Listen: Samantha Crain makes new album “Kid Face” available for preview streaming, playing a sold-out show Saturday at Oklahoma City’s Blue Door
Oklahoma singer-songwriter Samantha Crain poses for a photo in Oklahoma City, Friday, Jan.. 18, 2013. Photo by Sarah Phipps, The Oklahoman
Oklahoma singer-songwriter Samantha Crain will play a sold-out CD release show at 8 p.m. Saturday at the Blue Door, with fellow Okie Parker Millsap opening the gig. For more information, go to www.bluedoorokc.com.
The show is marking next Tuesday’s release of Crain’s new album, “Kid Face,” (Ramseur Records), the follow up to 2010′s “You (Understood),” which received praise from Rolling Stone, SPIN, New York Times and NPR and made my top 10 list for that year.
“Yeah, this is actually the first like fully autobiographical album that I’ve written,” she told The Oklahoman Entertainment Editor Gene Triplett in a recent interview in Oklahoma City’s Plaza District.
“I think before, even if I was dabbling in sort of autobiographical stuff, I always felt the need to kind of color things up with a little bit of fiction here or there, mainly just for my own anxieties about being too personal, probably. But I think, like, the older I’ve gotten, the more comfortable I’ve become with myself and with my own story, that it’s been easier to write more autobiographical stuff.”
She also told Gene how “Kid Face” was produced by John Vanderslice and recorded in about eight days strictly on analog tape – no computers involved whatsoever – a decision that resulted in a warm and organic sound that highlights Crain’s songwriting, vocals and lyrics. They recorded the album at his Tiny Telephone studios in San Francisco, a facility favored by top alternative acts these days.
“From the outside it doesn’t look like much. Kind of like tucked in sort of an industrial area of The Mission in San Francisco. Inside, it’s three different studios, and it’s an all-analog studio. There’s not a computer in the whole building. It’s all run through tape. This is actually the first time that I’ve run completely analog. My first album and my second album, we recorded digitally and then during the mix-down process mixed it onto tape so it still gave it sort of a tape quality,” she told Gene.
“But I think to record it all to tape not only affects the sound of it but it affects sort of your approach to recording, because there can’t be a lot of tape so you have to be prepared as far as the musicians go, as far as what the arrangements of the songs are going to be, and you also have to be all right with things sounding not quite perfect, you know?
“And I think it’s a good approach, so you don’t overanalyze the record, or else you just overthink it.”
MTV.com also praised the Dale High School graduate this week with a feature called “Five Reasons You Should Know Samantha Crain” that includes former BAM’s Blog contributor Nathan Poppe’s video of Crain performing Neil Young’s “Tell Me Why.”
And if all that’s not enough, “Kid Face” is available for free preview streaming KDHX.org. So you should stop what you’re doing and click here to go and listen to it.
In addition, the Shawnee native is playing another Oklahoma CD release show at 9 tonight at Tulsa’s Fassler Hall. Parker Millsap and Skating Polly will open the concert. For more information, go to www.fasslerhall.com.
-BAM
Thank you for joining our conversation on BAM's Blog. We encourage your discussion but ask that you stay within the bounds of our commenting and posting policy.
Comments
Hi, i read your blog occasionally and i own a similar one and i was just wondering if you get a lot of spam remarks?
If so how do you protect against it, any plugin or anything you can
recommend? I get so much lately it’s driving me mad so any support is very much appreciated.
Please let me know if you’re looking for a writer for your blog. You have some really good posts and I think I would be a good asset. If you ever want to take some of the load off, I’d absolutely love to write some content for your
blog in exchange for a link back to mine. Please shoot me
an e-mail if interested. Regards!