Quick Q and A with Barbara Kessler
 by Kathy S-B  ·  20 March 2007

Who were your early influences? Do you remember one moment in time that led you to following the path of being a singer / songwriter?

I always say my big sister’s music collection was my earliest influence. Her 45’s, and then the LP’s when she went off to college. That and the radio. So there was a wide range of stuff, the pop, rock, folk-rock of the time. It was the day of the Seventies Singer-Songwriter: Jackson Browne, James Taylor, Dan Fogelberg, and also of progressive FM radio — you’d hear the coolest mix of stuff all presented side by side, not all compartmentalized and demographically-targeted like nowadays.

Tell us how you got involved with the Mothers Helping Mothers project? Were you responsible for gathering together the great talent on that recording?

Yes, I compiled the songs from that eclectic group of women, all of whom were generous enough to donate their song to the record and the cause. Tim Mason (from Club Passim, among other things) was planning on putting on a Mother’s Day benefit concert to benefit Project Hope in Dorchester, and I mentioned to him that I had been dreaming up a sort of “mix-tape for moms” and he suggested we tie the events together. It motivated me to actually go ahead and create the compilation. I was a new-ish mom at the time, and I was interested in how other songwriter-moms expressed their parenting perspectives or maternal feelings through their songs — not just the standard sort of new baby lullaby — and thought other people might be too.

And how did you get started in writing music for Sony Playstation games? How does that process work? How does one go about writing music for a game?

I was asked to submit a demo for a bid on a possible job, a work-for-hire type situation for a very specific use in a game being developed. In my work writing and collaborating on spec songs for TV, I’ve gotten some experience in creating music for particular scenes, or with a dramatic element in mind. It’s fun! I haven’t always been very prolific or focused in creating my own material, and I find working within parameters a refreshing challenge, and it actually has been good at keeping my hand in creating “potential Barbara Kessler album songs,” even though I haven’t recorded one in — well, a long time!

Any plans for a new recording in your future? And more live gigs?

I haven’t been touring at all or even really playing out very much locally since my second daughter was born 5 years ago, but I do hope to record this growing batch of songs I have kicking around. And I have looked back fondly on all the gigs I did for all those years. It’s a gift to be able to connect to an intimate audience, sharing a bit of your perspective up on the stage. I have loved keeping my hand in the writing, and even starting to do a little producing with all the TV placements over these past few years. I’ve found that while it’s easy to pass up the touring life to be home with my kids, I am not able to give up creating new music. It’s great to still have an audience somewhere out there — even if it’s an unwitting one hearing my song floating up in the background of some TV drama or Role Playing Game!