My Influences

My favorite artists of the moment. All of these have a tremendous influence on what I'm doing:

The Beatles

The greatest band ever. I went through my Beatles phase in the Winter of '98. I received a book about the beatles for Christmas and I haven't been the same since. Everybody studies great writers like Hemmingway or Steinbeck in school and it make sense that any songwriter should study the Lennon/McCartney catalogue. I can't think of any other artists that had such a career arc. They got better with each record and they were always evolving their sound. They were the first to make music videos, to reproduce lyrics in their records, and (according to McCartney) the first to invent guitar feedback on "I Feel Fine."

Scarlett Fever was an exercize for me to try to write a Beatles' song, middle eight and all. Gee, I wonder why it's arguably the best track on Overhead?

Elton John

A big influence on me vocally and lyrically. Elton was a true showman. I went through my Elton phase around the same time as my Beatles' phase. I collected all of his early CDs at used CD stores. It was like a treasure hunt to try to find one of his old discs that someone had foolishly sold. My favorite song that he recorded he didn't even write or play piano on. Love Song off of Tumbleweed Connection is my favorite recording. I like that entire album because it reminds me a lot of the South. I love when the British write about America. The Beatles' "Get Back" talked about Arizona, "Rocky Raccoon" about Dakota and Elton's "The Ballad of Danny Bailey" mentions Kentucky.

The biggest influence he has on me is vocally. Nobody sang like him in the 70s. I love how he used his head voice in "Rocketman" and how he stacks a wall of vocals in "Goodbye Yellow Brick Road," for instance. Whereas Lennon/McCartney always inclued a bridge in their songs, Elton never included them. He'd usually just repeat the verse and chorus and end it. Oh, but those verses and choruses were songs in themselves. For example, "Your Song" is just verse - chorus - verse - chorus. No one does that anymore.

Overall, Elton didn't write very personal songs, (well, Bernie Taupin wrote the lyrics anyway.) He loved cartoons and he was one himself. His best songs were colorful character pieces like "Bennie and the Jets" or "Saturday Night's Alright For Fighting."

Tori Amos

The reason I do what I do. I've been with Tori since Little Earthquakes. Funny, when I first saw the video for "Silent All these Years" on VH-1 (my home town doesn't have that devil music channel MTV!) I hated her. Later I saw "Crucify" and it was all over. I was in love. The colors and the power in the chorus of that video affects me like nothing else. I've forgotten how many times I've seen her but I've followed her around like the Grateful Dead!

I've lost much of my fascination with Tori. This has less to do with me growing out of a phase as it does Tori's musical evolution. I still cling to her early stuff more than her newer material.

Despite this, Tori is a true artist. She does what she wants and she has an incredibly loyal fan base. She taught me to take an imaginiative and creative approach towards the piano, rather than write what people want to hear.

New Radicals

I got this CD on a whim through a CD club and it is the luckiest thing I've ever done. The New Radicals is actually a guy named Gregg Alexander, kind of like Reznor and Nine Inch Nails. He had released three different album over the years before striking gold with this one. Interestingly, the two hits off this record, "Get What You Give" and "Some Day We'll Know" were co-written. As with The Beatles and Elton John, the biggest hits are often co-written. The rest of the record is amazing. He uses lots of piano There are four different pianists on the album. He mentions drugs or god in virtually every song.

The first sound on the CD is of his back-up vocalist saying, "Make my nipples hard, let's go." It just gets better from there. The last song "Crying Like a Church on Sunday" is absolutely beautiful.

His biggest impact on me is the way he uses the piano like a rhythm guitar. The piano follows a lot of rhythms in 1/8ths, like old Jerry Lee Lewis, that propel the songs forward. I also love how he uses his voice. Alexander broke up the band for fear of becoming a one hit wonder. Too late. A really paranoid CD. It's addictive! I literally listened to nothing else for a month.

Billy Joel

One of the tightest songwriters ever. His songs were very colorful both lyrically and musically. Elton seemed to write the same kind of songs over and over while each one of Joel's were special. MHe could have written a musical. The first CD I ever had of his was Storm Front. I remember trying to figure out "Leningrad" on the piano. It was so beautiful. I love the song "Allentown." I think the New Radicals ripped him off because "You Get What You Give" sounds awfully close. Between he and Elton I like Joel's lyrics and Elton's vocals. They both could beat up a piano.

I love Joel's music because it reminds me of the North. Joel is as Yankee as they come and his music reflects that. It reflects his roots. He is all-American the same way Elton is symbolic of Britian. He's an icon.

Ben Folds Five

What can I say? These boys rock. They have the sweetest harmonies in music. Oh, and Ben Folds previously was the drummer in a band with some guy named Owsley (see above!). He's supposed to be a better drummer than a pianist, OUCH!

I got into BBF this summer. I hated "Brick" when it first came out on the radio. I though it was a band called Hum. I also hated their performance on Saturday Night Live. They didn't seem to have any energy. Well, they must save it all for their albums because I think they're brilliant. Ben's lyrics are very colorful like Joel's but musically he sounds more like Elton. A friend let me borrow the album before "Whatever and Ever Amen" and I like it better. I think their earlier stuff is much better and more heartfelt than the newer stuff. I love them anyway. I can't wait to see them live.

Owsley

A great songwriter from my birthplace of Anniston, AL. Keeping the Beatles' sound alive! There is no reason this guy shouldn't be a superstar right now. There isn't a weak song on his self-titled debut album. He actually played at City Stages, a huge annual music festival held in Birmingham, Alabama, this summer. I asked some friends if they saw him and they didn't even know who he was. I wish I could have been there. He used to be in a band with Ben Folds - who played drums!

Radiohead

It's great for a british band to sound more like Pink Floyd than the Beatles. They have a very loud, ambient sound. I love the way Thom York uses his voice. It's high and not too powerful, but he makes it work.