Tempo Talks: A Conversation with Steve Yanek
THE RELEASE
Steve Yanek, a well-known Americana performer, is renowned for his musical background. Yanek's multi-talented image as a singer, composer, and instrumentalist, inspired by luminaries like as Emitt Rhodes and Paul McCartney, sets him distinct. His music has flawlessly merged the inspirations of '70s singer-songwriters like Jackson Browne, Eagles, James Taylor, Neil Young, and Dan Fogelberg into a distinct and fascinating sound over the years. With a solid track record, Steve Yanek has established himself as a key player in the Americana music field.
"September" is a fascinating musical piece that reflects both the changes in the world and the artist's personal maturation. The profoundly unique nature of this album originates from Yanek's determination to create it totally on his own, motivated by the unusual circumstances of its development. Yanek's experience as a multi-instrumentalist, engineer, and producer shows through in the album's distinctive and melodic combination of rock, Americana, and folk. "September" is a passionate ode to the music of the past with a contemporary twist that follows the success of "Long Overdue," which captivated the Americana scene, and promises to be an intimate and thoughtful experience.
THE INTERVIEW
If you had to create a Mount Rushmore of inspiration, what four individuals molded the artist you are today?
Wow, what a great question! Almost impossible for me to narrow down to just four artists, because it changes almost every decade for me, but if I had to just list four, I would have to go with these artists:
John Lennon – I grew up with The Beatles, literally. I was ten when they broke up and I can remember being devastated! But those first two solo albums (Plastic Ono Band & Imagine) were life changing for me, especially when I started playing guitar and piano and started writing songs a couple years later I realized how deep and inspiring those records were, and Mind Games too! Just brilliant and thought provoking albums! And then. . .he just quits the music business right at the time when music becomes everything to me, he just quits? And then one day I’m driving in my old van and I hear “Just Like Starting Over” and I’m thinking is that John Lennon? Is he finally back??
Neil Young – CSN&Y were my beacons of light when I began playing guitar, and Neil’s solo albums throughout the 70s were, for me, like religious experiences. I wore out the After The Goldrush and Harvest albums! If you put them on the turntable today, they’d be nothing but snap, crackle, and pops! His genius, like Lennon’s early solo work, is in the simplicity and authenticity of his songs. And he always follows his muse. Always!
Jackson Browne – I really didn’t discover him until The Pretender came out. I had always loved Doctor My Eyes, but never really heard anything else of his, other than the Eagles Take It Easy,” which I had no idea he and Glenn Frey had written together. That changed immediately after I picked up The Pretender album. For me, his music was like the zeitgeist of that LA Country Rock sound, now commonly referred to as the Laurel Canyon sound. If The Beatles were the masters of the two-minute pop song, he’s the master of the five-minute song! His lyrics are just so profound and the imagery that he can project pulls you right into the song. My daughter and I just went to see him at The Beacon last month and he sounded incredible!
Dan Fogelberg – I grew up in Youngstown, Ohio and because of it being located between Pittsburgh and Cleveland, we rarely ever had any tours come through back then other than shows that the local college would put on. I was not very familiar with his music other than the song “Part of the Plan” that had been on the radio a few years earlier. It was a solo acoustic tour with Tim Weisberg joining him on flute for a couple of songs. And it was amazing! Really lit my fire and like Jackson Browne a year earlier, he had four albums out by then and I just devoured them. That show was a game changer.
There are lots of others like Paul McCartney, Elton John, George Harrison, Bruce Springsteen, Warren Zevon, Tom Petty, but these are my four main prophets that would be on my Mount Rushmore.
Were there any personal experiences or stories that influenced the creation of the album, and if so, how did they shape the final product?
I like to say that this album is like ten photographs from that period of my life. It was both crazy and very reflective. When we went into the lockdown in March it was like everything seemed to stop. Kinda like that day after the 911 attacks, only it lasted for several months. I was going to be turning sixty later that year - September to be exact – and I felt like this was the beginning of the next phase of my life. It made me dig really deep into what was important to me and my life and I really wanted to get back to my music again. I had gotten in touch with Jeff Pevar right when the lockdown happened with the intent of finishing an album, we began back in 2007, which led to making the “Long Overdue” album. Revisiting those songs again sparked a lot of inspiration and all these new songs started coming fast.
Jeff and I were about halfway through the remote recording process with everyone involved in the making of that record when things opened back up and he went on tour that summer with The Gilmour Project, so while we took a little break from that project, I started to dig down on all these new songs that I was writing and when I did I saw this common theme in a lot of the lyrics. These were all stripped down and super personal songs. I was turning sixty that September, (thus the album title), which can be a pretty traumatic time for a lot of folks, but for me it was like a battle call! And all of these new songs seemed to be capturing those emotions of a really crazy period of time.
How did you approach the selection and arrangement of the songs on this project to create a cohesive and impactful listening experience for your audience?
I’ve developed a creative process over the years that I’ve embraced. The songs come when they come, and they always come in bursts. When I was younger, I used to try to force it, but I stopped doing that years ago. I like to write in the album format, which is capturing who you are and where you are at that point of time in your life. These ten songs began with a song from a dream, “Count Every Moment” then a couple of bursts over the next eighteen months that ended with the song “September.” All of which felt like they were coming from deep inside my subconscious of who I was and where I was at that time.
How do you see this album representing your artistic evolution or progression, and what new elements or techniques did you experiment with during its production?
It’s a high-water mark for me songwriting-wise, as well as production-wise. Art is all about moving forward and taking chances and I took some big chances on this one! In the past I’ve always worked in studios and with these incredibly talented engineers and musicians. I chose not to do that with these songs. This album was made totally in the spirit of Emmit Rhodes, who did everything himself in his little garage studio. And I needed to do that with these songs. Not just because of their personal nature, it just felt like the next logical step for me to grow as an artist.
Can you share any memorable or profound moments from the recording or writing sessions that had a lasting impact on you personally or creatively?
Music is very spiritual to me. It’s a sacred thing. It transcends cultures and binds all of us in one way or another. I alluded earlier to my process for writing songs, it’s my “don’t suffer fools” approach to songwriting. I will not write songs for the sake of writing songs. And other than lyric tweaking (which can last for years on some songs lol) I will not spend more than a couple of hours trying to write a song these days. If I can’t capture it in that initial “burst” then it’s just an exercise in futility for me. The song “Carousel” is the lightening bolt for me. For my birthday my wife booked us a weekend in Cooperstown, New York. The Baseball Hall of Fame was a bucket list item for me, and that was an amazing roadtrip for us. New York state had just opened up and everyone was just so cool and polite everywhere we went. Just happy to be out in the fresh air again. And it was so great to be in restaurants again! I wrote that song after we got back home. It captured everything I felt – and will always feel – about this ride that each of us is on. That song is my ride and I love this ride so much!
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