STICK FIGURE INTERVIEW
East Coast solo artist, Stick Figure (aka Scott Woodruff) just dropped his amazing second album, Burnin' Ocean. As he explains to The Pier there are both advantages and disadvantages to being a one man band.
The Pier: So first up, who is Stick Figure?
Stick Figure: He’s this little guy who runs around inside my head and helps me write music.
The Pier: Haha nice. So how and when did you start recording music?
Stick Figure: In high school I began learning how to record my own songs on an 8-track. I got thrown out of boarding school when I was a senior and my parents sent me to a program in Idaho. It was there that I learned how to record music. I was there for six months and recorded 10 songs on an 8-track. When I got home I sent the tracks to my favorite website at the time, www.thesublimearchive.com to see if they would post them. After they posted my music I started receiving emails from people all over telling me they “loved my music.” I was really surprised by this, and I think it definitely gave me the confidence to keep recording and making new music. That's pretty much how it all started.
The Pier: It must be challenging to be a one man band. How hard has it been to try and master playing all those instruments?
Stick Figure: Well I wouldn't say I have even come close to mastering any of the instruments because there is always so much more to learn. I started playing the drums when I was about 12 and around that same time I also bought a guitar. I learned to play music by teaching myself how to play the songs of my favorite artists. Being a one man band certainly has its benefits and its drawbacks. The advantage is that I can always get my songs exactly how I want them and I contend to have a consistent style. At the same time, it can be a good to get other people's opinions when writing music.
The Pier: So tell us exactly how you record your music and how this is all possible?
Stick Figure: I have found that most people don't understand how its possible for one person to record a whole song by themselves. It's actually pretty simple once you realize that each instrument is recorded separately.
I always start songs by recording the drums first. I don't use a click track or anything when recording them. I keep time in my head, repeating the bass-line over and over in my mind. The drums are usually the hardest of all instruments to record because they have to be perfect as they provide the foundation for the whole song. Next I add the bass guitar. Much of the bass is improvised, though I usually have a good idea of what I want to play before I hit the record button. The fun part is adding layers and layers of guitar, keyboard, and percussion. This includes the guitar and piano down strokes, mute guitar on top of the bass, guitar solos, bongos, and all sorts of different effects and delays. I basically just add a lot of little details to help make the songs sound more beefy. By this point, the music part is nearly finished and I usually have some vocal melodies running through my head. I turn these melodies into lyrics.
Writing lyrics is always the most challenging and time consuming process for me. After all the vocals are recorded, its time to mix the song. Mixing is certainly an art in itself. I am a perfectionist when it comes to mixing my music and sometimes I'll mix a song ten different times until I get it right. For me, a good quality sounding song is just as important as the music itself.
The Pier: With this approach to writing and recording, what is the longest it has taken you to complete a song? What is the shortest?
Stick Figure: It varies from song to song. Some songs take around a week to write and record, others are written and recorded in one afternoon. On average, I usually finish songs in about three days. The song So Good from the Burnin' Ocean album was written, recorded and mixed in just a few hours. The songs Dead and Street and Trouble up There took the longest, about a week or more.
The Pier: How do you compare Burnin' Ocean to your previous album, the Sound of My Addiction?
Stick Figure: Overall, I’d say Burnin’ Ocean is a better album. The songs are more thought-out and the recording quality is significantly better. My first album, The Sound of My Addiction, wasn't written to be released as an album, and I had never intended to release those songs on a CD. I was just a kid recording reggae music in my free time. I began getting emails from people on MySpace and other sites asking where and how they could buy a CD. So I took 15 of my best tracks and compiled them onto a CD and made up some artwork and began selling it. I was surprised to see how much of a market there is out there for this type of music. I began learning how to market my own music on the internet and the music began to sell really well.
The Pier: That's awesome. What was it like working with the guests on this album, for example Matt Valasquez (ex-Rebelution) and Jeff from Clear Conscience?
Stick Figure: Funny you should ask because I have never even met either of them in person. I am a huge fan of Rebelution and I emailed Matt this fall and asked him if he would be interested in collaborating on a song for my new album. Surprisingly, he wrote back and said he’d love to, so I recorded a beat and sent it to him the next day. He sent me back a new version with full vocals less than 24 hours later. It’s pretty crazy how you can collaborate on music nowadays with people you have never met. Same with Jeff from Clear Conscience, I sent him one of my beats with my vocals on it and he took it to a studio and recorded his part and sent it back.
The Pier: So what’s the history with you and Clear Conscience?
Stick Figure: We have been working together for about two years now and we did a full album together. I did all the music (all instruments) for the whole album. Jeff sang on most of the tracks, but got several notable guest artists to also sing on several of the songs. At first, I wasn’t sure of what to make of the whole thing about recording with someone on the other side of the country who I had never met, but I decided to give it a shot. I sent him the first beat and he somehow got Tippa Irie to sing on the track. I was impressed. At that point, I knew he was serious about making this a solid album. It was fun to send him raw beats with no vocal tracks and have them sent back two weeks later with full vocals from artists that I had listened to growing up.
The Pier: How has your home in Massachusetts had an influence on your music?
Stick Figure: The location itself probably hasn’t had the biggest influence on my music, though reggae music is quite popular in my town. Growing up, me and all of my friends have always been huge into reggae and it has always been my favorite type of music to listen to and to play, but I’d say that most of my musical influence comes from bands out of Cali.
The Pier: You have played some shows recently, tell us about your backing band?
Stick Figure: The guys I recently started playing with live are a couple of my good friends from my hometown. We just jammed one day and it clicked. It’s fun playing with them because they put their own spin on my songs, which is interesting.
The Pier: So do you enjoy playing live?
Stick Figure: Of course. It’s a lot of fun. I eventually want to get a band together and start playing live way more often.
The Pier: Standard last question for The Pier. What is your favorite summer hang-out destination?
Stick Figure: The beach and the ocean. If I had to be specific, I would have to say Hawaii.
Big thanks to Stick Figure for dropping by The Pier. Make sure you check out: