Singer-songwriter Kate Schrock’s been making her soulful piano-based music since 1994, and has released five studio albums and one live one. At the moment, she’s in Nashville at Ben Folds’ recording studio working on a career retrospective album.

GO caught up with Schrock to ask about what’s happening down South, what we can expect in terms of a release schedule, and how becoming a mother has shifted her world view.

Additional Photos

Kate Schrock will be part of a benefit show for the Maine Breast Cancer Coalition on May 20 at Jonathan’s in Ogunquit. Courtesy photo

So what’s the deal with being in Nashville at Ben Folds’ studio and working on the retrospective album?

I have been carrying a concept around in my head for a long time involving a simple approach to some older material. Specifically, acoustic and analog. I wondered how to pull this off here in Portland, and after I poked around and began calculating things, it seemed to make sense not to try and re-invent the wheel, but to go where a wheel was already rolling. In came the idea of Ben’s new place — which is actually the old RCA studio — in downtown Nashville. It’s already equipped with exactly what we needed. As with most everything, the plan came about with the help of synchronicity and a personal connection.

Talk about the retrospective. What will be on it, and when will it see the light of day?

Ideally, this fall or winter. This is something I’ve also been thinking of for a long time: A retrospective of odds and ends of things collected and released over the years. I’m aiming to put a variety of tracks together to see if they can all get along.

You recently posted: “I intend to continue to reach out with support, especially to local people who are in need, and I am putting together a means by which to do this with my upcoming recordings.” Can you elaborate on this?

In the past several years, especially since my son was born, I’ve been mostly performing locally for nonprofits, institutions, groups of people doing cool things working at solving local and global issues and needing support. Being off the road and being a regular mom in the community has been educational for me.

So many more things hit my heart now. Issues such as food security, elder care, de-stigmatization of mental health issues (and making care more available). It’s made more and more sense to me to keep going in a direction with my music and art that supports efforts for positive change where it can be made. I’m not sure of the form yet. Could be that I create a foundation — skim off the top of my CD and art sales, and have that go directly to regional nonprofits.

What’s been inspiring you lately?

I’m enjoying the advent of Internet radio. I love hearing the B-sides from artists I have loved a long time. I’m enjoying hearing old music with new ears.

Staff Writer Aimsel Ponti can be contacted at 791-6455 or at:

aponti@pressherald.com

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