Van Plating doesn’t pull any punches — not in her music or the way she approaches it. Rachel Hurley and I talked her up on Episode 167 of the podcast, but here she is in her own words. In these 5 rounds, Van Plating talks about making time to write anything, coming into her own as an anti-racist ally, and how she’s fueled by her jade power ring.
1.Does your new single have an overarching theme?
It’s a lot about being present where you are, not leaning away from pain, growing through hardship, learning to dance your way through the low times with a swagger and know even when you’re sitting at the bottom of the well, there’s light above you reaching down, and it will catch you and lift your head, forcing your chin back to look up, up to the warmth shining down on you when you least expect it to. Then you find the grit you need to pull yourself up out of the pit, feel the sun on your shoulders and dance, covered in the muck of life but dancing nonetheless. There’s a bravery involved in letting ones-self feel pain, feel hurt, and not dismiss it. It resists the urge to disassociate and leans in, wrestling goodness out of the dark moments — even if the only goodness in it is to be seen and validated, and told you’re not alone. It keeps getting up, keeps trying, and finding a little silver thread of hope shining through, dammit! “The Way Down” is also often the way through our pain.
2. Who would you love to collaborate with? Why?
I have a few! In no particular orde: Jack White. I think he’s such a great example of someone with that modern rock and roll/garage edge taking roots music and honoring it by pushing the boundaries. He’s always had roots music tucked in there in his work as an artist and what he is doing with Third Man is such a wonderfully postmodern way of continuing some of these traditional roots forms and cranking them up to 11, and then flipping them sideways and throwing on distortion. I’d love to work toward being on that label and working with them because it just feels like such a fit for where I’m going creatively and I see longevity in what they’re about.
Brandi Carlile is another one. Her voice on and off the stage inspires me. Her transparency and rugged determination not to compromise who she is has fueled my own journey as an artist and a singer. I’d love to do some writing, recording and singing with her!
Rhiannon Giddens is a more recent discovery as I’m learning more about the current roots music world. She has such a wild take on her art, culling from many different folk traditions and then making them her own, simply by way of her tone, her little twists of songwriting and her voice. She sounds like she could be from another time, and yet is so progressive as well.
Patti Smith is a huge influence on my work and I think a walk around New York with her, a written poem, a conversation about the nature of the collective “us” and a good long stare at the beach over coffee would be a significant collaboration that would live in my mind forever.
3. Do you have any songwriting tips you can share?
Write all the time. Every day. Doesn’t matter if you think it’s good. Try to stay away from value assessments during the creative process. Just make music. The more you exercise that muscle group, the better you will get and before long you’ll have a pile of jewels to choose from when you go to create a project. If you’re lucky the project will dictate itself to you, just by virtue of endearing yourself to the habits of creation.
The more you do it, the more it’s in your mind, running in the background, the muse cycling through your subconscious and then boom. Work makes itself. Also, try not to put pressure on your daily writing time. You could just call it “making” time. Any thoughts or sounds you write down count. Start small but be most dedicated to TIME. Block more time than you think you need. If you have the time built in to get your mind to that place, I promise the work will find you. And if you stay out of the way, the songs will lead you where they want to go.
Pictured below–this is my writing room at home. (I write outside a lot too, since we live in Florida and it’s beautiful almost year round.)
4. How are you using your platform to support marginalized people?
This is such a good question. The killing of George Floyd devastated me. So many countless others before and since have suffered and died for no reason and I hate that it’s taken me so long to really lean into learning about racism and what I can do about it. I’m so grateful to be learning now and have found a plethora of sources online through which I can educate myself on anti-racism and really work on the changes I need to see in my own heart.
I used to think being just generally against discrimination was enough. Or that I wasn’t participating in the problem because I didn’t consider myself racist. But since the horrid murders of 2020 I’m learning about the power of white silence, learning about allyship, and I’m just clumsily going through all of this because I admittedly don’t have it down.
I’m learning all the time, which isn’t a luxury POC are given. They’re just thrown into racism and have to learn how to survive it, if they can, and know they might die from it.
The thing is, it’s not my voice that’s important. So I’m listening. I’m reading. Voting for candidates that support equality. Not being afraid to be wrong. Asking for forgiveness where I have erred. Some of the writers, activists and authors I’m following that are teaching me so much are: Marcus Dowling, Rissi Palmer, Alison Russell, Morgan Harper Nichols, Carlos Whittaker, Cole Arthur Riley and more.
I’m listening and reading and engaging with what they have to say and I hope that when I’m able to tour again, that I can meet some of these people and learn more from them in person. I hope to collaborate with artists of all cultural backgrounds. Mostly though right now, learning and using my voice (which currently is limited to socials and my very small amount of in-person conversations.) It’s a hill we must climb together.
Picture taken from Americana artist Alison Russell’s instagram. Daunte Wright, who was killed this week by police during a routine traffic stop. He was 20.
(from cnn) Daunte Wright, 20, calls his mom in what he didn’t know were his last moments on earth.
5. Have you ever been given something remarkable by a fan?
Yes! Before I left Lakeland for Los Angeles to make my first solo album, a few women I knew from different parts of my life all went in together and bought me this beautiful jade ring. A couple of them are closer friends, some of them I hadn’t known long at all! They presented it to me a couple nights before I left, at a little party they’d organized at the local pub.hey all knew it had been hard and that I’d been scared out of my mind many times chasing this thing that wouldn’t leave me alone — the music.
A party would have been more than enough, but then before everyone left they handed me this little package from a favorite shop of mine and it had this incredible jade and silver ring inside. I wear it all the time. It reminds me that what I do isn’t just for me. It’s bigger than me. It’s a thing I get to do and be a part of, but I’m not the solitary protagonist in a forgotten world. I’m a collector of human stories and those stories only come alive when they get shared. It reminds me that when we feel alone, we never really are. It’s also just a really dope ring.
