Stages Engineer Revives Secret Songwriter

By Marc Shapiro

Evan Kornblum wanted to recapture the magic of free-form jam sessions from his teenage years when friends would get together just to play. So, in 2014, he got four musicians together who had never played with each other before at his Baltimore studio with one goal: write and record a song in eight hours or less.

And Secret Songwriter was born. Videographer Harry Bechkes was on hand to capture the magic, the results were uploaded to YouTube, racking up thousands of views. Between 2014 and 2015, Kornblum and Bechkes recorded and shot eight secret songwriter episodes.

“100% of the time, across the board, everyone always comes up with a great piece of music,” Kornblum said. “The musicians make it look effortless.”

Having worked at Stages for three years now, Kornblum dreamed of reviving the series at Stages’ state-of-the-art studio, which is exactly what he did earlier this year.

Kornblum, who plays guitar in electrifying indie band Pocket Bells, amassed a long wish list of musicians to bring in from bands Pocket Bells has shared the stage with over the years. He called upon Leela Dawson, singer, guitarist and keyboardist with Washington, D.C.-based neo-soul pop outfit Del Florida; bassist Gabbi Coenen from Brooklyn-based cinematic rock band Rvby My Dear; drummer Kayin Scanterbury from Baltimore-based guitar-pop outfit June Pastelle; and guitarist Beth Cannon from heavy, melodic D.C.-based rock band Elizabeth II.

Kornblum’s shares infectious enthusiasm about each musician he picked. He loves the vibe of Del Florida, the creative approach of Rvby My Dear, the sound and energy of June Pastelle and the guitar theatrics of Elizabeth II’s Cannon. “She shreds the fretboard of the guitar like no one’s business,” he says. “She sings and screams, she’s got long blue hair. She’s just a rock star and her band crushes it.”

Each musician, not knowing who they’d be playing with, signed on for the session, which took place in February. Kornblum set up and soundchecked all the equipment the night before so the musicians could arrive, plug in and play. For the first half of the session, he sat back to let the musicians write.

He only gets involved in the songwriting to suggest a few last-minute tweaks prior to recording. Once the band wrote and rehearsed the song, the real work began for Kornblum to figure out how to best record it.

The song’s verses feature a laid-back neo-soul pop vibe with Cannon adding a texture of bluesy inflections, with Dawson, Cannon and Coenen sharing lead vocals, and an upbeat chorus with all four musicians singing together. Like the other Secret Songwriter sessions, Kornblum loved the resulting music.

“Having gotten to know everyone in the session, it feels to me like the song is the perfect amalgamation of all their personalities,” he says. “I can hear each individual person speak. That’s just so cool to me. How do they do that?”

Stages provided an ideal environment for the creativity to flow, Kornblum says. The spacious room, the analog console, the acoustics, the mics and the adjacent lounge where musicians can relax and refresh all come together to make for an ideal setup for an eight-hour session. While the relaunched Secret Songwriter is recorded in a pristine studio, Kornblum also worked with director Tim Szczesniak to up the video production. And Bechkes, who directed the original eight episodes of Secret Songwriter, flew in from Boston to help capture the session as well.

There are no formal plans for the next episode yet, but Kornblum’s already concocting that next dream band. “I have a lot of ideas,” he says, “and I have, of course, my next list of people who I’m eyeing who I think would be an amazing addition to Secret Songwriter.”