Chicago-based artist Justin Sconza has played piano and guitar since he was a kid. After playing in many bands, he discovered a preference for making music on his own, opting to record on an 8-track for its simplicity.
“Underneath the Cottonwoods” is among the album’s tracks. “I just wanted to capture the feeling you get when you’re out with friends on a nice day at a park or somewhere outside in the sun, just hanging out – and you think to yourself, this is nice,” Sconza says. “The lyrics are just a series of impressionistic moments from that day, like a little journal entry so you don’t forget.”
“I played and recorded everything on a little Tascam 8-track at home, in different rooms throughout the house,” Sconza says of the album. “It was really important to me to keep the background sounds and atmosphere in the recordings because I wanted to remember the actual experience of recording.”
He continues, “So that was like a journal in its own way. I’d been writing these songs for maybe ten years and finally decided to put lyrics to them. For the words, I wanted everything to be impressionistic images of experiences that stood out, even if they were just everyday things. I also consciously never use the word “I” in the lyrics – I didn’t want it to be about me.”
“The themes are happiness, nostalgia, wanting more but not if it means losing what you’ve got, because right now is so special and great. It’s called Maps because that captures the idea of trying to get to different places and not always knowing the way. My influences are anything that’s songy – Hank Williams, The Beatles, etc.”
Sconza continues, “I learned how to play the pedal steel over the past two years and I finally got good enough to include it on the album. I absolutely love the pedal steel – it’s so expressive and different sounding. I’ve been getting into old school country and that combined with the sound of the pedal steel lent a country western flavor to the songs, which I’m totally cool with.”
“My biggest influences are the The Beatles, The Beach Boys, Hank Williams, Duke Ellington, Ariel Pink, The Kinks, the 20’s, the 30’s, the 40’s, the 50’s, the 60’s and 70’s with a touch of the the 80’s, 90’s, 2000’s and beyond, but mostly the older stuff.”
Sconza’s new album, Maps, presents a warming, melodic vein of folk, rock, and psychedelia.