The fifth episode of our new podcast, The Second Muse is now available for listening. In this episode, Drew Miller is joined by his bandmate Janie Townsend and engineer Evan Redwine to discuss the making of The Orchardist’s album People, People—specifically the song “Drink It Down.”
Janie and Drew are both founding members and leading songwriters of The Orchardist, whose folk songs are often dressed up in playful chamber arrangements inspired by artists like The Punch Brothers and Sufjan Stevens.
Evan is a gifted engineer who excels in finding the very best sounds possible (and will stop at nothing to get them) and gives the song exactly what it needs even when his own opinion is at stake. Former understudy of Shane Wilson and Andrew Osenga, Evan brings unmatched energy and passion to every day in the studio.
If you’re new to The Second Muse, here’s the podcast in a nutshell: the title is taken from a Wendell Berry quote in which he references two distinct muses—the Muse of Inspiration, “who gives us inarticulate visions and desires,” and the Muse of Realization, “who returns again and again to say, ‘It is yet more difficult than you thought.'”
It is this second Muse of Realization with which we concern ourselves in The Second Muse, specifically in the context of songwriting and record producing. In each episode, Drew interviews a different artist along with their producer about a song that gave them a great deal of trouble, whether in the writing or recording process or both. The song is then explored from the inside out, breaking down the components of the mix and how each element works towards making the song effective as a whole.