Exposed Vocals: How did you hear about Exposed Vocals? What made you
decide
> to sign up?
>
>
>
> Draff: Exposed Vocals followed me on Twitter and messaged me that they
were interested in doing an interview.
>
>
>
> Exposed Vocals: So tell us your story. Where did you grow up? What made
you
> decide to become an artist?
>
>
>
> Draff: I grew up in State College, Pennsylvania, where I had the freedom
and encouragement to explore music from a young age. I was putting
together bands and writing songs from about the age of 12. I don’t think
I ever decided to do it; music just dwelled in me and became my vehicle
for expression.
>
>
>
> Exposed Vocals: How did you come up with that name? What was your
inspiration behind it?
>
>
>
> Draff: It’s two letters of my first name, Andrew, and three of my last
name, Pfaff. The word “draff” literally means dregs or refuse, and I
think it’s used in particular as the discarded husks of grains used in
brewing. It applies to my original music in that I have a very full and
productive career as a music educator and bassist, as well as being a
father and husband. This original creative output is a kind of “draff” or
by-product of all of that work.
>
> Exposed Vocals: What do you think about online music sharing? Do you
ever
> give your music away for free? Why?
>
>
>
> Draff: Obviously the industry is evolving. I often wonder if many of
the present concerns regarding online music sharing mirror conversations
that must have happened at the dawn of recorded music. We can easily
forget there was a time, not all that long ago really, when the only way
to hear music was to be in the presence of a live performance.
Phonographic cylinders changed that for the very first time and the world
has never been the same since. I wonder what mixed feelings musicians at
that time must have had.
Exploitation of musicians through record contracts is, of course, well
documented. Famous musicians are the poorest celebrities, generally, and
probably always have been. Mozart died penniless.
So do I give away music for free? It’s hard enough to get people to want
brand new music from unknown artists even for free. They will need to
experience it for free before they will be willing to pay for it. Just my
two cents.
>
> Exposed Vocals: Since everyone was a start-up once, can you give any
smaller or local bands or artists looking to get gigs and airplay some tips?
>
> Draff: The nature of opportunity is unpredictable. My career as a
bassist taught me that every contact is potentially the life-changing fork
in the road. Meet lots of people and value every contact. You may hear
some say that so-and-so was “in the right place at the right time.”
The part that’s left off of that idea is that usually, an ambitious
artist makes their own luck by identifying the “right place” and then
being there A LOT, so that maybe they will raise their chances of being
there at the “right time.”
>
>
>
> Exposed Vocals: Do you ever make mistakes during performances? How do
you
> handle that?
>
>
>
> Draff: Mistakes are human. Now more than ever, when recordings can be so
perfect, a live music performance should be a place to embrace the beauty
and humanity of imperfection. Mistakes can signal how deeply invested we
are in our art, show us another direction, lead to a
productive new idea, or help us connect to our audience more.
Mistakes are also a matter of degree. There can be large mistakes and
small ones. Enough experience makes virtually all mistakes small, and
your performance recovers with your audience barely noticing, if at all.
>
>
>
> Exposed Vocals: Do you tour? Anything interesting happen on tour that
you
> think our readers would enjoy hearing about?
>
>
>
> Draff: I’ve toured as a sideman but never as a leader. I can’t think of
any particularly wild “road stories” but I do recall vividly when I first
moved to New York City but drove back to the Philly area on
weekends to make enough money to live playing jobs there. I would sleep
in my car, or sometimes a youth hostel, to save money. It was a very
hand-to-mouth existence.
>
>
>
> Exposed Vocals: Where do you usually gather songwriting inspiration?
What
> is your usual songwriting process?
>
>
>
> Draff: I’m not a disciplined songwriter. I don’t sit down and make
myself crank things out on a schedule. Usually lyrics and a main
melodic idea will happen together, and then it’s a matter of finishing the
lyrics, and the music is written to that. Lyrics are hard for me. Music,
by comparison, is easy, like turning on a faucet.
>
> Exposed Vocals: Do you have a band website? What online platforms do you
use to share your music?
>
>
>
> Draff: My band website is draff.andrewpfaff.com. I’m also on iTunes,
Spotify, Google Play, Amazon, the usual stuff.
>
> Exposed Vocals: What are some really embarrassing songs that we might
find
> on your mp3 player?
>
>
>
> Draff: It might be confusing to find “Carribean Queen” by Billy Ocean or
“Pour Some Sugar On Me” by Def Leppard on my iTunes, but I constantly have
to do homework on a very wide variety of music for my bass playing jobs.
I need to be able to play tunes requested for a job without the benefit of
rehearsal or even a soundcheck. You might call it “music by the pound.”
>
> Exposed Vocals: If you were given half a million dollars and a year off,
what would you do? How would you spend it?
>
>
>
> Draff: I’d be the most boring recipient of a half-million bucks you ever
met. I’d pay off my house and save the rest for retirement. The
freedom of not having a mortgage payment anymore might give me more
freedom to produce and promote my original work, however.
>
> Exposed Vocals: Any planned studio upgrades? What are you working with
now?
>
>
>
> Draff: I recorded my album The Knocks with an Apogee Duet interface into
a MacBook Pro running Logic 9. I used a Michael Joly modified Oktava
MK319 for all the vocals, and an Oktava 012 for acoustic guitar. Bass ran
direct and through an amp miked with a Shure SM57.
All effects and mixing were “in the box” using mostly Waves plugins. It’s
a pretty stable setup and I’m happy with it for now.
>
> Exposed Vocals: How do you find ways to promote your music? What works
best
> for you?
>
>
>
> Draff: I would not consider myself an expert at this by any means. I’m
researching music blogs via Hype Machine, a music blog aggregator, to try
to target bloggers who’d be most inclined to want to listen to and respond
to what I have to offer.
>
> Exposed Vocals: If you could perform anywhere and with any artists (Dead
or
> Alive) where and who would it be with? Why?
>
>
>
> Draff: I used to want to perform with some of my heroes. In fact I
remember reading a piece in a magazine about Colin Moulding of XTC. I
believe the band was on some kind of a hiatus at that point and he was
quoted as saying something like he doesn’t have people to jam with. I
must have been 20 years old at the time and completely clueless, but I
wrote him a letter, care of Virgin Records, to say I’d come out and jam!
>
> Exposed Vocals: So, what’s next? Any new upcoming projects that you
want
> to
> talk about?
>
>
>
> Draff: There are songs in various states of completion which I will pull
together at some point, but I’m so involved in the push to get my
current album heard that I haven’t made a timeline yet for the next product.
>
> Exposed Vocals: If you weren’t making music, what would you be doing?
>
>
>
> Draff: I can’t imagine a life without making music and don’t want to.
>
> Exposed Vocals: Do you remember buying your first album? Who was it?
What
> was going through your head?
>
>
>
> Draff: I remember my parents giving me a record player, and my dad
checking out a random half dozen records from the library for me, to get
me started. One happened to be Aerosmith’s Draw the Line album — the
one with the Hirschfeld line caricature on the cover. I spent all of my
time chasing sounds after that. The first 45 I bought was Another One
Bites The Dust by Queen. I remember the B side was Don’t Try Suicide.
>
> Exposed Vocals: How do you juggle the rest of your responsibilities
while
> trying to stay ahead in your music life?
>
>
>
> Draff: Since there’s never enough time for everything, I’ve had to learn
to know when to stop devoting myself to something for a while. My full
time day job is as a public school music teacher, and as a teacher, I
could always do my job better and more thoroughly. There are not enough
hours in the day to implement all the things I can think of to make my
teaching better. In some cases learning to live with mediocrity or
“good enough” is essential.
>
> Exposed Vocals: What should fans look forward to in 2016?
>
>
>
> Draff: The increased popularity of my new album, for one, we hope.
Also, the reaction from my musician friends has been overwhelmingly
positive and heartwarming, and these are some people I respect very
much. I have no current plans to play live but I do not rule out the
possibility if the right conditions and people fall into place.
>