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The most affecting music comes straight from an artist's life, from the heart. For P.J. Olsson, making his new album American Scream was an experience reflecting his life more than he ever had known was possible.
“For me it's still sort of like a dream,” says the multi-faceted singer-songwriter-musician. “I made the entire CD except for one song in the middle of the woods using an FTP site to upload and download files. I sang every song in my studio surrounded by Mother Nature's finest, combined with the chaos and love of three kids!”
It's a story he tells in the album's closing song, fittingly titled “The Dream,” an account of a true sense of satisfaction.
“‘The Dream' is about trying not to give up--not in love, not in life!” he says, before explaining the basic recording process of these 12 songs. “My usual day recording starts by moving three pairs of shoes, some crayons, a piece of toy, last night's wine to a different part of the studio that I won't be using in the next twenty minutes.” His mom drives up to say hello and “tells me to shave because I look tired.” He picks up a guitar, strums and within minutes has a microphone on and “I'm singing and playing, trying to make this great feeling translate! Right then, the pounding of water on my studio window from the pre-pubescent misplacement of what sounds like the turbo models of all sprinklers startles the song right out of me. This is how I wrote the entire CD. And keep in mind, this all happens by noon.”
Following up and incorporating several songs previewed on the Internet-only EP The Ironwood Sessions from earlier in 2006, American Scream lives up to and builds on the promise of that collection, one of the inaugural releases from mold-breaking CBS Records, launched last year to take fullest advantage of the new avenues of music distribution and promotion. And Olsson, for his part, is taking full advantage of the freedom and support offered by CBS, working in the setting most conducive to creativity for him--his Michigan home with his family and friends.
Olsson has seen life from the other side of the business, with a decade of experience in both major-label and independent situations. Despite three albums (1998's P.J. Olsson, 1999's Words for Living and 2005's Beautifully Insane) acclaimed both for their bold 21st century troubadour combinations of traditional instruments and innovatively utilized electronics and his often-revealing lyrics, he had little commercial success. In fact, what was probably his biggest break came not via the standard avenues but when his carefree ode “The Whistle Song” (which did, indeed, feature him doing some rather jaunty whistling) was used in a nationwide 2004 Starburst candy TV commercial. That followed his previous breakthrough with the song “Ready for a Fall,” from Words for Living, which struck a chord with fans after being featured in Dawson's Creek, which led to a prime spot on the Platinum soundtrack album Songs From Dawson's Creek – Volume 1.
The CBS Records approach showed the full possibilities of these avenues. Utilizing the immediacy of the digital age, the 5-song EP, The Ironwood Sessions, was released a mere three weeks after studio work was completed. Tunes from that creative intensive burst of writing and recording have already been featured in numerous hit TV shows, including CSI: NY ("Hold My Light"), CSI: Miami ("Hold My Light"), The Unit ("Rain Song"), Ghost Whisperer ("She Says To Fly" & "Send Me A Message") and NCIS ("It's Only Memories"). The impact was immediate and impressive, driving fans old and new to on-line retailers to purchase the songs.
A year ago, Olsson wasn't even sure he had a place in the music business – music yes, the business no. He'd left Los Angeles, his home during most of his time getting his career going, to focus on family life with his wife and three children while reassessing his musical life. There were issues to deal with, including some disillusion with himself and with some fair-weather relations, including, he notes wryly, music equipment manufacturers who called and asked him to send back the guitars and gear they'd gladly given him when he was a “major label artist.”
“Two years ago I moved back to Michigan with my family,” he says. “I knew I'd always stick in music. I got an independent record deal and knew I'd put stuff out. I'm proud of my stuff. And then the CBS offer came out of the blue. I think about how many showcases I did to get my first deal, and with this one I didn't do anything. Someone called me and said, ‘We love you and want to work with you.'”
That someone was Larry Jenkins, who had worked with Olsson in the course of his tenure as a Columbia Records executive and now had joined CBS Records as a creative consultant.
“Larry's someone I respect and he said, ‘I'm a real big believer in your talent and still think it has a place,'” Olsson says. “I still get goose-bumpy telling about it. I am really ecstatic about this.”
The timing was perfect, as the changes in his life had inspired Olsson.
“This music is very reflective of me,” he says. “Sometimes I feel as if I've been going from boyhood to manhood – even though I'm not a teenager or anything. The last couple of years with my children and my wife, moving back to Michigan and being in a Midwestern philosophy compared to living in Hollywood gave me a very natural centering. And that goes hand in hand with wanting to be more responsible. In my personal life I had some ups and downs that I'm very glad to have worked out. And that positivity also comes through my music.”
The music, though, encompasses the whole process, the highs and the lows. With the lush, soaring “She Says To Fly,” Olsson recounts the personal voyage of discovery, finding inspiration and hope to wash away bleakness.
“I was on tour in Russia, in St, Petersburg in my hotel room,” he says of the song's genesis. “There you are in this dark environment and the snow started to fall, and I wrote down the first line of the song, ‘Snow in St, Petersburg, falling gently on trees.' I didn't finish the song there. In the next six months I had a lot of ups and downs and ended coming back to that song, taking the idea I had at the time – there's so much personal stuff going on that I can't explain. Sometimes it's a plague to have to use music to express what I am.”
In contrast, “Rain Song” is all about the up.
“I wrote that for my daughters, looking at me one day,” he says, quoting the lyrics:
I woke up a different man today
I feel the power in all the daybreak words you say
As long as I am here you will always have a home
And I will always be with you, even when you are alone
“As long as my daughters are there, it will always be there – the magic in music,” he says.
The musical support for the songs also has a familial feel. Bassist John Fremgen and guitarist Emerson Swinford have been playing with Olsson since 1991, while drummer Mark Lucier goes back even farther in his life -- for many years Lucier has worked with Olsson's father Milton, the orchestra director at Michigan Technological University. “I grew up watching him,” Olsson says, thought the two had never played together before. (Pat Mastelotto, currently of King Crimson and with credits including XTC's “Oranges and Lemons,” plays drums on several other songs.) Laurel Premo (Celtic cittern on “Morning Girl” and strings on “Holiday”) and Benjamin Forrest (tamboura on “Morning Girl” and “The Dream”) are also long-time friends of Olsson, and brother Dave Olsson and childhood friend Johno Sanregret (currently a local high school principal) joined in for background vocals on “Morning Girl” as well.
Music and methodology are all of a piece. “The songs on American Scream once again reflect my life,” he says. “There may be a story here or there, like ‘Three Minutes Gone,' where I use a different character besides myself, but the beliefs and intent are still the same as mine. ‘Mother Honey' is my homage to how my life adds up into the great American Woman called America. On ‘A.D.D.' I comment on how society seems to have lost sight of inner, singular spirituality. And ‘Everything Old is New Again' I wrote on a Monday.”
Still, most of Olsson's contributions were done in solitude, with the other parts added later. One key track, though, was done as a full-on communal session.
“One song came in the final weeks of finishing the CD, called ‘A Million Stars,'” he says. “A story of my life is what it is. I recorded it with producer Guy Erez, who is an old friend for many years. He played bass on it, we got Emerson in on the session to play guitars and drummer Dave Allen. I played acoustic. We recorded it all at once like a band and it felt great to do that after being alone in my place for eight months. I took the tracks back to my place and sang in the comfort of my pad, then I returned to L.A. and Guy and I mixed it at his place. It was a great way to finish the album.”
And in the end he has no doubt that this is entirely from the heart.
“In past records, maybe with the electronics and things I was hiding emotions,” he says.
This time it all shines through.
“If I didn't feel good now, something would really be wrong with me. I feel good and happy that my happiness isn't based on the music business. I have no expectations except for my own artistic expectations.”
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