Even though Jacob is a filmmaker and not a musician, she brought him in as an Executive Producer on Siren Songs. Gretchen says that he is passionate about music and she greatly values his opinions, often taking his suggestions about the music as well as the lyrics. Finding a balance, however, she says he knows when to give her space and just let her do her thing. Building on the experience of working together on Mean Creak they pushed forward and worked side by side on the entire album.
Siren Songs is her most personal work to date. Written in the aftermath of her dearest and oldest friend's (Serena Karlan) murder, it explores the deepest and darkest moments of grieving.
It ended up being an incredibly cathartic process for me, although at one point early on I thought that the pain was too much to continue and I considered just dropping the project for a while. However, my dad reminded me that Serena had such a deep love of music, and was such an enthusiastic supporter of my music, and asked me if I thought Serena would want me to wallow in my pain or continue to make music – the answer was obvious.
She cites going deep inside herself as the most evident marker for her growth as a songwriter between Brand New Morning and Siren Songs. Following the advice of her producer, John Gold, who told her lyrics should be "so personal that they are almost embarrassing, that you almost feel like you've revealed too much," she dug real deep and exposed it all this time around.
The title itself has its roots in Greek mythology. Sirens, mythological creatures, would enchant sailors; their distractions would cause them to drown. Gretchen felt her own songs, lush and beautiful, but conceived from such a dark place, were an appropriate analogy to the myth. For a time she had considered naming the album Serena Songs and notes the similarity, "I liked that 'siren' sounds similar to 'Serena'."
Article comments
1 - Eric Berlin
Fantastical -- looks and reads like a dream, can't wait for more !
2 - Baby Man
Great story. Click on the URL under my name and see what other people have written on CDbaby.
3 - Adebayo Onabule
Earnest and dedicated Gretchen Fan here, ever since the old mp3.com days...I'm overjoyed to finally read her getting the exact kinds of attention she's deserved all along. Siren Songs despite it's late entry at the end of the year, was still my number 1 album of the year, and that's really saying something.
Congrats to Gretchen and Jacob on the birth of their little girl, and I also look forward to seeing how the new arrival influences future tunes by gretchen.
top notch article...look forward to the rest throughout the month.
peace
4 - Connie Phillips
Thank you, Eric, that's a high compliment coming from you - and I appreciate it!
5 - Connie Phillips
Thank you, Baby man and Adebayo Onabule - I have enjoyed working on this project and I'm very excited about what we have coming up in the coming weeks. Stay tuned.
6 - justice
Connie - awesome story. I love this music.
Silly thing, typo reads:
Gretchen's Websiter
and I think Greg Porcee is Greg Poree?
7 - Phillip Winn
Correct on both counts; thanks, Justice.
8 - Connie Phillips
Justice -
Thanks for the compliment, and for pointing out my errors, all corrected, thanks to you.
9 - Eric Berlin
This story has been chosen as an Editors' Pick of the Week. You now have the grave yet giddy honor of selecting a story for next week's best of column if you like (time frame 2/1 " 2/7). Simply leave the title, URL, and a brief description of why you dig it on this week's post (link above).
Congrats!!
10 - Teutates
dang...she pretty!
11 - Jacob
Bonnie - Gretchen has a new video on her website, check it out
-Jacob
12 - Jacob
Sorry, did I say Bonnie, I meant Connie!