When singer/songwriter Rachael Yamagata was growing up, she went to all-girls school that she says warped her into the relationship-obsessed woman she’s become, at least in the lyrics of her songs. She began singing with a funk-crazed dance band called Bumpus while she was in college studying theater. While touring and recording with Bumpus, she was also writing confessional, deeply emotional songs that didn’t fit the band’s format. Happenstance, her first solo album, was a folk/pop charmer. Her tunes have appeared on The O.C., The L Word, Grey’s Anatomy and Alias, and Ray LaMontagne, Ryan Adams and Conor Oberst all expressed admiration for her vocal style. Having just issued Chesapeake (Frankenfish), Yamagata will be guest editing magnetmagazine.com all week. Read our brand new Q&A with her.
Yamagata: When I was in high school and college, I was in places lucky enough to have grand pianos. High school had it in the senior lounge, which was a massive room with couches and rugs galore and big windows. During the day all the gals (girl school yeppers) would stretch out in every which way, poring over books, etc., with the occasional classical pianist sitting down and playing the most complicated pieces with ease. I was not one of these. I would wait until school ended and after sports practice when the building was mostly empty and we were in limbo before play rehearsal began. The sun would be going down, and I would sit alone in this room and start tinkering away. The grand nature of it all, the romantic setting of angst ridden adolescent finding comfort in this beautiful piano—I was hooked.
In college, before still knowing that I would later pursue music, I would frequent empty auditoriums and dorm lounges on Friday and Saturday nights when everyone was out at da party and just play, play, play. Did it all start with “Out Here On My Own” scene in Fame where she’s sitting on the stage by herself and killing it with this beautiful ballad?! I wonder. Was it because I was freaked out by the social networks of college and it felt better to play than try and mingle? Who knows. I just know I love me an empty room and a grand piano.
Later on, I’d get to record in studios, and when we housed at the studio, I’d do the same—up in the middle of the night just playing. I had one song “Over And Over” come to life one night when I was doing so and swore I heard a ghostly trumpet playing a melody. I wrote it out on piano and have owed the ghost royalties ever since.
I’ve recently made the plunge and bought a baby grand for my place, and when I am home routinely wake in the middle of the night and play. Only now, there are cats that like to lounge with me as I do. I have no particular favorite kind as of yet—just that it have heavily weighted keys and a darker sound. Electric keyboards almost infuriate me really, no fault of theirs. They just don’t look as great and they certainly don’t put you in the same magestic space as a grand. I can never really write on a keyboard. I’ve had a trusty upright for years that has chipped keys and has been moved by drunk movers and is all sort of off, but I still can’t get rid of it. It still has songs within it, or at least will make side appearances as a second piano in a track.
For now, I’m all about the empty room and the grand.
Video after the jump.
