Apr 4, 2008

Poetic soul finds musical voice

By Paul Freeman / Entertainment Writer

If you want to enter an uncharted world of haunting musical magic, go to Rio - Rio En Medio, that is.

Rio En Medio is actually Danielle Stech-Homsy, a gifted, imaginative singer/songwriter discovered by Devendra Banhart. After exploring the possibilities of poetry, the Brooklyn resident is finding her musical identity ... an intriguing one.

That's hinted at in the title of her album, "The Bride of Dynamite." Filled with literate lyrics, bewitching melodies and inventive samples and instrumentation, the album invites endless plays.

Stech-Homsy set to music eloquent lines from William Blake, Paul Eluard and John Ashbery, as well as to her own original lyrics. She drew inspiration from the great poets she studied in college.

"A lot of the music I love is musical settings of text from another source. It might be religious or poetic or sometimes completely non-poetic," she said.

Her songs are fascinating musical collages. "I didn't start out with any sense of what kinds of sounds would happen. The whole process of recording is still new to me. I would just try a sound and it would generally be the right sound. All those songs came together in a simple way. I didn't fuss with them. I let it happen organically.

"I used what was at my fingertips. I'm not a trained musician. I'm not too interested in arrangements in the traditional sense. I was trying to layer the sounds in a way that suggested certain feelings. But that layering was something I was able to do without much technique, based on my own ear."

When it comes to music, Stech-Homsy prefers an intuitive process. "For some people, the deeper they're able to get into their knowledge of an instrument or of composition, the more they flower," she said. "But for me, it's always been easier to approach something without much background knowledge."

The project was a way of unleashing creativity. "I have to be making things, whatever that may be, whether it's writing, music or painting. I have to be creating or I just am not happy."

She had no ambitions of having these songs released. She shared them only with close friend Sierra Casady (CocoRosie). "I gave her a copy, but told her not to play it for anybody, because I was really shy about it."

Casady was playing the disc when Devendra Banhart came over for a visit. He loved what he heard and approached Stech-Homsy about releasing it on his Gnomonsong label.
Stech-Homsy had to overcome stage fright. "Sometimes we have habits of what's comfortable for us. I began to see that I didn't need to hold myself back out of insecurity or shyness.

"It's still a challenge. I have high standards for myself, which I generally don't meet. But I've gotten increasingly excited about the performing aspect. I like performing for small audiences. I also love opening for people in larger venues. I find that exhilarating. I feel more uncomfortable trying to meet someone's expectations than I do coming out of the blue."

The name Rio En Medio comes from the New Mexico village where she was born. Her father was a painter, performance artist and underground filmmaker. He spent the last years of his life in Hollywood, doing set design. Her mother was a seamstress, costume designer, flamenco dancer and is now a baker.

"They encouraged me to take time to express myself creatively. For people who grow up in the country, there's less of a line drawn between creative time and playtime. You're out there with all this material - sticks and rocks and leaves and you just start putting things together."

During her last year of college, Stech-Homsy went to Russia to work on poetry translations. Upon returning, she turned her attention to music.

Her musical exploration came as part of her relief at being finished with school. For Stech-Homsy, school was a place where she constantly felt the need to measure up against her professors' expectations. "It's a lot of pressure to put on a creative person," she said. "A buildup of creative information started flowing out as soon as I wasn't in that environment."

Stech-Homsy had an interesting time in Russia. "The language itself is deeply musical and inspiring," she said. "Plus, while I was in Russia, I studied with an opera teacher. I wasn't very good, but I did learn some opera songs and got to hear that music in its natural setting. A lot of the Russian classical music that I love is inspired by Russian folk music. All those things led me to starting to write songs."

Unlike her college experience, Stech-Homsy isn't inhibited by having her music judged by others. "I don't find it, so far, to be oppressive in the same way," she said. "There's a difference between what critics say and what the general audience would feel when they're listening to a song. I appreciate getting feedback. It's in a more open-minded world than the academic world of poetry, writing and language."

She has finished making another album. "I just want to keep recording, discovering, making new explorations of the potential of this medium. I find music to have many possible avenues - visual, language and sound. I'm just letting it unfold."