Interview With Betsie Larkin – Part 1 of 2

TMM: How did you get started singing and songwriting, both generally and for trance specifically?

Betsie:
Like many singers, I’ve been doing it forever, but my work as a singer/songwriter probably started seriously when I moved away from home to attend university. I started a band with a few other people in Boston, where I went to school, and two of them were attending Berklee college of music. They taught me a lot about songwriting and recording techniques. Trance happened after I moved to NY a few years ago. One of the first nights I went out, I sat next to Alan Stewart, Ferry Corsten’s manager at the time, at a dinner party hosted by a mutual friend. He listened to my music after the party and said that he wanted to introduce me to Ferry. Everything else followed from those two songs, “Made of Love” and “Feel You,” which appeared on Ferry’s Twice In A Blue Moon album.

TMM: Which artists do you think have been most influential to your creativity?

Betsie:
I’m going to answer this question as it pertains to trance because I think it’s the most relevant. 1. Ferry Corsten – He’s always appreciated my alternative/indie/rock background which encouraged me to be myself even while I was completely new to the genre. We also wrote parts of “Made of Love” together when he was in NY. He’s an expert of making something good sound great and I think I’ve learned a bit about “honing” from him. 2. John O’Callaghan – He’s a good friend at this point and a very clever producer. One of the things he taught me – how to build the melody in the transition from the verse into the chorus – I’ve applied many times since. I was able to watch him make a track in Cubase once – he works disturbingly fast and I’ve picked up a few tricks watching him. He also got me started in Logic and encouraged me to learn how to produce.

TMM: What do you find challenging about writing a song for the trance genre versus some other genre?

Betsie:
The one note bass-lines in the verse… You have to really use your imagination to create melodies when the music is flat for those first few minutes before the chorus kicks in. On one side, there’s a lot of room to play because there aren’t as many notes to lock you in to a certain melody, but at the same time you have to come up with melodies without the help of a moving bass line. Sometimes I just pick up the guitar and write a chord progression that basically works over the music. I’m a big fan of melody and trance has taught me to think more about the rhythm of vocals and to let the verse be about rhythm sometimes, saving the big melodic parts for the chorus. That’s not a rule, by any means, but more of technique that I think helps with certain trance tracks.

TMM: When you start out writing a song, do you start with the music first or the lyrics and melody?

Betsie:
Your best bet, is to start with the feeling/concept. Decide what the song is about. I think our minds can be good at finding the music/lyric to match the feeling. Finding the feeling to match the music isn’t usually as successful. I keep a tape-recorder or my iphone around at all times. I’m ready when the inspiration comes and I try to either write down the lyric or sing the melody or music-line into my phone. We have a lot of material between recollections of personal experiences, opinions on important topics, and our personal philosophies. My best songs came from something personal that I worked into musical expression.

TMM: Do you prefer writing in certain song keys or scales? Which ones and why do you think that is?

Betsie:
As a vocalist, I have a comfortable range so that undoubtedly comes into play. I use my ears almost entirely and if the song feels a bit too low or high, I transpose it on guitar until it feels good and then often move the progression back to piano. I’ve heard some musicians say they think certain keys have different emotional qualities. I think there’s a truth in that, and I try to find the best key taking that into account as well as where I think the vocal is sounding the best.

TMM: On your recent album “All We Have Is Now”, you collaborated with several big name artists. Can you describe how that collaboration typically worked… did you already have the song written, arranged, the vocals or did you listen to some ideas provided by the producer and then write a song around those ideas?

Betsie:
On 9 out of the 10 songs, we started with something I had written on either piano or guitar. Some of the producers would use my chords, others would change the music entirely, but the original vocal was usually the starting place. Sometimes I made minor tweaks to the vocal after the new music was laid down to make the song sound cohesive. The one track where I started with the producer’s music was “The Offering” with Sied van Riel. Sied’s tracks always hit me right away. I wrote the vocal parts for “The Offering” in probably a half-hour. That’s not normal, mind you :)

TMM: What aspect of producing your new album did you find the most enjoyable?

Betsie:
Hearing the finished song is always the best part. Many of the collaborations were remote, so we were working through email, skype, and telephone. Because I wasn’t there in the room with them while they were working, I didn’t always know what to expect. Opening up a track and hearing it for the first time, with new music and sounding amazing, is one of those peak experiences for me as an artist.