Dar Williams’ Poetic Landscape

Acclaimed singer songwriter Dar Williams is all about self-discovery, the spoken word, and following her muse. She has put her musical talents to work for the environment, founding the Snowden Environmental Trust, and" dedicating fundraising time and energy to environmental issues and arts in the schools."  She's also written a book called The Tofu Tollbooth, which helps travelers find natural food stores and healthy restaurants. Teen Voices' Michelle Golden tracked the songstress down to find out more about her musical journey towards self-discovery and expression.

Teen Voices (TV): What do you love most about creating music?

Williams: That moment of discovery. I love when I think of the perfect note in my head when I'm performing and then I hear it come out of my mouth -- one percent of the time exactly the way I wanted it to sound.

TV: How do you think you have impacted or changed the world with your music?

Williams: Poetry is good for democracy. I think it makes people stop and think about thing more than buying and selling. I think it makes us think more about where things come from and where they're going in terms of time and space. I put myself in that group of people who consider that to be important. I want to keep that as part of our identity "“ to create poetry and a poetic landscape for who we are.

TV: What inspired you to become a musician?

Williams: My parents believed that musicians and teachers were probably some of the most important people you could meet. One of my sisters became a teacher and I became a musician, so I don't think there was any coincidence there. When I was a freshman in college, a career counselor told me, "You think on your feet. You like to put ideas together. You like to generate ideas. You're creative and musical. You could be a professional musician." I remember just saying, "Well, that's nice. But I guess I'll just listen to a lot of CDs and be a playwright." I think when the time came and I found myself drawn more and more into this musical world, I remembered that this was pointed out to me. During my junior year of high school, I would miss lunch and go to a music class. I think I had to be reminded that this was my passion.

TV: What kind of music grabs you?

Williams: I would play my guitar at camp talent shows and around the campfire. I always had my guitar and that sort of populist thing of grabbing my guitar and singing with it. My father had two record collections on either side of the TV in the living room. Our family was basically about the Bs and the Cs. The Birds, Judy Collins, The Beatles, Bob Dylan. There was a belief that this music was important to who we were culturally. There was this real belief that this was the music that was important. The Beatles allowed themselves to evolve so much artistically and culturally. My father's classical collection was often in rotation. He would be working in the basement and he had a special speaker down there where he would play his classical albums. I would hear him singing from down in the basement. Classical music was another big thing.
TV: What advice do you have for teen girls who aspire to get involved with the music industry?

Williams: I never had much of an industry career because I was a part of a scene, which seems more social to me. No one told me that in order to find your audience you needed to alter your appearance. Sometimes they would say, "You need a better guitar" or "You need to work on your diction," but it was always about the music. I was very lucky that way. I was an English major and I think that analyzing poems is at some points extremely valuable, and I think that not analyzing poems at a certain point is also extremely valuable. Just letting yourself experience poetry. They were both important to me. I would say find a diverse sounding board "“ not just one friend or one boyfriend or girlfriend or sibling. See if you can find a few people who will listen to you. In general find your allies. Just keep on writing. At a certain point you also have to figure out what listening to yourself means. Developing your inner quality control, your inner writer, and your outer scene were all important to me.

TV: Who has been a role model throughout it all?

Williams: My parents supporting what I do and accepting what I do is very important and was very important to me. My sisters, when I was starting out, would stuff $20 bills in my pocket and wish me good luck. Family support made a big difference.

Paul Simon -- I always felt that everything he wrote was important to him, and that he had to write it. People who played in train stations, open mics, sat on the green barefoot and played were all role models for me.

TV: Tell us about a defining moment in your life when you realized that you wanted music to be such a big part of it.

Williams: At one point, I almost wanted to quit and that very moment that I almost decided to quit, I realized that I had more perseverance, more ups and downs, and still stuck with it, than any other thing in my life. And so I decided to stick with it. Life is a road, you know. I just went where the road took me and it might take me somewhere else down the line.

Photo courtesy of Dar Williams