Rocky Votolato = Incredibly Nice Guy

Over the last year-ish, I've had the chance to talk to Rocky Votolato three times. Each time I hang up, my first thought is, "Wow, what a nice guy."

Call number three was no exception.

His new album, on the other hand, is quite exceptional. Check out the tune "Little Spring" here.

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Rocky Votolato is feeling better. Much better.

Over his long and impressive career as a singer/songwriter, Votolato has had his share of personal peaks and valleys. But when it came time to write 2010’s “True Devotion,” he was pretty much at rock bottom.

“I always want my writing to reflect where I’m at in my life,” he says. “With ‘True Devotion,’ I was in a really dark place. I was struggling with some really personal, existential issues. On this one, I feel like I’ve sorted a lot of that out.”

“This one” is his new album, “Television of Saints.” From the first notes of the record, it’s easy to hear that Votolato is in a different headspace. “There’s a lighter feeling to this album overall. It’s not as heavy as the last album,” he says. “There’s still an element of struggle and darkness within the songs, but it’s more from a narrative perspective.”

Though the record is not as heavy, “Television” is just as weighty. The songs flow together joyously and effortless, creating the most instantly engaging collection of Votolato’s career.

He says the album title draws a phrase coined in the 1930s, referring to how the newly invented television had such a power to bring people together. Through the record isn’t about TV, it is about how we are all connected in some way. Votolato says he was heavily inspired by his connection to friends and family when he wrote the album.

So it was only fitting that he reach out to those same folks to help him make the album. His brothers Sonny and Cody both played on the record. “This is the first time I’ve had both of my brothers on an album. That was a really cool experience. I’ve been wanting to do it for a long time,” Votolato says.

Having finished out his contract with indie label Barsuk, Votolato decided to turn to his friends and fans to help him fund the record. Through the website Kickstarter, he was able to raise $40,000 (more than double what he had asked for) in just 30 days.

“I’m really, really grateful to all of my fans for all of that,” he says. “It allowed me more freedom and more control creatively. I got to the make the record I wanted to make. And I didn’t have to go into severe debt to do it, which is what I would have been facing if I hadn’t done Kickstarter.”

In exchange for their donations, fans were treated to a wide range of collectors items, from t-shirts hand-screenprinted by Votolato’s wife to paintings made by his son. For the fan who donated $2,500, Votolato promised a private concert anywhere in the U.S. or Europe.

“Most everything has worked out really well and is pretty close to being finished now. It’s been a ton of work, but I think well worth it,” he says. There was one small problem, though.

“I had 128 hand-written lyric sheets to do and I kind of sprained my neck because I was writing so many of them without taking a break,” he says with a laugh.

Despite the full-band feel of the “Television of Saints,” Votolato will again tour as a solo act. “I like to play alone,” he says. “I like to keep the shows simple. On the records I’m most pleased with, I’ve followed the philosophy of ‘less is more.’ It makes things more intimate. I think that’s what I’m best at, so that’s what I’m bringing to the shows.”

Viva Voce: Why Not Start a Band with Your Husband

Viva Voce’s music feels like the embodiment of the Pacific Northwest. The husband-wife duo’s songs rise effortlessly from the damp mist of down-tempo folk into bursts of sun-drenched psychedelia--and then back again. Not bad for a couple of kids from the deep South.

After meeting and marrying in Alabama, Kevin and Anita Robinson pulled up ties and headed to Portland in 1998, the same year they released their first Viva Voce demo tape. Though their new home has certainly found its way into their sound, it hasn’t replaced their Southern charm.

Their new record may bear the ultra-heavy title “The Future Will Destroy You,” but Anita Robinson speaks of it (in a kind-hearted Southern accent) with love and care. In fact, each of her responses--from how to self-produce a record to fighting with her husband about who gets to write the bass lines--is delivered with such humility and kindness that it’s easy to forget that she mercilessly shreds guitars for a living.

Anita holds most of the vocal reigns on “Future,” a task that was shared more evenly between the couple on previous records. “It just worked out that way,” she says of her added time behind the mic. “After doing Blue Giant [the Robinson’s folk band side project] for a year, where Kevin is the singer front and center, I think I was inspired to step up and be more of the front person. It worked out well, I think. I feel very proud of it lyrically.”

The Robisons wrote, recorded, and mixed the new record in their home studio in Portland. Though the band usually welcomes feedback on songs and mixes from friends and musicians, “Future” was an isolated affair.

“With this record, we just sort of hibernated,” Anita says. “We were feeling really confident about it and didn’t feel the need to [seek input]. Hopefully, the fact that we did everything by ourselves and didn’t really look for any outside opinions, people will feel like we did the right thing. We feel like we did.”

Anita says she and Kevin and had the same goal for “Future” that they’ve had for each of their albums. “What we always try to do is put out a record where every song stands on its own and it’s not a record where people say, ‘I really like that second song and I really like the last song.’ We want our albums to be full of songs where you can’t wait to hear the next one.”

The husband/drummer and wife/guitarist also had the same power struggle that they’ve had with all their records, Anita admits with a laugh. “When it comes to tracking the record, it’s usually just a matter of who gets to do what--who gets to play bass lines or melody lines with on the keyboard. We fight a little bit over that because we both like to do those things.” In the end, even that worked out. Kevin got the bass and Anita got the keyboard.

For the next month, Viva Voce will tour the new record throughout the U.S. While most bands suffer from the homesickness caused by leaving loved ones behind, Anita and Kevin run the reverse risk--spending too much time with their significant other. Anita, however, says boredom is never a problem.

“There’s never a dull moment, especially on tour. Every day is a new adventure.” And then she adds, “I can’t get bored with something I’ve dreamed of doing my entire life.”

That dream is what took the Robinsons from Alabama to Portland in the first place. “We lived in Nashville for a while and it just never really felt like home. It didn’t feel like a place where we could put roots down. A lot of people want to travel and go and see what it’s like to live in different places, but just feel stuck and stranded. I’m grateful that I had the freedom to give it a shot. And it worked out great.”

Portland is equally enamored with Viva Voce. Case in point, visit a Portland Timbers soccer match and you may hear the crowd singing the refrain from the band’s ode to Portland, “Rose City,” a capella. (Or, if you’re not in the neighborhood, you can visit their website to hear a recording.)

“It’s kind of an honor,” she says of the song-turned-anthem. “It’s sweet and endearing. It makes us feel, more than ever, that Portland is our home and that we belong here.”