Turning TurmoilInto Tunes
by Tina Whelski
Rachael Yamagata’s first solo show ever was in New York City at the Living Room on an out-of-tune piano and her second was a sold-out show at Madison Square Garden opening for David Gray. If that sounds like a head-spinning experience for the husky-voiced performer, it’s nothing compared to the raw accounts of love won and ultimately lost that she documents on her debut full-length album Happenstance (RCA) produced by John Alagia (John Mayer, Dave Matthews, etc.).
Yamagata actually came into music because she kept falling in and out of relationships and needed a creative outlet for the emotions. And her brutally honest accounts burn, but don’t take my word for it. The fact that a fan mailed her song “Reason Why” to a lover to explain why their relationship failed is proof of their potency.
Rachael Yamagata Talks about turning turmoil into an album.
WOMANROCK: You’ve been out supporting Happenstance a while now. Have the stories evolved for you as you’ve grown and spent time with them? Do songs take on new meaning?
RACHAEL YAMAGATA: Sometimes they do. Sometimes you just grow to hate them (laughs). In other songs there are just emotions that can be applied to different relationships that are universal emotions. Sometimes I’ll be in a relationship that has nothing to do with the one that was the source of the song, but it still carries the same weight. Then of course you talk to people who are watching for the first time and tons of people come up to me and tell me their stories and they interpret the songs differently.
Every now and then you’re on stage and your mind wanders and you can think of it from their eyes or you find a different meaning, like “Reason Why.” I wrote it kind of about this group dynamic, a business relationship really. Everyone thinks it’s a love song, so every now and then I’ll play it and dedicate it to somebody. In another situation I heard from this guy who was dating this woman in Chicago. She moved to Ibiza, Spain and told him their relationship never went anywhere. She said he never asked her to come to Chicago and he was writing me this email because she ended up getting my EP, which has “The Reason Why” on it. She sent it to him in Chicago and said, “Listen to this song. It explains the reason why I left.” So you hear these stories. It’s just so odd how people interpret them. So in that respect it does change.
WOMANROCK: That’s got to feel good when people find personal meaning in your songs?
YAMAGATA: It does. It’s so surreal and kind of trippy (laughs).
WOMANROCK: You’ve talked about how Happenstance deals with the battle between chance circumstances and the belief that everything happens for a reason. What kinds of things have been thrown in your path this last year that have influenced you as an artist?
YAMAGATA: Well different things. On the business side, I’ve been through like five different record mergers and it’s insane. Literally South By Southwest was one big collection of people who tried to sign me in one way or another. So in that respect I’ve been through this whirlwind journey of even getting a record out there. Things that I thought were sure things or were the exact right places for me to be ended up falling through and probably were the only things that kept me alive through these changes of hands. I’m pretty comfortable with turmoil being shoved at me. I always feel like it’s the best thing for that moment and you end up using it as a source of material. It makes you feel lonely and confused and you go through this process, which ends up just giving you more fodder for songs.
In my personal life, I think I learn a lot of my lessons through my romantic relationships with people and things that are just so painful and just the worst circumstances where you just have to say, “I can’t believe this is my life and this is happening to me.” The weirdest things happen where someone just happens to be right there or whatever. It seems to show up in my writing so it’s a catch 22. I never seem to fail to have something to write about. I go through this hell in order to get there.
WOMANROCK: …And everyone wants to be an artist. Sucks doesn’t it? (laughs)
YAMAGATA: I know! I sit there and I’m like, “You only get one or the other.”
WOMANROCK: Many artists try to create journeys with their music, but the process of recording Happenstance was literally a trek from place to place. Was this a choice or a matter of course?
YAMAGATA: That was kind of a product of having an adventurous producer. I had made records with other bands, but never on my own and he [John Alagia ] was very willing to let me follow my nose towards things. A lot of the time we’d move because it just felt like it was time to go. We started in The Bahamas and that was amazing. It was like every five minutes, “Let’s go get a Margarita.” We’d come back and lay down some parts and then, “Let’s go get a Margarita.” We did the basic tracks down there and then we happened to follow musicians. We wanted certain people and they could only be in New York at a certain time or I had a cellist who fell through at the last minute and so I met Ollie [Oliver Kraus], Tom McRae’s cellist months before and he happened to be in the country in California doing a residency or tour so we picked up and went out there. Then we trailed it back to New York to get some other people and eventually down to Maryland where John has a studio that’s right on the Chesapeake Bay—a great place to mix.
WOMANROCK: That’s hysterical. Usually musicians have to come to the project, not the other way around.
YAMAGATA: I know. Well we did have them, but we were like, “We’ll meet ya there.” Things would come up where we’re like, “This could really use French Horn.” Someone would be like, “My uncle plays French Horn, but he’s got to be in New York for the New York City Ballet, so let’s go to New York.” So it was really one of those crazy things. I think it was great for this record. I think for the second record there’s a ranch somewhere in Maine where there’s a horse farm and the studios are in different barns and you stay there and ride horses and have your own private chef or something. Everyone has to come there and no one’s allowed to leave until it’s done (laughs).
WOMANROCK: Are you working on new material?
YAMAGATA: I’m actually doing a lot with new stuff. My problem is I must have ADD, because I’ll play a whole set and people are like, “What?” I’ll be like, “Oh. Okay, I’ll play one song from the album.
WOMANROCK: Sort of like, “Who was that?”
YAMAGATA: Yeah (laughs). They don’t recognize anything, so I have to settle down. I’ve started playing the new ones on the road though cause I’m constantly writing. I keep telling the label I’ll submit them and then I find another tour. I think by late summer I should start recording the next one.
WOMANROCK: Songs?
YAMAGATA: My favorite is probably “Quiet” and then there’s a hidden track about three minutes and twenty seconds called “Ode To…” That’s probably my favorite just because it’s really stripped down. It’s just guitars and just me. It’s one take, like 3:00 in the morning, literally just before mixing. We were in the producer’s place, just him and me because everyone else had pretty much finished the record. I had just written it because I was going through this other thing that seemed to, of course, turn out badly.
WOMANROCK: Oh no, quick—song.
YAMAGATA: Yeah. Wrote it that morning and literally had the lyrics on the floor and sat there crouched over with the guitar. I was just starting to learn guitar and it’s a really long song so I just kind of sat there. He was in the room and just pressed record and played through this thing. It’s just really raw and really honest and really vulnerable. It’s got no production on it at all and it’s just kind of fresh because it was so personally present at the time. I had a lot of fun with this album experimenting with strings and horns and clarinets and crazy production and I think I’m gravitating for the next one probably more towards spur-of-the-moment spontaneous things. That one’s my favorite just because it’s almost like a release of the fight for this particular love. It’s like a giving in and just doesn’t shy away from the fact that there was another person involved and you weren’t chosen and it’s this really heartfelt kind of thing. It sucks but it’s a reflection on the fact that it sucks. It’s not that you’re angry. It’s just so sad. So that one I really love and “Quiet” is like a lullaby.
It’s a really simplistic chord progression for the piano and the same kind of vulnerable realization that after a huge relationship you question whether you may not have made a difference in somebody’s life at all. It’s that point where you’re just reflecting on the fact that you spent all this time and all this investment and think, “Did it actually change anything?” Of course it did, but there’s that moment where you second-guess everything.
Originally posted on WomanRock.com April '05.
Rachael Yamagata performing "Be Be Your Love."
Rachael Yamagata’s first solo show ever was in New York City at the Living Room on an out-of-tune piano and her second was a sold-out show at Madison Square Garden opening for David Gray. If that sounds like a head-spinning experience for the husky-voiced performer, it’s nothing compared to the raw accounts of love won and ultimately lost that she documents on her debut full-length album Happenstance (RCA) produced by John Alagia (John Mayer, Dave Matthews, etc.).
Yamagata actually came into music because she kept falling in and out of relationships and needed a creative outlet for the emotions. And her brutally honest accounts burn, but don’t take my word for it. The fact that a fan mailed her song “Reason Why” to a lover to explain why their relationship failed is proof of their potency.
Rachael Yamagata Talks about turning turmoil into an album.
WOMANROCK: You’ve been out supporting Happenstance a while now. Have the stories evolved for you as you’ve grown and spent time with them? Do songs take on new meaning?
RACHAEL YAMAGATA: Sometimes they do. Sometimes you just grow to hate them (laughs). In other songs there are just emotions that can be applied to different relationships that are universal emotions. Sometimes I’ll be in a relationship that has nothing to do with the one that was the source of the song, but it still carries the same weight. Then of course you talk to people who are watching for the first time and tons of people come up to me and tell me their stories and they interpret the songs differently.
Every now and then you’re on stage and your mind wanders and you can think of it from their eyes or you find a different meaning, like “Reason Why.” I wrote it kind of about this group dynamic, a business relationship really. Everyone thinks it’s a love song, so every now and then I’ll play it and dedicate it to somebody. In another situation I heard from this guy who was dating this woman in Chicago. She moved to Ibiza, Spain and told him their relationship never went anywhere. She said he never asked her to come to Chicago and he was writing me this email because she ended up getting my EP, which has “The Reason Why” on it. She sent it to him in Chicago and said, “Listen to this song. It explains the reason why I left.” So you hear these stories. It’s just so odd how people interpret them. So in that respect it does change.
WOMANROCK: That’s got to feel good when people find personal meaning in your songs?
YAMAGATA: It does. It’s so surreal and kind of trippy (laughs).
WOMANROCK: You’ve talked about how Happenstance deals with the battle between chance circumstances and the belief that everything happens for a reason. What kinds of things have been thrown in your path this last year that have influenced you as an artist?
YAMAGATA: Well different things. On the business side, I’ve been through like five different record mergers and it’s insane. Literally South By Southwest was one big collection of people who tried to sign me in one way or another. So in that respect I’ve been through this whirlwind journey of even getting a record out there. Things that I thought were sure things or were the exact right places for me to be ended up falling through and probably were the only things that kept me alive through these changes of hands. I’m pretty comfortable with turmoil being shoved at me. I always feel like it’s the best thing for that moment and you end up using it as a source of material. It makes you feel lonely and confused and you go through this process, which ends up just giving you more fodder for songs.
In my personal life, I think I learn a lot of my lessons through my romantic relationships with people and things that are just so painful and just the worst circumstances where you just have to say, “I can’t believe this is my life and this is happening to me.” The weirdest things happen where someone just happens to be right there or whatever. It seems to show up in my writing so it’s a catch 22. I never seem to fail to have something to write about. I go through this hell in order to get there.
WOMANROCK: …And everyone wants to be an artist. Sucks doesn’t it? (laughs)
YAMAGATA: I know! I sit there and I’m like, “You only get one or the other.”
WOMANROCK: Many artists try to create journeys with their music, but the process of recording Happenstance was literally a trek from place to place. Was this a choice or a matter of course?
YAMAGATA: That was kind of a product of having an adventurous producer. I had made records with other bands, but never on my own and he [John Alagia ] was very willing to let me follow my nose towards things. A lot of the time we’d move because it just felt like it was time to go. We started in The Bahamas and that was amazing. It was like every five minutes, “Let’s go get a Margarita.” We’d come back and lay down some parts and then, “Let’s go get a Margarita.” We did the basic tracks down there and then we happened to follow musicians. We wanted certain people and they could only be in New York at a certain time or I had a cellist who fell through at the last minute and so I met Ollie [Oliver Kraus], Tom McRae’s cellist months before and he happened to be in the country in California doing a residency or tour so we picked up and went out there. Then we trailed it back to New York to get some other people and eventually down to Maryland where John has a studio that’s right on the Chesapeake Bay—a great place to mix.
WOMANROCK: That’s hysterical. Usually musicians have to come to the project, not the other way around.
YAMAGATA: I know. Well we did have them, but we were like, “We’ll meet ya there.” Things would come up where we’re like, “This could really use French Horn.” Someone would be like, “My uncle plays French Horn, but he’s got to be in New York for the New York City Ballet, so let’s go to New York.” So it was really one of those crazy things. I think it was great for this record. I think for the second record there’s a ranch somewhere in Maine where there’s a horse farm and the studios are in different barns and you stay there and ride horses and have your own private chef or something. Everyone has to come there and no one’s allowed to leave until it’s done (laughs).
WOMANROCK: Are you working on new material?
YAMAGATA: I’m actually doing a lot with new stuff. My problem is I must have ADD, because I’ll play a whole set and people are like, “What?” I’ll be like, “Oh. Okay, I’ll play one song from the album.
WOMANROCK: Sort of like, “Who was that?”
YAMAGATA: Yeah (laughs). They don’t recognize anything, so I have to settle down. I’ve started playing the new ones on the road though cause I’m constantly writing. I keep telling the label I’ll submit them and then I find another tour. I think by late summer I should start recording the next one.
WOMANROCK: Songs?
YAMAGATA: My favorite is probably “Quiet” and then there’s a hidden track about three minutes and twenty seconds called “Ode To…” That’s probably my favorite just because it’s really stripped down. It’s just guitars and just me. It’s one take, like 3:00 in the morning, literally just before mixing. We were in the producer’s place, just him and me because everyone else had pretty much finished the record. I had just written it because I was going through this other thing that seemed to, of course, turn out badly.
WOMANROCK: Oh no, quick—song.
YAMAGATA: Yeah. Wrote it that morning and literally had the lyrics on the floor and sat there crouched over with the guitar. I was just starting to learn guitar and it’s a really long song so I just kind of sat there. He was in the room and just pressed record and played through this thing. It’s just really raw and really honest and really vulnerable. It’s got no production on it at all and it’s just kind of fresh because it was so personally present at the time. I had a lot of fun with this album experimenting with strings and horns and clarinets and crazy production and I think I’m gravitating for the next one probably more towards spur-of-the-moment spontaneous things. That one’s my favorite just because it’s almost like a release of the fight for this particular love. It’s like a giving in and just doesn’t shy away from the fact that there was another person involved and you weren’t chosen and it’s this really heartfelt kind of thing. It sucks but it’s a reflection on the fact that it sucks. It’s not that you’re angry. It’s just so sad. So that one I really love and “Quiet” is like a lullaby.
It’s a really simplistic chord progression for the piano and the same kind of vulnerable realization that after a huge relationship you question whether you may not have made a difference in somebody’s life at all. It’s that point where you’re just reflecting on the fact that you spent all this time and all this investment and think, “Did it actually change anything?” Of course it did, but there’s that moment where you second-guess everything.
Originally posted on WomanRock.com April '05.
Rachael Yamagata performing "Be Be Your Love."
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