There are no labels that could define Anne Stott or that could limit the power of her music. As diverse as the human experience, her songs resonate with a depth and range that have drawn comparisons to Joni Mitchell and The Pretenders’ lead vocalist.
Anne Stott’s hard work and creativity have made her a remarkable name in the indie music scene. There is no doubt that her third album, “Watershed Synapse Experience,” will continue propelling her career and reach more listeners every day.
Watershed Synapse Experience is a narrative that takes listeners from intimate observations to the perspective of a global vision on astral scales. Sonically, we can expect anything from the laments of a piano ballad to soaring guitars, including jazzy soundscapes in between. Her lyrics are unpredictable, but her poetry is always surprising, present in spoken word monologues to electrifying chants, sometimes in the same song.
We had the opportunity to discuss the album in depth with Anne herself. Starting from the very beginning we delved into the significance of the title, the importance of working with the right people when creating such an ambitious and unique project, her creative process and her approach when creating a song from scratch, and what we are yet to see from the watershed synapse experience. Her insights are not only revealing but take the album to a whole new level.
Watershed Synapse Experience is a captivating title. Could you elaborate on the concept behind it, and how it relates to the themes explored in the songs?
The title! So… Watershed Synapse Experience is a combination of words that tumbled into my brain one day a few years ago as I was having a big realization and noticing how it was changing my whole outlook. One of those moments when your perception shifts only one one-hundredth of a degree, but it somehow changes how you see everything. Pretty soon after that, I just knew the phrase would be the album’s title. So unfortunately I can’t pretend to be a grand conceptual wizard with a plan! It was a gut instinct thing.
Now, looking back, I can say that I’m always on the hunt for the next big realization and these songs embody that searching energy and also represent what I found along the way.
Sonically the album is very diverse, was the final result similar to what you imagined from the beginning?
Yes! I’ve always embraced having an eclectic sound. I’ve never written to or for a specific genre. When I sit down to write a song, I just follow the idea until I think it’s done and if that takes me into chord structures without a key or moody incantations with no chorus, so be it. I grew up on pop and rock, both indie and mainstream, so some of my songs naturally fall into those styles. But the songs that are outliers or rule breakers express as much of who I am as the more radio-ready tunes, so the range of styles on the album definitely reflects what I was imagining from the beginning.
How did your collaboration with Barb Morrison and Jeremy Kinney shape the sound of the album, and what unique elements did they bring to the table?
Oh, yay! Thanks for asking about Barb and Jeremy. I’m always psyched to gush about working with them.
Watershed Synapse Experience is the culmination of a search I’ve been on for 20 years to create songs that resonate in the world the way I feel inside. I’m really proud of all the work I’ve released, but the songs on Watershed Synapse Experience feel like they represent the whole spectrum of me. Or, as Jeremy said in the studio one day, “the symphony of Anne.”
We got there partially because I was more vulnerable and more direct than I’ve ever been in my songwriting, sharing shades of myself that I would usually prefer to keep hidden.
But we also got there because Barb Morrison produced the album. Barb’s whole focus is to find and channel what I need to say and what the songs want to be. They were totally down with the different styles and moods I was exploring, which meant I was free to go wherever I needed. There was no talk of making the weirder songs more formulaic, and conversely no resistance to embracing the more standard pop/rock songs for exactly what they were.
Barb came out of the CBGBs world but has embraced more modern and pop production ideas, and that raw-yet-produced synergy was the perfect wavelength for the album. I feel like the songs got to fly.
And Jeremy was a dream to work with. He has an engineer’s mind and a poet’s soul. Barb and I would come in and give Jeremy a ton of information about a song that he’d only heard as a demo, and he absorbed everything we threw at him and would translate it through different sounds and arrangements that slayed every time.
Plus, both Barb and Jeremy are badass multi-instrumentalists, so their playing is all over the album. From the opening piano line and wild trash can percussion sections, which Jeremy played, to killer baselines and the horns on ‘Are You Serious’ played by Barb, I feel like we became a little band while making this record.
Now, I’d like to talk specifically about two songs I found really captivating. The first of them is “Fifty Times.” What was the inspiration behind it? Because I just find it fascinating.
Wow! Fun. I love that it speaks to you since it is one of the more unique songs on the record. “Fifty Times Around the Sun” was just a phrase I wrote in my notebook on my fiftieth birthday. Once I started free-associating on that idea, I knew the song would be about how surreal it is that we are hurtling through space at 67,000 miles per hour without even feeling it. Or thinking about it most of the time. Crazy right? And to use that fact as a metaphor for how disorienting our earthbound lives can feel sometimes.
Once I was writing the song, I remembered that about a year before that, I had recorded some audio from inside a Richard Serra sculpture at a museum. I love his work. Suddenly I knew the song would start with that audio. And then that strange guitar pattern felt just right at the beginning. All familiar sounds: people, guitars. But somehow unexpected on an album. I wanted people to not even know if it would be a song in any traditional sense for as long as possible.
And again, here’s why Barb is the best. Right at the beginning of working together, I sent them the crowd noise track, the guitar pattern, and maybe one verse. That was it. And I was a little nervous and thought, “Well, we’ll see how they respond,” since it is, you know… well… weird. But within minutes I got an email back from them: “I FUCKING LOVE IT.” That’s when I knew we’d be all good working together.
The other song I wanted to talk about is “Future Ruin.” It stayed with me after listening to the album. Your voice and those lyrics are a poignant combo. Can you tell us what the song represents for you?
Oh, thank you. That means a lot to me. ‘Future Ruin’ represents that way we can get hypnotized by our own sadness. Or I guess I can get hypnotized by my own sadness. (I shouldn’t make assumptions about anyone else!) And how devastating and totally ephemeral those moments are when something or someone slips away. And how tempting it is to just keep going back to try to recapture what was lost. But of course, staying in that haze only prevents us from building a future. Hence we build a future ruin out of the past losses.
And it’s cool that you mention the vocals. We had a vocal take we all loved. It was really strong. But over time I started to feel that it wasn’t vulnerable enough. I think at first I was caught up in it being a rock song and wanting it to sound tough. But I realized I had to get way more open and raw with it. So I re-sang it from a place of grief and longing rather than from anger. And that’s the take we kept.
Both of the songs we just talked about include the collaboration of Kenny Mellman and Terre Roche, respectively. What led you to approach them for these specific tracks?
Having Terre Roche and Kenny Mellman on the album is just surreal to me. I’ve admired them both for so long and to have their artistry in my songs is really a dream come true.
Terre was my guitar teacher for many years and I feel so grateful to have studied with her. When we were recording, it came up that Barb is a huge fan of The Roches and had seen them a bunch of times in concert. So I said we should ask Terre if she would play on a song. We agreed pretty quickly it should be “Fifty Times”. The Roches were so adventurous in terms of style and arrangement. Terre has worked in many different styles in her solo work. So I knew she could find her way with the song’s quirkiness.
When she agreed to play on the song, we sent her the track and told her some things we wanted that she did, like the acoustic guitar playing and the background vocals during the bulk of the song. But of course, we told her to do whatever she wanted as well. The whole point of bringing in someone as creative as Terre is to let them do their thing and see what happens. And so she put down those OO’s in the chant section of the outro. Barb was the one who realized as we were listening back that the OO’s are the melody of Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. On a song about hurtling through outer space. We all got chills. Just… magic.
In terms of Kenny playing on Future Ruin, I’ve loved Kenny’s work for years. I am a huge Kiki and Herb fan and the artistry Kenny brought to that duo always rocked my world. I play the piano and assumed for a while that I’d just play the piano part. One day I was sitting down to practice and it occurred to me that I would love to hear what Kenny Mellman would do with the song.
Barb and Kenny have known each other for years. So we reached out to him and I was star-struck and thrilled when he agreed to play on it. And I love everything he did. He brought the exact right combination of delicate heartbreak and wrenching power. His playing brought us to tears.
As a creator, when you reflect on the journey of creating Watershed Synapse Experience, what are you most proud of from this process?
Yikes. That’s so hard for me to say! Um…
Talking about the work is so strange because I can tell you the how of what happened but there’s a deep mystery to the why. These songs are uniquely and totally me in so many ways, but I also know that they’re from somewhere else. More and more I think of myself as the employee of my songs. So with that in mind, I will say…
I feel profoundly grateful that these songs chose me to write them.
I’m hugely proud of and grateful for the collaboration with Barb and Jeremy and the sounds we found together.
I’m proud of the more vulnerable songs that I included on the album that part of me is scared to share.
And I know I gave each song everything I had.
What message do you hope listeners will take away after listening to the album?
We’ve come full circle. Back to the watershed synapse experience. I want people to know…
That you’re never alone, no matter what you’re going through or how alone you might feel.
I want the songs to give people the courage, energy, or inspiration to follow their dreams.
And to know that there is always more love and more possibility available to us than we think. Always.
Finally, can we expect any upcoming tours, music videos, or other initiatives you might have in mind for the watershed synapse experience?
I’m working on two more music videos right now. One for Future Ruin and one for Palm Trees and Parking Lots. I’ve got a Provincetown release show lined up on October 14th. And I’ll be announcing a NYC release show soon.
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