| "Folk music
was definitely my first inspiration-my roots," says the
singer-songwriter who calls herself essence. "But I'm equally inspired
by artists who like to push the envelope. You could say I like to bring
both sides of myself together."
That happy union is the "essence,"so to speak, of essence's
debut album, Mariposa, in which acoustic instruments blend seamlessly
with
samples, durm machines and arresting digital effects throughout. The
songs rarely follow the standard verse-chorus-verse format; tracks like "Still
Crying" with its oddly skewed bridges, and "Beat Me Blue," with
its subtle time-signature changes, have a charming tendency to turn left
when you think they're headed right. And, in a voice that combines the
quirkiness of Kate Bush and the attitude of Alanis Morrisette, essence
employs traditional-sounding melodies to deliver her very personal—and
decidedly contemporary—lyrics.
"I challenge myself to avoid the conventional," says the
San Francisco
native. "Mostly, I just let the song take me where it wants to go."
Essence wrote her first original song when she was 15 years old, and
Was sson playing open mic nights at coffeehouses in and around San Francisco.
In 1998 she signed a deal with MCA shich, unfortunately, did not result
in an album.
That same year, however, she placed first in the Levi/Lilith Fair
Songwriting Contest, an achievement that landed her a supporting slot
on tour with Sarah McLachlan and other major female artists-"it was
pretty mind-blowing"-and, ultimately, a contract with RCA Records.
Again, the deal led nowhere. Chastened, essence released Mariposa
herself last year, and, in what amounted to a major reward for her persistence,
the album was picked up by the recently established label Or
Music.
Notwithstanding her enthusiasm for high tech, essence still conducts
most of her musical experiments on acoustic guitar. For most of
Mariposa, she played a Lowden LSE II and an Epiphone EO-2B, although
she used a humble Martin Backpacker travel guitar to effect the banjo-
like central rhythm pattern of "Steeping with the Driver."
|
"People make
fun of me for using the Backpacker," she notes with amusement. "My
band hates it. Even my dad, who bought it for me, doesn't think much
of it But I've written a lot of songs on that Backpacker. I love It"
Essence wrote her first original
song when she was 15 years old, and
Was sson playing open mic nights at coffeehouses in and around San Francisco.
In 1998 she signed a deal with MCA shich, unfortunately, did not result in an
album. That same year, however, she placed first in the Levi/Lilith Fair
Songwriting Contest, an achievement that landed her a supporting slot
on tour with Sarah McLachlan and other major female artists-"it was
pretty mind-blowing"-and, ultimately, a contract with RCA Records.
Again, the deal led nowhere. Chastened, essence released Mariposa
herself last year, and, in what amounted to a major reward for her persistence,
the album was picked up by the recently established label Or
Music.
Notwithstanding her enthusiasm for high tech, essence still conducts
most of her musical experiments on acoustic guitar. For most of
Mariposa, she played a Lowden LSE II and an Epiphone EO-2B, although
she used a humble Martin Backpacker travel guitar to effect the banjo-
like central rhythm pattern of "Steeping with the Driver."
"People make fun of me for using the Backpacker," she notes
with amusement. "My band hates it. Even my dad, who bought it for
me, doesn't think much of it But I've written a lot of songs on that
Backpacker. I love it" |
