INTERVIEW: Carol Lipnik enters the ‘Blue Forest’
Photo: Carol Lipnik will perform June 8 at Joe’s Pub in New York City. Photo courtesy of Dona Ann McAdams / Provided by Fortune Creative with permission.
Singer-songwriter Carol Lipnik is staying awfully busy. She recently released a new EP, Blue Forest, which comes quickly on the heels of another EP, Goddess of Imperfection. Taken together, the singer has plenty of songs to offer her growing fanbase. She’ll bring some of these tunes to a live audience with a special concert at Joe’s Pub in New York City. The gig is set for Wednesday, June 8 at 7 p.m.
Lipnik is known for her tragicomic voice, according to press notes, a blend of folk, opera and nightclub vibes. Blue Forest, which perfectly showcases this voice, features an “immersive dreamscape of feeling and emotion.” Song titles include “All the Colors of the Sky,” “Birds of a Feather,” “I Don’t Work Hard” and “A Pure Dose of Mercy.” She is surrounded by many instruments, including guitar, ukulele, synths, piano, organ and percussion. These sounds will be re-created at Joe’s Pub thanks to music director Michael Visceglia (bass), Matt Beck (guitars, lap steel guitar and ukulele) and Mark Bonder (piano).
Recently Hollywood Soapbox exchanged emails with Lipnik about her new EP and her upcoming New York City concert. Questions and answers have been slightly edited for style.
What can fans expect from Blue Forest?
With Blue Forest I set out to create a song cycle to take the listener on a psychedelic trip through a swirling emotionally immersive sonic dreamscape. Amid luminous revelations of natural wonder, the fragility of human nature and the natural world intertwine with the enveloping chaos of our times.
Most of the songs on Blue Forest were written in a very beautiful place at an artist residency where my studio was a stone tower built in 1893 overlooking a lake (the sort of place Rapunzel would inhabit) during a period of particular political and environmental upheaval, and I was conflicted about being in a such a peaceful, verdant place, knowing things were falling apart around me. And that feeling of cognitive dissonance became my constant muse that propelled me to create the songs.
How did the recording of this EP compare to the recording of Goddess of Imperfection?
On account of the pandemic, there was a backup on the Carol Lipnik airport runway, so this spring I released two album projects.
Goddess of Imperfection’s album themes are of the beauty of humility, fragility and resilience in the face of brutality and chaos. The work is an embracing of the beauty of the imperfect, of othernesses. The title and title song is a tongue-in-cheek pushing back against the pressures of perfection. The songs have a pastoral almost classical feel. The spare arrangements have a lush quality with Matt Kanelos on piano, Kyle Sanna on guitar and synths, and producer Jacob Lawson (who also produced my previous Almost Back to Normal album) playing violin. Many of the songs are collaborations — with performance artist, songwriter and playwright David Cale and Mexico City based composer Tareke Ortiz. Matt Kanelos and I developed the arrangements of these songs during a three-year weekly residency at the NYC Boîte Pangea.
Alternatively, the arrangements on Blue Forest are more complex with thick synth pads, guitars, piano, Wurlitzers, percussion and ukuleles. All the songs are original except the witchy “Thrice Toss These Oaken Ashes” by the Elizabethan composer and poet Thomas Campion. The songs are filled with images of nature, hurricane eyes, dragonfly eyes — terrifying and beautiful, references to climate change and upheaval, and the dualities of human nature. The work is produced by Kyle Sanna who also plays the guitars, ukulele and synths, and features Matt Kanelos on piano, Wurlitzer and synths, and Mathias Künzli on percussion.
Do you get more freedom when you can release the EP on your own label?
I have complete artistic control, and with the right musicians/collaborators and a very well-mapped game plan (saving room for happy accidents), I can realize my personal artistic vision. My songs are in the realm of art-song, and I never try to be anyone other than myself. I’ve never been one to second guess what is commercial and never set out to pander to any formula of the moment in the hope that it will be commercial.
Will your Joe’s Pub performance feature these new songs?
We will be re-creating the experience of the Blue Forest album in its entirety live at Joe’s Pub on June 8 at 7 p.m., and we will also feature songs from my other new work Goddess of Imperfection. I will be joined by Michael Visceglia (music director and bass), Mark Bonder on piano and synths, and Matt Beck on guitar, ukulele, and lap steel guitar.
What inspired you to include “A Pure Dose of Mercy” on the album?
“A Pure Dose of Mercy” is the album’s closing song. A major theme of the album is fragility — of nature and human nature — and as far as human nature goes, no matter how hard we try to empower ourselves, we can so easily surrender our power to someone else in a relationship, desperately looking for subtle emotional cues of approval, for love, for acceptance.
I tried to keep the song real, the ending naked, emotionally raw, the arrangement simple and sparse. It’s also a song about personality differences.
I’m a pessimistic optimist in a relationship with an optimist. I constantly gravitate to the dark side of things, thus the glass half empty. Delusion is one of my strong suits — I’d just rather not know if the relationship is fading beyond my control; give me the mercy of ignorance, keep me in the dark (or so pleads the character in the song, LOL).
When did you realize you wanted to become a professional singer?
I basically opened my mouth one day and realized that I had a very special talent for creating sounds with my voice. Kind of like a baby bird jumping out of a tree for the first time and flying. When I heard the works of Joni Mitchell, Laura Nyro, Leonard Cohen and Bob Dylan I was astonished at the impact of poetry as song.
I was also attracted to the shamanic aspect of singing — the channeling of spirits, and unlike the solitary labor of painting (I started out as a visual artist), there’s an immediate, emotional gratification of performing a song. And you can disappear into the character of each song, and it feels so good. Plus there is the special connection/ interaction that happens with the audience, a primal give and take of heart.
By John Soltes / Publisher / John@HollywoodSoapbox.com
Carol Lipnik’s new album is called Blue Forest, and she’ll perform live Wednesday, June 8 at 7 p.m. at Joe’s Pub in New York City. Click here for more information and tickets.
