Photo courtesy of Richie Conway
Richie Conway
Under the moniker richie, Madison’s Richie Conway has released three albums of music heavily influenced by The Beatles and other psychedelic rock groups of the ‘60s. A sound that he describes as “trying to create a music that reflects a confluence between the old, nostalgic age of analog music and the current, fast paced world of our modern times, drawn from my own life experiences.” He also plays with the trio Sugar and the Milkman.
How has the lockdown affected your creativity?
Being that the musical project richie consists of only one member (me), I have been fortunate enough to be exempt from the various strains and restrictions that the lockdown has imposed on many musical groups. My creative process of making music has been more or less unchanged.
I currently have an attic space devoted to making music, and I spend my many hours up there in solitude, writing and recording. Just the same as before the pandemic. But I will predicate that having more time to make music does not necessarily correlate to an increased creative output—in terms of quality or quantity. I have discovered through this pandemic just how much inspiration and creative material I draw from the interactions and experiences of “normal” life. This lockdown has stifled many of these basic opportunities for me to live life and interact with others, and replaced with mundane routines, and a lack of sensory variation, I have discovered that my own creative output has suffered from it as well.
Do you have a routine or schedule for staying in practice or working on new material?
I would characterize myself as inherently lazy, always inclined to treat myself with more sleep and less work. Because of this I am always suffering to keep a regimented routine, especially regarding to my musical projects. But if I can maintain a scheduled, productive week of music, chances are good the next week will be good as well. Usually, this schedule consists of practicing on sundry instruments for an hour or so, recording and mixing in the afternoon, and writing lyrics and new material in the evening. Rinse and repeat.
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And being the sole contributor for every arrangement and instrument needed for my songs, I find myself needing lots of consistent practice in each instrument to maintain my chops, be it guitar, drums, vocals, synths or mixing or whatever.
Are you making plans for when you can resume playing in front of people again?
The question doesn’t really pertain to the solo-project richie, as it is just a one-man-band. I’ve never performed that music in a live setting, nor do I have any plans to do so, at least not as of now. But it does pertain to my other project Sugar and the Milkman, which is a 3 piece rock band that I have been a part of here in Madison for several years now. There was once a blooming, active music scene here in Madison and it’s a tragic thing that many have lost that opportunity to perform and connect with other musicians and music lovers.
But as many other bands in this area, we are waiting on standby, ready to hit the ground running whenever the green light is given, and it’s deemed safe enough play out!
