Craig Kierce is an American singer-songwriter who has relocated from Brooklyn to Austin Texas. Craig’s music is influenced by a variety of genres, from Indie Rock and New Wave to Blues- listeners will notice similarities to artists like Elvis Costello and Death Cab for Cutie. Craig released his latest album “Though the Road Between Us is Long” in April 2021. The album was recorded at The Ice Plant studio in New York City and is available for streaming everywhere. Craig can be found playing solo or with his band in Austin, New York, or around Europe.
By Kamil Bobin
Discovered via Musosoup
Kamil) Hey Craig Kierce, super nice to have the chance to chat with you. What first got you into music?
What first got me into music was probably that my parents made sure that I listened to a lot of music. Plus - I spent a lot of time in their cars growing up. My mom had Billy Joel's 'Piano Man' and Beach Boys' 'Surfing USA' cassette tapes in her car, and my dad had They Might Be Giants' 'Flood' and Squeeze's 'Singles, 45s and Under'. So I guess I can still count those among my influences today.
How do you balance your time in the studio with other commitments such as a part-time job, family, admin?
Basically I'm always busy! I have a full-time job in addition to playing music several nights a week and traveling pretty frequently. But it all works together so I don't usually get tired of it.
Your latest release is 'Though the Road Between Us Is Long'. Can you tell us more about the making of it and if there were any unusual things happening during the process?
We did the initial recordings of the album a few years ago - all the way back in in 2018 I think! We had been playing most of the songs at shows around NYC at the time, so Jasper, Henry and I were able to live-track rhythm guitar, bass, and drums in just two days. Then to add vocals and the rest of the guitar and keyboard parts, Wayne and I did a number of sessions over the course of the next year or so in order to complete it. We had a great time putting it all together and we were able to add some pretty interesting ideas into the tracks. The Ice Plant is a really well-equipped studio so we had plenty to work with.
Where did you get the inspiration for this album?
The inspiration from the album came from a number of places, since the songs that went into it were written over a fairly long period of time. 'Emily', for instance, was written in I think 2010- whereas 'Parthenon' and a few of the others had been written fairly recently. A theme of the album is probably 'longing for a connection that was broken by either time or distance', that's kind of what the title is about. It's from the first song 'Parthenon', and it's actually the first line of lyrics on the album: "Though the road between us is long, I can almost hear the rain outside your rented room, where I once swore my love for you; a love I'd thought long gone". In that case, Parthenon is mostly about romantic love but they aren't all about that. Emily, for instance, is not. Just about the long 'road' between times in one's life.
How long did you work on the 'Though the Road Between Us Is Long'? Was it an easy process for you?
We worked on the album for a weekend with the band (Jasper and Henry) and then Wayne and I worked on it on and off for a year or so. It was definitely an easy process because Henry and Jasper are excellent musicians and we got a great initial tracking of the live drums/bass/rhythm guitar. A lot of the tweaking that happened after the fact was probably me going back and re-thinking a lot of things I'd added and re-recording some of the vocals and lead guitar parts. But Wayne is a great engineer and made the whole process easy, we had a great time.
How do you know when a work is finished?
How do I know when a work is finished? Well that was the key challenge of making this album! It was hard for me to say "ok, it's done" because there is *always* more you can add to something. At a certain point we said "alright let's print it, it sounds great and we need to finally let people hear it". I'd say that applies generally - I think a lot of people get stuck in the 'refining' phase.
Can you write what was your best performance in your career? How do you remember it?
I'm not exactly sure what the "best" performance of my career was. I had some memorable ones though. I have a specific memory of a night we played at Rockwood Music Hall, early on in the existence of the band. It was in the smaller room, but it was completely packed and everyone was having a great time. We played some great shows in NYC around that time. I also was part of a bit on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon- that was definitely memorable! They had this part of the show where two songwriters are given a song title an hour before the show and they have to write a song based on that title. This was around Halloween and the one they gave me was "I've Got a Teenie Halloweenie"- I tried to ask for a different title at first but ended up writing it and playing it and everyone seemed to like it!
How do you find yourself in the music business? When you started out in music, did you know it would be like this?
How is it, being in the music business? Well in a lot of ways, it's great. I love the friends I'm able to make through music, whether on tour or by playing around Austin or NYC, and of course I still love actually playing music, either by myself or with bands. I think growing up I'd always figured in order to be 'in the music industry' it was necessary to be signed to some kind of record label- but this was probably in the last few years where that was the case. Youtube launched in 2005 and I graduated high school in 2006. The ability to self-publish and self-promote made it much easier for people to put out music. So I think the music industry is nothing like I thought it would be when I was in, say, high school - because it really has changed significantly since then.
Who is your favourite musician?
Favorite musician - probably Elvis Costello, and I'm also a big fan of Jenny Lewis, but I am also fortunate in that some of my favorite songwriters happen to be friends of mine. The first two that come to mind are Jasper Lewis (who played bass on this album) and EW Harris, both of whom I know from the 'Big City Folk' singer-songwriter scene in NYC.
What are your plans for the future?
Plans for the future - I'm currently planning an acoustic tour for May of 2023 with singer-songwriter Sean Barna which will take us around Europe, starting in Dublin and spending some time in Germany, France, and a few other countries. Beyond that, playing music all over the world with old and new friends! I'll be putting together a new album somewhere in there as well.