Graham Norwood started writing and recording his debut album, Out of the Sea, more than three years ago. That meant he had an abundance of potential material for the eight-song set — including a cover of Tim Hardin's "It'll Never Happen Again," premiering exclusively on Billboard today (Jan. 8) — which made the selection process challenging.
"I think what I tried to do with this record was avoid eclecticism and really zero in on one vibe, and hopefully it's better for that," Norwood tells Billboard about the spacious and melodic alt-folk album. "There have been times where I'm like, 'Oh man, I'm sick of this sound or direction. I want to do something that rocks,' or something else. So I think it was a question of, 'Is this really the opening statement?' I'm a chronic self-doubter, but fortunately I worked with people who helped me get outside my head and feel good about the music."
Out of the Sea, which the legally blind San Francisco Bay Area-based Norwood recorded with Bryce Goggin (Pavement, Phish) and mixer John Agnello (Kurt Vile, Sonic Youth), celebrates a return of sorts to music for Norwood. After marrying a painter during his twenties, he decided to step back from his artistic ambitions and got an advanced degree studying International Relations and Economics, eventually working in climate change and energy policies in Washington D.C.
The end of his marriage brought him back to music and songwriting full-time, and while he acknowledges that Out of the Sea, due out Jan. 31, is "sort of a divorce record," Norwood doesn't consider it a complete downer.
"My whole musical experience was reanimated through a breakup," he says, "so that was a pretty pivotal occurrence, the saving grace of the whole thing. Getting back into music was the most important thing to me. It's how I built and renewed new social relationships and felt good about myself and what I was doing again. The songs certainly reflect that period of transition, of 'What do I do now?'”
Having been a sideman before, Norwood's new effort was to focus on his songwriting and singing and developing his own presence. Norwood was deeply attached to Hardin's recording of "It'll Never Happen Again" — "I love his piano playing on it, and the killer string section" — but was inspired to do one of his own by the many other renditions that have been done, most notably Peggy Lee's. That said, Norwood notes, "I have this philosophy of doing covers; You shouldn't know a song too well. If I can get 80 percent familiar with a song and let my brain fill in the gaps, that's the best way to do it.
"I didn't tell the band beforehand we were gonna do this. I taught it to them myself, on the spot. I didn't play them the original recording. Nobody had any ideas of how it was to be played. We just went with it and came up with his something that's a bit of a twist on the Hardin] original."
With his "opening statement" ready to come out, Norwood is turning attention back to his song stockpile, many recorded over three sessions with three different bands — including a rock EP that was considered for release but sidelined in favor of Out of the Sea.
"I don’t know quite what direction the next record will be," he says. "I don't want to make the same record again. I definitely have a bunch of material I'm constantly adding to and culling. There's a lot of stuff steering in an even more Roy Harper, spaced-out psych folk kind of vein, but by the same token I'm a huge Prince fan. I don't think I'm going to make a Prince record, exactly, but there are lots of things I'm interested and haven't approached yet."
Listen to "It'll Never Happen Again" below.
