Explain your creative process. Do you have a routine?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
For the most part, the music comes first. The boys will just be jamming, or Scott will be working on an entire piece on his own in the studio. They\u2019ll share that music with me, and when it\u2019s right, the words just start flowing. My lyrics always come pre-packaged with melodies, they come at the same time. As far as schedule, my muse is very, very fickle. I always want to be that person that just sits and writes for hours every single day. But when I try to do that, nothing comes out. I\u2019m struck with inspiration at the most random times, and I just have to chase it down as it\u2019s happening. Which means a lot of dry spells sometimes. But I try not to overthink those moments, and not put a crazy amount of pressure on myself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
What is your \u201cstudio\u201d setup?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Dakota Jones has taken over our drummer\u2019s basement. It\u2019s a cute, functional, at-home setup. Lots of twinkly lights. It feels warm and homey. We have a ton of equipment that is ever-growing. At this point, we have all of the mics, stands, amps, monitors, keys, and guitars that we need. But the collection is definitely going to keep growing and growing. Eddy, our guitarist, just got a pedal steel so that\u2019s the newest baby. And, of course, we\u2019re in a Brooklyn basement so we have to keep the noise at a decent level. Steve uses a Roland V-Drum kit so that we can still get a true drum sound and feel without an insane amount of noise. <\/p>\n\n\n\n It\u2019s a mix of in-studio and remote work for us. When we\u2019re making an album, we like to get together and all be in the same room and just feel it out as we go. Sometimes we\u2019re just creating on the spot, sometimes we are fleshing out previous ideas. Scott is always making music, so there is a massive backlog of projects to work on. Which can be a nice place to start. For this album, we brought in a couple of session players that we worked with remotely. And, while I\u2019d love for all of us to just be jamming in a room together, the remote aspect really allows us to work with anyone from anywhere. Which then<\/em> allows us to make a network of musicians outside of New York, too. For session players, we usually let folks know where we want the part to be, but as far as specifics – we like to allow open space for the musicians to do their thing so that it truly feels collaborative. We don\u2019t often say \u201cplay this here, exactly like this, and that\u2019s it\u201d. We want it to be a fun, spontaneous, and free-flowing experience for everyone. We\u2019ve gotten really lucky with the artists that we\u2019ve been able to collaborate with, too, so that makes it easier to just trust each other, and let things fly and see what happens.<\/p>\n\n\n\n For me, as the singer and the lyricist, I don\u2019t sing the words or melodies for new tracks until I\u2019ve figured it all out in my head. Like, I will not share my process with the band. It makes me too nervous, I feel so vulnerable in those early stages. But, it usually doesn\u2019t take me very long to figure out, and that\u2019s how I know that I\u2019m really feeling it. When I have to toil over the words or melodies, that usually means that I\u2019m forcing it and I scrap it. Once we have things recorded, we like to share in-process and finished songs with the people that we\u2019re close to. Just because we get so excited about the new songs, and it\u2019s impossible to wait until the actual release dates to share. We also like to play new songs live and see how people feel them. But we save surprises, too. Like, there are certain songs on Heartbreakers Space Club <\/em>that you need to just hear in the context of the larger piece of work. But it\u2019s really, really, hard to keep everything a secret.<\/p>\n\n\n\n See the above question, haha. And fortunately, I don\u2019t think we\u2019ve run into many technical frustrations. I guess the only thing, in the case of certain songs, is that they involve so much instrumentation that we physically can\u2019t play them live yet. But we\u2019re always open to expanding the band for live shows to get things as close to album version as possible.<\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"Dakota](\"https:\/\/byta.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/IMG_1600.jpg\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\nWhat is your process when working with other people? How is collaboration different in the studio vs working remotely? <\/h2>\n\n\n\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/byta.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/IMG_0696.jpg\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\nAt what point(s) are you comfortable letting other people hear what you are working on?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Do you share your work in progress (streams or downloads)? Any technical frustrations? <\/h2>\n\n\n\n