Inquiring Minds

Winter Wallace's Gorgeous New Album Was No Holiday

By Craig Hlavaty, Thu., Aug. 5 2010 @ 2:45PM

Categories: Inquiring Minds, Only In Houston, Playbill

Share 17

0diggsdigg

myspace.com/winterwallace

Rocks Off has known Houston singer-songwriter Winter Wallace since at least 2000. We know plenty about her, and she knows plenty of embarrassing things about us. We know that she is scared of the Loch Ness Monster, which isn't so weird. What's worse is that she knows we are almost mortally terrified of centaurs. But not until the past year did we ever hear her music in full. We were too busy being scared of centaurs we guess.

Tomorrow night at Gallery M2 in the Heights, Wallace and her band release their new LP, Holiday. Robert Ellis and Finnegan are also on the bill, making it a solid night of some Houston's brightest young music folk. (And young folk music.) Holiday is a staggeringly beautiful and harmonic work, with Wallace's voice doing astounding acrobatics throughout.

It doesn't hurt that her backing band more than ably backs up the punch of her breathy tone. We hear swatches of Regina Spektor and Carole King in Wallace. When the music swells and gets more aggressive Wallace's voice doesn't so much float over the top of as much as it becomes firmly entrenched inside it.

We caught up with Wallace on the eve of the release party for Holiday and talked to her about working up these highly emotional songs, and working with Grammy-winner Steve Christensen on the tracks.

Rocks Off: Tell us about the new album. Beyond the production it sounds like a heartbreaker.

Winter Wallace: I know the term "heart and soul" is used loosely these days but I'm going to use it with all of the sincerity I can muster. I've put my heart and soul into this album. I've been uncomfortable, angry, devastated, delighted, euphoric, bemused, embarrassed, and just plain content during the making of this album.

When I wrote the very first melody I was 17. Now, I'm 25. The things I have learned in those eight years of growing up and literally turning into a different person are all inside that little disc.

The concept of Holiday is that feeling we all discover at some point, the feeling that you can really take a holiday from your own life just by being "inside" of another. Is that good or bad? I mean, I don't know. Certainly it could go either way. For me, it was good.

RO: Our favorite track is "Marionette," with that insane chorus. It sounds like it will fill an arena one day. Like lighters up and stuff.

WW: It's a track about my mom and my sister and I, after my dad left. We were alone in a pretty big, old house, with a lot of work to be done. My sister and I were young but we had to pull our own weight in a big way back then.

The song is a little bit about that and then also a little bit about marriage, not only my parents, but also other marriages. You know there are so many amazing things about a person, but at the same time, everyone has life-altering realizations that good things can turn sour.

A long day at SugarHill studios.

RO: Our second favorite cut is "Here's To Everything" with that stomp. How did you get that sound?

WW: "Here's To Everything" was my first ever recorded song. Dan [Workman] and I sat down, and I shared the melody and phrasing with him. Then he said, "I know someone who I think matches your musical tastes really well." So in came Kevin Ryan.

Kevin, in my opinion, is this humble musical genius, who isn't satisfied with any of his work (or wasn't then, anyway). He and I worked on things together, and he would come to me with tiny pieces of ideas and I would say, "I imagined it more like this, and with this being a cello, etc" and he would re-write and come up with amazing things.

Kevin composed "Here's To Everything" and the big "stomp" sound was his doing. Kevin Ryan, Dan Workman, and Steve Christensen are an unstoppable trio.

RO: What was working at SugarHill like, with all that history surrounding you, and also working with Steve Christensen?

WW: I've been recording there on and off for almost a decade. My first ever recording experience was there which unbeknownst to me was setting the bar pretty dang high. After that, I tried to record elsewhere and soon realized I was already a little spoiled.

I guess people who are smarter than me can sit around and discuss the amazing intricacies of the equipment at SugarHill, but to me it has nothing to do with that. Dan and Steve have so much experience. You can pretty much just shoot them a sideways glance and they already know what you need.

The other part of it is they really love what they're doing. The whole place has this positive everyone loves everyone feel to it, and when I walk in, I feel at ease. It's the whole "home" versus "house" thing. It's a home, for sure.

And working with Steve, well the guy is incredible. When I did my first three songs there, we would record for eight hours, and mix for eight hours on each song. That is a long time. Obviously, I knew nothing about mixing, and I'm pretty sure my first time meeting Dan I asked him something like, "What kind of engineer are you?" (laughs)

I think I was waiting for him to say, electrical or robotics, or something along those lines. In his patient Dan way, I'm sure he slowly said, "Sound...." Recording with Dan is so much fun because he works so fast that there's never any idle time when you're standing in the vocal booth, or in my case, a vocal room with no lights on and one candle.

Tody Castillo and Winter Wallace are the musical guests and Jim "Eggs" Bricker, blogger from breakfastontour.com is our "Audience of One". Award-winning record producer Dan Workman and Rosa Guerrero are the Hosts.

  

Texas songwriter Tody Castillo &aposs sound has been compared to Tom Petty, Ron Sexsmith, Ryan Adams and Rufus Wainwright with the vocal stylings of Jeff Buckley, Fran Healy and Jeff Tweedy. When Steve Earle first heard Tody&aposs music while shopping for producers for his critically acclaimed album Townes, its claimed that one listen gave Earle enough confidence to hire Houston producer Steve Christensen for the project. Castillo&aposs new album Windhorse was born out of personal tragedy, yet teeming with hope.

 

According to the Houston Press, Winter Wallace is a phenomenally genteel indie band that has a certain Ingrid Michaelson/Cat Power quality to them, with similarities stretching beyond similar song format or quirky clothing accessories or soft colors on their MySpace pages: they are legitimately talented. Their first EP, entitled Lisa, was produced by Dan Workman.

Live from SugarHill Studios is a collaborative effort between Zenfilm, OutboundMusic.com and SugarHill Recording Studios. Happy Holidays!

Artist of the Week: Winter Wallace

By Shea Serrano in Artist of the Week

Wednesday, Jun. 17 2009 @ 10:30AM

 

 

After last week's Artist of the Week set off a firestorm of offensive - and possibly genius - comments ("**** BARNUM AND BAILEYS... **** KRYLON... **** RESALE SHOPS..."), we set off to find a group whose music was capable of subduing the sweaty mass of commenters. Enter the Winter Wallace Band.

 

Winter Wallace is, for all intents and purposes, a phenomenally genteel indie band. They've got a certain Ingrid Michaelson/Cat Power-ness to them, with similarities stretch beyond similar song format or quirky clothing accessories or soft colors on their MySpace pages: they are legitimately talented. Collectively, they might be one of the best bands in Houston you've never heard of.

 

After the jump, read how their singer is named Winter Wallace but Winter Wallace is actually a band, the history of "Lisa," and the apparent awesomeness of Dan Workman.

 

Rocks Off: Tell us a bit about how Winter Wallace came to be. And can you clear this up for us: is Winter Wallace a band or is Winter Wallace a person? And if she is a person, is she of any relation to William Wallace?

 

Winter Wallace: First, my name is Winter Wallace. I am the singer of the Winter Wallace band. We have a few guest musicians here and there, such as violinists and cellists, but the band is comprised of four permanent members: myself, Nolan Burke (guitar, keys), Kris Noland (keys) [and] Asher Pudlo (drums). The reason why we go by the Winter Wallace Band is because it originally just started out as me when I was 17.

 

Winter Wallace's self-titled EP

 

 

I didn't have a band but knew I needed to record all of the musical ideas I have, so my grandmother found Dan Workman from SugarHill Studios in the paper. That was seven years ago. Dan and I worked with a composer named Kevin Ryan to help me get my lyrics and melodies into play, because I don't play an instrument.

 

We actually had a permanent violinist for a while named Sally Tawfik who contributed some really beautiful pieces to our newer songs, but we went to having guest musicians as strings can be so hard to manage live.

 

[And] yes, insanely enough, [William Wallace] is my great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great... etc grandfather. At least, that's what a genealogist told my grandmother.

 

RO: Was your song "Lisa" crafted specifically to be used as the background music for one of those SPCA commercials? It seems tailor-made for that sort of thing.

 

 

WW: A close friend of my family ended her own life and Nolan and I wrote a song to give to her family. "Lisa" is a dark and sad ballad, but truthful. It has been the most difficult song we've ever done together thus far.

 

RO: "Night Nurse" feels noticeably heavier than your typical stuff, which leads us to believe that it was written more as a reactionary, emotional song, which leads me to believe that there's an interesting backstory behind it. Which is great because we've been waiting for the opportunity to use the term "dish" as an a verb. So, dish.

 

WW: "Night Nurse" was my second song. We recorded it when I was probably... 18. I was going for a different sound. One of my pet peeves is seeing a band and every song is a continuation of the last one. I love when each song could be an album of its own. We tend to write that way as a band. We like to keep moving in every direction instead of just one.

 

RO: Anything you want to make sure gets mentioned? Now's the time to do it - rather, now's the time to dish.

 

Dan Workman has helped us tremendously as our friend and mentor. I thank God sometimes that my grandmother just so happened to read about him in the paper seven years ago. I'm not sure where we would be as a band without him. He has tirelessly worked on our songs and has been my sanity when all of this overwhelms me. All in all, thank God for Dan!

 

 

In our band, we all contribute equally, musically and just in general. There are so many things happening for us right now and we're taking each day as it comes. We do the very best we can every day and I love being in a band with three of my closest friends. It's really amazing and makes the experience so much more than I thought it could be.

Sugar Hill Studios is one of the oldest working recording studios in the world. Dan Workman is one of the owners of Sugar Hill and a record producer who has worked with ZZ Top, Lyle Lovett, Destiny's Child, Beyonce, The Southern Backtones and countless others. This spot features the recording session for the original song "Loose Like a Marionette" by Winter Wallace. This is One of 9 spots in the "My Houston" TV campaign that features some of the truly original people and places in America's 4th largest city. http://visitmyhouston.com

http://sugarhillstudios.com

SPACE CITY ROCK

Winter Wallace

Pre-emptive caveat time: the copy of Winter Wallace's self-titled EP that a friend handed off to me isn't technically her full four-song EP; all it has is the first two songs on the actual EP available on CDBaby. So I don't entirely know what the whole thing sounds like, although I'm liking what I can hear.

I've been a little burned-out when it comes to quirky, bitter pop-rock divas lately -- there've been way too many Tori Amos-influenced clones floating around out there, it seems like -- but Wallace manages to break past that barricade and make me pay attention, nonetheless. The two tracks on here are astoundingly well-done, gorgeously layered pop-rock that's both murky and jazzy at the same time, drifting darkly from side to side as they roll on. Asher Pudlo's drums are solid but low-key, keeping things nailed down for the guitars, keys, and strings (courtesy of Kris Noland, Sally Tawfik, and Nolan Burke, at various points) to slide across the top.

It sounds crystalline, and I mean that in a good way. And Wallace's breathy, octave-jumping vocals make the whole thing flow beautifully. There is an Amos resemblance, true, particularly on the interestingly-arranged, nighttime-listening second track, "Holiday" (which isn't about an actual vacation, no, but about a person whose appearance makes things feel unusual and new and maybe(?) good), but that's not all of it by a long shot. There's also a fair amount of Fiona Apple's husky, sultry croon in there, nestled alongside the quirkiness of somebody like Regina Spektor, but honestly, she makes me think of Beth Orton more than anybody else.

Like Orton, Wallace can rumble and growl deep and low when she needs to but then belt it out in the very next breath and get high and quavery the next, and she sounds the whole time not like she's "performing," but rather just singing like she has to sing or she'll go crazy. And that works perfectly for a track like "Here's To Everything," which is bitter and self-recriminating, like Wallace is mad at herself for falling for some lame-ass line for the umpteenth time.