R.O. is this year’s early bird finalist and will join seven other finalists to network and compete at the NewSong Performance & Songwriting Competition finals on Saturday, November 16, at Citizen Vinyl. Find tickets here.

 

NewSong Music: What sort of music was playing in your house when you were growing up?

R.O. Shapiro: A lot of jazz — Louis, Miles, Monk… Ella and Billie. And classic rock — Beatles, Stones, Grateful Dead, Steely Dan. 

What was your journey to music — were you classically trained? From a family of musicians? Self-taught?

I grew up doing a lot of musical theater, that’s really how I started singing. I didn’t pick up guitar until my senior year of high school, but as soon as I got a few chords down I started writing my own songs almost immediately.

What is the first song you wrote that you were proud of, and why?

I think I was proud of the first songs I wrote! Of course, I wouldn’t want to play them now, but I know I felt immense satisfaction from finishing them, and sharing them with my friends. I’m still totally hooked on that feeling.

 

What is your writing process like — do you write lyrics first, or music? Do you compose on a particular instrument? Do you need to write in a particular space or do song ideas come to you at random times?

The beginnings of a song almost always come when I’m absentmindedly messing around on my guitar. I’ll find a lick or progression that I like, a melody to go with it, and then eventually some words affix themselves based on the rhythm or cadence of the musical phrase. More often than not, these lyrics will be related in some way to whatever thoughts or feelings which are already bouncing around the front of my brain. That’s how I find the germ of a song, and I expand it from there, usually in sporadic quiet moments over the course of weeks, months, or years.

Share a musical adventure from this summer with us — could be a show you played, a tour you took, a recording you made, a concert you attended, etc. Tell us about an experience that really stood out for you.

I actually started booking and promoting shows, even running sound, at a venue in Caspar, CA, a tiny town on the coast between Mendocino and Fort Bragg, three hours north of San Francisco. It’s now called Good Bones Kitchen, but used to be the Caspar Inn, a legendary roadhouse for decades drawing acts like Bonnie Raitt, Taj Mahal, and J.J. Cale. It’s been an amazing honor to work to restart the music program in that historic space, and really exciting to learn new skills and and gain a much better understanding of the ins and outs of the production side of our industry.