Known for her distinctive voice, literally and artistically, Renee Maskin is a staple of the thriving music scene in Asbury Park, NJ. Merging indie-folk with country and experimental influences, Maskin’s work is as grounded in traditional song craft as it is offbeat and distinct in its delivery. After decades of touring with bands, she has been releasing music under her own name since 2022. In early 2023, Maskin’s full-band collaborative effort Renee Maskin & The Mysterious Wilds reached number one on the NACC Folk charts. A solo effort later that year, Shimmer, was named one of 2023’s National Top Albums by The Aquarian that year, which also named her “Songwriter of the Year”. (Photo Credit John Decker)
Q: In your opinion, what are the essential qualities that make a “good songwriter”?
It's not so easily defined. You have the Willie Nelson's of the world who can write the most perfect, simple lyric that captures the audience's heart. Or you have the Dylan's that can play with language in a way that gives you the same kind of excited chills a really excellent jazz musician can. Or you have the bands like the National that are the best at capturing a specific feeling with their combination of words and sounds. It's hard to say. You can only teach someone so much. You can only emulate so much. You have to have "it", whatever it is, whatever it means.
Q: What is the basis for writing attention-grabbing music in this day and age?
Who knows? I feel more and more bored of the people who make a big production of trying very hard to stand out, only to look and sound like everything else. I think if you have "it" and you keep working and keep putting yourself out there, people will notice. Maybe not all at the same time, maybe not as quickly as anyone would like, but the audience is smart. They can tell when something is good, so you have to just do your thing and keep going.
Q: Can you pinpoint some specific songs and songwriters that changed the way you write music?
It's almost a joke of how much "the internet" hates and dismisses him, but Morrissey and The Smiths really influence me a lot. He has a great sense of melody, and obviously his lyrics can hit like daggers. Tell me the cruel, pop-driven sadness in "Everyday Is Like Sunday" isn't brilliant. I doubt anyone can hear it in my own writing, but I also listen to a lot of Radiohead. You have to be careful with Radiohead. It's like putting cayenne into a recipe. If you go too far, all you can taste is cayenne and everything else disappears. So you can't put too much Radiohead into your own songs or nobody will hear anything else.
Q: Do you find it hard to be inspired by your peers? Can you name any new artists you find inspiring?
No, I find my peers inspiring all the time! For instance, Brother Andrew constantly puts out great songs AND swims the English Channel AND has gone surfing with a cowboy hat on. Who doesn't find that inspiring?
Q: For your new album, what inspired the lyrical content, album title, and overall vibe?
It's dark. Although not as dark as some of the stuff I see and hear these days. I was joking with a friend about how everyone seems to be dipping into the occult right now, and how it doesn't make a lot of sense to me. If you get what you want out of that, it usually comes with an unintended, unwanted price. So I had written a song with the line "Haven't you ever seen a movie before?" Eventually, that song ended up getting cut from the actual record. I couldn't get it to where I wanted it to be, sonically speaking. But the rest of the album uses ghosts and demons and madness as metaphor to the times and the feelings we all seem to collectively be experiencing right now. An uneasy world. "Sage" had been released way ahead of the record, and now everybody sends me the same meme of a person holding a sprig of sage the size of a tree, with the tag that they're going to need more. So I hit on something.
Q: Do you find that you ruminate over writing songs and hold on to them for a long time before including them on a record? Or do you prefer to write them, release them, and be done with them? Do you ever re-visit old material to do a re-write or once it’s done it’s done?
Both. I have very old songs that still need to be recorded, but getting it wrong feels a little scary to me. And conversely, I often write some of my best songs towards the end of putting a record together. The jolt of inspiration in the final hour feels more right to me sometimes than some of the older tunes. But I revisit songs all the time. "Horses" and "Hot Moon" have both been recorded twice. I have a few others I may come back to eventually. Or rework into new songs. That's the beauty of songwriting. It's not really over until you want it to be, or until you're gone. And even then, someone else can cover it and bring new life into the music.
Q: Were there any lessons you learned in the writing and recording process for your current release that you will take with you into your next project?
I don't think I want to make another "dark" record. It's not really me, even if I'm feeling dark in the moment. "I contain multitudes"... Having a theme helped me put the collection together, especially starting it last winter when it was cold and dreary and inspiration sometimes felt a little sluggish. I was watching a lot of Vincent Price movies and found some creative gears turning. But ultimately, cornering myself into one theme doesn't feel very reflective of who I am. That said, I'm really proud of the collection, especially some of the songs. I really like "Vampires". I wouldn't have written it if I wasn't trying to do something in a horror direction. And "Everything Is Changing" is just fantastical enough that I'm not sure it would have been written otherwise either. So I like the work, but I also learned a little about where I'd like to go next. And it won't be down the same road.
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