Wisconsin Music Ventures®

Original Post written by Ben Slowey

ME: How did you get involved with Wisconsin Music Ventures?

AMELIA: Well, Allison reached out to me, so I didn’t know it existed and that was cool that she found me because I don’t know if I would’ve found it. I’m a little slack at getting my nose into business that I ought to and scoping out the opportunities around here. I wasn’t sure that I was suited for it at first because I still hadn’t finished recording but we talked on the phone and she assured me that this would be a really great network to be a part of, so I jumped in and honestly I cannot say enough that it’s awesome. It’s really worth it for musicians to be a part of.

ME: Agreed! That said, you just dropped this album “Wide Wide Open.” Tell me about what went into this project and your process with it.

AMELIA: I started writing songs many years ago, but this little pile of songs I started probably five or six years ago, and I had no intention of recording them. Then as I kind of stumbled into gigging and meeting people, the idea of recording was brought up and I started narrowing down which ones should be part of that. I was previously married and had a long, painful separation that was very drawn out…like, over three years. As I was finding my life as a single person with a new job, I was writing songs about all those changes. That’s kind of where they come from, but then it took another almost three years to record them (laughs). I think it was an experimental album for me, and I think for my next album I’ll have a little different of an agenda. It was all a big shot in the dark and an unexpected thing in my life.

ME: Awesome, thank you for sharing all of that.

ME: Where are you currently based in?

AMELIA: Seymour, Wisconsin. A lot of people don’t know where it is, so as I go around the state I just tell people that I’m from Green Bay (laughs). That normally saves me additional questions.

ME: Fair enough. Tell me about Seymour. What is there to do there? I’ve never been.

AMELIA: (laughs) Well, it’s really small. I’ve lived here for over three years and I just found out yesterday that there’s a bowling alley here (laughs). I’m used to small towns; I grew up in Waupaca and have been living in Seymour since I got newly married. There isn’t really a lot to do; we have a few restaurants and we’re called “home of the hamburger” but there’s no hamburger-dedicated restaurant even here other than McDonald’s. It’s really a passing-through kind of town because we’re between Appleton, Green Bay, Shawano, and New London. Honestly, it’s perfect for what I do for work.

ME: Sure, well hey, I love exploring little towns and I think that they’re very much worth traveling to and exploring.

ME: What are you excited to do now that it’s starting to get warmer out?

AMELIA: I think that an obvious for that is to play outdoor shows. It seems like people are more excited about that, and there’s a general good spirit when it’s warm and the turnout is much better. Also, the sound is better; we can really disburse it much more than inside a venue, so I really look forward to that.

ME: Right on. Same here.

ME: My last question is, now that your album is out, what are your goals for the next couple months?

AMELIA: Gosh. Well, of course, we want to spread the word about the album as much as we can. Another goal is, I might look at releasing a single and take on that route to build on the music collection that I’ve started. A third thing that we do have in mind is to share a monthly new song online, and we want to do something a little more sophisticated than just being on my couch playing something. I have so many more songs than I’m going to be able to record anytime soon, so I’m working on online presence.

Visit Amelia Ford’s website here.