Posts in Q&A
Behind the Song: “100 Years” by Five for Fighting
Behind the Song: “100 Years” by Five for Fighting

John Ondrasik, aka Five for Fighting, released his hit song, “100 Years,” on November 24th, 2003. The track, which followed the artist’s 2001 mega hit, “Superman (It’s Not Easy),” solidified Five for Fighting in the American cannon. The track, which follows the course of a life from birth to old age, hit number-28 on the Billboard charts and has since earned U.S. platinum-status. “100 Years,” which boasts some 50-million YouTube views to date, came as the result of a great deal of work and craft for Ondrasik. We caught up with the songwriter and asked him about the song’s origin, how he became so skilled on the piano, what he loves most about the song when considering it today and much more.

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Q&AJake UittiAmerican Songwriter Magazine
Summer Walker Is In It For The Songs She Loves To Make
Summer Walker Is In It For The Songs She Loves To Make

Atlanta-based artist, Summer Walker, is all about the process of making music. Attention from journalists? Eh, whatever. Accolades and fame? Sure. She’ll take it if she has to, but she doesn’t strive for it. Instead, what Walker wants is the freedom to continue to make more music, to invest in the muse and simply write. Which is why her 2019 LP, Over It, is so aptly titled. Walker, who’s worked many odd jobs to support herself (including stripper, while also teaching herself guitar in off hours), has put in the time and made the sacrifices. Walker has also seen what a life without music at its center may lead to and she wants none of it for herself. Instead, she’ll continue to coyly and expertly write her songs, perform on massive stages (digitally and in-person, when allowed) and grow her passion. We caught up with the creative mind to ask her how she came to love music, how she found her band mates and why she always seems so in-charge.

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Q&AJake UittiAmerican Songwriter Magazine
Writer Kathryn Robson on the Sex Shop, Circus of Books, and the Titillating Documentary It Inspired
Writer Kathryn Robson on the Sex Shop, Circus of Books, and the Titillating Documentary It Inspired

Surfing through the glorious abundance of Netflx the other day, I chanced upon a fabulous movie about something unexpectedly entertaining: a bookstore. Thankfully, I clicked on the movie and watched it end-to-end in one sitting. That movie? Circus of Books.

The documentary, which debuted at the Tribeca Film Festival on April 26, 2019, tracks the life and times of the bookstore, which was the biggest distributor of gay and lesbian pornography anywhere in the United States. The shop, run by a cute little straight couple, helped change the world and offered a place for queer folks in Los Angeles to congregate, communicate, and grow (as well as indulge in some lustful behavior behind the shop).

We caught up with Kathryn Robson, who co-wrote the film (it was directed by Rachel Mason, daughter of the shop’s owners). Robson, who helped craft and edit the movie’s narrative, talked about how she got involved in the documentary, what she appreciates about both sex and pornography, and what, above all else, she loves about telling stories.

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Q&AJake UittiUnder The Radar
Patti Smith Is Always Going to Be a Worker
Patti Smith Is Always Going to Be a Worker

Patti Smith needs no introduction. Seriously. The iconic American musician, poet, and photographer has a new, in-depth music project—a result of her years-long collaboration with the experimental New York City-based Soundwalk Collective to create a triumvirate of records rooted in the poetry of some of the world’s most renowned authors. The three records—2019’s The Peyote Dance, based on the work of Antonin Artaud with a guest spot from actor Gael García Bernal, and Mummer Love, from Arthur Rimbaud; along with 2020’s Peradam, which lifts words from René Daumal—feature Smith improvising, reciting, and chanting amidst mesmerizing music, often based on field recordings taken from around the world. Smith, who still harbors a slight (and endearing) South Jersey accent, has been quarantined in New York City since March, and she’s going a little stir crazy. Nevertheless, she’s as wise, thoughtful and learned in conversation as ever. We caught up with Smith to ask her about her three records, our three pandemics, and everyone’s favorite trio of talking fast food cartoons. (Why not?)

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Q&AJake UittiInterview Magazine
Arlo Guthrie on His Dad, Protesting, and “Alice’s Restaurant”
Arlo Guthrie on His Dad, Protesting, and “Alice’s Restaurant”

Longtime folk singer-songwriter, Arlo Guthrie, who is the son of folk legend Woody Guthrie, recently released a new song, a cover of the American standard, “Hard Times Come Again No More.” The song is meant to express a sense of unity and a communal desire to get through tough times. As the world tries to work through the pains of a global health pandemic and centuries of social injustice, Guthrie decided to add his signature bit of assistance to the conversation. We caught up with the songwriter, who wrote the 1967 20-minute-long hit, “Alice’s Restaurant,” to ask him about the new recording, how he first fell in love with music, the first time he heard Bob Dylan’s song for his father and much more.

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Q&AJake UittiUnder The Radar
Behind the Album: Lady Gaga Breaks Down What Went Into ‘Chromatica’
Behind the Album: Lady Gaga Breaks Down What Went Into ‘Chromatica’

On May 29th, the inimitable and larger-than-life artist, Lady Gaga, released her sixth studio album, the 16-track epic, dance-infused, Chromatica (selling 274,000 copies in the first week). The record, which hit number-one on the U.S.Billboard 200, as well as the top spot on more than a dozen other charts, displays Gaga’s knack for bridging deep ideas with pop sensibilities. Gaga has the uncanny, almost superhuman ability to produce a song that can fill up a sweaty dance floor at 3 am with heart-pounding sound (see the new single, “Rain on Me”) while at the same time, if you examine her verses, she will have your heart welling up with emotion.

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Q&AJake UittiAmerican Songwriter Magazine
Herb Alpert on Tijuana Brass, Painting and Sculpting, and the New Documentary “Herb Alpert Is…”
Herb Alpert on Tijuana Brass, Painting and Sculpting, and the New Documentary “Herb Alpert Is…”

Legendary recording artist Herb Alpert is the kind of guy who gives you keen, friendly marriage advice just because he cares. He’s kind and smooth and insightful. Alpert’s Tijuana Brass sound took over the 1960s (outselling The Beatles for a stretch) and along the way he started the famed A&M record label, which worked with artists from The Carpenters to Sérgio Mendes. Alpert is also a philanthropist. When the Harlem School of the Arts was going to close, he made sure it wouldn’t with a huge financial donation.

This year, Herb Alpert Is…, a new documentary about the artist’s life, will hit streaming screens. In it, viewers see a window into his life, not only as a musician, but also as a painter and sculptor. It’s accompanied by a 63-song box set of the same name.

We caught up with the lifelong creative soul—who recently released a cover version of “Smile” (co-written by Charlie Chaplin and memorably also performed by Nat King Cole)—to ask him about his days in music, his thoughts on the importance of art, and feeling.

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Q&AJake UittiUnder The Radar
Colin Quinn on His New Book “Overstated”
Colin Quinn on His New Book “Overstated”

Colin Quinn has written a truly funny and enlightening new book called, Overstated, which was released this week. In it, the Brooklyn-accented, longtime comedian shares his thoughts, revelations, and realizations as they pertain to the history of the United States. The connection between the 50 states, Quinn says, is like a marriage gone bad. So, now what? In the pages, Quinn roasts all 50 states, while offering insights into their peculiarities and peccadillos, which, in turn, may offer a window in how we can get the country on the right track (again? for the first time?). There is a lot of work to do, but it can be done, the comedian says. Quinn, who has been on Saturday Night Live, hosted his own show on Comedy Central, and worked just about every standup club in the western hemisphere, has a unique, loving perspective, couched in an upfront New Yorker’s vocabulary. We caught up with the funny man to ask him about when he got his first laugh, what his hope for America is and much more.

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Q&AJake UittiUnder The Radar
Joe Talbot of IDLES Talks About a Little Bit of Everything, But Mostly Music
Joe Talbot of IDLES Talks About a Little Bit of Everything, But Mostly Music

Joe Talbot, front man for the British rock ‘n’ roll band, IDLES, has seen some shit. He’s a recovering addict and, in this capacity, looks to empathy as both a tool and a guiding light for progress throughout his life, internally and professionally. Talbot, who started IDLES in 2009, will see the release of his group’s latest LP, Ultra Mono, on September 25th. The album, which features bombastic and brilliant songs like, “War” and “Grounds” is a testament to the power of empathy. On it, IDLES brings their signature musical muscle while also proffering ideas of consent, self-love and recovery. We caught up with Talbot, who was on his way from one interview to the next, to talk about the new record, how empathy shapes his day-to-day life and how music saved him from self-destruction.

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Q&AJake UittiAmerican Songwriter Magazine
Behind the Song: “The Freshman,” by The Verve Pipe
Behind the Song: “The Freshman,” by The Verve Pipe

On January 27th, 1997, Michigan-based band, The Verve Pipe, released its third single from their second studio LP, Villains. That song, “The Freshmen,” was a stone cold hit. The track, which has garnered some 18-million YouTube views to date, peaked at number-five on the Billboard Hot 100 and helped Villains earn Platinum status. “The Freshmen,” which was written by the band’s front man, Brian Vander Ark, tells the story of a rather devastating love triangle. It also boasts some very quotable lyrics, which, as luck would have it, Vander Ark was able to pluck from the world around him. We caught up with the musician to talk about how he started writing, how his years in the army influenced his work, what “The Freshmen” did for his career and much more.

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Q&AJake UittiAmerican Songwriter Magazine
Nancy Wilson Tells The Story Behind Heart Epic “Crazy On You”
Nancy Wilson Tells The Story Behind Heart Epic “Crazy On You”

The first song on Heart’s debut 1975 LP, Dreamboat Annie, is the epic, “Crazy On You.” The song, which begins with an acoustic riff that sounds like it’s being plucked by five or six hands (not just by one of guitarist, Nancy Wilson’s) leads into one of the most stalwart guitar licks of all time. Borne out of fits of passion amidst troubled political times (see: War, Vietnam), the track describes the desire to forget everything happening outside one’s windows and succumb to passion. With this song as the band’s introduction to new fans, it’s no wonder that Heart would later make the Rock ‘N’ Roll Hall of Fame. We caught up with Nancy to ask her about the song’s origins, the time Eminem sampled it and much more.

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Q&AJake UittiAmerican Songwriter Magazine
John Ondrasik Goes Behind the Song On Five for Fighting Smash, “Superman”
John Ondrasik Goes Behind the Song On Five for Fighting Smash, “Superman”

In April of 2001, songwriter, John Ondrasik (aka Five for Fighting), released the now-U.S. Gold-certified song, “Superman (It’s Not Easy).” The song, which peaked at No. 14 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100, saw regular rotation on pop radio stations and MTV, alike.

But the track had a second life after the tragic 9/11 attacks when it became an anthem of healing throughout the nation’s recovery. “Superman” played to honor first responders, firefighters, police and many more for seemingly moths on end. We caught up with the author of that seminal song to ask Ondrasik about he first came to music and songwriting, how he wrote the track (and how long it shockingly took him!), what impact the song had on his career and much more.

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Q&AJake UittiAmerican Songwriter Magazine
Chuck Klosterman on Parsing Weird Ideas, Social Media, and “Raised in Captivity”
Chuck Klosterman on Parsing Weird Ideas, Social Media, and “Raised in Captivity”

Best-selling author, Chuck Klosterman, is known for his sharp, pinpoint intellect. Part-philosopher, part-journalist, Klosterman is adept at picking apart nuances, offering opinions on both sides of the issue and doing so with humor, care, and precision. If there were surgeons for linguistics, he’d be an M.D. Klosterman, who was a New York Times columnist and has written a dozen books, recently released his latest, Raised in Captivity, on paperback. The work, which features nearly three-dozen short stories, explores often-complicated ideas that are discussed between two or three people in conversation. They’re almost like Socratic dialectics.

We caught up with Klosterman, who rarely shies away from parsing a complicated idea, to ask him about how he started writing, what he thinks about modern television, when he began thinking so uniquely and so much more.

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Q&AJake UittiUnder The Radar
Sophie Hunger Explains What Went Into The Creation of ‘Halluzinationen’
Sophie Hunger Explains What Went Into The Creation of ‘Halluzinationen’

Berlin-based Swiss musician, Sophie Hunger, doesn’t fit in any traditional sonic box. Or, rather, she’s such an adept and skilled player that she’s capable of hopping from music box to music box at will, creating songs in various genres from electronic to rock ‘n’ roll to industrial and others. Hunger’s latest release was the song (and video) for the track, “Alpha Venon,” and the 37-year-old Hunger will release her latest LP, Halluzinationen, on Friday, August 28th. We caught up with Hunger to talk with her about her diverse sonic interests, the staggering number of languages she speaks, how she first fell in love with music, her varied traveling schedule around Europe, her new studio LP and much more.

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Q&AJake UittiAmerican Songwriter Magazine
BLACK THOUGHT WANTS TO SPEAK TRUTH TO POWER
BLACK THOUGHT WANTS TO SPEAK TRUTH TO POWER

Tariq Trotter—better known as Black Thought, the poetic frontman and emcee of the legendary hip-hop group The Roots—has been in the music game thriving for a few decades now. Whether you want to start the clock from when The Roots released their first record, Organix, in 1993, or even earlier, when the fledgling rapper was absorbing the craft in Philadelphia parks and basement parties in the early ’80s, the emcee is both a veteran and an ambassador of hip-hop. We caught up with Black Thought, who will release his latest solo record, Streams of Thought, Vol. 3, in September, to ask him about his early days in music, his bond with his longtime drummer and collaborator Questlove, and how to survive the news cycle when you’re floating around it.

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Q&AJake UittiInterview Magazine