INTERVIEW: Kevin Atwater 9/23

Photo Credit: Emily Parker

Interview by Gabriella Knapp

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On Wednesday, September 24th, I had the privilege of interviewing Kevin Atwater in a greenroom at The Sinclair before his show on Wednesday, 9/23. We discussed the creative process behind his newest album, “Blush Red,” a project built around themes of romance, dancing and the feeling of one long summer night. Atwater also opened up about his background and the short film he created alongside the album, as well as how touring has changed the way he approaches performing and connecting with audiences. 

Gabriella Knapp (GK): Congratulations on your album “Blush Red!” What was the process of building that album like for you, and how did it differ from your previous projects?

Kevin Atwater (KA): It was just it was a different process because my last album, I sort of do this thing where I write something and then I share it immediately online, or I had operated that way, where it was sort of just like that was just how I was expressing myself at the time. But with this album, I really was like adamant about writing it and keeping it to myself until I was ready to share it because it is a good thing to let what people think influence you. Like I, a lot of the times, what music I put out was influenced by like if it got a lot of people telling me to put it out, like, and I was like, okay, I want to make them happy and I want to put that one out, but I had a concept for this album, and I was like, I’m gonna write it, and I’m gonna make sure I am sure of it first, and then hopefully people will like it. And that was a cool way to operate. It was scarier though. Yeah, I was like, I have no idea if this is anyone’s gonna care about this because I haven’t like sort of vetted it first.

GK:  I’ve noticed it feels a little more stripped down. I feel like, and do you think creatively you felt like writing this was different?

KA: Yeah, yeah, it was. I mean, it’s all still personal. Like, I don’t want to limit myself to only writing about my life because it’s just what I’ve done thus far. But with this one, I really had  a concept of it feeling like it takes place in one night, even though the stories of this one don’t. Obviously, that would be an insane night, right? But it was fun to piece it together and just try to create a theme. Like lyrically, I was trying to say the same things in the songs, talking about dancing or turning red and stuff, and just bringing up these words. Which before I’d been really stubborn about being like they all have to be all different words and blah blah blah and lyric lyricism; that is singular. But, with this, I was like, ‘well, it’s on theme.’ This is a love album and I want it to feel like that and for them to feel like they’re all hello in the same world. 

GK: Absolutely. Yeah, and I feel like you kind of pulled that all together with your short film. You’ve released a couple short films. Do you want to just tell me a little about this one that you recently released? 

KA: Yeah, I did this with my awesome friend Patrick, and he helped me do all the really really short shorts that we did with the singles for the album. I mean, I grew up in theater and I love acting, and it’s just a part of me that I miss. I was waiting to do a project that felt right to create something in that world, so we made this film. I wrote it and I scored it and I acted in it and it was kind of just like a partner thing to the album. Like I didn’t want to just tell the story of the album again because, to me, that’s what the music just did. I don’t want to just do all that andI lived those things. I don’t want to be acting that out– intense and crazy. So it was more just taking the themes, and then I kind of just wrote stuff that would never happen. It was completely fictional. I just wanted to have fun with it and use it as an exercise that also made sense, and so hopefully that came across. Yeah, it was just really fun. We shot the whole thing in one night, from 1 a.m. to 9 a.m, so it was exhausting and crazy, but it was really fun. 

GK: Wow, what an awesome experience. Speaking of your theater background, the first album you put out is called “Downers Grove.” I actually grew up in Glen Ellyn. 

KA: I took clarinet lessons in Glen Ellyn!

GK: Oh my God! When you put that out, I was like, “This is crazy.” I was like, “But hey, I got you.” But I was wondering how growing up the way you did, I feel like you talk about it a lot in your music, and where you grew up. How did that influence your music, and how do you feel like that’s matured over time? 

KA: Yeah, I guess it’s probably influenced my music in a million ways subconsciously that I am not aware of. I mean, it’s directly influenced what I write about. I write about the past most of the time, not as much with this most recent album. But, generally, I write about things that happened a long time ago, so they happen to be about where I grew up. But I moved to New York after high school and… I’m trying to name specifics, but it’s like moving from a smaller, I mean, it’s a suburb, so it’s not a small town. But moving to a city is just… It is just a different experience, and I guess. I live in New York, and I have a really strong community of people, queer people and not queer people, but people who really inspire me and keep me going. So, I guess they influence me in many ways. Also, Jess [Jess Mazin, the artist opening on Atwater’s tour] is currently singing Little Mermaid. This part of her set, it’s so good. I’m sorry, I just had to listen for two seconds. 

GK: That was my favorite movie growing up. I know I keep being like, “Oh, love her, love this, I’m obsessed.” But, speaking of people who influence you, that same album [Downers Grove], you reimagined it with a bunch of different people. I’m sorry, I know I keep talking about older projects. 

KA: Let’s do it. Let’s do it. I’m so happy to talk about it. 

GK: What was it like working with that many songwriters and collaborators, especially on a project I imagine was very close to your experiences?

KA: It was freeing, honestly, because I think the only person who well, actually no, a couple people wrote their own stuff on it, but that felt really grounded in their experience. Like I had a songwriter, August Pontier, who’s a really close friend of mine, and then June Henry, who both added their own verses to the songs. But that was it. They weren’t trying to [write] like me. Like they were writing their own thing about them, and so it felt so authentic. And then also, I was working with all my friends. Those are all people that I was friends with, and I just wanted to have an excuse to have a song with them. It was just fun. It was like it never felt. It honestly felt like no pressure because I was like, all right, I already wrote the song and it already came out too. So I’m like, now we can just have fun, like we can just do what you feel is cool. 

GK: Yeah, that is awesome. We can return back to this project, this tour because you’re like halfway through, kind of a little more crazy together. How has playing this tour changed over time, like from the first show to this show, and how do you see it going from here?

KA: Oh, I mean, honestly, it has changed a lot. I feel like with the Achilles tour, my tour I did last year, it changed from the beginning to the end, but it was slow, and I didn’t notice it really. Like I had some friends who came to the first show and came to like the second to last one, and they were like, “It’s a whole different show. I was like, “Is it? I don’t know. But this one feels like it really has changed a lot because we’ve been kind of like being more free with the way that we’re going about the songs. Like, we’ll just try something different every night. I also have a slot in the set list where I play something different every night, so it’s a little more free. I’m not holding as much pressure to do the same thing every night. Like I’m sort of being like, I like that we’re sort of feeling how the crowd is feeling, and then that sort of influences the way that we’re playing. But also, it’s my first time using in ears. I used to only perform with wedges for the first three years of my music career, so that has been a learning experience just in itself. So I’m like, already the way that I’ve approached these shows has changed so much from the first one just because of the best. Yeah. But yeah, so a million ways.

GK: Awesome. That’s so interesting. This is your first tour within years. What shows are you most proud of? It doesn’t have to be on this tour, but just in general. 

KA: Oh, live shows?

GK: Yeah.

KA: Oh my gosh. I mean, I love every time I get to play Chicago; Chicago is awesome because that’s the city that I like. I played Lincoln Hall just then, and come on, it was so cool. I also opened for Leith Ross there three years ago. Oh my god! So it was awesome to be honest. It’s just cool. It’s cool when you get to come back to a venue where you’re like, “Oh, we opened here.” Yeah, I like playing a small show; freaking awesome. My mind is blanking, but that one was super fun. 

GK: Good to hear that it was a great show. What shows are you most excited for coming up?

KA: Oh, I mean New York. I live there. I’m playing Music Hall of Williamsburg, which is another one that I like. I opened for somebody last year there, so it’s super cool. When you get to do that, it feels really special. I’m also excited for Nashville because I’ve never been there, and that’s the songwriter capital. I’m just so excited just to go there.

GK: What is your favorite song on this album? And if you can’t pick a favorite, you can pick a few.

KA: Well, my favorite also sort of is dictated now by what is the most fun to play. So it’s sort of morphing as the tour is going. When the album came out, I was most excited about “God in My Head,” which is just a song in the middle of the album, and,to me, it was the craziest I’ve ever been. It’s very loud. There’s no structure to the song. It was very sort of experimentally produced too. So I was very excited about it because I don’t think I’ve done anything that sounds like this yet, which is the goal. Also now that I’ve been on tour, I have a song called “Know You,” and it is just really fun to play. That is becoming my favorite because it’s fun to play. 

GK: When you were writing these songs, when did you know, “okay, this is an album.” Did you go in with the concepts? Did you know what you wanted to write, or did you have a few songs and knew? What was that process?

KA: I knew that I was going to do another album when the Achilles tour ended last year, but I did not know what it was gonna be. I was not sure which direction I wanted to go and then I was writing stuff over the summer, and that was a direct influence. I was like, “oh, this is gonna be a summer album.” I’m feeling like it’s gonna be a romantic, heat-filled album. About four songs in, I knew I had a concept. I didn’t know what it was gonna be called, but I knew it was a concept. It’s gonna take place in one night. It’s all romance. We’re going full love album. I think I know four songs

GK: What was the first song you wrote for the album? 

KA: “Know You-”  well, that’s technically not true. I wrote the last song on the album, “Time to Kill.” I wrote that like three or four years ago, and then I forgot about it. I do this thing where I write something, I put it on the internet and I leave it forever, but I came back to it and I was like, “Oh, this feels now like it fits on a project finally–it just didn’t at the time. It had no place, and now and then it found a place. But consciously writing for the album, it was “Know You.”

GK: Awesome. I think that wraps up my questions. We’re at 8:22, so you have some time to go listen to Jess! 

This interview was edited for clarity