Interview: Smoking Flowers blossom with GroundSounds

First I wanted to say you guys had a great set at the Silverlake Lounge last week, which was your final show on the West Coast for this tour right? How was the rest of your tour?

Thanks!  It was a hell of a show for sure. And we felt the love from that crowd more than any other show we’ve played in LA thus far.  Yeah, Silverlake Lounge was our last stop of a 2 ½ week tour of the west coast… spanning from Vancouver, B.C. all the way down to LA.  Lots of great shows.  It was a beautiful time of the year to do this tour… incredible scenery and spring in full bloom.  It was our first time touring in the Pacific Northwest, and we felt it was a great success for being virgins to that part of the country. 

I was really surprised at how interesting your set was, considering it was just two of you. Tell me how many instruments you guys end up playing throughout a set? 

Kim is the real ace in the whole when it comes to that.  In a normal set she will typically play acoustic guitar, mandolin, drums, accordion, harmonica, and tambourine, and of course sing.  I get by on just acoustic guitar, electric guitar, and harmonica. Kim’s running around, literally playing “musical chairs”, definitely keeps it interesting as a two piece.

The blend of moods and genre the two of you explore is this really awesome mix of country, gritty blues, and some down home rock. Who are your influences and how do you blend all of those genres together so seamlessly? 

We have a pretty deep range of influences stylistically… Neil Young, The Ramones, Leonard Cohen, Gillian Welch and David Rawlings, Lou Reed, Led Zepplin, Johhny Cash and June Carter, just to name a few.  We are even influenced by a lot of unknown modern Nashville artists that are our peers.  When we examine our influences, we realize that there is a certain common thread to them all that inspires us.  It is a spirit they exude.  It is not necessarily or definitively a sound.  That’s what rock and roll ultimately is to us… a spirit, not a specific sound.  It doesn’t matter whether it’s one person with an acoustic guitar or a 4 piece band with electric guitars and drums.  Rock and roll is about maintaining and exuding a certain spirit that is triumphant, defiant, risky, provocative… digging in, you know.  One reason we think we are able to blend so seamlessly is because it is just the two of us.  We play a lot of instruments on stage but still with just two people you don’t run the risk of overdoing anything.  We have written, sung, and played together for so long now that it is eerily second nature.  Ultimately, everything we do is just a vessel for our songs and how we sing them.  That’s what most of the nitty gritty work goes into… the writing and the vocal arrangement.  Then we choose the best instrumentation and let it fly without ever over-rehearsing. 

Not only are you two a great duo, but you are also married. Tell us about how you met.

We met the summer in 1998 when I was working at the heralded, taste-making scene venue called 12th & Porter (Nashville’s CBGB’s of that era). Scott came by to see about a summer job (he was visiting from  NYC for the summer).  I was the only one in the bar at the time, and sparks flew.  I told Scott he didn’t need to fill out an application, that I’d make sure he’d be hired!  Well, I got him hired and then I left to California for a month-long soul searching journey.  He wondered what happened to that “girl” that got him hired and then upon my return we hung out one night.   After only one date, Scott went back to the Big Apple and gathered up his things, telling his friends he thought he’d found the “one”, and moved to Nashville. Six months later, we were engaged.

I’m curious to know whether your love for each other plays a larger role in the music, or if your love of music plays a larger role in your love for each other? Or is it all one in the same?

I would definitely say that our love for each other plays the larger role.  We truly feel that the music we are making (live and recorded) is the by-product of our relationship… our mutual love manifesting into the songs we write and then brought to life live by the chemistry we have together.  It’s like a perfect recipe.  There’s just no substituting what we have together, and that translates into our art.

Now you guys are heading out to the Midwest soon, where will you be touring?

Yeah.  Headed back out for 3 weeks of Midwest dates in June and a week in July.  We will be hitting multiple spots in Michigan, Illinois, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa, etc.

What has been the coolest venue or weirdest gig you have played?

One weird gig that stands out was a show we played on a small party barge set in the middle of sand bars in the Gulf of Mexico.  Boats were chained up and there were floating bars.  People could walk around in front of our floating stage because it was low tide on these sand bars.  The stage was of course moving the whole time and we were getting wet.  Kim played accordion in her bikini.  Definitely not a normal gig!

The Columbus Theater in Providence, R.I. was a pretty darn cool place.  We like the theaters.  Looking forward to playing the Michigan Theater in Jackson, MI and the Park Theater in Hayward, WI this summer.   As far as clubs go Lee’s Liquor Lounge in Minneapolis is one of a kind.  Secret Society Ballroom in Portland, OR gets an honorable mention.

Where did you come up with the name The Smoking Flowers?

While recording our first album Sweet As Port in 2007-2008.  Kim just kind of spouted it out.  We were looking for a name that exuded both masculine and feminine feelings and imagery.  Yin and yang.  This name did that for us.  It seemed to immediately fit what we do.  Gentle and delicate but also raw and rugged. 

If each of you were forced to only have one album to listen to for the rest of your life, what album would you choose?

Scott:  The essential Leonard Cohen (wait…does that count?  I guess that’s more of a collection than actual fully conceived album).   Hmm.  Actual album?  Gonna shoot from the hip with Time The Revelator by Gillian Welch

Kim:  The soundtrack to the movie “Amelie”.   Lucky for me, since I will be with Scott the rest of my life, I will also get to hear The Essential Leonard Cohen the rest of my life.  Bonus.

http://www.thesmokingflowers.com