Simply Six: Anna Dagmar

1. For many artists, they cite a defining moment for themselves when they knew they wanted to be a singer. For many it was the appearance of Elvis on the Ed Sullivan show, to another generation it was the Beatles’ appearance on Sullivan half a decade later. Is there such a defining moment for you?

Yes, the moment I really felt the drive to become an artist was listening to Keith Jarrett on headphones in my living room when I was about 14 years old. It wasn't about the fame or recognition or even the big audiences. It was the way he found a new sound on the piano and made it seem like a choir of tiny voices. It touched me so deeply and I knew I wanted to make it my life's work to find my own sound. Little did I know at that time it would be in songwriting, not just playing. And Keith proved to be one of many influences that helped me set my vision and keep going even when figuring out the career side of music was tough!

2. When you’re not creating music what are you listening to? Who are some of your favorites?

I am listening to music all of the time. Right now what I find most relaxing is Simone Dinnerstein's recording of Bach's Goldberg Variations. I can either sit and listen intensely, or I can have it on while I'm doing other things around the house. Either way there is a richness to the music and a clarity to the way she plays that really grounds me. And for upbeat stuff, I actually just made a driving mix (on CD although imagine if it could have been cassette tape!). That features some of my desert-island-picks like Larry Graham, Herbie Hancock, Solas, Jobim, Bonnie Raitt, and Billy Joel.

3. What would you say is your greatest moment so far as an artist, either on record or live?

Well it's hard to pick one moment, but I must say this past weekend playing as a New Folk Finalist at Kerrville Folk Festival was truly amazing! The audience was about 600 people, outdoors in the Texas sun. Even though there were so many of them, it felt as intimate as a house concert to me because of the warmth and kindness of the crowd. People travel from all over to attend the festival and are especially excited to discover emerging artists on New Folk. I must say I give my best performances when embraced by such a great audience, and I had the opportunity to play two songs from Satellite - "We Were Children" and "Down the Road." Unforgettable experience.

4. Do you believe music can change the world or is just something to listen to? How much can music influence current events?

I do believe music can change the world. It mobilizes people. Look at the Civil Rights Movement and songs like We Shall Overcome. Look at National Anthems and Gospel Songs and songs against bullying. Music resonates with people like nothing else, and it is also easier to remember words and their meaning when there is a melody to go along. I hope that a song like "We Were Children" could bring awareness about the unfairness of children being forced to fight in wars. When I write songs like that, I try to balance what is specific with what is universal. I would be honored if a song of mine were ever used for a charitable effort towards peace and think a big step to finding it is actually trying to understand peoples' hardships, not just saying feel-good things about peace. In that song I try to put myself in the shoes of a young boy escaping a war-torn country. It was hard to imagine but for me that is the best way to get outside of my own experience to create an artistic statement.

5. How has technology affected the music industry? How has technology affected your career as a musician?

I find technology very useful in terms of reaching my audience. I use all kinds of online tools to do that. I do wish when music was converted to digital they had found a better way to preserve monetization. But it is too late to go back and do that another way it seems. I do still make money selling CD's and downloads and find that my true fans want to support me professionally, so they pay for the music. Overall I would say new technologies are a plus for independent artists, although it has also made the sea of musicians trying to "make it" a lot bigger!

6. Now for my Barbara Walters question: If you were a pair of shoes what type of shoes would you be?

Ha! That's a great question :) I know I wouldn't be high heels. I try to avoid those whenever I can. Hm. I think I'd be snow shoes! They are hilariously fun and quite useful! And they can cross all kinds of tough terrain! Plus they make you look like a big snow shoe bunny! I love that! 

Simply Six: Lilli Lewis

1. For many artists, they cite a defining moment for themselves when they knew
they wanted  to  be a singer.  For many it was the appearance of Elvis on the Ed
Sullivan show,  to another generation it was the Beatles’ appearance on Sullivan half a decade later.  Is there  such  a defining moment for you?

Although the piano was my first love and friend, I think I became enamored with the idea of being a singer somewhere between two childhood obsessions: Jackson 5 and Ed McMahon's Start Search. If you were to fast forward a few years to the middle school me, the obsession became Anita Baker and Bobby McFerrin, and the attention shifted from being interested in "entertaining" to being mesmerized by the magic of voices. That's something I never outgrew.

2 . When you’re not creating music what are you listening   to?  Who are some of
your favorites?

Well, my all-time favorite music on the planet is probably the chamber music of Gabriel Faure, but I listen to a little of everything. I recently discovered Anais Mitchell's folk opera "Hadestown" which I love, and lately I've been hung up on Real World Records artist Daby Touré. I think there's just a beautiful haunting and grounded peace in his sound. I listen to Bach to organize my innards, I listen to artists like Ferron, The Indigo Girls, Odetta, and of course Nina Simone when I want to spread my wings a little and study the art of speaking your truth, I listen to Neil Young when I want to feel human, Tom Petty when I want to feel like a righteous dude, the classic ladies like Anita O'Day, Billie Holiday and Sarah Vaughan when I gotta get my inner swing track on. And a LOT of indie rock because I love witnessing people's infinite ability to self-express. 

3. What would you say is your greatest moment so far as an artist, either on record
 or live?

I'm not sure there's anything I love more than making music on a stage with a bunch of people I love and admire, and over the years, there have just been too many glorious moments to pick a highlight. I can say that my favorite recording to date is my first a cappella album "Out From Yonder" (http://goo.gl/hTRC4) because it truly was a spontaneous and surprising endeavor. I was living at a Buddhist retreat center in Colorado where music didn't have much of a place in the community culture, so I was feeling kind of lonely and lost in that department. Then I finally asked my boss if they could arrange my schedule so that I could have one day a week to make music. Tuesday became my sacred day, and since I didn't really have any instruments with me, I ended up going back to the method I used as a kid (probably inspired by Bobby McFerrin by the way), overdubbing my own vocals to create layers of harmony and rhythm. My personal favorite track on the album was a cover of John Coltrane's "Alabama" which I ended up calling "incantation: flame." Another serendipitous story involving a 19 year old mystic named Bobby Elbers brought this rendering together. Bobby played the role McCoy Tyner in the recording, performing Zen Buddhist chants in the Tuvan throat singing style where Tyner's piano tremolos would have been. It was magic to me me.

4.  Do you believe music can change the world or is just something   to  listen   to?
How much can music influence current events?

I'm afraid I fall into the category of those who not only believe music *can* change the world, but it's actually the responsibility of those called to music to go about generating the change they wish to see in the world. Here's where I can easily slip into hippie talk meets quantum physics, yadda yadda. But the power of music to heal, to transform, to awaken, to enlighten! has been revealed over and over again, so I feel it should be self-evident at this point. 

The Greeks had an interesting approach when talked about music in terms of various levels of harmony: harmony of the heavens, of the world, of the body, music of the instruments, etc. The idea that anything that exists must do so because it is in harmony with the systems related to it. That's a pretty metaphysical observation that is mirrored in Eastern philosophy and religion as well, and I truly believe when it comes to the harmony or balance that we experience as human beings, that which we call "music" can very much assist in bring things that have fallen out of balance back in to "harmony." 

I think that changes from season to season. Sometimes that can be accomplished through the endeavors of "art for art's sake." But sometimes that means being a little more direct, and perhaps little more confrontational, whether you're Beethoven feverishly scratching Napoleon's name out of your heroic score, or Bob Marley standing up for the rights of the people. 

I'm completely with Jimi Hendrix who I'm told believed the vibrations of music could literally change the chemistry of the mind/body mechanism, and that the intention placed in the music is of utmost importance. Music can be used to make us stronger, more aware, more present, and can just as easily be used to distract and make us more complacent. For those who experience music as a "practiced" pursuit, and by that I'm referring to the hours upon hours musicians spend honing their craft, discovering possibilities, new layers of awareness, inflection, themselves and their own humanity, etc., it seems more often than not, the intention is for music to serve as an ennobling vehicle for liberation and progress.

 5. How has technology affected the music industry?  How has technology affected
 your career as a musician?

I think it's safe to say technology has had a "double-edged" affect on musicians and the industry in which we work. It has certainly required that new business models be explored and employed, which ultimately I think will be a good thing. We're in transition now, and a lot of paradigms we used to take for granted have dissolved, leaving some coddled business people disillusioned, and a lot of artists struggling. I do believe the dust will settle on this within the decade, and we'll find a new equilibrium in which to settle ourselves.

For myself, technology has been wildly empowering. The fact that $2k can give me access to that which would have costed $20k only two decades ago means that I am allowed to be largely self-sufficient when it comes to creating music and presenting to the public. Given the current musical climate, I think I would have gone crazy without my iMac and MBox interface!

But here's where I turn a little hypo/hypercritical. The democratization brought on by the technology has changed the culture of music making and I'm not sure it's for the better. I don't know why, but I'm still holding on to music as a "practiced pursuit. I still expect the music makers to have studied, to understand basic principles of music from various traditions, to have put immeasurable amounts of blood, sweat, tears, and time into the study of their instruments, and to have done some soul-searching about their role in the world as a generator of musical content. I think the ease brought on by some of the current tools has diminished the time it takes to make "marketable" sounding music, and therefore has diminished the amount of time the music generator spends thinking about his or her intention. It in turn creates an industry that is more about cranking out new tracks to feed an insatiable consumer base than discovering something good that might actually "feed" the *people* they should be serving. Plus, innovations in data reporting structures and communications has made the executive's analysis of its "bottom line" more exacting and dehumanizing in a way that is negatively affecting musicians, venues, and media outlets alike. At the end of the day, it feels like the current climate callously and unapologetically cuts artistry out of the large-scale picture, which I think is unfortunate and dangerous for us all.

6.  Now for my Barbara Walters question:  If you were a pair of shoes what type of
shoes would you be?

I'd be some kind of expensive hippie shoe, that may not look all that attractive at first, but you know I'm good for you, so you buy me anyway, and I grow on you, 'cause I take on your shape, and I make you feel awesome when you're out climbing mountains in the the wilderness.

Simply Six: Eric Garcia

1. For many artists, they cite a defining moment for themselves when they
knew they wanted to be a singer. For many it was the appearance of Elvis
on the Ed Sullivan show, to another generation it was the Beatles'
appearance on Sullivan half a decade later. Is there such a defining

moment for you?

Hearing and seeing Jimi Hendrix. The tone of his guitar, his concept and the way he looked. I had a poster altar of him when I was a teen. After all these years, he still does it for me. It hasn't changed. He had rage, tenderness, and he was really shy and a wild performer. He heard sounds that didn't exist and he chased them.

2. When you're not creating music what are you listening to? Who are some of your favorites?

Mostly classical music and jazz. I love Bach, Beethoven, Coltrane and Bob Dylan. There are many others, of course, but these are the 4 that I find I go to most frequently.

3. What would you say is your greatest moment so far as an artist, either

on record or live?

There is no greatest moment. There are little special moments. It happens when I'm not in the way of the music and it is just flowing through me and I'm just watching it happen. I work hard to set up the circumstances to have it happen, but I have no control. One just hopes to ride the perfect wave.

4. Do you believe music can change the world or is just something to

listen to? How much can music influence current events?

I think it can change things in subtle ways. It influenced a generation in the 60's.

5. How has technology affected the music industry? How has technology

affected your career as a musician?

It made it possible for everyone to record, which was wonderful and made for many bad fidelity recordings. Technology allowed me to record an album playing everything by myself, as well as mixing and mastering. From conception to final product, even though I usually play with other musicians. This album is a very personal statement, so it was important for me to play most of the parts.

6. Now for my Barbara Walters question: If you were a pair of shoes what

type of shoes would you be?

Sneakers.