Douglas Stambler

CLASSICAL/WORLD/RAP/FOLK

East Idaho musician Douglas Stambler, who joined the LDS Church in 2005 after growing up Jewish and later converting to Christianity, has an amazing and beautiful story to go with his music. His music amuses, entertains, uplifts, soothes, and impresses upon the heart. Douglas learned early that music could heal the soul and bring comfort and perspective to life. He speaks openly of the sexual abuse he had to overcome as a child, about the healing properties of music, and his ideas about making money with music. If you want your heart to completely melt with pure, searing pathos, listen to "I Lost My Horses to the Moon." He makes his music available for free at www.reverbnation.com/dglas.

Your music page says you started playing music at three years old. What instruments did you play, and how many do you play now?
A: My parents had an accordion lying around the house. I started playing it when I was three. My brother and sister were both born deaf. As part of trying to mainstream them, my mother made us all play accordion together in a trio. We used to play at religious functions and nursing homes. I took accordion lessons until my teacher died when I was eleven. That's when I started writing songs on a small, plastic organ/keyboard my parents put in my room. Then, I went over to synthesizers in the mid-1980s and eventually taught myself piano. My Dad was a folk singer and used music regularly to play for religious functions at home and wherever he was asked to play. He taught me guitar when I was seventeen, and I kind of faked the chords for the song Hand Jive as Johnny Casino in a high school production of Grease. But then I started getting jobs at summer camps leading songs, so I had to learn quickly. [I] also studied clarinet growing up, but saxophone is more my style. Eventually, I'll get my hands on a soprano sax and be practicing that, too. For me, it's not how many instruments I can play, it's which ones I feel called to play. And those instruments are piano, guitar and saxophone.

Was it at your parents urging or were you drawn to it yourself?
A: My parents were very frustrating to me when it came to music. On the one hand, they always gave me music lessons and on the other hand they always wanted me to keep music as a hobby. They also spent several years telling me that I would never be a professional and successful musician. I beg to differ: I'm just taking my time, but one day I feel that I will be playing music for many, many people.

When did you begin writing music?
A: I started when I was eleven. A lot of those first songs were inspired by what I was listening to on the radio (early 1980s) and what albums I had access to. My father had a great collection of Smithsonian Folkways records, and I was inspired by the casualness of that kind of music. I also thought that folk music was hokey because my Dad played it so much. But I really do love folk music now. In high school, I was performing my original songs at school functions. When I went to college, I kept on writing. It was not until I was twenty-four (1994) and living in New York City that I took formal songwriting classes at the New School for Social Research. The teachers were great, and I learned about songwriting as a craft. I then started to write more polished songs, although I still play a few songs I wrote before going to NYC. I was always interested in writing, and it wasn't hard for me to start writing singable words for chord progressions I was coming up with. One of the most inspiring stories I tell people is about my sister (who is deaf) giving me my first Police records to lisen to. The Police had some great songs, and my sister thought that I could use a nudge. I was about fourteen at the time.

What bands or musicians influenced you to write music? Any personal favorites?
A: I have been influenced mostly by 1980s music, classical, African guitar music, American folk, jazz, Nirvana, Pat Metheney and people who I just meet and listen to. The Police were a huge influence in my early songwriting. A-ha was a wonderful group, too, and I was inspired by the way they put melodies together and performed them with a background of sound that kind of lifted me out of my chair. Their words didn't make sense to me, but the music was beautiful. Early REM was brilliant, I listened to those songs in the early 1990s. And a huge influence happened when English friends at summer camp when I was a counselor introduced me to the music of Kate Bush, and she was amazing. I also love Indian music, and even some of the modern Indian/Bollywood music is pop but it moves the soul, and I like that, too. But my personal favorite musician is Laurie Anderson, the perfomance artist. The album Strange Angels set me on my current direction of doing performance art myself. What I mean by that is Anderson's pioneering work with multimedia and song together in performance has inspired me to take my music and put it to dance, projected images and theatrical displays. That's my next step in writing and performing.

You talk about your world travels on your site. Where have you been, and how did this influence the music you write?
A: I have been to Poland, India, Japan, Mexico, Spain, Israel, Europe and Canada. I know that Canada and Mexico are just across the borders from the US, but those cultures are very different from each other and American culture, and they have helped me understand American music more. But my biggest influence in music from my travels came from India. My parents took the family there when I was no older than five years old. I saw extreme poverty there and yet the arts were alive and the themes were always about the human condition and the world to come. I am a big proponent of what I call spiritual music. What that means to me is music which moves and literally lifts up your soul in your body. Indian music is soulful. Japanese music is kind of mechanical. And Spanish music seemed to me very provincial. Of course, I'm talking about the traditional music from these cultures. Growing up Jewish, I played a lot of music from Israel on the accordion, and it was interesting. But I don't like nationalistic music at all, and Israeli music is mostly that. In the late 1990s, I became interested in Peter Gabriel's WOMAD festival, and I volunteered at it in Seattle. I saw many world cultures represented in one place, and that was inspiring, too.

Is that a quick reference to MC Solaar in your song The Great Divide? If so, you win esoteric world music bonus points.
A: Yes, I do like MC Solaar. He is gifted. I was inspired to write The Great Divide after listening to MC Solaar's Nouveau Western on YouTube. The video I saw had English subtitles, and I felt that I needed to write an American response to that song. The Great Divide is a haunting song for me. I wrote it while waiting with my wife for a train from Pasco, WA to Montana. The original lyric was, "Here we go to the checkout line." But my wife asked me to consider changing it to, "Here we go to the Great Divide," and that fits much better. How many esoteric bonus points do I win? And can I use them to buy a Thomas Mapfumo album? (laughs)

Have you been a member of the Church for your whole life? Can we hear an LDS influence in some of your songs? How does your spirituality influence your lyrics, and what should we be listening for in order to get the most out of your lyrics?
A: I joined the Church in 2005. I grew up Jewish, and I became a Christian in 2000. My newer pieces are LDS influenced: Convergence and Colors of the Rain have a quiet spirituality that I have grown into while being a member of the Church. Most of the songs in my repertoire right now were written before I became a Christian. I feel that God is having me use those songs as a ministry to people who need to hear about how I came to Christ. The newer songs (after 2003) are more instrumental than they are with lyrics. Except for The Great Divide, which is not just a rap song, it is a song about the mess that we're in today - the sin, the greed, a kind of "post-American America" where people are not sure what is coming next. The Great Divide is something that I wrote to help people make sense of the events in the past which leave America at a breaking point today. I would have to say that The Great Divide would not have been written without my personal understanding of The Book of Mormon. It gets frustrating sometimes not feeling led to write "Christian" songs, and then fellow Christians don't want to play my tracks on their radio stations because my music isn't religious enough. But I am a Christian and a musician, so I feel that makes my music Christian music. The LDS Church has been a powerful influence in my life. I have learned to be a better person through my interaction with the Church. And that I feel makes me a better musician, songwriter and performer.

On your various Internet musical outlets, you are very open and honest about the difficulties you experienced when you were younger. How did this influence the music you write, and what is your purpose in sharing these things?
A: I was sexually and physically abused by my immediate family until I was twelve years old. My song, When Dad Was A Strong Man, is all about those years and what I have gone through as an adult to cope with my past. People say that men don't get sexually abused, and I am here to say that men have a very hard time telling others about past sexual abuse, because for men sexual abuse is considered some kind of a weakness. It took me ten years as an adult to unravel my past and I share this experience with others, because I know that Jesus Christ healed me of my most serious emotional problems. Without Christ, I would have remained stuck in my past. God helped me through it, and I feel that God is leading me to help others by praying for them and telling my story. I haven't ever thought about how my past sexual abuse directly influenced my songwriting, but I will tell you that a lot my songs are about the sinful life I was living before I came to Christ. And I wrote about those experiences, so I would have to say that because I was trying to "blindly" cope with my past trauma as a child I fell into a life of sin and then have written songs about those experiences. Until a person gives [their] body and soul to Christ, they cannot heal from sexual abuse. Jesus restored me.

Tell us about playing for children and the elderly.
A: I used to be a children's entertainer for many years, then I gave that up and focused on music in general. Now, I have songs that I play for all ages. Last year, I started playing for senior citizens, and I loved the response. They really enjoy music, and are very appreciative of musicians. I feel blessed to be able to pull out a song or a story for anyone. I have a lot of different musical styles that I play, and I always feel that everyone I meet will at least like one song that I play. I feel good about that, being able to share my talents with everyone. I still enjoy playing for kids: Last year, I wrote a fifty minute show for kids which I haven't produced yet. But it yielded songs like, Idaho, I Lost My Horses to the Moon and Five Fishing Poles. I will continue working on show ideas for kids, but these new ideas that I have are more geared to families not just to kids.

Is it difficult to find meaningful gigs in Eastern Idaho?
A: Well, I played for a group of English language students at Idaho State University yesterday. That was a blast. And I'm playing a two and one-half hour set at a local brewery tomorrow night. A lot of people hang out at that place. I refuse to play at bars, and I don't like the smell of smoke. But I love Idaho, and I would compare the commitment to the arts here to what Texas has going on. It's not like there is a vibrant music scene here in any one place in Idaho, but there are a lot of musicians, a lot of opportunities to perform outdoors. And people have a good time with music. My dream gig is to sing American songs for people in Taiwan, but I don't plan on doing that any time soon. These days, a meaningful gig to me includes a good audience that appreciates live music.

Your music is very diverse. It ranges from soulful acoustic songs to world-influenced rap and jazz to surprisingly technical classical piano songs and more. Do you have a favorite or a "fall-back" style?
A: When I play cover songs, I play sing-a-long songs that you might learn at summer camp. So, that's my "fall-back" style. But I enjoy writing in "God style," and that could mean my songs are going to sound totally new to me and to those who hear them. For example, I wrote Springtime In Moscow (classical) in Moscow, Idaho when I was there in 2002-2003. I kept that piece alive without writing it down until one early evening, I recorded that song on my keyboard. It came out very different from the way I originally wrote it. So, I'm always ready for God to move me one way in songwriting and quite another way when it comes to recording. It's all jazz to me, and I am always playing my songs differently to keep the inspiration and the feeling strong.

What are your goals as a songwriter and musician?
A: Good question. I feel that God has got me on a path to share my music with a lot of listeners. I feel that American music took a detour to a dead end around 1998. I feel that rap should have merged with rock, but that never happened. I want to reawaken true musicians in America to a true, American sound. I feel that American Idol has been so destructive to so many talented people, and I pray that I have the strength and wherewithal to introduce something new in music. I want people to hear me play and hear my recordings and feel uplifted and then turn around and follow Christ into whatever calling they are urged to pursue. Too many Americans are just slogging through their lives, and I want people to know that following that "God path" might look unusual to others, but it is the best way to live. So, in a nutshell my goals are to inspire others to pursue their dreams and talents and to help other musicians clarify what God is saying through them by promoting good music and writing good songs and musical pieces.

What can fans of your music do to support you in your songs?
A: In June of this year, I collected my first royalty check from Tunecore. It was only about $11, but I photocopied the check and save it. But now I give all my songs away for free online, because I want people to have my music if they want it. I get amazing comments from people on YouTube, and that encouragement has been essential in helping me stay motivated. Fans of my music should know that whatever I give out to others always comes back to me in blessings. I once gave a new acoustic guitar away to a kid named Elvis on a Greyhound bus. God urged me to give it to him, so I did. What I did for that kid blessed him and it blessed me. I spent years on the road after becoming a Christian without a guitar. So, fans can contribute to my cause by taking that old guitar in their closets that they don't use and giving it to some stranger who shows an interest in music. For me, the whole idea of playing for pay doesn't resonate in my soul. But helping others use their God-given gifts, that's very appealing. Am I making sense? What I'm saying is, let's all keep real, live music alive in ourselves and each other. And let's try to give each other simple gifts of encouragement and praise, and I'm sure that one day I'm going to meet a lot of people who have enjoyed my music and they are going to give that blessing right back to me by making a difference in my life in some way.

To hear more of Douglas' music, check him out at www.reverbnation.com/dglas!