Interview with Doriana Spurrell

Durham, North Carolina-based Doriana Spurrell has just released her outstanding debut EP, Forward. I recently had the chance to interview her and we talked about the new EP, her songwriting and lyrics, her classical guitar training and more.

Can you tell me a little bit about your musical background?

I got into guitar pretty intensely in middle school, although I had always admired it from afar when I was much younger. My dad liked to play us some classic folk or country songs before bed, and that’s really when I was first introduced to it. I picked it up over the summer and sort of discovered my passion for writing songs from there. 

My junior year of high school, I switched from public school to UNC School of the Arts to study classical guitar. I had two years of some pretty spectacular instruction, and I got to meet a lot of like-minded musicians. That’s actually when I started writing my new EP “Forward,” amongst the pandemic and my years of high school coming to an end.

How does your songwriting process tend to work?

I’m a very lyric-based musician. I don’t claim to be incredibly technically proficient on the guitar, although studying the basics of classical guitar has helped me immensely. I like to say I feel the music more than I understand its technicality. Most of the time, song lyrics come to me in little blurbs -- like right before I go to bed, I’ll think of a line and have to write it down somewhere. I then take those little blurbs and find a tune, and then once I find a tune, I’ll write more lyrics. Essentially, my lyric writing and my music writing go along with each other.
 
This may come across a little odd, but to me a lot of your lyrics read like poetry more than lyrics, then when you sing them, they come out like lyrics, not poetry.  Does that make sense, and would you agree with that?

I totally would! I like to look at lyrics like poetry, like songwriting and poetry are brother and sister. They aren't entirely the same thing but are very similar in my mind. I think I certainly prioritize writing, some of my songs even come from my poetry, although I do separate my poems from my songs.
 
You are taking creative writing now that you are in college.  Do you look at your older lyrics in a different light now?

Absolutely. It’s funny how much I feel I change each year; having new experiences under my belt it’s hard to view my older work and think of it the same as I did before. My intentions were different, and the way I write is constantly evolving. It’s hard to not cringe sometimes when I see a way I wrote something, but at the same time it’s encouraging. I think it’s lovely that I have all of my work and thoughts documented. I can go back and remember how I felt in the past through my writing. Sometimes I seek inspiration from older work, and sometimes I want to take a song and transform it completely. I don’t think any work is ever truly finished.
 
I really like the song arrangements on the album.  Is that how you envisioned them going in or was there a lot of input from your producer and the other musicians?

I didn’t have too much of a vision going in. I wanted to go into things with optimism – I’d never been in a studio before I didn’t really know what to expect. I was just excited to see where my songs would go. I gave a lot of creative license to the musicians I worked with. After coming from an art school, I’ve found that the most beautiful things can be created when everyone is given their own room to flourish. I didn’t have any strict rules as to how I wanted additions to the songs to go, so it was really up to feeling whether a sound fit or not. The guitarist, Mike Buckley, was particularly fun to sit in on – he would play through each song a couple times, changing the mood to give me options to pick from. On some songs in particular, he had arrangements prepared completely, and it was super cool to see someone feel inspired by a piece of music I had given them to experiment with.
 
I read that the story behind writing the song “Until I Die” was a bit different.  Can you elaborate on that?

As I mentioned before, sometimes I take a poem and turn it into a song, and “Until I Die” was one of those songs. I had written a fairly long free-verse poem about creativity, just something that had been on my mind at school. After revisiting it a couple times, I decided it would be fun to try and transform it into a song. It was definitely tricky. I don’t keep music in mind when I go about writing a poem, so I had so many words to try and cram into a melody. When I first started singing it, I felt like I was rapping (very poorly). But I cut out a few words, found better direction, experimented with the chord shapes, and that’s how I found “Until I Die.” I really love how it turned out; the lyrics are odd, and I think the music fits it.
 
“Heart Strings” is one of my favorite songs on the EP.  It has a heavier, darker sound to it that really sets it apart from the rest of the tracks (to me there is a bit of a Nirvana vibe at certain moments).  Can you tell me a little about that track?

There is definitely a Nirvana vibe to this song, which is funny because I didn’t hear it until we added all of the other parts to it, especially the electric guitar. I remember sitting in the studio as we were adding the lead guitar, and I was like, “Dang, this is really giving Nirvana vibes.” But I love that, and I guess it adds to the anger or angst I was trying to get across in the song. It’s definitely a bit of a curveball on the EP, but I specifically chose it as such. In a way it reminds me of “Until I Die,” certainly not content-wise but the way in which I wrote both pieces is really obscure. I think they both definitely require you to really think about the lyrics and find your own meaning through them. 

“Heart Strings” comes from a place of conflict, it’s about conflicting natures or voices in your life. I purposefully had the vocals sound "like I’m in a cave," which is what I told Meghan Puryear, my producer. I wanted to give it distance. This was a very fun song to work on, I got to try out some oddball things on it.

I know you’ve said “Never Needed Words” is the song on the EP that means the most to you, as it was inspired your grandfather who passed away from Covid.  Can you tell me more about that song?

I really needed something to do after my grandfather passed away, and I wanted to honor his memory somehow. I wanted to do something I could share. The unfortunate side to my grandfather passing away from Covid was that most of my family was unable to see him or be by his side when he was in the hospital. You know, we’re all mostly in different states, and I myself was at boarding school. Everything happened through text and phone calls. It was not ideal, to say the least. I sat down with all this grief in my heart, and I figured I’d put it into something I loved to do, which was write songs.

“Never Needed Words” is not a sad song. It makes me teary, but in a happy way. I wanted to capture the little ways in which I felt my grandfather let us know that he loved us, without having to outright say it. If you think about it deeply, there are so many little ways in which "I love you" can be said nonverbally. It’s really a beautiful thought, I think.

You have training in classical guitar.  How do you feel you have taken that training and applied it to your music?

Studying classical guitar just for those last two years of high school was such a wonderful experience that I’m so grateful I was able to do. I learned a lot about the basics of music in general, and I think it has certainly made an appearance in the way I write nowadays. It’s not typically intentional, but there are times I notice how much more comfortable I feel with my guitar. I feel comfortable with other musicians also, being able to read a little bit of sheet music and understanding how a collaborative environment works is so incredibly useful in this field.

Have you considered recording any classical pieces to include on a release?

Being at the school for a very short two years, I definitely didn’t get the chance to really master any big, exciting pieces. I’d never taken any strictly classical or jazz guitar lessons before attending UNC School of the Arts, so I was pretty much going in blind. I do, however, think it would be really interesting to try and incorporate some classical pieces into my songwriting somehow. I had someone suggest putting lyrics to a piece, which may be viewed by classical lovers negatively, but I thought it was a really neat idea! I don’t want classical guitar to ever leave my life, and I go back here and there and practice some old pieces.
 
You have some songs on YouTube and SoundCloud that aren’t on the album (I really love “Sunshine”).  Do you think we will be hearing any of those on your next release?

It's certainly a possibility! “Sunshine” was another pandemic-inspired song, and I think if you really listen to the lyrics they’re pretty straightforward! I really do love that song. I don’t remember the reason now of course, but I did consider putting it on my current EP “Forward.,” and something changed my mind. As I said though, I love to revisit old work and revise.  

You also have some songs online that you perform with Grace Lee (sometimes listed as Two Bit Candy).  You two sound really good together and have some really great songs (“Dizzy”, “County Jail”, “This Old House”).  Do you think there is any chance the two of you will record any of these together for some kind of release?

It's definitely something we’ve talked about before! It may be a while, with our completely opposite schedules, but I certainly foresee it happening one day. We used to work on various projects when we were both at UNC School of the Arts together. I actually met Grace on my audition day for school, and of course the type of atmosphere I experienced at UNCSA led us to want to collaborate as fellow songwriters, and she is also one of my best friends!

There are also quite a few covers on Youtube, including a great version of Norah Jones’ “Don’t Know Why”.  If you had to pick one cover to record and include on an album, do you have any idea what song it would be?

Oh gosh! I couldn’t possibly pick one. I’m always learning new covers, because I get obsessed with different artists all the time. I guess if I were to pick a cover currently that I’m pleased with, it would be “Look at Miss Ohio” by Gillian Welch. This has been surprising to a few people, but I’d actually never listened to any Gillian Welch before -- I mean, I’ve heard a popular song here and there -- but it was my dad who recommended the song, and I just fell in love. I think I’ve been singing this song all summer long now.
 
I know your EP has just been released, but what do you have planned next?

I’m hoping to be getting some CDs available soon, which I’m very excited for. Something about having a physical copy of my music makes it feel final, if that makes sense. But mainly I’ve just been writing. I would really like to get an album together for my next big project.
 
Is there anything else you would like to share with readers?

If you enjoy my music, you can keep up to date with any future news on my website, which you can find at dorianaspurrell.com! I’m also preferential to Instagram, so I stay up-to-date on there as well, but you can find me on most major platforms. I’m so glad to be able to share my new music with everyone and finally get talking about it. It's very surreal!

(Doriana Spurrell)   photos courtesy Donavon Garrett Photography