Local Songwriter, Reeya Banerjee, Finding Her Creative Musical Voice with Her Latest Singles

CAMBRIDGE – Just a little over one year ago, Reeya Banerjee released her debut album, The Way Up. A deeply personal album about the performer’s trials and tribulations with her mental health, what followed next would be “Mechanic of the Hudson,” released on December 1^st. This time around, however, Banerjee was far more involved in the writing process, to the extent that made it all the more obvious she has something to say, with a plethora of emotional honesty to back it up. With another single, “Shadows,” soon-to-be-released, I sat down with the budding songwriter to discuss her musical journey since The Way Up.

Lucas Garrett: Hello, Reeya! How’re you doing?

Reeya Banerjee: I’m good! Hanging in there.

LG: I hear you have another new song! Tell us a bit about it.

RB: It’s called “Shadows.” It was written last summer when we were writing “Mechanic of the Hudson,” my single that came out December 1^st last year. They’re meant as companion songs. “Mechanic of the Hudson” is dark and moody. Searching for meaning and physical location, new beginnings, and stuff like that, but in the dark and lost, searching for meaning feeling.

LG: Where’d you get that name for the song?

RB: As we were writing the song, the Hudson River ended up playing a big part in the lyrics. Then, in that song, there’s a reoccurring character, this mysterious mechanic that floats in and out. He’s sort of there, and he’s not really helpful. Is it a manifestation of my own mind, or is this person telling me what to do because I don’t know what to do? This mystical creature that came from the river.

LG: How does the new song, “Shadows,” tie into that?

RB: It’s the flip side of that concept. It’s about figuring out how to move forward – a theme in “Mechanic of the Hudson” – but it’s more upbeat. It’s a self-empowerment type of thing. Each verse is an exploration of assessing mistakes that I’ve made in relationships, and also mistakes that others have made in relationships with me, and how that’s impacted me.

Speaking for myself, dwelling on mistakes and sleights from your past can keep you bogged down where you’re churning. It’s a vicious circle of “I fucked up. I’m a fuckup, and therefore I‘m going f*ck up.” This song is about putting that behind you. You have to move on and accept that stuff happened. That doesn’t mean you’re condemning yourself to be that person that made that mistake. Ultimately, it’s about figuring out how to get out of your own way and move forward.

The song title comes from a line in the last chorus, “you’re the only shadow standing in your sunlight.” As the song goes on – it has this frenzied pattern that happens after the instrumental break – it’s like I’m talking myself into coming to the understanding of how I’m in my own way of moving forward and becoming a person who’s not just stuck in the past when there’s so much potential for growth.

LG: I want to talk to you a bit about the writing aspect of these songs. I know on the last album, The Way Up, that you collaborated a lot with your producer, Luke. Now that you’ve been doing this a bit longer, how is that all going?

RB: These two songs I wrote with my friend, James Rubino. He’s in my traveling band when we tour. He’s my lead guitarist and the de facto music director of the band. He and I have been buddies and collaborators for a really long time. Luke Folger (producer on The Way Up) and I are working on a follow-up, but his wife had a baby last year. He was out-of-pocket for a while, and James and I were picking up on the creative momentum. We were like, “Hey, let’s come up with something while we’re waiting for Luke!”

James and I have known each other for eight years at this point. We’ve played together in bands; I’ve taken guitar and bass lessons from him. He’s a great guy. I was more involved with the writing of the music with these songs than in The Way Up. I contributed lyrics, but I left the music to Luke because that was what I was the least comfortable with.

I’m getting more comfortable. With these two songs, I worked with James a lot to shape what I wanted the song to sound like. Going back to “Mechanic of the Hudson,” the framework of the song is from a YouTube video I found of an engineer that listens to the raw components of a hit song and analyzes them piece by piece. He was analyzing “Stayin’ Alive” by The Bee Gees. He discovered while playing through each piece that there was an acoustic guitar part underneath all the other instruments.

LG: Oh, I had no idea about that!

RB: It’s really cool; it sounds like a train. You don’t realize it’s there, but you realize it’s very much supporting the rhythm of the song, as it keeps this forward momentum. I loved the way it sounded, and I love the chord progression. Listening to it in isolation, you might not realize it’s “Stayin’ Alive.” That was our jumping-off point. We took that progression, slowed it way down, and built around it.

We took influence from U2, a lot of Pink Floyd… Pulling on all these different touchstones. There’s an instrumental break in “Mechanic of the Hudson,” where James wrote a guitar solo. He was trying to meld this Pink Floyd sound with what we had in The Way Up.

LG: Do you feel working with a producer and then not has made the music a bit incongruous? Do you feel the output is in a much different style now that you have a more hands-on approach?

RB: That’s a good question. I feel these two songs that were written recently… I’m super proud of them and of the record. but because I stepped up and took more of a leading role in the musical composition of these songs… this felt like a big step forward. The songs came about at a very specific time in my life.

I say I’m new to the area, but I’ve lived here for 18 months. These songs and the emotions behind them were very much coming from this place of living in the Hudson Valley for 20 years, and then we moved up here. It’s not that far away, but it’s a big change after staying in one place for 20 years. Being in my feelings about leaving the music community I had behind, leaving the friends I had behind, what was I to find in my new place? Am I going to find a community in my new place? These songs feel personal to me in that they’re so immediate, whereas The Way Up is personal to me because it’s about a journey I went through in repairing my mental health.

These two songs are where my head’s at right now, in this moment. With “Shadows,” when I was talking with Luke and we were discussing what we wanted to do to the follow-up album, I told him to listen to “Boy” by U2. Back when they were more new-wave-y than they are. I love U2, but I don’t know how to describe them. Haha.

I’d rediscovered Boy, and I liked the sonic feeling of the songs. Luke was chewing on that. James and I had written “Mechanic of the Hudson,” and I had him listen to Boy as well. On his own, he came up with the guitar riff that is the foundational building block of that song. I was really, really psyched when he came back to me with that riff. It was exactly what I wanted. Before we even had lyrics, I played the instrumental version to my boyfriend, and he was like, “Is that a U2 song I don’t know?” when I told him no, he said, “I think The Edge might want to have a word with you.”

LG: One of the things I really like about your music is that none of it is overly complex, but it’s very weird. It’s orchestrated in such a cool way. It’s unusual and quirky, and I like it a lot! I love your music!

RB: Thank you!

LG: In my opinion, there’s a definite uptick now that you’re more involved in it.

RB: Exactly. And, as we do the follow-up record, I’m trying to take more of an active role in creating those songs, as well, with Luke. It’s been nice. The first album was dipping my toe in the pool of creating music. That worked, and people liked it. Then, James and I wrote these two songs, and that was me going into the shallow water. That worked, and I’m super proud of “Mechanic of the Hudson.” You got the raw, unpolished version of “Shadows!”

I feel even though it’s not 100% refined yet – it needs to be mastered – I love the way it sounds. I’m super excited about that. I just want to keep raising the bar. On the follow-up record, we’re doing nine songs, and we have it kind of mapped out. We want to raise the bar even more, and that involves me raising the bar on me being a more active participant in the music, feeling comfortable saying, “What if we try it this way? I don’t really like that sound.” Having the confidence to direct the music a little bit more, as opposed to just the words. I’ve always been more comfortable with words; I’m a writer in one of my other lives.

LG: In one of your other incarnations.

RB: Yeah. Writing words is where I feel the safest in the creative space.

LG: I’m glad you brought words up. For me, that’s the hardest part. People will ask me about my lyrics, and I don’t like to talk about them at all. Ever. Knowing that the person the song’s about is going to know what I’m talking about…

RB: Yeah.

LG: I have this new material, and it’s nerve-wracking for me. The minute I put that out, the person that song is about – it’s not a mean lyric at all – is going to know what I’m about!

RB: Hahaha.

LG: Do I do this or not? Ha. How do you get through this emotionally?

RB: That’s a good question. The lyrics to “Shadows,” the second verse, used to be a lot more pointed in a way that somebody might’ve figured it out who I’m talking about. I’m not trying to write a diss track! Hahaha. But I also want to be emotionally honest. What is the point of being creative if you’re not going to be emotionally honest?

I had to think about the song for a long time. “Do I want to dial this back, or do I want to keep the really raw anger and the hurt and be so explicit about it?” Somebody out there might have said, “Oh, she’s talking about me.” Then, I thought that’d become a thing, and I didn’t want to be beefing with somebody. The song is about putting that behind you, so I pulled it back a little bit. It retains its emotional honesty. If you make it less specific, then somebody might say, “Yeah, I can relate to that, too.”

LG: Even if it’s a really endearing song, it’s embarrassing for me to sing it. Do you know what I mean?

RB: Yeah.

LG: I’m not that great at expressing my emotions. I’ll sing them, but I’m not comfortable with it. Your music hits so well because it’s so honest.

RB: I think what makes art so powerful is the idea that somebody listening to a song, or somebody reading a book, or watching a show or movie, and feeling “seen” by it. The experience of the art making you feel “seen” or validated… that’s the most powerful thing about all art, you know? How you can move people that way. That level of honesty is a huge component in making that work. You can’t really do that if you’re not willing to put that out there and be vulnerable.

LG: Is there anything else you’d like to talk about?

RB: I’ll give a PSA! When we were tracking “Shadows,” we got really, really excited and did the entire song in a day. The lesson I learned is not to do that. I blew my voice out, and then I had to go on vocal rest for two weeks because I literally couldn’t speak or sing. I was freaking out because I had a show coming up. That’s a “fun” behind-the-scenes recording of the song and a PSA not to push yourself in the studio. You might think you’re killing it, then all of a sudden, it’s just hoarse crackles.

I wrote these two songs with James Rubino, and we also had the benefit of Adam Gloc on the keyboard for both songs. He’s the keyboard player in my touring band. He wrote all the keyboard parts, and I feel that adds a very cool element to the music. We also had a really talented drummer named Andres Valbuena. He’s so fantastic; he’s a studio drummer and friend of James. He has this incredible energy and is a very intuitive drummer… and he felt his way into what needed to be done. His drumming is one of the things that make both of these songs really exceptional. I wanted to give both of those guys a shout-out!

LG: Awesome. Well, thank you again for sitting down tonight!

RB: Yeah!

LG: Congratulations on another soon-to-be-released single! I’ll be in touch, Reeya! Have a great night.

RB: Thank you! You too.