Interview
Consenses Interview with Sally Taylor:
What made you want to participate in this project? Because I love Sally Taylor.
What was your first reaction to the photograph? (Thoughts, emotions, memories, tastes, smells etc?) If you had to choose one word to sum up the photograph what would it be? Solitude
What was the story behind the photograph about in your mind? A deeply rooted tree withstanding the seasons, a witness to the change, and how quiet it all is.
Take me through each step of your process to your creation. I sit down with a guitar, a pen and a piece of paper. I start with free style writing to my immediate response to the image. I choose a chord. I find a progression, I sing a melody and try to find a mood. I plug in the words on the paper. I look for a one line, repeated word that would resonate the same feelings as the image. I try to place that in a more dramatic succession of chords. I repeat. I try to fit the next group of words into another verse. I repeat the Chorus and deviate from the original melody. I find one that I liked. I searched for a bridge. A quick 8 measure change. I don’t even remember what it was now. Just a different mood. I return to the chorus and end the song.
What did you title your work and why? Solitude. Because that is how the song made me feel. It was the first feeling that I felt when I first saw the image.
What part of the photograph informed you’re interpretation the most? The feeling of the cold, quiet isolation.
What part of your song came to you first? Solitude. Then the idea of children racing to the tree. Then what came next was the idea of losing my mother. That just seemed to go hand in hand with the feeling of solitude.
How do you normally create? How was this experience different? Creating is such a thing of the moment. If you feel it coming on you must tend to it. Give it some attention and some time. If you don’t, it will be gone. And then it is important to not dismiss it after you have written it. I just listened back for the first time and it was very nice. I think at the time I just wrote it off as a commitment finished. I used to call it forced writing, but that seems kind of harsh. But assigned writing. You just make yourself do it and see what you come up with. And then you like it or you don’t. And if you like it, and play it, and keep it in your rotation it becomes one of your songs. And if you don’t, then it’s gone.
What techniques/tools did you use to help you express you’re interpretation? Guitar, voice, pen and paper
Are there certain choices you made which mean something specific to you that the observer might not know? Yes. I don’t mean to but I always put very personal and specific things in my songs. They just seem to fit perfectly. They seem to roll off the tongue well so I end up going with it. People can make their own interpretations of what you are saying, but one hopes that the words do paint a nice picture.
Did you enjoy this project? More you want to say about your experience? It was nice to be included in this project. It was a great exercise for me to see if it was something that I could do. I felt really good about the outcome of my project.