Part 1

Name: Dust Bowl Faeries
Members: Ryder Cooley/faerie queen (vocalist, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist), Rubi LaRue/feisty faerie (lapsteel, vocals), Jon B. Woodin/rocket faerie (guitar, songwriter), Liz LoGiudice/river faerie (bass, songwriter), Andrew Stein/time faerie (drums, songwriter)

Nationality: American
Current release: The Dust Bowl Faeries's new single "Lost In Time" is out now.

If you enjoyed this interview with Dust Bowl Faeries and would like to find out more about the band, visit their official website. They are also on Facebook, and Soundcloud.



Where does the impulse to create something come from for you? What role do often-quoted sources of inspiration like dreams, other forms of art, personal relationships, politics etc play?
 
Ryder: Writing songs is my way of being a writer / story teller. My parents were both "english" teachers and I always had the impulse to write, it's part of my DNA I guess.

Except ... I don't like all the rules, the grammar, the muggle stuff, it ruins the creativity and magic for me. So much of our daily language is rooted in patriarchy, xenophobia, capitalism, heteronormativity, revisionist histories, human-centric ideologies, etc. and it gets in my way of thinking and writing sometimes. I wish we could come up with a more eclectic, inclusive, inter-species language ... but that's a long ways away.

Songwriting is a great way for me to write and think and communicate. Songs can be lawless and I like that, I don't have to worry about sentence structures, and I get less tripped up by semantics. “Cuckoo” is a pretty rogue song. It starts out kind of jazzy, then it gets maniacal, then jazzy again, back and forth like a pendulum, with some totally ridiculous and made up words, like “shaza”. I'm an animal advocate and eco person and that shows up in my songs sometimes (“Ibex”, “Black Rhino”, “The Great Whiteish Bear”).

Relationships definitely leak in (“Bloody Tattoo”), and some of the songs are political (“Ketermaya”, “Sirens”). But a lot of my creativity comes from my unconscious, sometimes it's just pure fiction.
 


For you to get started, do there need to be concrete ideas – or what some have called a 'visualization' of the finished work? What does the balance between planning and chance look like for you?
 
Ryder: Once I start working on a song, the way it sounds in my head takes over. I'm not a big planner so I often don't know where the song will go or how it will end. Sometimes I impose structures, like transposing to another key or introducing a tempo change (“The Old Ragdoll”), which is usually about getting across a certain emotion, or making a shift. Also, surprises are fun!

Endings are usually the hardest part for me, especially when the song goes somewhere unexpected or morphs into something else. I write songs to play with my band, and sometimes it doesn't work for the other musicians, so when that happens we rework it as a group.

Playing a song with others is like going on a journey, you can get lost (“Lost in Time”) and then you have to figure it out together. That's the fun of having a band!
 
Is there a preparation phase for your process? Do you require your tools to be laid out in a particular way, for example, do you need to do 'research' or create 'early versions'?
 
Ryder: Ultimately, the number one thing I need to start working on a song is some personal space (physical, psychological, emotional ...) and plenty of time for the song to unfold.

Accordion is a great tool for songwriting because it's easy to shift keys and try different rhythms and tempos with the buttons. Piano is helpful if I'm trying to hash out a melody. Sometimes I get into research, if I have something specific in mind like “Medicine Show”.



I had a great time reading about the old traveling medicine shows with their snake oils, musical acts and side show performers.
 
I'm a visual person, so it helps me to print out lyrics and chord charts, then edit, print, edit, print ... once I think the song is getting close, I record myself playing it and listen back to hear what's working / not working. Sometimes I force myself to cut back on lyrics, which is hard, but the over-all flow of the song is more important than the individual words / lyrics / verses.

The final step is playing the song for someone else. I usually dive back in after that because I hear things that I didn't hear before.

Do you have certain rituals to get you into the right mindset for creating? What role do certain foods or stimulants like coffee, lighting, scents, exercise or reading poetry play?
 
Ryder: I like to go running in the woods, it's a good time for song ideas. Walking is also good, and sometimes even driving. I'm disaster prone, especially when my mind drifts off, so I've gotten into some hairy situations including broken bones, sprains, bruises, scraped knees, wrong turns, total utter lostness, car in a ditch, etc. So creativity can be treacherous!

Strange places, alleyways, old architecture and black and white movies are always inspiring, and I love twilight, that time of day when it's shifting into night, it's so cinematic. That's my favorite time to play music.
 
What do you start with? How difficult is that first line of text, the first note?
 
Ryder: Beginnings are the easiest part of songwriting for me. The beginning of “The Changeling” just popped in my head when I was having a hard day and it sounded like a 1960s girl group song, like The Shangri-Las.

I have a lot of idea fragments. Sometimes it's a story or a chorus, sometimes it's a melody, sometimes it's a theme, sometimes it's about challenging myself to do something new and different.
 
When do the lyrics enter the picture? Where do they come from? Do lyrics need to grow together with the music or can they emerge from a place of their own?
 
Ryder: Lyrics often come first, and usually they come with a melody. Every once in a while I start with a music idea, and sometimes i combine a music idea with a lyric idea, so lyrics and music can definitely be separate entities for me.

I try to scribble down ideas and / or make quick recordings (voice memos on the phone have been a faerie-send), but a lot of songs get lost. There must be a huge graveyard of them all, I would like to go there some day!
 
What makes lyrics good in your opinion? What are your own ambitions and challenges in this regard?
 
Ryder: It's taken me a long time to come to terms with the fact that people (including myself) don't always listen to lyrics, they listen to melodies and choruses and repeated themes or phrases.

I'm trying to rely less on lyrics and simplify my songs. I always try to pack so much into one song! We're all so overloaded these days, that's why I'm trying to simplify, but I'll always be a maximalist at heart!
 
Once you've started, how does the work gradually emerge?
 
Ryder: Songwriting is a cumulative process for me, fitting fragments together like a puzzle. There are usually scraps of paper with scrawled words that i can't really read and recordings to go through, piecing it all together like a quilt.
 
Many writers have claimed that as soon as they enter into the process, certain aspects of the narrative are out of their hands. Do you like to keep strict control over the process or is there a sense of following things where they lead you?
 
Ryder: I enjoy the mysteries of life, so yes, I follow my creative process wherever it leads me.

Sometimes I don't like where I end up and then I have to backtrack, so it's always good to leave a trail of cookie crumbs.