Heidi Spencer - Under Streetlight Glow

Heidi Spencer's dark, dreamy and deeply emotional music delivers a bracing sensory rush, like a splash of cold water in the face of a dreary hangover. The effect is even more impressive because Spencer's music is a subtle, layered collage of haunting folk chord changes and lyrical imagery, a devastating drama played out in hushed voices and off-stage shadows. Third album Under Streetlight Glow, arriving stateside March 29, promises a much deserved, expanded recognition for the Wisconsin singer, songwriter and filmmaker with her band The Rare Birds via a new label deal with fine Bella Union, the musically savvy U.K. label home to the likes of Fleet Foxes, Andrew Bird and Midlake.

There's a weary, solitary sadness at the core of Spencer's songs but her tales are neither weepily sentimental or icily brittle, instead peeling back raw layers to reveal clear-eyed realities and hard fought truths. The songs breathe and ache together, moody emotional landscapes colored in muted tones, unpredictable time signatures, meandering bass lines and shifting chord progressions. Her voice is an instrument of contradictions, a husky, girlish purr that can dissolve into an flittering ethereal quiver or forcefully engage with a straightforward grip. Spencer is a gifted artist of unflinching honesty, intelligence and understated musicality -- and Under Streetlight Glow ranks high as one of the must-hear albums of the upcoming year.

Myspace  Artist Site 

Heidi Spencer - "Alibi" (from the album Under Streetlight Glow)

Heidi Spencer - "Texas In a Drawer" (from the album The Luck We Made)

The Rare Birds are:

Bill Curtis (drums)
Matt Hendricks (guitar)
Renee Patt (harmony)
Jess Hrobar (piano/harmony)
Dave Gelting (contrabass)

Under Streetlight Glow Tracklist 

1. Alibi
2. Under Streetlight Glow
3. Moth Met Spider
4. Hibernation
5. Go To France
6. Red Sky
7. While It's Shining
8. Carry Me Softly
9. Tried and True
10. Whiskey

I heard you and fellow snowy citizen of Midwest America, Stephanie Dosen knew each other. She’s from Wisconsin and you’re from Milwaukee which sound relatively close, so tell us how that meeting happened?

It was September 25th, I don’t know the year, I still have the poster. We got set up to play a show together at Linneman’s Riverwest Inn. I remember seeing her sitting right at the front of the bar while I played (the stage was essentially on the bar), and that she brought her own chair to sit in while playing and I remember she blew me away. Stephanie later told me she originally thought I was a fraud, because I played all covers at a showcase of women writers and that really was flattering, because I actually didn’t play any, and I still don’t, We laughed about it later.  she moved to Nashville not too much later I think. She was in a short film of mine, co-incidentally called “under streetlight glow.” (THE NAME OF THE FORTHCOMING ALBUM) She climbed in and out of a cupboard. The film was ridiculous. But still one of my favorites. She showed me some piano chords in my freezing Cramer St. flat. She taught me to “caw caw” like a crow. 

Have you lived there all your life? How was growing up there? I’ve been there in winter and it seems quite bleak and cold. Well of course it’s cold but for someone like me used to moderate European temperatures it seemed like the Artic. 

At 18 years old, through 25 years old, in this order…

To South Carolina, worked at Chili’s, an American chain. It was a nightmare to be “written up” at the age of 18 for not wearing a bra. I was pissed. I will never forget that. 

Back to Milwaukee.

To Colorado, waitressed at a ranch resort for a stint.

Back to Milwaukee.

To Arizona, waitressed at a dude ranch resort for a stint.

Lived in the car, from Arizona to Oregon to South Carolina. My sister and I were aimless.

Deep, weird, made a recording at some desert studio. Went to budget movies for something to do before sleeping again in the car. Crazy stories from this era. “I took some chances on blizzards, I gave it all and I let it come down, I shouldn’t complain, I slept colder nights than these. I slept in cars…” (THE WONDROUS SONG I FIRST HEARD, ON http://WWW.MYSPACE.COM/HEIDILEIGHSPENCER)

Back to milwaukee.

To Wyoming, in Yellowstone National Park. I was the most requested busser at Lake Hotel. “I avoided bison in the morning on the way to the hotel…”(A ‘BUSSER’ IS AN ASSISTANT TO THE WAITRESSING STAFF)

To Oregon.

The best public transportation in the country. I loved Portland. one of only a couple decisions I look back on and wonder… What if I would have stayed.

“A series of events took place, I didn’t want to be around, how do I explain that to you…”

Back to Milwaukee.

To New Mexico, lived with my sister in an adobe house in the mountains, short stint.

To Texas, a growing year, fond memories. years later, wrote “I found Texas in a drawer, I’m keeping Nashville skyline for kitty and me, and for the mystery of what happened to Jackie…” saddest song I ever hope to write, “Texas in a drawer.” 

To Arkansas, a 2 month wondering where to go and how to proceed.

To North Carolina, with my sister for 2 months.

To Wilmington, North Carolina, at a camping ground for 3 weeks. Very hard. 

Back to Milwaukee. A friend’s attic.

To California. No one would rent to us. Followed his tour van all the way to Chicago with my Honda civic still packed.

Back to Milwaukee. You hit the end of the road so many times, you just go from the ground up. Now, my relationship to Milwaukee is one of a kind. and I love it. Winters are hard though, but it’s amazing after a huge snow when all the neighbors on the block are out all shoveling out our cars. Eventually the sun comes. 

How did you get into singing and writing songs? Did you have any support from family and friends?

My dad was a musician, book and antique dealer, a leader of the 1970’s Milwaukee counter culture. We grew up in music studios, at his east side basement apartment, he’d press play on the tape recorder, give us a microphone and we’d put on our own little pretend radio shows. (me and my sister Llysa). He died in 1983. That eccentric artist side of our childhood died with him. I found his guitar in the basement when i was 15, grew up with my door closed singing quietly and taught myself how to play. 6 chords. Still, it seems, 6 chords. not a guitar virtuoso, but just like rhythm. My sister has always been supportive.

I know from other female singers from the USA that plying your trade in bars across the states can be quite a terrifying ordeal at times. Have you had any moments of potential violence or danger whilst singing your songs quietly in the corner? 

Never violent. Almost always quiet crowds, especially my Milwaukee audience. They keep topping themselves. 

Maybe the strangest, “something wicked this way comes” kind of feeling came in South Carolina a couple years ago, I played at a bar between a strip club and a sketchy gas station. across the street was a small town carnival, the kind that blows into town, fucks everything up and by morning there is just a few kernels of popcorn and some papers blowing on the pavement. i wanted to go so bad to film some of it. No one would go with me. Three ambulances came and went that night. We were glad to move on. 

You’ve self released a few records yourself, some of which I am lucky enough to own. How tough has that been doing all that yourself too? 

I have recorded 4 dat tapes that sit in a box, was tracked down in California by a headhunter and went to Nashville to make a demo in my mid 20’s. nothing came of it.

I met Bill Curtis at a Milwaukee show a couple years later, we made a record, and i owe the rest to him, really, he did all the mixing, all the hard work. We always made musical decisions together, we always tried a little to get the music out there, to labels and such, but no one really ever pursued. so we kept making things, formed a band one by one and the music got out by people who liked it, cdbaby, “Car Talk,” and just word of mouth. we went some on tours we made, one by train, others by flight, others by car. Yes, to start was difficult. It has been difficult to get the music out of Milwaukee, but eventually, it did start moving, in pockets. 

I would say your songs tend towards the achingly beautiful, poignant and sometimes sad. My favourite kind I should add, but do you think your home and environment affects your writing greatly or is it irrelevant? I ask cos coming from milwaukee I don’t imagine you writing a surfing song! 

I think for sure it’s relevant. I grew up sad, I have an eternal deep sadness, but I’m also really cheerful. I’m a strange dichotomy. I’ve had bouts of depression, not so much any more, just a couple of bad days like any one else. Those sad songs were written about sad events, loneliness, yearning…all of it. I tried to write happy songs, i have, but they just don’t work. for whatever the reason, things just come out like that. I think it’s because i am SUCH a sentimental person, that sentiments are deep, and meaningful to me. Maybe that’s why everything comes out the way it does. I don’t know how many artists feel like they have a choice of what kind of music or what they want the sound to be like occurs. Now I’m curious. 

I find that lot of my favourite songs are about loss, disappointment or love gone wrong (which probably says something about me but let’s leave that for now!), do you write your best songs after some shitty moment in your life? Do you think people write as well when they’re happy? 

I have written every song I ever wrote, at least on the records, at my kitchen table, usually late at night, or late afternoon into the evening. It seems like that is the direction of most of my songs- loss, questions, sad love, confusion, lost. I’m pretty happy now, but not where i want. Maybe until i get a little house and feel home, my dissatisfactions will keep persisting and i will keep writing this way. I don’t think it’s a moment, i think it’s more like an era of thought. I think my best songs are the sad ones, and if they are based on truth, then i might agree that i write better when sad. That is a question i think we all ask. and i don’t think i know. I’m gonna go with i hope not, because i hope i don’t get as sad as i’ve been, and still come out with good songs. but i relate to sad people alot. 

In the back of the car on the way to school, sat in silence or singing along to The Beatles? 

Always walked to school. my whole life. me and my sister, as latchkey kids skipped and danced and sang all the way there, “slowly, slowly, he sank into the sea. though we tried to save him, he sank in to the sea…” I think that was from Babes and Toyland. Always sang. 

80s music. Hair bands like Aerosmith, Guns and Roses or The Cure, Smiths, Siouxsie and the Banshees?Or neither…..? 

At the time, cheesy things. soft rock. Cyndi Lauper. Not sure I liked listening to music. I remember I listened to 2 records “Pure Magic” and “Heartbeat of the 80’s” and Michael Jackson. 

In bed with a book or movie? Or neither…..; )Tell me about your love of books or movies or whatever other cultural slant you take.. 

If in bed, sleeping. I almost never nap. I have to be at the end of exhaustion. Exhaustion usually gets me addicted to creativity. I stay up til 5 or dawn more often than i’d like. 

I’m sorry to say, I don’t hardly ever read. I lose concentration. I can’t relax enough. I hope to change this habit later.

I love going to the movie theater and getting popcorn with brewers yeast. 

I also almost never watch movies at home. I can’t relax enough for 2 hours, but I can watch tv for 2 hours. 

I make little films. I edit them. re-edit them. take photographs, print them. sit and the table and play, be with people. 

I like being with people, especially one on one. I don’t like small groups. I’m learning how to stay home at night. 

I like afternoons home alone. 

I like walking… alot.

I like making things. anything. 

I once met David Sylvian, lead singer of Japan and one of my heroes, when he came to our old studio, but I thought he was from UPS, here to collect a parcel and told him to wait in reception while I went to get the package. Doh. Any embarrassing moments with a famous person?

 
Victor DeLorenzo of the Violent Femmes was my landlord. There was over a month when there was a tiny fly infestation, i mean maybe millions. they would not die, they would not go down in number. they would grow by the day. we could not figure out the problem. It was not drain flies, fruit flies, regular flies, we had never seen anything like it. So Brian Ritche (Femmes), who i knew a little, came over with his wife, because she is like a top fly expert in the world. I stood in the kitchen with my roommate, Brian, his wife, a million tiny flies and a million dead ones. 

Did you always have such an incredible voice or was it quite rubbish when you first started?

I’m gonna say i’ve always sang. the songs, though, they were rubbish. seriously stupid shit. But i think the voice got better with life experience. it got more and more sincere, like it actually says something, instead of it being just a sound. 

I played your new album (amazing by the way) to a French journalist friend of mine who is the editor of Les Inrockuptibles and he loved it. He said ’ wow, did dolly parton and joanna newsome have a baby girl?’ Now unless science has moved on without my knowledge, that particular breeding option is unlikely, but I know what he meant, and I thought that was really spot-on in a way. Is that flattering to you or do you sigh wearily and think “utter bollocks”? 

Holy shit. I don’t know how to feel about that. 

Dolly Parton was my childhood idol. I mean, I had that record where she had the pink dress, and all I would do was sing Dolly. My grandma Maggie, originally from Kentucky, got me hooked on country, (and poker). That side of it, yes, is ridiculously flattering, but I don’t hear it. I wish I did. What’s weird is that a couple other people have said that. It came out in a couple of articles. 

Joanna Newsom I love, and I do, but the only other influence I will cite was from when I was really starting to get into singing and writing. I was 18, and I was obsessed with “ghost of a dog,” Edie Brickell. 

Yeah, I mean holy shit. I’d say it’s a compliment. 

If you get on Letterman one day, would you be excited or terrified? 

I always thought it would be Conan. I mean not really, because I never actually thought it would happen. but I just like Conan. 

I would be terrified. maybe the steps between then and now would help ease me into it. 

Any good bands in Milwaukee we should know about? Is there a scene there, or anyone into Norwegian death metal? 

Milwaukee is crawling with artists. unique ones, Lisa Gatewood, Jonathan Burks, The Danglers, Buffalo Gospel, Susan Howe (although she’s in Knoxville now), Invade Rome, the Vega Star

There are so many not only great writers, but people here. The scene comes and goes and changes. There’s a great film community here too. 

So many creative eccentrics here. really, everyone should visit. 

We’re excited to get your album out here? Have you been to or played in Europe before? 

Never. It’s my longest lasting dream.