In this lonely landscape of modern pop country, Lynda Kay carries the torch for the heartbroken and fills the void with 12 fully orchestrated original compositions that conjure the ghosts of classic country’s past.
Born and raised in Texas, Lynda Kay's songwriting style was strongly influenced by other great Lone Star State artists such as Roy Orbison and Willie Nelson. Her rare contralto voice has also been compared to such classic vocalists as Patsy Cline, Kitty Wells, and Karen Carpenter.
'Dream My Darling' is the single and title track from Lynda Kay’s debut album. The full album is now available and was produced by Mike Butler of The Boxmasters, features her deeply resonant voice, twangy Gretsch guitar, and includes the duet “All I Ever Wanted” with Billy Bob Thornton.
I discovered Lynda Kay Parker's music on MySpace sometime last year. I was amazed by her talent. She really has a special gift. Check out her video in this blog. I love her visual style as much as her musical style!
AM: Hello Lynda Kay. I must tell you that I don't get that excited anymore but you bring excitement with your music! What is your goal with your music?
LK: The goal with my music is to make people feel good again when they listen to a song. That's really the point of it all. It is supposed to be something that takes you somewhere emotionally. I like songs that reflect true emotion, so even though you may be feeling sad there is a lot of hope beyond that sadness. I like to focus on those kinds of emotional subjects.
AM: Who are some of your musical influences?
LK: Patsy Cline, Roy Orbison, Johnny Cash, Willie Nelson, Tammy Wynette, Dolly Parton, Wanda Jackson, and Kitty Wells, just to name a few.
AM: I hear all of them in your music. Have you been around a while?
LK: I have been doing this a long time. I have had a good and happy life and that contributes a lot. I have played with the Lonesome Spurs for several years. I've been doing this for as long as I can remember.
AM: Do you think that the social networks are helping get the word out more now?
LK: It does feel like that. I think there is something really appealing about the title track, 'Dream My Darling' that I wrote with my wonderful husband Johnny Coffin. I think it resonates with a lot of people because we think it is the hybrid of Patsy Cline and Roy Orbison. Patsy was such a heartfelt songstress and Roy Orbison was the same way but he was also a writer and he chose really interesting and odd chord progressions. They both really speak to me as artists.
AM: When will your album be out?
LK: We are figuring that out right now but it looks like it will be February of 2010.
Chicago-based composer/producer/performer Rob Kleiner received a degree studying music composition and philosophy at Eastern Illinois University. Rob has been traveling the world playing his compositions with various groups. He has performed on stage as a member of many underground mainstays such as Tub Ring, Mindless Self Indulgence, Super 8 Bit Brothers, Blue Meanies, Daiquiri, and The Baltimores. In addition, he has collaborated artistically on recordings with such notables as Trey Spruance (Mr. Bungle), and Billy Gould (Faith No More).
Currently Rob is working for hire scoring films and writing music for television and video games, as well as offering songwriting and remixes for other artists. There is also Studio Edison, a fully equipped recording studio ready to record anyone interested in be produced by Rob.
I met Rob while he was visiting Los Angeles for the opening of "Stuck!" the movie he scored for Steve Balderson. After hearing the music in the film I went home and downloaded it immediately. Rob is a major talent and I predict he will be very successful for a long time! We took photos and talked in downtown LA for this blog.
AM: Hello Rob, I just learned who you are and about your work from hearing your music in the film, "Stuck!" How did you get involved with Steve Balderson?
RK: It's like anything else in the arts. You have to hound a bunch of directors and for every hundred that say no you get the one that says yes. I was really interested in a couple of Steve's earlier films. I already worked with him on his previous film, "Watch Out" and I guess he liked my work enough to hire me again.
AM: He told me he was never going to work with anybody else.
RK: WOO! That's good news.
AM: Didn't you have mutual friends?
RK: I play in a band with a guy who did a review on "Firecracker" so that's how we met. I was aware of who he was before that.
AM: You are classically trained aren't you?
RK: That's a shifty term, but technically yes I am.
AM: Are you collage degreed?
RK: I have a degree in philosophy and I minored in music. I studied a lot of music in college but I didn't get my degree in it. There was only so much training in theory and classical training that I really wanted to take. That stuff is awesome but for me I like doing my own thing better.
AM: What bands are you in?
RK: I play for a bunch of different bands. My rock band is called 'Tub Ring' and one is called 'Super 8-Bit Brothers' which is an all video game band. I also play for a band called 'Mindless Self Indulgence' and they are pretty big. I'm just kind of a hired guy for them.
AM: So what's your favorite kind of music?
RK: That's a tough question. I love film music. Some of my favorite film composers are Ennio Morricone and I really like Henry Mancini. I also love pop music. Serge Gainsbourg is one of my favorite artists. Of the people today I really love Beck. I like people that do innovative stuff with pop. I guess my roots are in a vaunt guard stuff. I tend to like a little bit of the weird sounds.
AM: Do you think you will ever move out of Chicago?
RK: I would love to move. Visiting LA now is making me think about it. Things are going really good in Chicago right now as far as making money with music is concerned. If I would have had this trip last summer when things were really slow I would probably have moved out here.
AM: What is different now?
RK: Right now for some reason things are going awesome at my recording studio. My client base has quintupled in the last month. Sometimes I wonder if I'm missing career opportunities not being here. I guess that is the ultimate struggle. Where is the best place I can be to maximize what I want to do? I have to keep thinking about it.
AM: Let it unfold. Do you have other music for sale besides the "Stuck!" soundtrack?
RK: Yes I think you can get the "Watch Out" score the same place as "Stuck!" and my rock bands have CD's in stores and they are real easy to find. You can google my name and find everything.
I can tell you from first hand experience there are few things more exciting than receiving a phone call from the fabulously talented and beautiful Bebe Buell. For those not in the know, Miss Buell is a unique and interesting musician who is just as famous for her modeling days and for being the mother of Actress Liv Tyler. She has lived an exciting and well documented life among all the icons and legends of rock n' roll, so much so that she is one herself.
Her newest release called "SUGAR" is one of the best records I have ever heard. She plans to start touring in the Spring. She called me up on Valentines weekend to discuss the making of the record and to plan a photo session with me when she comes to Los Angeles. Luckily I had my recorder handy so I can share our conversation with you. Bebe supplied me with these live shots from a recent performance and her CD cover. Check out the great video of Bebe performing the title cut at the Hiro Ballroom in New York. She'll be back on this blog after we do the photos and she plays Los Angeles.
AM: I am so excited that you went through the trouble to release "SUGAR."
BB: Thank you.
AM: I can tell it comes from your soul.
BB: Yes I worked really hard on that record. It was a long time coming too.
AM: How long did you work on it?
BB: It's been pent up inside me for years and years. It was sort of a release. I needed to get it out of my system.
AM: One of the things I believe about you is that you are a musician from the very core of your being.
BB: Well thank you. I think I got a little side tracked in my youth. Imagery was so much more important in the 70's. The first thing you do is the thing you're remembered for. I've always thought people should be multi-faceted and do many things and wear many hats. It never dawned on me that coming to New York as a young model would hinder or distract me from achieving my dreams. It became shocking to me to hear some of the labels people throw at you. You don't know if you're supposed to be defensive or roll with the punches. I don't like to sit back and let things go without trying to make them right. I've always been a little bit of a fighter.
AM: I can tell that from reading your biography "Rebel Heart."
BB: As far as my book goes, I was never 100% happy with that. I wrote the book with another person. It's not completely my voice. He wasn't a ghost writer he was a co-writer. That girl in 'Rebel Heart' is not completely me. She's me with a lot of testosterone. So when I do another book someday, I am going to do it on my own.
AM: You have what it takes to do that.
BB: The thing about my book was I didn't pursue a publishing deal. What happened was in 1998 an agent approached me and he said it was time for my autobiography. He said he knew several publishers that would be interested. At first I balked at it. People had been asking me for twenty years to write a book. I didn't think I had lived enough life to write an autobiography.
AM: But you went ahead and did it.
BB: He was a very convincing agent obviously. He convinced me that it was a good idea so I dove in. I get a lot of letters from women who were helped by my book. It's the story of a girl who did many things but her heart was really in one place the whole time. I don't know if it comes off that way but I've got my fingers crossed.
AM: It does come off that way. The music is first.
BB: It absolutely does come first. I embrace everything else about my life that is important. My daughter, my grandson, my husband, my dogs, my friends, are all so important to me. Those people know me and they know I needed to get this record done. I'm very fortunate that I have people around me that support that. Bobby and Jim went into the studio and created all that music for me around my lyrics. I really owe a lot to them because I don't know if it would have happened the same way. It was a resurrection for me. It really went well because of their support.
AM: Are you getting ready to tour the United States?
BB: Oh absolutely. We're trying to find an actual home for my record. Right now it's out digitally. You can buy it on I-tunes and Amazon. We have labels that actually want to put a physical record out and it's very exciting. We're talking to three different people right now. We're actually making a decision. It's going to be decided in the next few weeks. We'll know exactly where it's going to land. It's all indie's, not a major label. They are very cool indie labels. They get product in stores. That's really all that is important.
AM: Downloading is the most important now.
BB: Yes downloading is important and I wanted to do a lot of groundwork. I wanted to do all the pre-work, the pre-promotion. We've even got a few radio stations that are playing 'Sugar.' It seems to be a favorite, a track that everyone is embracing, so that will be the single.
AM: Seems like you've done well so far.
BB: I'm just going to keep forging forward. We're definitely going to be in LA to showcase. One of the labels we're talking to is LA based. We're looking at May.
AM: I'm going to keep my fingers crossed.
BB: I'm very excited about that. I haven't played LA since 1998!
AM: That's too long.
BB: (Laughing) Yes it is. The act I was doing in 1998 was very different than what I'm doing now, which is a lot more mystical, atmospheric, biographical. I did kick ass rock n' roll in your face for years. You would come to one of my shows, get beat to a pulp, and you'd go home happy. I still throw a couple of kick ass songs in for my fans who like that part of me as an entertainer. I'll always have that side. It takes a lot of conviction to perform these songs because they are very emotionally draining and deep. They affect me every single time I perform them.
AM: I believe that! I can tell you are coming from some place deep. They are not songs to sing along to.
BB: No, no, no it's a very important step for me. There is something profound going on. I just let the Universe guide me. I don't want to sound nutty to people and talk about divine intervention. I have no idea where songs come from. They just sort of happen. They bestow themselves upon me. They are little gifts.
AM: I love every single song on your record. There isn't one that is less than another. It's one of those rare records that is divine from the opening note to the closing note.
BB: Thank you so much. I am so happy because that's what we were going for. I just performed at the Hiro Ballroom in New York and played the whole album live from beginning to end. I wondered if everybody would be able to focus on that for a performance because not everybody in the audience knows the record. I was very surprised with all the girls in the front that knew all the words. There is a power to downloading.
AM: One song that stays in my brain is the second cut, "Love Is."
BB: Oh thank you. That's one of my favorite cuts to perform. It's very challenging to sing. It's not easy to sing. It comes from a deep chakra so you have to find all your air and let it rip. There's no hocus pocus on that record. I do straight vocals with no over-dubbing.
AM: Your voice is a magnificent instrument.
BB: I'm a contra-alto. I have been since I was a young child. When I went to Catholic school I sung in the choir. I'll never forget the Mother Superior trying to make me a soprano in the 6th grade. It just didn't work. I was the only alto. I knew I didn't have a Mariah Carey sort of songbird voice. I knew it wasn't going to be a voice where everyone would go, "Oh that woman can really sing!" I knew some people were going to love it and some people were going to hate it. My style of singing comes from how I feel. People who have seen me live say I never do the song the same way twice. You get something from my heart, that's for sure.
AM: That makes you authentic. You are a real musician.
BB: I don't have dancers on stage or go up there scantily clad. I'm old-fashioned. I believe when you get on stage you should give the audience what you have to give them. There should be no distractions. I have synergy with my band. We are so tight.
AM: Is this the band you will tour with?
BB: Yes absolutely. I am living my dream. I'll be honest with you. It's really fun and rewarding to have worked as many years as I have. I've been knocked around a little bit but I keep surfacing. I don't let people sink me. I'm one of those annoying inner tubes that never runs out of air! One of the things I am loving about the industry right now is that ageism seems to be dissipating. People want to see an authentic performance. They don't seem to care how old the person is or what color the person is or where they're from. They want a "real" offering so that's what I try to do. I have no qualms about letting people know how thrilled I am to be up there and how happy it makes me to do this.
AM: That is what sets you apart. It comes through in all your artistry.
BB: I want people to feel renewed when they leave the show. From the reactions I am getting it seems like people are leaving my show happy and exhausted. They think about it for days later which is all I can ask for as an entertainer.
AM: That's very rewarding.
BB: I like hearing from people two weeks later and they tell me they are still high off the gig. I love getting those emails. That makes me really happy.
AM: Will you be in Los Angeles a few days?
BB: Of course. My daughter is bi-coastal right now so I have been out there a couple of times. She's been making a movie in New Orleans but she'll be here in New York this next week. The next trip to LA will be for the show but we'll time it so I can be there for a few days. I would love to do a photo session with you.
AM: I would love that so much! You are one of the world's leading beauties.
BB: Beauty gets us a lot of places when we're young but it doesn't sustain you in later life. Your beauty can only go so far. Beauty changes. Beauty evolves. As you get older it becomes a different thing. I'm one of those people that is not at all afraid of age. I don't need to be perfect. It doesn't scare me. I'm trying my best to give myself to people as I am. I do have a very young girl fan base which is exciting. I like having all the young girls. They remind me of when I was a young girl and I wanted to see Eartha Kitt or Wanda Jackson, all the great female performers. I didn't get to New York until 1972 so I missed a lot of the fun!
AM: You are extra special to call me!
BB: I was very moved by one of the blogs you did. I think we always meet the people we are supposed to meet. We connect with people who's art that we admire. I think that's what it turns out to be, just a big art exchange. We help each other when we admire each other's work.
AM: It's the best way to live.
BB: I think it's really important. I don't sit around and dwell on this, but one of the things I miss about the 70's is the groups of artists getting together. There would be every type of artist and everybody hung out together. We all treated each other like artists.
AM: That must have been fun. I can't wait until May when you are in LA.
BB: Me too. I can't wait to meet you and do a photo session.
Film maker Steve Balderson was raised in Wamego, Kansas until the age of twelve, when his family moved to Manhattan, Kansas. He attended Manhatten High School and graduated a semester early, ahead of his peers. He refused to walk to the stage and accept his diploma, opting out of the graduation ceremony altogether. The administration asked if he would like his diploma mailed to him. He responded, "I'll never need it."
Balderson attended film school at California Institute of the Arts, where he directed six full-length digital movies. After months of working one-on-one with his dean, Steve decided he was ready to leave CalArts without graduating.
After leaving CalArts in 1996, Steve returned to Kansas and directed his debut feature film. 'Pep Squad' satirized and predicted American school violence prior to the horrific series of school shootings. After the era of school violence ended in the United States, 'Pep Squad' was released on DVD. In November 2009, Steve sold distribution rights for 'Pep Squad' and it will be re-released this year.
Balderson’s award-winning second feature film, 'Firecracker,' starring Karen Black was released theatrically in 2005 to sold out audiences in a first-ever "Freak Show Tour" supervised by Landmark Theatres, the nation’s largest art house chain. Preeminent film critic Roger Ebert called it "Brilliant" and named 'Firecracker' on his list of the year's best films.
'Firecracker' premiered at London’s Raindance Film Festival, to sold out crowds, where it won a Jury Prize nomination for Best Picture. It also won numerous awards on the festival circuit worldwide including: Best Picture, Best Cinematography, Best Actress for Karen Black, and Steve Balderson won the 2005 Domani Vision Award for emerging talent at Tribeca’s Visionfest. Balderson's next film 'Watch Out' premiered at the Raindance Film Festival in London as well.
'Watch Out' is the story of Jonathan Barrows, a man who falls in love with himself. He is attracted to his own body, carries out an erotic relationship with a blow-up doll that resembles him, and takes pleasure in rejecting the advances of male and female admirers. He descends into a world of carnivorous priests and Prozac-popping Polish prostitutes and eventually assassinates the world's most popular pop diva. Sounds fun doesn't it?
'Stuck!' is Steve Balderson’s homage to film noir women-in-prison films. The movie, photographed in black and white, was produced in Macon, Georgia, during April and May of 2009. Again 'Stuck!' premiered at the 2009 Raindance Film Festival in London, England. Currently on the festival circuit, the film is an official selection of the 2010 Macon Film Festival and the 2010 Boston Underground Film Festival.
Balderson’s attention to detail and strong work ethic is chronicled in the award-winning documentary series WAMEGO. Wamego: Making Movies Anywhere was released in 2004 on DVD, Making Movies Anywhere won Best Film at the 2005 Fox Film Festival and the 2004 Kan Festival Award. Wamego Strikes Back, the sequel to Making Movies Anywhere, was released in 2007. The third installment, Wamego: Ultimatum chronicles the making of Watch Out.
Steve Balderson was in Los Angeles this past week for the premiere of 'Stuck!' at the Egyptian Theater. Richard Levi and I were lucky enough to get a few minutes to hang out with Steve to talk about his career and get some new photos. He is humorous and down to earth, the way people from Kansas tend to be. He is also a very talented film maker that I am pleased to showcase on this blog.
AM: The first thing that comes to mind when I think of you is that you live in Kansas! What do you have to say about that?
SB: (laughing) I grew up there. I started making movies there when I was very young. I went to CalArts school out here in Los Angeles. They would give us assignments like go make a short and I always pictured places in Kansas. I would always fly home to do my projects and then fly back three or four weeks later to deliver them. The teachers would ask me where I had been since I hadn't been to class for weeks. I told them I was doing my work. I just kept this up so after I got out of school I moved back home and made my first film there.
AM: I bet making a movie in Kansas is a lot different.
SB: I grew up in a really small town of 4500 people so you can close streets off and nobody cares. There was an explosion in my first film so we called the fire department to see if they wanted to come out and they said well you know what you're doing. That would never happen here. Because it was so easy and so much cheaper we thought we could make a million dollar film for a hundred thousand dollars, so let's do that! We did that two or three times and it worked. 'Stuck!' is the first film I have made outside of Kansas.
AM: Where did you shoot it?
SB: In Macon, Georgia. Have you been to Macon?
AM: No but I have been to Georgia. What brought you to Macon?
SB: There was a film festival that honored Karen Black last year and they showed "Firecracker" so they flew me out to present the film with her. It reminded me of my hometown. It's much bigger, but it had that easy to get around town feeling. You can drive anywhere in five minutes. The people that I met were inter-connected so that if you needed something there was a network of people that could help you do that.
AM: What else did you like about Macon?
SB: They also had a bunch of gorgeous abandoned buildings. There is also a prison there. I needed to build a set because half the film is shot in a prison and the other half on the set. I needed this big empty space and my town didn't have that. So I thought I should just shoot in Macon. That is how it came about.
AM: Did you have a bigger budget for this film?
SB: Actually there was even less than my other films, but what I figured out how to do is, I operate the camera and do all the lighting myself, so I omitted some people on the crew. What I actually found is if it's just me, a sound guy, and maybe three people to help there is only five people on the crew and it is awesome. We get stuff done fast. We were two days ahead of schedule by the end. It was fun. Another thing about a small crew and only five actresses is there is only ten people so you can go to someone's house for dinner. They can donate a meal for your set.
RL: It becomes a much more intimate experience.
SB: Totally. Where as my other films had 45 people on the crew and it took six weeks to film. It was a production.
AM: You made a documentary, "Wamego: Making movies Anywhere" about the making of "Firecracker" which I have seen, thanks to you.
SB: We made a trilogy out of it. You need to see the other two.
AM: I really love that documentary and I have showed it to a lot of people who love it. It's really inspiring.
SB: Cool. Thank you.
AM: Do you plan on making movies like this forever?
SB: I do.
AM: You're not interested in million dollar budgets?
SB: If someone approaches me to direct a script I say, "If you are hiring me to be a director then I have a particular job and focus. I can do that for you. If you want me to take it on and produce it the way I know how to do it then it's a whole different thing. I don't usually get paid when I make my movies so I try to keep every dollar as low as I can. If somebody else wants to spend a million bucks on a movie and hire me then great. I'll do it. I'd love too. I've been reading about John Cassavettes and he would do that. He would work and do a big movie and then make one of his own for two hundred bucks. I kind of like that.
AM: I want to ask you about a rather controversial film you made called "Watch Out." How did that go over for you and how did the public react?
SB: It was interesting. It was sort of a test for me. It was at the point in my career when I was thinking can I really do a movie with five people? I wanted a movie that was an easier production. I thought this would be a good experiment to see if that would work. At the same time I was fed up with how the system works. I wanted to be loud, obnoxious and in your face. It was a lot of fun making it. Then when it came out the reaction was split right down the middle. To fifty percent of the people it was the greatest thing they've ever seen and the other fifty percent were walking out of the theater and throwing things at it. It's a hard movie.
RL: You got a reaction.
SB: I think that's pretty cool.
AM: I do too. Do you plan on making more movies in that style that is controversial where you might alienate fifty percent of your audience?
SB: I do, not that in your face, but I do have other projects I'm thinking about doing that are on the back burner. I tell other film makers if you want a movie to stand out you have to do something unique whether it is loud, unusual, in your face, there has to be something that sets you apart and is contrary to what everyone else is doing. I don't want to do John Waters and be shocking but I think it needs to be loud enough that people will hear it.
AM: Do you notice that you are gaining more of a reputation and more awareness of your films?
SB: Sometimes. I try to monitor people who have ordered the products from our web site or from Amazon or anywhere else. I try to make sure the mailing list is growing. I want people to still be showing interest. It kind of freaks me out sometimes, but it's good.
AM: Do you have a lot of fans?
SB: I read this article once in WIRED magazine that talked about having one thousand true fans. It stated that if you had one thousand true fans that would spend a hundred bucks a year on you then you would make a hundred thousand dollars. You don't need a million fans. You have to find your niche' and keep building that. That's what I am trying to do.
AM: I notice you work with Karen Black a lot. Is she a muse for you?
SB: I don't know if I would say she is my muse, but I when we were shooting in Macon and it was her on the bed doing this scene and me with the camera and a sound guy with only us three in the room, I looked up and I had this vision of being back in high school with just a couple friends making a movie. The only difference now was I was with people who respected their craft. It was like going out and having fun but you were making something and treating it with respect. I looked at her and said, "Karen isn't this awesome?" Karen is so great that when I am working with her, everything she does is awesome the first time she does it. She is perfect. It's not grueling at all. It is a lot of fun working with her.
AM: Do you have your next film lined up?
SB: I have a couple coming up. One is about a group of women who have a recipe club that turns into wife swapping and damaged people. I'm so excited about having something mid-century in Palm Springs with Pucci swimsuits and high heels, just those colors. Then to tell a story that is "Valley of the Dolls" heavy.
AM: Where will you film that?
SB: I'm not sure. I'm thinking I should shoot it in Palm Springs. You can rent a house for a couple of weeks and just stay in it while you film. The crew can just stay there too. It would be really fun I think.
AM: What's the other one?
SB: The other one is a screw ball comedy loosely based on my family set at Christmas with a dead body. It's more of a farce and real fun. It's ridiculous.
AM:: All your films, even if they aren't labeled a comedy, still have humor.
SB: They do. I think it's important to have the up and down. If you want to make something really sad you've got to give the audience a place to laugh before hand or afterwards. If it's all sad it gets sort of dull. You need that break. I want to do every genre I think. I want to do a proper Western, a psychological Horror film, and a true Science Fiction film just to see how it feels to make movies of different kinds and styles I'm not familiar with, just because I like the challenge it presents.
AM: Is your family still involved with your film making?
SB: A little bit. The last couple of projects I did my Dad didn't co-produce with me but he was still there to help me do things like taxes and paper work. We see each other everyday so they hear me venting about it over lunch. I like learning how to be totally independent in that way.
AM: Are you going to stay living in Kansas?
SB: I will have a place there always. I have recently been thinking about living other places part time like Paris or New York. I like traveling. The one good thing about Kansas is that you can live really well for very little money.
RL: Are you the only film maker in Kansas?
SB: There are four of us that I know of.
AM: Do you all know each other?
SB: Yes we do. There is one in Wichita and two in Lawrence and one in Kansas City.
RL: What is the film industry like in Kansas?
SB: Kansas City has a lot of commercial work but it may be all regional. Every now and again there may be a movie that comes through that people will get a chance to work on but there's not a system. If you were a gaffer you wouldn't want to be in Kansas.
AM: I think it really lends to a unique persona for you. I think it's a calling card.
SB: It totally is. I can call anyone and say this is Steve Balderson in Kansas and they say of course. They know exactly who it is because no one else is calling from Kansas. The funny part about that is I can't show my movies locally. (lots of laughter)
photo: Alan Mercer
