Published: July 18, 2010 4:30 PM EST
By: Isaac Davis Jr., MBA (Juniorscave.com)
New Music Spotlight July 2010 Edition
Savannah Jo
Music Now Artist/Band Spotlight Weekly Series
Savannah Jo
Get ready for a fun musical ride with the super talented Indie artist Savannah Jo. She commands respect with her strong vocal that echoes beautiful stories of life and love. She presents strong songwriting skills and meaningful lyrics in her music that are going to be a big attraction for music lovers. Add the fact that she happens to be an amazing VIOLINIST and adding this element to her music makes Savannah Jo a real gem. Check out what this amazing singer/songwriter had to say about her music in this weekly spotlight.
Isaac: Let’s get started with this interview. When and how did you first become interested in music? How long have you been playing music?
SJ: Wow. I was first consumed by music around the age of four. It was more than an interest, it was an absolute engagement. Some of my earliest memories are of the euphoria I felt listening to music - it really filled every cell of my being.
I received my first violin around age five and have been playing ever since.
Isaac: Who would you say are your biggest musical influences and why?
SJ: My influences are diverse, given that I started playing classical, recorded my first album with a lofi indie instrumental group and now play alt-folk-apocalyptic country songs. To choose just a few...... Ravel was and is a huge influence on my writing. The way he manipulated harmony and created color with simple, simple lines are really embedded in my psyche. Leonard Cohen is a big influence - his lyric writing is to me, unparalleled. I can read his lyrics over and over again and find different things every time. Patty Griffin is a massive influence - I find her writing simultaneously profound and spontaneous. I am a huge fan of Eminem and recently, I have been fascinated by an emerging female rapper who is part of the Doomtree collective in Chicago, Dessa.
Isaac: What has been the greatest highpoint in your career so far?
SJ: Golly, I had the opportunity to play Bach on the Heifetz Guarneri violin for the last living Surrealist painter, Enrico Donati a few years ago. That was a pretty special moment. Either that or playing with Ruth Gerson at Hotel Utah in San Francisco a few months ago where we spontaneously played a set together that felt totally connected and direct. It was without rehearsal, without discussion or pre-thought and is the reason I continue to play music - for the miraculous things that can happen on stage.
Isaac: What has been the greatest disappointment in your career so far? What did you learn from that experience?
SJ: The dissolution of my first band, Trinkets. We created some incredible music together and put on some wicked shows but couldn't quite manage to stay together as a band. I learnt that communication and friendships are way more important than pride or ego.
Isaac: What draws you to want to play the type of music that you do?
SJ: I play the music I play because of my deep desire to truly connect with and communicate with an audience. Instrumental music was a powerful way for me to do that for a long time but when I started singing my own songs, I felt a mask that I had been wearing for a long time, finally slipped away.
Isaac: What do you feel it takes to play this type of music that you play?
SJ: It takes time, commitment and a sense of adventure. I couldn't play the way I play if I hadn't spent hours practicing as a teenager. I wouldn't be playing in this way, for a living, if I wasn't willing to gamble a little and back what it is I have to offer. It takes a lot of energy to maintain a band and to continue to book shows as an Indie artist, somewhere in there, you have to really believe in what you are doing and have the courage to fall over again and again. Sometimes in that falling over, you manage to fly and that is the reason I continue to play the music that I play.
Isaac: What do you think you will create that will make your performances and who you are stand out in the music industry?
SJ: Hee! Well, I am a mongrel dog - I am a classical musician, I am a session musician, I am an arranger, I am a song writer. On stage, I try to combine all of that. I write and perform with different combinations of instruments and musicians; I live loop strings and sing over them, I orchestrate songs with celestas, glockenspiels and screaming guitars. All of that tends to create performances that both baffle and enthrall people.
Isaac: If you had the opportunity to do one cover, what cover would you do and why? How would you put your own spin on this cover?
SJ: I'd cover Chris Whitley's 'Scrapyard Lullaby'. I find his writing so raw and compelling. I'd perform it with just a violin as the rhythm instrument play a howling solo somewhere in there.
Isaac: What does it take to be a good songwriter?
SJ: Honesty and practice. You know when you've written something great. You just know it. Everything else is a draft waiting to be finished.
Isaac: How difficult is it to juggle music, family and work obligation, and life in general? Explain.
SJ: It's tricky. It requires juggling and peacemaking skills, especially if you are an all or nothing personality. My tendency is to be completely absorbed into a task, which means that a lot of things get left by the wayside until I come up for air. If I am writing, I try to start my day with emails and business and leave the rest of the day to birth whatever I'm working on.
Isaac: What is your definition of being an Indie artist/band?
SJ: Well, Indie to me, means unsigned - that you are promoting and creating your music independent of a record company.
SJ: I'd like to have released at least two more studio albums and a live album, toured my solo show in Europe, written the soundtrack to a movie I really believed in and started a hip hop orchestra for kids in Oakland.
