Photo credit: Ben Syverson
Shelley Short
Venus sits down to talk with the singer who just finished up a tour, and is gaining critical acclaim
By Ceda Xiong
Published: March 4th, 2006 | 11:46pm
Captain Wild Horse Rides the Heart of Tomorrow rings a faint bell of recognition. Is it Neil Young? Is it Captain Beefheart? Never mind the familiarity, Shelley Short's new album has the essence of her title, it is an album of folk songs that stirs faint memories, but revisits her brand of sadness made new. Critics have referred to her sounds as "sweet" and folky, but her musical heritage ranges from Dylan to Nirvana to the Carter Family.
When are you going on tour again?
I just got back this Sunday (Februrary 26, 2006). We will be touring more, but I'm not sure when - probably in April. We're going to do the west coast, maybe in Seattle, and maybe all the down to California.
What was the touring experience like?
It was really fun and exciting - lots of driving, cold, and lots of snow. We had some really neat shows. The best show was in Burlington, Vermont, we played a house show, a real house that people lived in. They had a stage set up, but I said, "Let's play in the kitchen" and everyone gathered around. We got great feedback.
When I was at your show in Chicago, I noticed that you really reproduce the sound of the entire album on stage. How did you do that?
Well, basically everyone who played on the record, except for a couple, were playing [on stage]. The recording, even though we had spent a lot of time on it, started with me and the guitar, and I didn't know that I would meet these people. They laid down tracks towards the end. It's still pretty simple; it's not layers and layers of vocals.
Can you tell me a little bit about your early influences?
We listened to a lot of Bob Dylan as we were growing up. I would listen to him, over and over again, trying to interpret what he was talking about. You get these visuals in your head, especially in that song ["A Hard Rain's Gonna Fall"], "Oh, where have you been, my blue-eyed son?" And lots of jazz, folk music, and '70s rock.
What kind of folk music did you listen to?
Besides Dylan, Jim Kweskin and the Jug Band, Judy Collins, Ron Davies. We listened to the Carter Family too. My mom has relatives who are miners and in that world, so she was always listening. It [mountain music] can be boring because all of it's all kind of the same, but then some songs just hit you. Jimmie Rodgers too, he actually performed with the Carter family.
Who in the current music scene really strikes you?
People have asked me this and the only person I can think of is Joanna Newsom. She's an amazing songwriter.
Do you see yourself as more folk or country?
I see myself as more folk. The difference comes, well, the basic structures of the songs are really similar. Neko Case, for example, in instrumentation and the vocal styles, she has a lot of reverb on her voice, pedal steel - her stuff is more country rock.
When you get inspired to write your music, what are some of the things that come to mind?
I really try to think of something that people have in common, a sadness that is human and not specific to me, even though it's coming from my experiences. I write about sadness with a hopeful tinge to it. Most songs in the world are sad, and that's what I listen to. Sadness is a little more universal.
You have a song called "On the Waterfront." How do you get inspiration from something like a movie?
I think the basis of that movie was pretty inspiring. The union and love story was so intense, because he basically killed her brother. It's one of those things - I could probably write songs about a lot of different movies. It was winter in Chicago, I was bored and there was nothing going on, so I decided to write a song about this movie.
The first measure of "Roaring Roars" sounds like "When Johnny Comes Marching Home." Was that intentional?
I was thinking of "The Ants Go Marching". I took the melody, and I really like that rhythm and the lyrics are loosely-based and as political as I can get.
When did you start playing your instruments?
I played violin in fourth grade. I was in band in middle school, and I played trombone. My parents had a piano, so I would teach myself how to write songs on the piano. I played bass in a band in high school and learned guitar during my first year of college. I taught myself. My boyfriend at the time taught me like G, C, D, F - all the chords you needed to play every song in the world.
What spurred the decision to move to Chicago?
I was born in Portland, born and raised, so I decided I had to go somewhere, or I wouldn't go anywhere.
Why did you decide to move to Chicago? Was it the musical heritage?
It was definitely the culture of Chicago. It seemed blue-collar, and a little sad. I like how sad it is, in a good way. People seem really human here. Not that people don't seem human in New York. I was reading Nelson Algren from Chicago, his book Neon Wilderness, stories about Chicago in the '40s. It just shows the underbelly of Chicago, the dark side.
What's different about life in Chicago verus Portland?
It's just bigger, a big city. It's really industrial. The main difference is in how industrial it is, there are no hills, no trees. I've been craving the wilderness a lot lately. I think that the landscape influences the lifestyle on the west coast. There's a lot to do with people saying "I'm going to go to the ocean, or I'm going camping." There are places to go camping in Chicago, but not 10 minutes away. On the west coast, there are more coffee shops than there are bars. Here, it's the opposite.
How do you make time for work and your music?
I'm just really busy. When we were recording the record, I would go there right after work, and we'd mix and practice. I didn't sleep very much when we were mixing. That would be all weekend, all day and all night. It was worth it. I was mixing in a studio called Carter co. recording. It started in my friends' attic and it's in a real studio now, in Pilsen.
Do you get annoyed when critics refer to your music as sweet?
Sometimes I get annoyed because I think a lot of people get put off by high vocals and sweet vocals, and then they just don't listen to the rest of it. But it's just the way my voice is.
Do you have a stage persona?
I think the more I've been touring, the more I think about it [a stage persona]. I like doing it Ramones style. Just woohoo on the stage, and then leave.
Did you listen to a lot of punk when you were younger?
Some. I liked Nirvana a lot - it's not punk, but grunge. I listened to a lot of grunge.
Nirvana's out of the Seattle scene. When you were growing up, were you immersed in that whole grunge scene?
Definitely. I had purple and blue hair, flannels, and baggy pants. Lots of eyeliner and tons of mascara. It lasted through high school and I stopped half-way through senior year. I think a lot of it was the high school I was going to; I felt the subculture scene was the grunge scene, and I always felt like I'd be part of the subculture.
The title of your second album "Captain Wild Horse Rides the Heart of Tomorrow," where did that come from?
It's funny because it sounds like a mixture of Captain Beefheart and Neil Young and Crazy Horse, people get it confused all the time. I was having a really, really hard time thinking of a title. It was important to me to have a title that wasn't corny. I was calling all my friends, making lists, pages with hundreds of names. I called my friend Jake in Oregon who said "What are the names of your songs?" I listed the names and he put together all the titles of the names of my songs and said "Captain Wildhorse Rides the Heart of Tomorrow." I was like "It's brilliant!"
To hear more Shelley, check out shelleyshort.com
Issue #35
Comments
Please login to be able to comment on this article.
more