A word with Rocky Votolato
Start with a dash of folk. Pepper in some elements of punk, blended with indievibes. Then, coat everything with sweet, decadent narratives and you've got a taste of Rocky Votolato's sound.
Hailing from the solid music underground of the Pacific Northwest, Rocky has explored quite a breadth of music styles throughout his career. Past projects, such as Waxwing, radiated post-hardcore vibes, while his solo work channels more of a singer-songwriter persona. His latest release, Hospital Handshakes, tactfully features a blend of both worlds. The first half starts out strong with fueled riffs; the second undresses its aggressive tones, taking a stripped down sort of route.
Rocky will be stopping by The Independent in San Francisco on August 26 -- the last stepping stone until he makes his way for his homecoming shows. We recently had the pleasure of catching up with him to discuss his upcoming Bay Area performance, his new album, and anything else music.
AGGIE UNDERGROUND: HOW’S TOUR SO FAR?
Rocky Votolato: We’re all having a really good time every day!
COOL! I’M GLAD TO HEAR IT’S GOING WELL. SO WE’RE DOING A PREVIEW OF YOUR SAN FRANCISCO SHOW AND I WAS WONDERING: IS THERE ANYTHING IN PARTICULAR YOU’RE LOOKING FORWARD TO ABOUT PLAYING IN THE CITY?
Yeah! You know, I love it there. I’ve never headlined at The Independent before, so I’m looking forward to that in particular. It’s such a beautiful venue. And I just always love getting back to San Francisco; it’s such a cool city and the nice thing, too, is that I would be on tour for seven weeks at that point, and then I just have two more shows. I would go from San Francisco to Portland and Seattle, so it would be nice to get home after this really long tour and I always love coming up the west coast to bring the record out to people.
I HAVE A QUESTION ABOUT HOSPITAL HANDSHAKES, WHICH I NOTICED EXPLORES QUITE A BREADTH OF EMOTIONS – NOT JUST LYRICALLY, BUT ALSO MELODICALLY. LIKE SOME TRACKS ARE FULL OF ENERGY WHILE OTHERS ARE STRIPPED DOWN. COULD YOU SHARE A LITTLE BIT ABOUT WHAT WAS GOING ON IN YOUR CREATIVE PROCESS AT THE TIME, LIKE WHAT INSPIRED SUCH VERSATILE EMOTIONS?
Yeah. That’s a good question. I think, basically, I was coming off a period of not writing much for the last two years. Like before I wrote all of the songs for this record, I was kind of in a creative block. I was a little ran down from touring and I wasn’t sure which direction I was going to take. I think I was overthinking everything as far as the creative process goes and just being a little too critical and too much of a perfectionist. So last summer, that all changed and I churned out like thirty songs in a two-month period. I really think it was a change of perspective about how I looked at the process and writing and just being less hard on myself and having more fun and just letting it happen.
AND YOU RECORDED WITH CHRIS WALLA, YES?
WAS THE RECORDING PROCESS FOR HOSPITAL HANDSHAKES DIFFERENT FROM PAST ONES IN ANY WAY?
Yeah, we made a record together in 2003 – my third album. I called him up when I was thinking about which producer I wanted to work with for this record. I was hoping we would have a similar kind of experience ‘cause it was really easy to work together back then and it was fun. I knew I wanted to make this record kind of fast because I had been overthinking the process. So I wanted everything to move kind of quicker and to be more impulsive. So we ended up making the record in a little less than three weeks, which is way different from how I’ve made my last albums, which took anything from six months plus because of editing and redoing takes. This time, we were all about capturing the energy quickly. And we recorded through tape, which [Walla] is really good at, so that was fun for me.
YOUR LYRICS HAVE VERY STRONG NARRATIVES TO THEM. ALONGSIDE MUSICAL INFLUENCES, DO YOU HAVE LITERARY INFLUENCES AS WELL THAT HAVE REALLY INFLUENCED YOUR WRITING VOICE?
Absolutely! I feel like sometimes the literary influences are stronger than the musical ones, because I went to school for English literature and got my Bachelor’s degree from the University of Washington and that’s definitely something I have a passion for. I relate to music through the lyrics a lot. There’s a guy named Rainer Maria Rilke who really had an impact on what I wrote for [Hospital Handshakes]. And some other big poets – Allen Ginsberg is one who’s always had an influence on me. Shel Silverstein, which you know everyone loves his stuff. Yeah, so that kind of writing has definitely been influential on the way I approach music and how I relate to the art form.
To close off the interview, we talked a little bit about college (since our readership is largely college folks) being sort of an awkward transitional period, and how music helps a lot of students get by. We then asked Rocky what artists or songs have really touched him:
I really like this album by The Killers called Sam’s Town. It’s really helped me through hard times, especially when I was writing Hospital Handshakes. It’s just such a great record. My favorite song off that record is “This River is Wild,” and it just hits me really hard. I really relate to this lyrics. It takes a minute; some of it is a little obscure, but if you take the time to listen to what he’s saying—I don’t know—for me I really related it to my life. And it made a lot of sense in terms of inspiration to keep going despite the challenges.
Follow Rocky on Facebook and Twitter and check out Hospital Handshakes here.
For ticketing information for Rocky’s San Francisco show, click here.
Article by Rianna Catajan. Photo by Amber Zbitnoff.
