Interview w/ Mike DeSorda

Tell us about yourself as an artist

Well, the word “artist” is a little fuzzy. In the music world, the word

conjures up images of great musicians and vocalists—and that’s only

natural. In my case, I’m what you might call a very late bloomer; a very

late bloomer. I picked up the guitar at 67, began writing and producing my

own songs at 69, launched my boutique indie label at 70 this year. At first,

I hesitated to call myself an artist. I knew my playing skills would never

rival those with more talent and started decades earlier, though I play

guitar and keyboards well enough to write my songs. But my music

mentors, my family, and my friends kept telling me: You write great songs.

That’s art. That makes you an artist. It took a while, but eventually I

believed them. Today, I see myself not through my playing limitations, but

through the songs and stories I create and share.

What got you into music?

As I said, literally just taking some local guitar lessons about three years

ago in town, I live in Prescott, Arizona. I thought I’d just learn to pluck

around on a guitar to have a hobby as I neared my retirement years. All

that was going fine and I was enjoying it, but then a year ago one of my

music teachers challenged me to start writing my own songs and to be sure

it was always sort of vaguely on my bucket list anyway. So, I thought, ok,

here goes I guess. I wrote and produced my first song a year ago, caught

the bug and have just never looked back.

How would you describe your sound?

It’s taken a while for me to figure out what my sound is because it seems

like every song I write is a different sound and a different genre. At this

point, I’ve literally written blues, jazz, pop, folk, bluegrass, country, even

an Irish folk song. But now I realize what write may all have different

sounds and different genres, but the common thread is that my sounds are

all vintage sounds. I realize now that I write my musical sensibilities have

been shaped by the kind of music I grew up listening to, like all of us. So

the way I think of it is you should be able to take any one of my songs and

if magically they would be transported to the vintage era their genre calls

for, they would have fit right in.

Where did the title come from?

Nothing earth shattering. The heavens did not open up and make come

big announcement that my song shall be called. It’s a lot more mundane.

The title just come from the main lyrical hook in the chorus and it just

seemed to be the right title to tie back to the story of the song.

What is your favourite venue to play?

As I mentioned, I don’t consider myself a good enough musician to play in

an actual venue with an actual audience. I play for family, friends, and in

the studio with musicians and vocalists if I’m trying to convey a musical

idea, but that’s about it.

What is special about this release compared to your other releases?

The obvious answer is that instead of the usual tunes I write, this is my

first song to venture outside that vintage Americana genre and vibe. I

never actually set out to write a traditional Irish folk song, but when I

finished it, the song spoke to me as exactly that. And even though I knew

nothing about producing Irish folk songs, I took the leap.

Who would you most like to collaborate with?

I’m not sure if you mean someone alive today or anyone in history. If it’s

living songwriters, I’d choose Jimmy Webb. What can I say, his

craftsmanship and emotional depth are unmatched. If it’s those no longer

with us, I’d choose George Harrison. I always felt that his post Beatles’

songwriting career spoke to me for the honest heart and spiritually his

songs conveyed to me.

What is your creative process and do you think it differs from others?

I think my creative process does differ from most songwriters in that in

nearly all cases I start with words, images, characters, or stories in my

head and let the music come later. Most of the songwriters I personally

know, and most of what I’ve read about our great songwriters is that they

seem to mostly start with a musical and then start thinking about lyrics.

I’m sure there is not a day that goes by that I don’t hear or read something

or just have some odd, weird idea pop in my head, and oh boy, that’s it.

I’m scrambling for a piece of paper to jot it down before I forget.

What is special about this release to you?

When I finished this song on paper late last year, it hit me that it could be a

traditional Irish folk song. I literally heard the entire piece in my head—from start

to finish—with traditional Irish instruments, arrangements, and musicians, even

though I knew nothing musically about the genre. It’s been a long, slow struggle

to bring my musical vision to life, with many discouraging moments and plenty of

naysayers along the way. But I never gave up. And you know what? The way the

song ended up sounding is exactly, by exactly I mean exactly, what I heard in my

head all those months ago. I can’t really explain it. That part is mysterious.