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New Music: interview with Annie Dressner
I naturally gravitate towards acoustic rock, so when I heard Annie Dressner's debut album Strangers who knew each other's names, I felt happy. Her quirky style and what I call "a smile in the voice" are just like a good honest talk with a friend. Perhaps, it is this conversational nature of her lyrics that goes so well with the back to basics folk rock. You can hear loneliness and vulnerability in her music which evokes a little bit of Joni Mitchell. Her voice also reminded me of Mazzy Star. I hear optimism in her music, a light at the end of the tunnel. Annie Dressner wrote the eleven original songs on this new album, and she admits they are autobiographical. Read my exclusive interview with this talented singer-songwriter below.
When did you write your first song? Please describe the experience.
The first song I wrote was when I was studying theatre at RADA in London for the summer between high school and college. I really missed one of my friends - a boy who I really did care for. I had never really told him in so many words, and I guess a song came out. As I had only been playing guitar for about a month at that point (I taught myself for the two weeks following high school graduation on a tiny guitar that had been in my house for most of my life), I wanted to impress myself and others with all that I had learned. So yeah - I basically told a boy I liked him over very many chords that may or may not have gone very well together. I do have the song written down in a notebook - who knows -- maybe it will emerge again.
What made you want to become a singer-songwriter?
To be honest, it never occurred to me that this was an option. Singing is and has always been my passion. I wanted to be an actor for my entire childhood and up until I was about 20. Music makes me happy and helps me deal with life in many ways. I kept writing songs (maybe one a year) for some years for myself. I did not share these with others. One day I was feeling brave and shared some songs with a friend. I only got through parts of them and got very shy about it. My friend told me that I should either not do it at all or take myself seriously. I guess I decided to take myself seriously and go for it full-force. (Thank you, friend!)
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Winter 2012 New TV Shows: Five 2012 TV Dramas worth the suspense
I was about to write about all the worthy 2012 new shows, though most coming later in the year, when I realized I was looking forward to dramas much more than comedy. There are so many comedy series that pop in each season, with expectedly fake laugh-tracks, short time spans, and forgettable plots and characters. There are many exceptions, like the brilliant Modern Family or Parks & Recreation, but still I am putting more hopes on the promising new dramas. HBO, Fox and NBC seem to have the most enticing pilots, but you will be the judge. Here are my top 5 drama picks for the Winter 2012 TV season.
Alcatraz
FOX, Mondays, 8/7c. Premieres Jan 16.
All you need to hear is that the new show Alcatraz was created by J.J.Abrams. This new TV drama has got the same eerie quality that both Lost and Fringe possessed (both created by Abrams). The plot revolves around the mysterious disappearance of 50 inmates from the infamous now closed Alcatraz prison and their reappearance some 50 years later. "The show to me feels like the place", says J.J.Abrams. The subdued tones, the fog, the mystery - it all seems to encapsulate some sort of creepiness emanating from the place. The team of detectives on the tracks of these mysterious prisoners is an odd mix but the team somehow works, with Sarah Jones as detective Rebecca Madsen and Jorge Garcia (Lost's Hugo) as Dr. Diego Soto. They will have their hands full with a new prisoner reappearing from the dead each week. I like the thrilling pace and premise of the story, as well as the time travel aspect, but what I find most interesting is the history behind the place. The show will take you back in time with flashbacks to prisoners' time at Alcatraz. Some of the best dramas seem to have a back story in addition to the main line of events, and Alcatraz is a great example of this. I think I will be glued to this one.
Luck
HBO, Sundays, 8/7c. Premieres Jan 29.
I am betting on this new HBO drama to take the lead this winter - even the pilot is full of suspense, action and immediately gets you hooked. Did I mention it's a star-studded cast led by Dustin Hoffman, and including Dennis Farina, Nick Nolte, John Ortiz, Jill Hennessy, Richard Kind, to name a few. The pilot is directed by Michael Mann, known to have reinvented the early seasons of Miami Vice. Luck starts with a plot for revenge when Dustin Hoffman's character, Chester Bernstein gets out of jail. And from then on it's a roller-coaster of emotions. I've never seen Dustin Hoffman play such a vicious character. The show is based at the racetrack and paints a very graphic picture of what goes on at the track and people that live and breathe it - trainers, jockeys, owners, gamblers, people that live in the back stretch. There is a lot of backstabbing, but as only HBO can do it right, you get to dive into the world of racing. What part of it is luck? What part of it is human nature? Judge for yourself, as you will definitely feel like you a part of this set.
