By: Lisa Steinberg
Q) How would you describe your sound?
AJ: Well, I hate to use the word organic, but it definitely describes our approach to recording and producing music. Vocal tone and lyrics first. Everything else follows.
Jayne: I guess that’s why we are such big fans of the ’70s singer-songwriters. A lot of the great records back then were produced that way.
AJ: The folk community has said that we sound a little too country for folk and the country community has said we sound a little too folk for country. I do think we pull very strongly from both those genres, otherwise known as falling into the Americana bucket.
Q) Who are some of your musical influences?
AJ: My mother always played records in the house when I was growing up – everything from George Jones, Kris Kristofferson, Merle Haggard, Dolly Parton, Johnny Cash, Jim Croce, Gordon Lightfoot and even Neil Diamond. I filled in what was left of the ’70s in my late teens when I had my original rock band. I was really into Jimi Hendrix, Deep Purple, Black Sabbath and Led Zeppelin. It was quite a mixing pot of influences, but I love all of it.
Jayne: We’d be here all day if I listed them all. I heard all the greats of the ’70s (AJ hit most of them above) from my parents, singing around the campfire entertaining the neighbors. Heavy on the folk. And my personal collection grew with some alt-femme of the ’90s with Fiona [Apple], Alanis [Morissette] and Tori [Amos]… followed by Radiohead and Muse (yes, fans of both of them).
Q) Talk about the discussion to cover John Prine’s moving song, “Summer’s End.”
AJ: We got to see John Prine sit in with the Monday night band and do a couple songs at the Station Inn here in Nashville. This was just a few months before he passed. Jayne and I were just blown away by his storytelling, reaffirming his status as a legend.
Jayne: Somehow we both didn’t discover him until a little later in life. I don’t know how we missed the genius of him for as long as we did. When he put out “Summer’s End,” we were so moved by it, and we just knew we had to record a version of it. I don’t know what’s better about that song – the writing or the melancholy melody.
Q) What was the process for transforming the song into your own version?
AJ: I had recently had Jayne’s old Martin D18 refurbished. It was the one that her dad gave her many years ago. I was putting on some strings and happened to notice how amazing the guitar sounded tuned low. It seems to be the sweet spot for that guitar. I started picking around on it and sang it in a really low key and something just clicked. We thought it had a haunting vibe to it. I laid my parts down and then Jayne came in later to lay her vocals on it. I think it was one pass.
Q) What do you think it is about the song that fans connect to?
Jayne: Well, the song is actually about opioid addiction. And for anyone who has been around that, it’s quite devastating.
AJ: I almost lost my nephew to heroin. He was one of the lucky few that escaped it.
Q) With this cover out, is this a prelude to a full album or EP?
AJ: We’ve been recording a whole bunch of stuff in the studio. We’re churning and burning some new tracks. We’ll have to see.
Q) For your original songs, what is your song writing process? Do you need music before you can create lyrics?
Jayne: 99% of the time, the music and the lyrics come together in one sitting for me. Once in a while, AJ will bring something he’s working on and that kind of channeling mode will flow into a co-write.
AJ: Like Jayne, it usually comes at the same exact time. I’ve never been able to sit down with just lyrics first and try to put music to it. That feels disconnected to me.
Q) How much of a hand do you have in the production of your music?
AJ: A very big hand. I usually produce, engineer, play most of the instruments (except for piano) and then mix and master all of our material. When I’m carving out a mix, I’ll have Jayne come in and give it a listen. This is great because she has what I call the virgin pass and she can give some great production ideas.
Q) Where are some of your favorite places to perform and what makes those locations so significant to you?
AJ: I love the old three hundred to five hundred seat opera houses. The acoustics are usually great. It’s big enough to feel like a big show but still small enough to feel appropriately intimate for the kind of music we perform.
Jayne: One of our favorites is a venue called The Barns of Rose Hill in Berryville, Virginia. It’s a barn converted into a performance space that has great sound and acoustics; it feels like you are on the inside of an acoustic guitar. We also love playing at the historic Mauch Chunk Opera House in Jim Thorpe, Pennsylvania. A river runs right underneath the stage and the entire town has a ghostly charm.
Q) Which songs – covers or originals – do you still love performing to live audiences?
AJ: Well, that’s a hard one. It depends on the night, the venue, the energy in the crowd, how much sleep I had… [laughs]
Jayne: We always love singing “Crying Shame” and “The Marrying Kind” together and rounding the night off with something from the ’70s. Performance is the life blood to this business. Creating music in a vacuum is one part of it, but it’ s not complete until you connect and feel the energy of a live audience.
Q) Who would you most like to collaborate with on a song in the future?
AJ: My partner, Jayne. Seriously, she’s an incredible writer. I would have a hard time entrusting a song that I was working on to someone else.
Jayne: Do you see why I love this guy?!
Q) What artist/musician are you currently listening to and why do you dig them?
AJ: I feel terrible saying this, but I’m not really listening to anybody. I go long periods of time without too much outside influence. When I listen, I’m usually listening to pieces of songs to see how other people have been produced and mixed in my genre.
Jayne: I go through phases like AJ does. We are working on a bunch of my piano songs right now, so I’m listening to myself over and over again. I’ve been breaking that up by listening to some Muse and Sierra Ferrell.
Q) What would you like to say to everyone who is a fan and supporter of you and your work?
Jayne: There is so much music out there right now and we feel complete gratitude for anyone who has supported us over the last decade. When people write in and tell us how our songs have affected them, it makes this whole journey even more worthwhile.
AJ: Thank you! Thank you for listening and following us. If we could just get everybody in the world to stream our songs, we would probably make a few hundred dollars.