Little made sense, on paper, about a folk singer in her 50s with a young child and a touring lifestyle pivoting to chase an MFA—and specifically to study a form that pays nothing. Speace did it anyway, and she says it’s made all the difference.
Analogue: How much writing, or even just flirtation with poetry, were you doing before?
Amy Speace: When I was a kid, poetry was my jam. I didn’t write a song until I was 25. I was a piano player from three, and then a real not-for-prodigy, but music came easy. So I picked up clarinet, I picked up saxophone, I was always in the choir. It defined me. Music defined me. But I didn’t create it. I started writing songs at 25, after a bad breakup with a boyfriend who was recording with a band with Paul Kolderie, and we were following the grunge movement around in Boston. And I wrote like 10 songs. Once I found songwriting, I kind of let go of poetry. But every once in a while I’d write some.