Q&A: Carly McIlvaine

Her background may be in the academic realm of classical music, but Atlantic Highlands resident Carly McIlvaine is ready to dive head-first into the world of pop.

The singer/songwriter and New Jersey native has performed with classical music ensembles around the world in cities such as Zurich and Beijing and has regularly performed as a member of the National Chorale at Lincoln Center's Avery Fisher Hall in New York City since 2007.

McIlvaine released "Pro-Love," her self-produced debut disc of original songs and arrangements, earlier this year, and while the album has clear classical undercurrents, the singer said she isn't working to be a gateway for pop fans to get into classical music.

"I like playing in pubs and cafés and I really like being in the room with people who are out to have a good time, so I'm hesitant to say that I really want to build a bridge between classical and pop music, but I think it's just there because it's my background," she said.

McIlvaine, who will perform on Sunday (March 1) at the Middletown Main Library and on Friday (March 6) at Borders in Eatontown, recently spoke with Metromix Jersey Shore.

You celebrated the release of your CD at the Saint in Asbury Park, which is a rock club. How has it been performing your material in a more rock ‘n' roll type of setting?
It's been great, I think it's been very freeing for me as an artist. I started out my life as a classical performer, and I always wanted to do pop, so with this CD and writing my own original tunes I've been able to go into this area as well. And so, I basically just pick and choose the most upbeat four or five songs from the CD and then I also throw in like a cover tune from either the Corrs or Sheryl Crow or something like that to kind of give the audience a connection with who I am and what I'm about.

And how have the club crowds been responding?
They like it, they definitively like it a lot. The club in New York City, Blaggard's Pub, they seemed to really like it. That was in a tough spot because it was right around halftime of this really big playoff game and people still cheered and listened attentively, and that was very encouraging for me. And then, at the Saint it was all my friends and family and local people who are really into the local music scene, and so they loved me. I had a lot of very positive feedback and people seemed like they were having a great time.

You have a background as a classical musician, so when did you first decide to start writing your own material?
I literally woke up last winter in about January and I just felt unbelievably compelled to start writing songs, and I have a very strong theory background, particularly when it comes to form and analysis of symphonies and choruses and stuff from the classical repertoire, so I got a book on songwriting from the local bookstore to see how I could translate all of this intense classical theory and put it into more a modern pop idiom and I read through the book and I was like "OK, I can do this."

So, I started writing fiendishly and I finished eight songs. I actually have two other songs that I didn't feel were quite up to this CD right now; I think I'm going to table them for another CD project, and I'm still writing now, trying to get things going for yet another CD project, so it's been great, I'm really glad this urge struck me. The muse came; what can you say?

Last year, you also released "Soothing Songs and Arias," a CD of classical music. Do you plan to keep recording in both genres?
Well, the thing about classical music is in order to get the right sound you really have to record in a hall, and that CD was actually recorded in a live concert performance at the University of Illinois in this amazing wood hall, like a big, huge concert hall at the University of Illinois with a live pianist, so that was actually made in, I guess, 2006, and I just saved all the material and finally released it here, in New Jersey, when I was ready to go out on tour.

I would love to do another recording like that, focusing on Vivaldi, Mozart and Benjamin Britten, an interesting combination, but I would love to do it, it's just that financing a project like that is really hard; I'd have to find an instrumentalist and a recording hall and all of that kind of stuff, so it's definitely in my plans but I think right now I want to focus on my pop and my own personal compositions.

Because one of your upcoming gigs is at a bookstore, I have to ask, have you read any good books lately?
Yes, I just read this amazing book, it's actually kind of a theology book and it's called "Velvet Elvis" by Rob Bell. He's a really smart guy who kind of talks to people about religion in a normal way, without judgment, and he's really very open to other world religions and I really liked it, it was a very quick read, it was fun, it was great. That's my most recent book.