8 Questions With William Fitzsimmons

Shelley Bowers – August 5, 2010

Illinois based troubadour William Fitzsimmons has a penchant for turning personal heartbreak into beauty. His hauntingly honest and stirring folk, in which he chronicles the pain of a recent divorce, will be featured this Saturday August 7th live at the Doug Fir Lounge.

1. After experiencing your own personal pain, many fans appreciate the
stunning vulnerability of your songs. How has your musical pursuits,
from writing and recording to eventually touring, affected your own
grieving and healing process?

I’ve actually been thinking about that question quite a bit lately, mainly as music has slowly, albeit wonderfully, taken up the great majority of my time and work over the past few years.  I think the answer rather depends on how you approach the activity and behavior of being a touring musician and writer.  On the one hand, such freedom, creative outlets, and isolative time can be a near perfect milieu for addressing personal matters that need mending.  However, the busyness, self-focus and indulgence can also serve as an ideal distraction from ever tending to one’s own mistakes, struggles, past, etc…  For me I’ve had to learn to abandon the latter for the sake of embracing the former.  Touring, writing, and recording were from time to time escapism for me, but I’ve been able to break those patterns and now actually use the time to healthily introspect and connect with others.  So while I’ve certainly extending the grieving and healing process longer than perhaps it should have been, the lessons I learned from those missteps have been myriad.

2. I see that you are a licensed therapist. What has compelled you to
pursue such a career? Do you feel that your music can act as a kind of
therapy to those who can relate to its message?

Well I suppose the old adage about hiding a tree in the forest is rather true in terms of the factors which lead me into the psychology/psychotherapy realm.  I don’t want to say I had the most unusual upbringing that anyone has ever had, because of course I haven’t.  But it’s still rather unique and it gave me a certain set of proclivities and obstacles which I was in dire need of addressing at some point in my life.  I think for most people that enter the mental health field, if they’re being totally honest, have to admit that at least a small part of that desire is based in a compulsion to mend or better understand one’s self first.  

Music can definitely be an extremely therapeutic endeavor, both for the listener and the maker.  But whereas probably most artists might utilize that only as a serendipitous side effect of their song writing, I embrace that as the primary goal when I set out to make a song.  I don’t believe that music is ever meant to be the entire approach to dealing with a tumultuous point in your life, but it is one of the most salient and powerful methods we have for coping and mending.

3. Your upbringing was obviously very unique as you were raised by two
blind musicians. In what ways has your fathers love for classical
music influenced you as a folk artist?

Honestly it was really my mother’s music that made the biggest impression on me growing up, and it is still the music that has stayed with me even till today.  I loved my father’s music, and I’m sure that it definitely has had a continued effect on me, but there was something very compelling about the lyrical and confessional focus in that 60’s folk music that she listened to daily which I think probably has been one of the biggest influences on both the content and the style in which I most often write.

4. Your most recent record, Derivatives, revisits several tracks from
your acclaimed 2009 release The Sparrow and the Crow. What inspired
you to take your music down this intriguing yet nontraditional path?

I wish I had a very deep and intriguing tale about how the remix record came to be, or that my involvement in it was more than what it was, but really I was more of a editor of that record than a contributor.  It was something I never would have wanted for my music, not that I don’t have a great deal of respect for that genre, because I do.  But I never would have thought songs with such a disclosing and personal quality would work in that style.  But during a European tour last year, a friend sent me several remixes of the ‘Sparrow’ songs that really blew me away and let me see that more than just differences in tempo and arrangement, it brought out completely different affectivity and emotionality than were in the previous recordings.  I thought it would be an interesting experiment to see if other people would have the same or similar reactions to the songs, and I’ve been very pleased with how those songs have met people.  But it’s also something I probably wouldn’t elect to do again.  It was a rewarding exercise to allow the songs to be stretched, but I don’t want to repeat steps or tread the same ground.  

5. How do you attempt to balance the personal nature of your music
with the demands of a career within the music industry?

I was extremely fortunate that my introduction into this field was done with music that had no consideration for wanting to have a career in music.  I made songs as nothing more than an exercise to empty out some unfinished business from my past that was hindering my progress and practice as a therapist.  So honestly there hasn’t really been any need to balance those often problematic demands at all.  I made the commitment when I decided I would do this full time a few years ago that I would make music that could actually help people and address things that I felt were being ignored or perhaps were not being dealt with in a manner which they needed to be.  In that sense, I see myself as being still more of a therapist than anything else.  And so long as that remains my practice, I’m able to write things without thought of whether or not they might fit neatly into whatever form anyone else thinks they should.

6. What has been on your radio lately as you drive from city to city?
Any particular bands, podcasts, books on tape, etc?

I don’t always keep up as well as I should with new music, I have a penchant for revisiting songs and records which have been with me for some time, especially when I’m touring.  Nick Drake, Elliott Smith, James Taylor, Aimee Mann and the like are usual suspects.   I also almost always try to bring along a few books whenever there’s a moment to do some reading, which can be sometimes difficult to find.  Lately I’ve been reading Kafka.  Basically anything that I skipped over in high school when I was playing music instead of doing the studying I was meant to be doing.

7. What has your experience been like in Portland on previous tours?
Any favorite cities to pass through?

The Pacific Northwest really is one of my favorite spots on tour, and Portland in particular.  There’s something about the atmosphere there which I find myself very drawn to and I’m very comfortable there.  It’s a city where I’ve felt very well treated in, in the past, so it’s definitely a bright spot any chance I can get there.  

8. What will fans be able to expect from your live performance this
time around?

As much as I love playing solo shows, in recent time I thought it was appropriate to be more open to developing the songs with others on stage as well.  This tour has been a 2 and 3 piece set up, which I think works very well with these songs.  It gives more life than perhaps you get when it’s only one instrument, but it’s not so big or over-arranged that you lose the intimacy of the performance.  Above anything, though, I want every show I ever play to be about connection; about having a real experience with the songs and with every person that’s there with us.  People work too hard and their time is too valuable to not give everything of yourself in a performance.  So I endeavor at every show to give everything I have to ensuring the words and melodies are communicated with the same salience and potency they had the moment they were first written.  If I ever give up on that notion, I would have no right or reason to be playing music.