Theresa Bentley Interview #3 - The Final on Vinyl Podcast

Got some great insight into the upcoming release from Theresa Bentley and Dino Pacifici titled Soft Winds. Theresa gives listeners an inside look at her recording process.

Keith "MuzikMan" Hannaleck

Transcript

Speaker 1 0:14

Hi everybody, this is Keith "MuzikMan" Hannaleck of the Final and Vinyl Podcast, and today we are with Teresa Bentley. Um here for her second time on the show, and she's getting ready to release an album with Dino Postafisi called Softwinds on June twelfth. I had the pleasure of listening and reviewing it and enjoyed it very much. Uh welcome back, Teresa.

Speaker 3 0:37

Thank you, Keith. Appreciate it.

Speaker 1 0:41

So tell us a little bit about how you connected with Dino. I know he was part of your last project he um performed, and something happened that engaged you to go ahead and create an entire album with him.

Speaker 2 0:57

Well, it was kind of organic, I guess you could say. Um when I was working on that album, and I just put it out there um as part of I and Dino as well, are part of Wayfarer Music Group, and uh there's a lot of collaboration that goes on within that group. And so I happened to put that song out there and Dino just added something to it, and I thought, wow, that's that works really well. Um then we were working on, I was working on um Glimmers with JJRD, who's another artist there, and brought in Dino, and of course he just elevates everything that he does. Um and so as we were working, we started realizing we work really well together in creating music. And it just, like I said, kind of organically grew, and before we knew it, within two months, we had a completed album, which was fast, and it just happened. So it was quite a joy.

Speaker 1 1:54

That is incredibly fast.

Speaker 3 1:57

Yes.

Speaker 1 1:58

Yeah. So you never stopped uh since the last release, you just kept going.

Speaker 2 2:04

Right. Um yeah, it's just well, like I said, it just kind of flowed. I um actually what happened is I got some new equipment, um Arturia, and was learning how to use it. And another artist um from Ambient Solstice um does sounds for that. And so I just was playing around with it, and then that's part of what happened with Glimmers. It was just learning how to play with this equipment. And um, and that was just for fun. I didn't even know this album was going to come about. And in doing so, it literally just started flowing and went, and here we are.

Speaker 1 2:41

So can you talk a little bit more about the equipment? Arturia, you called it?

Speaker 2 2:45

Yeah, it's um it's a controller, and um there's some sound software sounds called Spire, and um Ambient Solstice, um, they uh he um creates sounds for this and just introduced me to some of the sounds, and so I just started playing with it and just to try and learn and experience experience what it means to play because I'm so acoustic, so this is kind of a new world for me. And as I was playing with it, it's just like wow, this is fun. And it literally glimmers came out from that and just started going with it.

Speaker 1 3:27

I see. So, you know, music today is very technical, and you have all these different pieces of equipment you can use along with uh vintage equipment that is out there. Now a lot a lot of new age artists like to do that, right?

Speaker 2 3:43

Yes, yeah, there's a there's so much equipment, and um I just own have only scratched the surface. I am so classically trained. Um I was um I played French horn professionally for like 30 years and um started singing and piano and the harp and um always loved new age music. Um and so I am very classically acoustic oriented. So this is kind of a new realm for me. Um, but I don't think I'll ever lose my acoustic roots. It just is something that has to come along with me. So I I guess that's a little different than what's out there.

Speaker 1 4:24

Well, I suppose that foundation helps you branch off into all the different uh areas, doesn't it?

Speaker 2 4:30

Absolutely. Um so um as you could hear on the album, you know, sometimes we verge on definitely classical music, um, which is my deep background. Um we throw in some jazz, which I've had a number of years of training in jazz, and of course, Dino is very well versed in jazz. Um so we throw a lot of different little pieces in there, just to mix it up a little, I suppose.

Speaker 1 5:00

So what are your plans going forward uh once the album becomes available to the general public for streaming and purchasing? Are there plans to get together with Dino and start playing live dates, or you just move right into the next project and start recording again?

Speaker 2 5:18

No, we uh Dino and I have actually never met in person. He's in Canada and I'm in Missouri, and um there's no no plans to do anything like that. We're just um I'm I don't know that he's out playing anymore. Um and I play on my harp and do, you know, around in the Midwest here, um, and with my husband, Mark, who's a classical guitarist. So we'll get out and play. Um but in terms of going forward, I am part of the recording academy, and um and we'll likely present this album to the recording academy to go through its system, the Grammy system. Um I I feel so excited about this album and so good about it that I I plan to do that.

Speaker 1 6:04

I see. Now, as far as putting this project together with Dino, him being in Canada and you uh in the United States, was he sending you files and ideas and then you were taking them and implementing them and taking all the production end of things?

Speaker 2 6:21

It's actually the other way around. Yeah, it is the other way around. So uh so I I am the I was the idea creator and um you know the initial ideas of every song here. And Dino didn't really want to change the flavor of the album. He just said, send me what you have, and then I'm going to just do his Dino thing. And so each song is uh is basically my song, and then like I said, Dino um I would just tease him, he just adds music, I'm sorry, adds magic to everything that I did. And he just had a wonderful way of coming up with ideas, and he's creative and just turned it in ways that I did not expect. For example, the fretless base, um, especially on ancestral chain, he threw in this fretless base, so like that's different. I I didn't even realize what frontless space is all about. And um I was unsure, and then all of a sudden it grew on me like this is brilliant. Like I, you know, it's just brilliant what he did. Um, so that's how it worked. And then he is a masterful mixing and mastering engineer. Um so you know, I presented him with the ideas, presented him with that, and then we kind of went back and forth, and then he mixed and mastered.

Speaker 1 7:40

I see. Oh yeah, that fretless bass has a very distinct sound and adds so much to the tracks, don't you think?

Speaker 2 7:48

Oh, absolutely. I I have officially learned to love fretless bass.

Speaker 1 7:55

There's a lot of great players out there. I'm sure you've heard of like Michael Manring and uh there's other people out there uh that really specialize in that sound.

Speaker 2 8:05

Yeah, yeah. Sean O'Brien Smith, um, he was on the my last album, and he's the one that introduced me to it. And um he um is is has been busy with some things, and so Dino stepped up and said, I'm gonna do some fretless bass. I'm like, you just go for it. It was very fun.

Speaker 1 8:24

And you know what's interesting too, and this is the way I think anyway, is that every single aspect of putting a recording together is a creative process, whether it's highly technical or just you know, composing the song and starting on a piano or a guitar, every single piece of it is creative.

Speaker 2 8:48

Oh, completely. And it's and I never know when it's gonna hit me or how it's gonna hit me, and it just does, and like I think I need to go sit at the piano or I need to go sit at my harp. And um something, whatever it was, like um Tranquil Eyes, for example, um it's a true story, and this person told me her story, and the my first thought was, I have to write a song about this. And I literally just went home and did it. And um there's so every aspect of it, there's so much creativity. Even in um, for example, in soft winds, Dino used this panning technique that he has taught me about, and it just, you know, and I'm sure other people do this, but it's like it it it moves across from your left to right or right to left so seamlessly that you feel like the wind is blowing on you. And he used that all over Soft Winds, which I thought was just absolutely beautiful.

Speaker 1 9:49

Yes, I remember that. That was very cool.

Speaker 9:52

Yeah.

Speaker 2 9:55

There's a lot of symbolism. I'm sorry, there's a lot of symbolism through those uses that's throughout the album. I would almost call it Easter eggs that you could go find. They're all over the place.

Speaker 1 10:07

True. I I I heard it, believe me. I think you realized that after you read my review that I was listening pretty intently.

Speaker 2 10:17

Yes, yes, and it was a beautiful review. I'm very thankful.

Speaker 1 10:21

Oh, thank you. I'm I'm glad you liked it. It's very important to me that the artist, you know, believes that I actually spent the time listening and um expressing my my thoughts and feelings on every track.

Speaker 10:34

Important to me.

Speaker 3 10:35

Yeah, it was good, thank you.

Speaker 1 10:40

So from this point now, um getting everything in line with your promotion, is that part of the business that you enjoy, or you feel like it's just something that you have to do to get out of the way so you can move on to the next thing?

Speaker 2 10:57

Um well it's actually um uh just as a background, I do have an MBA in finance which includes marketing. And um so this is just something I'm pretty trained to do. I I'm very left and right brained, and so I love, I love, love, love the creative part of this. Um but I fully understand and embrace the business side of this too. And so that's where I'm at now. And um and I I believe so deeply and have so much love for this album that it's it's not that it's a marketing thing that's happening for me now. It's I I want the world to experience this because I just feel like this was just an inspired piece of music that I did not know was even going to happen, nor that did Dino. And it's um it's truly a musical labor of love rather than just like, hey, let's just create an album. It's it's truly very deep and heartfelt. And so as I'm marketing, it's not just marketing, it's I want the world to experience it.

Speaker 1 12:04

Oh, that's a good energy to have. And you know, I'm thinking about your process, wondering what it would be like for you when you create an album that's primarily instrumental. Um while you're creating and composing, do you have thoughts and images and words running through your mind as you're creating, and it's like a simultaneous thing that's happening?

Speaker 2 12:26

Absolutely. Um, most of the time I have a story in my head. And when I was young and um training in French horn, and I went and studied music in Norway with this brilliant French horn teacher or player, and she said literally every single note has to have it has to be part of your story. And I took that to heart. And so now as I create, um either I will write a poem and create a song from it, or I know a story like Tranquilize and create the story from it. So as you listen, you probably can tell it's taking you through some kind of story. I call it um in especially the first album, Kind of the Shade, it's absolutely an ambient tone poem. And in the classical world, it's telling a story without words through the music. That's a tone poem. And so, and I've always loved tone poems. And so every single one of my albums, and it will probably always be this way, it'll be a tone poem or an ambient tone poem of some sort. There's always a story behind it, and that's where the music comes from.

Speaker 1 13:36

Excellent. Well, Teresa, it's been a pleasure to speak with you again and get the insight into your work. Uh it's very interesting to me, and I'm sure many other people will be interested to hear what you have to say. And I just want to reiterate uh the importance of this album. Uh called Soft Winds by Teresa Bentley and Gino Passafisi. And it will come out June twelfth.

Speaker 3 14:00

Thank you so much. I appreciate your time.

Speaker 1 14:04

I appreciate your time as well, Teresa.

Speaker 14:06

Have a great day. Bye-bye.

Speaker 3 14:07

You too. Bye.