Mary Fahl to play in Whippany on Sept. 20
Singer-songwriter Mary Fahl has a problem that many people would envy: She is happy.
Fahl says that she loves her life and she loves her work. “That’s great, but it’s boring,” she says with a laugh. “If I had to write about myself, I’d run out of material.”
For that reason, Fahl turns elsewhere for inspiration. “I love immersing myself in the world of a movie or the world of a book,” she says. “You’ve still got a lot of me in the song, though.”
Among the projects that Fahl points to with pride is her song “Exiles,” which she composed for the audiobook version of “Wolves of Midwinter” by Anne Rice.
“I only had a week and a half,” she recalls. “Fortunately, Anne writes in such a vivid way. I called up my producer John Lissauer. We came up with something special. I knew I needed drums to have the feel of the wolves running through the forest.”
Fahl - who has been acclaimed for her ethereal vocals and literate writing - will perform her own songs and select covers this Sunday, Sept. 20, at the Ukrainian American Cultural Center in Whippany as part of the Splatter Concert series.
Prior to developing her own songwriting skills, Fahl gained attention as the lead vocalist of the October Project, a progressive pop-rock group that formed in the 1990s. Though she did not write for the band, she learned about recording and crafting songs.
Fahl left the band and began to work on solo albums, beginning with the EP “Lenses of Contact” in 2000 and “The Other Side of Time” in 2003.
As a songwriter, she singles out the inspiration of such artists as the Beatles, British singer-songwriter Richard Thompson, and Roger Waters of Pink Floyd.
Fahl had the chance to pay tribute to Waters with “From the Dark Side of the Moon,” a track-by-track re-imagining of the Pink Floyd album “Dark Side of the Moon.”
“I had a lot of things in my head about conspiracies and manipulation and all the information coming at us,” Fahl says. “ ‘Dark Side’ had all that. But I didn’t want to just do cover versions of the songs. These are my versions of the songs.”
Fahl says that she enjoys performing with a band, and she values the input of producer John Lissauer (whose credits include Leonard Cohen’s song “Hallelujah”).
The Whippany concert, however, will be a solo performance, which afford a different type of satisfaction, according to Fahl.
“Playing solo is far more intimate,” she says. “I tell a lot of the stories behind the songs. As a listener, I’ve always enjoyed that. It makes the songs more accessible.”
Playing acoustically also gives Fahl a chance to show how the songs originally sounded. “Songs start with me and my guitar in my rehearsal room,” she says.
“Later they get ‘tarted up’ with bells and whistles,” she says with a laugh. “But I try to make the songs sturdy enough to stand up on their own. I know that eventually I’ll so them solo, and I want them to be able to hold up to that.”
For Fahl, songwriting begins with the music. “The melody always comes first,” she says. “Then I listen to it and let the stream of consciousness take me to the lyrics. It’s a hard way to write, but I don’t know that I could write lyrics first.”
Fahl credits the input of collaborators, including Byron Isaacs of the roots band Ollabelle. “Byron is great at bouncing lyrics off of,” she says.
She continues to do film work, including the Civil War film “Gods and Generals.” Her most recent studio CD of original material was the 2014 release “Love & Gravity.”
“Right now I’m in a gestation period,” she says. “I’m still looking to see what I want to do next.”
MARY FAHL
WHEN: 7 p.m. Sunday. Doors open at 6:30 p.m.
WHERE: Ukrainian American Cultural Center,
60 N. Jefferson Rd., Whippany
TICKETS: $26 in advance, $28 day of show. $5 for ages 13 to 17, free for ages 12 and under.
INFO: 973-585-7175 or www.splatterconcerts.com.