OC Music Awards 2012: Button Willow Locomotive Don’t Horse Around With Lovely Lo-Fi Indie Folk

“ There's something about the sound of an acoustic guitar or a mandolin that pulls at you in a familiar, melancholic way; it's soul stirring.
” Button Willow Locomotive Celebrating its 11th anniversary, the OC Music Awards kicks off on January 3rd with seven weeks of free showcases at different venues across the county. 35 local artists will compete for the titles of Best Live Band or Best Live Acoustic and a performance slot at the 2012 OC Music Awards, March 3 at the Grove of Anaheim. And, the voting is open now!

“The feeling of wanting to see my family in Oregon,” said darked-haired folk chantuese, Amanda Carson from Irvine’s Button Willow Locomotive, when describing how external ephemera inspires her music. “The feeling of painting and cooking, New York City, maybe the open and honest storytelling style of Augusten Burroughs, and people…I’m highly and most often influenced by the people in my life.”

“Oh and this Joanna Newsom lyric from En Gallop: ‘Never get so attached to a poem you forget truth that lacks lyricism,’” finished Carson.

In essence, their album 8 Tracks is also about “truth in communication.” Button Willow Locomotive said the album “tackles a certain element of longing and struggles in communication with other people.”

The young singer-songwriter is part of a indie-folk musical collective called Button Willow Locomotive which includes co-founding member and co-vocalist, Alex Heflin whom she met at the University of California, Irvine.

Last year, the pair was joined by Kyle Gustafson and Albert Law on bass and drums to bring their lo-fi confectionery folk (with a bit of a Decemberists-style narrative lyricism and bluegrass twang) to those very people in Carson’s life whom influence her.

“ We're still changing a lot, and the writing is shifting constantly...So this process will probably change in the upcoming days as well. We're pretty shy with each other when it comes to our songs, they are really personal things to both of us.
” Carson and Heflin met at UCI. Heflin said he’s “never met a more talented singer” and Carson reminisced on the days she’d see Heflin play music at the Arts Campus.

“I was always in awe of how lyrically complex his songs were,” Carson elucidated. “He created really compelling images and his songwriting was at a level that I really admired and connected with. I definitely still feel that way. His writing style has had a huge influence on the way I approach a song and it’s definitely been for the better.

With collective  musical influences like Tom Waits, M. Ward, Sam Cooke, Laura Marling, The Civil Wars, and Joanna Newsom, the pair tackle songs with Carson’s “talented” voice and Heflin’s “lyrically-complex” writing style separately “they work out arrangements and parts together.” Gustafson and Law round out the affair.

“There is a certain raw human energy to folk music,” said the band about their influences. “String instruments are a really big part of that. There’s something about the sound of an acoustic guitar or a mandolin that pulls at you in a familiar, melancholic way; it’s soul stirring.”

Heflin has been working on mastering the mandolin and the band said they are “exposed to new music constantly” which helps with the evolution of their sound.

“We’re still changing a lot, and the writing is shifting constantly,” explained Button Willow Locomotive, “So this process will probably change in the upcoming days as well. We’re pretty shy with each other when it comes to our songs, they are really personal things to both of us.”

“ My favorite animal is the sea-horse but I don't think want to be a sea horse because they look so sad. So I would probably want a real horse. A horse, a wild horse, not a horse somebody owns.
” Joanna Newsom But, as evidenced by their lyrics, the pair are not afraid to imagineer fantastical, beautiful scenarios. When asked what her Chinese astrology sign was, in honor of the Chinese New Year, Carson, a Horse, quoted Joanna Newsom again.

“I feel like reading about the personality traits of a Horse sign influence the way in which I think about myself,” said Carson, “and not the other way around. So I’ll stick to something Joanna Newsom said in an interview once:

“My favorite animal is the sea-horse but I don’t think want to be a sea horse because they look so sad. So I would probably want  a real horse. A horse, a wild horse, not a horse somebody owns.”

Which, in a way, is what Button Willow Locomotive are singing about with the lyric “say it by the sea/And I know I could be anyone.” Newsom, or the listener, could be anything they want. Regular horse or sea house.

Coincidentally, Heflin, a “nomad” who seems to “live” in his car, is also a horse.