Kelley Stoltz

By Veronica Young
Photo by Darrell Taunt

“I’m not a total analog freak, but I prefer to record the important stuff on the 8-track. I believe in it as a sound source more than the computer.”
-Kelley Stoltz

Achieve a Polished Sound the Old-Fashioned Way

“Recording is kind of like writing a good song. You’ve got to write 50 bad songs — songs that don’t get finished or where you don’t figure out the right words — to get one or two good ones,” says San Francisco multi-instrumentalist Kelley Stoltz. “I’ve been doing my own recording for 10 years, and I’ve realized you just figure it out.” Known for his prolific songwriting and decidedly lo-fi approach to recording, for Stoltz, recording an album is as easy as stepping out of his bedroom and into the spare room of his Mission District apartment. “I’ve got patient roommates and neighbors, so I lucked into a spot where I could make a bit of noise,” he says. And with four days a week dedicated to his craft, Stoltz is free to beat on his drum set, play the piano, strum on the guitar or emote over lyrics and record what he likes in his old-fashioned tape recorder way.

While the process remains the same on his new album, the warmly organic ‘60s retrospective Circular Sounds (released last month on Sub Pop), Stoltz makes a small departure from his days of 100% pure analog recording to deliver a more polished set of tracks. “I wouldn’t say Circular Sounds is all the way to hi-fi,” he explains, “but it is an improvement over the last few albums.” Stoltz credits his label for enabling him to buy a microphone or two and fix things up that were limping along at his home studio, thereby allowing him to achieve a more “mid-fi” result.

Though appreciative of his newer tools, Stotlz remains dedicated to his system of trial and error recording and reserves a lot of love for the DIY mentality held by many independent artists. He records everything to tape with a Tascam 388, an 8-track recorder which he swears is one of the easiest to use. “I’m not a total analog freak, but I prefer to record the important stuff on this,” he says of the 8-track. “I believe in it as a sound source more than the computer. It just sounds really good. I fill up an 8-track and then dump it into the computer to add the ‘garnish.’” Stoltz credits improvements both in technology and the accessibility of it for affording all artists alternate recording opportunities. “A lot of people on labels are recording at home or at their rehearsal places with their buddies,” says Stoltz, acknowledging that labels are more concerned with artists meeting their standard of quality, whatever that may be, than where an album was recorded.

While Stoltz played almost all the instruments on his latest recording, he performs his songs with a live band backing him. Remarkably, Stoltz has mastered the art of letting go when it comes to others recreating his homemade tunes on stage. “When we play live, I let the band do their thing. I don’t get worked up if they deviate from the CD. I think people should be allowed to play and not be robots, because that’s no fun,” he says.

In addition to his bandmates here in San Francisco, Stoltz has had the unique opportunity to practice this philosophy with his makeshift band in the land Down Under. Stoltz credits fellow singer/songwriter Chuck Prophet with getting him buzz in Australia, where he’s now achieved bona fide cult rock star status: “Prophet had an antique record of mine from 2001 [an early version of Antique Glow] and liked it. He shared it with a friend in Australia who had a vinyl pressing plant [owned by the now defunct Corduroy Records] and ended up making a deal with me — he would press 500 CDs for him, 500 for me, and we were free to do what we wanted with the albums. No money was exchanged, just a handshake. He ended up being in the right circle of people, and through word of mouth sold a ton of my CDs. People got into it so I went down there to play.” Stoltz’ Australian touring band consists of Mikey Young and Mark Nelson from the plant. “The guys know the music — I just show up,” he laughs, likening himself to Chuck Berry.

When he’s not on the road, Stoltz is most likely writing or recording. “I write three or four songs a week — at least the basic parts of them,” he says. “I tend to start off by having a cup of tea or breakfast. I read the paper and then just pick up the guitar or play the piano. Sometimes I’ll play a simple drum beat and add stuff to it. I try to play around for an hour or so until there is a good chord progression or until I realize, ‘Oh that’s kinda cool.’ Hopefully by 5 p.m. I’ll have a melody in mind — I may sing some words or just nonsense — and then work that out over the course of the next hour. I write the lyrics last. Actually, they either write themselves or I labor over them and then give up.”

Stoltz’s enthusiasm for recording doesn’t stop with his own material. He’s been actively involved in the Bay Area music scene, both as a producer (a title he reluctantly uses to describe his efforts) and engineer. Stoltz says, “My first project was with a band that played at a bar I was working at. I thought they were the worst band I had ever seen and thought I had hit an all-time low point, where I had to work and listen to this stuff. Their charms didn’t make any sense for the first five songs, but at some point something changed and I realized that what they were doing was special. They were playing with innocence and joy — free of irony and study — and just doing their best. I realized that this was probably like what CBGB’s had sounded like in the ‘70s.” Stoltz went up to the band and offered to help them record their first album, which he describes as a chaotic, sloppy post-punk piece of work. “I listened, made suggestions, and most of all learned to be Zen about rejection. It’s painful sometimes if a band doesn’t take your suggestions, especially when you think that it’s just gonna make the song, but that’s when you gotta surrender to someone else’s vision,” Stoltz says. Since then he’s worked with John Dwyer and The Ohsees, The Moore Brothers, and singer/songwriter Bart Davenport.

One might wonder how Stoltz has the energy to write and record his own material as well as lend a seasoned ear to fellow musicians. Says Stoltz with a slight laugh, “Sometimes I just need an excuse to get out of my room and see what other people are doing in their act — see what the outside world looks like.”

www.kelleystoltz.com