Today we’d like to introduce you to Joan Anderman.
Every artist has a unique story. Can you briefly walk us through yours?
I’ve worked as a rock critic most of my life, first in Seattle, then San Francisco, and most recently at the Boston Globe, from 1998 to 2010. I was pretty burned out toward the end of my time at the Globe – but still in love with music. It finally dawned on me that instead of writing about other people’s songs, what I really wanted to do was write my own songs.
I was 50. At first it seemed like a really stupid time of life to become a rock musician but very quickly started feeling like an incredibly exciting, even transgressive, thing to do at my age. I quit my newspaper job and launched Middle Mojo, a blog/book/life project about creativity and aging. I learned how to play guitar and started writing songs with zero, and I mean zero, intention of performing. It was too scary. And I was very happy working alone in my room in the attic. Then my former Globe colleague Dan Zedek, a faithful reader of my blog and a terrific songwriter and guitarist, started nagging me to join him at these Sunday afternoon song circles, and I finally caved. We totally clicked as songwriters and musicians, and a few months later we formed Field Day.
Please tell us about your art.
I think Field Day’s songs live in the sweet spot between rock and pop – they can be noisy and raucous and also saturated with melody and harmonies. I’m a writer by trade, words are important to me, and I’m really proud of our lyrics. We write the kind of music I’ve always loved, and it’s hard to explain just how thrilling it is and how privileged I feel to be a creator, to be collaborating with people I admire and respect, recording and performing. I feel like an outlier, weirdly enough for the first time in my life, and that feels pretty rock and roll. Because I’m not pursuing a career and not trying to “make it,” there’s a wonderful purity to the experience. I just want to play. I guess I hope that on top of making songs that people enjoy, my late-life musical adventure sends a message that it’s never too late to chase your dreams.
As an artist, how do you define success and what quality or characteristic do you feel is essential to success as an artist?
Success is knowing what you want and working hard to achieve it. Hopefully, the work is a labor of love. The most essential ingredient for any artist, it seems to me, is to be able to define success for yourself, without letting other people’s or society’s expectations cloud your vision.
How or where can people see your work? How can people support your work?
Fielddaymusic.com is chock full of stuff – music, videos, our gig schedule, and a gallery of posters created by Dan, who is a gifted designer, not to mention a budding filmmaker who has directed all of our videos. There are also links on the site to our Bandcamp, where people can stream or buy our EPs. We’ve got one more local date coming up – Aug. 3 at Toad, a fantastic neighborhood bar/music venue in Porter Square – before we take a bit of time off to make a new record. Buying our music and coming out to live shows is the ultimate way to support us and our work.
Contact Info:
- Website: http://www.fielddaymusic.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jcanderman/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/fielddayboston/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/fielddaymusic
- Other: http://middlemojo.com
Image Credit:
Anna Rae
Dina Rudick
Getting in touch: BostonVoyager is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you know someone who deserves recognition please let us know here.
