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- New album _Inland Territory_ available now!
http://www.scarabcart.com/cgi-bin/viennateng/item.cgi?id=172
Check out the new video for Gravity:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X8nypWKa_aU&fmt=18
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compass
2009-09-26 2:39AM / 標準BLOG / 會員可以看
1個評論It occurs to me that when it comes to songs, good in the reviewer’s sense and good in the sense of mattering to someone are two different things. A critic is rightfully concerned with originality; a listener wants a friend. You can write the cheesiest most cliché-ridden love song in the world, and a cancer patient might have it on repeat as he goes through chemo. You can make an inscrutable new sound and be ignored by all but a few hipsters at the bleeding edge, who disdain anything anyone else has heard of.
These are the poles, of course: most critics are music fans and most music fans are critics, in varying degrees, and most songwriters are both. We all rejoice when something connects with us on a deep level, and shrug (or rant) when it doesn’t. But it does beg the question of what exactly I’m trying to do here. How do I know when I’ve made something good? When a lot of people like it, or when the “right kind” of people like it? And what makes them the “right kind?”
I know, I know: you’ve made something good when you like it. But let’s face it, that’s not the whole answer. Manuscripts have editors, plays have developmental readings, records have producers, A&R reps, rough mixes. There are points all along the way when you ask “Is this working?” and listen to what comes back. There are navigational tools other than your own compass. But which ones are reliable? More importantly, where are you trying to go, anyway?
This is all a roundabout way of saying that I’m still stuck, down here in my notebooks. These fragments are good for something but I don’t know what. I do have a growing sense that whatever it is, I’m not capable of it yet. So it’s time to become a student again: get up every morning and practice my instruments, pick up some new ones, sing a lot of other people’s songs, write a steady stream of lyrics and hold them up for scrutiny. This year’s nomadic existence hasn’t lent itself to that kind of discipline, so much. I need to live somewhere again.
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intake
2010-03-09 10:45AM
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Slow Q&A 2009: The Kaoru Questionnaire
2009-10-15 7:57PM
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archive of Twitter Q&A, 15 Aug 2009
2009-09-03 2:00PM
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Slow Q&A 2009: The What Is That? Edition, pt. 2
2009-08-31 3:21PM
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Slow Q&A 2009: The What Is That? Edition, pt. 1
2009-08-31 8:47AM
统计信息
- Q: Who are your influences? ...Q: Who are your influences?
A: My parents' record collection: Simon & Garfunkel, James Taylor, Mozart and Beethoven, 60s Mandarin pop. That's what I started with and it'll never leave me. Later on, pianist-songwriters: Elton John, Billy Joel, Tori Amos. These days I'm influenced by whoever intimidates me. I hear them, I'm astounded by them, I think daily about quitting music because I'll never be able to do it as well as they do. Then I try to steal from them without imitating. A tricky thing.
Q: How would you characterize your music?
A: Oh man, I don't know. I've taken to saying "chamber folk" or "singer-songwriter" to some people. "Somewhere between folk and pop, with a bit of classical and jazz," if they look confused after that. It's frustrating that I have no succinct phrase to offer; at the same time, I think it also means I'm doing something right.
Q: How long have you been playing piano?
A: Since I was five.
Q: Did you study at a conservatory?
A: No, just one-on-one piano lessons until I was 17. Changed my life, though.
Q: How did you learn to sing?
A: In the shower, and in school choirs. I took some voice lessons here and there, which amounted to paying $40-150 a week to be told that I was doing it all wrong. I don't think we fixed anything. So maybe I haven't learned to sing, actually.
Q: When did you start writing songs?
A: I think I was six when I decided I could cobble my own piano piece together. As for songs that I still play in public, the earliest ones are from high school.
Q: How long does it take for you to write songs?
A: A long time. Sometimes months. Occasionally over a year. I don't revise all that much; it just takes that long for all the pieces to form and assemble.
Q: Who arranges the songs for live performance?
A: It's a collaborative process. My bandmates generally compose their own parts as we work through a song in rehearsal—sometimes they're based on the studio recordings, oftentimes not. Sometimes they have cool ideas for my parts, too.
Q: How old are you?
Q: Is Vienna the name your parents gave you?
Q: How do you write your name in Chinese?
A: Wikipedia knows all. And is reasonably accurate, though I don't know why it has photos of me wearing a knit hat and playing guitar onstage, two things I almost never do.
Q: Is it true that you used to be a software engineer?
A: Yes. I got my bachelor's in Computer Science at Stanford University, and went to work for Cisco Systems for two years. These days I remember exactly enough to crash whatever computer I'm working on.
Q: Is it true that you went to/dropped out of medical school?
A: No. Can't imagine paying off med school loans and funding an album...
Q: What was it like being on Letterman?
A: Surreal. Pretty much like how it'd be for you if you got called to play on the Late Show. I still think I dreamt the whole thing. Except the studio was very, very cold, and my dreams aren't often cold.
Q: Which of your albums is the best one, in your opinion?
A: Like anyone, I'd hope that the most recent is always the strongest. I think I'm getting better as I go...
Q: Does constantly talking about yourself ever make you feel like an egomaniac?
A: Yes, yes it does. Makes me wish I were in a band sometimes.
Q: Are you going to release a live album?
A: We do have a live DVD out now. For sound-only recordings, there's always the Internet Audio Archive.
Q: Do you ever reply to emails?
A: No, and I apologize. It's not a policy or anything; I'm just not good at staying on top of it. I promise that I do read everything, and that I'm grateful. - 職業: 樂手 , 歌手 , 作曲家
- 性別: 女
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