In Session: Steve Candlen

SARATOGA SPRINGS – Staying busy as always, local singer-songwriter, Steve Candlen, has just started working on yet another record. In the meantime, he’s also part of the weekly Family Tree event held every Monday night at Putnam Place, and has just started an original artist Pow Wow at the Twisted Fiddler in Troy, which is held every Thursday, from 7:00 to 10:00 pm.

I had a chance to catch up with Candlen this past week. What follows is our conversation.

Lucas Garrett: Thanks, Steve, for sitting down to talk! It’s been a while.

Steve Candlen: Yeah, I know.

LG: Tell us a bit about your last record, Shine On.

SC: I got introduced to this producer, Malcolm Burn. He’s made records with Daniel Lanois. He worked on Bob Dylan’s record, Oh Mercy, Chris Whitley, and Emmylou Harris. I met him through a friend of mine. I came out of my comfort zone.

One thing that I want to mention, is that Ace Parkhurst wrote the music on Sweet Dreams, I wrote the melody and lyric and did the arrangement. It was a collaborative idea.

LG: How do you feel the record came out?

SC: It’s different! I like the vibes of the music, but I was a little nervous about the process. The way we recorded it – which was fine… I played guitar and sang live through a rhythm box called the Rhythm Ace from the mid-seventies. I essentially played live, first take kind of stuff. It was straight up and real raw.

I didn’t want to mess around in the studio and told him, “Why don’t you do everything else?” He was into that, and he went around the room and played everything else you hear on there. I let him play the role of producer and musician. The way he colored things up was interesting. I’ve never done this before.

He does his mixes on the fly. When you get done with the mix, at the end of the song, it’s that mix. If he did it again, it’d be a different mix. He’s not editing in the box. It was real old-school mixing. It was very organic, and I dig it.

LG: Shine On came out earlier this year, and you’ve remained busy like I’ve always known you to be. I just saw a version of “With a Little Help From My Friends” you did with Family Tree. That was amazing!

SC: We’re trying! We don’t rehearse or practice; they’re one-offs.  

LG: Right, because you’re not focused on another instrument…

SC: I don’t get to sing like that on my gigs. That’s exciting and fun.

LG: I’ve gotten great buzz on this new event you’re doing at Twisted Fiddler. It’s a new original artist showcase? Let’s talk about that for a bit.

SC: They happen on Thursdays. It runs from 7:00 to 10:00 pm. That’s been blowing up. It’s a nice setting. I plug everybody in and introduce everybody. We made a group page; that was cool. I wanted to go live for the whole night on the group page. Every performer is first come, first serve, and they play two songs each. There’s some good songwriters. All kinds of stuff. Some piano people.

LG: Now, you’re working on a new album?

SC: Yeah. I’d like my son, Maxwell, to play the drums. We got together and played guitar and drums; he played brushes. Then, I was thinking I wanted a snare drum. I’m going to piece this together, and then have him come in and we’ll perfect it.

I have this concept of playing to a constant beats-per-minute for every song. I’m going to use that tempo and do things in three; do things that juxtapose against the tempo. I could be doing double-time, or triplets… My idea was that when you listen to music at a given tempo for a certain length of time, your brain goes into these waves… that trance-y kind of thing.

LG: Do you have an idea of when it’s coming?

SC: Pretty soon. I only have 30 copies of Shine On left.

LG: Do you have a name for it?

SC: No, not yet, but there’ll be seven songs.

LG: Well, Steve, it’s been great talking with you. Thanks again!

SC: See ya!