On moments and the music of Karla Schickele

I am passionate about moments. Moments add a fresh, stimulating, stake-raising dynamic to my life. The sensation of living life, and all of a sudden having my ‘here and now’ rocked by a moment is pretty sweet in itself. Yet, it is ‘the moment afterglow’ that surges my love for moments up the charts, skyrocketing high above my love for cream soda. Moments have this unique ability to enliven and electrify my soul and foster and nourish my ability to love. I become a sharper, more complete, richer version of myself by indulging in my own historical vault of moments. I love floating around in my own personal “lake of moments”, in its inviting, lively waters. Swimming in the “lake of moments” is the “bee’s knees”, and the cream of the “worthwhile activities to engage in” crop.

An immensely positive energy is created by swimming in the “lake of moments” as there are no lines or limitations on how far, how long , and how deep I choose to immerse myself in a particular past moment. While swimming in this “lake of moments”, the meaning of a particular moment can be stretched, shrunk, tweaked and refined to my heart’s content. It’s like having the freedom to hold a magnifying glass up to a moment, and experience it in double the size and feeling, or on the opposite end of the spectrum, split that moment into two and only choose to proceed on a thinking level with one half.

In the best of times, the “lake of moments” is warm, and swimmable; the moments themselves are wthin grasp. However, during the winter months, swimming just isn’t an option and the moments are that much harder to reach and experience poignantly. The “lake” is frozen. Thoughts of backup plans for how to access these moments start to occupy the mind. Even the best ice fishing rods can’t grip the moments you want to explore with the desirable degree of depth.

Now what? When things get complicated, I typically turn to music for understanding, and soul awakening. . Keeping with this theme, I found a bridge to my moments and the capacity to feel and experience the feelings associated with these moments at a greater level of depth and intimacy. I found this bridge by diving deep into the songs of New York-based bassist/pianist/singer/songwriter Karla Schickele.

One of the greatest misconceptions about New York-based indie rock band Ida is that it is, at its core, a duo. In the the fall of 1996, Daniel Littleton and Elizabeth Mitchell quietly added Karla Schickele to the Ida lineup. Over the course of her now 16 years as a member of Ida, in addition to her bass duties with the band, Schickele has revealed herself to be a masterful songwriter, and an affecting pianist. That her singing is probably her greatest asset to Ida is a revelation. …a testament to her immense value and influence on the band’s sound and culture. Vocally, Schickele fuses her tender, oft-heart wrenching alto voice, with an ardent, impassioned vocal delivery, noticeable in even the most melancholic of tunes. Schickele’s intriguing voice-delivery contrast, and her recurring aesthetic of employing subtle dissonance and sonic experimentation in her songwriting often provides Schickele penned Ida songs a certain distinctiveness and even traces of otherness, when compared with the compositions of her bandmates Littleton and Mitchell. Yet, there is an affirming, warm language present both musically and lyrically that creates ties between her work and that of her bandmates, subsequently situating Schickele’s songs as unmistakably Ida songs.

During a temporary lull in activity for Ida in the early 2000s, Karla Schickele formed her own group, called k. - Along with Ruth Keating and Matt Sutton. k. acts as a much needed vehicle for Schickele’s transcendent songwriting, especially as Ida albums are often dominated by Littleton and Mitchell originals. k. released two albums in the early 2000s, "New Problems" (2001), "Goldfish" (2002). Schickele has just released her third k. album, "History Grows", which is her first k. album in 10 years.

In her career that has so far spanned two decades, Schickele has had at least three outlets for her songwriting. She has penned and released tunes in Ida, Beekeper, and also the moniker of k. She is one of those unparalleled songwriters that has a formidable, hard-to-define, strikingly consistent aesthetic that binds her compositions together, yet each song offers a fresh new interpretation and/or spin on this mysterious , unclassifiable aesthetic.

The mysterious nature of her formula is very alluring and engaging and has great potential to keep the listener guessing. Her multi-instrumentalist status gives her flexibility and versatility to customize and shape the way in which a particular song sounds. That her husky, provocative, and oft-grounded voice may be the most affecting instrument in her repertoire, speaks volumes about her potential for diversity and her ability to make a musical impression. Schickele has a daring approach to her songwriting: she frequently explores different sounds, textures, and moods, and the intonation and expression in her voice often varies from vulnerable to passionate to –self-assured in the confines of a three minute tune. She has raw, sparse bass fronted offerings such as “Always So Good”, frantic, spunky, and quirky upbeat numbers like “Poor Dumb Bird”, rockier, playful and groovy songs that call for a little swaying like “Knoxville”, and delicate, fragile, emotional piano-based tearjearkers (ie- “Play by the Book” and “Complete” ).

With repeated listens, there is a certain commitment in Schickele’s songs to putting emphasis on and even celebrating the act of feeling, regardless of what the feeling is that is being felt. The focus is on feeling itself, and how a life that is filled with feeling and emotion is a life that is rich, and rewarding. If we listen closely, Karla’s songs can provide us with weight and depth to moments in our lives, and allow us to fully feel all that these moments represent and/or mean to us.

There is a transfiguration of sorts that occurs while listening to Karla Schickele’s music. Our perception of these moments changes from fact-of-the matter, passive historical memories, to active feelings that are ever-evolving, that resonate with you on a deeper, more intimate, and meaningful level. “Not Here” (k.- New Problems- 2001) introduces Schickele’s ongoing attempt to maximize the feeling in our lives, through the unique combination of her soothing instrumentation, and expressive, emotional, heartfelt lyrical revelations. Lyrically speaking, Schickele initially may come across as one in favour of drama and the use of dramatics. For example, in “Not Here”, she lets it be known that she’ll “make tomorrow a liar, and we’ll have day after day after day, and all of our lives” (Karla Schickele- k.- Not Here). Just before that, in the same time, she posed the question “What could I steal or beg or borrow, that would lift this place above and away?” (Karla Schickele- k.- Not Here). Yet, with recurring listens, it becomes more apparent that she uses her knack for dramatic lyricism to allow her honest, blunt words to resonate a little deeper and hit a little closer to home with the listener. I think she recognizes that honesty is fine and dandy, but to really maximize the response to the honesty, Karla knows the formula: Just add in little extra weight and emotional hook behind the assertions, and watch the deepening of the musician-listener connection!

By drawing out her assertions and making them a bit larger than life, Karla Schickele increases the likelihood of being able to reach listeners on a more profound, and affecting level. In the latter lyrical expression that I cited, her though process is very revealing because it demonstrates how she is thinking about doing a particular action as a way to put herself in a position to overcome, reconcile or move past a particular state of mind/feeling. One could extrapolate from this ideology that an action or event can also act as a launching pad to begin a journey towards achieving a moment with another person. Events, activities and actions stir up feelings in us, and can create emotional intimacy between people. I think it is extremely important to look to events, activities and actions as the journey, not the sole destination.

The destination for me is the moments (the smiles, the sharing of laughter, the discussions, the feelings, and the development of emotional intimacy). Schickele’s songs challenge our default event-centric methodology of living life. Her songs redirect our minds away from the idea of events and occurrences as the driving forces in our lives. Instead, Schickele emphasizes the value in life of moments and feelings over events. To me, Her songs show us the value of living life in such a way where an event is a means to an end, and that end is a series of moments that we experience before, during and after the event.

In Schickele’s song “Room”, she passionately makes the plea “Could I change your mind?/Could I ever change your mind?” (Karla Schickele- k.- Room). This plea comes after more of her refreshingly honest and direct lyrics, where she poses the question “Will there be room for me?” (Karla Schickele- k.-Room). When I consider the initial plea, what is striking it that it’s not the setting of the plea, or even the circumstances surrounding the plea that I’m invested in. What intrigues me here is Schickele’s use of everyday language to initiate a key moment of communication. Furthermore, she subsequently reveals how positive, freeing and revitalizing to the soul it can be to utilize directness and ask the tough questions that people are quite often too scared or uncomfortable to ask.

"Will there be room for me?” is the type of question that we all want to know the answer to, and we have all played out in our own heads ( Yet, actually asking the question is much more difficult. However, the rewards for asking such a question are plentiful. (Karla Schickele- k.-Room). Asking questions like “Could I change your mind?” and “Will there be room for me?” endorse a way of life where one refuses to allow fear to be in the driver’s seat. (Karla Schickele- k. Room) Instead, although the answers to these questions might be heartbreaking and devastating, there is something freeing about hearing the truth, and putting yourself in a position to move forward accordingly.

With her third k. album now complete, currently available through bandcamp: http://vivakmusic.bandcamp.com and awaiting an official release next month (May 2012), Karla Schickele has truly made her magnum opus. “History Grows” (the new k. record) is her best, most affecting collection of songs yet. The new disc simply puts a cherry on top of a body of work that has been compelling, magnificent, and breathtakingly beautiful.

(Written by Nat Bourgon, natbourgon.blogspot.de, 15.04.2012)