Artist Feature | Steve Zank

What first drew you to music and songwriting?

Music is something I have always been interested in, and for some reason, I am drawn to its creation and not just its performance. I grew up in a musically inclined family (especially my mother who plays piano, and uncle Chris who played the guitar) and I distinctly remember as a child writing my own melody by copying the five lines of a staff on paper and randomizing the placement of notes. My mother played the piece. I remember the feeling of excitement as she played it, and afterwards I think she offered a compliment even through it was undoubtedly musical gibberish.

Who or what has had the biggest influence on you as a songwriter?

My uncle Chris was heavily involved in writing and playing music through his band “Orchard”, and I spent quite a bit of time with him as I grew up; I think it is fair to say he was my greatest musical inspiration. I began playing in the band with him at church when I was a teenager; he would write out chords for all of these early contemporary Christian songs by Gerald Coleman and the like — just going off of the melody. He would more often than not come up with arrangements that defied standard “music math.” For example, “The Lamb” was in the key of C and yet had a B major in it, “My Jesus, My Savior” was in the key of A, and yet the fifth chord in his arrangement was F#maj11. Spending so much time with Chris at a young age I think I came to appreciate this approach to music as he exposed me to bands like Radiohead, Beck, The Flaming Lips, Elliott Smith, and Jellyfish. His own writing also tended to defy the standard musical math — which is a style I resonate towards in my own work.

If you had to choose one record, one band, and one book that has had the most influence on you as a songwriter, what would they be?

I am predictable here:

1. Record: Radiohead’s OK Computer

2. Band: Radiohead

3: Book: The War Of Art (Stephen Pressfield)

What does your creative process/rhythm look like?

My creative process has changed over time, but for me songwriting started out as an outlet for my own life experiences. I would imagine this is not an uncommon approach among artists. Sometimes life’s journey allows for writing to be practically effortless — I wrote “Grace” (a song about my Grandmother’s passing) in about fifteen minutes after receiving the news that she had passed, and in my opinion, the song doesn’t suffer from lack of development. It sort of wrote itself in that way. Over time, songwriting became more and more of a practice, as I wrote habitually rather than merely as events gave occasion. This was especially true with entering into more collaborative writing styles. I still, however, tend to write the music and words in tandem; for me, the music reacts to the words just as it gives birth to them. What a puzzling reciprocity! I will often let words flow atop of the music without prejudging the material, writing down the words and phrases that turn out to be meaningful to me — sort of like working on a puzzle by placing the corners first. Then, I allow those themes to become the foundation for the song. Sometimes you get obscure songs like “Christmas is Just an Ambulance Away” as a result, but for me, that is a big part of being open to the creative writing process. I have to imagine this is similar to how Beck does his work.

I know you do a lot of producing for other artists. What do you enjoy about that collaborative process?

This is a great question! I tend to be the type of person who enjoys being challenged, especially to develop new skills that relate in some way to current ones. For example: I learned to play guitar, then I learned enough piano to get by without embarrassing myself, then I started writing music, then I started writing music with others, then I started mixing my own music, then I learned how to engineer songs so that I could do it well for others (and myself), then I started to produce music with other artists. In an important way, each successive enterprise draws on the skills and experience before it; it is hard to be an effective producer unless you know what it feels like to be a musician, songwriter, collaborator, and mix engineer. So that’s the first answer: it represents an exciting challenge that builds upon my past endeavors. Secondly, I’ve learned that while a good producer leans on the confidence behind his/her sense of taste, genre, and creativity — these aren’t really the most important active skills of a good producer. They are prerequisites, but a producer gets to support the artist in their vision while helping clarify and magnify it in amenable ways. Now we get into the people skills of the job! If a vocalist is singing off-pitch as they track, it isn’t always best to directly tell them they are off-pitch. In many cases, this approach will only harm the final product as you have just driven the artist into their own head, the place where all performances slink to die. Instead, a producer gets to creatively help the artist arrive at a better take, through encouragement and visualization. The honest truth is that in today’s production world I would much rather have a vocalist capture vibe and character than perfect pitch. I can fix one of those in post-production. Lastly, and most importantly, seeing an artist through the curation of their creation is a distinct honor and pleasure. It is a thrill to sit together listening to a mix of a song that has this voice because of honest collaboration, trust, and hard work! Seeing a satisfied artist is a joy!

What are you working on now?

Just this week I released a new EP with my long-time band Melochromatic called Of Wells and Springs. A meandering and thought-provoking set of songs I worked on with Tim Bauer, Chris Matthews, Matt Preston, and Jude Wright. These are guys that repeatedly come up in different productions: this past year I produced Jude’s EP, The Book of Richard, and worked with Chris recording drums for the album. That was a seriously fun album to work on. I am also enjoying working with Blake Flattley on his projects. I am in the middle of producing an LP for Zach Southall and “Charity on Wheels” entitled “Streetcorner Revival”. There are a lot of artists on it, including Zach Southall, Carl Caspersen, Art Pacheko, Evan Haymond, and quite a few more. It’s a bit of a hootenanny and I relearned the mandolin to support these songs. ”Streetcorner Revival” will be out in Spring of 2021 and proceeds will go to the work of Charity on Wheels.