Jason Vitelli Interview
Q: You have a long history with music. Can you tell us how you got started and some of your musical path?
A: We’ll need to go all the way back to the crib. My mom noticed I’d rock back and forth whenever music was playing, as I shook my stroller to the other side of the bowling alley she frequented. When I was seven, my parents decided to rent an upright piano and see what I’d do with it. I had a good ear for deciphering melodies off the radio, so they started me on lessons. I continued with them for many years, delving deep into the classical repertoire, until the start of high school when an interest in girls and an urge to play guitar simultaneously appeared! Borrowing my brother’s acoustic, I’d learn the grunge songs off of MTV and even joined a rock cover band called “Side Order of Fries.” I continued to perform in rock groups throughout college, while also writing poetry and joining a choir. Graduating with a BA in music after four years, I headed to grad school to study sound engineering and film scoring.
The combination of a DIY attitude and my formal musical education gave me an equal appreciation for all music, from pop songs with a great hook to intricate classical pieces and everything in between. In all listening, I inherently found myself digging into the layers within an arrangement and studying the inner structure. I observed that a wonderful melody may draw listeners in, but only compelling writing will make the music memorable. Applying this core principal to my emerging works, I apprenticed under a film composer for two years and soon after went out on my own, writing scores for small video productions. The projects were a fun challenge, though in time the process of slaving at a computer sequencer became tiresome. Longing to return to performance, I decided the next logical step would be to develop my songwriting skills, since all I needed to do was marry my poetry to musical forms. I began attending various open mikes, linking with the local NYC scene, and used my engineering chops to self-produce tunes I wrote during that time. After a few years, this labor of love led to my first album release No Photographs. The rest, they say, is history.
Q: I found it interesting you say that characters in circumstances far different than your own inspire you. I love that and it is the exact opposite of what a majority of songwriters say about their music which tends to come from a personal place. Can you expand on that thought and how it ties into your album Head Above Tide?
A: When I first started songwriting, I was in my early 20’s. Still amassing life experience, the lyrics I wrote reflected visceral moments, not the big picture. After a few years of writing in this style, I penned a tune which foreshadowed a new direction in my art. This song “Blank Page” describes an emerging weariness of my angst and a desire to fill the page with something anew. From the ashes of this realization, I discovered a parallel between my path and the ones around me. I began to distill stories from others in vastly different conditions than my own. Their feelings of anger, joy and sadness soon became mine as well. I stumbled upon this common thread well into the project and was motivated to follow it through to the end. Although it feels wonderful to have people enjoying the music from this album, I hope its stories can also inspire empathy. Goodness knows we need more of it in the world.
Q: Your album took around five years to complete. Can you talk about the creative process?
A: As an independent artist, I’m essentially a one-man shop so I had to devise the album creation in phases. I spent about two years writing songs and compiling the cream of the crop. A testing ground for this material became the NYC subway, where I performed sets regularly to a varied demographic. Once I had a good number of tunes, I began fleshing out arrangements by layering sampler instruments upon a scratch track. In a couple of songs and also in the two instrumental pieces, I found my initial arrangements strong enough to mix for the album. To prep the remaining material, I spent six months rehearsing the rhythm section and used Top of the World Studios, a wonderful space in Yorktown Heights, NY, to record two live sessions. Instrumental and vocal overdubs took another six months while I spent the interim at my home studio on editing and adding post-production effects. When we finished overdubbing, I rough mixed the album in my monitoring environment and headed back to Top of the World to finalized the track EQ and level adjustments. Art Halperin, the studio owner, and Barry Diament lent their golden ears to this last run through. Barry then took care of the mastering on his optimized system while I tweaked a few track faders to streamline his process. Mixing and mastering took the final six months of what became a half-decade of work! It all came together seamlessly at the end, though it took more than a little faith to get there.
Q: You have a long history with music. Can you tell us how you got started and some of your musical path?
A: We’ll need to go all the way back to the crib. My mom noticed I’d rock back and forth whenever music was playing, as I shook my stroller to the other side of the bowling alley she frequented. When I was seven, my parents decided to rent an upright piano and see what I’d do with it. I had a good ear for deciphering melodies off the radio, so they started me on lessons. I continued with them for many years, delving deep into the classical repertoire, until the start of high school when an interest in girls and an urge to play guitar simultaneously appeared! Borrowing my brother’s acoustic, I’d learn the grunge songs off of MTV and even joined a rock cover band called “Side Order of Fries.” I continued to perform in rock groups throughout college, while also writing poetry and joining a choir. Graduating with a BA in music after four years, I headed to grad school to study sound engineering and film scoring.
The combination of a DIY attitude and my formal musical education gave me an equal appreciation for all music, from pop songs with a great hook to intricate classical pieces and everything in between. In all listening, I inherently found myself digging into the layers within an arrangement and studying the inner structure. I observed that a wonderful melody may draw listeners in, but only compelling writing will make the music memorable. Applying this core principal to my emerging works, I apprenticed under a film composer for two years and soon after went out on my own, writing scores for small video productions. The projects were a fun challenge, though in time the process of slaving at a computer sequencer became tiresome. Longing to return to performance, I decided the next logical step would be to develop my songwriting skills, since all I needed to do was marry my poetry to musical forms. I began attending various open mikes, linking with the local NYC scene, and used my engineering chops to self-produce tunes I wrote during that time. After a few years, this labor of love led to my first album release No Photographs. The rest, they say, is history.
Q: I found it interesting you say that characters in circumstances far different than your own inspire you. I love that and it is the exact opposite of what a majority of songwriters say about their music which tends to come from a personal place. Can you expand on that thought and how it ties into your album Head Above Tide?
A: When I first started songwriting, I was in my early 20’s. Still amassing life experience, the lyrics I wrote reflected visceral moments, not the big picture. After a few years of writing in this style, I penned a tune which foreshadowed a new direction in my art. This song “Blank Page” describes an emerging weariness of my angst and a desire to fill the page with something anew. From the ashes of this realization, I discovered a parallel between my path and the ones around me. I began to distill stories from others in vastly different conditions than my own. Their feelings of anger, joy and sadness soon became mine as well. I stumbled upon this common thread well into the project and was motivated to follow it through to the end. Although it feels wonderful to have people enjoying the music from this album, I hope its stories can also inspire empathy. Goodness knows we need more of it in the world.
Q: Your album took around five years to complete. Can you talk about the creative process?
A: As an independent artist, I’m essentially a one-man shop so I had to devise the album creation in phases. I spent about two years writing songs and compiling the cream of the crop. A testing ground for this material became the NYC subway, where I performed sets regularly to a varied demographic. Once I had a good number of tunes, I began fleshing out arrangements by layering sampler instruments upon a scratch track. In a couple of songs and also in the two instrumental pieces, I found my initial arrangements strong enough to mix for the album. To prep the remaining material, I spent six months rehearsing the rhythm section and used Top of the World Studios, a wonderful space in Yorktown Heights, NY, to record two live sessions. Instrumental and vocal overdubs took another six months while I spent the interim at my home studio on editing and adding post-production effects. When we finished overdubbing, I rough mixed the album in my monitoring environment and headed back to Top of the World to finalized the track EQ and level adjustments. Art Halperin, the studio owner, and Barry Diament lent their golden ears to this last run through. Barry then took care of the mastering on his optimized system while I tweaked a few track faders to streamline his process. Mixing and mastering took the final six months of what became a half-decade of work! It all came together seamlessly at the end, though it took more than a little faith to get there.
Q: It seems as if you had a fun time experimenting in the studio as well. What was that experience like and can you talk about some of the techniques utilized to get the sound you were going for?
A: As much as it was great fun, the process was a learning experience for me as both a musician and a producer. Unlike most modern studios, Top of the World Studios provides one acoustically treated space shared by both musicians and the recording engineer. The lack of isolation amongst instruments ensures a solid line of communication visually and sonically. A stereo mic array is placed roughly in the center of the room, which picks up all the acoustic instruments and amps present. A few spot mics are also set by the snare drum and percussion to allow some flexibility during mixing. Sometimes we wanted the choice to make mixing decisions separately for an instrument. Only the ones that could plug in directly into the sequencer (e.g. bass, electric guitar and keyboard) had the ability to be recorded directly from their outputs, and those had their own track. For the first session, we laid down a live performance of drums, percussion and acoustic guitar; with bass, MIDI piano and rhythm electric guitar being recorded direct simultaneously. This initial session really contributed to the album’s live feel. Using the same room for overdubs, we then set down vocals, backups, sax, as well as re-amps of any directly recorded instruments. To describe re-amping, we would take the track and feed it back into the room via a guitar speaker. The resulting sound would then be recaptured by the mic array. Lead guitars parts, which were laid down by multiple people remotely, lent themselves well to this process, as re-amping was a fantastic way of bringing those performances into the same space. Any digitally rendered effects were summed in Logic Pro while analog pedals were added to the signal output before reaching the guitar speaker. In contrast, keyboards and sampler instruments were not re-amped; I opted to simulate Art’s studio using a convolution reverb aurally imaged from his room.
The backup vocals provided an interesting challenge to record and mix. We first set them down with lead vocal to get a live feel. Then, the backup vocalists performed a number of takes without me. During the mixing phase, we had the ability to layer multiple takes of backup vocals upon the lead, which created the effect of a miniature choir.
Q: I felt like there was a theatrical element to your music. I might be off here but if this is the case how would you say it manifests in your music?
A: It’s a valid observation; many folks have noticed this aspect even though I do not intrinsically seek out musical theater. Many popular artists, though perhaps not many of the current ilk, have this element in their writing as well. If you think about it, the genesis of blues and folk music comes from storytelling and an effective lyric cannot help but bring a listener into its narrative. Once a songwriter develops this narrative and builds an emotional arc, the result can easily be adapted into a libretto. Regarding my performance style, I do find my voice regularly expressing a pathos which can easily be acted out, though I am often not conscious of it. I now think of the artists I’ve regularly listened to over the years; David Bowie, Talking Heads, The Kinks, Bob Dylan, Joni Mitchell, Arcade Fire, Sara Bareilles and Pink Floyd to name a few; and hear a “vision” to their sound which can be brought to a dramatic art form quite effortlessly.
Q: What else can we expect from you in the not too distant future?
A: In the next year or so, I plan to release a couple of EPs of my instrumental music. One will be modern synthesized compositions and the other will be more classically inspired content. I also plan to release a compilation of favorite covers, which I’ll also publish as a performance series on the streaming platforms. Finally, taking advantage of my theatrical side, I am collaborating with my “partner in crime” Lisa Trenary, as she has envisioned a dramatic story set to my songs. This staged project should be loads of fun to pull together over the next few years.
By the way, I’d like to thank you for this unique opportunity to talk about my music. I really appreciate the work you’ve been doing for independent artists on Divide and Conquer and I’m excited to keep you all in the loop as the new projects come to fruition.
A: As much as it was great fun, the process was a learning experience for me as both a musician and a producer. Unlike most modern studios, Top of the World Studios provides one acoustically treated space shared by both musicians and the recording engineer. The lack of isolation amongst instruments ensures a solid line of communication visually and sonically. A stereo mic array is placed roughly in the center of the room, which picks up all the acoustic instruments and amps present. A few spot mics are also set by the snare drum and percussion to allow some flexibility during mixing. Sometimes we wanted the choice to make mixing decisions separately for an instrument. Only the ones that could plug in directly into the sequencer (e.g. bass, electric guitar and keyboard) had the ability to be recorded directly from their outputs, and those had their own track. For the first session, we laid down a live performance of drums, percussion and acoustic guitar; with bass, MIDI piano and rhythm electric guitar being recorded direct simultaneously. This initial session really contributed to the album’s live feel. Using the same room for overdubs, we then set down vocals, backups, sax, as well as re-amps of any directly recorded instruments. To describe re-amping, we would take the track and feed it back into the room via a guitar speaker. The resulting sound would then be recaptured by the mic array. Lead guitars parts, which were laid down by multiple people remotely, lent themselves well to this process, as re-amping was a fantastic way of bringing those performances into the same space. Any digitally rendered effects were summed in Logic Pro while analog pedals were added to the signal output before reaching the guitar speaker. In contrast, keyboards and sampler instruments were not re-amped; I opted to simulate Art’s studio using a convolution reverb aurally imaged from his room.
The backup vocals provided an interesting challenge to record and mix. We first set them down with lead vocal to get a live feel. Then, the backup vocalists performed a number of takes without me. During the mixing phase, we had the ability to layer multiple takes of backup vocals upon the lead, which created the effect of a miniature choir.
Q: I felt like there was a theatrical element to your music. I might be off here but if this is the case how would you say it manifests in your music?
A: It’s a valid observation; many folks have noticed this aspect even though I do not intrinsically seek out musical theater. Many popular artists, though perhaps not many of the current ilk, have this element in their writing as well. If you think about it, the genesis of blues and folk music comes from storytelling and an effective lyric cannot help but bring a listener into its narrative. Once a songwriter develops this narrative and builds an emotional arc, the result can easily be adapted into a libretto. Regarding my performance style, I do find my voice regularly expressing a pathos which can easily be acted out, though I am often not conscious of it. I now think of the artists I’ve regularly listened to over the years; David Bowie, Talking Heads, The Kinks, Bob Dylan, Joni Mitchell, Arcade Fire, Sara Bareilles and Pink Floyd to name a few; and hear a “vision” to their sound which can be brought to a dramatic art form quite effortlessly.
Q: What else can we expect from you in the not too distant future?
A: In the next year or so, I plan to release a couple of EPs of my instrumental music. One will be modern synthesized compositions and the other will be more classically inspired content. I also plan to release a compilation of favorite covers, which I’ll also publish as a performance series on the streaming platforms. Finally, taking advantage of my theatrical side, I am collaborating with my “partner in crime” Lisa Trenary, as she has envisioned a dramatic story set to my songs. This staged project should be loads of fun to pull together over the next few years.
By the way, I’d like to thank you for this unique opportunity to talk about my music. I really appreciate the work you’ve been doing for independent artists on Divide and Conquer and I’m excited to keep you all in the loop as the new projects come to fruition.