With a storied and multi-genre career that spans nearly half a century, Some Sweet Dream is surprisingly only Stevie Cornell’s second solo album. But boy is it good!
From Santa Rosa, California, Cornell has been influential in nearly every genre imaginable, from the inception of punk to rockabilly to Americana to jazz and blues.
Cornell’s first Americana band, The Movie Stars, which he was a founding member of, became a household name in Northern California’s Americana scene. In the early ‘80s, he also founded the retro/rockabilly band Red Meat. From there, Cornell took a hiatus from recording and touring to raise a family, but it’s clear from his comeback releases that he never stopped writing.
Some Sweet Dream is his folk-flavored, surf rock answer to the retro country of his first self-titled album, released in 2022. From the fun, highly boppable rockabilly of “Lying to Myself” to the more serious and psychedelic “Last Time I Count on You,” Cornell keeps fans guessing and engaged with this exciting album.
Tattoo.com spoke with Stevie Cornell to talk about Some Sweet Dream, his writing process, his guitar, and his definition of success.
What inspired your new album, ‘Some Sweet Dream?’
Well, it wasn’t a lightning bolt kind of thing- more of a feeling like I had a bunch of tunes that would work well together as a guided tour through my brain… it wasn’t like I was going through a traumatic time or anything. Albums are a funny old-fashioned concept, but I made it so it’ll work well even on vinyl if I ever get around to putting it out that way. I spent a lot of time choosing the songs and sequencing the album, side one, side two, that kind of thing. There are some good songs that didn’t make it on ’cause they didn’t quite fit.
Walk us through your mindset as you recorded the album.
‘Some Sweet Dream’ is a continuation of the creative process I used on my first album. It’s a nod to a bygone era when songwriters would write a song, arrangers would produce the backing tracks and finally the singer would perform the song. So, it’s kind of a game I play with myself, because, obviously I’m the same person throughout the process, but I like to act out the traditional roles- I’ve got hats for each stage. Nowadays, a more typical approach would be to start with the production of the recording, letting the songs take shape as the recording progresses- we have so much ability to cut and paste loops into a finished product, that we don’t really have to sit at the piano and finish a song before recording it.
What do you want people to take away from ‘Some Sweet Dream?’
I would love for people to take the journey from one end of the album to the other, but I realize that that’s a big ask in today’s busy, fragmented world! It’s such an eclectic collection of tunes, but somehow it hangs together. Maybe that’s because I play and sing everything…
How did you get started in music?
The usual stuff – I learned guitar in High School to be cool and got seduced by the power of music once I started getting into it. I actually went to Art School for a year- how cliche is that? Then I came to the West Coast just in time for the punk scene in the mid to late ‘70s. I’ve never been able to shoehorn myself into a scene or a style – I always want to color outside the lines.
Which singers/musicians influenced your sound?
I have so many influences, but ‘60s pop is still a huge part of my sound and I hear a lot of Ray Davies and Nick Lowe in my stuff. But I’ve always been really open to any and all influences, jazz, bluegrass, old-school soul, and R&B… I love the old-school country writers. They told great stories about real life, as did the great R&B writers.
If you had to describe your sound to the uninitiated, what would you say?
It’s very accessible because the ‘60s pop that I mostly draw from was super catchy. I love a great melody and I also love to turn a good phrase- I try to keep the interest up in the lyrics. That said, I always try to add a little sonic twist that wouldn’t have been done back then. I love creating and using synth tracks, for instance.
Why do you make music?
There is just nothing on earth to match the joy of connecting with people through music! If you haven’t had that rush, it’s pretty hard to explain. And the art of creation is so uplifting. Playing a song that didn’t exist the day before is an unbelievable experience, even if it’s not a masterpiece every time… it just gets better the more you do it and there isn’t much in life that’s like that.
What kind of guitar do you play?
My main axe is my ’62 Martin 000-18. I got it when I was 15 and I’ve been playing it ever since. A few years ago, I was giving lessons in the same town I grew up in and a guy came in whose name rang a distant bell. After a bit, I asked him if he had sold a guitar to a kid way back in the early ‘70s, and sure enough, it was the same guitar!
What can you share about your writing process?
Songs can start with either words or music, but I rarely complete one before I start on the other. I do a lot of tinkering and some songs go into the closet for years before they are ready to get finished. I always try to establish a melody that I can play on piano, as though I was writing old-school sheet music… even if my ‘performer’ changes it up in the final version. The thing about words is that they can be more simple than you’d think – the music picks them up and gives them weight that they don’t necessarily have on their own.
Which artists in your opinion are killing it right now?
I love great singers, and in the Americana vein, there are a LOT of really cool singers like Charley Crockett, or Sierra Ferrell. The Secret Sisters are a fave. I love genre-benders like Louis Cato and Baby Storme. I think that music is so fragmented these days (Thanks, Spotify!) that we’re all kind of fishing through a giant thrift store of sounds, mixing and matching as we please. One thing that’s crazy about the ‘60s is how FAST everything changed from week to week, let alone from year to year. Nowadays we don’t have to keep up with the very latest trends. Well maybe Taylor and Beyonce do, but not out here at the left end of the dial.
Knowing what you know now, if you could go back and start your music career over again, what would you do differently?
I think I’d take it a lot more seriously, for sure. I was always pretty talented, but I don’t think I appreciated how much back breaking effort it takes to succeed. Artists who I might have considered kind of mediocre in the day were actually WAY better than I gave them credit for! Of course, nowadays, it’s a much bigger crowd trying to get heard, and AI generated music is going to start really making waves, especially in the more corporate areas of music, so it’s a lot harder to get noticed. But there’s a certain freedom in that, I guess.
How do you define success?
It depends! I think a successful career is different from successful art. A career is when other people can make money off you, but to be successful as an artist, you have to be true to your own muse. That said, I think success for a performer is when you can play a show and people who know and like your music will come out to hear you being yourself. That’s really the same for Taylor Swift as it is for a bottom feeder like me… she does make a lot more money than me, but she must have a big weight on her shoulders, too, knowing how many people depend on her product. I guess it’s like any big corporation- you can’t turn on a dime at that level. Remember when Neil Young got sued for not sounding like himself? Or John Fogerty getting sued for sounding too much like himself!? Success does carry its own chains.
What can your fans look forward to over the next six months? Live gigs? Music videos?
I’m already heading back into the studio! I’ve been wandering away from the old-school singer-songwriter thing towards something a bit more orchestral. I studied film scoring in school, and I’m getting into a more fragmented, loopy sound than my traditional pop stuff. I’ll be out on the road next year to promote whatever it is I come up with! Me and my looper and ten instruments.
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