INTERVIEW: Heather Donavon Talks and Premieres New Music Video For “I Get Along Without You Very Well (Featuring Love Me in the Dark)”

Hi Heather, welcome to Tune Flickers! How has life been treating you so far?

Hello Tune Flickers!

Thank you so much for asking!

Well, Life has been “life-ing” and throwing us all major curveballs over the past five years, but we are blessed to live in a very creative community (West Los Angeles) where we have numerous opportunities to collaborate and work on all of our endeavors with like minded creatives. AND we are raising a beautiful boy, 8 years old now (hard to believe) who gives us immeasurable joy every day. He’s our charge!

So you are back with a new rendition of “I Get Along Without You Very Well” – I understand there’s a Paris connection? 

Yes!

What was it about the “City of Love” that inspires you?

Such an inspirational city, not unlike Los Angeles or New York when you consider all the amazing people who live there, but a truly magical place. I am drawn to the incredibly beautiful landmarks and architecture, La Tour Eiffel certainly, and the museums, La Musée d’Orsay and Le Louvre, but I am also very attracted to the people in the streets, the cafes etc. I could walk those avenues and boulevards for hours, and did as I shot scenes for the video in iconic spots like Montmarte at night. My version of this classic Hoagy Carmichael (a la Chet Baker) song is about “my love affair with Paris;” when you look at it that way, as opposed to being about a person, long lost or passed, it takes on a different feeling and meaning. 

For this song you guys choose to go for a more “noir” sound – was it easy to translate this great song into this new “sound”?

Great question, and good observation. In short it was incredibly easy, and natural, organic. Not only is it what we do with our band Love Me in the Dark (note the “dark”), but the slow jazzy pace of the song and the haunting lyrics and melody, not to mention the setting of the video in Paris, just immediately evoke “le film noir.” We even considered doing the video in B&W, a hallmark of that style of cinematography, but I am such a lover of color that we found a way to do a vintage treatment that still had a noir effect, but alas with some yellow and blue in the colorization. We owe a lot to our video editor Phil Bass for helping us find this compromise. I said let’s go for something like “Amelie!,” and he found a way to do that. 

You recorded all of this during the pandemic – how did this period influence you?

Another great question! We were right in the throes of the early COVID lockdowns when we set off on this journey. Paris was a literal ghost town, if you look back at photos from that time, empty streets and cafes etc. Other European cities were even worse. Milan was in terrible shape and we had friends there, jazz musicians, trapped inside their tiny apartment only allowed out for five minutes a day. Again, the sense of longing for human contact evoked by these lyrics fit so terribly well with what we were all feeling during those dark days. 

 Did it force you to take a new approach?

Yes and no. We had some input from a dear friend who is an ex-pat Parisian jazz singer, about recording this in a “true” jazz way where you have a vocalist and accompanist playing “off of each other,” but this tune was slightly out of our wheelhouse so we did it by laying the chords down first, and then adding vocals afterwards. We just played the chords, timelessly if you will, and then after we sang the vocals we tightened things up as needed. Then, almost as a cruel joke, we decided to add drums and bass after the fact, both of those players sending us their tracks from their home studios, a practice that was made quite common because of the pandemic. But that was tricky since we didn’t have a click or a grid; it helped that we chose two masters, bassist Kevin McCormick (Jackson Brown, Melissa Ethridge etc.) and drummer Mario Calire (Wallflowers, Ozomatli), not to mention the incredible piano and Hammond B3 performances by our dear friend the late Jeff Young (Jackson Browne etc.). 

Where else did you find inspiration for this reimagining?

Well, for us musicians, a rarified and insular group, the true inspiration we find is in playing music with and for each other. There is a phrase “the party is on the stage,” and if you’re a musician you will know this to be true. More and more, as the challenges of the music business mount, and making a living at it etc., and also with the very difficult and trying political climates we find ourselves navigating, musicians, who are a very inclusive lot, find solace and peace in each other. 

Also, because this production took so long, 3-4 years from the basic tracking to the completion of the mix and master, we were inspired by the loss of some of our friends, Jeff Young in particular. For while it’s true this song was about my love affair for Paris, Paris is a city, and sites are filled with people, so even if we can imagine getting along without a city, it is after all getting along without people, and this grief is always hard to process and navigate.

What else is there in store for you?

Watching our boy grow up first and foremost.

Various music productions. Beyond our own productions, we as studio owners and are producing at least three other records currently, Ali Mills, Dylan Salfer and Glenn Elvig, incredibly talented and varied artists who you will no doubt be hearing as their music emerges. 

Teaching. We wear many hats in this business, and being a music educator is constant gardening. 

Lastly, and part and parcel of all of the above, is actively working in Sound Healing. To some extent everything we do is music therapy, but increasingly, due to the stresses of the modern world, a new field that is purely healing and therapeutic is emerging and we are on the forefront of that. I do sound baths and sound healings using my voice in combination with crystal alchemy bowls and work with several mental health and wellness facilities that help people manage mental health and forms of rehabilitation. Music and sound is healing and we all need healing in these stressful times.