Frances Quinlan AMA

Frances Quinlan: That's really kind of you to say, thank you!

My writing process is a bit on the messy side and heavily lyrically edited by the time it's recorded-- I tend to pull a fair amount from my journals; they're full of disjointed, jotted thoughts, a lot of lines that haven't yet found their place---"Went to LA" I think is the longest I've ever taken so far on a song, started working on that one around late 2013, the lyrics certainly changed a bit since recording it in 2017-"Now that I'm Back" was significantly quicker, but still took a few months to shape the lyrics how I wanted them. Occasionally a song happens fast---"How You Got Your Limp" from the Hop Along album Bark Your Head... that one was very quick---but it's rare.

Sometimes, often maybe, I find myself a different person at the end of a song than when I started. It's messy.

Quinlan: Hey, thank you!

Favorite painting in history?? I can't! Here are some great painters: Anselm Kiefer, Julie Mehretu, Corot, Constable, Poussin, Keith Haring, any painting of the outdoors by Van Gogh, Joan Mitchell, Goya...Too many to list!

I miss doing really large paintings, I used to paint in oil on wood panels that I would arrange in a big grid, they tended to be around 6'x7', something like that--someday would love to work big like that again--but then someone has to live with them so there's that...

Quinlan: I love that y'all attend concerts together, that's the best!

As far as cover designs, it's different for every album- For Hop Along's Painted Shut, I knew I wanted to do a big collage of the ink paintings of fruit I'd been doing for a summer, that I knew pretty early on in recording the album---for Get Disowned I'd had a crazy idea of making a "window book" of trees, it had 6 panels I think, spent the summer of 2011 drawing them in my hot, stuffy, third story room in West Philly --but we realized soon after how costly it would actually be to execute this cockamamie idea and I was so bummed--it was my brother Mark's (drummer of HA) idea that I just photograph one of the windows, which I did on top of a manilla envelope--at the time I remember being so annoyed with this proposal, but of course he was right and I'm really happy with how it turned out. for Bark Your Head Off, Dog, I didn't know I'd end up using that tiny watercolor as the cover, I was just hanging out on our tour manager's dad's deck in Georgia--it just happened to work, one of those wonderful happy accidents. The solo record, that was one of the more deliberate "designs," I probably have a better sense of limitation now and what is expected, I just tried to work with both compromise and risk in mind. Figured since it was solo it had better be a portrait---the style was inspired by both Joni Mitchell's (someone just told me it's her birthday!) "Clouds" and Frank Ocean's "Blonde"-- I would honestly love to hear your sister's interpretation of those lyrics, I really enjoy hearing where lyrics lead people's thoughts--also I once really bummed someone out telling them ideas I had for certain songs, so I try to avoid that... And I love Pittsburgh! Lots of great friends there, I'm sure I'll be back :)

Quinlan: That's such an encouraging thing to read, thank you! I don't want to speak for everyone in Hop Along, but I think we do all tend to enjoy playing our newest material the most, it just tends to be the most exciting--"Somewhere a Judge" is a fun one for all of us I think, "he Knock" comes to mind too--we stopped playing "Laments" for a bit, I needed a break from it (it's the oldest song I've written that we play), but we brought that one back out for a few shows last year and then I remembered how much of a good time it is to lose it and the end :D

Quinlan: Yes!! I am a longtime fan of Belle & Sebastian-- heard "If You're Feeling Sinister" when I was 17, hugely impactful album for me--definitely had that song in particular in mind when we put together the intro of "Piltdown Man"--love that you caught it!

Quinlan: Heya, I kind of think Valentine's Day is whack--it doesn't have much to do with food, so that loses me right off the bat. And in school it was for the most part a bummer, the opportunity to exclude others, doesn't seem necessary... But I can be a wet blanket, don't listen to me.

I will say this: on the day AFTER Valentine's Day candy is super cheap, that's tight.

Quinlan: Hey, thank you! I can't imagine not including lyrics, possibly it's the narcissist in me- but they are the part of any song that I likely spend the most time on, lots of editing and some agonizing---I also love reading other songwriters' lyrics- they're so different when read on the page than they sound in their recorded versions, they can read like poems and that's amazing to me, that words can transform greatly just by how they are absorbed, through sight or sound...

Quinlan: Thank you! The most fun for me tends to happen during adventurous collaborations--- for Freshman Year --"Goose and the Wren" was my first time having someone add cello to a song, that was rad; and I had a ton of fun recording all those folks singing at the end. If I remember correctly half the vocals were recorded at the end of a house show in Roxborough PA, the other half poolside, someone's house in Delaware I think---also "Bride & Groom Hot Air Balloon"- my friend Chris recorded that with me in his basement and I fell in love with the banjo he added.

For Likewise, working with Joe is an absolute blast, I love spitballing wild ideas with him, he is an incredible producer/engineer/musician etc. Can't say enough great things about the guy. "Now that I'm Back" is a favorite as it was our first time getting together for this record specifically--"Carry the Zero" was a blast too and I remember "Your Reply" coming together rather quickly...

Quinlan: Heya! Jackson C. Frank's "Tumble in the Wind" came up on Pandora radio or something in 2013 and I was just absolutely blown away by it. Then I read his story; and I felt like I could feel a great weight of experience in his song, so sad and moving and tired, it just stuck with me--for some reason I wanted to write about him then, it's just such a striking and sad story.

Thank you for your kind words!!

Quinlan: I have a soft spot for that album, we were definitely going through a lot of changes at that time, early 2009--Tyler hadn't yet joined the band when we recorded that, so our friend Joe Baldacci (who also recorded/mixed and mastered it) played bass on the songs that had it, and Dominic Angelella (he has his own project (it's rad), and plays bass for Lucy Dacus, formerly of MeWithoutYou as well) was playing lead guitar--we did used to play all of those songs live, probably up into finishing Get Disowned (2012), but once Tyler and Joe were permanent members of the band it made more and more sense to just solidify the material we worked on as that formation--so live we played more of the songs off of Get Disowned, then Painted Shut, etc.. but maybe one of those songs might come back! Would need to shorten Second Name though, that would take up so much of the set!!

Quinlan: Anger!! Usually, anyway, haha--just gotta slog through it, it ain't pretty, generally.

And that's awesome!! Thank you for your kind words and for coming out to a show!!<3

Quinlan: Hey, I'm weird and don't like most candy! My thing lately (Joe Reinhart inspired this, credit where credit is due) is sticking a back of Reeses pieces in the freezer and having a couple after dinner.

Quinlan: I'll be honest, I hardly every know where a song will end up when I first start it. Generally, a line or small melodic progession strikes me, and I just try to find a way to string some kind of "narrative" out of it (often just playing that one part over and over until something new happens, it can be kind of a slog)---For Hop Along, usually I'll send a skeleton of a loose narrative, a song with at least a verse and chorus, and send that to the band and then we edit and arrange and alter it together. Songs tend to transform quite a bit once that happens, in the most exhilarating and gratifying way. This is the first time that I've had another project besides Hop Along, however there were songs on HA records that would feel pretty complete as they were, maybe needing some slight textures and other instruments, but not needing to be edited and arranged as a band--"Some Grace," "Happy to See Me," "How You Got Your Limp," those were still Hop Along songs to me, just the process of full-band editing was left out--if that makes sense.

Quinlan: I'm still working on that, haha--thank you to your friend for thinking so and to you for writing to me! :)

Quinlan: Dang!! I'm sure I did plenty of things in an ass-backwards fashion, that tends to be my way, I'm not a particularly practical person---but sometimes if I do happen to think about going back into the past to re-do anything, generally that leads me to release that I would ALSO have to re-record a record, and that would drive me absolutely nuts. I'm ok to just try and make peace with how things have gone, I do consider myself fortunate to have had the experiences afforded to me.

See how long that question took to answer? Perfect example.