Interview With Jill Haley - The Final On Vinyl Podcast

It was nice to speak to Jill Haley and learn more about here latest release and prior projects.

Keith "MuzikMan" Hannaleck

Buzzsprout - Let's get your podcast launched!
Start for FREE

Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase, I may receive a commission at no extra cost to you.

Transcript

Speaker 0:14

Hello everybody, this is Keith "MuzikMan" Hannnaleck The Final on Vinyl Podcast. And today we have Jill Haley. And recently she put out an album called Wrapped in Light on November 5th. And I had the pleasure of listening and covering that and wanted to introduce you to her. Hi, Jill.

Speaker 1 0:34

Hi, Keith. Thanks so much for the invitation to uh talk today.

Speaker 0:40

Absolutely. You know, it's always a pleasure to talk to an artist after I've covered their music for so long and I get a chance to hear a voice and put it to a face and get to know people a lot better that way. So it is.

Speaker 1 0:54

Yeah. Yeah. So we get is so much digital stuff going on. It's nice when you actually see a person or talk to a person.

Speaker 1:01

Right. Seems like the further we get into technology, the further we get away from each other, you know.

Speaker 1 1:09

Yeah, but it's been kind of neat though, uh, coming back to more live things after um the last year and a half. I noticed people are really appreciating live concerts and it's just it's just I'm starting to see little kids' faces I haven't seen in a year and a half as they start to get the vaccine, you know, those five to twelve year olds, and it's like, wow, I never even saw your face before, you know, little kids I teach. So it's it's really that's kind of neat to see that happening.

Speaker 1:33

So you work with little ones?

Speaker 1 1:35

Well, I teach some music lessons at my house. That's what I do. Yeah, I do that. Like, yeah, I've been doing that forever. Um just a nice way to uh make a little supplemental income and you know, it's kinda it's kind of good. Good thing to do. Yeah.

Speaker 1:51

Okay. So I was interested to see the change in direction that you made with your your music and um different people involved, and you were inspired by the Book of Psalms.

Speaker 1 2:07

Yeah. Um it uh it really was was a result of when we first had to stay in our houses all the time, last March 2020, and April and May, and I started getting just stir crazy because I had all these trips planned, all these artists in residencies, and they all are getting canceled one after another, and it really got depressing. So I thought, well, maybe I can find a different way to find some inspiration for some music writing. And, you know, I don't know about you, but I have all these like I'll call them, you know, lifelong things. Oh, someday I'm gonna read the Bible or someday I'm gonna read, you know, an epic book, and and I never quite get around to it. So I thought, oh, this is the time. So I I took the book of Psalms because I knew there was some beautiful images of nature in there, and I thought that might be a jump off point for writing some music, because that is really what I love to do. So it was. And um a lot of the Psalms are very dark and deep and uh, you know, people getting killed and stuff, but um then there's also some other beautiful images, so I I went I went for the nice, you know, the forest and the waters and all that stuff. But um it it it was it was kind of a very personal project, and I'm I'm I would never have probably done it if we hadn't gone through what we went through in the last two years. So I'm I'm I'm glad in a way I got to do this.

Speaker 3:26

Such interesting. I everybody I talk to in the music industry in particular has has said that there's obviously been some disadvantages to you know COVID hitting and everything that's happened. It's been like you know, the domino theory, one thing after another being affected and affecting all our lives, but for people that are recording music, creating music and so forth, they were given a space of time to do things that they always wanted to do, or decide to record them when they didn't have that on their plate, you know?

Speaker 1 3:59

Right, right. Yeah, and it's easy to push it off and go, oh, someday I'll do this or that, and you know, other real life intrudes. So yeah.

Speaker 4:09

So did you feel like I I love the title Wrapped in Light. Did you feel like you were wrapped in light when you were creating all this? Is that what the general feeling was to you? You were so inspired and it was a spiritual experience, and that's the warmth that you felt.

Speaker 1 4:27

Yeah, I I think uh we can say that. Um I I I uh I love I love the sun. I love the you know, I mean it's it's real cliche in one way. We all tend to write songs about the ocean and the water and the light and everything, but I just love the the warmth of the sun and the light. And I've often been just mesmerized by the clouds and just the different formations with the light. And that actual photo on the CD cover wrapped in light was taken up at Acadia National Park when my car broke down and I was in such a remote part of the park, I was stuck for there um there for five hours because it took that long for a tow truck to come to that part of the park. And I was so I was just so upset because it was like, oh, I only have a certain amount of time here and I'm sitting here in a broken down car. And then of course, you know, I got this gift, this beautiful light started coming through the clouds is over the ocean, um, over Scoot Point, and I went, wow, that is just beautiful. So even though the the piece itself had been written um, you know, during the pandemic, um last summer, June of 2021, I was up in Maine and I went, Oh, there's the photo for the cover, and I just took a bunch of them and it was just amazing. And then a storm came in right afterwards. So yes, I did feel like I was wrapped in light. Um, and I just uh yeah, it gives you a sense of warmness, being protected. And I I I think can't speak for everybody. I think I think a lot of us felt kind of like uh vulnerable in the last two years and we needed some extra protection. So I think that's where that kind of came from too.

Speaker 6:07

You know what's funny? I'm looking at that cover now, and I can see a face in the clouds, and he's got like a little goatee sticking out. I see the nose, eyes, mouth.

Speaker 1 6:18

Yeah, I see it. Yeah, I'm looking at it too. Yeah, I always yeah, I'm looking at it, so I see what you're talking about. Yeah. That's kind of funny. Yeah. That's cool.

Speaker 6:27

I never noticed that before.

Speaker 1 6:29

Yeah.

Speaker 6:31

So people that aren't familiar with your your past work, um, I probably understand why you were in a remote part of the that area is because you went to all the parks and created albums in those parks. Maybe you could shed a little light on that for the listening audience, what that was like.

Speaker 1 6:49

Sure. Sure. What I've been doing, I'm gonna say now for the past decade, because it started around maybe well, I I guess 2013 was the first artist in residency I had in a national park. And what had happened is before that, in about 2010, I went to um uh Glacier National Park in Montana, and I was just awestruck by the beauty there. And I had been doing a lot of recording as an oboist, English horn player on um imaginary road um recording artists that worked with Will Ackerman. Um, he'd often um have the artists use me um to provide, you know, oboe lines, English horn lines over there, piano or guitar um compositions. And I'd done a lot of this and and thought, wow, this is really beautiful stuff. And I came home from Glacier really inspired to write start writing my own music. I'd been writing other music in in a trio format for years before that, but this is my first solo project, and I knew I could play this piano well enough to, you know, lay down some basic stuff and so I recorded that album in like 2010 or 11 and then um went over and anyway my uh recording engineer at the time, Corinne Nelson, had suggested I look into being an artist in residence at a national park. And um so I did that and um kept applying and kept getting rejected and thought, wow, there's a lot of people who want to do this. So finally Mace of Verdi offered me an artist in residency, which then um an answer to all the unspoken questions and often spoken questions. No, I do not get paid to do this. It's usually um the the deal is they give you a a place to live, though, um, for free while you create your art and then your gift stuff to them is whatever art you create. Usually I do a concert at the end of the residency. Um and up until recently, and hopefully still, but it's declining every year, um, they would also sell my CDs in the parks, um in their gift shops, which I always thought I know when I'm a you know, I'm doing a whole souvenir thing looking in shops, I I want something that's specific to that park. I don't want just like American West music, you know, I want want something specifically about that place. So I thought that this might be something that would appeal to people and I I I think it did. So anyway, so I did have now done eight artists in residencies and I've put out um eight albums, but this most recent one obviously wasn't about a park. Uh the book, the Book of Psalms one.

Speaker 9:20

Wow. See, I didn't realize that was the whole process. I thought that you did you went there long enough to record and then you left and you know, put the album out. I didn't realize it was an artist in residency thing. Wow. That's that's really cool.

Speaker 1 9:34

Yeah, I just I just create the music there and then actually uh my my recording skills are nil. So I I go um the last several yeah, like I did several up at at uh Imaginary Roads with uh not with Will, the producer, he just let me use the studio and I worked with Tom Eaton and Corinne Nelson over the years. Most recently, um Corinne Nelson um has moved to Michigan, so I've been recording usually record the album about a year later. Like I have some music from when I went to Alaska I wrote way back in 2017 that never got recorded, so I'm planning on recording that this summer um for the next release. So there is definitely a delay, but um just partly financial. I have to wait till I save up enough money to to pay to put it out and um you're just partly just getting all the details. It's a lot of work. As you know, it's a lot of work putting out of it. Yeah.

Speaker 10:28

Do you recover a lot of what you invest in when you put a CD out? You break-even? How does that usually work for you? Or does it vary from album to album?

Speaker 1 10:38

Well, I think it was like a lot of uh small businesses, you know, the first few years were I wasn't expecting to even recoup my losses. Well not losses, but my expenses that I paid. Um but again, back in twenty, you know, 2011, 12, 13, up to about maybe two or three years ago, those parks would often order, you know, a hundred CDs and sell them, you know, in their stores and stuff. So I'd make a little bit of money that way. And um then of course selling the CDs. I I do do a lot of concerts where um I have a video. I show a video of the images that inspire the music and there's a lot of um you know, videos on my webpage, which is JillHaley dot com. Um and you can see um the video of the images that inspire the music. Like if one of the songs on this one is uh floor sheing grass, then then I'll put together a video, you know, uh that lines up with the music, and I show the video while I do a live concert with usually guitarists and uh pianists. So um now lately streaming has s kicked in, which is nice. Streaming money like um basically satellite radio has been been really um nice, nice to uh start making a little bit of money on.

Speaker 11:57

Oh so not not Spotify or Pandora, any of those is something different?

Speaker 1 12:05

Um Spotify and Pandora, I mean if you look I get all that stuff too, but you can look at, you know, we have 47 plays of this one song, you made 3.7 cents, you know. Spotify's pretty uh unless you do a whole thing where you're curating a listener's list and I don't know. It seems there's a real I guess there's an algorithm or if you want to make it a full-time job, you can figure out how to how to uh monetize that. Um I just don't frankly have the the the time or or the interest in doing that. So um Pandora, you know, same thing. If something like Apple license, yeah, you make a little bit more money, like maybe 99 cents. Um but you know when you're talking about recouping a few thousand dollars, it's it's not, you know. But there's something called serious XM satellite radio that yeah, that does does um does show a considerably better turnover.

Speaker 13:00

I didn't realize that. I'm very familiar with that too. Yeah. How long have you been at this? Yeah, when you know, when was the first time you picked up an instrument and knew that this is what you were gonna do for the rest of your life?

Speaker 1 13:18

Well, I don't know if it was that clear cut. I mean I I said it playing like most kids did in school, you know, with a school band and you know, um got just got real involved being a real band kind of high school kid, going to you know, trying out for auditions for different groups and stuff and went to college. Got a degree in uh bachelor's in music from Temple University and worked as a music therapist for a few years and then um started teaching privately and starting to play more concerts classical. I do a lot of in fact that's what I'm leaving for at 130 today. I have to uh go um go to an orchestra rehearsal, a double early holiday pop rehearsal. So um yeah, so I started playing more and teaching privately and um yeah, so it's been it's not like I was clear cut that this is what I'm I certainly didn't know I was gonna be doing what I'm doing now when I was a young adult. In other words, writing music about National Park that was not on my radar until about ten years ago.

Speaker 14:18

So it it's really amazing if you think about music. It it's like a tree and there's so many different branches that come off of that tree. You know, there's just so many directions you can go with with your music. And I think with instrumental music in particular, there's a lot more opportunity to expand and go in different directions. You're just you know, there's I think it's limited when you have, you know, pop music with vocals and you know, you might hear it on a commercial or something, but all the different areas that you've worked in, that wouldn't have happened, I don't think, if you weren't making instrumental music.

Speaker 1 14:57

Right. Instrumental music, but even and I think the other thing about instrumental music, at least most of it, is that it's kind of timeless. In other words, the the satellite radio program is still playing pieces I wrote in 1988 with my trio of two guitars and ovo called One Alternative, and it sounds just as contemporary as something from Wrapped in Light. In other words, it's just instrumental acoustic music. There's a you know, a longevity to it, which is quite lovely, um from the you know, from just the perspective of Jeeps. When I when I hear a 1988 pop song on the radio, I go, wow, that really sounds out of date. Or, you know, it's you can definitely tell it's got a disco beat or whatever. You know, it it's much different than what you're hearing in 2021 in the pop vein. And but yet with this c it's kinda like the Windham Hill sound sound from the seven sixties or seventies and eighties, is you know, you just that's timeless too, you know. So it's that's a really really neat part part of what I do that you just kind of feel like it's gonna last.

Speaker 16:00

It's true. And if you look at um what people are into, you know, I can think of jazz in particular and some of the greats that put out these really long improvational improv I can't even talk. Improvisational pieces. And um, you know, Duke Ellington and you know Miles Davis, you know, people are still buying and listening to all that music to this day. You know, just no end in sight, you know?

Speaker 1 16:26

Yeah, yeah, it's it's it is amazing. And I hear a lot of people like doing guitarists doing stuff that sounds to me like Michael Hedges, you know, so the the tradition carries on, you know, the tapping on the guitars and stuff and wow, that or I go back to Paul McCannless from from um Oregon, the group Oregon, and the Paul Winter consort, he's an oboist who really majorly influenced me. Um, you know, you just kind of hear the similarities through the years, which is really neat.

Speaker 16:56

It's very true.

Speaker 1 16:57

Mm-hmm.

Speaker 16:59

So what are the plans for you uh for next year? Are you planning to record another album or have different areas that are working on?

Speaker 1 17:08

Yeah, my my my problem is I have I honestly have three three groups of re uh projects that I'd like to record. Um obviously I can't do them all next year, so I uh spent last November, so I guess I just said about a year ago from where we are in right now, um in Big Cypress National Preserve in Florida, um, which is uh gosh, pretty much down there at the bottom of Florida. And that was amazing. And I I wrote um again I lived there for two weeks writing music. So I wrote six pieces down there, and then I wrote six pieces from an early Alaska trip to Wrangle St. Elais National Park again as an artist in residence. So I thought I could put the two of those um groups of music together and put out a piece I mean, uh a recording uh working title, Ice and Sun, or something along those lines. In other words, we're going from Alaska to Florida, you know, from cold to to really warm. Um I thought that'd be a nice combination and and the pieces work well together, I think. Um so I think that's that's my plan. And then I also, like I said, I was in Acadia last summer, I got a bunch of music from there, and I was also in Arizona at Petrified Forest National Park. These are all artists in residencies that I was offered and all got canceled or delayed due to the pandemic. So they all sort of happened. I would never usually do three in a year, but they all got it kind of like you gotta do it now to use and I was like, oh so I did a lot of writing and traveling last year. So I think this year will might might be a year of catching up on all that stuff.

Speaker 18:43

So actually you're you're set for the next three years if you want to do it that way.

Speaker 1 18:47

I know, because I I like the part where I go to to visit these places too. That's always fun. But I also have uh an arranger who's been arranging my pieces for orchestral um, you know, for an orchestra with solo oval English horn. So um I'm calling that National Park Suite. And I did one a couple years ago and he's doing another one for this June. So I picked out four new pieces and we're doing a concert in June of um four pieces that I wrote in the trio format that will now be performed for the orchestra. So that's that's cool too. I'm I'm enjoying that.

Speaker 19:22

That's great. I'm sure I'll be hearing from you as you get ready to release things. So look forward to that.

Speaker 1 19:28

I got your number.

Speaker 19:30

Well, Jill, it's been a pleasure today to speak with you finally after all these years, and I look forward to more music and wish you and yours a happy holiday season.

Speaker 1 19:40

Thank you, Keith. You too. Take care.

Speaker 19:43

You too, Jill. Take care. Bye bye.