Photo by CJ Foeckler
Last January Colleen Webb did something many musicians fantasize about but few follow through with: She quit her job to focus on making music full time. It was the realization of a long-held dream. “I was working in the service industry, and when you do that you often end up working more jobs than you thought you would,” Webb said. “I figured if I quit, I’d finally have time to focus on my music. It would force me to put my money where my mouth is—or my lack of money, as the case may be.”
Webb must have forgotten about that old adage about the best laid plans, because just weeks later she discovered that she was pregnant. No, it wasn’t planned, and yes, she had a hard time processing it at first. “I went through the whole range of thoughts and emotions,” she said. “My first thought was that it would be a roadblock. I mean, you try to envision life as a mother, and it’s not often that it’s portrayed as a rock star.”
While pregnancy may have slowed the recording of Webb’s second album under the moniker Casual Vocals, it also proved a hell of a muse. Written and recorded during her pregnancy, You Are I Am We Are draws on the excitement and anxieties inherent in impending parenthood, as did her thoughts about the 9 to 5 world she’s happily no longer a part of. Those themes may sound heavy, but her music itself rarely is. Webb’s songs are perky and good-humored. If she’d been a Pacific Northwester she might have fit right in on K Records, where this kind of quaint, disarming folk-pop has long been the norm.
“Fun was always my main goal when performing,” Webb said. “When I started writing songs, I didn’t have the intention of recording them. I was playing a lot of open mics in Chicago, and I got bored of playing cover songs, so I started writing songs to play live. For me that’s the ultimate goal, to have a shared experience with people. I personally enjoy movement and energy and I feel like that’s the best and most fun way to get the music across is to have fun with it.”
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As for balancing motherhood with music, she’s gradually figuring it out. Webb is relatively new to the Milwaukee music scene, having moved here just a couple of years ago, and she explains that having a kid makes it harder to meet people and carve out a place for herself, but not impossible.
“It’s not that it’s a challenge; it’s just that things are different,” she said. “I’m no longer a 20-something drinking whiskey at the bar until 4 in the morning, which makes it easier to make connections. But it forces me to be more creative. I’m slowly but surely gaining connections here, and I think they’re more concrete and real because they’re with people I meet while walking down by the lake, or over coffee at a café.”
Her next step? Finding a drummer for Casual Vocals, which is currently operating as a duo. “I don’t know if you want to put a classified ad in the article saying we’re looking for a drummer,” she said, quickly adding, “I’m just kidding.” She seemed pretty serious, though, so we’ll include it anyway.
Casual Vocals play an album release show Sunday, June 12 at 4 p.m. at the Sugar Maple. They’ll also perform at PrideFest on Saturday, June 11 at 7 p.m.
Stream the record below.
