Old piano, brand-new sound
By Mindy Poder
Oct. 28, 2007 11:05 p.m.
Oftentimes, a musician’s ability to produce something beautiful, genuine and personal is proportional to how acutely she can draw from within. However, Sally Seltmann of New Buffalo went outside.
“I could hear the birds in the day and crickets at night. There’s a little creek in the back with lots of big trees,” said Seltmann of the recording space she set up in her backyard shed in Australia. “I could get in the right headspace to make the sort of the album I wanted to write.”
Away from Melbourne, New Buffalo will perform the sounds and struggles that make up “Somewhere, Anywhere” tomorrow night at the Orpheum Theatre, opening for Broken Social Scene Plays Kevin Drew.
New Buffalo’s third and most intimate release thus far, “Somewhere, Anywhere” is a testament to embracing unconventional approaches to writing and recording music.
“(I used) a really beautiful old piano that is a little bit broken,” said Seltmann. “It just felt really good for me to work with something with more character than a brand-new piano.”
The piano, a century-old family heirloom, is a key component of Seltmann’s sincere and unpolished completed collection of songs.
“My new album is very piano-based in a personal, fragile way,” said Seltmann. “The music has a very melodic, low-fi, old-fashioned sound.”
In her effort to make a genuinely introspective record, the album lacks a radio-ready single, like the hopeful “Recovery” from her 2004 release “The Last Beautiful Day.” However, this glaring absence is not a testament to Seltmann’s inability to write seminal pop anthems. While on tour with singer-songwriter Feist, Seltmann wrote the Canadian artist’s breakthrough pop single “1234.”
“I wrote (“1234″) and I thought it sort of sounded more like her songs,” explained Seltmann of the generous giveaway. “I toured with her in Canada and at the end of the tour, I told her I had written this song that I thought (she) might like to use. We went to the tour bus and recorded it on her laptop, and she started playing it live and then she changed a few of the lyrics and recorded it for her album.”
Since its inclusion on Feist’s 2007 release “The Reminder,” the song has reached near ubiquity and has even been featured in the new iPod nano video commercial.
“I think it’s really good because I really love and respect Feist, and I’m so glad that she has been able to have that,” said Seltmann of Feist’s success.
Though “1234” is more outwardly upbeat than the songs from the latest New Buffalo album, the song’s breathy vocals, carefully crafted contagious melody and innocent love-soaked lyrics are also chief elements of “Somewhere, Anywhere.” Despite its current form, Seltmann’s music hasn’t always been concerned with achieving dreamlike tranquility.
“I joined a little rock band when I was 18, and when that broke up I started doing New Buffalo stuff,” said Seltmann. “I changed as a person.”
Providing the context for both the interior and exterior agents influencing her music, this change has sowed the landscape of New Buffalo’s fully realized album.
“This is a bit gentler,” said Seltmann. “I have a natural feeling of quiet nostalgia, and I think of people I love.”
