Articles
Interview with Helen Trevillion
Helen Trevillion, an astonishingly young master composer of beautiful Goth-ethereal music and founder of Faefly Records, conducted this interview with Queenie for Faefly's webzine.
Poetic, honest and uplifting, the music of independent artist and producer Queenie has a unique spirit that is rarely found in the commercial mainstream.
I first learned of this remarkable lady’s work two years ago, after an online acquaintance dropped her name into the middle of a conversation; apparently, this artist’s music and mine had a few traits in common. Well! Always the curious one, I scurried off into the ever-faithful Internet Realms in search of this supposedly kindred music, and, sure enough, my trusty iTunes search bar led me to a charming little song called ‘Dream of Flight’. Now, after throwing it on repeat and listening happily to it for half a day, I am thoroughly ashamed to admit that my usual sieve-brain kicked in and somehow I never actually followed up this discovery until two years later on an inexplicable whim. Needless to say, I’m glad I did — Queenie’s exquisite songwriting deserves more than a single fleeting glance; the lyrics alone hold enough layers to keep your imagination from tiring, while delicate melodies glide effortlessly over beautifully crafted piano lines, and Queenie’s voice itself is ethereal with a unique character and grace.
Queenie is not only an inspiring artist but also a kind and genuine soul, who through her passion and openness actively contributes to the nurturing and encouraging environment that has blossomed within the internet’s independent music community.
Her intelligent and well thought-out approaches to what she does will no doubt serve as a glimmer of hope and encouragement to aspiring DIY artists. With that in mind, it is my great pleasure to now present a miniature Queenie grill (the first of many, perhaps?) in order that these little gems of insight may be consumed by the curious and the needy…
.~♥~.
FZ: I realise questions like this can be a little vague and difficult to answer, but how many years, approximately, have you been making and producing your own music?
QUEENIE: I have been interested in music for as long as I can remember. At about age four I started playing the piano. I started formal lessons at age six. Being a part of the community children’s choir taught me how to harmonize. I often chose to be an alto instead of a soprano (my true range) just so I could sing the harmonies that ran along the melodic lines to figure them out. Harmony fascinated me back then and still does today. I picked up the guitar at about age fifteen, but I had been writing songs since age twelve.
I became a producer by default by producing my first CD, QUEENIE, out of my bedroom closet. I truly knew nothing besides Record and Play at that point, so my methods were primitive and unfortunate. My opinion of the CD remains that the songwriting is quality but QUEENIE’s audio just plain sucks. Nevertheless, people gravitated so much to particular songs on the album that it became a number one hit on many of the big online music distributors at the time. I’ve made a great deal of money from that album and still continue to do so. I have been very fortunate.
FZ: Did you have a goal in mind for establishing yourself as an independent artist when you first started out, or were you just, as many musicians would say, making music because making music was a part of you?
QUEENIE: I badly wanted to be signed when I was young. I truly thought that a big label had all the answers, that they would help me create a better sound, and were truly interested in promoting good music. It was not until I was older that I realized that a traditional label deal would have meant the certain destruction of my music. A handful of my contemporaries at the time were signed — Michelle Branch became successful, but others had their music altered and shoved aside for the top acts and became bitter and depressed has-beens as a result. Frighteningly, I flirted with signing to a major shortly before I released QUEENIE on my own.
FZ: You have been compared to Enya, and the comparison seems apt, although clearly you have developed a style that is very much your own - who/what would you say have been your biggest influences and inspirations so far in your projects?
QUEENIE: Happy Rhodes has a huge influence — she’s 100 percent talent and her voice is incredible. My musical training influences me: I went to music University, so I find elements of Classicism creeping in all the time. I was actually very frustrated by the Lord of the Rings soundtracks, for me they were too Wagnerian/Romantic in style and not Celtic enough. So I tend to overanalyze music and much of it displeases me because I think too much about it.
FZ: Your music seems multi-layered and multi-sensory in many ways. Is there a particular vision that you want to convey with your music?
QUEENIE: I seek to possess the music that plays in my dreams. I hear a great deal of music when I dream, so each dream, no matter how ridiculous, tends to be “scored” with its own accompaniment. Thanks to my training, I’ve occasionally been able to snatch a tune from my dream if I wake up right in the middle of it. Several songs have come to me this way, such as Dream of Flight, The Sad Letter, and Voice In My Head.
FZ: What made you decide to take the 100% independent approach to making and selling your music? Was it a concrete decision or, again, did it just sort of happen that way?
QUEENIE: I did choose to become 100% independent after the weird runaway success of QUEENIE. CD Baby was doing a ton to improve their service at the time and snagged a deal with iTunes. I knew a good thing when I saw it and knew then that I would never sign a traditional label deal. In the future, the success of a musician will depend on how great and lasting individual songs are, not upon the temporary success of an album. This is due to iTunes and 99 cent downloads taking over the market — to have success in the future, you will have to be able to write and produce a great song. Getting signed is out of the question: the labels are dying and they just want to eat you alive anyway. My instinct is the more good songs one has, the better.
FZ: What would you say have been the main difficulties/barriers in the independent, DIY music route for you?
QUEENIE: My problem is overcoming the urge to do every single thing myself, from programming my website to producing my music. One of the best things I have learned is to ask others for help. Even if one has to pay for it, it makes sense for me to hire outside instrumentalists, producers, and designers because I am finally admitting I should not do it all.
FZ: Do you feel that the artistic freedom outweighs any difficulties you may have come up against?
QUEENIE: I would be miserable without my freedom to create. In my teens and early 20s, I had real trouble expressing my creativity and as a result became severely depressed. As an adult, I am a thousand times happier because I create all the time for no reason at all. For me, I must either express myself through art forms or wither away. Our society is so obsessed with productivity that the artist is forced to feel he must make money by generating a “product”. Sometimes music is just music, it is a nice way of expressing yourself and there is no benefit besides that short moment of empathy or joy someone had listening to it.
FZ: What have you found to be the most successful ways to promote your music?
QUEENIE: Live shows have never been great successes for me, so I rarely play out. My website, QUEENIEMUSIC.COM, has been my number one way of promoting myself and selling music. I suggest to every indie artist that he/she gets a website with a unique domain name. You simply have to have a website nowadays. I have tried to make it ridiculously easy to buy my CD from the site in various forms, but now my challenge is to make an MP3 download store that can compete with the heavy-hitters. One pitfall of many artist sites is that they don’t make it very clear how to buy or download the CDs.
FZ: Did you have a target audience in mind from the start, or have you been surprised in some ways by the niche groups that your music has attracted?
QUEENIE: I’m most surprised that people in countries all over the world listen to my music. The Middle East, South America, China — it’s nuts. My listener base is 65-70 percent older males, that surprises me. As for whom I appeal to, I do what I like and let the chips fall where they may. I tend to be popular among people who like RPGs, anime and manga, and Gothic culture. Thank goodness for the Goths, they are my favorite segment of people in this old World and the only segment of society where I’ve ever felt I fit in or wanted to, for that matter. The Internet Age has helped me achieve more than I had ever dreamed was possible with very little money; I am lucky to have fans almost everywhere in the world.
.~♥~.