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Oct 12	Boston, MA	Kennedy's Midtown	7:00pm
Nov 12	Phoenixville, PA	Steel City Coffee House	8:00pm

Unlocking Angela Ortiz

Digging into the mind of the singer-songwriter-pianist, one layer at a time.

What was the first song you ever wrote? The first real, full song was a song that I don't sing anymore called 'Arabian Snowman'. It was sort of a meandering ode to perseverance. It was too long and repetitive - and I don't even remember how it goes. It was silly. I was always writing lyrics and poems when I was little; anti-establishment diatribes written by an 8 year-old. I was a very politically conscious 3rd grader. :0)

Your lyrics are very thoughtful and poignant; what inspires this thoughtfulness in your work? I know people that only listen to lyrics in music, and some people that only listen to music (nice melodies, interesting rhythms). For me, a song is good if the lyrics fit the music perfectly (not just technically perfectly, but mood-wise, too). Both have to work hand in hand with each other. I do draw inspirations from lyricists like Morrissey (he's snarky), Joni Mitchell, Ani DiFranco, Leonard Cohen, and even Sondheim. I like lyrics that are more conversational and talk-y, direct - but also I like lyrics that can have more than one meaning. I like to keep everyone's options open...

Many artists have central preoccupations--themes that, in one way or another, make an appearance in all of their works. Do you feel as though your music possesses one of these common obsessions? I have no idea. Probably. Let's see...I talk about myself a lot. I find myself writing and thinking a lot about why people do or do not change, or righteous people who almost always have chips on their shoulders (and therefore make interesting song subjects). I usually draw from the collection of people that are around me at any given moment. I suppose my theme is always pretty much, "What did I notice today?"

Lyrically, some reviewers have pegged you as the "happy" musician in a genre usually associated with pain and angst. Do you agree with this assessment of your work, or is there really a bitter, ranting side of Angela Ortiz hidden beneath the superficial prettiness? People who know me laughed when they read that review because they were like, "You're the most cynical person on the whole planet!" I think that reviewer was actually referring to the sound of my voice, or the way I deliver the lyrics, and not actually the lyrics themselves. The lyrics themselves are actually not happy at all, with maybe the exception of "Finish What You Started" - which was intended to be uplifting for a specific person. I think most songwriters write about unhappy things most of the time, it just depends on whether they are able to find some kind of resolution within the song (you feel better by the end) or if the song is the resolution itself (I wrote this song to get this off my chest). I'm actually very wary of writing songs that are too depressing, because I think I generally gravitate towards that and that just perpetuates the depression. But on the CD, one song deals with people fucking up their lives over and over again, one deals with a sad, old woman who feels like she was never given a chance in the world, one deals with growing up and realizing you can never go back, another with feeling like no matter what you do you aren't good enough, another with a disappointing lover, another with the Iraq war, etc. The list goes on and on and gets worse and worse.

What made you turn on Morrissey in the song "Steven"? You have sited him as a lyrical influence in past interviews... Yeah, I do really like his lyrics a lot - and The Smiths are a huge musical influence as well. But I think there is such a thing as listening to too much Morrissey. He is so absolutely and completely unbelieving, sardonic and depressing in his outlook on life. And though I totally agree with most of what he's saying most of the time, I had to take a step back and say, "Whoa, this is not going to help me at all." So I wrote that song at a time when I was listening to too much Morrissey, and getting really depressed, and it was fucking up my relationships with people. I'm sure not even Morrissey can be Morrissey all the time. Sometimes he's probably just Steven.

Two people have guessed the correct identity of Steven from the lyrics and both knew it right away. They said they had similar experiences from listening to too much of him, and they eventually had to move on because they were getting too dour. It was nice to know that I'm not the only one...

If you weren't a musician, what would you spend your life doing? Weaving.

If you could tell your audiences one thing about you and your music, what would it be? There are lots of layers, so you might have to dig a little.

www.AngelaOrtiz.com

The Facts

Auto BIO:

It's hard to write about yourself. But the job requires it.

So, let's see.

I grew up in western New York State on a bunch of farmland, and spent most of my time not enjoying the flora and fauna, but up in my room, in front of a tiny electronic keyboard. It was the best.

I went to college in Ithaca, New York for a year, to study classical voice (wobbly opera singing), but decided to move to New York City after a year because I was tired of skiing to and from my classes.

In New York City I went to NYU and got an obligatory college degree in vocal performance (nasal musical theater singing) and set out on auditions to be the next Bernadette Peters. But alas, I haven't the fiery red hair.

All this time I'd been writing my own music and words, safely denying myself the pleasure of singing them out loud, like any good catholic would.

But I stopped going to church and realized that songwriting was the only thing that made sense, so I set to it.

Now I am here, one album later, second one in the works, playing regular shows in New York City, sweating away in front of a piano, writing songs because I can't think of any other way to say anything.

I love music. Genre be damned.

I hope that what I sing means something to someone.

Ta da! A bio.
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3rd Person BIO:

The daughter of two schoolteachers, Angela taught herself to play piano in a house on twenty-four acres of evergreen forest in rural western New York State. Her unique brand of alt-indie piano pop was described by MusicDish.com as, "...right on the edge of jazz and Broadway, but[...]all dressed and ready to go as contemporary pop."

While studying vocal performance at NYU, she discovered that Gilbert and Sullivan wrote some wacky stuff, Puccini wrote songs that were impossibly hard to sing, and Wagner was probably not a very nice man. She also discovered that it was ultimately more fun to compose, so she began writing her own songs during the time that she was supposed to be practicing "Oh, dry the glist'ning tear".

The songs she began to write in hijacked college practice rooms became the foundation for her first album, "All About You"; a recent release from Random Chance Records. Recorded entirely at home, these eleven tracks include collaborations with some of the best musicians on the NYC music scene. The songs deal with everyday issues like disappointment and gratitude, self-doubt and self-indulgence, but mostly they revolve around a burning desire to answer the eternal question, "What's next?"

Now based in New York, Angela has had her music featured NPR, on radio stations all over the USA, Europe, Asia, and Australia, as well as on numerous internet radio stations and podcasts. She is the recipient of the 2006 Mid-Atlantic Songwriters Award, and she performs year-round, playing to packed houses all over the country, and in her native New York. A recent review on TheRedAlert.com states, "If Tori Amos is the standard that all aspiring female piano pop artists will need to live up to, then Ortiz does not have a problem living up to these standards; in fact, she rises above them."

And she's just getting started.

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Boston, and Obama/Biden benefit show! Yesterday

Hi all-First things first: this weekend I'm going to be up in Boston playing at Kennedy's Midtown Lounge, opening for Erica Stenquist. If you or anyone you know is in the Bean Town area, please stop ...

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