::THESOULCIALISTA EXCLUSIVE:: THE VIDEO PREMIERE OF ANNABETH MCNAMARA'S "SURPRISE"

::THESOULCIALISTA EXCLUSIVE:: THE VIDEO PREMIERE OF ANNABETH MCNAMARA'S "SURPRISE"
by Daniel Harris

Last August, we asked you to "Get Familiar" with up and coming artist Annabeth McNamara. A recipient of the House Artist Grant, McNamara released her album, "Surprise" as part of the grant. Her natural talent, her ability to write and create complex lyrics and her level of skill as a musician and singer are all testaments to House Studio's ability to work with wonderful artists.

Today, Annabeth releases the official music video for her album's title track, Surprise." Recently, we had an opportunity to speak with Annabeth about her music, her experience with House Studio and how she developed the imaginative concept for her video.

TheSoulcialista: You released your album, "Surprise," as part of the House Studio's Artist Grant Program. Could you talk about the experience of recording your album, specifically, recording it with the help of House Studio.

Annabeth McNamara: I affectionately refer to my week at House Studio as "The Beyonce Treatment." I went from being a solo singer-songwriter to being THE STAR with a team of producers and songwriters and videographers, as well as state-of-the-art facilities at my disposal.

It was disconcerting and exhilarating to have over a dozen people gather together to make my dream album come into reality. What still seems crazy is that we fit it into a week. They put the pedal to the medal over there and stay on schedule no matter what. I regret that I didn't have more time to tinker with the songs and perfect them, but now it's just part of the aesthetic of the album. The seven songs turned out extremely well polished, with a few rough edges. I can relate to that kind of beauty as a human being.

The recording part happened really fast-- maybe because I have spent a good bit of time laying down tracks already on my previous albums and on other projects. It was fun writing lyrics to songs I didn't write, although writing lyrics with a co-writer turned out to be difficult for me. The week was all about STRETCHING for me-- trying new things, and going further than ever before. It was my biggest highlight of the year, and I would do it again in a heart-beat.

I titled my album "Surprise" mainly because I dreamed of creating a killer-quality album with pop aspects, but never ever thought it could happen because it would be so expensive. When I won the grant, and then it turned out to be even better than I imagined, it was all this crazy-big surprise.

TS: Now you are set to release a video for one of the songs on your album. Could you tell us a little bit more about the song, "Surprise?" When you wrote it, what message or feeling were you trying to convey through the song?

AM: When I moved back from France to the United States, it wasn't a very empowered choice. Life circumstances convened to bring me back to my home state, and when I moved to Charlottesville, it was with a lot of uncertainty and regret and a good dose of heart-break. I kept questioning if I was in the right place, doing the right things. 

Then one day an artist friend invited me on a bicycle ride. He showed me paintings made by rust, passionflowers blooming in an abandoned corner, a river flowing under the road that you could lean in and hear flowing through the gutter grate. He's from another country, so all of these details were absolutely enchanting to him. In that moment, I felt a new appreciation for mundane life blossom. He reminded me beauty is all around if you open your eyes to it.

While at the studio, when it came time to write the song, I took that feeling of promise and hope and beauty and wove it into a love song. Though more than a traditional love song, really it's an ode to a city, to a new chapter, to a new possibility of falling in love with my own life, as it is.

This song, and really the entire recording experience, is about how life can surprise you. You can think you've got it all figured out, what you want out of life and what's going to make you happy. But Life with a capital "L" can take you on a whole new trajectory, whether you like it or not. And it's up to you and your mind-set whether it's an exciting adventure or a harrowing tragedy.  

Surprise, to me is, is about what buddhists call a Begginner's Mind-- not getting attached to past experience and success to define how much you enjoy the present or stay open to the possibility of the future.

It's a song about giving in to hope-- sure, you don't know if this little bit of flirting is going to turn into your soul mate, but why not enjoy the moment?

TS:  House Studio producer David Knox was very instrumental in helping to create the song. Could you tell us about that process and experience? The process and experience of creating a new song, specifically creating with another artist/producer. 

AM: So, as a recording artist, when I hear a really good song, it hurts. I just sort of ache to be able to craft something so perfect-- that harmonious blend of lyrics and melodies and beats and chords, into something whole and wholly magical-- a song that resonates and gets stuck in people's head. It's gotten so bad that I prefer to listen to ambient electronica so it doesn't have this effect on me.

One such marvelous song is "Little Numbers" by BOY. It's a song about new love, as the singer is waiting for this guy to call her back and is filled with that blissed-out anticipation that is probably just a heady concoction of hormones. There is this simple piano riff, some great percussion, and a build to it that just gets me high when I hear it. 

The amazing thing about the House Studio experience is that they offered the opportunity to craft something as close to my favorite song as possible, except it would be my own lyrics and voice. David Knox was the producer on that song, so he set about creating the music before he even met me, based on the song by BOY. 

This may seem like creative theft at first glance, but you've got to realize that all artists are being influenced by their preferences. Art influences art. What that means is, when we find an artwork that we adore, it can become our next target mark-- just one of many gravitational pulls on our career arc. We can either let the osmosis happen subconsciously, or we can consciously step up to the plate and start to craft something as similar as possible. The beauty of the second approach is that while you set out to reproduce a sound, you can never possibly copy it-- my music is just too ME to ever sound exactly like BOY.  

My experience working with David Knox is that he has this mystical musical power deep inside. He puts on his head phones and stares at that screen and just dives waaaaaay into the music. He starts weaving all these elements in a genius way that when you hear it, it's MOVING. I get this image of swimming through an ocean made of outer space and stars, and he's just reaching around, weaving galaxies together and spinning stars into complex constellations. 

So yeah, he listened to Little Numbers a bunch and came up with the music for Surprise. I took it home, found a melody and jotted down some lyrics, and recorded them that night at the studio. He took my vocals, dove into that sacred musical space, and came out with what you hear. We worked together a little bit to make it more dynamic, and presto! We had our own frankenstein song. 

At first, it was my favorite song on the album. I made it the first and title track! Then I started to have my doubts because like most songs where I didn't write the music, I had a hard time really feeling it. But when I asked people which song they thought would be best for the music video, it was this song, hands-down. Can't argue with the crowd!

TS:  For the visuals, how did you come up with its concept?

AM: At first, it was just myself and the film couple. We would get together, giddy about working together, and then come up against the same wall-- we knew that we needed a good story, we just didn't know what that story would be. 

Then one day, I was strolling around a craft and vintage flea market and ran into a life-size pink deer made of tissue paper and paper machee. I knew I wanted HIM to be the star of the video. Or someone like him.  He happened to be a sculpture made by artist Jesse Fiest. Jesse is a highly-inspired, high-energy gal. I gave her my album and professed a love for her artwork, and she took the ball and ran with it. 

She came up with a bunch of possible plot lines. It wasn't long before we were batting odd little animal ideas around between Jesse, myself, and the filmmakers. We latched onto the idea of an animal dating site because it elicited the most giggles during our discussion. The rest of the story unfolded from there. Pretty much whatever sounded like the most fun, we went with that.

TS: Finally, what is the main thing that you would like your audience to take away from this video?

AM: Well, I didn't consciously put any kind of message into the film. But looking at it now, I am reminded of the time I took a bird-ecology class in college. At the end of the course, I was gazing out at this beautiful white egret on a lake in Arizona. We had just spent three months studying the complexity of bird behavior and their miraculous abilities.  I had come to understand that birds are just as intelligent as humans in different ways.

I think of them as extra-terrestrials, meaning that they aren't bound to the Earth, and their ways can be quite alien. But they are just as sentient and deserving of respect as people, because we have been co-evolving together on this planet for the same amount of time. 

As the class was ending, I was struck deeply by the need to communicate FOR these beautiful, mysterious creatures. If you're familiar with Dr. Seuss' book, "The Lorax," you'll know he says, "I speak for the trees." I became resolved in that moment to speak for the birds, who can sing, albeit not in our language. That one difference has made it so they have vastly reduced habitat and are threatened by all kinds of pollution.

Birds go through their life cycle, find mates, love and raise their chicks, and go on marvelous migratory adventures. The males practice and perfect their songs to impress the females, and molt to don handsome, colorful "tuxedos" in the spring, which fade into duller colors once they've wooed their mate successfully. I have nothing but awe and respect for birds, and can't wait for everyone else to see them as part of our extended family on this precious planet.

All this waxing poetic about birds aside, I think the main message that the filmmaking team wanted to get across is the idea that we often try to change ourselves to gain the approval of others, especially a mate. But actually, it is our true selves that the other glimpses when they feel that spark of romantic interest, and by being ourselves, they can fall better love with us.

Watch the official music video for "Surprise." Annabeth McNamara's album, Surprise, is available now on iTunes and Amazon.