Steppin’ Outside the Lines with Steven Graves

Steven Graves is a singer-songwriter and guitar player who began pursuing his musical dreams later in life. His songs touch on themes including love, family, nature and work. His sound ranges, moving between echoes of Bakersfield-inspired country,  the Band, John Prine and Bob Dylan. While he resists definition, his work is sometimes described as Americana,  or “roots music” as he prefers to call it.

Nick Hutchinson: Hey Steven, glad I was able to connect with you.

I’m glad you got ahold of me.

I see that you have released a few CDs.

Yeah, I’ve put out six CDs so far, four of which are full-lengths. My most recent CD, Mission Bell, just came out. They just keep coming. I keep writing and I figure I might as well get ’em into the world.

How long have you been playing music?

Well I’ve been at it since I was pretty young, around the age of fourteen or so. But I started professionally probably around 2009 and released my first record in 2010, and I’ve been doing it pretty much as close to full-time as I can since then. Each new CD has gotten a better and better response and more radio play. I’ve got a great band now. We’re starting to tour the Pacific Northwest and West Coast of the US. We’re getting ourselves out there and getting great crowd response. It’s moving along real nicely.

Congratulations. Are you from California?

I was originally from the East Coast, from Baltimore, but I’ve been out in California since I was twelve years old. I’ve lived in Santa Barbara, San Luis Obispo and Salinas, but Santa Cruz has been my home for the last twenty or thirty years.

You have a family right?

Yeah, my wife and two kids. My son Sam is four and my daughter Harper is nine. Harper did the artwork for the new CD. She took the photos at an old mission. That was kind of exciting. On the back of the cover my son is in the picture with me.

That’s nice to have the kids be part of it. Harper takes some great shots.

Oh yeah she’s an incredible artist, musician and photographer. She’s a young gal of many talents. We waited late in our lives to have kids and I waited late in my life to start my musical career. We’re late bloomers, but it’s all good. We’re just trying to live a good life and balance everything. It’s always a challenge. I thought about being a professional musician when I was younger but I watched a lot of my friends  who worked so hard, and they lived hand-to-mouth all the time. I was like I don’t know if I can do that, I’ve got to make a life for myself first. But I never stopped playing music and I was always in bands and stuff, it just took me a while to get to a point in my life where I was like ok it’s time to go after this.

What were you doing up until that point?

I’m a land-use consultant. My wife and I do development. We focus on mostly higher-end eco homes, doing solar panels and environmentally friendly construction. That’s kind of how I funded my musical career. I still do a bit of consulting work. I had my business for about 24 years before I basically retired, but I still have some clients here and there who have been with me for a long time. So I do that along with my family life and my music career. I have a very full plate, but I love it.

So I’m guessing you have a degree or two?

Yeah I have a couple degrees in urban and environmental planning. It’s in my nature to have a visionary save-the-world personality. It’s something that’s a part of me. It’s no accident that I picked a field where I could be environmentally active, and that has transitioned into my music. There’s a lot of consciousness that goes into my writing. It’s part of a socially and environmentally conscious thread that has run through my life. A lot of my lyrical content has to do with what we’re doing here in this insane world and how we cope with it — how we move gracefully through our days and lives in a way that we feel good about. I think we all struggle with that. It’s an intense world and there are not always a lot of bright and positive things out there, so you have to try and take all of that in stride and face each and every day.

Who are some of your influences? How’d you get your sound?

It’s interesting. It’s like osmosis. You kind of soak up all the years and decades of thousands and thousands of hours of listening to stuff you like. When I was a kid we didn’t watch a lot of TV but my father listened to a lot of country music. He was into Johnny Cash and a bunch of the old -school country artists. I didn’t really like it when I was young. I was more into rock and Motown, but no doubt all of that listening seeped into my bones.  Mission Bell is more country leaning than my others. The influence is inescapable. I went through phases of ’60s and ’70s rock as well. I’ve always been attracted to artists that are able to step out and be a little more poignant in their writing. Dylan is a good example of that, as are a lot of the folk artists from the ’60s. The biggest thing for me is a sense of authenticity. I’m attracted to the people who are able to be 100 percent their true selves — Bruce Springsteen, Neil Young and Johnny Cash for example. They seem to be just themselves. I love Lyle Lovett too. He always seems to be just Lyle. I also like New Grass Revival a lot and Sam Bush. I love the Subdudes. They’re one of my favorite bands. And I like some of the younger singers like Ben Harper and Jack Johnson.  I never really know where my music is going to go at any particular moment. I look at it as a big melting pot. I like letting it have its own life and letting it breathe rather than being pigeon-holed as being any one kind of artist. I’ve got reggae songs, and I’ve been on the jam band charts. I’m not country enough for country and I’m not reggae enough for reggae. I like so many different styles. I get bored with just one genre even if I like it. I try to take all the elements of what I like and present those in my songs.

What year were you born?

1963. I’m 52.

Your music seems like it could fall into the Americana category. What does the label “Americana” mean to you?

It’s an interesting thing this idea of genre. I mean where do you put the Beatles? They weren’t really rock, but they weren’t quite pop, so what were they? They were just great music. Anyway, I guess the more narrow definition of Americana might be something like I hear on stations such as KPIG here in California. They play music from a pool of about 75 to 100 artists, like James McMurtry and Ray Lamontagne. I’m blanking right now, but if you pull it up online you’ll see a list of these artists (http://www.kpig.com/). They tend to be a cross between country and folk, maybe a little bit of rock in there. Thats sort of the niche of the Americana style, which has been established by a certain group of musicians. It’s become its own genre. But you know even Robert Plant is now considered Americana.

Yeah, and he’s not from America . . .

Yeah, and you’ll see that John Mellencamp is considered Americana. He might have been Americana all along instead of rock. But I think it’s a bit of a catch-all. I like the term roots music better. It kind of gives you a place for artists like me who don’t really fall into any one category. When I think of roots music I think there’s an authenticity to the music and the artists that comes through. They aren’t following any set path. It’s a more organic expression with real instrumentation. It’s not going to go into a lot of electronica or rap or the techno sound that permeates a lot of radio commercial music. Some of that techno sound even crosses genres now — you’ll hear that vocal processing effect that gives the voice that robotic sound on country songs. But roots music is a catch-all for a range of styles that are not squarely definable. I think it’s great. My experience is that people will gravitate more and more to it because it’s in contrast to all the stuff that we get in our world. When I put on music I want to unplug. I don’t want to hear yet another abrasive external source that puts me on the edge. We hear buzzers, and beepers and stuff all day long. I love a good groove. Nothing wrong with a good beat, but I just don’t need more abrasive external stimuli.

Cool, and of course there are people who like abrasive music.

Oh yeah, I see it all the time. Everybody has their own consciousness and their own path. It’s interesting. If you’re in a place where you need something to be in your face and really motivate you in that way then that’s great. You crank it up and get your bass and speakers rumbling (laughs) throughout the entire neighborhood with a really strident guitar sound and some person screaming negative things. Some people eat that up. For whatever reason that’s what their being, bodies or frequencies are attracting.

Yeah, the genre is called screamo . . .

I’ve been through those stages in my life and I’m at a place where I want to be nurtured and I want to feel good. I want music to feed me and make me feel good.

Are all your CDs similar in sound and vibe to Mission Bell?

Oh yeah, when you listen to my stuff there’s a commonality. You hear country, reggae and folk-rock woven together with socially conscious lyrics. For me if I’m going to put all this time into writing and performing I want to say something that’s worthwhile. I think of music as medicine. If it can make me feel good and I helps me be a better person and I can share it with other folks who are in the same consciousness arena, then that’s something I want in my life. I’ve called it positive inspirational music. It’s definitely not religious or church-based music, but I try to be positive. And if you listen to my songs there’s definitely an understanding that there’s a lot of darkness out there. There’s a lot of times when they world smacks you in the face and knocks you down but you have to get back up. You have to try and find a place that helps you accept what is. Sometimes you get run over by life, but you still have to get up and embrace what’s worth having and keep on going.

Is “Jackson” the only cover on Mission Bell?

Yeah, that’s the only cover on the disc.  I haven’t done many covers on my CDs. I think I covered “Putting Up Resistance” on another disc, but that’s about it.

I like your video and song, “Surf and Get High” . . .

Oh yeah (laughs), I got that song idea when I was doing work for the county, spending time at the offices of the government agencies and with the government workers. It was loosely about a specific person, but it could be about anybody. It started out as a literal interpretation of someone who works in an office but really wants to just smoke out and surf, but it morphed into a wider perspective of being high on life. It’s an acknowledgement that hey this is a path and approach to life that is actually pretty sane in contrast to those of us who work 60-hour weeks and are constantly trying to buy stuff and always achieve who knows what. I love the ocean and swimming and I try to get down there as much as I can. There’s a solace there and a spirituality that is nurturing. It wasn’t really about getting high. It’s about honoring a place where you go to unplug from the day to day world.

Sure, I got that from the song. Do you have a specific songwriting method?

Well, my songs come to me in all different ways. Sometimes I’ll be lying in bed and a song will just hit me. I call those freight trains. When they come I  have to jump up and run into the studio to try and capture them. Sometimes songs will start out with  just a little snippet that slowly unfolds into a full composition. And other times I’ll just be playing guitar and a cool bit will come out and then I’ll record it and work with it to see where it goes. I don’t really have a set method. I try to keep myself out of my song mentally as much as I can and let the subconscious do the work. The initial burst is the best, where the spontaneous comes through. You know, it’s fun man. It’s a really fun thing.

Awesome. Thanks for taking the time to chat. 

Take care.