Interview with Stel Furet

In 2018, after largely taking a couple decades away from music besides the occasional get together, Stel Furet decided he really needed to give it another shot.  The results of this shot are human nature machine, his outstaning new EP.  I recently had the chance to talk to him about the EP and it's creation, as well as his plans for future releases and a few other things.  

Do you have a songwriting process that you tend to follow and if so how does it usually work for you?

I’ve never been big on process really, so what little I do have has evolved organically. Ideas come to me at the weird times. Like during dinner or in the back yard. Often, I’ll wake up at 3 or 4am and hum something into my phone. I’ll listen when I wake up and typically it’s complete garbage. But occasionally I’ll hit something that’s worth a look. Regardless of how the idea comes to me, I always start by laying some scratch tracks down and then building an arrangement on it. I’ll then upload a mix to Soundcloud and listen repeatedly for at least a few days to let ideas come to me. I’ll iterate and upload new versions until I’m happy with it and it’s a song. I’ll play all the instruments and then send my tracks off to a drummer and sometimes a bass player and keyboardist to do them right. I always say that I play a lot of instruments but other than guitar, none of them particularly well. I believe you need to accept your weaknesses to be successful. When I get tracks back from them, I’ll lay down the final guitars and vocals. Often, I will still make lyrical changes at that point. On "Next Tuesday" the final phrase was “And I’ll leave it up to you, to give me what you can.” But when I was doing a rough mix, Jenn Grinels who sang the backup vocals sang “never cry again” so beautifully earlier in the song, that I decided to change the last phrase to “I’ll leave it up to you, to never cry again.” The first time I listened to it, I kind of teared up because her voice is just so moving, and we fit together so well.

All that being said, I wish I was one of those songwriters that could say, "I wrote that in 10 minutes, but that hasn’t happened yet.

 

Did you have the songs and instrumentation pretty fleshed out before you recorded, or did you get much input from the other musicians?

 

It wasn’t consistent for all songs. I like to have all the tracks roughed out pretty well before I send them off because I know what I want the song to feel like. But sometimes someone else’s interpretation of what I’ve played and what I’m asking for will change the song like I mentioned. Another example is the piano I provided on 33 1/3. It was pretty straight forward and when it came back from Ed, it sparked the idea of the organ, which he then did when the rest of the song was done. On "Chelsea", Ed redid the piano with a different flare, which Mike Butler (whom I co-produced with) changed to a Whirly. I then added the more standout piano parts and the ending piano piece after everything else was done. I’ve come to consider the tracks I send to other musicians as a framework. It’s what I’m thinking I want, but not necessarily what I expect to get. I want creativity and ideas to come in from elsewhere to make things better. I’m also not much on asking for changes unless something is really not to my liking, which only happened maybe once. It’s a respect thing.

 

Overall the EP has a nice, laid back vibe, but there is still plenty of diversity amongst the five cuts.  Did you strive for that or did it just kind of happen?

 

Thank you for noticing. I definitely worked for that. I threw away quite a few songs because I felt they didn’t fit. Two were pretty much done and I may release them as singles someday. Granted there’s a lot of symbolism that I wouldn’t expect everyone to interpret in the same manner, but all in all I tried to tell a relatable story across the five songs in a way that spoke to me personally, while allowing each song to stand independent of the others.

 

I read that before starting this project in 2018 that it had been some time since you did much music related.  Did you write all these songs after 2018 or did anything come from before then?

 

Some of the ideas date back quite a way. One from 1997. But yeah, it had been a while. I was gigging for a long time off and on and it just got old. I wasn’t getting anywhere, and life just happened. It’s so good to finally be where I am.

 

There are references to playing a record in the song “33 And A Half”.  Why did you choose to go with that title instead of 33 And a Third?

 

Yeah, I went back and forth on this and originally the line was “I’m 33 1/3”. But no kid ever says I’m 7 1/3 years old. And that half year is important. I was reflecting on that time in my life and remember I felt like I was always so busy, moving so fast and just getting nowhere. I was struggling with who I was at that point, and I just needed to slow down a little and relax. I remember had a pretty stellar record collection which was always my escape. But I was in a job I didn’t want, there was a music career I didn’t have, and a relationship that wasn’t any good. I couldn’t find time to enjoy my favorite escape and when I did find some time it reminded me that I wasn’t following my passion. So, I made it about my age and trying to find my place in life; I made it about finding my groove. I thought most people wouldn’t know a record spins at 33 1/3, and unfortunately it seems I was correct. But Vinyl has been making a comeback. Long live vinyl!

At times in “The Mirror” there are harmony vocals where the voices aren’t quite together giving them a really cool sound.  Can you tell me a little about that?

 

Yes, this is one of those things where another musician caused the end result to be way better. Mike sent my scratch lead vocals and backing vocal ideas to Jenn Grinels, and again she’s a truly gifted vocalist and absolute pro. She changed the timing on a couple of things, sang the entire song, and provided those amazing harmonies. She gave me so much material to work with. As I went back to put my final vocals over it, I decided to switch up the final lines to be more of a conversation. The song was always about me talking to myself and trying to convince myself that I was OK, but it’s also about meeting Wisdom who was an actual person. You can read that story on my website. Having Jenn’s perspective meant that I could really play with some things. I added some harmonies with her vocals in some spots and then I approached it as a conversation, hence the timing. It’s not really a call and response type of thing. I didn’t want that, but it is a back and forth around the question “Do you really know yourself?”

 

You have a members only section on your webpage that still appears to be a bit of a work in progress, but you do have some demos and early recordings on there.  Can you tell me a little about your plans for that section and also the decision to throw those demos out there for people to hear?

 

It’s intended to be a more personal way to connect with people who really want to do so. I know a lot of musicians try to monetize this. I don’t really feel comfortable doing that, but I need to find way’s to continue to be able to afford to produce music to the quality I can personally accept. This might be one of those ways, but for now It’s just for people who really connect with the music.

On the demos, my intent is to keep adding them, and unreleased songs. I have so much material. I also plan to do some online gigs via StageIt. Lots of videos coming there and on social media but I’m so busy with the release of this EP and making the next Album that it’s slow going. I’m told music promo and building a fan base is a long game. I’m finding that’s true.

You also have some blog entries on your webpage giving some insight into the EP and some of lyrics.  Those are really enjoyable.  Is that something you plan on continuing? 

 

Thank you, and yes, I plan on continuing. Coming up will be more about human nature machine and a bit about some of the songs coming up on the next album. The only blocker is time. It’s been difficult to find an hour or two to focus on anything other than the more music. I have some interesting stories about costly mistakes I made during this one though, kind of funny now but at the time, not so much.

 

The title is listed as human nature machine, but on the album cover there is a vol 1.  Is there more to that?

 

Stel Furet Vol 2. Will be the next one. Not quite ready to talk about that in detail yet but it will be another 5 song EP. The songs are coming together nicely but the process is organic. One thing that is certain is that it will change from what at the moment, I believe it will be.

 

The album cover is really interesting.  Can you tell me a little about that?

 

I appreciate that. A lot of the elements represent specific lyrics. Some of the elements are original, the moon (Wisdom), the birds, however I took the majority of the elements from danjazzia (danil chetverikov) via envato.  He does these amazing libraries of images that anyone can use to create. You can read more about Danil here.  He’s an amazing artist and I hope that my music measures up.

I read on your website about how vinyl has always been a special thing for you.  How does it feel knowing you will soon have your own vinyl release?

Fantastic. I must admit I’m a bit nervous about it though. But being as it’s so important to me, it’s being mastered by David Glasser at Airshow and cut by Gotta Groove in Cleveland. David’s creds are a mile long. Grateful Dead, Dave Matthews among others. And Gotta Groove is top notch. Presale should start in June so I’m excited about that.

You have a place on your website to sign up to get a lyric book mailed to you for free, which is a cool thing to do. What made you decide to do that?

 

You probably noticed that a lot of this has a throw-back feel to it. And I wanted people who weren’t able or willing to purchase vinyl to still experience the lyrics and some of the artwork in print form. I’ve always done a “zine” for whatever band I was in. Old school style cut and paste Kinko’s copy type of thing. There’d be pictures, lyrics, some other writing. We’d always run out at every show. Come to think of it, that’s where I got the Vol.1 idea from. I was hanging out with a band in San Jose called the ByProducts and I helped out with theirs a couple of times. They’d have parties and have a bunch of people over to staple all these things together. It was a hoot. And they marked each edition as Vol. whatever. I need to look those guys up.

I read that you have a couple more releases in the works.  Any hints as to what we can expect?

 

I have two EP’s and some singles in the works right now so I’m a bit busy. I haven’t quite decided on which of those EP’s will be first. But I like the idea of a collection of 5 songs. So the next one will be Stel Furet vol. 2.

Have you been doing any live shows or do you have any planned? 

 

Not recently but I will be doing a charity event this summer and it looks like at least one festival. I am planning on some "live" dates via StageIt.com which will be posted on my website. 

Is there anything else you would like to share with readers?

Yes, I've been somewhat lame on the social media front as of late. I've just been swamped, but the best way to find out what's coming up and hear more music is on your favorite platform. Doing so really helps out Indie musicians as it just raises awareness. Very basically the more people that interact with you, the more people that haven't yet, will be shown your content. 

(Stel Furet)