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| Toehead Greno |
Soul Love (released on October 31, 2011) has been out for over a year now but the songs and inspiration driving the album continue to thrive. Here is an interview with the San Diego-native turned Colorado man behind the Anonymous Collective curtain.
A Deeper Look Into Soul Love : Interview by Eric Cullen.
EC - You’ve been writing and recording for some 30 years now. How many solo albums have you recorded?
GM - My most recent album, Soul Love is my 12th album since 1990.
EC - Your latest album, Soul Love, is quite possibly the best record you’ve done. So many artists have their peak creative period, usually in their youth, where they produce their finest material. You’ve made this career high-mark in your 40's. How do explain that? How do you keep the music sounding fresh and vibrant?
GM - Thank you. I feel this album is the most concise statement I have made with my music. The album is both extremely personal yet universal. It is hard to pin down why something like this comes along other than the fact that I have been paying more attention to the beauty of this world, rather than the darkness. I am always looking for new ways to approach songwriting and recording. I hope my songwriting ages like fine wine.
EC - The first thing that strikes me when I turn on Soul Love is the drum beat that starts off the album. I’ve never heard that kind of beat on a Greno album. What can you tell us about it?
GM - One unique aspect of Soul Love is that all the drums are beats from the Casio, rather than live drums. The approach simply was born out of the desire to do something different with the rhythms. Most of the beats are also sprinkled with effects to add an atmosphere to the tracks. Soul Love will probably be the only album I ever do without some live drums on there. The thing I love the most about this song is my daughters go crazy over it, they love singing it. I listened to several mixes of this song while cruising in my car before deciding on the one I used for the album.
EC - The next thing that hits me is your extensive use of keyboard throughout the album. I’ve never heard so much keyboard on a Greno album. What kind of board are you using? What prompted you to use it more?
GM - I use a cheapo Casio TK-1000 with lots of delay and other effects. For some reason, I just started to write more songs on keyboard as I find it very challenging. Most of my tunes are written on guitar or start with a drum pattern or bass lick. But Soul Love is keyboard heavy as I wanted to create a new sound world for my music. Similar to the idea of exclusively using the drum machine I suppose.
EC - I like the fact that you haven’t abandoned the classic Greno acoustic sound. In fact, my favorite song is "Delicate One." It has all your trademarks from hits of the past: mellow vocal line, simple strummed chords, arresting lyrics. Tell me about the song. What were the circumstances surrounding its creation?
GM - I owe a lot in my songwriting to Steve Kilbey and the Church. They are one of the many bands who helped me to learn how to write a song. The Church were an obsession of mine in the late 1980's, easily my favorite band until bands like Fugazi and Royal Trux came along in the 1990's. So, Steve Kilbey is one of the best rock lyricists of all time in my opinion. I wrote the verses for the song in his voice using various lines that people dropped here and there. A lot of my songs are like characters from books or movies, the character composition is often a composite of various people, rather than just one person, event or experience. "Delicate One" evokes a lost and elusive childhood.
EC - "Delicate One" is immediately followed by "Spellbound", and a complete shift in sonics. It is very effective sequencing. "Spellbound" is dominated by the bass line, but the vocals are the most interesting of all your vocals on the album. Almost Mid-Eastern psychedelic! What is that song about? What inspired it? It is one of many examples where you are doing something totally new on a Greno album.
GM - Falsetto singing has always intrigued me. The Beach Boys, Curtis Mayfield and Shudder To Think come to mind. The vocals come from some weird place. As far as the emotional climate of the song, it is about obsession. The chorus says it all...."Trying not to think about you". I was watching a lot of old movies at the time and feeding off the beauty of the old film actresses, whom I adore. The Audrey Hepburn line comes from there. Personally, I don't see how any man could deny Holly Golightly.
EC - "Go Figure" brings us back to the acoustic guitar. Those three songs "Delicate One," "Spellbound" and "Go Figure" really flow well together and create a strong emotional core of the album. Then, the album takes a dive into some seriously deep emotional territory with the next song, "The Magnificent One." Please tell us about this song. Sounds like you’re drawing on some powerful memories and experiences.
GM - The song was written about a friend I met during summer of 2011. "The Magnificent One" is probably the most direct song on the album. I am telling the story of a friend's life or how I see her life unfolding to this point. She is a young, beautiful soul with unlimited potential in this world. Some people think the song is about my oldest daughter but that is false. I guess in some ways, "Magnificent One" is my oldest daughter in a spiritual sense.
My band Circles and Squares love to play this one live, usually at the end of the set.
My band Circles and Squares love to play this one live, usually at the end of the set.
EC - The albums ends with "Fortune Yet Unseen" in which we hear the drum beat again, this time slower, but still with that little echo thing going on. The drum beat at the beginning and end of the album makes for nice bookends. Was this planned? It makes for a very concise artistic statement.
GM - Yes, I wanted some continuity with the bookends of this project. I kind of envisioned a morning to evening concept. "Soul Love" being early morning and by the time you get to the last track "Fortune", it is a late night song. The album was written rather quickly after a set of inspiring experiences. The interesting thing about "Fortune Yet Unseen", lyrics and vocals were written and recorded but I decided to omit them at the last minute. I guess I felt these lyrics were a bit too revealing or just taking the album in a different direction too late in the game.
EC - I think this album, overall, is very tight and precise. There are no loose ends. Every note is in its place, as opposed to Greno albums in the past, which were a lot more spontaneous and experimental. Do you think this approach to album-making is maybe a reflection of your life in general these days?
GM - Yes. I don't know how much time I have on this earth for the go-round so I guess I am getting more selective, picky and concise with age. And hopefully becoming a better musician and songwriter as well. The next thing I do will have elements of everything I have learned to this point. It will probably more of a mixed-bag type of thing. I have written 10-15 songs since Soul Love came out so it won't be long.
EC - Well, I asked about pretty much every song on the album, except one. The second song, "The Next Big Deal." I really love the use of piano on this one, and how your voice is sung in counterpoint over it. And the sparseness of the rhythm. It’s almost R&B, compared with much of your work. What brought this one about? And tell me more about the female singer, Fiona "Summer" Rose.
EC - Keeping creating , Greno. Your music is growing in new ways and I can’t wait to hear your next album!
GM - It was a pleasure, thanks for listening and following the madness. I have a brand new EP called Dream Spells. It is a five song EP consisting of new material. My bandmates from Circles and Squares guest on one song. Dream Spells is a diverse collection of songs that I am really excited for people to hear.
