Seasons change, we rise and we fall, and our goal is to learn to appreciate these fleeting moments. These thoughts spun through the mind of Portland songwriter Clara Baker as she was recording her new album, Things to Burn, which is out March 8th. Produced by avant-folk experimentalist Shane Leonard (Kalispell, Field Report), the album was recorded in Shane’s mother’s house in the tiny village of Merton, Wisconsin. Joined by two stellar roots musicians, Courtney Hartman (Della Mae) and Zachariah Hickman (Josh Ritter, Ray Lamontagne), Baker recorded the album live to tape, no isolation booths, no cutting in-and-out of vocal takes, no headphones, pushing herself and the players to experience the music in the moment. Fellow Portland songwriter Jeffrey Martin and Anna Tivel stopped in while on tour through Wisconsin and added harmonies and fiddle to a song; there was a relaxed feeling to the days, and an emphasis on collaboration amongst the players. Recording engineer Brian Joseph (Bon Iver, Sufjan Stevens) trucked over his studio in a U-Haul, and they all set up in the living room, taking the chance that a live performance without the cushion of a recording studio would lead to the best possible performances.
As they recorded, they looked out on a large, frozen lake through bay windows as it slowly melted each day, passing from winter to spring. As a songwriter, Baker’s long looked to nature for inspiration, first through songwriting retreats in Oregon’s Burnt Woods wilderness near the coast. She sees a natural setting as key to her process of creation. Much of Things to Burn also draws from the push and pull between certainty and doubt. Raised in a religious household, Clara Baker understood the dichotomy of faith and doubt from an early age, but now she’s learned to embrace it. The kind of vibrantly shimmering live performances she’s tracked onto tape here wouldn’t be possible without that razor’s edge between success and collapse that live recording engenders. Taking a chance and pushing into something new and unknown is a scary thought for many, but it’s also the only way to create something beautiful.
Today Glide is excited to premiere the standout track “Six Days of Rain”. As one might expect from the title, the song was inspired by the rainy weather that is prevalent throughout the Pacific Northwest for much of the year. Baker lets her enchanting vocals float dreamily over minimal instrumentation that includes Latin-inspired percussion and guitar. There is a quiet, soulful power to Baker’s voice as the song stretches towards the six minute mark, making it a sprawling work of folk music.
Listen to the song and read our interview with Clara Baker below…
How have your Northwest roots informed the way you approach songwriting and music as a whole?
I’ve lived in Oregon for almost my entire life – I spent 4 years in college in Wisconsin. Growing up in Portland was so sweet. There are trees and parks and rivers and gardens to explore everywhere. My dad is an avid birdwatcher, and my parents have a house on the Oregon coast. So we spent a lot of time at the beach and a lot of time in Bend, visiting my grandma. Growing up in this environment gave me a love of being outside – something that has followed me into adulthood. I love going on writing retreats in beautiful places and writing outside. There is so much to wonder about in nature and being out in the woods or alone on the beach is the only place that I can really be quiet. I have written the majority of my latest songs while on writing retreats in the woods in Oregon and Washington, and spending time outside has not only informed how I write my songs but also the content of them. I recently wrote a song melody after trying to transcribe a bird call into something I could play on guitar.
You recorded the album with Courtney Hartman (Della Mae) and Zachariah Hickman (Josh Ritter, Ray LaMontagne). How did you connect with them and what did they bring to the table creatively that wouldn’t have been there before?
I connected with Shane Leonard (producer, percussionist, multi-instrumentalist), Zack Hickman and Courtney Hartman at a music camp called Miles of Music. This camp takes place on a gorgeous island on a lake in New Hampshire every June. About 100 songwriters and musicians from all over the country (and world) come together to write songs, take lessons on their instruments, jam and hang out and go swimming. It’s like summer camp, but mainly for adult songwriters. It’s cool to meet people in that environment, where everyone is there to learn and teach and share – the focus isn’t performing. They have this part of the schedule each day called Band In A Box. You have to write out a giant chart of one of your songs, then you have 15 minutes with the “house band” to arrange and record it. In 2016 I did this and Zach was playing bass and running the sessions, and Shane was drumming. It was the first time I ever played with a drummer and it planted a seed in my head that my music could be something more than just folk or bluegrass. I went back the next year, and had some good heart-to-hearts with Zack and Shane and Courtney, and was honored when they all agreed to be part of this record. They are all very creative, multi-talented musicians and people. Working with them, I held myself to a high standard musically. But more importantly, because I knew and trusted them, I felt called to say “yes” to their creative ideas. So we went into the week-long session without any rehearsals or arrangements, and allowed time and space to come to decisions together. To trust and say yes to others’ ideas– I think that’s such a healthy space to be in when creating, and also a really hard place to get to. But I think that set a tone for the sessions that anything was possible, and I think it gave them the liberty to try a bunch of different approaches musically– and ultimately that’s how we got the record we have. It certainly helped that we had a history together– not just that we had played together before, but also a history of swimming in a lake and drinking wine on a dock and dressing up in costumes at a summer camp.
Was it a goal from the beginning to record the album live?
The most important thing to me before I even approached producers, was the idea that this album didn’t need to be “perfect”. I didn’t want to make something that would be heavily edited. I really wanted to harness the magic of playing with other people, and have an element of humanity and room for error. I didn’t want it to sound perfect– I wanted it to sound real. Shane and I talked about recording it live from the beginning, and then he added on the extra challenge of recording it to tape! It’s hard to edit out mistakes when you are recording live AND to tape. So if you make a big mistake, you either start over and record it again, or move forward with what you have. At first the idea of recording live and to tape scared me, but that’s how I knew it was what I needed to do. There are certainly a few “mistakes” in this album that actually turned out to be part of the song. Like on “Six Days of Rain” the very final chord, Zack played a major chord on keys when he should have played a minor chord. He committed to it though and then resolved it back to the minor. We all loved that so much we were glad that it was captured on tape with tons of bleed in the other mics and that it was something we couldn’t get rid of even if we tried. If we had recorded it digitally and not live, it would have been tempting to edit that out. But now it’s one of my favorite parts of the whole record.
Where did you come up with the idea of “Six Days of Rain”?
I wrote this song a couple years ago in the Spring. I had just been on a solo tour in California and as I was driving back North I hit a huge rainstorm. I was home for a few days in the rain looking at the weather forecast, and saw it was going to be one day of sun and six days of rain. I couldn’t get that idea out of my head, and as I sat down to write, the song just poured out. I write a lot about love, love gone wrong, lost love etc., and this specific idea really got to me – how 90% of our days can be rain but we still live for the one sunny day, and how that can be the case in certain relationships, too.
How is this collection of songs different than other musical projects you have done?
Since my debut album in 2015, I’ve been writing a lot. I think I sent Shane over 20 songs to choose from and we ended up with these 9. This album feels like a collection around a theme of letting go – and all the emotions that surround that. From a production standpoint, this marks a big shift for me musically. My other albums and collaborations have been a lot more in line with folk and bluegrass, where this record has electric instrumentation, synths, and drums. The process of recording this felt so creative and collaborative – it’s inspired me to want to get into producing and engineering.
There is definitely a folk sound to this album, but there seems to be a lot more interesting sounds at play. Were there certain artists or albums you were listening to going into this recording that inspired the sound?
Yes, I was listening to a lot of Blake Mills, Lake Street Dive, Hiss Golden Messenger, Lucius, and The Wood Brothers. That’s a pretty eclectic mix. I know Shane was inspired by the live sound and feel to Buena Vista Social Club. And we talked a lot about Wilco during the session. Looking back on it now, I hear a lot of Feist’s The Reminder in here, too. Overall, I was just really open during the sessions, and I think when you look at Shane’s history as a collaborator and producer, as well as our engineer Brian Joseph’s (Bon Iver, Sufjan Stevens, Kathleen Edwards), that really helped shape the sounds that we got and our overall approach to the sessions. Something that Brian, Shane, Courtney, Zack and I all have in common is that we are all huge music fans and love to listen to and play in so many different styles, genres etc. We listened to records together during downtime at the sessions. We went to see Lucius (and Ethan Gruska) live in concert the night before we started recording the album. Yes, this album is made up of my songs, but I feel that the team we had deeply influenced the production, arrangement, and overall aesthetic of this record. It felt like a big collaboration between the five of us. And I’m thrilled about that.
