Sheila Swift: Artist by Allen Foster

Songwriterâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Monthly Presents:

Sheila Swift

Preface

Often, when you contact a PR firm and request information on an artist, they will promptly send you what you asked for . . . and slip in a bonus artist, as well. It’s kind of like Facebook’s “people you may know” notices. Sometimes, you’re thinking, “Huh?!” Other times, it’s more like, “Wow!” That’s the way I was first introduced to Sheila Swift, her press kit was slipped into the mix when I inquired about a different artist. And, if you’re wondering, Sheila was pretty much a “Wow!” But, it wasn’t a slap across the face, hit-you-all-at-once, “wow,” it was an intriguing sizzle that kept pulling me back to explore more type of experience. I take that back. The striking image of the girl next door sitting on her porch strumming a guitar while she was all gussied up in a riveting shade of pink lipstick, patterned stockings and heels was pretty much a hit-you-all-at-once kind of “wow!” But her press photos did more than just show you what Sheila Swift looked like, they told a story, too. In those pictures — ingeniously shot through a white picket fence to sprinkle in innocent shades of adolescent boy voyeurism — Sheila was that slightly older, teenaged girl you lived next door to while growing up. She was a little more sophisticated and worldly, the girl with that babysitter allure that you’d secretly crush on. It was obvious from her body language and pensive, faraway stare that something was on her mind. Maybe it was guy troubles and your 12-year-old self could finally play the hero, dash over with an armful of comic books and baseball cards to help keep her mind off her problems? Maybe you could even win her over with those comics and cards? So, yeah, looking back, Sheila did have that initial, double-take “wow,” but it was the hinted at backstory aspect that I found so intriguing. She was much more than a girl with a guitar, she was a creator who was intensely aware that every single aspect of what she presented to the world was a chance to tell more. She was cognizant of and, more importantly, in control of the details of her work. My initial take was that Swift was the songwriting equivalent to a method actor, the artist threw herself completely into her songs, she didn’t just write and sing about characters, she became them.

To help fuel my assumptions was the fact that Sheila had recently released a tightly focused, yet cinematic in scope, two-song vision: “Daisy” backed with “Ballad of Buchanan.” It was a romanticized character study, of sorts, inspired by The Great Gatsby. Listening to the music and watching the video, I discovered a tighter structure, greater development of character, and more facets of storyline in those few minutes than could be found in much of today’s contemporary literature. And, the important parts were all conveyed via the details. In other words, the real story was told through the emotion of her voice, the arrangement and positioning of key song elements, the camera’s point of view, etc., little things that were vital, but easily overlooked if you weren’t really paying careful attention. In fact, the most important moment in Swift’s “Daisy” video occurs after the singing has stopped! Yup, she was definitely an artist who could envision the entire picture. I was feeling that familiar tingle, a journalistic sixth sense that alerted me when I’d stumbled upon a magical story that was at once larger than the

press release, but intimately personal. This was a story with depth and breadth, something that connected with me on a level beneath the music, and something that offered readers real insight into the mind of an artist. Or at least, that was what my gut was telling me. I started digging a little deeper — the stalker phase of preparing for an interview — and every time I read another bio, clicked another link, or watched another video, I found a new dimension to Sheila’s creativity. She wasn’t just a writer and a musician and a vocalist, she was a photographer, a fan of nostalgia, a painter, a reader, a graphic artist, and more. But I’m getting ahead of myself, this is just the preface. The actual story starts, now . . .

SHEILA ARTIST SHEILA SWIFT: SWIFT: ARTIST Math is Hard I couldn’t believe it, as excited as I was, I was going to have to wait! Sheila Swift was on tour in Europe . . . for another whole month! She would not be available for interviews until she returned home. In the grand scheme of things, I guess it wasn’t that bad, at least I’d have more time to study and let her music sink in. After a series of emails, I locked in the date and time with Karen Labuca at Miles High Productions in Hollywood, California. I was informed that I would be speaking with Sheila on Monday, July 1st at 11am PST. One of my many shortcomings — one that my wife takes a little too much delight in teasing me about — is the fact that “time math” is hard for me. I’m not sure if it’s some deep-rooted fear of growing older so I refrain from thinking about how relentless the hours, minutes, and seconds can be or if I’m simply time challenged. Probably the latter. Anyway, when I read “11am,” I quickly started counting the time zones on my fingers . . . forwards or backwards? Oh yeah, it was forward because the west coast is behind. See why that’s confusing?! Final answer? The interview would take place at 2pm my time. Perfect.

Germany?!

“Hey Allen, it’s Karen from Miles High.” Karen had one of those controlled voices, kind of like the State Trooper who pulls you over and calmly informs, “Do you know why I pulled you over.” Yes, I meant “informs” not “asks” because if you’ve ever noticed, those guys don’t twist up the pitch at the end of their phrases, those accusatory words are somehow not a question, at all. Karen had that same quality, but in her, it wasn’t scary or intimidating, it just carried the weight of authority. She was someone you could count on. She was competent and trustworthy. Her voice was also colored with the slightest hint of an accent. She spoke with a mild, sun-soaked Californian curl, but that was only the surface, not the root. Underneath, there was something else. I later found out that Karen was originally from Texas. “I have Sheila on the other line, if you are ready for your interview.” I was ready. “Hi, how’s it goin’?” Sheila greeted, her voice dipping down and back up in a delightful melody. She was perky, upbeat and polite. Her accent hadn’t been diluted or suppressed like Karen’s, her Texas charm sprang forth unrestrained. Over the years, I’ve noticed that, even within the same region, accents can vary wildly between genders. When you think Texas, you might think of the weathered ranch hand who carries the bulk of his testosterone around in his vocal cords. But the Texas female is a totally different critter. If anything, she’s the antithesis of her male counterpart. The Texas woman is a southern belle with an edge. In other words, she is charming, delightful, and polite to a fault, but she’s also got sass when needed. “Wow, you are perky and pleasant and everything your bio said,” I blurted. “Why thank you, sir! [See, proper to a fault.] I am kinda hyper!” “I have a recorder going, so you can talk as fast as you’d like, I’ll catch it all.” “Perfect. Am I okay, here? I’ve got some background noise, can you hear me, alright?”

“Sounds great! Nice and clean. I think we have a pretty clear and solid connection, here,” I confirmed. “You know, when I said I wanted to talk to you, Karen told me you were on tour and I’d have to wait. So, this is kind of exciting, I’ve been waiting a few weeks and—” “You know what’s pretty funny, Allen?” Swift interrupted and then paused for dramatic effect. “I’m still in Germany! I picked up another date, so I’m actually talking to you from Germany!” As if her mood wasn’t bright enough already, Sheila sang that last statement like it was my birthday and there was one last surprise that she had been keeping a secret all day, but now she could finally tell me and she was so excited that her words came out propelled by a little melody. “So, that makes this interview even cooler, right?!” I agreed. But, considering my aforementioned inability to calculate time, I was already preoccupied, counting on my fingers and wondering, “What time is it there?!” “It’s 8 o’clock . . . almost past my bedtime,” she delivered seriously, then laughed. “I’m kidding, I’m just getting started.” “So, you just woke up?!” I joked. “Nah, I’m not that much of a rock star . . . well, maybe a little bit.”

I Just Wanna Rock

I Wanna Rock

One of the curious aspects of Sheila’s bio was its insistence that the artist was headed away from pop and headlong into rock. Though iTunes claims her Shape Of Things as “pop,” I just don’t hear it and I don’t agree. The album is dominated by dirty guitars, fierce drums, and Swift’s gutsy, powerhouse vocal performance. Calling Sheila “pop” makes about as much sense as calling Ann Wilson or Grace Slick “pop” . . . at least in my mind. “I am a rocker at heart,” she declared. “The reason I say that is because, I grew up on 70’s rock, Zeppelin, Queen, Allman Brothers, and—” “Sheila?” “Sheila?” Apparently the U.S./Germany connection wasn’t as solid as I thought it was. The line had fallen silent, void of even a hum or the crackle of static. I was in that uncomfortable moment of how many times do you call out someone’s name before you hang up? One? Two? Thr— “Allen, this is Karen from Miles High, let me see if I can get her back.” I told you Karen was someone you could count on. “Hello,” Sheila sang, mere seconds later. “I’m sorry, I don’t know what happened.” “You disappeared right when you started talking about 70’s rock!” “Oh no,” she fretted, “that’s a horrible place to end because that’s where it all begins! My mom and dad are very, very musical. That’s how I fell in love with music. It’s in my blood, rock and the blues, that’s what I bleed, that’s who I am in my soul, so it’s going to come out. I’m hoping I’m going to have more and more opportunities to really freakin’ rock, man! When I get on stage, I just want to rock!” You might be imagining Swift going all Gene Simmons, maybe sticking out her tongue while in “Demon” makeup and thrusting devil horns high in the

air, but for some reason, I really don’t think that’s what she was doing when she exclaimed “I just want to rock!” Why? because after that passionate declaration . . . she giggled!

Labels

But “Daisy,” the song inspired by The Great Gatsby, is not rock. Not even close. And neither is “Ballad of Buchanan.” Well, not really. It does get kind of intense in the middle, but the intense parts are sandwiched between twin nods to a show tune of all things. It’s not unlike exclaiming, “I just want to rock!” and then giggling. At least she’s consistent, Sheila lets the song and the moment take her to where she is supposed to be. Like her accent, she doesn’t suppress. Swift is gifted with that glorious courage of letting all of the pieces fall where they may. She utilizes a natural flowing juxtaposition that opens your eyes and lets you experience things in a new way. Isn’t that what makes art, art: seeing something familiar in a new way? That’s why, the further we delved into the interview, the harder it was to label Swift a songwriter. Or a singer. Or a musician. Her scope was much grander. Artist was the only label that seemed accurate.

Why Daisy? Why Daisy? “‘Daisy’ and ‘Ballad’ are the antithesis of rock!” Sheila admitted. “Yeah, I’m a rocker at heart, but somehow I came up with these little ditties.” Since The Great Gatsby hit the theaters not too long before Swift’s release of “Daisy,” I asked, “Do you find literature or film more inspiring?” “Literature,” she responded without hesitation. “In college, my undergrad was Literature and Studio Art. I’ve spent much of my life in books. Ever since I was a kid, I’ve always loved to read. I was that rare kid who could not wait for summer reading. It was everything for me to go to the bookstore with my dad and get everything — plus more — off of the list! I love movies, but I like books more because I get to create the picture in my head. The author may be giving me the direction, but my mind gets to add the color . . . I can even color outside the lines! It’s pretty cool, that’s why I love literature.” Naturally, I figured since Sheila was a musician, she must love audio books even more because you get to use your ears to imagine. Glad I didn’t wager anything on that assumption! “No, I can’t focus on the story when I’m listening to a book because I’m hearing tones, I’m hearing the sonic quality of how it’s recorded, or I’m hearing the author’s voice, but I’m not focusing on the words.” Speaking of focusing on the words, there is a blog that Sheila wrote [www.sheilaswift.com/daisy] that offers a backstory on the inspiration for the song. In the blog, Swift professes a great fondness for the book and admits she recognized a bit of herself in the character of Daisy. That realization upset her to the point of becoming angry with the character and ultimately fueled her impassioned lyrics for the song. However, even though she had a melody with lyrics, Sheila wasn’t sure that “Daisy” was a real song. She suffered, going back and forth with what to do with “Daisy.” [Note: This is where having a recorder running throughout the interview becomes vital, the story of “Daisy” needs to be told through Sheila’s own words.] “At first, I have to admit, I was hesitant. Honestly, Allen, I was not going to release ‘Daisy.’ I didn’t think it was a song, it was just something that was in

my mind, something I sang at home to my children. But then my kids started singing it back!” “Marley [Sheila’s daughter, one half of a beautiful, matched set, the other is Dylan] was in the kitchen singing, ‘Daisy, Daisy, you been acting crazy.’ She didn’t have the words right, but this melody was alive in our house. I shared it with Ben Jarrad, our guitar player, and I asked, ‘What do you think of this?’ He was like, ‘Sheila, we have to record this!’ I countered, ‘But it’s not a song, it has no chorus, it has no real arrangement.’ He pointed out, ‘It’s a motif.’ Finally, I conceded, ‘Okay, I guess I’m going to go with it.’” “Everything for me has to be natural. I can’t . . . I won’t do anything that’s not authentic. Ultimately, that is the reason why I decided I had to release ‘Daisy‘: it is authentic to who I am. It would be inauthentic of me, as an artist, to try to edit myself and say, ‘Hey, this doesn’t fit in the box, so let’s throw it in the trash.’ It’s actually the opposite for me. It’s saying, ‘You know what, this doesn’t fit, but I’m going to make it work and people are going to have to deal with it.’” “I don’t mean that in a rebellious way, not in an in-your-face way. It’s more like, if anyone responds to it, I’m lucky, I’m blessed, but if they don’t, then it’s for the art. It’s literally art for art’s sake. Hopefully it goes beyond art for art’s sake. Hopefully it has a life that says, ‘You know what, I’m relevant.’ This tour has made me realize that there is a thread which runs through my work and everything I do; it’s who I am. Even though people may not understand who I am, everything I do is authentic . . . or else I wouldn’t do it.”

The Daisy Video

The Video

“At the core of the video is this whole idea of how Daisy is playing this game,” Sheila began. “I don’t even think that she’s aware that she is leading Gatsby on, she just wants to be wanted . . . even if she doesn’t want the things that she’s pining after! So, Daisy is caught in this long, continuous, monotonous, drawn out situation, and, as a reader, you’re thinking, ‘Come on, stop! Get your act together and focus!’” To represent this interpretation visually, Swift chose to have the bulk of the video shot as one long, gradual, camera zoom. I told Sheila that my initial interpretation was, at the start of the video, you are already inside Daisy’s mind, and, throughout the song, you get pulled deeper and deeper into her thoughts until, all of a sudden, the music stops! It’s jolting, like being slapped awake, but that’s when reality starts. You are no longer trapped within Daisy’s thoughts, analyzing from her perspective, everything falls into place and you realize what’s really going on! “Yeah, that’s exactly what I was going for!” she exclaimed. “At the very end, you finally see what’s actually going on. [Remember, way back in the Preface when I told you the most important part of this video happened after the singing had stopped? Details are important.] When I read Gatsby again as an adult, I was thinking, ‘Oh, this whole time I thought it was one thing, but it turns out that it’s actually something else.’ The story is so dynamic, there are so many different layers. I wanted the video to be very sobering and I hope it came across like that. That’s why it’s a long, slow pull and the very end is like, ‘Boom!’” “Well, it worked for me!” [Editor’s note: Post-interview, I realized the video gets blurry after the song as if to suggest there was clarity in Daisy’s introspection which fades as reality takes hold. Nicely done.] “It’s very theatrical,” she added. “I wanted it to be moody, but not dark. I mean, it’s definitely moody, but hopefully there’s not a darkness to it, as well.” “Not at all,” I confirmed without hesitation. Despite the shadowed room, the “sobering” message, and Sheila singing with a resolved, self-accusatory focus

in her eyes — yeah, she pulls that off, the girl can act, too! — when I think about the video, my mind immediately calls up the striking, crisp image of Swift bathed in the spotlight, her lips glistening as much as her outfits sparkle. She might have her deep-rooted emotional issues, but on the surface, Daisy is an elegant flapper girl adorned in gold. “No, it can’t be dark,” I confirmed, “not with all that sparkly stuff!” “Oh yeah,” I could hear her smile, relishing the thought of wearing all that jewelry. “I do love my sparkles!”

The B Side B Side

Sheila’s original plan for “Daisy” was to release a physical album with both an A side and a B side. So, her challenge — or “excuse to create another song” as she so coyly put it — was: “I have this one-and-a-half minute song, so if I’m going to do a B side, I need to have another song of equal length that would be a counterpart to ‘Daisy.’” “By the grace of God, ‘Ballad’ [“Ballad of Buchanan”] came about,” Swift informed. “The melody was another ditty that I would sing around the house. It’s from South Pacific.” Rambling tangent alert! This is why I love my job! I get to experience these inspired, twinkling moments in time when the artist goes beyond mere words to illustrate a point. These moments are so inexpressibly cool and I desperately want to share them, but they simply don’t come across in words. [Before the snarky comments start flooding in, yes, I know full well that “inexpressibly” literally means something that is too strong to be expressed in words. I’m making a point in a tangent to a plot line that runs counterpoint to the main theme, don’t make things any more complicated than they already are.] In our day-to-day hustle comprised of detached snippets of misspelled statuses fired off via hasty texts to our numerous Twitter followers, we have forgotten just what a miraculously intimate tool of communication the phone is. You hold the receiver against your head and, no matter how many thousands of miles away the person on the other end of the line might be, when she speaks, her voice flows directly into your ear as if she were, indeed, sitting right beside you. If both parties are properly engaged in the conversation, the phone has the potential to be more powerful than talking face-to-face. In that moment, Sheila abruptly dropped her perky tone, drew in a deep breath for support, and sang the opening to “Ballad of Buchanan.” Her voice became silky smooth with just the tiniest bit of husky delicately layered underneath. Gone were the peaks and valleys associated with animated conversation, they had been replaced with the natural grace of a wave rolling

by. These are the moments during an interview when you realize the truly preposterous task of trying to convey such magic with mere words. End of rambling tangent! “Gonna wash that man right outta my hair,” she sang. Then, as quickly as it had begun, it was over. “That’s the melody I remember as a kid, but if you look it up online, it’s not the right melody,” she chirped, “but you get the reference.”

“As ‘Daisy’ was my plea for Daisy to open her eyes and stop being content with being a fool,” Sheila continued, seemingly oblivious to the dazzle she had just sprinkled into the mix with her fetching vocal performance. “‘Ballad’ is Daisy’s response. In ‘Ballad’ she is saying, ‘You know what, I am going to own up and I’m finally going to make a decision!’” “Of course, this is creative licensing on my part because we don’t know what actually happens to Tom Buchanan and Daisy when that book ends. All we do know is the end of the book is not the end of the story, right? So, in ‘Ballad,’ I decided that Daisy finally grew up a little bit and chose to put her childish ways behind her. She is going to wash that man out of her hair, she is going to put the past behind her!” “My hope for Daisy is that she grew up a little, she decided to stop being a fool, and she owned up to her little games. Maybe she decided to become a responsible mom and start taking care of the kid and be a family, I don’t know, but that’s my dream for her.”

You Get An A For The B Side!

You Get An A!

“Ballad of Buchanan” traverses a considerable amount of literary territory in it’s minute-and-a-half lifespan. The song states a theme, offers a narrative flashback, adds conflict and drama, then jumps back to the present to restate the initial theme. It’s an impressive piece of writing. “So, if you were an English Literary Professor you would give me an A?” Sheila queried. “Of course,” I replied. “But, unfortunately, I’m not.” “That’s okay, I’ll take whatever I can get,” she laughed. “I just have always liked stories that tie up tightly at the end.” “Thank you, I wanted to give it that bookend feeling,” she giggled. Didn’t I tell you, Swift is always thinking and creating on so many different levels. The song has a bookended hook to reference the fact that it was inspired by literature. Clever, very clever.

The Circle of Art

Circle of Art

I’ve hinted at or (hopefully) established that Sheila is an artist who is accomplished in many areas: writing, performing, painting, photography, and even acting! But, which is her favorite? There has to be something that drives her more than everything else, doesn't there? “Honestly? I love it all!” she declared. “I love performing. I’m definitely a performer by nature, ever since I was a little kid. Performing allows me to give all of myself.” “And, being in the studio, is another great love of mine. We [Sheila and Ben Jarrad (guitar)] were in the studio for the 6 weeks leading up to this tour. We wanted to make sure that before we left for Germany we had put down everything we could so Steve Torres, our producer, could mix all the tracks while we were gone.” “However, I do have a love/hate relationship with songwriting,” Swift admitted, “but once I actually write a song, I’m so glad I followed it through. Songwriting is the thing that definitely challenges me the most and pushes me the most, it’s the thing that I work on the hardest.” “When I get home from this tour, I’ll be jumping right back into the studio,” Sheila predicted. “It’s a cyclical thing: songwriting, recording, touring; songwriting, recording, touring; etc. Sometimes those elements happen simultaneously. I like it better when they do because one feeds the other.”

The Challenge of Songwriting

The Challenge

“For me, the challenge of songwriting isn’t writing the song, it’s not editing myself in my quest for being honest. I’m a very positive person, you can talk to me for 5 seconds and pick up on that. But, if I’m feeling down or I’m having a bad day, I don’t like to focus on that. I don’t like to talk about heartbreak or about being hurt in the past. I like to find something positive, I like to find the sunshine. I’m finally at a place in my life where I’m really making myself buck up and get honest about where I’m at. My songs have been screaming out for me to do that, but I haven’t been able to give my writing what is required, until now.” “Do you let the melody lead the way?” I wondered out loud. “Or is it lyrics? Emotion?” “When I paint,” Swift offered, “I let the materials and the colors lead the way. With a song, I let the melody and the lyrics feed the concept. So, it’s that perfect three that we were just talking about with songwriting, recording, and touring, only when it comes specifically to writing a song, then that one element can be broken down into its own three-component cycle. For songwriting, the components that continually feed each other are concept, lyrics, and melody. You cannot have one without the others.” “The three make a whole,” I commented. “Exactly.” Nerd alert! I’ve been accused of hyperfocus and geeking out. In a moment’s notice, I can devolve from seasoned interviewer to spastic fanboy. But the truth is, for as long as I have been doing this journalism thing, talking with an artist who understands their process still excites me! Furthermore, as creepy as that Sylar guy was in the prematurely canceled television series Heroes, I totally get his fascination for taking apart and rebuilding watches. Okay, maybe not watches, specifically, but I am perpetually curious about how things, in general, work. Especially when it comes to anatomizing that ever elusive quantum of the human psyche called creativity.

“So, in the broader scheme of things, how does your creativity flow?” I fired. “Does your music feed your art or does your art feed your music? Or maybe it flows both ways?” “Uhm, which came first, the chicken or the egg?” Sheila laughed, obviously not registering the escalating intensity in my voice. When I remained quiet, she confessed, “I don’t know!” Oh well, it appeared one of life’s great mysteries was destined to remain a great mystery. At least for today. “I do know that they must go into each other because they are both intrinsically who I am,” she considered. “At the end of the day, I’m not a singer, I’m not a songwriter, I’m not a painter, I’m not a photographer, I’m an artist. [Told you!] But, I feel like when I focus on one, I’m not so focused on the others. I feel blessed that between all the different creative endeavors that I pursue, if one well goes dry, there’s always another well that has water in it. Somehow, they all end up feeding each other, but as far as which feeds which, I guess it depends on what my priority is at the time?” Sheila didn’t sound convinced with her answer and that was exciting because it meant she had glimpsed something more than she could presently put into words. There was a concept lingering just beyond her grasp, and she knew it. There was still hope. “Okay, which are you quicker to be bold in? Where are you the most fearless? How do you conceptualize your creativity?” I pressed. “Uhm, for me it’s pictures,” she answered, weakly. “Okay, that’s a better answer for you, pictures.” She sounded a little more sure. “With my lyrics, I think of pictures . . . in my photography and painting, I think of pictures. Everything I do is very cinematic.” Something was clicking, it was coming together. “Even when I talk to Steve, our producer, I give him a visual treatment, ‘Okay, for the beginning, it’s like you’re, in a garden . . .’ I create this whole synopsis for him, this whole picture . . . There you go, you helped me figure it out! Good job! Thank you! I finally understand myself.” Eureka!

Epilogue

The quest had reached a satisfying conclusion: one artist’s method of tapping into the creative well had been unveiled. With the tension rapidly dissipating and a pleasant calm settling over the conversation, I had to ask, “What happens when the next guy asks you the same question?” “Don’t worry, by my next interview, I’ll have a whole different story!” She laughed. I laughed. It had been a good interview. We were saying our goodbyes. And that’s when I fumbled. “Thank you for your time, Dais . . . uhm, I mean Sheila!” “It’s okay, you can call me Daisy, that’s fine,” she permitted. “Hopefully, it’s the more mature one, my version of Daisy.” “The well-adjusted one?” “The well-adjusted one with the happy ending,” she agreed. Then added, “With some rock in her life!” Wow. How cool is she? My journalistic sixth sense had not let me down.

If you’d like to get to know Sheila even better, connect with her at: http://sheilaswift.com/ https://twitter.com/SheilaSwift https://www.facebook.com/ sheilaswiftmusic https://itunes.apple.com/us/artist/ sheila-swift/id256869140