tough times. And he could see that I, as a mom, I had that closeness with my two boys. We just decided to write about that and explore that. It’s been one of the highlights of that show that we’ve been doing, playing that song.

Fyf: What has being a parent and balancing a music career taught you?
SH: Well, first of all…I think it’s been good for my sons to see that their mom works and I’m passionate about what I do, and I love my job [laughs]. I love that I have this career that I’m so passionate about – and their dad is the same way, but in the film world. They seem to have taken a lot of inspiration from us and they are amazing young men now. They are very creative also and hard working. So, I think that’s been good for them to see.

We’re a very close family. We travel together. We spend a lot of time together. I have two teenagers now and I have to say: It’s wonderful. I mean, everybody always sort of goes, “oh my gosh, teenagers are so hard.” But I haven’t found that to be true at all.  I’m very lucky, I guess.

Like any working parent or working mom, there’s a lot of juggling. You just have to get your priorities in order and for me, my family always comes first. Luckily they’ve been very cool with me going out on the road and they were at my show in LA. They’re like my most loyal fans and supporters. I’m very, very lucky to have such a supportive family…my parents were there, my brothers were there. It’s just incredible.

Fyf: That’s fantastic! Alright, last question…You went through a lot during the the early part of your career with all of the Bangles hype…if you could go back to the early stages of that tumultuous time and give yourself advice, what would you tell yourself?
SH: Hmm, that’s a really good question. I think the thing that comes to mind first is that there was a point in that intense journey as a Bangle where I just got really scared. I remember feeling extremely overwhelmed. And I think my life was overwhelming. I think that being on the road in a kind of family situation with band-mates under tremendous scrutiny from the outside world, and being away from home more than not, was sort of daunting and emotionally draining. And I think I just hit a point where it was just scary and I felt really, really, really anxious. I started to find that it was debilitating anxiety and it was seeping into everything.

Looking back, I would’ve liked to have an ability to take a deep breath and know that everything was going to be okay.  You can only do your best at any given moment and it’s okay to take a break and slow down.

I think it was really hard to slow down when everything was moving so fast. So many years of working toward a particular goal had gotten us there – but once you’re on that treadmill, you just can’t get off. And I think, at the time, we probably should’ve allowed ourselves to slow down a little bit. I think that’s a really hard thing for people to do when they’ve worked so hard for something and there’s so much pressure to keep going.

I think that would’ve been good advice but it wasn’t something that I felt I could do then but I think, looking back, that would’ve been a good thing. But you know, I don’t have any regrets either…so however things went, they were meant to be that way, I guess. I can still remember how stressful that was.

Fyf: Yeah, I can only imagine. Well, thank you so, so much for talking with me. Looking forward to the Seattle show!
SH: It was my pleasure, see you very soon!

You can purchase Someday below!:

Alison Sudol. Photo by Rhys Logan.

As much as I loved Alison Sudol of A Fine Frenzy and her latest album, Pines…I love her and it even more now that I’ve seen her perform the record live.  I was lucky enough to interview Alison just before the release of her new record and again more recently at Seattle’s City Arts Fest, where she supported Joshua Radin at The Moore Theater.

After a lovely performance of several songs from Pines, including “Avalanches” and “Now Is The Start,” Alison closed the set with the most emotional version of her debut album hit, “Almost Lover,” that I’ve ever heard.

Here’s to hoping that it won’t be another three years before we get to enjoy Alison’s live show again!  She is truly something special!

Check out our conversation from backstage at The Moore below and check out afinefrenzy.com for more information on when she might be coming to your city!  For behind the scenes photos and extras, head on over to our Facebook page!  Thank you for reading.  Enjoy!

Findyourfav: Hi, Alison!  How’s the tour with Joshua Radin going?
A Fine Frenzy: It’s going great. It’s good; it’s an adjustment. I haven’t been on the road for a long time. Not for years. It’s fun! I’m with the best people. My band is the best. Josh’s band and everybody is super cool.

FYF: Last time I talked to you, you were excited because you were coming to Seattle. It’s your hometown!
AFF: Yes! I love it! I can’t even tell you!

FYF: Have you had a chance to enjoy the city at all?
AFF: Today, I did. I went for a little run this morning. I went down to – what is it – the sculpture park? And it was SO beautiful. It was ridiculous. Perfect. And I saw this really amazing little Boxer dog. Not boxer…What’re the little bulldogs? They’re small. French bulldog! He was in the water, just barking at the water and he kept getting water in his mouth. He had his leash on and was barking at the water and confused. I love Seattle!

FYF: How does it feel to have ‘Pines’ finally available to everybody? That’s got to be exciting.
AFF: It’s very exciting. It’s a lot of different feelings. There’s nothing protected about this record. I didn’t hold a small piece of myself back and go, ‘ok, well, if this doesn’t go well or people don’t respond to this, then at least I know that there’s some piece of me that I saved.’

It’s kind of a self-protection mechanism that people can do sometimes, that I’ve done. But I didn’t do that, so it’s terrifying and it’s vulnerable, and it’s exciting and it’s deep and it’s fulfilling. I don’t know, I just feel like any time you put yourself in a position where you’re really bare, it’s gonna be complex, you know?

FYF: Is it difficult to play those songs on stage every night?
AFF: Yeah, totally. It’s scary! It’s like being naked. It would probably be easier to be naked! I’m really shy.

FYF: Do you feel like your older songs, when you’re playing them live, does their meaning morph? Even with ‘Pines,’ now that you’re playing them? Are they changing for you?
AFF: They are. I mean, they always do. They evolve because I’m evolving. And because you can feel people’s energy. Even though that sounds very New Age-y, you really can. You can feel what people are drawn to and responding to and different lyrics mean different things that resonate in different ways, depending on who’s receiving them. It’s an interesting thing to see them shift.

FYF: Have you done any collaborative work?
AFF: Well, you know, it [Pines] is a collaborative thing. I wrote the record mostly by myself but I wrote a couple songs with Omar, who’s in the band. And one with Jesse, who used to be in the band as the drummer. And everybody brings in their own kind of thoughts and creativity to it. So it always feels collaborative.

FYF: What about with other musicians? Aside from people in your band?
AFF: I haven’t done a lot of collaborations. I have a lot of musician friends, but it just doesn’t really happen that often. Especially because I’ve been super focused on this record. So I haven’t.

I’ve been more collaborative in terms of other art forms. Like, I did a thing with band.do. They do these beautiful head-pieces. And I made a little stop-motion film with Angela, who also took the album photographs. So I’ve done more art collaborations than music.

FYF: So this next question is a little off-beat: If you could choose any author to write about your life, to create you in a book, who would you choose?
AFF: Oh, that’s a good question. Gosh, that’s really intense, too. Because you could just live so many different kinds of lives! Like, a Murakami would look totally different than a Lewis Carroll version. I don’t know; I mean, I would love to just get, like, three different – if anyone cared, and these people were alive – I would love to see what E.B. White would do. And then what Murakami would do, and then…what would be the third? I mean, it would be a tragedy and I would be really bummed out by someone like F. Scott Fitzgerald. He’d probably kill me! But it would probably be really romantic, really cool. He’d probably make me a lot cooler.

FYF: Love it! So, where do you go and what do you do when you just need to ‘be away from it all?’
AFF: I go to the woods. Anywhere I can get that’s forested. Or a body of water. Generally those kinds of places, where I can get a bit of space and feel connected with nature. And then also, just finding a great coffee shop and being with the band is great, because we’re great friends and so that’s a nice way to experience a place, to experience it with people I love. I like finding local culture. Or a book. You know, just reading.

FYF: If you could go back and talk to yourself about your first album, what advice would you give yourself?
AFF: Oh, gosh. A lot. I think I’d say – and I’d say the same thing to me now – ‘don’t worry so much. Just enjoy it.’ I feel like I worry about things so much, and there are so many fears of getting things wrong or doing things badly, or worrying about how things are going to end up. A lot of times I’ve just missed the ‘now.’ It’s all gonna be ok.

FYF: Love that. Thanks so much for talking with us.
AFF: Yeah, no problem!

Joshua Radin @ City Arts Fest. Photo by Rhys Logan.

Have you ever wondered what your life would be like if you couldn’t go underwater? Singer-songwriter Joshua Radin never had to wonder – that’s just how life was for him growing up. Diagnosed with a hole in his eardrum at just 4 years old, Joshua was forced to be a land-dweller throughout his formative years and well into adulthood. “Everyone takes it for granted, I think, the ability to go underwater.” he tells me as we sit on a couch backstage at Seattle’s Moore Theater, “I started thinking about alienation and different worlds that people can never be a part of. That’s one for me, obviously.”

He goes on to tell me that it wasn’t until last year, when his doctor told him that the hole had naturally closed, that he finally got to put his head underwater. “I went underwater for the first time and it was silent.” He recalls, “I’d never heard silence like that before. I couldn’t even hear my heartbeat. My mind was so open and free, like it had never been.”

“I hadn’t written anything in three months at that point. So, I started hearing – my mind so open – I started hearing string parts. I kind of wrote half that song ‘Underwater,’ underwater. It was the first song I wrote for this album. I guess it spawned the rest of the record. Which is why you hear so many strings all over the album.”

The beautifully executed instrumentation on Underwater along with Joshua’s soft and genuine vocals make the record undeniably gorgeous. It’s a plush sound that Joshua and his band are able to recreate every night on tour. Since we did this interview before his show in Seattle for City Arts Fest, I didn’t get to tell him how amazing his show was – I didn’t get to tell him that I’ve never heard a crowd get as quiet as they did in Seattle on that rainy evening in October. But lucky for me, I get to tell you.

Just when I thought he couldn’t have a stronger presence both on stage and off, he walked away from his microphone to the side of the stage and he sang at the top of his lungs without any sort of amplification. And every one in the room went silent.

Just as the silence brought melody into Joshua’s mind, he now brings that melody right into the hearts of his silent audience. It’s a beautiful thing.

I’m honored to share my conversation with Joshua Radin with you! Enjoy!

Joshua Radin and I just before his show in Seattle. Photo by Rhys Logan.

FYF: Well, how’s the tour going so far, Joshua?
Joshua: Really well, thank you so much.

FYF: How did you get set up with A Fine Frenzy?
Joshua: I guess we’re just always looking for different people to tour with that have a similar kind of audience. You know, people that listen to the words as well as the beats.

I’ve toured with so many people over the last few years. She’s one that I haven’t and I’ve always liked her music, so I felt like it would be a good pairing.

FYF: Who’s one of your favorite people you’ve toured with?
Joshua: Probably…gosh, so many. One of my best friends is Anya Marina. We brought her out on tour about a year-and-a-half ago. That was really fun. Sheryl Crow was fun. I don’t know! So many people, it’s tough to choose.

FYF: Totally fair! Well, we can’t talk and not talk about your new single, ‘In Her Eyes.’ I would love to hear some background on that song. What inspired you to write it?
Joshua: Well, I’ve played one wedding in my life; I never really go to weddings. I’m always on the road, always too busy. My sister – maybe about four or five years ago, when I started writing songs – she was like, ‘If I ever get married, I want to get married to this song of yours.’ It’s called ‘Lovely Tonight.’ So I said, ‘sure, yeah!’ And she said, ‘you have to play it for my first dance.’ And I said, ‘ok, sure. I promise I will.’

As her wedding started to approach – it happened about a week-and-a-half ago, or something like that – in Ohio, where I’m from. About a week or two before that, I thought to myself that it’d be nice to write her her own to get married to. So I did, and that’s where that song comes from. Just a straight-up love song.

FYF: Your latest album, Underwater… There’s a pretty interesting story behind it, and I would love to hear it.
Joshua: Well, when I was about four-years-old, a doctor looked in my ear and said I had a hole in my eardrum, and said I could never go underwater. So, I just kind of lived like that, you know? I guess I acclimated.

It was a bit alienating. You know, all the times at summer camp or, you know, I lived near a lake where I grew up. And every time my friends would be swimming or waterskiing or doing something in the summer time, I would always just be sitting on the shore, reading a book or something. I was always thinking, ‘I don’t think they realize how good they have it.’

Everyone takes it for granted, I think, the ability to go underwater. I started thinking about alienation and different worlds that people can never be a part of. That’s one for me, obviously.

Last year, I went to the doctor and he looked in my ear and he said that over all this time, the hole had healed naturally, which I didn’t expect. He said if I wanted to go underwater, I could give it a shot.

I was really nervous because he told me as a kid that it would be extremely painful if I ever go water in that ear. So, after all these years of avoiding water and then sort of developing a fear of it because that, it was difficult to do. So I figured I’d bring all my best friends with me and we went to Hawaii and went snorkeling. I went underwater for the first time and it was silent. I’d never heard silence like that before. I couldn’t even hear my heartbeat. My mind was so open and free, like it had never been.

I hadn’t written anything in three months at that point. So, I started hearing – my mind so open – I started hearing string parts. I kind of wrote half that song ‘Underwater,’ underwater. It was the first song I wrote for this album. I guess it spawned the rest of the record. Which is why you hear so many strings all over the album.

I guess a general theme of the album, too, is alienation and sort of the battle with it, you know? Sometimes I love being alone and ‘hibernating.’ It’s what I did to make this album, to write it. But sometimes I just don’t want to be alone with my thoughts that much. I guess everyone’s the same way.

FYF: You recorded this analog, right?
Joshua: Yes. The first time I ever recorded to tape.

FYF: What inspired you to do that?
Joshua: Well, I’m always trying to do something a little different on each album. I wanted to try and make an album that sounded timeless; something that sounded like it was recorded in another era. So I didn’t want to use any computer screens. All the machines we used were from the ‘60s.

You couldn’t edit at all, couldn’t punch, on this machine we used. So, everything was, well, you’re hearing like a live-performance. You can hear the room. It just sounds so warm.

In order to do that, you need the right musicians. Because it’s so expensive to record to tape, the time and the expense. So I needed to find the best musicians I possibly could in Los Angeles, where I was recording.

So I made a wish-list. You know, because not only does it sound so great when you record analog, it’s more about the mentality of the band and the artist and the engineer. They know they have to bring their A-game right off the bat. You can’t sit there and just keep recording and keep recording and be like, ‘ok, now we got it.’ It’s more like, ‘dude, you gotta nail it right off the bat.’ It’s almost like it’s a live show the first time you’re hearing the song.

So, I made this wish-list of musicians that I’d never met before. And, somehow, they all said yes. I didn’t think I’d ever get to meet these guys, let alone make music with them. So it was incredibly humbling and awe-inspiring and educational at the same time.

FYF: I love that ‘Underwater’ was inspired by something very natural and then you recorded it very naturally.

When you play your older songs on tour, do they sort of morph for you, in terms of their meaning?
Joshua: Yeah. Yeah, that’s a good question. Yeah, because so often, all you want to do is play the new stuff. And in order to play the old stuff, I have to reinvent it in some way, to make it fresh for us. ‘Cause otherwise, I’d just blow my brains out from boredom.

Also, I do try to find new meaning in the lyrics I wrote six years ago or something. Especially when you’re writing emotionally, which I do. It’s usually when I feel hyper-emotional, that’s usually when I write. So, if I’m writing about love-loss, it’s almost – well, it’s cathartic, really. It’s like free therapy for me. I get to talk about it and sing about it in front of people every night and it heals the wound, plus time.

Sharing it with people and talking about it, which I’m not very good at – unless it’s like an interview or something and I’m forced to do it -I would never sit around with my friends and talk about my ex-girlfriend, you know? But I do it every night on stage to strangers. It’s totally bizarre.

But it is like every audience is a new therapist. I’ve never been to a therapist before. But I’ve questioned it. You know, my friends that go to therapists, I ask, ‘so, do they really give you advice?’ And they say, ‘no, it’s just someone to vent to who’s not a friend.’ No one wants to sit there and hear you vent all the time.

I understand that now, now that I do this for a living. I was always wanting to be behind-the-scenes. Whatever I did creatively was behind-the-scenes, like drawing or painting, which is what I studied at university. And then I was an art teacher for little kids. And then I started writing screenplays.

There was nothing I ever wanted to do creatively that demanded the spotlight. When I first started playing music, I was so shy I couldn’t even open my eyes while I played. I couldn’t talk at all to the crowd between songs. I didn’t even know how to stand and play [guitar]. I would have to sit on a chair. I couldn’t play with a drummer; I didn’t know how to do that.

I’ve really had to learn by doing. Just throwing myself out there and hiring a really good band. All of them went to music school, so they teach me things all the time. I’m always like, ‘what chord am I playing?’ or ‘what key is this in?’

They all have to have a jazz background because if I change keys on a whim, they gotta be ready. People who study classical music don’t really know how to do that. Or how to transpose ‘just like that.’ I love my band. They’re the best.

Joshua Radin. Photo by Rhys Logan.

FYF: If you could go back and talk to yourself before you recorded your first album, what advice would you give yourself?
Joshua: That’s a good question. You’re full of questions I’ve never been asked before! Usually it’s, ‘what are your influences? Music or lyrics first?’ Every day.

I will say that, when people ask something like, ‘do you have any regrets?’ I always say ‘no.’ Because I love where my life is at right now and I would never want to change anything. However, if I did have the opportunity, I would say, ‘don’t put so much pressure on yourself.’ Have more fun with it.

When I first started, I didn’t set out to be a professional musician. I was just writing because it was therapeutic. I was just getting these things out. I fell into it. I started playing music when I was 30. It’s not like I grew up doing it. Like I said, I didn’t crave the spotlight.

I put more pressure on myself than my manager or the record company or anybody. I’d have these rituals before I’d go on stage; not eating any dairy because singers say you shouldn’t do that, or doing all these things like that.

After a little while, after going on tour a bunch and playing in city after city, I just fell into a rhythm and got more comfortable with it. And then just decided, ‘you know, I’m not a doctor. I’m not saving people’s lives. I’m not curing cancer or anything. I’m just going out and playing some songs I wrote.’

I guess when I first started, I just took it so seriously. Everything was like, ‘well, are there 50 people here tonight, or 55?’ I can’t believe, looking back on it now, how I used look at things.

I started getting really good advice from people I really trust. One guy told me once a couple years into it, ‘this is how you gotta look at it’ – and I still think this is true and I still say it to other musicians if they ask – this is the best advice I ever got: You make a record only for one reason – so that you can make another record. You play a show in a city for one reason only – it’s so that you can have the opportunity to come back to that city and play another show. That’s it.

Every night I’m on stage, I think about that. I think, ‘I’m going to give it my all tonight because, hopefully, they’ll want me back in Seattle.’ Rather than trying to have the weight-of-the-world on your shoulders, going, ‘I’m going to change music!’ Not that I would say that – but I think a lot of artists do think kind of think that way, or take themselves so seriously.

I never took anything seriously in my life, before the first year of playing music. But I felt like I was so lucky to have this opportunity to be a professional musician after about six months of playing music and signing a major record deal and having my songs be in movies and getting to tour all over the world, like, right off the bat.

I felt so fortunate that I was like, ‘alright – don’t screw this up. Try your hardest because all these people around you are dying for this opportunity, and would give their right arm to sign a record deal or to write songs that make people cry,’ or any of the things that most people take for granted. It’s like being able to go underwater. The more you do it, the more you take it for granted. I have to remind myself of that a lot.

Especially on tour, because it’s a grind. The twenty-two-and-a-half hours of the day that you’re not on stage, that’s the ‘work’ part of the job. You get to be on stage for like an hour, an hour-and-a-half every night and you’re like, it’s all worth it then, that adrenaline rush. Some people go on roller-coasters, or jump out of airplanes.

I don’t have to do any of that stuff. Because I get to do this every night and my heart-rate just goes through the roof. And I walk off stage with those endorphins going nuts and then I crash on a couch and think, ‘I can’t believe that just happened. I can’t believe I played songs for people.’ Especially growing up so shy.

Thank you so much, Joshua!

For more information about Joshua, please visit joshuaradin.com & for more behind the scenes interview photos, please check out findyourfav on Facebook!

Though the lyrics are recognizably happier on some songs and sadder on others, the album never loses its optimistic tone.  The rhythm section is strong and nicely coincides with Meiko’s soft and genuine delivery.

Listen to some clips of the album below and I won’t need to give you any more reasons why you’ve got to add The Bright Side to your collection!

Meiko was kind enough to do a little Q&A for us last week.  Enjoy!

Hi Meiko!

How’s the tour going? What are you up to today?
Tour is going great! We are on our way to Phoenix, AZ today from Las Cruces, NM.

I would love to hear about your latest record, ‘The Bright Side.’  What does this record mean to you?
It was an opportunity to play around with new ideas. I wanted to experiment with beats and my new found overall optimistic songwriting. It was a fun project that took about 2 years to make.

What’s your favourite memory from the recording process?
Having Steve Perry from Journey randomly stop by to take a listen! He told me the song I was working on (“I Wonder”) was the best song he’d heard in a long time. I was so excited to hear him say that. It was surreal. I love Journey!

What do you hope people feel after they listen to the album in its entirety? Is there a theme?
Yes… It’s the cycle of a relationship… I used most of the happy songs up front and the sad songs at the end.

What are some differences that you’ve noticed in the music that’s on The Bright Side compared to what you’ve released in the past?
It’s more up beat; happier. I’ve grown a lot as a person since the first record. I’m also in a way way better place, mentally, then where I was while I was writing/recording that first record.

What’s one quirky thing about you that not many people know about?
I love the movie “The Jerk” and have watched it a zillion times.

What albums are you loving right now?
I am listening to a lot of old country on the road. Lots of Woody Guthrie, Willie Nelson and Don Williams.

Thanks, Meiko!

For more information and tour dates, head to Meikomusic.com.

You can preview and purchase Meiko’s latest album here:

ZZ spent the summer playing shows with Grace Potter & the Nocturnals.  I was lucky enough to talk to her just before her ZooTunes show with GPN at Woodland Park Zoo a couple of months ago.  At the time, she was still riding on her 4-track EP.  You can check out that interview here.

She has since released a full-length record, ‘Til The Casket Drops (it dropped TODAY)!  Check out some clips and “like” Findyourfav on Facebook for a chance to win tickets to her show at The Crocodile on October 22nd!!

The show is at 8pm and you can buy tickets by clicking here!!