<p style="text-align: justify;"><img class="alignright wp-image-10625 " src="http://www.hiddenshoal.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/Kramies-Sea-Otter-Frame-Cropped.jpg" alt="Kramies" width="418" height="259" />American singer-songwriter <a title="Kramies" href="http://www.hiddenshoal.com/project/kramies/">Kramies</a> has been honing his inimitable craft for many years, bewitching all who have heard his music along the way. Fusing masterful songwriting with electronics and atmospherics, stepping into a Kramies song means being swept up into an emotionally resonant vortex of swooning pop that simply demands repeat listens. His three Hidden Shoal EPs, <a title="The European" href="https://kramies.bandcamp.com/album/the-european" target="_blank"><i>The European</i></a>, <a title="The Wooden Heart" href="https://kramies.bandcamp.com/releases" target="_blank"><i>The Wooden Heart</i></a><i> and <a title="The Folklore Sessions" href="https://kramies.bandcamp.com/album/the-folklore-sessions" target="_blank">The Folklore Sessions</a></i> have been released to universal acclaim from around the world. We posed Kramies a few curly questions in order to delve a little into his music, his life and his creative process.</p>
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<p style="text-align: justify;"><b>1. Do you remember the first song you wrote?</b></p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">Surprisingly I do. I remember mostly trying to make sounds with non-musical stuff. It’s weird because I remember being really young, around 9 years old, and liking the way my S's sounded when I would put a pen cap under my lips. Ha! Or using a paper towel roll to sing through because I thought it made my voice sound distant. I’m not sure I should even share that stuff! Anyway, I believe the first song I ever wrote was called ‘Daisy’. I must have been 14. I used the paper towel roll effect and that's when I started experimenting with a 4-track cassette recorder. It felt like such a big deal back then. I was the only kid with a 4-track and I made this 'thing' called ‘Daisy’! Ha! I'm sure I still have it somewhere. Fortunately I have forgotten every other song between that first one and the last 4 years, though.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;"><b>2. Can you tell us a little about your early music career? How did it shape what you do now?</b></p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">I was pretty shy and I’m sure the main reason I fell into music was because I received a little Casio keyboard and a toy acoustic guitar for Christmas. If it had been a toy ‘Easy Bake Oven’ that Christmas I probably would have pursued being a pastry chef. My shyness combined with these two instruments took up most my time. I was pretty bad, but I remember playing everything from my emotions. From there I joined a few bands in my town, but was not that great a player. In fact, one time I left my guitar at band practice and the guys carved ‘You suck’ into it, so I switched to bass! No one played bass in my town, so all of a sudden I was playing in the older kids’ bands and doing a ton of stuff musically. Still, I loved writing so I decided I would have to start and front my own bands. A few of those bands did some cool bigger things, but I always felt more comfortable writing and recording the stuff in my head more than being in a band. I always viewed writing songs and albums more like writing little books. It’s more of a personal adventure for me. I do believe working with a band helped me understand how to piece parts together while writing, but most of all it helped me become comfortable with what I do and to trust my instincts more.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;"><b>3. Can you tell us a little about your songwriting process?</b></p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">It seems to come in bursts, but mostly my songwriting starts with an image – something I see that sits in my head and then takes over my heart. It could be weeks or months before I start hearing it, then it seems to form into a phrase and melody that sparks a whole story. I usually write most of my stuff on acoustic guitar and write the lyrics first. I can spend days obsessing over the same three chords and mumbling the same words over and over. Then if I find myself waking up with the song parts still in my head, I won’t stop writing till it’s done. From there I'll make a crappy demo of it and start writing and layering the other parts. I think it’s pretty basic, but for me the biggest part is to capture emotion and the image that originally started to grow in my mind. I become a bit like an obsessive crazy scientist over the process.</p>
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<p style="text-align: justify;"><b>4. Does living in the mountains influence your songwriting?</b></p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">Yes, tremendously. I think living near anything naturally beautiful like the mountains, which are so big and expansive, makes my mind wander. It wanders past normal everyday activities, which helps inspire my writing – it has such a huge effect on me. It feels very comforting to me to know I can get lost for a while in the mountains. Oceans have the same wonderful effect. I feel there is such a warm silence and understanding with nature that helps whatever songs I’m working on.</p>
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<p style="text-align: justify;"><b>5. The lyrical themes in your work have such a vivid melancholic romanticism about them. They pair beautifully with the atmosphere of the songs and the production. Where does this lyrical imagery come from?</b></p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">Wow, thank you, that’s so nice to hear! The lyrics have always been the most important part to me. I keep them very close to my heart. I never understood really where they come from or if they have meaning, but they definitely reflect an image or a story. I always seem to have a love for hauntingly romantic words. I don't know where it comes from, but castles, ghosts of the past, old world imagery and poetic scenery always seem to influence my writing. I do remember at an early age wanting to just be a writer, but the music really helps push a story to a higher emotional range for me and helps create a kind of frame to sing through.</p>
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<p style="text-align: justify;"><b>6. How did your collaborations with Jason Lytle (Grandaddy) and Grant Wilson (</b><b><i>Ghost Hunters</i></b><b>) come about?</b></p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">Well, it’s a short blurry story that starts in the late 1990s. First, my bands back in the ’90s opened and played for a handful of great bands like Calexico, Spiritualized, Red House Painters and Grandaddy. Jason and I had some mutual friends and hung out in groups a few times. It wasn’t until around 2012 that we reconnected and  started chatting about him producing a few of the songs for my EP <i>The Wooden Heart</i>. He is such a nice person and I was just blown away by how he turned all the simple little parts and songs I recorded into these bigger, more emotionally exposed and mature pieces.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">Grant and I first had a strange brief meeting. It’s funny because I’ve watch his show <i>Ghost Hunters</i> on SyFy a lot and I was just doing a radio show and the interviewer mentioned how I seemed influenced by ghosts and haunting imagery, so he asked if I ever watched <i>Ghost Hunters</i>. Well, that same day, after the radio show, I visited the Stanley Hotel, and literally ran into Grant in the lobby of the hotel! It wasn't until a few years later, when I discovered his beautiful piano music once <i>The Wooden Heart</i> was released, that I sent him a few songs. We share a love for the same musical sound. I was working on an acoustic follow-up to <i>The Wooden Heart</i> called <i>The Folklore Sessions</i> and asked him if he would like to play piano on a few tracks. It was a wonderful experience and I was blown away by how much beauty he added to my simple songs. Both Jason and Grant are amazing and very easy to work with.</p>
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<p style="text-align: justify;"><b>7. Can you tell us what you do outside of making music?</b></p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">I do a lot of art stuff. I seem to stay pretty creative. I find myself lost in mountain storms while on runs and I enjoy visiting little towns. I run a lot and I do a lot of yoga and meditation. But mostly I explore.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;"><b>8. What’s spinning on the Kramies stereo at the moment?</b></p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">I have a weird thing where I barely listen to music until I hear something that really pulls at my heart, then I listen to it a thousand times. So I’m not so good with what’s happening now and what’s new these days. I have Joanna Newsom, some older Jane’s Addiction, Glen Hansard, Indians, and Simon &amp; Garfunkel in my stereo right now. Also there is a wonderful French band I love called A Singer Must Die too. There is a ton of wonderful Hidden Shoal artists as well.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;"><b>9. Is it true that you share a house with Neil Diamond?</b></p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">Ha! Yes, it’s true. Neil Diamond the cat dwells within my home. My wife actually named him Neil Diamond because of the white diamond on his chest – and the name stuck. He's a bit of a celebrity here. He's also known as The Creeper because you won’t see him for a while and then you’ll notice just his eyes and big grey head watching you from afar. He’s a very interesting creature and he lays next to me while I write.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;"><b>10. What’s next for Kramies?</b></p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">There’s an overseas tour that's been postponed twice, but will actually happen this spring. I’m working on a new EP for 2015, and before that I will have a sort of obscure B-side release and a single with special guests and some new friends. Also, a few more interviews and live videos before I hide away to finish writing the new EP.</p>
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