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| Ann
McWilliams: Hard Work, Passion and ENERGY!
(Photo credit: Steve Griffy) |
Ann
McWilliams doesn’t reveal much about herself on
the surface. Very little biographical material
appears on any of the several Web sites which bear
her name and music.
“I don’t have much insight on anything
other than what I do,” she says.
It’s a good 45 minutes into a conversation
before she mentions the fact that the drummer in
her band, David Pleiss, also happens to be her
husband. It takes an hour of chat to reveal the
fact that she recently suffered and completely
recovered from a very serious illness.
But if she’s not much into talking about
herself, her music and actions speak loudly about
her nature as a musician, local music advocate and
radio show host.
“I’m multitasking like crazy right now,”
she observes.
Indeed. Begin with her second CD, Sister
Luna and the Diamond Stars, just released. It’s a
brilliantly-written, expertly-played collection of
songs about the nature of persevering and emerging
from problems, if not triumphantly, then at least
peacefully.
The album chugs along with plenty of hooks
and melodies, the kind that bury themselves in
your head after a few listenings. It’s not
especially heavy, but it’s a long way from the
folk music McWilliams was once and, to some
degree, continues to be identified
with.
“I’m still sort of thought of as a folk
artist, but we’ve been doing rock and roll for a
couple years now,” she says. “We like to think of
ourselves as a very hooky, hard-hitting band. If
you come see us, you’re going to see some rock and
roll.”
She doesn’t reject her folksy roots by any
means; it’s just that the sound has deepened and
matured. “I love the folk genre,” she says.
“People go, ‘Aren’t you that folk artist?’ And, I
mean, I’m glad to be known as anything at all, you
know, but I’d rather be known as Ann who does good
music on stage.”
Part of providing good music means lots of
positive enthusiasm, which McWilliams has in
abundance. “I’ve just discovered how to write
hooks,” she says, no irony in her
voice.
That enthusiasm comes in large part from
her eight-year collaboration with her husband. “I
don’t want our relationship to become the focus of
attention, but we just happen to work together
very well. We defuse each other in a very peculiar
way. We don’t have any creative
tension.”
A lack of tension makes the duo prolific
songwriters. McWilliams and Pleiss put together
the complex material on Sister Luna in a month of
50-50 effort. Pleiss writes the lyrics and
McWilliams writes the melodies.
Quickly.
“With the new album, we were like, ‘OK,
let’s try and write a song this morning,’”
McWilliams says. “We don’t even try and analyze it
or think about it. It just comes out. I pretty
much write my songs in 15 minutes. If I could just
sit and write songs all day, I’d probably have 10
songs.”
Keeping busy is another element in
McWilliams’ success. When she’s not playing club
dates or giving music lessons, she’s working with
Web sites and her radio show.
“Music is a motivator in every sense of the
word. I see people open up and come alive when I
spend a half-hour [music lesson] with them. It’s a
very small level. Music has been a great motivator
for me. If I could spend my time doing art therapy
in hospitals or whatever, I’d be happy.
“Right now, I’m putting everything behind
this CD,” she says. “And I’m also putting
everything behind creating a mechanism that helps
people. I just want to do something that’s
positive, that’s meaningful, that moves. I just
don’t want to be stagnant.”
Her radio show, The City of Music Radio
Hour, airs on WKLU-FM (101.9) at 8 p.m. Tuesdays.
It’s featured such local artists as Wonderdrug,
Jennie DeVoe, Meme “and people I’ve never heard of
in my life,” McWilliams says.
“If they send it in, and it’s quality,
we’ll play it. We are always looking for good,
quality material, and we’ll play it.
“We’re out to support people who are being
productive about what they’re doing. If they’re
going to spend thousands of dollars putting
together quality product and packaging — and it’s
good — we want to support it. I want to build it
up.”
She said, “I don’t know why we all can’t be
winners. We should be building bridges to each
other and to the artists that are coming up.
Everyone can be a winner. It all comes down to
their personal plan.”
She sees the radio show as a platform for
independent music. “Our goal is to make that radio
hour sound as good as any hour on any other
station at any other time. It’s multigenre in
nature; we just look for quality. We put our
program together like you’d put a setlist together
in a show. We mix it up. When you mix it up, it’s
like cleaning the palette and you can really
appreciate what you’re hearing.”
Acts whose music has been featured on The
City of Music Radio Hour have played subsequent
Thursday night live gigs at Rock Lobster, giving
people a chance to patronize the local artist on
the show.
Cityofmusic.com and Artistworks.com also
consume much of her remaining time.
Cityofmusic.com seeks to be an organizing and
advocacy group for musicians to exchange ideas and
to network with each other. “It’s an attempt to
incite some energy and synergy and cooperation,”
McWilliams says. “The greatest thing I could be
able to say is that because of my efforts and my
radio show, an artist sold 5,000 CDs.”
Artistworks.com is a charity that seeks to aid
people through music education and
therapy.
“It’s important that people see art as a
tool to connect with each other,” she notes.
“We’re trying to create a mechanism through which
this kind of work can be done.”
By working on
these causes, as well as her musicianship,
McWilliams has become a leader in the local music
community.
An Indianapolis native and Lawrence Central
graduate, McWilliams played French horn for 15
years. While at DePauw University, she made a
decision to buy herself a guitar for her birthday
and teach herself to play in folk groups, one of
which featured future Channel 6 reporter Vickie
Duncan.
She found local success as a member of the
group Plaid Descent for four years. The group
recorded three albums and played hundreds of gigs
before breaking up.
In collaboration with Pleiss she recorded
an album, Lush, in 1999 and recruited like-minded
musicians to create a punchy, pop-driven
sound.
With her radio show and Web sites,
McWilliams is trying to give opportunity and
guidance to artists. “Let’s talk about reality,”
she says. “The reality is that it’s a one in a
million chance you’re going to get signed, No. 1.
No. 2, that you’re going to get a decent deal. No.
3, that they’re not just going to rook you. Only 2
percent of people in the music business make any
sort of money at the end of the day. We need to
create different resources. We need to put it more
in balance. If I sell 6,000 CDs, that’s $50,000 in
my pocket, and I’ll tell you what, I’ll do another
one. If we want to create a culture of art here,
we just need to work together in cooperation. And
hold to quality.”
McWilliams says that in order for negative
perceptions about independent music to change,
local artists must stop complaining and start
working. “It’s all about providing the
opportunity. If people are proactive and willing
to work, it can happen.”
McWilliams is playing a series of concerts
in connection with the release of Sister
Luna and the Diamond Stars, which is available
at most local music retailers. For a complete
list of McWilliams’ shows, or for
more information on her projects, check
out www.amcwilliams.com
or http://www.cityofmusic.com/.
shammer@nuvo.net
