songwriter's monthly, march '11, #134 - naomi greenwald

8/7/2019 Songwriter's Monthly, March '11, #134 - Naomi Greenwald

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aomi Greenwald is twoistinct people living two veryifferent lives traveling alongwo seemingly divergent story

nes. In one, she is a teachero i n g f o r h e r P h D i nomparative Literature atSC. This Naomi casuallyarallels her life and everydayxperiences to literary themes,h e s p e a k s a b o u toppelgngers and metaphorsnd refers to Nabokov like aest friend she regularly chatsith on Facebook.

n the other, she is a raspy-throatedrock star writing enticingly dark tunesbout the human condition. This Naomias a producer and a publicist. She alsooes on photo shoots where she donslack leather and exhibits all kinds ofool.

arlier this school year, Greenwaldsorlds came crashing together whenne of teacher-Naomis studentsoogled her and discovered her rocktar alter-ego.

Suddenly, everyone just wanted tonow everything about me, they didntare what I was teaching, Naomixpressed. They started joking that

me being both a PhD candidate and arock star was really just a cover for

my third life. Did you know that really a ninja? It was the mridiculous semester of teaching tIve ever had!

Rather than continuing the struggletrying to keep her lives separaGreenwald decided to let thconverge and intertwine, she resolved to no longer deny any aspof who she is, but to instead braid two strands together to createstronger, more purposeful cord.

It is interesting to note that Naomi already achieved this synthesis on recently-released, debut full-lenalbum entitled DARKBLOOM. The smsuperbly crafted, reflective apondering lyrics employ an impressarray of literary devices while affecting melodies and comforta
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hythms provide just the right settingo allow you to really feel the drivingmotion behind the tracks her songsave both an intellect and a soul. Inact, if you didnt know it, you mighthink the album was a collaborationetween two writers with almost polarersonalities instead of a single artists

work. In many ways, Greenwald is aind of Lennon and McCartney in one.

ut lets step back in time a little, goack before DARKBLOOM to find out how

this double-life began. Why t h e P e n n s y l v a n i a - b omusician-turned-USC-Phcandidate decide to try a maup of these two seemindichotomous lives? And wcatalyst spawned this album

Well, I guess it really startecouple of years ago whemoved to L.A., Naomi beghe r r i c h , sm oke y vodelivered in brief, rapid phrases. I moved here foPhD thinking I was pretty mdone with playing music. since it was L.A. the whindustry is set up so eahere, you can get in touch wpeople much easier thanNew York I decided thawould record my songs justsell them. I like my songswhy wouldnt I try to something with them? Vshortly into that processrealized that I wasnt dplaying music, my life dihave to be an either/or.

So Naomi put together an Eintroduce herself to the L.A. musiciand to try and get a sense of what wanted musically. While she was dothe promotion for that EP, she wadvised to follow up with anotrecording within a year.

Im a good rule follower, Nastated.

Following that advice was the genesiDARKBLOOM. Greenwald began process of listening to a lot of m
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nd trying to find the perfect producer.ventually, she found Dave TrumfioWilco, Built to Spill, OK Go!]. Daveas so easy to work with. I got the ball

olling with the EP, but DARKBLOOMeels like the realdebut. I began havingecond thoughts about my life and myareer, I didnt know why I thought thatwould be done with music forever. I

uess it was the late twenties speaking,hat timeline that I thought I wasupposed to be adhering to?

he timeline Naomias referring to was thateriod when you begin toeel pressure to moveway from the thingshat add joy and offer

meaning to your life inn effort to walk along a

more accepted, traditional path. Its notasy to buck that timeline. Either dueo jealousy or lack of comprehension ofhe creative drive, society tends tohisel away at an artists resolve toemain on her personal journey oncehe hits a certain age.

A lot of people, when I tell them I playmusic, they look at me with thatympathetic, Oh, so you still do that,ook and Im like But I just startedgain! she laughed. That face isassic, I get it so often right now, Iant even tell you.

he only looks Naomi shouldbe gettingre looks of admiration and respect.er gift for expressing complexmotions with a timeless grooverovides her music with a truly classiceel. Think of some of the deeper,sting tracks from great bands like

Fleetwood Mac and youll begin to an idea of what this woman is capaof. Furthermore, Naomi has beblessed with an unforgettable voice tis, at once, wonderfully soothing marvelously invigorating.

Im not a trained singer, at all, confessed. In some ways I wish thwas because it would make certthings a little easier.

Even if she is a modest about vocal abilities, oti n d u s t r y f i g ureadily acknowleher gift. When Naexpressed a desirework on her vocalan effort to po

away some of the delightful grit, producer was strongly against the idTrumfio stated the quality that she in her natural voice was what made unique as an artist. Luckily, Naconceded and the bulk of the albshowcases that inherent charm.

When it came time to add harmonGreenwald and Trumfio coverednumber of them on their own ThDave at the end of Dead Metaphdoing the super high falsetto! Howevthere were times when the songs cafor something a little different thats where Greenwald enlisted talents of the SoCal VoCals [USCcappella group].

Again, that was me trying to make life less double-life and more unifieshe noted. They were all kids from school where I work. Im sure they


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ecorded albums before, but its nothat often that you get to go into atudio even when you are a musician

so I thought it would be cool to havehem come in.

They blew us away! she continued.In about 3 hours, they laid down allhe tracks . . . and they did it live, fourt a time! It was so cool.

ther musicians who lent their talentso the project included Jason Orme onuitar (Alanis Morisette, Desktopulers), Nick Rosen on bass (Perryarell, Jon Brion), and Fern Sanchez onrums (Rachael Yamagata, Pete Yorn).

After conversing with Naomi for nean hour both of us being professidetrackers I realized I had beco

so wrapped up in who she was, twed barely talked specifically abmus ic . In my defense, NaoGreenwald is an absorbing aintelligent young woman who speaks

such a fast that you reneed to stayyour toes jto try and kpace with v e r b asprinting. Ineffort to recmy negligenI a s k e d hwhich song wh e r c u r r efavorite.

I gotta Dont ForHallelujah, r e s p o n dw i t h oh e s i t a t i oThat and DTimes. Thwere the songs. Thea lot on botht h e m . T h


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bum was about getting stuff off myhest. I needed to have horns, but Ihink its the piano on Dont Forgetallelujah, the way it opens up, it reallyaptures the emotion. Its a sad song,

ut not about a lost love or anything,s about someone who was reallyrappling with sickness in their familynd they just kept on getting pummeledith more and more bad news.

Maybe I also like it because its thenly song in the set that I cant playeally well while I sing its got theseuper jazzy chords so I get to put myuitar down and just sing, sheformed. I tend to do that, Ill write

ongs with really crazy chords that areoo hard for me to play, but it canthange! I cant make it any easier, iteeds to be those voicings.

efore ending the interview, I wanted tond out if there might be anything thatadnt been brought up before,omething maybe Naomi hadntreviously made a big deal about inther interviews . . .

Full disclosure? she readied, I didntve performing. I just would get reallyad stage fright! The best thing about

being in school is I had to start teacand that was one really big way to over . . . well, Im not completely ovyet, I still get very nervous, teaching really taught me how to bthe moment and not let my fears the better of me. You havecommunicate something, whether itlesson plan or a song. I now understa lot more about the relationship thhave between both lives. I understhow they overlap. I did not exthat.

After a brief pause, she added, I redid close the door on my music fominute, but ever since last year, written so much that its crazy to tthere was a period when I was just taking up the guitar in the way that feels so necessary.

Dont Forget Hallelujah is scheduleappear on NPRs Song of the Day innear future. For more informationN a o m i a n d h e r m u s i c , v i swww.naomigreenwald.com.

Its crazy to think

there was a periodwhen I was justnot taking up theguitar in the waythat now feels so

necessary.

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songwriter's monthly, march '11, #134 - naomi greenwald

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