1340mag.com by Mark Fisher | 2004
Why: Find out what goes on in the mind of one of today’s premier artists.
Singer/Songwriter Bill Madden has quickly become on of my favorite artists. His amazing mix of the full band sound and the Singer/Songwriter offensive is paralleled by few. His latest offering, Samsara’s Grip, is getting rave reviews and it’s only a matter of time before people start catching on. I had the chance to chat with Bill about his past, present, and future. Here is what he had to tell me…
Mark Fisher: “Samsara’s Grip” is my first experience with your music. I absolutely love this album and your overall sound. How long have you been involved in music?
Bill Madden: Well, I did an album called “Chillin’ in Hades” a few years ago and it got a lot of college radio play. Really this would be my second album but this is the one that I went in and produced it the way I wanted it to be. I was very meticulous on how I wanted it produced. I wanted it to have the warmth of older analog recordings so I went in with a bunch of 2 inches under my arm. I recorded most of the track pretty much just jamming with a band onto the 2 inch. Then we ran it onto the pro-tools and did some overdubs that way. We actually ran some of the tracks back onto the 2 inch after that to retain the warmth. I wanted the crackles and the pops in there you know? We, of course, mixed it in pro-tools after that. At the time I was listening to Bob Dylan’s “Time Out of Mind”. I like the sound of that recording so much. I wanted that kind of warmth to be there.
While we were in the middle of recording the studio got sold and they didn’t want to let me back in! The new owners wanted more money. So in order to finish the album we basically snuck in in the middle of the night at various times. This album took about 2 years whereas it should have taken about 6 months. We got it out though and that’s good!
MF: Wow! I noticed that this is on MadMuse Records. Is that your own label?
BM: No, it’s a small independent label owned by someone who likes my music. I haven’t really pursued a label. I had a bad experience with a major label awhile ago and since then I have never really bothered to go anywhere else. It’s really because I have the freedom to do what I want now and I enjoy that. I’m gonna be going in in the next few months to record another CD already. This is a time where I am writing a lot. It’s really a prolific period for me. I feel like I have something to say and I want to get it out. I don’t want to distract from this CD at all but I think it will probably have pretty much run its course within the next few months. I want to just continue to put out albums; I don’t want to have any layoffs ever again. It’s really important to me to get back into the studio, which I plan on doing. It’ll be interesting and probably even more singer/songwriter-ish.
MF: What I really like about this album is what you were describing earlier. It feels “warm” and it feels like a band, like Elvis Costello or Bob Dylan records feel. So much singer/songwriter misses that.
BM: That’s right! Thank you SO much! That’s exactly what I wanted. I am a singer/songwriter. That’s what I am but I wanted to jam with people and get that sound that sounds like a band. And we are a band, we know each other and we play. We played, we did the songs many times and that’s where you got that feel from. I was really interested in that.
MF: How has response been to the album aside from the “controversial cover art”, which I’m sure you have talked about way too much already.
BM: Response has been good. We did the college thing first and we got played on about 150 stations and then we went to the AAA thing, which is a singer/songwriter format. Even on bigger stations we are getting some air play which I’m sure you know is SO difficult because it’s a lot of politics.
MF: And a lot of money.
BM: (laughter) You got it brother! A lot of money. The response has been good though. We’re selling albums and that’s good. I’m not sure if the cover has caused people to look at it and check it out or not, I imagine it has. It’s a double edged sword though because you want people to check it out to see what it is but at the same time you don’t want it to distract or take away from the music either. I don’t know if it does or not really. It wasn’t any kind of publicity thing, it was just that with the name of the album being “Samsara’s Grip” and you have this little kid lifting this resistance band with all his might. It just sort of signified the struggle of life for me you know? It just so happened that during the picture his pee pee popped out. To me that’s just funny! (laughter) If his pee pee wasn’t popping out I still would have used the picture as a metaphor for the album title.
MF: The song that sticks out to me the most on this album is “Masterpiece”. Could you tell our readers a little about the thoughts/inspirations behind that one?
BM: “Masterpiece” is one of those songs where… you know people want to be something in their lives. They want to be whatever they want to be. It’s about not giving up on your dreams I think. For me, I don’t separate life and art. There’s just no separation there for me. Let me give you an example, there’s a quote that always stood out in my mind. Ghandi was leaving a train station and one of the reporters said, as the train was leaving, “Ghandi! Ghandi! Give us a message! Give us a message!” and he wrote on a little brown piece of paper “My Life is my Message”. I think that, as a metaphor, that’s kind of what “Masterpiece” is about. Your life is your masterpiece, what are you gonna do with it? In this case this person wants to be in the movies. Well, go for it girl! You know listen to your heart and follow your bliss. You have to do what you love. It’s not an easy thing but if more people would do that they would find that they would meet up with a success that was unexpected. I just believe in that totally.
MF: From looking around your website I’m guessing that you are pretty politically and socially involved.
BM: Yes, I do have opinions. (laughter) Which, there we go, is the double edged sword again. Everyone has opinions and I respect them all. I definitely have mine though and they are pretty strong.
MF: Do you feel a sense of obligation in regards to being pro-active in your music then?
BM: I do in the sense that I want to be honest in my music. A friend of mine went to a Woman’s Rights rally in Washington, D.C. My friend was marching with this older woman and the older woman was saying, “Yeah this is a really big crowd but you know what’s missing?” and my friend said, “What?” and she said “The driving force behind what we did back in the sixties.” Music then was the soundtrack to life and you don’t hear that anymore. I guess it’s there in parts but it’s fractionalized. As the country is fractionalized you just don’t hear it being played all that much on the radio. Nor do you hear artists really singing about it. I personally don’t like to be preached to but in my opinion the really good songwriters could do it in metaphors. People like Bob Dylan. That’s a beautiful thing and that’s hard to do. That’s what I try to do. I don’t want to be preachy but I want to say what I want to say. I don’t want the message to be misconstrued, believe me I want them to hear it but I don’t ever want to be preachy. It’s a turn off to me. Is far as your question is concerned though, I do feel an obligation to get it across in the music. That’s only me though. That’s my heart, if it’s there I’m gonna get it out brother. I’m not gonna sit back and ask if the radio station wants to hear it. I’m not out there to find fans, I hope fans find me.
MF: Do you think that the fact that there are things you want to say and there are things you want people to know about and think about has given your music a little bit of a handicap?
BM: That’s an interesting question. That is really interesting. You know I have always had record companies and people like that tell me to “write a hit” but I really just don’t know what that is. I’m not sure what the formula is for that. I don’t know if it’s a handicap, it might be, it just doesn’t concern me. I just have to do what I do you know? I try to be on purpose. I always ask what my purpose is with the song. That little voice that is inside you, that intrinsic wisdom that speaks to you, that’s God. So what do you do with that? Do you deny it? The object is to be free enough, pure enough, free to do what that intrinsic wisdom is telling you to do. Not suppress it, not deny it, not turn it away because of some political or career whatever. It’s just to let it go and to let the chips fall where they may. If they don’t fall to the extent of where I have worldwide notoriety or whatever then so be it. I want to be able to live with myself and I want to feel that good feeling as time goes on that I did what was inside of me justice. I stayed true to myself, that’s what is important. I guess, to answer your question, yes it probably has you know? That’s OK though. It’s not over yet! (laughter)
MF: Are you touring at all for “Samsara’s Grip”?
BM: I did some radio dates but really my whole plan is to go back into the studio and record another CD. I plan on going on tour after this next album, because I’m gonna have 2 albums within a year. So I want to tour after this next album and that will give me a good amount of material to draw from for a show. I plan on recording a minimum of eleven songs for the next album but maybe even more. That will give me 20 or 25 songs to choose from for the shows. Taking a full band on tour with me would be my preference but we’ll have to see if that would work financially. I may just take another guitarist with me to add some melody. Worse comes to worse I would just go out there with my acoustic and strip the songs down. A full band tour is what I hope to do though. That’s all financial though.
MF: Very good. Thanks for your time. Any parting thoughts?
BM: I don’t know. I would hate to over speak! (laughter) It was a pleasure to talk with you Mark and I appreciate your interest.