Ford Turrell
Ford Turrell is a singer-songwriter-artist living in Nashville, TN.
Originally from Michigan, he made the move to Tennessee after getting a publishing deal a few years ago.
He's always been into music: as a kid he used to listen to the Stones, CCR, and Otis Redding. It was later that he discovered Dylan, Young, Morrison, and Springsteen.
Performing on stage has also been a part of his life since he was a wee lad when he played a "small" role in some kind of Christmas play.
Lyrically and musically his goal is the moment, trying to grasp at some kind of immediacy, to what is happening in a given moment, to describe the situation, the person, the relationship, the scene, the act…to live with what it is and not try to put anything on it, to open it up rather than close it off.
That's probably why he's always found live performances so enticing, and probably why he always manage to make his way back to the stage. That's also the reason why he decided to record his last record completely live, where everyone is in one room, feeding off of each other, the energy of the songs and the performance.
I thinks he's a great artist all-around, but if I had to pick a single thing I love about him, it would be his voice: raspy and soft at the same time.
Ford was very kind and donated a song to all of us. So feel free to download Stillest Hour from his latest album right now.
You can get his music from Amie Street, iTunes and eMusic.
Make sure you visit his website and MySpace profile, too.
Below is a short interview we had with Ford.
How long have you been singing? when did you decide you wanted to become an artist?
I suppose I’ve been singing most of my life. I even had a small singing part in a play when I was 5 or 6 years old. So, I don’t know that there was ever a conscious decision to “become an artist.” I have been performing in one way or another most of my life (everything from large choirs to punk bands).
I guess it was just part of the natural progression that at this point I am writing and performing music.
Do you write both lyrics and music for your songs?
Yes, I write both lyrics and music.
Over the years my writing process has become really spontaneous and unplanned. I usually just start playing the guitar, or guitar and harmonica, or a few notes on the piano. Then I’ll sing spontaneously over that, usually whatever harmony and words appear in the moment. It’s generally guided by some feeling or emotion coming from somewhere, either conscious or subconscious, and if a series of words or the melody strikes me as worth keeping I’ll put it down on a little recorder. Then I can revisit it later, to remind myself of the idea when it was fresh, before my thoughts got a hold of it and started trying to manipulate and master it. Sometimes I’ll work off that lyrical idea, sometimes something new will pop in in its place.
There have been songs that I’ve edited and edited to a fault, this is more my tendency I think.
But then there are other songs, like Till I See You Once Again, that just happen. That song came about because I knew the next day we were going to be working with Glen Worf (bass) and William Ellis (drums). I really wanted to write a song that had a great moving bassline and just a hi-hat or something on drums. So, I started playing that guitar part in 3/6…again, very similar to the musical vocabulary we had developed of early Van, et al. The words just came out in like 15 minutes. I took the song with me into the studio the next day and we decided to record it. At the end of the first take I started ad-libbing some parts of the end bit, and by the third take I had the whole outro ad-libbed. We kept that third take for the record.
What does inspire you? what artists did influence you the most?
I’m mostly inspired by people being people. By people attempting to live their lives, with all the difficulties, heartaches, sorrow, and joy that goes along with that.
My objective as a songwriter is to just try and capture some piece of that complexity. To describe it. It seems sometimes that just in the describing there is some form of release. As if the attempt to grasp at the moment offers some new freedom from the struggles and difficulties in life. Or as the case may be, a certain richness to the excitement and joy of life.
I’ve always been attracted to words and music that bring that element of freedom to my own life, and I suppose that’s why I attempt to do that in my songwriting.
Thanks to the Internet, things are starting to change in the music industry, it seems like there's a lot more space for artists to get out and build their own success. How do you feel about it?
This is an interesting question, because it assumes that the opportunities that the Internet offers somehow correlates to more space, when in fact it seems that because there are now so many places for artists to make their work public, and so many artists taking advantage of that, there seems to be less space available. Or in other words, an overcrowded market.
I think it’s great that independent artists like me can get their music heard globally. And this is definitely a benefit to music-lovers World-wide.
Whether or not this translates into "success" as your question asks, is a separate issue. I think the answer here would really depend on a particular artist’s definition of success.
That being said, digital retailers like Amie Street have definitely been helpful for me thus far. And I’m very grateful for all of the opportunities that have come about because of Amie Street and other sites that really support independent artists.
Thanks again to Ford for taking part in Music Milker!
