Creative Duos #217

Caroline Losneck:

Just this week I texted Kristoff in a sort of moment of darkness where I was like, oh my gosh, documentary filmmaking is a rich kids game. And then I like waited for his reply.

Dave Gutter:

If you put enough time into it, you're gonna the result is gonna be something you know and you're gonna be able to eventually play your instrument.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

This is Dr. Lisa Belisle and you are listening to Lovemaine Radio show number 217 creative duos airing for the first time on Sunday, November 15, 2015. Collaboration can be a magical thing. Working with others, especially on a one on one basis, can lead to creative advancement that we might not see when working solo. Today we speak with documentary filmmakers Kristof Gelfand and Carolyn Lasnick and singer songwriters Anna Lombard and Dave Gutter about their experiences as creative duos.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

funny to have people with me in the studio who kind of do somewhat like the things that we're doing here. And these two individuals are they. I think that they I resonate with them. We have Christoph Gelfand and Caroline Lasnick. Caroline is a documentarian radio producer and experimental installation artist. It's the radio producer, by the way, that I'M resonating with having never installed anything, so I I can't claim that. She seeks off the radar venues for her documentary work, from buildings slated for demolition, public parks and flooded city streets to empty campgrounds. Caroline is an independent radio producer and her work is featured on Maine Public Radio, NPR Marketplace, and WMPG Community Radio. Her new film appears in the New York Times OP Doc series and there's many more things on this list. We'll talk about some more of them as we go along. Also, we have with us Christoph Gelfand, who is an award winning director, writer, video artist. He was trained on celluloid at the State University of New York at Purchase where he learned the importance of each frame. His short documentary Chasing Buckner portrayed the rise and fall of infamous baseball goat Bill Buckner and received praise from espn, the Boston Globe and New Hampshire Public Radio. His short documentary film has received national acclaim and was profiled extensively in HD Video Pro magazine. He shares this newest short film, which was featured in the New York Times OP Doc series with Caroline. Thanks so much for coming in.

Christoph Gelfand:

Thank you.

Caroline Losneck:

Thanks for having us.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Now, Caroline, I only read half of what you sent me because you actually have really other really interesting things that you've been doing. I love that you guys are kind of in search of the story. Not only in search of the story, but the best way to put it out there. And you're doing it in lots of different ways. You're doing radio, you're doing art. How did this come to be what you both decided you wanted to do? You're both pointing at each other now, so one of you is going to

Christoph Gelfand:

go first as a unit or individually.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Well, Kristoff, let's start with you.

Christoph Gelfand:

I knew, I guess I would say both by my natural inclination to capture imagery and by process of elimination, that I couldn't be in an office of any sort. So I knew that I had to find something that could both support me and occupy me artistically, that that was something more fulfilling. So I think I naturally kind of wandered into walking around with a VHS camera and then evolving into more complicated machinery and kind of recognizing how amazing documentary storytelling can be.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

And how about you, Caroline?

Caroline Losneck:

Yeah, similar to Kristoff, I guess I maybe by default, but maybe not. I feel like I have. I don't know what's on that list. I can't remember what I submitted as sort of my bio because it's a long and complicated bio in that I've had jobs of every sort and every type, like a lot of different people in Maine, I think, do like everything from carpentry and renovation to radio producing. So I think in my mind, I always suspected I wanted to be doing something with documentary storytelling, but I wasn't sure on the direct path to get there. So I feel like I've done a lot of different jobs, but within those jobs, I've always sort of been drawn to the stories of the people who are in them. So whether it's, like, the person's house I was working on when I was working as part of a carpentry crew, or you could probably say for any job I've had, I've been sort of drawn to the stories. And then maybe I was a little scared to sort of start doing it for a long time. So I was just sort of, like, gathering, like, you know, ideas and themes and, you know, approaches while I was doing all these other things. So sort of by default, maybe.

Christoph Gelfand:

One thing I think that's funny is that there is a meta aspect to our collaboration in that as much as we like other people's stories, we also look at each other's stories, and so our own, you know, personal life and sort of daily stories kind of weave into our collaboration. I feel like, definitely.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Well, what is it about Caroline that you find so interesting?

Christoph Gelfand:

Well, this is funny because we did. We recently did another interview, and we were kind of workshopping ideas on how we were going to formulate how our partnership evolved. And we both lost fathers in 2011, and that was definitely a large part of kind of our finding common ground and kind of understanding that sense of loss and kind of what our parents meant to us and their sort of value to our creative nature.

Caroline Losneck:

Yeah, we both met through a mutual friend, and I think Christoph had an early idea of something that we could work on together, which was also about the fisheries in Maine, about elver fishermen, and. But the first time we met, we went out, and instead of really talking about the ideas we were going to have, we ended up having a conversation that was mostly about the loss of our dads. And it sort of immediately, I think, built trust between us and sort of established this common ground of, like, we sort of understood each other through that somehow. And I think it sort of, yeah, just built this relationship of trust and sort of common understanding that allowed us to quickly be able to work together, because that's not always the case, you know, as working with other people on projects, there's a lot of personalities, and you don't really have time to sort

[Unidentified voice]:

of

Caroline Losneck:

bring your personal life into work and A lot of times it's actually discouraged. But I think we found a way to sort of embrace our, like, our experiences and history and common, you know, like, life things as part of our work. And we sort of found a way to weave it into our work. And I think, or I hope, or we hope that it comes through in our project. I guess, like, so maybe there are elements about our dad actually in the movie that we made and some things that we were working out in it that you wouldn't necessarily know if you didn't know us. But I think maybe once you spend some time talking to Kristoff, you might find that there's things that he was going through in his life at the time that he was able to, you know, get out in the movie making process. In the process of making a movie about somebody else.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Well, tell me about that. Give me some examples.

Christoph Gelfand:

Caroline sort of alerted me to one that I guess I hadn't even realized. In the subject of our film, James Sewell spent a lot of time. He describes spending 16 years attempting to have a baby. And my wife and I spent some time, a good deal of time, trying to have a baby and finally have. Eight weeks ago.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Congratulations.

Christoph Gelfand:

Thank you. But, yeah, I guess finding that piece of James kind of. I guess having Caroline tell me that was probably why I put it in. It kind of made sense. It definitely resonated for me. It doesn't necessarily attach to my father, but it's definitely a very personal element that kind of related to James story. And it was, you know, it's kind of serendipitous when those two worlds can collide, the personal and the creative. And that brings obviously a greater meaning to the story and our connection with our subject.

Caroline Losneck:

Yeah. Like, can I talk about that a little more? Okay. So we were sort of, for a very short film, we spent so much time in the editing room. And, you know, we worked with the New York Times Times editors on the version that appeared as part of the OPDOC series. And so we were revising. And it was right around the time Kristof's due date, the due date for the baby was coming up. And we had a lot of audio of James Sewell, the subject of the film that we had left out, and sort of decided that it didn't have a place in this film. And at one point, Kristof just casually kind of hauled in the line about me and my wife had tried to have kids for 16 years. And he's like, who would try to have kids for 16 years? And he's. And I'm like, you. You know, maybe not that long, but. And I was like. It was just this moment of sort of casual. Kristof did it casually. But then later I. It sort of came to me that he was, you know, here he was with. He and his wife were about to have a baby. And I think there were. I wouldn't say it was like, pressures, but just, like, the sense of unknown what's going to happen. And I think it was really nice that he put it back in there, because I probably wouldn't have. And yet it made the character James be really, like this more complicated person, which is something we always really wanted to have happen in this short movie. So I wanted to say that. Oh, and then one other thing I wanted to say about that was we just got back from the Camden Film Festival, and as part of the film festival, there's something called the Points North Forum, where the documentary filmmakers or people from the documentary world, you know, attend different workshops. And one of the workshops, there was an editor who. I don't remember her name. Andrea somebody.

Christoph Gelfand:

Mitchell.

Caroline Losneck:

Andrea. But somebody said, basically, you know, if there's something in the movie that you care about, make sure that it's in there in some way, and your job is to see if you can make it translate to the audience. And it was like the simplest way of saying what I think I'm trying to say. It's like, you know, if there's something that you really care about, if you're a good. If you're a good filmmaker or a good storyteller, you'll find a way to make that translate to the audience, and then they'll care about it, too. So I think hopefully that's what happened in our movie.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Well, it's interesting as you're talking, so even though you're talking about this next generation, you're talking about your own child, it does have something to do with your fathers because you're talking about creation and recreation and sort of the next iteration of self. So there's something about that, whether it. I don't know whether you are consciously considering it or not, that still appears.

Christoph Gelfand:

Yeah, I haven't taken the time to go that deep, that psychological into that process. But the more I explore it, I'm sure, you know, James's sort of duty to his family and my sort of taking on a fatherhood role. And certainly, you know, all of these aspects of responsibility and duty certainly come into play. And considering what he's gone through in his life, I think that's certainly an inspiration to those of us that are in similar positions of family and such.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Well, it is quite something. He is not. So he's a scallop diver. Scallop fisherman. And he actually lost an arm in a snowmobile accident. So when I think about how hard it is, just start with being a scallop diver or start with being somebody who's lost an arm. And then you're trying to combine those things, and then you're trying to, you know, support a family or exist in the world in general. I mean, you've kind of got a lot. You got a lot of stuff to move order to keep your life flowing forward.

Caroline Losneck:

Yeah. And he's not only a scallop diver. He is right now he's diving for urchins and he fishes for tuna also. So his world is constantly filled with these jobs that I would say are, like, dangerous and risky. And. Yeah, I think he. What really struck me about him was his ability to move on, but also not like he sort of. It's like he sort of embraces these challenges without fixating on them, but he still acknowledges them. And so it's like his whole life isn't about, you know, having. Doing these things with one arm is. And he sort of downplays it, you know, in a way, he's, you know, he doesn't ever really talk too much about, like, what it. What it is, but. So while we were in the process of making the movie, Kristoff and I talked a lot about how we wanted to portray him in the best way. And we were. We struggled with the opening because it felt like we didn't want to set it up as a movie about somebody who lost their arm. Like, we just never wanted it to be simplified like that because we knew he wasn't a very simple person. And we wanted to show. The challenge was to show in a very short amount of time that the Times gave us, you know, five minutes, basically, that there is this complicated person who, in addition to losing an arm, he also has these family responsibilities. In addition to that, he, you know, XYZ fill in any number of things. So it was an interesting. It sort of made us think a lot about just how you. How do you. How do you not simplify people in a short amount of time?

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

You know, and it is interesting. As you're talking, I'm thinking about the articles that we do that are wellness articles, the ones that I write for Maine Magazine. And I get 1200 words. I get 1, 200 words to, you know, essentially kind of distill somebody's story, wellness concept down. And that's an interesting. It's kind of like five minutes for a life. Yeah, but that's the world that we live in these days. You know, that you can do longer form things, but there is a huge demand for the short form.

Christoph Gelfand:

Yeah. Certainly something that I feel like I somewhat. I don't want to paint myself like Raymond Carver, but I seem to only be able to make short things. So I think our challenge is to make longer things. But, yeah, I've not exceeded, I think, 22 minutes in my filmmaking career. So certainly the short subject affords you a sort of summary version of someone's life. But it is challenging to fit in those key aspects that really speak to them and to you as a filmmaker about who they really are and what makes them tick. Because it's very hard to find that without having a Scorsese esque voiceover that just kind of tells you the whole story in five minutes.

Caroline Losneck:

Yeah, I think it had to do with. Even in a short film like the one about James Sewell, it's okay not to provide answers. We, Christophe and I talked a lot about just. We didn't want to feel the need to sort of close the book or like, end the story in a way. We wanted the ending to be an opening. And so that was sort of a solution to not having to simplify or distill somebody down to like amputee dives for scallops, you know, as a way to sort of keep the themes broad and wide open so that lots of different people could relate. You know, most of us haven't lost an arm, but there's a way in which you can tell that story where you can sort of feel. All of us can probably feel what he felt like. You know, we didn't. We didn't lose an arm. We don't feel that way because we've lost an arm, but we felt that way from maybe a loss of a parent or a significant life change or something like that.

Christoph Gelfand:

Yeah. I would say that if you could describe Caroline's M.O. in a couple words, it would be more like create questions rather than answer questions. And I think that that's. That there's. In the editing process of the film, there's a lot of turns where my natural inclination would be to kind of present this one way. And she would say, well, what if we just leave it like this without saying too much and then let the audience challenge the audience to create ideas themselves without. Without us telling them?

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Well, it is Interesting as you're. You know, I'm thinking back to how we started this conversation, which is, how do you make a living from doing something that you love? So it's. It's kind of what you're talking about. You know, you're using available resources to do what you're loving, and you still need to make a living. You still need to pay your rent and take care of your new baby. And, you know, and this is what. I guess in Maine, where we're all kind of poking around in that everywhere we are, but it's, you know, we have to be more creative about it if we really want to do something different.

Caroline Losneck:

Totally.

Christoph Gelfand:

Yeah.

Christoph Gelfand:

I myself make documentary work for hire, and that's kind of how I've found myself. I continue to do it both personally and professionally. But, yes, it is certainly a challenge to find that balance of what you are driven to make yourself and what you're hired to make. And I think what kind of opened my eyes is the. My prior film, Farm, had received a lot of attention, and it drew me to the fact that of all the things that I have out there to the public eye, that that was one of the pieces that people were drawn to the most, as opposed to the pieces for hire. And it awakened me to the idea that. That making my own work could lead back into different types of work for hire. So I think that there is a sort of convergence somewhere, and I'm still looking for it. And Maine is certainly challenging in terms of its economic climate to necessarily solely exist as a filmmaker or as an artist. I'd say

Caroline Losneck:

this could be its whole. It's an entire episode on its own. But, yeah, I think just this week, I texted Kristoff in a sort of moment of darkness where I was like, oh, my gosh, Documentary filmmaking is a rich kid's game. And then I, like, waited for his reply. And I think what you said about in Maine, in particular, the economy is such that I feel like most people I know who identify or self identify as artists or creatives of some sort hold down multiple jobs and myself included. I mean, when I leave here today, I'll probably scrape paint on the side of a house. And hopefully, I mean, I think the challenge is sort of to, like, find what you said is about finding the balance of what sustains you creatively, emotionally, and physically and financially, but still continuing to keep your eye on sort of the passion that you have or, you know, and so for Christophe and I, I think it's nice that we found this creative Partnership, because we push each other to sort of stay. We're accountable to each other, and we sort of push each other to stay focused on sort of. I think it's the passion. It's like the things that we want to make or the documentary films we want to pursue or the projects, whether we work on them together. It's nice to have a sounding board and somebody you trust and who has learned of the background to know, you know, to keep you sort of on it. So, like, in my dark days, I might send him a text like, documentary filmmaking's a rich kid's game, and he'll sort of support me with a nice text back or a ridiculous comment that makes me laugh. And I think hopefully I do the same thing for you.

Christoph Gelfand:

Yeah, I mean, I was gonna say if we had an office in the. In the same. If we had a combined office, it would have one of those sort of police forensic pin boards with all these strings tied to different stories, you know, sort of. Until it was kind of one giant knot of strings. And that is kind of. If left to our own devices and if we had the means to constantly do this and not worry about our own families or households or income, then I think we would just be weaving that ball of yarn deeper and deeper.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

So sometimes it's good to be balanced by reality.

Christoph Gelfand:

It is. It is. I think that we do. I think we would be remiss in not recognizing our partners in the process, because I feel like it's very hard to let someone just delve into their own private passion and world. And, of course, they were involved in their own ways. But, you know, with the Elver project, Caroline and I were out till 3 or 4 in the morning on the Prasumpscott. And with this project, you know, we were up at 3 in the morning heading down east to get on a fishing boat where we didn't know where we were going to end up or when we were getting back. So I think. I think there's a lot of patience and understanding that comes with that and sort of allowing us to be weird.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

How can people find out about the short film that you did that's now in the OpDocs New York Times lineup and also the additional work that you're doing.

Christoph Gelfand:

So the OPDOC in entitled Diving for Scallops is obviously still up on the Time site, and a longer version called Diver, which played the New Report Film Festival, and in a couple weeks, the New Hampshire Film Festival and hopefully some other film festivals down the road. Will still be available to watch and hopefully online in some presence or another. And then my site is truelifemedia.com and

Caroline Losneck:

Caroline, my personal site is carolinelosnick.com so you could. Yeah, yeah.

Christoph Gelfand:

We also, I think we have a couple different projects coming up also kind of regionally based that I don't think we're ready to publicize until we know exactly more what they're going to be about. But I'd say certainly you can also follow us at truelifemedia and Caroline Losnak on Twitter.

Caroline Losneck:

We're prolific Twitterers, tweeters.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Well good. So we're leaving people with an assignment. Go find what you've already done. And also a mysterious sort of prologue to what might happen in the future. So we're getting people all interested. We've been speaking with Christoph Gelfand, an award winning director, writer and video artist, and also Caroline Lasnick, who is a documentarian, radio producer and experimental installation artist. I look forward to seeing what the future holds for both of you and thank you for the work that you do and for being here today.

Caroline Losneck:

Thank you so much for having us. It's been nice to chat.

Christoph Gelfand:

Thank you.

Dave Gutter:

Easy.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Here in Portland, we're really quite fortunate that we have a vibrant musical scene and that individuals who have been working in the business tend to create new creative collaborations over time with others who are in the industry as well. Today we have with us Dave Gutter and Anna Lombard. Dave is a singer, songwriter, composer, and performer from Portland. He is best known for his work as the frontman of indie rock groups such as Rustic Overtones and Paranoid Social Club. Anna Lombard is a local singer and performer. Her debut album, Head Full of Bells, is a powerful meditation on love, loss, and ultimately, redemption. Thanks for coming in today.

Dave Gutter:

Thank you for having us.

Anna Lombard:

Yeah, thank you.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

You've both been working in a group that you call. While in a duet, you call armies. And we're going to start with a song here today. Dave, tell me about the song.

Dave Gutter:

This song is called Let It Burn, and it's a song that I wrote about how, like that when, like, the beautiful things, like, evoke, like, you know, almost like a melancholy or sadness, like embracing sadness rather than shunning it, especially in something like love, that there's, like, lots that you can learn from that low point. And there's lots of. There's lots of feeling down there. And that. That's probably, you know, the. You need to let yourself go to that so that you can, you know, feel. Feel those, you know, deeper feelings and not be like, oh, I need to take Prozac. So, you know, so I'm happy. I'm supposed to be happy and smiley. But I think that those are more true emotions, the ones where you're, like, unsure of yourself or you're scared or you're even sad or whatever.

[Unidentified voice]:

I surrender. I wave a white flag and surrender

Christoph Gelfand:

to you?

[Unidentified voice]:

How hard must we fight? How soft can we touch? How bright can we burn? Hey, lonely girl? Can't you see I'm a sad boy, too? They say misery loves company? Maybe we'll be sad but true? Cause there ain't nothing wrong With a little pain? There's a reason why it's called a flame? Reach out and let it burn? Reach out and let it burn? We both burst into flames? Burst into tears? Stood in the rain, You? We brave the war? But some wars you can't win? Hey, whose side are you on?

Anna Lombard:

Hey, lonely boy, Boy?

[Unidentified voice]:

Oh, can't you see

Anna Lombard:

that I've been sad? Sad, sad? Oh,

[Unidentified voice]:

they say misery loves company? Maybe we'll be sad but true?

Dave Gutter:

Ooh.

[Unidentified voice]:

Cause there ain't nothing Wrong with a little pain? There's a reason why it's called the flame? Reach out and let it burn you, baby, please reach out and let it burn? Sam. Hey, lonely boy? Oh, can't you see I'm a savior, too? Oh, they say misery loves company? So maybe we'll be sad but true?

Dave Gutter:

Ooh?

[Unidentified voice]:

Cause there ain't nothing wrong with a little baby? There's a reason why it's called the flame? Reach out and let it burn? Baby, please reach out and let it burn.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Well, that was beautiful. I always enjoy having people in the studio, but it was especially wonderful to hear the harmonies that you created this morning. How long have you been working together?

Anna Lombard:

Just about a year, right?

Dave Gutter:

Yeah, it's almost a year.

Anna Lombard:

Yeah, we went into the studio, like, mid December. Well, you had started it a long time ago, but we started working together mid December or so of last year.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

When we think about collaborations, it's not always. You can't always count on two people being able to actually work together. Just because you are musicians, it doesn't necessarily mean that you can become a duet, that you can sing together, that you can create music together. So what is it that has been. That has worked for you? What is it about your partnership that you think enables you to create this music together?

Anna Lombard:

I mean, I know for me, at first, when we first started working together, I was not immediately convinced that it was gonna work. It wasn't until, like, we really spent time singing together and getting that comfortability, just the two of us, where I felt like it really struck a chord. Get it? No, but it was. It just became really easy. And I love singing with him, like, so much. So I feel really lucky to be around that.

Dave Gutter:

Anna's beautiful voice is like the Instagram filter to my. My voice, it just, you know, it kind of smooths out everything on the top and makes me feel better about. So, no, I think that we. We worked really well together, and we. We put this album together really, really quickly. And I think it's just a matter of being able to say when something sucks and just. Just being like, no, let's move on and let's keep working. And, you know, it's really a diligent process, but it's fun. I think the ideas that you. You throw out are the most important ones. And her and I are both very willing to. To sacrifice our egos and all that to get the record to be the best it could be.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Why Armies? Why do you call your collaboration Armies?

Dave Gutter:

Well, I liked. I like the name because it insinuated. Like, lots of people fighting for something. But my ex. My ex's name is Ami, and we had kind of a rough relationship. And every time, you know, my friends be like, why doesn't Dave hang out anymore, man? We never see him. And they were like, oh, he joined the army. And that was, like, the joke for a while. So I made, like, the title track that. That says, like, you know, like, we're like armies. We fight like armies. Which is kind of like a play on words for that. But I also like the connotation of it. It has, like, this strength in numbers kind of thing, and it's kind of

Anna Lombard:

like it compares, like, heartbreak to war, right?

Dave Gutter:

Yeah, exactly.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Both of you grew up in the Portland area. Anna, you're from Cape Elizabeth. Dave, you were born in Portland, but went to Gorham High School. Tell me about being a part of this music scene for so many years.

Anna Lombard:

Do you want to take that?

Dave Gutter:

Well, I would like to address it. In Gorham High School. When I went to high school, there wasn't this Footloose scandal that's happening now where kids can't dance because they're twerking too much. I was just bouncing all over the dance floor with, you know, you could jiggle anything you wanted back then. But now, you know, things have changed. And, you know, I've been playing music for a long time, and I don't know, I. I think that I feel. I feel really proud of myself being able to keep my head above water as a musician in. In this scene. This is a very.

Anna Lombard:

Competitive.

Dave Gutter:

That's not even competitive. There's, like, this camaraderie, and there's this upping the ante thing that all musicians around here do. That, like, just keeps it, like, really fresh. And. And, you know, we're not really concerned with if, you know, some huge, you know, record label likes it or not. We just want to, like, play it for our friends and have a beer and have our musical cohorts, like, you know, approve and, you know, evolve the music scene. And that's the way it's always been. And ever since I've. I've been playing in this scene, people have always been. Been pushing it and not fixated on success, but fixated on making good music. So that's, you know, my experience in being in this scene for so long has just been, you know, really proud. I mean, just think of how many restaurants and bars and businesses that you see not being able to stay above water. So the musicians in this town that have been working Hard for years, you know, in. Not the easiest music scene, not the easiest music industry. I have a lot of respect for all those people.

Anna Lombard:

Yeah, definitely. I feel the same way. I think that the part about it that I love the most is probably that I have so many friends who are in the scene. So it's, it's kind of like, you

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

know, you're learning and you're growing and

Anna Lombard:

you're evolving, surrounded by your friends, which is really special. But like Dave said, just the supportiveness of everybody, kind of, you know, everyone wanting everyone else to do well and pushing the envelope and not really just being satisfied with where you're at. But it's kind of funny that, you know, a small town city, I guess like Portland has that wealth of talent and music and art.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Between the two of you, you have three daughters, you have two. Anna. Not. Not with Dave, obviously helping you clear. Dave has his own nine year old. You have a five year old and a one year old. Do you feel as though you've been able to raise them musically?

Anna Lombard:

I mean, I'm still in the early stages of that, you know, because Hazel's five and June's one. But I think the most important part as a mother for me is just for them to see their mom doing what she really loves to do and kind of, you know, not, not just being defined as a mother, but also kind of incorporating how I raised them and, and what I, what I love into just like that. Enriching their lives and them being able to be a part of that is really important to me.

Dave Gutter:

So yeah, I'm the band dad. That's like calling like, you know, like some pub in like Massachusetts and saying like, hey, I'm with a band. Is it cool if I bring a nine year old to your tavern? You know, I always try to infuse her into the music scene. She has grown up like being in the studio with me. She's my daughter. Connie's a co writer on the new Aaron Neville record that I just, just, I wrote a record with Aaron and she attended one of the sessions and we were like stumped on a lyric and she like just got up from bed and wandered down to the studio like rubbing her eyes and was like, why don't you just say this? And then it was like this beautiful, simple thing. So like I, you know, I immerse her in any form of creativity and art anytime I can. You know, this, this is all I do for a job. So, you know, my apartment's always cluttered with musical instruments and we Paint on the walls and, you know, have food fights and it's, you know, very fun and laid back.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

She also plays the cello.

Dave Gutter:

She does. She just began playing the cello, but she seems to love it.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Each of you also has. In addition to being vocalists, each of you has a background as straight up musicians with musical instruments. I don't know how to say that because, you know, But Anna, you play

Anna Lombard:

the piano far more than I do. I mean, I took piano lessons when I was very young, started with vocal lessons for about four or five years. And then, you know, I grew up playing the baritone tuba and the trumpet and the French horn, but I haven't played any of those instruments in so long. Certainly not as well versed as this guy.

Dave Gutter:

She'll act humble and then she'll like sit down at the piano and drop some Beethoven on you. It's crazy. No, it's true. She. She has. I, I would say that that's your only weakness is your, your humbleness.

Anna Lombard:

Well, it's a good weakness.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

It's good to be humble.

Anna Lombard:

Could be worse.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

And Dave, what types of instruments do you.

Dave Gutter:

I'm very much like a, you know, a listening player. I don't read music, but I just like to sit down and bang around on any instrument.

Anna Lombard:

And he's an incredible guitarist. Like, I didn't even realize the level of his playing until we started playing together last year. I mean, I'd been to rustic shows and paranoid shows and known him, but his playing is absolutely insane.

Dave Gutter:

Thanks.

Anna Lombard:

So. And it's incredible to think that so, so much of that is just from like self taught and doing it by ear, you know what I mean? That's wild.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

So how did that come to be? I mean, this is. There are some people who sign their kids up for lessons and it's a pretty. It's a little bit more straightforward if you're a kid who sits down with a guitar and just picks out chords and educates yourself.

Anna Lombard:

You told me on the way to the studio last night how his parents would walk into his bedroom when he was a kid and his fingers would be like bleeding and like busted up

Dave Gutter:

and they'd be frothing at the mouth. No, really, what I really owe it to is I was the only child and my mom, you know, unfortunately was. Was very ill as when I was growing up, so she was constantly at doctor's appointments. And I was like, I got a guitar and I was like, I'm just gonna, I'm just gonna chill in the car while you're in there. And I'm gonna play my guitar. And because of this, you know, it was so frequent that I was in this position, just kind of killing time and waiting. I taught myself how to play the guitar and. And I just kind of dragged it around me everywhere I went. So, you know, it was like, you know, one of my. My first friends as a young child.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

And when did you start writing music?

Dave Gutter:

Right away. I couldn't. I didn't know how to go about learning a song of somebody else's, so I would just, you know, I just. The first thing I really played was just me making up songs on the guitar. And I used to think I was terrible because I couldn't. You know, I could. I could write a song, but I couldn't play, you know, a Motley Crue song, you know, And I was really bummed out about that. I've gotten over that.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

I'm interested because I'm thinking about the way that we're. The way that we learn, the way that we're taught. And it's often divided out into people who are more verbal or people who are more spatial or people who are more kinesthetic. And then musical is lumped into one enormous category. But what you're describing is you are learning in a very different way musically than perhaps somebody who is a classical pianist learns.

Anna Lombard:

Yeah, very much so.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

It's not really that there is a musical way of learning. There are probably many ways of learning.

Anna Lombard:

Yeah, absolutely.

Dave Gutter:

Well, it's a discipline. And if you put time, no matter in what direction or what mode you're in or what your background is, if you put enough time into it, you're going to. The result is going to be something, you know, and you're. You're going to be able to eventually play your instrument. But, you know, I think that people that are unorthodox about their approach to their instrument tend to be more creative. The people that don't have, like. Well, A doesn't go with E flat minor, whatever, you know, like, all those things, I think are what kind of kills music or keeps it in a box.

Christoph Gelfand:

It's.

Dave Gutter:

When you're like, this is, you know, totally wrong. You're not supposed to do this, but I like it, you know, So I think that's where you get creative musicians. When you have, you know, piano players that turn keyboard players, or, I mean, getting guitar players, you know, just like when you. When you take someone out of their comfort zone and you put them on an instrument they're not familiar with, it's. It's a Whole new thing. It's like, you know, the exploration of, like, a child playing or making up something. It's. It's not. There's no parameters.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Anna, your primary instrument is your voice.

Anna Lombard:

Absolutely. Yeah.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

And as you mentioned, you began with vocal lessons when you were very young. It's an interesting. It's an interesting idea that this is a. This is something not unlike a tuba or a piano or a guitar that you continue to train and practice with and explore and be creative with, because I'm not sure that any of us. Not sure that everybody thinks about the voice that way.

Anna Lombard:

Right. Yeah. I mean, when I listen to, you know, recordings from even 10 years ago, recordings from after my first child, I mean, my voice has changed so much in the course of that time. I think what is important for people to know, I guess, is that it is very much like an instrument that continues to grow and that you have to work on and, you know, but there are so many elements that affect it much like an instrument. You know, cold weather, you know, being sick. But, yeah, I mean, so much of what. You know, it's funny the way that Dave has. Has expressed that he learned and taught himself. Yes, I was classically trained as a vocalist, but it wasn't until I was beyond that training when I was younger where I really kind of began to come into my voice and find it, and it changed dramatically from there on, I guess

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

I also think about the intersection of voices and the harmonies. I mean, not unlike the intersection. Intersection of instrumentation. But to have two people who can harmonize really requires. Whether it's using an instrument such as a piano or an instrument such as a voice requires really listening, and not just listening, but tuning in and kind of a different way to that other person.

Anna Lombard:

Not everybody can do it. You know what I mean? I think it's harder than people probably think for some people, but I don't know. Yeah, there's just. There has to be a connection between two voices. You know, it's not something that can be forced. And like I said before, it's just really easy to do that with him. So it makes it fun.

Dave Gutter:

There's some songs where we kind of go around, like, her voice, and there's other songs that they're kind of built around my vocal part, so they. It always changes. If you could have heard us last night at, like, three in the morning, like. Like when I talk about, you know, the. The process of writing the songs and coming up with these harmonies is not flattering.

Anna Lombard:

I was listening to a recording on the way in here today. And I was like, oh, God, that needs to be deleted, like, immediately.

Dave Gutter:

Yeah, but I mean, you have to do all that. That, you know, it's. It's kind of humiliating. If you're really gonna get the good stuff, you have to be able to just willing to, you know, do the musical equivalent of like, you know, running down the street with your clothes off. That's what it's like.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Well, and that's true. I think about how many people have been on the show and then I'll say, well, did you listen to the show? The radio show? And they'll say, no, I don't like to listen to my own voice. And here you guys are like, this is what you do. You have to listen to your.

Anna Lombard:

Not to say that it's not extreme. Extremely difficult to listen to your own voice sometimes. But yeah, you have to flesh out the ideas and get the song to a place where you're happy with it.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

What do you have coming up for your duet? So we're full band.

Anna Lombard:

So we do. We front the spit. We front armies, but we have drums and bass. And our dj Mikey got some shows coming up just working on booking through the winter. And we're already starting to work on the next record too. That's gonna keep us busy. But I wanna play some shows.

Dave Gutter:

Yeah, we're just basically, we're trying to get as much content out there, you know, the chemistry between us. Writing has been a really, really fun one and also a lot different than anything I've done musically. And I think you too. So we're just trying to. We. We made an album and then we wanted to play a show and we're like, oh, we can only play an hour. We want to play like all night, you know, so we've. That's forced us to write songs so we have a longer show and we can, you know, be up on stage for more time and. And, you know, give the audience more. So that's what we're doing right now. We're just stockpiling. We're like, you know, we're like chipmunks in the winter in Maine. We just like. They're stocking up on our nuts.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

How can people listen to more of the work that you've been doing

Dave Gutter:

for me? Therestagartones.com We Are Armies on Instagram. But you can't listen. You can see pictures of us on there Facebook. We have updates on, like when our shows are. We just released a video with our friends ohx that you could check out on YouTube. It's called FMHU. If those are enough letters for you. O H X F M H U.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Well, I encourage people to do that. It was quite wonderful to have you and to be able to bring the music into the morning. Certainly having, having, singing and having a song in the radio studio is always just a treat, but you guys are in a special treat. We've been speaking with Dave Gutter, who is a singer, songwriter, composer and performer from Portland. Also Anna Lombard, who is a singer and performer, both of whom are part of the group Armies and have been part of many other important collaborations. Thank you for doing the work that you do. It definitely brings joy into the world.

Anna Lombard:

Thank you. Thanks so much for having us.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

have been listening to Love Maine radio show number 217 creative duos. Our guests have included Christoph Gelfand, Caroline Lasnick, Anna Lombard, and Dave Gutter. Follow me on Twitter as DrLisa and see my running travel, food and wellness photos as bountiful1 on Instagram. We love to hear from you, so please let us know what you think of lovemain Radio. We welcome your suggestions for future shows. Also let our sponsors know that you have heard about them here. We are privileged that they enable us to bring Love Maine Radio to you each week. This is Dr. Lisa Belisle. I hope that you have enjoyed our Creative Duo show. Thank you for allowing me to be a part of your day. May you have a bountiful life.