There's a lot of searching and yearning in the songs on "All This Time," the new set from the Heartless Bastards. Though she never set out to create a theme album, ideas seem to emerge anyway, said singer/songwriter/guitarist Erika Wennerstrom, much of it informed by her life on the road.
"At least half of the album was written on tour," said singer/songwriter/guitarist Erika Wennerstrom. "So we've played most of the album before we were ready to record."
There's a practical reason for that. Even after the well-received and nationally-reviewed debut "Stairs and Elevators," Wennerstromm and her Cincinnati-based band (Mike Lamping on bass; Kevin Vaughn on drums) still aren't in a position to spend leisurely hours in the studio working out songs.
"Studios cost way too much not to have a clear plan going in," she said. "Plus it takes me a long time to write words.
"Not that I think they're all that great, but they're what I feel at the time and it takes some thought and time to get them just right. It's easy to be cheesey, and I don't want to be cheesy.
"I wish words didn't take me that long because I constantly have melodies in my head. If (the words) didn't take so long, I'd have three albums a year."
Wennerstrom feels that "All This Time" is a much better record, at least in terms of getting out the stuff she hears in her head, than "Stairs and Elevators."
"We had very limited time on the first one," she said. "We had that 'get it done by yesterday' feeling. We only had three days, so some of it didn't turn out like I wanted it. Even though the whole thing was rushed, we were pleasantly surprised at the good response. It’s not like we thought it all came out horrible, but we felt we could make it better. We were really shocked – we were amazed, actually – that it got as much attention as it did.”
For one thing, the songs on “Stairs and Elevators” were written for a four-piece band, which is what the Heartless Bastards were shortly bofore the recording.
“Then our guitar player quit,” she said. “I already had some dates booked and was afraid that it’d be too hard to get back into those clubs if I canceled, so we did them as a three-piece. So the music wasn’t meant to be as simple as it turned out on the record. Maybe that was a blessing in disguise.
"We still didn't have that much time (for “All This Time”), but we were able to try some new things, had a few more options. There's a million right ways and a million wrong ways to do things in the studio.
"It's never going to come out exactly like what's in my head, no matter what the budget and time," she said. "But I think we got close to it.
"Whether it ends up being received as well as the first one, we'll see," she said. "We did the best we could."
While Wennerstrom's guitar playing isn't particularly virtuosic, and admittedly so, she's found a rich tone and an energetic, almost percussive, style of playing that blend well with her throaty delivery. A good sense of vocal melody and personal drama keeps her songs afloat in against a background that might otherwise become a bore.
Born and raised in the Dayton area, Wennerstrom said that she didn’t come from a particularly musical family, although her parents both listened to music, or what they thought was music.
“My mom really loved jazz and old Motown,” she said. “My dad was an engineer and so he’s not too aware of the arts. He would turn music on the radio in the car, but it would mostly be elevator music. He didn’t really care; he’d just turn it on for background noise.”
But it was a gift from her father, an acoustic guitar, that set her on the path to rock stardom.
"Dad sent me a guitar for my 16th birthday,” she said. “I don’t know why. I didn’t ask for it specifically. But it seemed so hard to me that I didn’t bother with it for a couple of years.”
Eventually, however, she discovered the joy of power chords – two-note chords usually played on the thicker, lower-toned guitar strings – and started writing songs.
“My songs are still pretty simple today, but I have progressed some,” she said. “I’m thinking about taking guitar lessons to broaden my skills. I wouldn’t hurt, I figure. Some things I hear in my head I’m just not capable of playing.
“Or maybe I should just practice more.”
photo by Jim Higgins
A version of this story originally appeared in the Go! section of the JournalNews, Hamilton, Ohio, on Sept. 1, 2006.
