Singer-songwriter brings acoustic collection to DC9 When a musician’s song titles go from “Suicide Medicine” in 2003 to “Uppers Aren’t Necessary” in 2010, it’s fairly obvious there’s been something of a psychological shift.
In fact, the recent release of “True Devotion” by Seattle-based musician Rocky Votolato is full of musical points of view that reflect his changes in life attitudes.
“Making this record, in a lot of ways, was kind of unconscious,” he said. “I had a long period of a lot of changes in my life and with my career, where I was really scaling back. I have a wife and two kids, and just trying to find a balance was really difficult.”
So Votolato took a year off to try to write a new album and ran up against a solid writer’s block. That’s difficult for anyone, but arguably more so for a musician with a solid fan base and who’s used to putting out much loved alt-country/folk songs and working with such musicians as Matt Bayles of Pearl Jam and Chris Walla of Death Cab for Cutie (who co-wrote “Suicide Medicine” with Votolato.
If you go
Rocky Votolato
Where: DC9, 1940 Ninth St. NW
When: 8:30 p.m. doors, 9 p.m. show, Sunday
Info: $13 advance, $15 day of show; 202-483-9000; dcnine.com
Diving into literature, philosophy, physics and other social sciences as he took a deep look inside himself unlocked Votolato’s creative storehouse and allowed him to write the newest album. “Uppers Aren’t Necessary” came to Votolato after he spent the night reading “The Alchemist,” by Paulo Coelho, a fable about following your dreams. “It finally just started to happen,” he said. “When I was trying to force it, nothing happened.”
Not that this is a true confessions-style record. Although Votolato has softened his views about autobiographical songs in recent years, he still thinks combining real-life experience with fiction is the optimal way to allow art to reflect life.
“I think I still believe in autobiography mixed with fiction,” he said. “I don’t want music to be too much like a diary or a journal. We’ve seen others who’ve fallen into that [area] and where the music ends up sounding a little too [much like the musician is wearing his] heart on the sleeve.”
In keeping with his new, scaled-back approach, Votolato is currently on an acoustic tour, offering enthusiastic audiences a closer, more intimate show than they had found when he toured with a band. That suits him fine.
“I had bought into the American dream so much that I forgot to define what success was,” he said. “I came to this clarity, this realization, that quality of life is not what people think of me, fame, or material acquisitions. When I got more in touch with [how I defined] success, the songs started coming out.”
