Band: Jenny Dalton
From: Minneapolis, MN
Sound: haunting, ethereal, literate, and nostalgic pop rock
Similar Artists: Kristin Hersh, Kate Bush, Tori Amos, Natalie Merchant
Listen Now: “Married to the Sea”

Water. Giver of life, bringer of death. Purifier, refresher; powerful force of erosion, driver of economies since the dawn of man. Eternally fluctuating, eminently influential. In this world, water is all things and takes on all states of matter. It is the rain that falls gently on a lazy Sunday afternoon, it is the vapor in the air that lends a foreboding sense of atmosphere to coastal towns in the presence of a temperature inversion. Water has served as the setting for some of humanity’s great triumphs, tragedies, technological advances, and tall tales. It was the euthanasian escape for Edna Pontellier and the final resting place of Hamlet’s Ophelia. It is, in the words of a particular singer-songwriter from Minnesota, “an underrated and quiet power”.

Following on the heels of critical praise for her first album, Fleur de Lily, Jenny Dalton returned in 2008 with her second full-length, a concept album centering on the element of water called Rusalka’s Umbrella. The songs on this second LP are inspired by an array of influences including Twin Peaks, the Morton Salt Girl, The Shipping News, ghosts, Slavic folktales, The Fall by Albert Camus, the 35W bridge collapse, Mermaids and much more. In fact, the layers of inspiration are so well textured that Dalton released her first book, Daughters of the Dead Sea, as a companion piece to Rusalka’s Umbrella.

In both the book and on record, water embodies a variety of symbolic meanings that range from light and airy happiness to foreboding and overbearing darkness and everything in between. The only constant in this world of water, as in life, is change. Change moves Jenny Dalton through illusive soundscapes that often play out as though they were the piano explorations of memories personified. While melodies and song structures drift from dreamy folk-pop to country to waltz to musical poetry, the atmospheric touches throughout the album enhance the intended melancholia and shine a well-guided light upon the introspective adventure that is Rusalka’s Umbrella. It is a moony and fantastic record. It’s ripe for bedroom floor listening and truly rewards repeated listens, with Daughters of the Dead Sea only furthering the depth of this particular private adventure.

What got Jenny Dalton started with music in the first place? What has made her one of today’s most promising self-produced artists? How did she get that bruise on her hand, and what would be the outcome if she encountered the Southern Oracle of NeverEnding Story fame? We caught up with her recently on the phone to find out the answers to these very important questions, and more…

EAR FARM: After listening to Rusalka’s Umbrella many times, and reading the companion book, I now feel vastly underprepared for this interview… your music and words are like a rabbit hole that I keep falling deeper into the more I listen and read. Which is a good thing! I love it in fact, but it’s got me feeling like I have much more research and thinking to do here…

JENNY DALTON: Well, that’s a good sign I think. A “rabbit hole”…

EF: Yeah, so this might need to be a series of interviews as I listen to your music more.

JD: I’d love to!

EF: Well, wait, we haven’t even started yet really. This might be a painstaking process…

JD: Okay, we’ll see.

EF: Alright, so let’s start with the album - the title, Rusalka’s Umbrella - a rusalka is like a nymph of sorts, yes?

JD: Yeah, so what I understand of it is that it’s from Slavic folklore and there are pieces to more popular American versions of a rusalka, like sirens, mermaids…

EF: Like the Lady of the Lake? Or maybe a bit more malicious or mischievous than that?

JD: Yes! And that’s something that drove me to choose that particular character is that it has all kinds of faces to it; like this playful face, or a dangerous face, or kind of a tragic face… it’s all there. So I thought it was a particularly good character to use and to have represent the album.

EF: So, what came first? The theme/concept for the album, or the title?

JD: The theme emerged… when I was writing the songs I didn’t even understand that it was having to do with water at first, but eventually I realized that the lyrics were all somehow related to water. And so then I wanted to find a title that tied it all together so I did a bit of internet research and I found the story of the rusalka and then that, obviously, influenced the title track of the album.

EF: And where did you write the songs/lyrics for the record?

JD: All over the place really. Maybe a good portion, up to half of the songs, were inspired while I was visiting Lake Superior. I live in Minneapolis, so if I drive two or three hours north I run into Lake Superior and it’s a very inspirational place for me, so it definitely influenced a number of the songs on the album. Also, when I write the songs I kind of zone out and it’s a very meditative process… it’s not even really inspired or based in physical places so much as it is feelings or ideas or a kind of dream-like visions.

EF: Right, I think that sense of dreamy visions comes across in the songs for sure. How do you compose generally? Do you start with a melody, or you’re just playing around and a riff comes to you and then you build off of that?

JD: Usually it starts out as a piano riff. I sit down at the piano for one of two reasons: one is just to practice, and I hate that. It’s boring and I have to play these songs that I’ve played a million times over and over again. But you’ve gotta practice. But my favorite time to sit down at the piano, which is why I started sitting down at a piano in the first place, is when my mind just kind of wanders and my fingers kind of wander and they happen upon a riff on their own and then I record it and I just keep building off of that. So… you know, each sound has a type of feeling to it. Each riff has a type of feeling to it, and they’ll inspire these different visions and themes and then that’s where the lyrics come from.

EF: And why the piano?

JD: It’s just something I fell in love with the first time - I remember clearly the first time I played the piano. My feet couldn’t touch the pedals. I was at my neighbor’s house, my mom was talking to the woman who lived there… they were in the kitchen having coffee or something… and I just went off by myself into the living room and hopped up on the bench and started banging on the piano and I thought of Billy Joel and I was like “ohh my god I’m a rock star!” and I was pounding on the keys and making all this racket. Which I’m sure sounded horrible to them, but to me it was a dreamy sound. So I fell in love with it from that point on and my parents got me this tiny Casio keyboard and I started rockin’ that and making songs with the pre-recorded drumbeats at all tempos.

EF: Nice! I had a couple of Casio keyboards myself.

JD: They’re so much fun! I wish I’d never gotten rid of it.

EF: What were your first songs like?

JD: They were very simple, but um. Okay, so my dad was a drummer and he always wanted to jam with me so I had a couple ditties that I wrote specifically for jamming with my dad… I think I can still remember how to play those. The early songs I wrote with lyrics were funny and embarrassing and had to do with things I had no idea about like “love” and “the blues”. I was nine years old writing about bosses and boys. It was kind of influenced by what I was listening to and what my parents were listening to.

EF: So, your dad had a large influence on you musically growing up?

JD: Definitely. You know, his open mind about it and even now I see him with my niece - her name is Lyla and she’s almost three now - he takes her out to all of the music stores and they go through the aisles and she plays whatever she can get her hands on and I imagine that’s what it was like when I was little too. He had a drum set and he always got us these cheapy plastic toy instuments from like a drugstore toy aisle and I would make songs on those. And then he also exposed us to all kinds of music. His main bands he listened to were Pink Floyd and Led Zeppelin but I remember when he introduced us to Guns N’ Roses’ Appetite for Destruction… my brother and sister and I were just running around the living room, probably headbanging, I don’t know.

EF: Awesome. And, do you play any other instruments?

JD: No. I always stuck with the piano. Except for a brief, strange, stint with the saxophone. But I was always the squeaky reed girl.

EF: What kind of sax did you play?

JD: The alto sax.

EF: Nice, that’s what I played too.

JD: Yeah! “When the Saints Go Marching In”…

EF: Yeah, well I only played it from 4th to 6th grade, I didn’t play for very long. But I could play that song.

JD: Well you were more advanced than me probably. I bet your reed didn’t squeak.

EF: No, I was actually pretty good at it and I’m kind of angry that I gave it away.

JD: Well, it might be like riding a bike.

EF: I feel like it would be. I mean, I even see clarinets and I’m like “I could play that, no problem” even though I’ve never played a clarinet before.

JD: Do it!

EF: Yeah, maybe a clarinet. I feel like saxophones are still not exactly desired in current rock music.

JD: I like the clarinet when I hear it in bands. Maybe you could be in a band with a clarinet?

EF: Maybe I could just be a one man band with a clarinet.

JD: I think you could. And it would be so easy to panhandle with it, to take it to the streets. I can’t do that without a generator or something. Or a piano.

EF: But, pianos do have wheels generally. So maybe you could just push it really hard and jump on top and then play wherever it stops.

JD: I do live on top of a hill… that would help! But I might need a helmet.

EF: Yeah, and a lot of pianos because there’s no way you’ll want to push one back up that hill…

JD: (laughter) I think we’re on to something there.

EF: Getting back to your songs though… your songs, the meanings, lyrics, are often literary in nature and definitely reward the listener who digs deeper. Especially with the companion book and everything. There’s quite a lot to be found and discovered there. Do you ever worry that short attention spans today are such that many people will miss a lot of what you put into your music? (Ed. note: bonus points if your 21st century attention span has made it this far)

JD: Well it’s funny that you mention attention spans because I really care about the attention span of listeners. Especially for performances… I have a short attention span so I try to design the live shows with that in mind. But I wrote the book because there are people who might want to dig deeper and it’s a habit that I’m hoping to get into on future releases. Because I see the way the CD and the physical, the music that you can hold in your hand, is kind of falling by the wayside and people are buying MP3s straight and maybe even the meaning of an album won’t stay the same as it’s always been. My favorite thing used to be, when I got a new CD, to sit down and put it in the player and listen to it the whole way through while paging through the CD booklet and seeing the artwork and reading the lyrics and that’s the element that I don’t want to see go away with this “digital music revolution”. So that’s why I’m doing these books, because in the future we might not have the physical CD and for people who do want to sit down and get lost in it a little more, they have that thing to page through.

EF: Let’s talk about influences briefly… Tori Amos and Kristin Hersh seem like obvious ones, are there other musicians who’ve had an influence on you that might not be as apparent?

JD: These might not be obvious to people, maybe so, I don’t know… but The Smiths and The Cure, bands from the ’80s, from the UK… stuff with crazy synthesizers and all these weird layers. Peter Murphy I really like too, but just what they all did with the sounds in their songs and the recordings. It’s almost, not just songwriting or recording, but it’s almost painting with sound. Like “this needs a little bit of color here” and when I listened to that music in high school, that’s what struck me. That, wow, this song was totally made with a tiny little sound that happens maybe four times throughout the song and it makes it that much more memorable. Something about using those sounds like paint…

EF: Sure, I can see that. Those are some of my favorite artists ever and I think there’s some kind of connection there that comes through, at least in the tone and feeling of a lot of your music.

JD: Very cool! Yeah, I got this other strange comparison that I didn’t see coming at all… to Kurt Cobain. Very strange connection, but I like it!

EF: Well, I don’t know about Nirvana, but one thing that comes through in a lot of that other music, especially with The Cure and The Smiths, is the notion of nostalgia. I think there’s a lot of that going on in the songs on Rusalka’s Umbrella and I think that’s a lot of what I immediately identified with, because that feeling is yours but it’s also mine. It’s really fairly intangible, but tell me about nostalgia in your music.

JD: Nostalgia I think… it’s such a strange emotion. And it’s something that’s so personal and individual, and I think it’s supposed to recall something from the past, but I remember feeling nostlagic about things when I was just a little girl. So I think it’s something that everybody can get, but I don’t know what it is really. I think that music, the kind that I listen to, invokes a lot of different things. And some of the indie rock that’s fun to listen to is just that. It’s fun, it’s party, it’s good times, but when you touch on nostalgia you touch on something that’s deep within every person. And people have said that my music appeals to the individual more than a group or something, but I don’t know. But I’m happy about that because when I write those songs it is based on nostalgia, based on those feelings, based on something deeper within.

EF: Right. Well, like I said, it’s something I connected to immediately. When I started listening to your music I recognized that it’s music that scratches that particular itch of mine. And it also brings to mind, and this is honestly completely disconnected from having read the accompanying book, but the tone of many of your songs bring to mind a favorite image/pseudo-memory of mine… of a solitary walk along the rocky New England coast in late fall, gray skies above and a cold brisk wind…

JD: Well, I’m actually inspired by, and was inspired in, Connecticut.

EF: I noticed that. So tell me: why Mystic?

JD: Well, this is a little embarrassing, but I’m actually a huge fan of Gilmore Girls. And I was out in New York to play a show, so after the show I took a couple of days to explore Connecticut to see if I could find, like, my Stars Hollow. So it was like, “Mystic, Connecticut: ‘mystic’ sounds like ’stars hollow’” and then I ended up writing a series of poems that was inspired by my trip to Mystic, CT. The northeast, the shores and the coastal regions, are very much like the shore on Lake Superior. So I think there’s a lot of parallels there in the songs and the lyrics and the poems and the book. It’s all almost interchangeable between both places.

EF: Have you lived in Minnesota your whole life?

JD: My whooole life, yeah.

EF: Are you a sports fan?

JD: Well, I mostly like watching football. I wouldn’t say that I’m a “sports fan” per se, I watch hardly any TV, but I did go to a Twins game recently…

EF: I know, I heard about it on your Twitter! Tell me about the foul ball… I’ve been to a thousand baseball games and never caught a foul ball, so I’m pretty jealous.

JD: I wish you could’ve caught this ball that I got! Because I didn’t really want it… it was scary. My friend got these tickets from a client, first row seats behind third base. And so we went and they were like “well, we’ll probably have to watch out for foul balls” and then one did come our way and everybody around me ducked and I thought “I can’t hide from a ball because if it’s gonna hit me, it’s gonna hit me.” And so I kept looking up and the Metrodome is infamous for the blinding lights and I kept looking around for the ball and all I could see were the lights and at the last second this baseball materialized and it was coming straight for my head and I was like “ahhh!” and I just smacked the thing out of the air. I didn’t want to catch it, I just didn’t want to get hit by it. So I just hit it out of the air and back onto the field and one of the players actually gave it back to me. Which was very nice. So I have a ball, and a bruised palm.

EF: But then, what? The announcers were commenting on it?

JD: Yeah! Well, not at the game, but on TV they were making fun of me. They were like “that young lady knows what it’s like to make an error” or something and I thought, “well I didn’t get hit in the head, so mission accomplished - I win!” I haven’t seen the TV footage of it, but I did get a lot of text messages about it thereafter.

EF: (laughter) That’s funny, and both unfortunate and fortunate.

JD: It is, and very miraculous.

EF: In regards to movies and TV, what are some favorites other than Gilmore Girls?

JD: This is embarrassing! I’m telling you all kinds of embarrassing things. Okay, Mermaids, with Cher…

EF: That’s not embarrassing! I saw that movie in the theater…

JD: I love that movie! Okay… so here’s a secret, maybe a spoiler, but that movie… or, scenes from that, definitely influenced or inspired one of the songs from the album - “The Bad Seed”. I thought about images from Mermaids with that. And I think the commonality between Mermaids the movie and that song - innocence vs. deviance - in Mermaids you’ve got the Winnona Ryder character who wants to be a nun but she’s got this mother who is the town tramp. So she’s kind of torn between worlds and “The Bad Seed” is kind of about whether to embrace the innocence or, how we’ve also got wild oats to sow.

EF: And how about The NeverEnding Story - in your book you mention the part where Atreyu has to pass through the Sphinxes at the Southern Oracle… do you think you’d make it through at this point?

JD: I think so, yeah. I think I’ve got the conviction, and that’s really what it is, the conviction. Life is so strange, you’re always tested and things always change and you waver and the destination that you think you’re going towards changes. But part of having that conviction is knowing that and accepting it and being able to change with the winds… so, yeah. I think so. I’ll cautiously say that I would pass.

EF: What are some destinations you’re hoping to hit along the way, musically or artistically?

JD: It would definitely be great to live the dream and make enough money to be able to write songs and play music all day, but if I get to that point, have I “arrived”? There’s always something that comes next, there’s always another goal.
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Listen:
“Married to the Sea”
“The Turn and the River”

Watch:

above: “Cadence vs. Hugo Varvoglis” from Carbon Lily Remixes, directed by Justin Staggs

See Jenny Dalton Live:
30 Oct - Minneapolis, MN @ Kitty Cat Klub
15 Nov - Winona, MN @ Draught Haus
27 Dec - Minneapolis, MN @ Kitty Cat Klub

Buy the album Rusalka’s Umbrella on Amazon, CD Baby, or iTunes.

Buy the book Daughters of the Dead Sea on Amazon.

Visit Jenny Dalton on MySpace.

PHOTO CREDIT: all photos by Clark Patrick
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See the list of bands recently featured as EAR FARM’s Band of the Week HERE.