OriSoaring is a fascinating individual from Houston with clear passion for musical expression. I very much enjoyed these interview answers, and I think you will, too.

 

 

1.  Let's hear the elevator pitch for your skill set and genre. 

My name is OriSoaring. I'm a multi-instrumentalist who creates songs in multiple genres. I'm heavily influenced by all styles of music, from jazz, alternative rock, neo-soul, to classical, to 80s synth-pop. I'm a classically trained saxophonist, who also plays bass, guitar and keyboards. I write and record all my own music. Also I love playing/recording with other bands and musicians.  

 

2.  We met pre-pandemic, at a music conference in Austin, Texas.  How did attending the conference benefit you and your music career? 

The DIY Musician conference gave me three things. It gave me perspective, community and inspiration. I am better to understand WHAT I want to do with my music. I loved learning about different ways I plan to be involved in music. For me, the challenge can be having enough information to make a good decision. The conference provided me with the information I needed to be able to start formulating a goal and working towards it. Being around such an INCREDIBLY diverse group of musicians and people who work in the industry felt amazing. Sometimes, it can be a bummer creating music in what feels like a vacuum. Currently, I live in Houston and have not been able to catch a groove with the musical community here. But that's ok, conferences like this keep me going and inspired to keep creating.  

 

3.  What was the first album you can remember buying with your own money? 

TLC - OOOooooo On the TLC Tip! 

 

4.  Tell me about the last concert you saw. 

The last concert I saw was the Incubus - Make Yourself 20th Anniversary Tour  

It was really incredible and really packed.  

This is the album that really broke into the mainstream. They were super jazzy and funky before that. I've listened to that album for many years, so it was really cool to see them live. Except, we were all 20 years older. It made me wish I saw them back in the day- but whatever. It was still a great show.  

 

5.  What artists do you consider to be your biggest influences? 

Oh wow! An artists' influence on me is in flux based on where I am in life. For instance, I have been a Red Hot Chili Pepper for a long time. Watching and listening to Flea play bass inspired me to pick up and learn bass at 16. I would watch him for hours on VHS tapes I recorded from MTV and VH1. So, Flea just being Flea has had an enormous influence on my music and minimalist, intentional sound. Scooter from a Jacksonville Florida band called Cold has influenced my songwriting monumentally. I've put out the music to my songs, and there are words to many of them. I just haven't really figured out how I want to approach adding the lyrics. Part of me would like for a listener to READ the lyrics while listening to the song. I think that would be an interesting way to allow a listener to take a more active role in experiencing the song.  

Other huge influences are: 

The Gorillaz (The way they use sounds to create so many different universes is incredible to me.) 

Rick Rubin (Again, I love that he creates bangers in every genre) and  

Erykah Badu (Baudizm was the first time I FELT anything when listening to music. This was the first time I really heard and truly understood the connection between music. Music- this collection of sounds that I was drawn to and loved, but didn't quite understand how it all formed together. With words- another system of expression that I was drawn to (I've always been a huge reader, I loved to write stories, journal) etc. and was understanding the power and functions of language more and more each day. I was nine years old by the way. 

It's hard to call out specific artists, because I feel like I'm leaving so many out. Mr. Tanner, my 6th grade music teacher went above and beyond to make sure I had a saxophone in my hands and could play music. He was a huge influence too!  

 

6.  Has the current pandemic had impact on the music you make?  If so, what impact? 

I'm making more. I'm playing more. I'm listening more.  

The listening is a big thing, for a while I was deep in a jazz/chillhop groove. Since the pandemic, I've ventured out and learned about some new artists- and discovered older ones. I've been riding hard with jazz from Ethiopia from the early 70s lately and learning about more recent Alt Rock bands. 

I've also had the space and time to write and record more music. I've learned some great things in Logic X Pro as well, that's made a huge difference in my recordings. It seems as tho going into the office was leaving me more drained than I ever realized.  

 

 

7.  If you could choose for a listener to learn one thing about you from listening to your songs, what would that be? 

She most likely considered putting a saxophone solo in this song.  

Honestly, I would hope a listener sees that I'm truly all over the place when it comes to being open to creating music and experiencing life. My music can be super fun and get you ready to go running or dance. It can also be very meditative and speak directly to a specific subject or time. I don't limit myself to any genre and I approach life similarly. I'm like, bring it on! All of it. I'm here for all of it.  

 

 

8.  How do you intend to keep growing as a songwriter and musician? 

This is a lifelong journey for me. I wrote my first song at 13, before I really knew how far I'd go with music. Since then, a lot of life has happened -and with that, a lot of growing. As a musician and songwriter, I continue to seek out opportunities like the DIY Musicians Conference to advance my idea of what I could be doing with my music, and HOW I can go about that. For instance, I learned about composing for film scores, getting my music licensed, and in the hands of the right people. That's something I have been interested in for years, but just didn't know how to go about finding that path. Now that I know, I have shifted my focus more into creating songs that are extremely and concisely expressive. In writing with such specific purpose, I've had to grow as a musician and songwriter theory wise, proficiency wise, and also from a storytelling aspect. When I do have lyrics, I use them to compliment the overall song. The music is the main expression...the words are verbal anchors if you will.  

Before, I would write the song first, then add lyrics to the music. I still like using that technique, but with more structured 'verse-chorus'verse' songs. Again, in order to correctly convey some ideas...I had to stop and truly study song structure, phrasing, etc...more growing as a musician. Of course, sometimes I chuck the rules and create my own thing...but LEARNING those aspects of musicianship has helped me tremendously. Those are some more recent examples. I'm excited to learn more. 

 

***

Why not take a few minutes and listen to OriSoaring's music?  You can find it at her Soundcloud page.  You can also find OriSoaring on Instagram.

This song is on my upcoming album, Anxious Inventions & Fictions. It is the result of a songwriting exercise meant to combat writer's block... but strangely enough, I wasn't actually suffering from writer's block when I wrote this song. Let's set the scene... come to Nashville with me, to the CD Baby DIY Musician Conference in the summer of 2018.

One of the most useful sessions I attended was conducted by Shane Adams.  This gentleman is on the faculty at Berklee Online.  I had seen him speak the previous year, and he is humorous and engaging, energetic and open, and clearly quite knowledgeable.  This year, he was talking about a proven method of defeating writer's block.  At the time I sat through this seminar, I wasn't suffering from writer's block... I wasn't really trying to write songs at the conference... but in order to get the most out of the session, if there is an audience participation exercise, you need to participate.

I don't want to explain all of the things that were covered here, but let's briefly say that the method consisted of a series of letters.  No, not the twenty-six characters that make up the English alphabet, the method of communication before email, telephones, and telegraphs.  When I was much younger, I used to write letters often.  I would write to my friends both here in Ohio, in other parts of the United States, and overseas.  I couldn't even tell you how many scores of letters I've probably written.  That being the case, I took to this exercise rather well.

The phrase "she speaks in metaphor" came out of this exercise.  Wanna see?  Here it is:

 

 

At some point, I thought this would make an excellent song title.  Once I decided that, I needed a musical approach.  I decided to write this one on my bass instead of on the piano.  Further, as the song title seemed to me at the time that it would lend itself to a rather complicated idea, I wanted to make the song simple, and I wanted the bass to carry it.  For that reason, the verses consist of only one chord.  A minor.  That's it.  The bass line that carries the verses is moving through several of the notes in the A minor scale.  There is a bit more motion in the chorus parts as far as the harmony is concerned.  That settled, I used the piano to help me pick out a melody.  After I had a melody, then came the work to write lyrics to fit the melody and the theme.

This needed to be a rock song.  Ok, not just rock.  RAWK.  To that end, I recruited one of the finest bass players in Dayton, Chirs Corn.  (He has other talents as well.)  He used to play in a very loud, chaotic, experimental, post-punk outfit called My Latex Brain... and in this band, he would surround himself and his bass with what seemed like a hundred different pedals, and make the bass sound like a legion of guitars.  That's the sound I wanted on this song.  I also recruited Thad Brittain for more high frequency guitar work.  For the percussion end, I asked Brian Hoeflich to do his best Jimmy Chamberlain impersonation, and he obliged.

I am extremely pleased with the result.  If my Kickstarter campaign is successful and we get vinyl pressed, you'll be able to find it as the first song on Side Two of the album.  I can't wait for you to hear it.

Straight talk, a few days before this conference, I really didn't want to go.  I was tired.  Mentally and emotionally tired.  However, I already made the plans, and had already taken vacation days from my corporate job, so yeah, I went.

This year's DIY Musician Conference sponsored by CD Baby was held in Austin, Texas.  The dates were 16 to 18 August.  This was my third conference, and by far the hottest... because it is crazy hot in Texas in August.  

I won't go on a lengthy description of the delicious brisket I had there, as that's another blog post.  I won't talk about the migas breakfast tacos, either.  I had a very interesting cultural experience watching people sing Russian karaoke, but maybe we'll save that for another blog post as well.  Let's keep this one focused on music stuff.

When I say "music stuff", I mean the work.  Writing music and lyrics is work of course, but that's enjoyable work.  Recording is work, but that's also enjoyable work.  There is a great deal of other business stuff that has to be done when you're an independent artist though... these are the things I was there to learn, and these are the things that make a very long to-do list for me going forward.

A nice benefit of this conference is being surrounded by a bunch of other musicians from all over the world.  Many genres.  Many languages.  Different points in their careers.  Making those personal connections is something that helps me get through the weekend without being wilted by social anxiety (as opposed to just being wilted by the Texas heat).  Now, I met dozens of interesting people over the weekend, and had many interesting conversations... but let me tell you about two specific people whose company I enjoyed.

First, Jessica.  She sat next to me during the first session on Friday morning.  That first day is tough, especially if you're like me and you don't like crowds.  In this case, my neighbor was even more anxious than me possibly, as this was her first conference.  It turns out that Jessica is a pianist from Los Angeles.  I would describe her as very much like a shorter version of Fiona Apple... well, that was until I looked up Fiona Apple's height, and they're probably about the same stature-wise.  At any rate, think piano-based pop music with interesting lyrics, and a beautiful voice.  Jessica performs as Bellorage.  You can listen to her music here. 

We were treated to a Bellorage performance at the post-show music shindig.  It was great. That part at 3:19 of "Terribly Lovely" gave me goosebumps when I saw it live.

 

 

 

Ok, so a second story about a person.  At the conference, they have these tables set up to help all of us anxious musicians to break the ice and start conversations.  There is a line of tables that each has a sign based on a region... Austin, New York, Midwest, South, West, Europe, Canada, etc.  There is another line of tables broken up by music genre... hip hop, country, edm, pop, rock, etc.  So, I head to the rock table.  When I mention that I am from Dayton, Ohio, someone points to this other fella and says "he's from Dayton as well"... the other fella had "Austin" on his badge, so I was skeptical.  Turns out he is from Dayton, but moved to Austin for his music career a couple of year ago.  Since we're from the same area, I figured I'd tell him specifically that I grew up in Xenia.  He says "dude, I'm from Yellow Springs".  Yes, we're both from the same county, and don't meet until a music conference in Austin.

His name is Brandon, and he's in Westerly Station.  What's more, he and his wife happened to be in Ohio last week, where they went on WYSO to talk about their music with Juliet on Wednesday night, then they stopped by Reel Love Recording Company on Thursday to do some tracking with me.  You'll be hearing some sweet mandolin that Brandon played before the end of the fall. 

In summary, an enjoyable conference, despite the work.  I hope to attend again next year.