Treasuring a passion for music dating back to his youth, courtesy of The Beatles, Bob Dylan, Joni Mitchell, Bill Monroe and Rogers & Hammerstein, among others, singer songwriter Richard Shindell could never have imagined he would one day take the creative reigns and emerge as one of folk music’s most prolific artists.
Shindell’s latest album release, “Careless” exemplifies his commitment to thought provoking songwriting, flawless instrumentation and production that have been synonymous with his recordings for decades.
“It’s my favorite record of mine,” says Shindell, from his home in upstate New York. “I think it best represents me from a musical point of view but also from a songwriting point of view. I think the thing I am most proud of with this record is the musicality that I was able to capture in the recordings. “
Offering a departure from his signature acoustic guitar, Shindell displays more of a hard edge sound than exhibited on his previous recordings.
“Returning to the electric guitar has transformed my relationship with all aspects of my career,” says Shindell. “The wider sonic and dynamic range of the electric has been a real inspiration. Rejuvenating.”
“I played a lot of the instruments myself, a lot of things I don’t usually play,” adds Shindell. “It took a long time sometimes because I don’t usually play those instruments, so I had to figure it out and do a lot of takes. I spent a lot of time in the studio and a lot of that time had to do with exploring the music, the arrangements and textures and dynamics, just the basic musicality in each song. So it’s a very vertical record that way, and that I’m very proud of. There are some songs on there that I really love.”
“All my records feel like a life journey, but this one perhaps a bit more,” says Shindell. “Some of the songs are based on real things and some of them are not. Songs come from all sorts of places. When they aren’t about me, or something I haven’t experienced, there is always a connection – allegorical or metaphoric. So it all comes out of my life experience. It’s not a very straight line, there’s never a very straight line of how I experienced the song. It always gets twisted around a little bit because the songs have their own logic. It’s my experience of something or seeing something, but once it gets expressed in a song it’s probably undergone a few changes by virtue of the genre and what the song wanted to be.”
It was while attending Hobart college, earning a degree in philosophy, that Shindell would make his first attempts as a songwriter. Following his academic studies the self proclaimed atheist relocated to upstate New York where he spent nearly a year in a Zen Buddhist community before heading to Europe performing music in the Paris Metro.
“I loved the acoustics in those tunnels, but only when they were empty,” recalls Shindell.
Broke, Shindell returned to the states in the mid ’80s, attending Union Theological Seminary in New York. Ultimately abandoning his attempt at religious studies, Shindell became entrenched in the New York City folk scene. Signed to Shanachie Records, his third album for the label, “Reunion Hill” (1997), was awarded “Best Contemporary Folk Album.”
Expanding his creative energy, Shindell joined fellow musicians and friends Dar Williams and Lucy Kaplansky in 1998 to form the three-part harmony driven trio, CryCryCry.
Nearly 20 years since his collaboration with Williams and Kaplansky, Shindell recently reunited with the duo, performing a handful of dates with CryCryCry in 2017 and is in the early stages of writing songs for a planned album release from the trio.
“I’ve been working on “CryCryCry stuff,” says Shindell. “I’m also working on new songs for a new solo record. Right now I’m just working the previous record and doing CryCryCry.
I can’t really say the CryCryCry thing is the next thing coming up, and we don’t really know what kind of recording we’re going to do. We’re just sort of taking it song by song and then we’re going to see how it goes, we’ve only done a few gigs over the last three months. It’s not like it’s full up and running. That won’t happen until April of 2018. It’s still hazy what’s happening.”
“As far as my own record goes, I’m really, really slow,” adds Shindell. “It takes me a long time. It’s hard for me to say anything about a release. I’m writing the songs, I’ve got a couple recorded.”
While recording remains a necessity to continue to share his message with fans, Shindell thrives on stage in front of an audience.
“I love to perform live and I am vey comfortable with it” says Shindell. “The space of a concert is one of those places where people’s attention spans are longer. I would prefer to experience a sense of absorption and being in the moment with other people in the room listening and focusing on what’s happening. For them to find some kind of resonance with their own lives and what happens to them. Also, to enjoy the sounds and being in a room together with people.”
“I’m somebody who takes great pleasure in words, vowels and their meaning, and the way they go together and the way they sound together,” adds Shindell. “I’m also somebody who takes great pleasure in music, the musical arrangements. I’m trying to create something beautiful. I would like to get my music to more people and find a way to make the connection to get to more people because I know that they’re out there. I’d like to find those people.”
