The music: It’s fairly piano driven with
heavy orchestral elements — a mix of chamber
pop and cinema.
Website: brookewaggoner.com
Latest album: Go Easy Little Doves.
Sounds like: Someone once told me that if
Elton John and Tinkerbell had a love child . . .
well, maybe that’s stretching it a bit.
Influences: Debussy is a huge influence
as well as film scores from Masterpiece
Theater productions, old Rodgers and
Hammerstein musicals, the lyrics of Simon
and Garfunkel, the poetry of Pablo Neruda,
and novels by Larry McMurtry.
Studio keyboards for GELD: I used two
different Yamaha grand pianos, a baby and
a full grand. I also experimented a bit with
the actual piano strings — strumming, using
the damper pedal while plucking the high
treble piano strings, etc.
Songwriting process: It’s usually just
random moments of me tinkering on the
piano. If I find something I like, I record it in
my phone, or on my little handheld
recorder, or jot down the melody in my tiny
staff paper Moleskine notebook. Lyrics usually
come from scraps of lines I’ve collected
over the years, usually from times of boredom
when I’m jotting little ideas down on
random materials.
Cool string arrangements on GELD:
They came from old scores I had written in
college and wanted to revamp. From piano
melodies I loved and decided to orchestrate.
From afternoons of sitting with old
manuscripts and discovering combos of
instruments that I thought sounded so
pleasing together.
Biggest challenge in the studio: Learning
how to capture “moments” on recordings.
You can play something right a million
times, but it’s usually just one special take
that harnesses the emotion behind it.
Extended interview coming soon!