That’s right… We have our Friday night performers interviewing one another! Josh Eagle, of Josh Eagle & the Harvest City, interviewed Colleen Carow of Broken Ring.
Josh Eagle & the Harvest City and Broken Ring, along with Maza Blaska, all perform this Friday, April 13 at The Adelphia!
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Josh Eagle Interviews Colleen Carow
How would you describe your music for the public audience if they have never seen you before?
We’re an alt-country unit with a rock and roll edge. We’ve got some serious veteran players and an intense female lead singer. And we like to listen to each other when we play – and send that energy out to our audiences with a smile on our faces.
Take me through the song writing process. How does Broken Ring create a song from start to finish?
Colleen or Bill usually come to rehearsal with a song that either person has pretty well formed, but is open to everyone’s creative input. Jeff is an experienced producer as well as guitarist, who can draw on an amazing range of ideas for arranging and orchestrating our originals. Steve is a very musical bass player, and Michael, though fairly new to our group, is a keyboard player with many colors, sensibilities, and sounds. We take a lot of time and pride in evolving our songs and their instrumentation, and in keeping them unique from one another in terms of instrumentation, rhythm, and kinds of sounds. We change riffs and flavors as necessary. It’s an organic process. There is really no formula.
Thinking back to childhood, what was a memorable experience with music? Does that reflect in the music that you create/play today?
That’s a personal (and treasured) question to answer that would probably generate a different response from each of us. Bill takes many of his cues as a drummer from Ringo Starr, who always seems to know just what a song needs to be itself — and “to heartbeat itself into your world” as Bill says. Colleen has been doing musical things for just about as long as she can remember – from donning her mother’s nightgown to dance to Swan Lake in the living room, to getting schooled on The Who by her high-school-aged brother – and wonders how it ever got away from her, so writing songs and playing shows never lose their luster for her.
Someone once said write what you would want to perform over and over. With that in mind, what song do you love to perform the most?
Part of the fun of being in a band is experiencing the way songs can change in different venues or at different points in the life of the band. “Refugee” from our CD “Lake Hope” has always been fun to perform in venues ranging from coffee houses to big, outdoor stages. Lately, Michael’s new keyboard colorations are giving many of our long-enjoyed original songs new faces.
What do you think makes you and your music unique from other artists?
When we start, we don’t necessarily know where we will end up, and it’s lovely that way. Many people remark on how diverse-yet-related our repertoire is, how much fun we have when we play, and yet how tightly our songs are performed live. That last part feels really good to hear, because we work hard. The last time we performed at the Adelphia Music Hall, someone said it seemed like we were playing on Austin City Limits. We want to make folks feel entertained at that level while also making them feel welcomed and, hopefully, while presenting something new.
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