Joanna Newsom
Joanna Newsom
Joanna Caroline Newsom is an American harpist, pianist, vocalist, lyricist and actress...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionMusician
Date of Birth18 January 1982
CountryUnited States of America
school math rhyming
In high school, we studied a lot of poetical forms. I was really interested in the math that was involved and the strange live break ups. That gave me a great amount of respect for a rhymed stanza.
writing college years
Around eighth grade I decided I wanted to be a composer and that's what I went to college for. Just a few years back, I switched out of composition and into creative writing so I could work with words.
classical-music relation experimental-music
I am not doing something that it is experimental music in relation to classical music.
writing always-trying trying
I am always trying to write.
trying sound corny
I am consciously trying not to make it sound Celtic or African.
fundamentals instruments appeals
There's something fundamental to the harp that has retained its appeal my whole life. It's an instrument I am just in love with.
healing light grows
We deserve to know light. And grow evermore lighter and lighter.
school years obsession
I did spend a year in high school being obsessed with Fleetwood Mac.
song writing thinking
I wanted to write songs which I think is a different thing. I wanted to write music that is informed by folk music. The chord progressions are obvious references.
bears i-can
I can bear a lot but not that pall
blessed said
We are blessed and sustained by what is not said
weed silence spokes
And all that we built, and all that we breathed And all that we spilled or pulled up like weeds Is piled up in back and it burns irrevocably And we spoke up in turns 'til the silence crept over me.
heart moon
And a thimble's worth of milky moon Can touch hearts larger than a thimble.
song lines rhyming
I have a lot of interest in interior rhyming; not just rhyming at the end of the lines, but playing around with rhymes within the lines, playing with where the syllabic emphases in the sentences are, lining those up at strange moments in the line of the song. I'm not sure if that comes across or not.