Ehren Ebbage is a Seattle-based singer-songwriter who has toured the United States extensively, played and recorded with a variety of notable musicians, and worked in tandem with a growing list of other songwriters on joint compositions. An independent artist, Ebbage is part of the renaissance in the music industry, re-defining what it means to “make it,” by pursuing revenue streams he can manage without being signed to a major label. Licensing fees and song writing royalties are on the list of avenues he’s pursuing, and he took some time to talk with me today about his career.
ehren ebbage (photo by dave getzschman)
Leona Laurie for MetroLyrics: I know that for a while you’ve been making a big effort to write songs with other people. When you are writing songs with someone else, what is the process like?
Ehren Ebbage: It’s really fun. The process is basically you show up, you spend 20 minutes kind of feeling shy and awkward about offering up any ideas. I mean songwriting is such a personal process that it sort of feels like someone is reading over your shoulder while you’re writing in your diary or something like that. And there’s also this element of wanting… I wrote a song with Priscilla Ahn, and I remember feeling like: “She’s really good, and I almost don’t want to offer any ideas, because I don’t want her to see how bad most of my ideas are.”
I think everybody kind of feels that way at first, where you say “Do you have any ideas to start with?” And they’re like “I don’t know I might” And then it gets really fun. You end up noodling around a little bit, and throwing out a few initial ideas, and eventually there’s an idea that both writers are excited about. Everybody writes a little differently. Everybody thinks a little differently.
LL: Who have you collaborated with to date that you really enjoyed?
EE: It was great writing with Priscilla. Joey Ryan, who is based in LA. He’s doing a Hotel Cafe residency this month, I think. Jay Nash… I wrote a bunch with Stacey Blue. I’ve written a bunch, and it’s all been really positive.
LL: Tell me where your songs have been used now.
EE: A song that I wrote with Michelle Vice-Maslin has been used on The Guiding Light a bunch, a song I wrote with Jay Nash was used on Army Wives, my tune “Land on You” was used on Eli Stone, and songs from my album Ten Cent Souvenir have been used in the Web series Wage Slaves.
LL: Tell me a little bit about your recent decision to start filming yourself playing your songs & putting the videos online.
EE: Well, I worked closely with a brilliant publicist for a while who encouraged me to do that, and… the truth is that somebody gave (my wife and me) a flip camera for a wedding present, and it records pretty high quality, and it’s easy to use. If I get distracted before a show, I can set it up somewhere without finding a tripod. The reason I finally got around to prioritizing (making these videos) is that the goal for me is to find the audience for what I want to do. My current status is mostly as a solo performer, and that’s not the way the record is. I just wanted to have stuff out in the world that represents what I do when I show up and play. Also, since I’m still not working on another record, it’s a way to get more mileage out of the material I have at this point.
ehren ebbage playing “earthquakes”
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