Prolific songsmith Bill Scorzari returns with second album
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The way Bill Scorzari writes and records, there is a distinct possibility that by the time his new album, Through These Waves, arrives on March 10, he could have another couple albums ready to go.
He laughs.
“I definitely have enough for the third record, and I guess once I’m done with this tour coming up, I’ll start making plans to get back into the studio and get working on that one.”
Tonight, the New Yorker is at home, playing Rockwood Music Hall, then it’s on the road for the next couple months, and that’s a good thing because his album will get a little time to breathe and reach the audience it deserves. And you don’t have to convince this singer-songwriter that it’s the best work he’s produced so far.
“I’m so excited for this record,” Scorzari said. “I like the first record, but this one is a completely different thing. It was the culmination of everything just coming together almost effortlessly. I had these songs that I wanted to get out and really made the decision to give this a push that it needed, and as soon as I made that decision, everything just opened up. Everything that could have been great was even better. It was just amazing, like it was meant to be. Just a phenomenal experience.”
A phenomenal experience that took all of twelve days to record at the Bomb Shelter in Nashville. Twelve. Not a typo.
“The first four days, we printed 22 songs,” he said. “The next four days we did overdubs. And then four days of mixing. From those 22, we pulled out 14 and we mixed those down and decided on the final 12. And the engineer, Billy Bennett, mastered them in another day or two.”
It was a rush of inspiration coupled with a team that had the talent, professionalism and work ethic to pull it off. That combination is rare, but it’s not like Scorzari just woke up with some songs ready to go one weekend. For his first album, Just the Same, he had 70 songs to choose from to get down to the final thirteen, and even before the sessions for the new album, he and producer Jonah Tolchin started with a collection of close to 50 tunes.
“I just love to write,” Scorzari said. “It’s what keeps me going. I realized that I had accumulated a good number of songs that I was confident in putting out there and we just decided to do it.”
Two albums in, Scorzari has developed a reputation. Don’t worry, it’s a good one, as he’s a songwriter of the highest order with a three pack a day voice that sounds nothing like that during every day conversation. When he’s on stage though, that voice will make you pay attention to lyrics that can turn a phrase, make you think or make you thankful that there’s someone out there to relate to.
“Sometimes lines just come, but it’s not that they come out of thin air,” Scorzari said. “They come from something else, and the magic comes when you take something easily recognizable and you give it a deeper meaning. Sometimes that just jumps out at you, but other times, you can’t find it at all. It’s a hit or miss proposition sometimes, but I’m happy when it happens because when you do that, you connect with people with that and that’s what it’s all about.”
Bill Scorzari plays Rockwood Music Hall tonight, February 21. For more information, click here
For more information on Bill Scorzari, click here
