Singer Schuyler Fisk On The Road

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Parent Category: Film and the Arts

Category: Interviews

Published on Sunday, 30 August 2009 11:56

Written by Nobu Hosoki

The daughter of actress Sissy Spacek and production designer Jack Fisk, singer Schuyler Fisk was born in Los Angeles, California, and moved to Charlottesville, Virginia, where she began acting and eventually progressed to film. In the meantime, she graduated from the College of Arts & Sciences at the University of Virginia in 2006.

Fisk also picked up the guitar, which she learned from her mother. In early 2006, she recorded a demo with Joshua Radin, whom she has toured with for the past two years. They wrote a song, "Paperweight," that was featured on the soundtrack to The Last Kiss. A full length LP, was released digitally on January 27, 2009 as a download at several online retailers including iTunes and Amazon. Fisk's debut album, The Good Stuff, climbed to #1 on the iTunes Folk Charts. Now she is with Universal Records. She is currently on tour with Ben Taylor which brought her to Japan as well.

 Q: I found your name to be unique. How did your parents name you?

SF: Thank you. My mother says that they almost named me "Tyler" or "Taylor," but my parents discovered a rock quarry where artists got their raw materials in Virginia that was in the town of "Schuyler" and they fell in love with the name.

Q: I heard that you initially started off acting before getting into music. How did you get into acting, and did your mother, Sissy Spacek, influence you in that?

SF: I did start out acting. When I was little, I had huge dreams of being an actress. I saw my mother on film sets and thought to myself, "I could do that! I want to do that!" I was very involved with my school's theatre productions as well as the local community theatre. I got my first film role after having an opportunity to audition for "The Baby-sitters Club" at age 11. I got really lucky!

Q: How did you decide that singing was your calling--your voice to the world?

SF: I have always loved singing. It's been a huge passion of mine my whole life, but I didn't start to think of doing it as a career until friends started mentioning it to me. I started writing my own songs at 14, but it wasn't until about 19 that I started to really take it seriously. Then it wasn't until about 21 that I decided to pursue it full-force.

Q: Take me through the songwriting process? When I listened to "From Where I Standing," the image that kept coming through my head were those of very soulful lyrics. How do you immerse yourself in that process?

SF: Honestly, it's different every time. Sometimes I just sit with my guitar or at the piano and fiddle around see what melodies I come up with and go from there. Sometimes I start with a song idea or a line or lyrics almost all written out. "From Where I'm Standing" is a song I wrote for a film, and so I came at it with an idea of what I wanted to say and a vibe of how I wanted the song to come across.

Q: Are there any musicians that you want to collaborate with? And why do you want to do that?

SF: There are a lot of musicians I'd love to collaborate with! I absolutely love writing with other writers. It takes me out of my comfort zone and allows me to bounce ideas off of someone else, which you don't really get to do when you're writing alone. I'd love to collaborate with Feist, Patty Griffin, Dave Matthews, Wilco, The Weepies, Keith Urban, Bela Fleck, Tom Petty, Ben Harper, Bonnie Raitt... the list is endless.

Q: The song, "The Good Stuff," makes me imagine a bright sunny day in California; it seems to have a positive outlook on life. Do you find this song in a sense represents you?

SF: It's funny because I wrote that song one afternoon in LA when I was feeling really homesick for my hometown in Virginia. I started off wanting to write a song about missing home, but I ended up realizing how amazing everything was right where I was. I just needed to focus on the "good stuff" instead of the bad. I wrote that song to remind me to be in the moment and to appreciate the little things.

Q: What direction do you want to go in in the future? Do you want to tackle a different genre?

SF: I'm not really sure where the future will lead my songwriting. I will say that I'm feeling a pull towards more alt-country music lately. I grew up listening to old school country and blue-grass music and lately I've been listening to a lot of Sam Cooke and Marvin Gaye. I have this huge desire to make an alt-country/Motown record next, but we shall see!

Q: This is your first tour in Japan. What do you hope to take away from that experience?

SF: Are there any places you want to visit? I am so excited to be coming to tour in Japan. I have the longest list of all the things I want to do while I'm there - the trick will be fitting it all in! I will be posting photos and videos from my trip on www.schuylerfisk.com so be sure to check it out.

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