Like the calm dreamy landscape of Nova Scotia, his music is an amalgam of textured guitars, atmospheric arrangements and Jazz infused folk rock that is full of verve yet timeless .

The music grabs you with its melody and thoughtful use of spare arrangement that has a classic beauty to it. The kind of  that is no longer heard on the new generation of singer/songwriters. In this interview I want to highlight his  soundcloud EP comprising of nine beautiful tunes. This interview has an interesting history.

Layne Greene had no idea our facebook conversation was an interview. It was one of those musical conversations we have;exchanging info about bands and new music. Fresh from releasing the recordings for his band The Tea Kettles, we discussed about the possible video for the band’s music. He said that  school got in the way and the band have to wait another summer to get things moving for the album. This time it’s just Layne and his style of  indie folk rock. Here’s the story:

Layne Greene- Guitars, Vocals, Piano.
Kyle DeCoste- Trumpet, Percussion
Bryan MacDonald-Guitar on Wintersong and Inflation
Brett MacDougall-Sax

( Visit http://soundcloud.com/laynegreene to hear the rest of the demo EP)

Hi Layne, I will never get tired of The Tea Kettles 🙂 the songs are addicting. And also your solo project.

Thanks. I’m actually applying for some grants, so hopefully I can go do a full length album in a real studio :S

I hope you do. So much potential there waiting to be unleashed. If your music sounds good now though it is not yet in a real studio, think of the things you can do in a real one.

Oh thanks I hope so too :S I have a record deal lined up, I just need the cash to cover some of the fees 😛 🙂

That’s something.

Yeah, I’m pretty excited, as long as I get one of these grants I’ll be good to go!

 It will be a good start!

🙂 It’d be a great start! They’re even going to help support the album afterwards, which is rare now, usually they’ll do the record then they toss you out on your own to sell it, but these guys are going to help out as much as they can.

True.It is hard when a musician is tossed out that way because it takes a lot of energy.It is good to be connected to people who will look out for your welfare.

Especially people like myself, I’d have noooo clue how to plan a tour :S Thankfully if I do a record with these guys, they’ll book it for me 😀

Yeah. I bet planning for a tour would be chaotic.You know what without your glasses you do remind me of the lead singer of Snow Patrol…Gary Lightbody. I am watching this:

My mom’s always bugging me to wear contacts :S lol she hates my glasses 😛 but glasses are so convenient!!!! 😛 I find contacts really uncomfortable. I dunno, I might look into laser eye surgery in a few years, it’ll be completely covered by my health care, and apparently we have the worlds best laser eye surgeon in the world in Halifax…I should redo that 😛 it’s a bad version of that song.

That would be cool 😀

I find them really uncomfortable 😛 they make my eyes hurt.

I should take your warning..because I never tried one yet.

Most people don’t have a problem with them, my dad wears them every day and he loves them.

We shall  see if I will have problems. Watching this now :

Haha! that’s an old one!

Nice shirt.

Thanks 🙂

More videos!!!! hahahahaha

😀

I need to get some more done 😛 so many songs that I just can’t get quite right.

It is good to strive for perfection. but never delete your old stuff. They are memorable. Someday you might want to get back to them  just to be amused.

I’m actually amazed that I still like most of my songs. A lot of my friends who are singer/songwriters throw out a lot of their songs after a year or so, but I’ve only chucked two or three 😛

The thing about songs is that you can always go back to them and make a different arrangement to create a different sound.  I think the strength of the songs lies on the foundation. You can really build stuff around them.

I actually had an interesting discussion with Scott Biggar about that today after we finished the interview 😛 We had been talking about naming songs, and revisiting old songs, and how changing lyrics is like cutting off a hand, but changing arrangements is like changing socks.

That’s interesting, and yes I agree. Arrangements  can enhance the structure of the songs especially when they are done appropriately.

I think in most cases if I was ever going to go change a lyric, I usually just scrap the entire song.

Yeah, arrangements can make or break the piece. Changing the lyrics can change the meaning of the song entirely. And before you know it, it no longer works…listening to this now :

It’s actually funny that you’re listening to that one right now.

Why, what’s funny about it?

Because it’s the only song that I’ve ever changed a line in. I changed almost the entire last verse, and I added a chorus 😛

Oh really! Nice find then.

Great timing eh?

Well if you ask me I am more of a ‘sound’ guy than a lyrics kind of guy.  I noticed that your lyrics are …textured, emotional , personal and introspective.

Oh thanks :S

...and your choice of words also reflects your personality.

I’m more about atmosphere, so I’m never really sure what makes a lyric good. I’m always questioning if I only like the words because I wrote them or not :S

I think we are the same in how we view music: I love the atmosphere too how even the lyrics can create atmosphere..the feeling of the moment..

I find atmosphere a really interesting thing to explore.

Yes!

It’s so easy to make atmosphere with all sorts of effects pedals and programs, but recently I’ve been trying to work on songs that have all the atmosphere of the crazy effect driven ones, but with only singing and an acoustic guitar :S it gets pretty crazy 😛

I think this one has a title  now?

 

Yeah 🙂 that one’s called “Snow”. Changed it! thanks for that! I never would have thought to update it 😛 I just realized that my head is cut off for the entire thing 😛

Ok. Well you are doing a good deal of creating atmosphere with just two instruments: voice and acoustic guitar.

Thanks 🙂

Next time, we will talk more about Tea Kettles which will be my story about your band 😉

Sounds good 🙂

But this one will also make a good interview piece 🙂 At least it has links to your songs we discussed.

Good thinking! lol 😛 I didn’t know I was being interviewed! (runs and hides)

Gotcha!Anyway it was not my intention. But for me the best one is something that just comes easily.I love this one:

 

😛 (comes out of hiding)

Not planned.. wow we have showcased a lot of bands!(Earlier we were having our Tea Talk showcasing indie bands which came out as another article)

Aways a good day when we share lots of tunes!