Naomi Greenwald has more going on behind the scenes than the average artist. This Pennsylvania native lived nearly a decade in New York before moving to Los Angeles to pursue a PhD. Once in LA, her childhood love of music resurfaced in the form of her desire to record her first EP. Soon after, she realized, though, that she wanted to take it further and began working on her first full-length album with Dave Trumfio.

The result is Darkbloom, which drops today. Amidst teaching, school, and songwriting, Naomi talked to LA Music Blog about her musical influences and her new album. She also shared the joys and compromises of multitasking.

When did you first realize that music was one of your callings?

I grew up in a family where everyone had to take piano lessons. You’re supposed to try things. You do ballet, you play sports, and then you figure out what you’re good at doing.

I traded in piano for the violin in middle school, but in eighth grade I traded violin for guitar because my brother plays and that was way cooler. I still didn’t really realize, though, until I started to learn a few chords that I don’t sing that badly.

In my freshman year of high school, I tore my ACL. I was bedridden and couldn’t play sports and had all of this extra time, so I think that’s when I really started concentrating on music. Around the time of my sophomore year I started playing songs at high school functions. Overall, that injury was probably the catalyst for my interest in music.

How would you describe your songwriting process?

It’s interesting. It used to just come to me automatically, and sometimes it still does, but I used to write fake words and maybe half of those words would stick, and then I would go back and fix the rest of them.

Now that I’m doing this as a career, I’m much more diligent about it. I wait for that moment, that epiphany. It’s a mix between letting it come naturally and trying to find a melody, playing several things over and over, recording with my iPhone on the voice memo, re-listening, and looking back at old journals. It’s becoming more of a process for me, rather than automatic.

For the album, “Cautionary Tale” just came out. Some of the lyrics obviously changed when I had more time to sit and look at it, but it was one of those songs that just came to me.

You spent several years in New York before coming to LA. Do you feel like either location had an influence on the types of songs that you write or on your overall sound?

I think LA has had a really good effect on me, maybe not because of the sound, though. New York is an amazing music scene, but it’s really overwhelming. I loved it and I probably felt influenced as soon as I got there. I came from Pennsylvania, and I listened to classic rock, jazz, and bluegrass when I was growing up. I got to college and people were like saying words like “the Smiths” and “the Pixies,” and I didn’t know what they were talking about.

So I learned an immense amount of music in New York, and that made an indelible mark on my songwriting. However, I found it hard to write in New York in general. I always had roommates and paper-thin walls. At one point, I found out that they had a studio space, but it was more for practice.

In LA, I feel like I’ve been able to have a quieter environment, time to sit, write, and focus more and apply what I’ve learned in New York. LA is just less of a scene, even though it does have its own scene, but it’s less convoluted. It’s much smaller than New York. I think that both places have helped me. I just feel like in New York I never stopped—I was always seeing shows, going to school, working, or doing something, and I never really got the chance to use everything that I was learning.

So LA was a good move, although stylistically, I’m not sure that I listen to the same music in both places. I spend a lot more time in the car here, and I’m a huge Sirius XMU fan so I learn a lot more new music very quickly. I can’t listen to news; I only listen to music.

You’re releasing a physical copy of Darkbloom January 18th. What can people expect to hear off of this album as opposed to what they found on the EP?

I’m in grad school, and I thought that I wanted to sell those songs on the EP. Midway through the project, I decided that I wanted to release this on my own. I want to do this for real. With the album, I sought out the right producer, and I tried to hone in on the right songs. Instead of trying to have the perfect chorus, bridge, and just the same old thing, I went with every whim that I could think of. My producer worked with what I wanted as opposed to framing things for radio or for this or that. It was much more organic because he wasn’t always telling me things to change; he just went with it to see what we could do with each song.

I just think that this one is much more true to what I’ve always heard. When I’m writing songs, I often hear the other parts. I definitely rely on the other musicians to help me get them there because I’m not a great technical musician. It was really exciting to hear some of those songs finally come to like fruition, though.

Your producer was Dave Trumfio, correct?

Yes.

What was the experience like working with him? You said it was very organic and he wasn’t trying to push you in any one direction. What do you feel that he brought to the sound of the album that another producer might not have been able to do?

I think he just understood where I was coming from. One reason I chose him was because of his experience with Wilco, who is a really good marriage of indie and ‘70s music to me. I grew up with those older influences ,and I am also into a lot of indie sounds. Dave has been around for a long time, worked with a variety of musicians, and he really understood the niche that I was trying to create.

Dave really tried to encourage me to hear horns and go with it. He just made it so easy, and he was so laid back about everything. I knew that whatever he brought to the table would only help my songs. We did work hard, but it was fun so it never felt like work. I liked that he wasn’t generic; we just figured things out as they came along. He knows my background, and it was a really cool experience, though he did challenge me.

In terms of singing, I was always worried about editing, but he was just waiting for that perfect take—even with the band and they sounded amazing. He was always looking for the magic instead of relying on editing. He wanted a cohesive sound so it was cool to work with someone like that.

It’s cool that he pushed you to find each take because anymore most producers just want to cut and paste instead of doing the whole thing over. It’s nice to hear that there are still producers out there pushing people to go for that perfect take, rather than the cut, edit, and paste.

Exactly. That’s why I was always saying, “You’re going to have to listen to all of these takes.” But he would say, “Yeah, but that’s the point. I mark down when I think you got it and then we stop when you really do.” So it was cool to work with someone like that and even the band was surprised. He was just looking for that magic. You could tell he really cared about it, but he didn’t want it to be too perfect either. He kept telling me that we didn’t want to be too polished because that’s not my sound, so there are a few things on the album that remind me that we did it live.

My vocals were not done live—that was very hard to do when you’re thinking about everything else—but with the vocals it was the same thing. He was looking for a feeling, not the pitch being absolutely perfect. It was about like getting the feel for it.

You also mentioned that the musicians that played on this album are great musicians. You had Vincent Jones, Fern Sanchez, and Jason Orme—that’s an amazing group of musicians. How did you end up meeting with them?

The funny thing is, I only know Jason because my roommate worked at Real Food Daily in LA as a waitress. One day she waited on him, and they became friends. I moved to LA for a PhD. I was living with her, and I wasn’t really thinking about music until I started recording the EP and realized I needed to start playing. She said she knew Jason, but I just didn’t think he’d want to play with me.

We started talking, and he was helping me find other people until finally he just ended up playing with me. I think I met Fern through the producer who did my EP. I picked up Nick from someone else’s band. Oddly enough, they all knew each other. Jason said if we were going in the studio we would need a piano player, and he recommended Vince Jones.

It was just that chance meeting of my roommate and Jason that snowballed everything. It’s great too because Jason was on tour in the fall with Sarah McLachlan, but I knew five other guys who could fill in through Fern. LA is a good scene for that because all of the guys are tight. Being a singer songwriter I don’t necessarily have a band waiting around all the time to play with me because I just write songs on my own. So it’s really great to have a bunch of guys that know my stuff, like it, and are fun to work with.

It’s definitely a ridiculous roster. I looked at my liner notes, and I was like, “How did this happen?” When I got in touch with Dave, I wrote his manager or agent at Tsunami at midnight when I finally like had a glass of wine and got the guts to write an email. It was a pretty interesting year, and I learned a lot.

I can imagine. I mean, playing with Sarah McLachlan, you’ve got to have some talent.

Yeah. We had the most fun with track number five, “More Than Perfect.” Dave was saying, “Think demonic saloon. Just be dark and gothy.” Vince was going for it, but he was being cautious. We loved it and kept telling him to really go for it. He left the studio in a total sweat. He was so surprised, he was like, “No one ever wants me to do that kind of stuff.” But we were having the time of our lives watching him do it. It was amazing.

On top of being a musician, you’re also going for your doctorate at USC. Do you ever find that there’s a conflict between the two?

Yes. I definitely waited until I was done with all my coursework to do it. I started my last batch of courses last fall, and I started recording this album in February. It’s not like there’s a total conflict of interest because I used to feel like I had two separate lives. With literature and music, I look for similar themes, but it has definitely been a rough two semesters now, juggling both things. However, it’s fun, and I think I must be one of those people that enjoys being really busy. It is better now that I’m not in classes, but I teach, and I’m also supposed to be writing that a dissertation, which I’m definitely a tiny bit behind on.

I love the teaching aspect of it, and I love my students. Now that they know I play music, I’m not sure they take me very seriously anymore, but they think it’s really fun. One of them Googled me halfway through the semester and told the entire class that I was releasing an album and that totally changed the dynamics. It’s fun, and I’m lucky that school is being patient and not kicking me out or anything since I’m doing two things at once. I have to say there are nights where I don’t know what’s more important—grading papers or getting practice schedules for a show. It’s kind of confusing.

What else do you have lined up for this year other than the album release?

I’m doing a couple of shows on the east coast, kind of like the release party. Hopefully I can just take advantage of my long weekends and spring breaks to tour as much as I can. Again, that’s one of the things that is difficult about being in school. When I’m on break, it’s usually holidays and things are dying down so it’s never that convenient to tour. Even in the summer, a lot of college campuses and college towns are not very busy. But that is essentially my plan. We’re going to do a radio campaign so hopefully that will get some buzz going. Then I’ll be playing shows in the spring.

I’ve been writing a lot, so I’m just trying to find a way to get back into the studio. I’m really excited. This was one of those albums that only made me want to just go back into the studio again because it was such a good experience that it inspired me to write more. I’m really looking forward to that. This is my last semester hopefully until I’m on fellowship for a year with school. If I can make it through the spring then I’ll have a little bit more time on my hands. I wish I could do a full-fledged tour, but it would have meant delaying the release of the album, and I didn’t want to shelf myself. Other people do more than one job at a time, so I’m just trying to treat school like another job and tour on the weekends.

“Cautionary Tale” from Naomi Greenwald on Vimeo.

For more on Naomi Greenwald:

http://www.naomigreenwald.com/