Bess Rogers
August 26, 2010
Last week, Bess Rogers took the time to sit down and speak with me via phone about her upcoming EP, Bess Rogers Presents Bess Rogers, The Quest for Glory Tour 2010, and making music in general. In case you haven't read our review of Bess Rogers Presents Bess Rogers, click here. And trust us - you'll want to check out the Amazon link over there to the right and order Bess' new EP. It's pretty darn good. Now, without further ado...
Tell us about the process of making this EP – was it inspired by anything in particular?
It was just inspired by life in general. I’ve spend the last year to year and a half touring, recording the EP in Brooklyn in between touring, then finally spent about a month holed up in the studio in Brooklyn finishing it up.
I saw that you’re touring with a couple of other artists in support of the EP, and that you’ve dubbed this tour “The Quest for Glory Tour 2010”…and that there may be knighting involved…how did this theme arise?
This is actually the second Quest for Glory Tour – we did the last one in 2009. The three of us (Allison Weiss, Lelia Broussard) are all really good friends and have a blast together, so it’s really just a way to make each show a fun, themed event. It tends to let us be a little silly and goofy on stage instead of just making the tour just about three artists getting up and playing their music. There actually is knighting involved – we have a mailing list and pass that around during the show, and at the end, pick one person at random to “knight” – there is a crown that one of us wears each night, and we bestow that upon the “knight” at the end of the show, there are swords and everything! And that person will get some free stuff too!
As far as “The Quest for Glory Tour” goes – any place in particular that you are especially excited about going? Or are you going anywhere you haven’t been before?
We’re definitely hitting new markets this time and expanding – even to Canada. On the last QFG tour, we were driving from Nashville to Birmingham, and across from a rest stop we were at was the “Boobie Bungalow”. We actually wrote a song about it – the lyrics were “Boobie Bungalow”, and that was about it – but we recorded it and put it on the site for people to download as a ringtone. We’re planning on actually recording it sometime in the near future. And thinking about actually going inside the Boobie Bungalow if we head that way again.
I know that many artists have a difficult time writing while being on the road touring so much – is this a challenge for you?
It is definitely a challenge – I’m a very private person when it comes to writing – I can’t even really open up and write with someone in the next room. I end up doing a lot of writing just in my head when on tour, or even in the car alone, then finding a private place when I can and working it out. When I’m home, I have a routine that I don’t have on the road, where I dedicate time to writing. That is easier for me – I use that routine like class time or an exercise in writing.
We had the privilege of experiencing a couple of Ingrid shows earlier this summer, both at Bonnaroo and at The Vogue in Indianapolis. How is touring with Ingrid different from “The Quest for Glory” tour? Do you prefer one over the other?
The Ingrid tour is certainly a bigger operation – bigger venues, the tour bus, just generally more comfort on the tour. I have a blast at those shows – they’re so much fun and we’re like one big family. The smaller tours are fun too – just a few friends and a van having adventures. We can stop wherever we want (like the Booby Bungalow), which we can’t do on a tour bus. I enjoy both equally, though.
So speaking of playing in Ingrid’s band - you play in several different bands, including doing solo work, and these span some very different genres of music – do you tend to focus on one project at a time, or have projects going with all of them at once?
I focus on each project in spurts – right now I’m focused on my solo project because of the EP, and will focus on that for the next couple of months. I’m also in a band called The Flux Capacitors, which takes 80’s cover songs and churns them out as country/bluegrass tunes. We actually started to record an EP in the Spring, but then it got put on hold when I went back on tour. The Age of Rockets is also set to start recording this Fall, and I’ll stop in and contribute when I can. It is a little hard to balance.
Many artists seem to be releasing EP’s vs LP’s recently – is there a strategy behind that for you personally?
I actually considered an LP, but it would have taken another six months to get one ready to release. I’d just been playing the songs on the EP live for so long that I felt like it was time to get them out there on an album. And it takes less time to put out a cohesive little five-song statement than to try to do that with an LP. I also feel it’s very important to keep feeding music to people on a regular basis, especially in a time where not many people listen to full albums anymore; they just pick the few songs that they’ve heard and like. The plan is to start recording a full-length album this winter.
So we know that you have Twitter and Facebook – what impact do you think social media has on independent artists?
Personally, it has a huge impact. This is the main way I get music out to fans. If it weren’t for social media, I don’t even know where I’d be. Things like Facebook and Twitter give artists the chance to really connect with fans and for fans to actually communicate with artists. You can actually get a dialog going, and fans can really feel an actual connection with an artist.
Do you enjoy being an independent artist, or do you think you’d like to be signed to a label someday?
I really like being independent, at least for now. That’s not to say that if the right deal came along with the right label and the right people that I would turn it down, but I’m not into a label owning every aspect of my life.
And one final question – what would you tell listeners about your latest EP?
…it’s really good. (Kidding) I do, without trying to sound conceited, think it’s a really good album. There are fun, catchy songs on there that will make people want to move around, but there’s also a depth there. I think it has something for everyone.
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