Allison Veltz most recent EP, ‘The White Room,’ was released on December 22nd. Allison recently took time to talk to New England Country Music about the entire process from funding the record to recording it.
Allison said growing up she moved about “once a year.” Since she spent so much time moving around she said, “I kind of feel like I spend most of my upbringing in a car.” Spending so much time on the road she said her family was always listening to the radio. She really listened to whatever countdown was on and “everything that was on the radio is really what shaped me.” With a musical family background, she never had any thoughts of ever doing anything other than music. “It would have been really foreign to go any other direction. I felt like it chose me.”
Allison’s EP is compiled completely of songs that she either wrote or co-wrote. The songwriting process for this record was “pretty real and painful and right in the middle of a raw emotion.” She told us that a lot of songwriting is trying to remember a feeling that you felt before, but for this record she was writing while she was feeling the emotion. That is something that she learned from watching her dad write songs while she was growing up.
‘The White Room’ was part of the A & E Project Startup which was mentioned to her by a friend who used to book her shows when she was in New York. She had the songs for ‘The White Room’ written and thought “why not do the songs now that they’re really fresh.” Instead of waiting for a project to come to her she decided to do the A & E Startup Project. She was surprised when her project was funded in just 48 hours. She was expecting to need the full thirty days to campaign and raise the funds, but instead she was able to use the extra twenty eight days to plan out the recording process. Allison said that finding out the money was raised so quickly was “one of my favorite moments of 2015 for sure” and that “I’m just so grateful for that.”
Recording this EP was a different experience for Allison who has recorded plenty of music before, as she was able to record its entirety in her house. She said that it meant a lot for her to be able to “record the songs in the same place they were written and played.” The EP was going to be called ‘The White Room’ whether it was actually recorded in her house or not, because of what that room means to her.
During the process, Allison’s kitchen became “the control room” while the musicians were in and out of the white room. Having the chance to do this from her house was “almost like setting up a studio in your shower.” Since most of the songs on the EP were actually written in that room, she was extra comfortable and was able to get some great vocals. Allison mentioned that this is the first time she’s worked on a project that hasn’t had any technical snags, everything just flowed really well like “it was just supposed to be here.”
One of the best parts of the process for Allison was being able to produce the project. This was her first experience producing and she said she would do it all over again. She was able to use “all of this knowledge, production wise that I’ve gathered over the years that I didn’t even really know about. I didn’t know I knew how to make a record until I made this record.”
The future is looking bright for Allison who has been doing this whole process independently. She is looking forward to touring and is “just gonna see where this record can take me.”
(Main Photo: Justin Nolan)