Alice Wallace plays the Constellation Room May 13.
Photo by Oceano Ransford
Alice is a local OC musician who just recently quit her day job to make music full-time! We are here catching up with her to see what she has in store for us with her new profession as a musician. Too satisfy your Folk needs be sure to catch Alice at this year’s OC Music Awards at the Coach House Feb. 4.
OC Concert Guide spoke with Wallace about her music and being from Orange County back in May 2013.
OCCG: You recently got back from your southwest tour what was that like?
AW: That’s a big question! In a lot of ways, it’s just like playing shows here in Orange County, except we are somewhere else. At least, the performing aspect feels that way. But in other ways, it’s completely different, especially since I am my own manager. I do all the booking, promoting, marketing and logistics planning. So when I’m on the road, I’m not only thinking about each show, but about how to get from one place to the next, where we will be staying, what press we are getting, the list goes on and on. And I’m also constantly on Facebook and Twitter and Instagram to post updates along the way for fans, and I film video every day so that I can make video diaries of the tours for my website and You Tube channel. So my life on tour usually involves having my phone in one hand and my little video camera in the other – almost at all times. Until we finally get to a show. Then I put them down and play music. It’s a lot of work, but when we finally get to play music, it makes it all worth it.
OCCG: You recently had a show at the House of Blues what was that experience like?
AW: Shows like that are what really keep me motivated to play music as a lifestyle, to pursue what sometimes seems like a ludicrous dream. To have a crowd of people, most of who have never heard you before, listening so intently and cheering so enthusiastically reminds me that I’ve made the right decision about making music my life. I only hope that one day I can play shows like that all the time.
OCCG: When did you decide that you were going to be doing music as your career?
AW: About two months ago! Though I suppose I have mentally made that decision over and over through the years. When I moved to California five years ago now, it was with the intent to make music my career. And I have always felt like it was my career, even if it wasn’t what I was getting paid for. But now, I can truly say it is my profession. And I am still working on how to make enough money to truly make a living off of it, but at least now, I have nothing else to distract me. I have no other support system, so I have to make music work.
OCCG: What most inspires you to write your music? What’s your process? Music or Lyrics first?
AW: My basic process for writing a song usually involves coming up with a chord progression, or at least a melody, first. I have never been able to write lyrics first, and then come up with a melody that I liked afterward. It always feels forced when I try to do it that way. The melody and the music are what inspire me to find the words for the song. Sometimes I sit down with a specific idea for a song, and so the melody I write will fit the mood for that idea. Other times I will simply pick up my guitar and start strumming, and 20 minutes later I’ll have a song I had no idea I wanted to write. I’ve had some of my best songs come out that way.
OCCG: How did you find your backing band?
AW: The band really came together by chance over the years. I met Tom Bremer, who plays lead guitar, through another musician who was putting together a band around the time I first moved out to California. Tom and I were in a cover band together for a couple of years before I asked him to play on my album in 2011. And Neil Patton, the upright bass player who played on the album, was a friend of Tom’s who also played in our cover band. Neil is a stellar musician who studied jazz performance at Cal State Northridge, and he recruited Evan Maloney to play drums with us, as Evan was also attending school in Northridge. So that has been the core group since the album, and they are all incredibly talented musicians who have really made my music what it is. I’ve also been working a lot with another talented upright bass player, Ryan Donohue, who I met while playing some shows in Sunset Beach. Ryan has been very supportive of my music career and has accompanied me on a couple tours already. Ryan has spent most of his life touring with bands all over the U.S. and Europe, and his experience on the road has been invaluable as I learn how to manage my tours.
OCCG: What has been your biggest accomplishment as a musician?
AW: My biggest accomplishment? I’m not sure I feel I could call anything I’ve done yet an “accomplishment,” but I have had some pretty great moments since moving out to California to play music. I’ve met and opened for some amazing singer/songwriters like Lisa Loeb, Shawn Colvin and Sophie B. Hawkins. I self-funded and self-released my debut album, “Sweet Madness,” along with building and maintaining my own website. I have booked three tours in the last year, up the West coast twice, and once over into the southwest. But I feel like I’m still working on accomplishing what it is I need to do. When I can say that I have paid my bills doing nothing but playing my own music that will be my biggest accomplishment.
OCCG: As a local OC musician; what do you think about the OC music scene compared to LA?
AW: Well, I can’t say that I am any expert on the LA music scene. I’ve played a smattering of shows up there over the years, but the overwhelming impression I always get from playing in LA is that there are so many artists, the venues are busting at the seams. And because there are so many artists, they don’t have to pay you to play. In most cases, they require you to bring the crowd, and if you don’t, you end up paying the venue for the folks who don’t show up. It’s disheartening, to say the least. The OC music scene feels much more supportive of developing musicians. There is a lot of talent in Orange County, but you don’t get lost in the crowd quite the way you do in LA.
OCCG: What are you doing to create a following?
AW: Creating a following might be my biggest challenge. Maybe I should go revise my answer to the challenge question. I am constantly on Facebook, updating my website, I tweet (albeit, poorly), but I think all the social media in the world doesn’t make up for just getting out and meeting people and handing them your music. I make new fans every time I play a show. It’s a slow process, yet it’s probably the most important process of anything in my music career.