Adobe & Teardrops favorite Kim Ware is back for more with her upcoming album, Homely. After a lockdown-inspired move to her home state of North Carolina, Homely finds Ware stripping things down from her jangle rock-inspired folk with her band the Good Graces to plainspoken songwriting and an acoustic guitar. Ware’s earthy voice pair well with her songs of yearning.
During the 2020 pandemic, Ware launched two projects designed to connect local artists and friends despite quarantine restrictions: a virtual Facebook venue called “Kimono My House,” which includes members across the world and continues to grow daily, and a podcast called “Quarantuned With the Good Graces,” where she interviewed musicians about their creative processes and the need for artists to stay connected.
During the 2020 pandemic, Ware launched two projects designed to connect local artists and friends despite quarantine restrictions: a virtual Facebook venue called “Kimono My House,” which includes members across the world and continues to grow daily, and a podcast called “Quarantuned With the Good Graces,” where she interviewed musicians about their creative processes and the need for artists to stay connected.
In our interview, Kim outlines her approach to her upcoming album Homely (out on March 24th), what songwriting has taught her as a person, and how she brought out the best performance in her life not too long ago.
Explain the title of your album.
It’s a homemade album, and I guess I sorta wanted to take back that word (“Homely”). At least for me. It has a negative connotation, and I think as a kid, I fit that descriptor. It has a bit of an awkward connotation, too, and I definitely was that. But now that I’m older, I have more of an appreciation for that sort of thing. I’ve come to realize that something really stripped down to the core, without a lot of embellishments, something “homely,” can also be very pure, real, and honest. Hopefully the album reflects that.
Does your album have an overarching theme?
I guess just an overarching production style. Stripped down, acoustic, no drums. It’s 5 new, not-previously-recorded-or-released songs, and 4 that had been on previous albums of mine. So the overarching theme is probably just that it’s me, raw and minimal style.
Tell us about the first song you wrote.
I guess just an overarching production style. Stripped down, acoustic, no drums. It’s 5 new, not-previously-recorded-or-released songs, and 4 that had been on previous albums of mine. So the overarching theme is probably just that it’s me, raw and minimal style.
Tell us about the first song you wrote.
No! LOL OK. It was a love song to Ricky Schroder. I was 10. I wrote out the lyrics and mailed them to him. I didn’t get a response. (I had very poor tastes in guys when I was younger.)
Do you have any songwriting tips you can share?
Well, my MO has always pretty much been to write that thing I’m hesitant to talk about. In my experience, that’s often the stuff people connect the most with. But, that can be really draining and I’m not sure how sustainable or even healthy that approach is long term. So I’m trying to change that and just face things more head-on. As a result, I haven’t been writing as many songs here lately!
But regardless, I think if you’re stuck, or even if you just aren’t sure what direction you should go in, ask yourself what, in that moment, do you NEED the song to do? Then try doing that. Let it help you. In turn, it’ll probably help others, too. But, be conscious of not letting it become your crutch. And don’t be afraid to shake things up and take things in a whole new direction. Try a new instrument, or a different tuning.
Prompts are great for that, too; some of my best songs (7-Year Sentence, Sit on Your Hands, His Name Was the Color That I Loved just to name a few; there are so many!) were written to prompts; without that, they probably never would have come to be. And finally, even though my background is in journalism, I only recently started typing out my lyrics. When I think a song is close to done, I’ll do that and just look at them. It helps me hone in on lines that maybe are a little too long and clunky, and really see how the words work in context. It’s helped with editing a bit and hopefully made things a little more compact, concise, and clear.
But regardless, I think if you’re stuck, or even if you just aren’t sure what direction you should go in, ask yourself what, in that moment, do you NEED the song to do? Then try doing that. Let it help you. In turn, it’ll probably help others, too. But, be conscious of not letting it become your crutch. And don’t be afraid to shake things up and take things in a whole new direction. Try a new instrument, or a different tuning.
Prompts are great for that, too; some of my best songs (7-Year Sentence, Sit on Your Hands, His Name Was the Color That I Loved just to name a few; there are so many!) were written to prompts; without that, they probably never would have come to be. And finally, even though my background is in journalism, I only recently started typing out my lyrics. When I think a song is close to done, I’ll do that and just look at them. It helps me hone in on lines that maybe are a little too long and clunky, and really see how the words work in context. It’s helped with editing a bit and hopefully made things a little more compact, concise, and clear.
Tell us about your favorite show you’ve ever played.
Currently it’s the most recent show I played, a few months ago in Davidson, NC at Summit Coffee for their monthly writer’s round. I just felt really good about it after it was over. I feel like it might be my best performance, ever. I didn’t have another show booked after it and was feeling a little burnt out so I thought, maybe I might not book another show again, ever. I knew I probably would, but I was just thinking going into the show, what if this is my last show, ever? So I think there was a bit more intensity and focus to my performance as compared to my usual. And I really enjoyed that.
