I Believe What’s Shared Is Savored: An Interview with Carrie Elkin and Danny Schmidt

For nearly a decade, Austin-based singer-songwriters Carrie Elkin and Danny Schmidt have been charming audiences with their collaborative song-swap performances. Two of the most talented and beloved songwriters in that fruitful musical community, Elkin and Schmidt play music that possesses a very different spirit from one another but, as a pair, the music they manage to make is surprisingly cohesive, languid, and easy. Their voices blend together like a breeze in the trees. It was only a matter of time before the two–who are now engaged in real life–teamed up to make an album together. 

The disc, For Keeps, just dropped on Red House Records–the midwest label best known for embracing songwriters who are heavy on the richly nuanced story-songs. (Greg Brown, Eliza Gilkyson, John Gorka, and Ray Bonneville, among others, to give you an idea.) The album communicates Elkin and Schmidt’s collaborative energy beautifully, backed by a remarkably talented, intuitive band of Austinite friends. I recently chatted with them on the phone about how this project came to fruition and what they’ve learned from backing each other up all these years. 

Kim Ruehl: You’ve played on each other’s records and played together live, but this is the first duo record. What made you decide to take the plunge?

Danny Schmidt: It’s an organic extension of what the live show was, which was going back and forth and singing on each other’s stuff. As we were writing songs for our solo projects, the songs went along together…

So you weren’t actually writing together? You were writing separately and then filling in on each other’s songs?

Carrie Elkin: Yeah … when we’re on stage together we’re basically song swapping and then singing on each other’s songs. Danny will play a song and I’ll sing, then I’ll play a song and he’ll sing with me. The record is formatted in the same way. Every other song is a Danny song, every other song is a Carrie song.

DS: We have very different perspectives and processes. I think people enjoy that contrast in our sounds. As a couple, I think people can relate to that because many couples think very differently but they come together.

How does your process work? Is it instinctive at this point, or do you direct each other on how to back up the songs?

DS: I direct her, she yells at me so I let her do her own thing. I back off and let her do her own thing. [laughs]

CE: [laughs] It’s kind of different on the songs. On some of the songs, the parts feel very obvious and some of them take a lot more work. We’ll sit down together and work on them. We’ve been singing together for seven years, so the harmony singing has evolved–it’s much more organic now than it used to be. It comes pretty naturally and doesn’t take a ton of sitting down and working through stuff. It’s pretty natural.

DS:  It’s natural for the band filling out the record, too, because they’re all close friends of ours who know our music very deeply and thoroughly, who know us. So, it was a fun organic process putting all the orchestration together, too.

You’re both great writers and I wonder–you’re there in Austin with such a great community of writers. How important is the community for what you’re doing?

DS: I think it’s really important. For various reasons–keeping an eye on our friends and seeing what they’re making. Every time Raina [Rose] writes a new song, I just want to get back there in my writing room and write a new one. Then there are more formal ways: in collaboration, singing with each other or sharing a show or something. [We have] workshop collaborations. During various stretches when we’re all home, we’ll have a weekly songwriter get-together where the intention is to bring what you’re working on. It helps because if you know that’s coming up next Monday, that’s a kick in the butt to finish that song that’s been on the back burner for a while. It’s an opportunity for people you trust and respect… part of a song’s life cycle is that first presentation to the world, receiving the feedback from how people hear it, which might be different from how you wrote it. When you do that with people who really know songs and writing, it’s more valuable. And, our community also nurtures us as people.

CE: I was going to say that. It’s a very nurturing community. People are incredibly supportive. I don’t write as much as Danny. When I finish a song, I feel like it’s a miracle that it even came out. So I have these cheerleaders. People get really excited and it’s a very special thing.

Yeah, I imagine the music is a very different experience for the community than it is for an audience in Asheville, NC, or wherever people are. They’re just getting these little snippets in the recordings. You bring members of the community onto your records, but is it important to you to get your friends involved in that way?

DS: Totally. It’s so much… we’re all trying to put our own stuff out into the world. Being able to go to our friend’s show and just enjoy them, refreshes the fuel to support the joyfulness of what we’re supposed to be doing. It’s easier to see that when you’re watching them.

CE: I agree.

DS: [laughs] This whole thing should be formatted in the way that, you know, “Danny said whatever and then Carrie agreed.” That would be great. For the rest of our lives.

CE: [laughs] I’m not going to do that.

What albums have been impactful for you over the past few years? Have you been listening to other duo albums?

DS: Not really. Well… we’ve been listening to our friends Chuck E. Costa and Mira Stanley, who have a duo called The Sea The Sea. They have a spectacular album. They just put out their debut.

CE: They, for sure, have been inspiring.

DS: Anais Mitchell’s Young Man in America.

CE: Nels Andrews’ Scrimshaw… so many.

DS: Let me add one more to that list. Carrie’s been singing a lot with Sam Baker over the last couple of years. His latest record came out this year and has been getting a lot of attention.

CE: That record and that experience has impacted my life really positively.

DS: He’s going to be the officiant at our wedding.

Nice. When you collaborate with someone like Sam Baker, are you thinking about what you learned in that experience when you’re working with Danny, or are you just trying to be in the moment?

CE: I feel extremely present and connected to whatever I’m doing. So when I’m singing with Sam… his stuff is so incredibly original and formatted much differently than other singer-songwriters. He has a lot of old hymns that I’m singing. I’m less of a harmony vocalist and more of an equal band member with him. I’m highlighted a lot. It inspires me in the sense that I’d like to carry some of that sound over into our own stuff. Not doing old hymns or anything like that. But [just being] present with whomever I’m working with. I’m inspired in the sense that I’m always inspired when I’m singing with people. It’s my favorite thing to do.

What have you learned from each other?

DS: We used to teach these classes at an art school in Michigan. I taught a class about laying various lenses and filters over songs, and really finishing, refining the rough edges into a fine craft. That’s the inspiration part of the song process, to add craft to it. Carrie’s [class] was about writing with emotional presence. It highlighted our very different approaches … it struck me how totally valid other processes were. She taught me about a presence of mind, the emotional impact and genuineness of the writing as opposed to the more cerebral part of the writing.

CE: Yeah, for me… Danny has taught me how to be a better mentor of myself. I think he brings that balance to my songwriting style. I’ve learned a lot from Danny in that sense, and also about sticking with a song and finishing a song. He’s really good at sitting in a room and finishing something, which I have a great appreciation for.