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There's clearly something out of the ordinary in Stephanie Rearick's music. It's built in so anyone playing it, were they to read it from sheet music, would be able to relay it to some degree, but it takes the delicate touch of Rearick's fingers on the piano to bring it to full flower. Her music is powerfully emotional one moment and playfully whimsical the next, filled with surprising elements that make listening a pleasure, especially in these times when the radio bombards us with the same old same old.
Stephanie Rearick led a popular local band in Madison, Wisconson, called Your Mom SRO. A few changes in 2001, including a name, resulted in The Coma Savants, featuring Rearick on keyboards and vocals, Jon Hain on guitar and vocals, Joey Zarda on bass and Jason Socha on drums. They music is most definitely the full-on realization of Rearick's unusual vision, their sound evoking images of a strange carnival in another dimension. Rearick's new solo release, Bucket Rider, has a similar effect on the imagination, but she sends you there with just her voice and an acoustic piano. "Ghostlike" offers a perfect example, with carnivalesque pacing, notes that clash just enough to sound like more than one source, and the presence of another instrument that may just be a toy piano adding to the cacaphony. It's exhilirating.
And it's surprising that a talent like this remains largely unknown outside of Madison, yet that is the case. We decided it was time to introduce her to you. Meet the very unique Stephanie Rearick.
Cosmik: I've been listening to you since the first solo album and the album you did with your band, Coma Savants. You know, with most musicians, you can say "Well, there are threads of this artist here and that artist there," but your influences aren't easy to peg. What artists had the most profound influence on you, both as a player and a writer?
Stephanie: Well, since I grew up playing classical music, the most profound influences on my playing are the composers that I've always played. The two that stand out most are DeBussey and Bartok. I also like to play Beethoven and Brahms. Also, I've always enjoyed playing stuff by Chick Corea. I think that all those things influence my playing. And then the stuff I've played has always been completely separate from the stuff I listen to. David Bowie is the one artist that I paid the most attention to and really followed and enjoyed his stuff really thoroughly. I also like Laurie Anderson, Tom Waits, Talking Heads, things like that. The people who I'm influenced by now are more people who I work with. Our band has shared bills with a lot of really excellent musicians, so I see what different people are doing. We also have a lot of musicians come through our coffeehouse in Madison, which is a music venue. And then some of those musicians who we've gotten to know by playing with them, or having them play at our place, we've just ended up working together more regularly. One of those would be Jeff Kowalkowski from Chicago. I've done a number of musical projects with him including some micro-tonal piano concerts and some of his endlessly fascinating pieces.
Cosmik: I've always felt there was a carnival-like atmosphere and romance to your music. Is there a particular reason for that? Do you have a fascination with carnivals or circuses?
Stephanie: I sort of like the carnical/circusy aesthetic but I'm actually not a big fan of big circuses or carnivals. But I enjoy music that sounds circusy or has that kind of feel. I guess I'm into some of the new kind of underground circus things that are happening right now. It seems that there is a resurgence. There's the Autonamdic Bookmobile and Circus Sideshow that travels around the country who I've seen before. I like things like that, the sort of grassroots circusy thing.
Cosmik: The things I've asked you about so far would make you stand out even if you were just good on the piano, but what puts you way out in your own league is your playing. How far did you go with your training? I figured it was classical training, or else you had the most unreal ear on the planet.
Stephanie: Well, thanks. Yes. it's classical training. I've been playing since I was six and I took lessons most of my growing up years. I continued to study piano, just piano performance, through college but I didn't have a music minor or music major. And I'm actually really terrible with music theory. I've always been too lazy to put the effort into learning it, which is why I don't have a music minor. I just love playing piano and that's what I do for fun when I'm home alone with nothing else to do.
Cosmik: Really, I figured you'd have a freakin' PhD with all the classical moves you've got. You know what floors me? I get chills when you're playing something perfect and fragile and then you just blow it up all of a sudden, and it turns discordant and the timing breaks. It's jolting, and with you singing with such a pretty voice, who expects it? Or the lyrical surprises out of the blue that are similar to that. What's your philosophy on these elements of surprise in your songs?
Stephanie: Hmmm. You know I don't know. The way I write, things just sort of come out on their own. So something like that might be just what I feel like hearing at that point when I'm making it up or it might be how I feel the song. The song "Clyde," I know, is one that does that. I guess I can think of a couple others. "Clyde" has a very specific meaning for me and a specific scenario about what's going on and the music does that in a way that reflects the events that are happening at that time. I always write the music first and the words second so if it comes up with the words it is because the music seems to call for it.
Cosmik: Bucket Rider is a true solo album. Just you and the piano, very different, obviously, from a Coma Savants record. What do you feel you can explore solo that appeals to you, and what can you explore with the Savants?
Stephanie: Solo, I can definitely explore a lot more nuances in the instrumentation and I really enjoy that because piano is definitely my thing. I play trumpet and I sing but piano is my instrument and that's where I feel my voice lies. So it's really nice to be able to do sort of more subtle things and to have them come through because there's not much else going on. And I like being able to sort of play a softer side of things. I like to able to use my voice in a softer way that has more nuances, which I think I do solo. And then, when I play live solo I like to be able to decide what to play. Same with my solo albums. I don't put on any songs that I'm really ambivalent about but I might do that more with the Coma Savants album because there are three other people pulling for things. And then with The Coma Savants, its just really fun to play in a rock band. I can play loud rock stuff and I write simpler stuff for The Coma Savants. Some of it doesn't translate solo at all. So, actually, both incarnations have songs that absolutley don't overlap. It's really good for me to always have both projects going because I can do a lot of things I really want to do.
Cosmik: There are people out there making it on 1/10th the talent you have, and less. This music is art, though, it doesn't feel like it's designed to catch on with the mass market and rocket you onto the charts and get you a beach house in Malibu.
Stephanie: OK. Thank you. That's very nice of you to say. This music isn't designed to catch on with the mass market, etc. etc. I don't think I actually want a beach house in Malibu. I don't know, for me, playing music isn't something that I just decided to do and try to make a living at it. I write music 'cause I enjoy enjoy it and I write music that I like hearing. And it's what comes out. I don't feel like I would be able to just pick a style and play it and do it in order to be marketable. That's not what I'm interested in doing at all. I do it for fun and because I enjoy it and I'm really happy that it seems to connect with enough people that I feel encouraged to keep doing it. I would like to be able to make a living at it, which I currently don't, but that's something to work toward. I think it would be nice in general if more people could make a living doing art they really enjoy, whether they are good at it or not.
(C) 2003 - DJ Johnson