Interview with Rose Cousins about her new album ‘We Have Made a Spark’

If you ask me, the last few years in songwriting have been about serious art types reclaiming pop music by building large bands, employing acoustic instruments, and constructing arrangements so lush, they wrap their aural tendrils around you and drag you into some figurative pool of provocative, lingering emotion. 

Or that’s what my ears have been on, anyway. I have Seattle to thank for that, I guess, with all its Grand Hallways and Head and the Hearts and Fleet Foxes. All that stuff that started on a folk trampoline and lept straight into something else. 

It hasn’t been a good time to get through to me if you’re a solo singer-songwriter – a thing I used to be, or try to, with all my might. But I haven’t lost my passion for the lyrics-motivated troubadour, the person who can wield a guitar and their personal truth in poetry. I just haven’t seen or heard a whole lot of them who have sounded any different to me than all the others. 

Abigail Washburn threw me far last year, but that was a band effort she released. It was way more along those lush arrangement lines than I would have been willing to admit at the time. 

2012, however, seems to be the year where at least my personal attention returns to the solo singer-songwriter. First came Anais Mitchell, with her extraordinary gift, knocking my head straight off via Young Man in America. If you haven’t heard that one yet, open a new tab on your computer screen, navigate to her website, and buy it immediately. Thank me later. 

Next came a new one from Amy Ray, which I already told you about a couple of posts ago. Ani DiFranco dropepd a doozy. Justin Townes Earle has one on the way…

And then there’s Rose Cousins – one of the only singer-songwriters who kept my attention through the Seattle spell of my love affair with full bands. Here’s one of the reasons why:

Cousins has a gift. Clearly. 

She has some gifted friends too. You may know their names a little better than hers. Kris Delmhorst’s Cars record got some good mileage on this site last year. ND folks are fond of Mark Erelli, Edie Carey, Rose Polenzani… all of them join Cousins on her latest record, We Have Made a Spark. 

Now, I’ll hand it off to some of my recent interview with Rose. 

Kim Ruehl: Let’s talk about your new record. Before the Kickstarter thing, did you always intend to go to Boston and do this with your friends?

Rose Cousins: The record was actually made before I put the Kickstarter up, to be honest. I had it in the back of my mind that I wanted to make a record in Boston. Since the gang I did this with is extremely busy – half of them are touring musicians always on the road, I had to take the opportunity when they were available. I planted the seed in late 2010 scoping people’s schedules. It came down to finding a time when everyone would be in Boston. I found three days that worked so I took the opportunity before I had the plan. My intention was always to do…my first two records were done with fan funding through paypal and paper forms at shows and stuff. My friend Laura had done Kickstarter for her record and Anna Egge had used it for her record. So I was quizzing them about it and over the months – we did the three days in studio in March – then over the months I developed the campaign.

KR: Once you’ve done a record like this with all your friends and these lush arrangements, is it going to be totally lonely to go back to making them all by yourself?

RC: [laughs] I’m probably going to cry a lot, eat a lot…

KR: No, I mean, it’s a very different experience to play music with other people than it is playing alone, obviously.

RC: Totally, it’s a drug I don’t want to give up. I think the opportunities for each record I’ve made have come around because of where I was and what I needed at the time. I think this record is getting a lot of good feedback because of the performance that’s on it. It feels like a performance. Something about it is really musical because we’re actually all making that music at the same time. That was the thing that led me to make a record like this. Rose Polenzani had made a record like this with everyone in the studio. Hers, even more purely than mine, because we had overdubs on mine. Kris Delmhorst made her ‘Cars’ record that way. It was such a transcendental experience. These people…it’s not even just about being musically talented. This group of people plays together all the time and this is the way they converse musically, and support whatever song it is – it could be a cover, it could be someone’s song that they’ve written – but the support is meaningful. It’s not just someone playing a bassline. It’s not about that. It’s about everybody bringing their flavor to it. I think that’s what makes this group unique and that’s what makes this record sound like it does. That’s why Rose’s record is so unique and pulls you in; it’s why Kris’s record is so much fun. It’s hard to describe because I think it’s an emotional thing – there’s a real love between the people playing on the record, a real respect for what everyone brings to the record.

KR: How much of that is carefully arranged parts ahead of time, and how much of it is trust?

RC: It’s all trust. There was no preparation. I sent solo demos to everybody. Some people listened to them, some people probably didn’t. We would go in and play through the skeleton of the songs. Zachariah had made charts so people could follow along, but there was no predetermined [thing]. We would just run through the song and it didn’t take that many takes to get to something that we all liked. I think the instincts of this group are so well-practiced. They really play together a lot in different styles of music and configurations. I think it has a lot to do with the relationship we have to each other and the sheer number of hours people have been playing [together]. I think Luke Doucet, who produced my last record, told me before we went into the studio to not be too prepared. I kept that in mind for this record too, and even moreso, because I’ve played with this group – one or two of them at a time – and have been onstage with them, within the group, contributing my best things, and really feeling like I can just give over, knowing everyone who’s playing on the record and relinquishing to what could be and not having a preconceived notion about it. I just knew it was going to be awesome.

KR: Do you ever think about things like folk or roots music, or trying to fit a certain tradition?

RC: No. I just write. I think that things like “The Darkness” because it has banjo, it could be called Americana. But then songs with strings on them could be…what? A pop ballad? I don’t know. That’s probably a product of the fact that I’ve been listening to so many different kinds of music. I was listening to a lot of bluegrass when I made my first record, so that’s the instrumentation I chose. For the second record, I chose Luke Doucet to produce it and he’s such an incredible guitar player so a few of the records I was listening to at the time made me feel like I wanted it to be really moody. Electric guitar can be really moody, so that’s how that went. On this one, I just wanted it to sound like the group. I wanted it to feel super organic.

It’s sometimes frustrating when someone asks what category it fits into. I think folk is this huge umbrella. I think sometimes folk songs are story songs or protest songs. I don’t think I ever tell a direct story about a certain person. There are certainly stories in my songs. I’m influenced by pop music, so there’s definitely a thread that goes through that, although I don’t use a lot of beats. I like the Americana thing, which just seems to be surfacing as a really strong category in the last few years. I like that because the edges are really grey. It’s nice because it captures people who are hard to categorize, which I really like. That option is nice to have because … if Alison Krauss is part of Americana, she’s certainly put her feet in a lot of different things. Her album Forget About Itis really smooth and contemporary but then she’s done really bluegrass things and things that straddle lines. I’m influenced by songs from all those categories. So there’s a way to just really not answer the question.

KR: Perfect. What makes a good song?

RRC: For me, what makes a good song is lyrics. I like to feel something. Melody is important, and having a good first line that clenches me off the top is certainly great. But then I love Bon Iver and I have no idea what he’s saying most of the time.  With him, I don’t focus on the words because I don’t know what he says. But the music and the melody and the mood are so strong, it evokes an emotion. Then there’s people who maybe what they’re playing isn’t fancy but what they’re saying is very poignant. I definitely listen for words and melody. Sometimes I like to dance to Beyonce. I’m not going to lie.

KR: Have you ever experimented with pop songwriting like that?

RC: Maybe on my own. In a closeted kind of way. I do enjoy learning pop songs and playing them on my piano. I think there’s something about the formula that intrigues me because of its simplicity but also because of how difficult it is to write something that’s not gross within that formula. There are a couple of songs I really love that are written in that formula, that get to me. There are certain chords that go together in a certain sequence that people can make into medleys of all the most famous songs, but there’s something that really works about it – the impactful first verse, the chorus, the soaring chorus… I’ve thought about it a lot. I haven’t concentrated on it, but I’ve definitely incorporated it into my thinking. I’m a little bit scared to write that way because I don’t want to lose the way I organically write. I’m not good at choruses. I naturally don’t write choruses. They’re maybe like a thought for a moment, but I do have a lot of respect for really good pop songwriting. That plays a huge role in music. It’d be cool to get a song to someone to sing.

KR: Have you had songs placed in TV and movies?

RC: I haven’t had anything major. My goal will definitely be to get some kind of placements. It’d certainly be a great supplement to my career financially. I study the shows I have my eye on. I’ve been catching up on Grey’s Anatomy…

KR: I just asked that because I think it’s become an interesting avenue for independent artists the past few years.

RC: Totally. It makes a big impact. Parenthood and Grey’s Anatomy are two shows that are extremely supportive of songwriter music. There’s not necessarily a formula to the way they choose the music, but I’m always fascinated by that. I used to watch Felicity religiously. That was the first show I really recognized the music – I was attending to the music differently than I ever had before – and it was kind of a breakthrough show of choosing songwriters. There were actually a couple songs I recognized. I wound up meeting a couple of the supervisors who placed on that show, which was thrilling. It’s definitely an avenue that I would say most musicians are exploring these days, for both exposure and income.

KR: It’s interesting from a writer perspective. I always wonder if songwriters write toward that angle. Songs can be such autonomous statements, but in order for it to fit behind a TV show or movie, it has to play with certain elements. Do you know what I’m saying?

RC: I do, and I think some people naturally write songs that do really well. I would imagine once someone got a successful placement somewhere, they would definitely have it in mind. I don’t think that’s a bad thing. I think if you’re thinking about having a song that’s cinematic, strings make things cinematic. All the moody things that could happen to a song add mood to a song but could also add mood to a scene. I know there are staff writers at publishing companies where they’re like, “Okay we’re looking for a theme where a young boy and his dog are running through the woods,” and the songwriters are like, “Okay I’ll write a song to that.” I think I have a couple of songs on this record…I always think the piano songs would be the best over a really dramatic scene. I love things that are really dramatic, so I think I tend to pay attention to those songs in those scenes anyway.

KR: Is there anything else you want me to write about you?

RC: Oh god. That’s always such a difficult question. What’s the most interesting thing someone has said to that question?

KR: You know, there is never an interesting answer to that question. You’d think I’d have learned by now.

RC: Exactly. Well…are you going to mention the film? That’s the only thing I’d say. 

About the film: As part of her Kickstarter campaign to fund the record, Cousins produced a short film documenting working on the album. It’s worth taking a 20-minute break. Here you go:

By the way, here’s my review of the disc. Here’s where you can buy it, and here’s where you can find her tour dates.