Singer-Songwriters Raise Their Voices

By all accounts the roundtable should have been over by now. The four singer-songwriters participating in the interview have been sitting for over an hour in Mather’s Senior Common Room, discussing in meticulous detail their experiences as participants in Harvard’s folk rock community. The humidity is forcing the air to an ungodly high temperature, but the conversation is showing little sign of wearing down.

Under the assumption that these four would prefer to be taking advantage of the pristine weather outside, the voice recorder is shut off to bring an axe down on the discussion. Somebody casually asks for the e-mail address of an on-campus songwriting mentor. Someone else makes an off-hand comment on his technique. And suddenly, the conversation has started up again in full force.

One of the interviewees, David A. Wax ’05, shakes his head slowly. With a knowing grin stretched across his face, he says, “You get four singer-songwriters in a room, and….”

But what this group lacks in brevity, they more than make up for in talent. Each has followed a different path to Harvard, and brings a unique perspective and set of expectations to the artistic community on campus. Matt V. Cantor ’06 picked up the guitar in fifth grade, and has since played a number of gigs at such wide-ranging venues as the Freshman Talent Show to Sanders Theatre.

Liz W. Carlisle ’06 has performed in clubs around her hometown of Missoula, Montana and has spent most of her time in Cambridge at Club Passim Open Mic Nights and managing the release of her new C.D., Half and Half.

Jamine J. Mahmoud ’04, who is also a Crimson editor, has “always wanted to be a songwriter” and in recent months has worked on organizing the Women In Color (WINC) Coffeehouse as a venue for performers.

Dudley affiliate and recent transfer student from California’s Deep Springs College, David A. Wax ’05 has been writing songs for over ten years and has released a full-length album, New Pair of Eyes.

FINDING THE VENUES

The four are clearly excited by the opportunity to dissect the singer-songwriter experience at Harvard, and they immediately dig into the first topic at hand: the quality and availability of venues.

For many rising singer-songwriters, the best opportunities to showcase their talent are not on campus, where trend-of-two-moments-ago indie rockers and decades-old a cappella groups have long embedded themselves in the top venues.

“Student singer-songwriters find very few ready-made opportunities to perform,” says Liz Carlisle, noting Arts First as well as the Harvard Music Performance Series and the WINC Coffeehouse as notable exceptions. Instead, students often seek out nearby clubs and bars more receptive to less established talents. For many, the first destination is at the corner of Church and Palmer St., inside the brick walls of Club Passim.

Carlisle seems to have a particularly ardent relationship with Passim, and her voice brims with enthusiasm when describing the weekly open mic nights hosted by the club every Tuesday.

“By now, Passim is my home away from home, a community of people who support me and make me a better musician,” says Carlisle. She slowly became familiar with the fellow artists who frequented the club, collaborating with them during performances. One of those collaborators eventually became the producer of her latest album.

However, David Wax questions the notion that Passim is the ideal venue for more experienced players, recounting the more trying experiences he’s had there over the past year.

“They’re kind of like singer-songwriter training wheels, and can be frustrating for someone from a less metropolitan area who has already been playing full-length gigs for a couple of years,” says Wax.

Though he appreciates the receptive and attentive audience there, he finds the open mics are composed of, “usually a lot of amateur performers. If you want to hear something more engaging and inspiring, you’re better off going to Club Passim on another night.”

All four musicians feel that the lack of venues on campus is a major problem, and several are taking the initiative to create environments more appropriate for the singer-songwriter style. Matt Cantor has participated in events held by the Harvard Music Performance Series, a club founded by sophomores Amy R. Wong ’06 and Lisa A. Park ’06 to give students better access to Harvard’s concert sites.

Mahmoud has also organized the WINC Coffeehouse, a series of shows for singer-songwriters and spoken word artists to perform for a largely Harvard-based audience.

Mahmoud says that the two WINC Coffeehouses so far, both held in Winthrop JCR, have been huge successes. “We had a great turnout, over 100 people the first show, and at least over 70 the next show,” she says.

She credits this success to the events’ novel concept. “I think people responded well to the events because here really wasn’t anything like them on campus,” she says.

As Mahmoud prepares to graduate this spring, she faces the task of delegating responsibilities to another equally dedicated artist. So far, the response has been quite strong. “We have plenty of freshmen who are interested in WINC,” she says, “so it’s about instilling that value within them.”

Carlisle also plans to start her own coffeehouse events in Quincy House, with the help of non-resident tutor Dan Gonzalez. The monthly shows will feature a different guest artist, as well as three student performers. “Our hope is that this event will help Harvard students connect with performers outside the University,” says Carlisle.

The three artists who have previously performed in Arts First have nothing but praise for the event, in which all four singers plan on participating this weekend. Matt Cantor will present a folk/rock concert with fellow musicians Joe J. Gatti ’06 and others in Pforzheimer House at 4:30 p.m. on Sunday, May 9. Liz Carlisle will hold a C.D. release party in the Quincy JCR at 5:30 p.m. on Thursday. She will also play Loker Commons at 1 p.m. on Saturday.

Jasmine Mahmoud will also be playing a solo show at 1:30 p.m. on Saturday in Loker Commons. Wax will appear at a Harvard Music Performance Series event in Sanders Theatre at 4 p.m. on Saturday, along with a show this weekend at the Gato Rojo.

BUILDING A COMMUNITY

The question of community is perhaps the foremost interest for the campus singer-songwriters. To varying degrees, all four interviewees feel that no tight-knit cooperative spirit really exists among the Harvard folk community, and their explanations are wide-ranging.

The overwhelming strength of the a cappella scene at Harvard provides an easy scapegoat for performers who constantly face the discouraging scenario of a cappella groups securing top venues like Sanders with relative ease.

Cantor points to the naturally communal spirit of a cappella as the reason for its curiously high popularity in colleges. “A cappella is a social thing—there are a lot of people onstage, and all of them can draw an audience,” says Cantor. “Singer songwriters are more of a lone presence, which may not be as easy to immediately enjoy as a cappella.”

Carlisle also notes that perhaps Harvard’s relatively small size and homogeneity may hold some responsibility. “Race, class, gender and nationality aside, we’re all students and we’re all about the same age,” she says, explaining this may make it difficult for the College “to create that sort of community on its own.”

However, the problem may not lie in the campus at all, but may simply be an essential part of creating music as a solo artist. “Being a singer-songwriter is tough because the nature of writing the songs is often an incredibly introverted process,” says Wax. “You spend a lot of time alone, and it can be very frustrating because after three hours of work, you might not have anything you’d actually want to play to another human being.”

But despite the reclusive environment that songwriting often necessitates, there is unanimous agreement that community is necessary for musicians to strive. “Every solo artist needs to build these sorts of networks,” says Carlisle. “Not just to help them learn the business, but to help keep their artistic life alive and dynamic.”

Though Mahmoud, Wax and Cantor are primarily focused on building a singular identity among the affiliates of Harvard, Carlisle believes that the best way to strengthen this community is through reaching out to local musicians.

Carlisle feels that Arts First provides a crucial link between the Harvard singer-songwriters and the larger scene around Cambridge and Boston. “The OFA publicizes the event all over, and several non-Harvard affiliates show up to see Harvard student performers,” she says. “The festival is successful because it involves so many people—both as performers and planners.”

Regardless of the reasons for its nonexistence, this lack of community creates a very disturbing consequence: small, apathetic and wary audiences. “If the singer-songwriters were more of a group, we could help each other out promoting shows,” says Cantor. “Also, I think people might be less scared to go see a singer-songwriter if they knew that he or she was a member of a respected campus organization of some sort.”

GETTING THE AUDIENCE

So how does one go about raising awareness of singer-songwriter events on campus and, more importantly, getting students to actually show up at the events? The process seems especially daunting when faced with the choices the average undergrad finds on a Friday night.

Cantor notes that, as an audience member, “listening to a singer-songwriter takes energy—you have to listen and appreciate the words of unfamiliar music or else it might seem pretty boring.”

There is also the possibility that audiences may not exactly warm up to the artists themselves. “You’re going up against a certain stereotyped image,” says Wax. “I once heard a joke: ‘What’s the difference between a puppy and a singer-songwriter? Eventually the puppy stops whining.’ And that’s this idea out there of a singer-songwriter.”

The artists are often challenged by great difficulties in promoting oneself as a solo artist that large bands and orchestras simply don’t have to face. “You really have to approach publicity in as multi-faceted to get the best word out,” says Mahmoud. “So for show I produce, I’ll poster, personally e-mail friends, make an e-mail for group-lists, get the listing in Crimson Arts, the Beat, the U.C. Calender.”

Though the challenges are daunting, the singer-songwriters feel it’s a necessary part of maturing as an artist. “As Harvard students, many of us have spent significant amounts of our lives on stage—in one sense or another,” says Carlisle. “These stages were created for us—all we had to do was audition—take certain pre-determined steps to gain that pre-determined place in the spotlight.  The good news about being a singer- songwriter is that no one’s going to tell you what to do.”

As for advice for budding musicians starting out at Harvard? “Expect to be embarrassed and frustrated,” says Mahmoud, smiling.

Carlisle adds, “You’ve got to create the event, the community, the space, and then they’ll come.  As student leaders of all stripes know, Harvard is an extremely fertile environment to create new things—the people and the energy here are unparalleled.  But it’s up to you to organize and tap that energy.”

—Staff writer Ben B. Chung can be reached at bchung@fas.harvard.edu.